Episode
02 December 2025 Official episode · Official transcript
penetration test incident response
Maxie Reynolds describes physical penetration testing, network testing, social engineering, an accidental city water shutdown during an assessment, and her work developing underwater data centers.
Topics: Physical penetration testing and facility intrusion, Social engineering and impersonation pretexts, OSINT for reconnaissance, Network vulnerability scanning with NESA and Nmap, Authorized red-team operations, IP spoofing, Defense in depth, Operational risk from penetration testing, Password cracking during assessments, Data-center physical security, Subsea and underwater data-center architecture, ROVs, subsea power, and fiber connectivity, Dielectric-fluid cooling and underwater maintenance
Links published on the Darknet Diaries episode page. Not LLM output.
No Sources heading on this episode page.
Qualified statements from this episode, not graph facts.
Maxie Reynolds AUTHORED The Art of Attack: Attacker Mindset for Security Professionals
Jack says Maxie wrote a book called The Art of Attack: Attacker Mindset for Security Professionals.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 166 Details
“she wrote a book called The Art of Attack: Attacker Mindset for Security Professionals”
The Art of Attack: Attacker Mindset for Security Professionals MENTIONS attacker mindset
Maxie says the book argues that security professionals must adopt an attacker mindset.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Maxie Reynolds EP 166 Details
“its central argument is that in order to design defenses that truly work, security professionals must adopt this quote, unquote, “attacker mindset””
Maxie Reynolds USES attacker mindset
Maxie says she was fascinated by and spent substantial time thinking about the attacker mindset in her penetration-testing work.
Explicit Confidence 96% · Jack Rhysider EP 166 Details
“That attacker mindset was something she spent a lot of time thinking about.”
Maxie Reynolds USES social engineering
Maxie describes her first entry into full social engineering and penetration testing in Australia.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Maxie Reynolds EP 166 Details
“My first entry point into full social engineer, really, and pen testing, was in Australia”
Maxie Reynolds USES physical penetration testing
Maxie performed physical penetration tests, including attempting to enter buildings and facilities without using computer access.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Maxie Reynolds EP 166 Details
“So, we’re just doing a physical pen test. Would you like to be involved? I jumped at the chance.”
Maxie Reynolds USES network penetration testing
Maxie participated in network penetration testing against a local-government network.
Explicit Confidence 90% · Jack Rhysider EP 166 Details
“the two other people were very experienced network penetration testers”
Maxie Reynolds USES Red teaming
Maxie says red-teaming and penetration testing were the work that excited her most, and she was hired on a sanctioned red-team contract.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Maxie Reynolds EP 166 Details
“I was hired on a sanctioned red team contract to test this high-security logistics company”
Maxie Reynolds USES OSINT
Maxie used open-source intelligence to learn about targets and identify possible entry points.
Explicit Confidence 96% · Jack Rhysider EP 166 Details
“penetration testers often use OSINT, which is just gathering data on a target through open, public searches online”
Maxie Reynolds USES NESA scan
Maxie ran a NESA scan during a network penetration test to identify vulnerabilities.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Maxie Reynolds EP 166 Details
“I got to run the NESA scan”
Maxie Reynolds USES Nmap
Maxie ran Nmap during the network penetration test.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Maxie Reynolds EP 166 Details
“and I got to run Nmap”
city water supply shutdown INVOLVES network penetration testing
The city water supply shutdown occurred during a network penetration test.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Maxie Reynolds EP 166 Details
“I found my way to some internal environment, and I hit the killswitch on a city’s water supply.”
Maxie Reynolds USES IP spoofing
Jack says Maxie briefly spoofed her IP address to appear to be connecting from Russia during a test.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 166 Details
“she spoofed her IP at one point to make herself look like she’s coming from Russia”
Maxie Reynolds USES ROV
Maxie uses an ROV to retrieve underwater data-center units for maintenance, drawing on her underwater-robotics background.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Maxie Reynolds EP 166 Details
“The vessel goes, picks the unit up with an ROV, because that’s my background and that’s how I knew how to do it.”
underwater data center DEVELOPED_BY Maxie Reynolds
Maxie says she and her former boss designed and built modular underwater data centers.
Explicit Confidence 95% · Maxie Reynolds EP 166 Details
“This is something we’ve made. This is something we’ve done, performed”
“I want to put data centers underwater. I want to do it in a modular fashion”
underwater data center USES ROV
The underwater data-center operation uses an ROV to lift units from the seabed for maintenance.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Maxie Reynolds EP 166 Details
“The vessel goes, picks the unit up with an ROV”
underwater data center USES Wet-Mate cables
The underwater data centers use Wet-Mate cables for power and fiber connections.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Maxie Reynolds EP 166 Details
“we’ll splice the power cable, put it in wet. So, we’ve got — offshore there are Wet-Mate, Wet-Mate cables.”
underwater data center USES dielectric fluid
The underwater data-center servers are filled or surrounded by dielectric fluid to reduce dust and maintenance needs.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Maxie Reynolds EP 166 Details
“the servers are filled or surrounded by this dielectric fluid”
subseacloud.com ASSOCIATED_WITH underwater data center
Jack directs listeners to subseacloud.com to learn more about Maxie’s underwater data center.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Maxie Reynolds EP 166 Details
“You can learn more about her underwater data center at subseacloud.com.”
Darknet Diaries DEVELOPED_BY Jack Rhysider
Jack says the show is made by him.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Maxie Reynolds EP 166 Details
“This show is made by me, the packet tickler, 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 · 2026-09-13T08:48:48.231038+00:00