Inside the Mind of an Attacker — Atticus D'mello on Bypassing Social Media's Security Controls | BrisSEC 2026
Cyber VoicesShow Notes
Recorded live on the floor at BrisSEC 2026 in Brisbane, David Savva-Willett sits down with Atticus D'mello, higher degree research student, vulnerability researcher, and emerging cybersecurity specialist with Safety Net Cyber, to unpack his BrisSEC talk Inside the Mind of an Attacker.
Atticus walks us through how he and his team approached one of the most under-discussed problems in consumer cybersecurity: how attackers bypass account creation limits on the world's biggest social media platforms to spin up anonymous accounts at scale. Working with nothing more than a laptop and a typical home internet connection, they mapped the controls, found the gaps, and responsibly disclosed the vulnerabilities, many of which have now been fully patched.
The conversation goes beyond the technical, exploring why burner accounts are the gateway to online bullying, mass phishing, artificial engagement, and large-scale scams, and the very real human toll that follows. Atticus also shares his work helping victims regain access to compromised Instagram and Facebook accounts, the rise of fake "Meta verification" phishing emails, why TikTok's security-by-default model is worth paying attention to, and what every one of us can do to make social media a safer space. If you've ever wondered how those random accounts in your DMs come from nowhere — this one's for you.
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