Summary
Joey Defrancesco is a vulnerability researcher and engineer with 11 years of hands-on experience in embedded systems, IoT, and cyber-physical security, currently driving research at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He specializes in low-level system programming, reverse engineering, and exploit development, with a track record that spans startups, defense contractors, and senior roles on advanced adversary teams. Comfortable across C, Python, and Go (and begrudgingly Rust), he combines hardware tinkering and firmware analysis with emerging work at the intersection of security and AI/LLM technologies. Joey’s toolkit reflects a pragmatist’s approach—neoVim, Binary Ninja/IDA, GDB, macOS/Linux—and his personal projects on GitHub are independent explorations of vulnerability research. Outside of security he produces hip-hop beats as “H3xadecibel,” a hobby that underscores his creative, hands-on problem-solving style.
11 years of coding experience
6 years of employment as a software developer
Computer Science, Computer Science at Penn State University
Mathematics and Computer Science, Mathematics and Computer Science at West Chester University of Pennsylvania