📝 Episode Summary
Back to school, Thrunter style! The THOR Collective celebrates a massive milestone with 2,000 Dispatch subscribers while diving deep into the art and science of baselining. This September edition of Ask a Thrunt3r is all about getting back to basics – because you can’t find weird if you don’t know normal, as Sydney reminds us in her must-read post that kicked off the month’s baseline bonanza.
The crew unpacks Sydney’s foundational work on baselining and Lauren’s epic 21-minute marathon post featuring 10 baseline hunts that’ll have you questioning everything you thought was “normal” in your environment. From mind-bending 3D visualization techniques for finding compromised workstations with math (yes, math!) to a browser extension exposé, this month’s content proves that sometimes the biggest threats hide in plain sight – or in that innocent-looking Chrome extension your users just installed.
Looking ahead, the team tackles the future of hunt collaboration, debating the merits of Git repos, Jupyter notebooks, and AI assistants for threat hunting. Whether you’re team “data” or team “data” (spoiler: it sparked quite the debate), this episode delivers practical insights for hunters at every level. Plus, John is hiring a senior pen tester if you’re looking to cross over to the dark side!
⏱️ Episode Breakdown
01:10 – Welcome back to school
02:09 – Job opportunity: Senior pen tester at Lumen (full remote, US-based)
03:08 – Milestone celebration: 2,000 Dispatch subscribers! 🎉
04:36 – Icebreaker
07:09 – Thrunt3r Spotlights
09:02 – September Dispatch Highlights
28:10 – Future of Hunt Collaboration Discussion
42:01 – Lightning Round: Would You Rather edition
44:03 – Wheel of Spins
45:56 – October preview: Logtoberfest & Future of Threat Hunting
47:44 – Closing & happy thrunting
🎤 Hosts
Lauren Proehl (Host) – A director type who admits to wildcarding but is improving. Self-proclaimed energy drink enthusiast who turns inspiration into dissertations.
Sydney Marrone (Host) – Principal threat hunter and the “thrunter of the group.” Baseline evangelist who kicked off September’s theme. Firm believer in the power of Git skills over Jira tickets.
John Grageda (Host) – Red teamer celebrating 10 years at Lumen. Currently hiring a senior pen tester. Plans to retire wrapped in fiber cables and carried to the great cloud in the sky.
🔗 Resources & Mentions
September Dispatch Posts
📚 You Can’t Find Weird If You Don’t Know Normal by Sydney Marrone
📊 Baseline Bonanza: 10 Baseline Hunts by Lauren Proehl
🎯 Can’t Hide in 3D by Certis Foster
🔒 Even if many plugins are fine, the bad ones are bad by John Tuckner
💼 Beyond Hackers and Hoodies: A Project Manager’s Move into Cybersecurity by Courtney Shar
♀️ Why We Need Women in Cybersecurity by Sydney Marrone & Cassandra Murphy
Tools & Technologies Mentioned
Jupyter Notebooks
GitHub/Git for collaboration and version control
GitKraken for local Git management
Threat Hunter Playbook (s/o @Cyb3rWard0g and @Cyb3rPandaH)
RBA (Risk-Based Alerting) techniques
BOTs dataset for testing
Community Resources
🔥 HEARTH Repository
📬 The Dispatch Newsletter
💬 THOR Collective Discord (paid subscribers)
📢 Call to Action
🎯 Submit your baseline hunt ideas to HEARTH
📝 Share what Dispatch posts resonated with your current challenges
🔮 Join us for Logtoberfest & the Future of Threat Hunting discussion
💼 Interested in pen testing? Contact John about the Lumen opportunity
🪙 Check your DMs if you’ve won a coin – Sydney’s waiting!
📊 Try out the 15 baseline examples from Sydney & Lauren’s posts
🎓 Add HEARTH contributions to your LinkedIn projects section
📬 Connect with THOR Collective
🗣️ Social Media:
Twitter/X: @THOR_Collective
LinkedIn: THOR Collective
BlueSky: @thorcollective
📧 Contact: Reach out through any social channel for guest post opportunities or hunt collaboration ideas
Next Episode: October’s Logtoberfest - Deep dive into the future of threat hunting, AI integration, and strategic planning for 2026. Essential listening for decision-makers and team leads!
