Today we’d like to introduce you to Ted Harrington
Hi Ted, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve always known I was destined to be an entrepreneur. Even as a kid, I was drawn to the challenge of creating something from scratch. One of my earliest memories of this was selling candy at school. I realized you could buy a pack of candy for a dollar and then sell each piece for 25 cents. By the time I sold all ten pieces, I’d made more money than I started with. I didn’t know what “profit” was back then, but I understood the magic of effort and reward.
That same entrepreneurial spirit followed me to college, where I launched my first business—a transportation logistics company. The idea was simple: make it easy and fun for college students to attend events they cared about. My friends and I loved going to horse races, baseball games, and other activities, so I organized trips for our fellow students. It was a lot of fun, and it taught me some early lessons about running a business—but it also showed me what kind of work I didn’t enjoy. I knew I wanted to solve bigger problems, and do it for companies rather than kids.
After graduating from Georgetown, I decided to start a new chapter. I moved to San Diego on a whim, drawn by the sunny weather and vibrant lifestyle. I’d only been there once before, but something about it just clicked. I didn’t have a job lined up, but I knew it was where I wanted to be. That leap of faith ended up shaping my future.
Eventually, I found my way back to entrepreneurship. Along with a business partner who is a dear friend, we run a company called Independent Security Evaluators (ISE), where we perform ethical hacking—essentially, companies hire us to hack them so we can identify security flaws before malicious actors do. We’ve been at it since 2012, and it’s been an incredible journey. Along the way, I’ve written a #1 bestselling book, Hackable, and delivered a TED Talk on why everyone needs to think like a hacker. I’ve also co-founded a hacking event series called IoT Village, which brings the global security community together to tackle the latest tech challenges.
Today, I’m working on my next book, Inner Hacker, which teaches readers how to think like hackers and apply that mindset to achieve their goals in any area of life. For me, entrepreneurship has always been about more than building businesses—it’s about solving problems creatively and helping others do the same.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No entrepreneur will tell you the path is smooth—because it’s not. In many ways, entrepreneurship is defined by adversity: creating solutions where none exist, solving problems that haven’t been tackled effectively, and persevering when the odds are against you. My journey has been no different.
One of the biggest challenges I faced was breaking into the tech industry. From the moment I realized I wanted to be a tech entrepreneur, I was drawn to the idea that technology could be used to solve problems and transform society. Entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg fascinated me—not because of their fame, but because they could identify opportunities and use technology to bring their ideas to life. That was the world I wanted to be a part of.
But getting into tech wasn’t easy. I quickly learned about the classic catch-22: You need tech experience to work in tech, but how do you gain tech experience if you’re not already in the field? I was told “No” at every turn. It was frustrating, and for a long time, it felt like an insurmountable obstacle. What got me through was persistence. I stayed tenacious, chasing my goal despite the setbacks.
Eventually, persistence met luck. I connected with the person who would later become my business partner. Unlike many others, he was open-minded and willing to work with someone who didn’t have a traditional tech background. He came from a deeply technical world, with roots in the PhD program at Johns Hopkins University, while I came from a completely different perspective. Instead of seeing this as a disadvantage, we realized how complementary our skills were. Together, we’ve built something greater than either of us could have achieved alone.
That initial struggle taught me something critical: The lack of experience, education, money, connections, or qualifications stops far too many people from pursuing their goals. The truth is, none of these obstacles are insurmountable. What matters most is the willingness to keep pushing forward—to persist when it seems impossible. That mindset is what carried me through the challenges and ultimately shaped my journey.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My business is called Independent Security Evaluators—or ISE for short. We’re an elite team of ethical hackers, hired by companies to hack them before the bad guys do. Our mission is simple yet critical: uncover security flaws and help organizations fix them, using the same tools, techniques, and methods as malicious hackers—but with the goal of improving systems rather than exploiting them.
Our clients come from all over the world, spanning industries from software and IoT devices to automotive and healthcare. They come to us to understand how vulnerable their systems are to attack and to strengthen their defenses. Over the years, we’ve hacked everything from cars and medical devices to dating apps, password managers, movie productions, and more. Along the way, we’ve published groundbreaking security research that has pushed the field forward in meaningful ways.
What sets ISE apart is our highly collaborative, manual approach to ethical hacking. While many companies rely heavily on automated tools, we believe automation has its limits. Automated scanners are great at identifying known vulnerabilities—problems that are already understood and documented. But the real threats often come from the unknown: novel vulnerabilities that haven’t been discovered yet, or unique combinations of known issues that create new risks. Automation simply can’t detect these.
This is where our team’s creativity and curiosity come into play. Our hackers are problem-solvers, thinkers who approach systems in unconventional ways. They can take two seemingly minor vulnerabilities, connect the dots, and uncover a potentially catastrophic outcome. That human ability to think critically is at the heart of ethical hacking—and it’s why our approach delivers results that automated tools can’t match.
If I were to state our driving ethos simply, it would be this: get better, every day. That’s how we think about ourselves, our teammates, and the companies we serve.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
I believe four qualities have been fundamental to my success—and coincidentally, they’re also the four defining traits of the hacker mindset. These traits are curiosity, non-conformity, commitment, and creativity. Each plays a unique role in not only hacking but also in entrepreneurship and achieving any ambitious goal.
Curiosity is the fuel for understanding how things work and why they work the way they do. It drives the search for new solutions to old problems. Without curiosity, innovation stalls—it’s what pushes us to dig deeper, ask better questions, and explore the possibilities others might overlook.
Non-conformity is equally important. To solve problems or achieve goals, you often have to think independently and freely. It’s the ability to resist the pull of the herd and instead forge your own path. Non-conformity is what helps you see opportunities where others don’t and find alternative approaches that can lead to success.
Then there’s commitment—the understanding that anything worth achieving will be hard. Commitment means persevering through setbacks, investing time, energy, resources, and love into the process, and staying tenacious even when the outcome feels distant. Success doesn’t always happen on your expected timeline, but if you stay committed, you’ll eventually get there.
Finally, creativity is the ability to think inventively, to craft original and elegant solutions to problems. Creativity is what allows you to break through barriers, find new approaches, and chart a course toward your goals when traditional methods don’t work.
These four traits—curiosity, non-conformity, commitment, and creativity—are not just central to the hacker mindset; they’re the cornerstones of success in any field. In fact, they form the foundation of my upcoming book, Inner Hacker, where I explore how anyone can tap into their inner hacker to think differently and reveal new pathways to achieve their goals.
I believe there’s a hacker inside all of us. By focusing on these four qualities and applying them to your own life, you can start to see your challenges through a new lens and uncover the opportunities you need to reach your next big success.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://tedharrington.com
- Instagram: @securityted
