Episode
06 June 2023 Official episode · Official transcript
social engineering penetration test
The episode features physical penetration specialist Deviant Ollam discussing physical security assessments, lock and door bypasses, social engineering, access-control weaknesses, reconnaissance, and red-team engagements.
Topics: Physical penetration testing, Lock-picking and safe manipulation, Door and lock bypass, Electronic access-control weaknesses, Request-to-exit sensors and passive infrared motion detection, Magnetic locks and electronic strikes, Social engineering and impersonation, Tailgating and piggybacking, RFID credential interception and cloning, Network dropboxes and remote backhaul, MAC filtering and wired network access, Elevator access-control and independent service mode, Facility reconnaissance and surveillance, Red-team and blue-team exercises, Defense in depth, Letters of authorization for physical security tests
Links published on the Darknet Diaries episode page. Not LLM output.
Qualified statements from this episode, not graph facts.
Deviant Ollam USES physical penetration testing
Deviant identifies himself as a physical penetration specialist and describes performing physical penetration testing.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Deviant Ollam EP 134 Details
“I am a physical penetration specialist.”
Deviant Ollam USES lock picking
Deviant says he has been involved in lock-picking and teaches it.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Deviant Ollam EP 134 Details
“I have been involved in lock-picking”
Deviant Ollam USES Safe manipulation
Deviant explicitly includes safe manipulation among the physical penetration activities he performs.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Deviant Ollam EP 134 Details
“lock-picking, safe manipulation, physical entry”
Deviant Ollam USES Physical entry bypass
Deviant says he has been involved in physical entry and physical bypass work.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Deviant Ollam EP 134 Details
“physical entry, physical bypass”
Deviant Ollam USES Door shimming
Deviant opened the law-firm door by shimming it with a piece of paper.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Deviant Ollam EP 134 Details
“I just shoved – I shimmed the door.”
Deviant Ollam USES social engineering
Deviant describes using impersonation and deception to persuade guards that he was an elevator technician.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Deviant Ollam EP 134 Details
“I lie for a living. I just dropped into it.”
Deviant Ollam USES Reconnaissance
Deviant describes observing buildings, guards, traffic, and entry points before conducting physical tests.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Deviant Ollam EP 134 Details
“That was almost a week of recon.”
Deviant Ollam USES Credential cloning
Deviant's team captured badge credentials and wrote the data onto a blank key card to gain access.
Explicit Confidence 94% · Deviant Ollam EP 134 Details
“We’ll compromise the card readers.”
Deviant Ollam USES Tailgating
Deviant describes using vehicle and pedestrian tailgating to enter secured facilities.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 134 Details
“Our plan was, you’re gonna tailgate in behind what we think is a real vehicle”
Deviant Ollam USES Elevator independent service
Deviant says he put an elevator on independent service to keep it from answering general building calls while he hid inside.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Deviant Ollam EP 134 Details
“I’m gonna put the elevator on independent service”
Deviant Ollam USES Elevator hacking
Deviant and Howard Payne gave a talk covering ways to take over and manipulate elevators.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 134 Details
“a full one-hour talk of him and his friend, Howard Payne, going over so many ways that you can take over an elevator”
Deviant Ollam USES ESP key
Deviant says his team used ESP keys as interception devices behind card readers.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Deviant Ollam EP 134 Details
“It’s a device called an ESP key.”
Deviant Ollam USES Dropbox
Deviant's team used a dropbox, described as a headless computer, to connect to and backhaul access from the target network.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Deviant Ollam EP 134 Details
“this little dropbox, headless computer”
Deviant Ollam USES Signal
Deviant's team used Signal to communicate during the physical assessment.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Deviant Ollam EP 134 Details
“for us, we just Signal message”
Deviant Ollam USES Letter of authorization
Deviant carried and eventually presented a real letter of authorization to verify that the physical intrusion was an authorized test.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 134 Details
“So, he gave him his real one.”
Defcon Lockpick Village PART_OF Defcon
Jack describes visiting the Lockpick Village at Defcon.
Derived Confidence 94% · Jack Rhysider EP 134 Details
“that’s where I went up into the Lockpick Village”
Dark Tangent ASSOCIATED_WITH Defcon
Jack identifies Dark Tangent as the organizer of Defcon.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 134 Details
“Dark Tangent, who’s the organizer of the hacker conferences Defcon and Black Hat”
Dark Tangent ASSOCIATED_WITH Black Hat
Jack identifies Dark Tangent as the organizer of Black Hat.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 134 Details
“the organizer of the hacker conferences Defcon and Black Hat”
Deviant Ollam ASSOCIATED_WITH Dark Tangent
Deviant says he was good friends with Dark Tangent, who encouraged him to teach lock-picking at Black Hat.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 134 Details
“Deviant was good friends with Dark Tangent”
Deviant Ollam ASSOCIATED_WITH Babak Javadi
Deviant identifies Babak Javadi as his main colleague in his physical-security consulting work.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Deviant Ollam EP 134 Details
“my main colleague through all this has been Babak Javadi”
Deviant Ollam ASSOCIATED_WITH Howard Payne
Jack describes Howard Payne as Deviant's friend and co-presenter for the elevator hacking talk.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 134 Details
“him and his friend, Howard Payne”
Jack Rhysider AUTHORED Darknet Diaries
Jack identifies himself as the person who makes Darknet Diaries.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Deviant Ollam EP 134 Details
“This show is made by me, the tarnished Jack Rhysider.”
Works mentioned in the transcript. Distinct from show-note sources.
Model gpt-5.6-luna · prompt 1.5.19 · schema 1.5.19 · 2026-09-13T07:55:42.858340+00:00