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From Hacker to Hero
McKean shows how teenagers pick up intrusion skills not from Hollywood tropes, but from game mods, online clans, challenge boards, and simple digital dares. He recounts real investigations where minors breached major tech companies, global social networks, and even industrial control environments — powered by nothing more than curiosity, time, and an internet connection.
Drawing on real investigations, this From Hacker to Hero conversation lifts the lid on how teenagers learn intrusion skills inside gaming communities, modding scenes, online clans and challenge boards, then use them against major tech firms, global social networks and industrial systems. You will learn how kids are recruited and rewarded from inside these hidden spaces, why many are driven more by curiosity and belonging than pure malice, how diversion programs like HackShield, Reboot Camp, Hack_Right, The Hacking Games and The Redirect Project steer them into ethical hacking and how Zero Trust style thinking at home and in schools helps decide who becomes the attacker and who becomes the defender.
Your cybersecurity experts
Lieuwe Jan Koning
Co-Founder and CTO
ON2IT
William McKean
Former FBI Supervisory Special Agent
Episode details
William McKean spent fifteen years inside the FBI Cyber Division chasing financially motivated attacks that often began in the quiet corners of online games and forums. In this Threat Talks episode he explains how that frontline work led to The Redirect Project, an initiative built to meet young, tech savvy offenders where they are and move them into legitimate security roles. Together with Lieuwe Jan Koning he traces the path from puzzle solving in a game to probing real targets such as major platforms, social networks and industrial or water control environments.
The narrative then shifts from the danger of this hidden youth layer to the opportunity it represents. McKean describes how Dutch initiatives including HackShield, Reboot Camp, Hack_Right and The Hacking Games pull talent out of the shadows and into ethical hacking and defense before a permanent record is written. The episode closes with concrete ideas for parents, schools and security leaders on using better questions, simple safe word checks and Zero Trust principles outside the enterprise to protect kids, shrink attack surface and grow the next line of cyber defenders.
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