DiscoverEntra.ChatHow a Pharmacist Became a Pro Hacker (And What She Found in YOUR Tenant)
How a Pharmacist Became a Pro Hacker (And What She Found in YOUR Tenant)

How a Pharmacist Became a Pro Hacker (And What She Found in YOUR Tenant)

Update: 2025-09-20
Share

Description

Cybersecurity expert Erica shares her incredible journey from pharmacist to becoming a professional hacker. She reveals how attackers are bypassing modern security controls like MFA and what you can do to protect your tenant.

We talk about the most common configuration vulnerabilities that exist in almost every organization, the dangers of application onboarding, and the top five phishing vectors threat actors are using to gain initial access, including clever abuses of Microsoft Teams.

Subscribe with your favorite podcast player or watch on YouTube πŸ‘‡

About Erica

Erica has an amazing career arc, starting in pharmacy before pivoting to cybersecurity. With a deep, hands-on understanding of offensive security gained from platforms like Hack the Box and real-world penetration testing, she specializes in protecting and defending Microsoft Cloud tenants. Erica is passionate about sharing her knowledge on how to better protect your tenant and what bad guys are looking for.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-z-b4169598/

πŸ”— Related Links

* Blog - https://ericazelic.medium.com/

* Hack The Box - https://www.hackthebox.com/

* Altered Security - https://www.alteredsecurity.com/

πŸ“— Chapters

00:00:00 Intro

00:02:14 From Pharmacy to Cybersecurity

00:07:19 Learning to Hack with Hack The Box

00:11:45 The First Cloud Hack: M365 Public Groups

00:17:50 The Hidden Dangers of App Onboarding

00:25:53 The 5 Modern Phishing Attack Vectors

00:30:36 Bypassing MFA with Device Code Phishing

00:34:34 Adversary-in-the-Middle & Auth Downgrade Attacks

00:48:24 The Secret to Mastering Cybersecurity Skills

Podcast Apps

πŸŽ™οΈ Entra.Chat - https://entra.chat

🎧 Apple Podcast β†’ https://entra.chat/apple

πŸ“Ί YouTube β†’ https://entra.chat/youtube

πŸ“Ί Spotify β†’ https://entra.chat/spotify

🎧 Overcast β†’ https://entra.chat/overcast

🎧 Pocketcast β†’ https://entra.chat/pocketcast

🎧 Others β†’ https://entra.chat/rss

Merill's socials

πŸ“Ί YouTube β†’ youtube.com/@merillx

πŸ‘” LinkedIn β†’ linkedin.com/in/merill

🐀 Twitter β†’ twitter.com/merill

πŸ•Ί TikTok β†’ tiktok.com/@merillf

πŸ¦‹ Bluesky β†’ bsky.app/profile/merill.net

🐘 Mastodon β†’ infosec.exchange/@merill

🧡 Threads β†’ threads.net/@merillf

πŸ€– GitHub β†’ github.com/merill



Get full access to Entra.News - Your weekly dose of Microsoft Entra at entra.news/subscribe
CommentsΒ 
In Channel
loading
00:00
00:00
x

0.5x

0.8x

1.0x

1.25x

1.5x

2.0x

3.0x

Sleep Timer

Off

End of Episode

5 Minutes

10 Minutes

15 Minutes

30 Minutes

45 Minutes

60 Minutes

120 Minutes

How a Pharmacist Became a Pro Hacker (And What She Found in YOUR Tenant)

How a Pharmacist Became a Pro Hacker (And What She Found in YOUR Tenant)

Merill Fernando