The second book in my “being a professional red teamer requires more than just having kick ass technical tradecraft” series is: “Never Split the Difference” by Chris Voss. The reason I picked this book is because red teams rarely control the environments they are operating in. They don’t have the necessary authority to implement changes if they encounter a security issue; however, if certain changes aren’t understood and eventually made, future outcomes could actually be catastrophic. So, company leaders usually perk up when red teamers speak. Do we (as red teamers) leverage this influence to drive better security posture? If one wanted to get better at influence, how would they do that? This book is how. Chris Voss spent 24 years with the FBI, becoming the FBI’s lead international kidnapping and hostage negotiator. Chris shares his tactics and techniques that he used as a hostage negotiator to “create an aura of authority and trustworthiness without triggering defensiveness.” It’s red team gold. TL;DR Ever needed to drop a painful finding on your stakeholders with a costly price tag, but present everything in a way that they’re somehow thanking you at the end? This book will teach you.