Darknet Diaries · Tuesday, September 1, 2026
Penetration testers Justin Wynn and Gary DeMercurio detail their experience conducting a physical security assessment of five Iowa courthouses. They discuss the challenges of breaching various doors and security systems, including using specialized tools and lock-picking techniques, all within the scope of an authorized engagement.
“My name is Justin Wynn. I’m a senior security consultant with Coalfire Systems. I am an offensive penetration tester who specializes in physical security, which often entails social engineering, physical exploits to gain access to facilities.”
“Yeah, my name is Gary DeMercurio, and pretty much mirror everything Justin said, except I’m a managing senior and I run the Bellevue office in Washington.”
“So, that gets filled out before we’re on the call, and then as we’re going through that with the client, the project manager is taking notes in there. So, you may see things like, okay, at the JB building we discussed with the client Floors 3 and 4 are specifically off-limits during daytime hours because there was gonna be the Supreme Court convening, and they obviously didn’t want us interrupting that.”