On today's episode of the freeCodeCamp podcast, Abbey chats with social engineering wizard Rachel Tobac about how she transitioned - jumped headfirst, really - into the world of white hat hacking.

Rachel grew up thinking she would be in medicine, like her father. But after graduating from college and becoming a teacher, she knew she wanted to do more. Namely, she wanted to help more people.

One day, Rachel's husband suggested that she come to a conference called DEF CON and check out the information security (or InfoSec) scene. She hopped on a plane, entered a social engineering hacking competition, and the rest is history. She was hooked.

Today, a couple years later, Rachel has been one of the winners of that same competition three times, has founded her own company called SocialProof Security with her business partner and husband, and chairs the board for the nonprofit Women in Security and Privacy (WISP). She hopes to get more people - especially women - interested in the security field. Last year she helped get sponsorships for 57 women to attend DEF CON, and this year they've already secured sponsorships for over 75 women.

When she's not educating companies about how to make their processes more secure, she's dreaming up new hacks, traveling the world, and staring at her adorable rescue dog.

This episode is a 1 hour listen in your favorite podcast player app - just search "freecodecamp" and you should find it.

If you have an Amazon Echo, you can just say "Alexa - play the freeCodeCamp podcast."

Or you can listen to it right here in your browser.

Find Rachel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RachelTobac

Check out Rachel's company: https://www.socialproofsecurity.com/

Learn more about DefCon: https://www.defcon.org/

Read up on WISP: https://www.wisporg.com/