Ambassador Spotlight AWC Edition: Blaklis

What is your role as an ambassador? 🌎

As an ambassador, I aim to foster a bug bounty community in France and other French-speaking countries. I am building a large community around this topic and speaking at schools and conferences to raise awareness about bug bounty in general. We all know that it can be tough to start in bug bounty, especially before finding your first bugs. Having a community with specialists and newcomers makes it easier for people to begin and persist without giving up. For experienced people, it's also an opportunity to share technical content and have discussions together, so it's a win-win for everyone.

How often do you meet up as a team, and do you have a predetermined location?

For now, we're trying to have online meetups every month, with a vocal Q&A, open discussions, and sometimes followed by a live hunting session with people from the club. However, we have yet to set a predetermined location. Still, I'm searching for spots in different cities in France to organize some offline meetups, so stay tuned!

Have you ever hacked a program as a team?

We're doing it with the World Cup, with a small subset of the club, and primarily online. We met in person with some team members during the Ambassador World Cup. We used the opportunity to have some small hacking sessions together. I'm organizing some live hacking sessions on public programs with people from the club, which will be awesome. We are planning our first session for Spring (2023).

Are you excited that the Ambassador World Cup is back?

Absolutely! The Ambassador World Cup is a fantastic opportunity to socialize and collaborate with some of the best hackers in my region. It also allows me to assess the technical skills of many people who have applied to be part of the team, which is helpful as a club leader.

How did it feel to put your team together? Do you have new members this year?

My club is new; we started in January. So, all the members are new as well. Putting the team together was a bit stressful, as the club has grown rapidly, and I had to select members from a large pool of applicants. It was an exciting process, but also a bit heartbreaking to reject some people.

How does it feel to represent your country in this event?

It feels amazing! I'm proud to represent my country and am super proud of what my team is doing right now.

Did you feel prepared for this scope?

It takes a lot of work to entirely prepare for such a significant event with challenging scopes! Most of my team members have previous experience in hacking and/or bug bounty, but they are relatively new to HackerOne. Some people find it challenging to start from scratch on well-known programs due to biases that suggest they need to be better or that the programs are too complicated. But that's where being part of a team comes in handy: we can share experiences and motivate each other.

Who is your current rival? 🔥

There is another French team in the AWC, so they aren't our rivals, but there is friendly competition, especially as they won the World Cup last year. Still, I hope one of our teams makes it to the finals!

What's a highlight from this event that you're proud of?

I am very proud of some of the very young hackers on the team. They found some impressive vulnerabilities during the competition. Wlayzz, for example, found some great vulnerabilities. The Ambassador World Cup was his first experience on HackerOne, and he's not the only one

What do you think motivates most people to become hackers?

Curiosity is the main driving force for most of us hackers. Regardless of the main reason, curiosity always inspires us to become passionate about hacking. The fact that the field has become highly topical and has developed enough to be a sustainable profession is also a significant factor in attracting more and more people to hacking.

What advice would you offer to people just starting bug hunting?

The best thing I can offer them is to provide support and guidance during their initial stages. I'm always open to answering questions, directing people to the right resources, and explaining technical concepts - all they need to do is ask! The early stages of a bug bounty journey can be fraught with difficulties, and having someone with more experience to guide you can make all the difference in keeping you motivated and determined to succeed. That's where my principal value lies as a mentor.