The Unveiling of Hacking Humans | The Ports and Services Model of Social Engineering Hunter Storm’s Hacking Humans | The Ports and Services Model of Social Engineering framework is the first predictive framework for human-layer threat modeling, built starting in 1994, fully matured by 2000, and presented publicly in […]
Playing Reindeer Games | Documenting Accuracy, Intervention, and Integrity
Playing Reindeer Games | Documenting Accuracy, Intervention, and Integrity It’s always the right time of year to keep an eye on published content. That’s especially true in my case, where I work with sensitive topics and information. That’s why I’m writing about how some of my professional pages, including […]
Crisis Leadership | Lessons from the Shadow CISO During the Wells Fargo Sales Practices Scandal
Leading Enterprise Security at the World’s Largest Financial Institution During the Largest Banking Scandal in History I didn’t apply for a crisis. In 2017, I was asked to “take over my new manager’s role so they could transition to a new one” and to “help out with some overdue […]
Conversations with a Ghost | People in High Stakes Roles
Conversations with a Ghost | A True Story of the Architects of the Digital Unknown This is a true story based upon my solo research project, The Storm Project | AI, Cybersecurity, Quantum, and the Future of Intelligence. Some might refer to it as part of an ethnography, a […]
Hunterstorming is the New Rickrolling | Origin Story
Hunterstorming Is the New Rickrolling A parody of the original rickrolling phenomenon, hunterstorming is taking the world by Storm! Hunterstorming is the new rickrolling. Dive into this article to learn more about this hilarious Internet karma phenomenon. What is hunterstorming? It is a harmless and humorous Internet prank that […]
Inside the Invisible Battlefield | Why Hunter Storm Created a Cybersecurity Learning Series
Inside the Invisible Battlefield | Why Cybersecurity Veteran Hunter Storm Created a Cybersecurity Learning Series to Protect Everyday People When people hear about hacks, cybersecurity incidents, or data breaches, the majority get nervous. Most people don’t have access to top-tier security experts. They don’t have someone who can break […]
AI Art | Embracing AI-Generated Images
Embracing AI-Generated Images | Enhancing Professionalism and Creativity In today’s digital landscape, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) for content creation has become increasingly prevalent. AI art has been around for many years. Embracing AI-generated images, when used thoughtfully, can significantly enhance the professionalism and appeal of your social media posts. […]
Identify and Mitigate Insider Threats
Identify and Mitigate Insider Threats | The Enemy Within Insider threats, trusted individuals who misuse their access, pose a serious risk to organizations’ sensitive projects. An insider can use legitimate credentials to steal data, sabotage systems, or quietly interfere with operations. This article will help you learn how to […]
Storming Past Haters | Turning Negativity into Success Fuel
Standing Strong Against Critics | Embracing Resilience and Creativity Hey there! As a vocalist, performer, and fellow creator, I know firsthand the hurdles we face in the spotlight. Criticism and negativity can be like unexpected detours on our journey to success. But fear not. Let’s transform these challenges into […]
Online Reputation Protection | The Ultimate Guide
The Ultimate Online Reputation Protection Guide Hello, Storm Army! I’m Hunter Storm, your go-to expert in cybersecurity and technology, as well as a multifaceted artist. Today, I want to share a recent and personal cybersecurity challenge I encountered. This challenge emphasizes the importance of vigilance and proactive measures in […]
Codifying the Unwritten Rules
Codifying the Unwritten Rules | Why Neutral, Low‑Noise Rooms Matter in Technical Communities For decades, the most effective teams in the world have relied on a simple truth: high‑performance environments only work when the noise stays low. We don’t need silence, conformity, or ideology. We do need clarity, courtesy, and focus. In […]
Why So Many Websites Read Like War and Peace
Why So Many Websites Read Like War and Peace and Why That’s Not an Accident If you’ve ever landed on a website and thought, “Why is this so long?”—you’re not wrong. Somewhere between the opening paragraph and the fifteenth subheading, many modern web pages begin to feel less like explanations […]
StormWatch | Lessons from the CISA ChatGPT Incident
StormWatch | When Public AI Meets Government Secrets | Lessons from the CISA ChatGPT Incident What Happened The Acting Director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)—Madhu Gottumukkala—uploaded government documents marked “for official use only” to a public version of ChatGPT last summer. These were not classified documents, […]
Why I Removed Social Media Sharing Buttons
Why I Removed Social Media Sharing Buttons | Refusing to Feature Without Blocking For a long time, I featured social media sharing buttons prominently on my website. I didn’t find them especially useful. However, I thought they improved the experience for readers. Other people expected them. I believed, at the time, […]
Serious Horseplay | When Gifts Become Trojan Horses
Gifts as Trojan Horses | The Security Risk of Swag, Pins, and USB Drives Why high-trust tokens can create low-noise risk, and what “good tradecraft” looks like. The Gift That Keeps on Giving It’s a shame, but it’s reality: sometimes the easiest way into a sensitive environment isn’t hacking […]
The Good Anomalies
The Good Anomalies | Noticing the Good After You’ve Spent Your Career Seeing the Bad Keeping your signal accurate after years of seeing the worst I spent a long time doing what people in high-friction jobs learn to do: log what matters. When your work lives close to risk—cybersecurity, incident […]
Public AI, Private Data | Why Uploading Sensitive Information Is a Systemic Failure—Not an AI Problem
StormWatch | Public AI, Private Data | Why Uploading Sensitive Information Is a Systemic Failure—Not an AI Problem Executive Summary A recent, widely reported incident involving a senior government cybersecurity official uploading sensitive—but unclassified—documents into a public AI system triggered alarms and internal reviews. Predictably, the conversation veered toward […]