Jean-François Maes
Lecturer
CEO at Offensive Guardian
Specialities
Offensive Operations
Connect with Jean-François
About Jean-François
Jean-François Maes is a SANS Certified Instructor and course author, CEO of Offensive Guardian, and founder of Helix Labs, operating at the forefront of offensive security, adversary emulation, and detection engineering. He is the lead author/instructor of SEC565: Red Team Operations and Adversary Emulation and co-author/instructor for SEC699: Advanced Purple Teaming - Adversary Emulation & Detection Engineering, where he equips security professionals with the skills to simulate real-world attackers and strengthen defensive visibility across enterprise environments.
Over the past decade, Jean-François has built a career grounded in hands-on offensive operations, working across penetration testing, red teaming, and purple team engagements. He previously served in roles at NVISO, TrustedSec, and contributed to the Cobalt Strike ecosystem, focusing on adversarial tradecraft and tooling. His experience leading large-scale red team operations directly informs the realism of the course labs.
Press & Media
Recognitions
- Blueprints / SEC565 Learning Resources / Ongoing Companion resource for SEC565: Red Team Operations and Adversary Emulation, visual frameworks designed to simplify complex red team and adversary emulation concepts, helping practitioners translate theory into practical execution.
- Personal Website / Research and Blog / Ongoing Insights on offensive security, adversary emulation, and AI-driven research, alongside projects and thought leadership from Jean-François Maes.
- RedTeamer.Tips / Community Platform / Ongoing Practical red teaming techniques, tradecraft, and knowledge sharing for offensive security practitioners.
- GitHub / Open-Source Projects / Ongoing Collection of offensive security tools, research, and community contributions supporting adversary emulation and red team operations.
- GitBook / Workshop / 2024 Emulating the Latest Buer Loader through a self-guided adversary emulation lab, demonstrating real-world malware tradecraft and detection strategies.
- NVISO Labs Blog / Articles / 2019 Cybersecurity research and offensive security insights covering adversary emulation, red teaming, and detection engineering.