Infosecurity Magazine Podcast

When a cyber-attack hits, the technical fix is only half the battle. What you say, to whom and when can determine whether your organization emerges with its reputation intact or makes a bad situation worse. In this episode, Infosecurity speaks with Ashley Sweetman, director of cybersecurity at a London-based global bank, about how to get crisis communication right (6.53). Ashley is the co-author, of Communicating Cyber Risk: Build Cyber Resilience Through Compelling Communication. Drawing on the book's insights, he talks through the do's and don'ts of communicating after a cyber-attack. He also explains how to tailor your message for senior leadership, staff, authorities and regulators, customers and the general public. Ashley shares real-world cases that demonstrate what to do and what to avoid when the pressure is on. Whether you're a security leader, a comms professional, or someone who hopes never to need an incident playbook, this conversation offers practical lessons for the day it all goes wrong. Resources: • Communicating Cyber Risk: Build Cyber Resilience Through Compelling Communication, Nina Paine, Ashley Sweetman, KoganPage https://www.koganpage.com/risk-compliance/communicating-cyber-risk-9781398628618#contentgroupsection-reviews • Incident Management: How to Ensure Your Organization Can Handle a Crisis – Infosecurity Magazine https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/opinions/incident-management-organization/ • Responding to a cyber-attack, why crisis communication matters – Infosecurity Europe https://www.infosecurityeurope.com/en-gb/blog/guides-checklists/responding-to-cyber-attack-crisis.html • Where to Report a Cyber Incident – UK Government https://www.gov.uk/guidance/where-to-report-a-cyber-incident • Incident management: Helping to reduce the harm from cyber security incidents in the UK – UK National Cyber Security Centre https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/section/about-ncsc/incident-management • Handling media attention after a major incident (last update: June 1, 2026) – UK Government https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/handling-media-attention/handling-media-attention-after-a-major-incident • Incident Response - Computer Security Resource Center, US National Institute of Technology and Standards https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/incident-response • Incident Response Recommendations and Considerations for Cybersecurity Risk Management: A CSF 2.0 Community Profile (NIST SP 800-61 Rev. 3 – last update: April 2025) – US National Institute of Technology and Standards https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/61/r3/final

Kam Karaji, director of cybersecurity and risk management at the NFL, and Will O'Donnell, recruiter, explore how AI is reshaping the security jobs market.

In this episode of the Infosecurity Magazine Podcast, we take closer look at what’s shaping the agenda at Infosecurity Europe 2026. From leadership-focused discussions and peer-led Table Talks to the growing influence of AI on cyber risk. This preview focuses on where to find the most meaningful conversation and how to get involved in roundtables and sessions that explore the practical realities behind trends like generative AI and vulnerability management. The episode features a conversation with Purvi Kay and Jon Davis from the Infosecurity Europe Advisory Board, offering their views on what to take notice of in this year’s program, key themes security leaders should be paying attention to and how to make the most out of interactions with cybersecurity vendors. Purvi and Jon also pull from their experiences on how to make the most of the event’s various networking opportunities and the cybersecurity vendors present. Whether you’re attending the event for the first time or a veteran visitor, this episode breaks down how to get the most value out of your time at Infosecurity Europe 2026. Register for Infosecurity Europe 2026 here. https://www.infosecurityeurope.com/

In this episode of the Infosecurity Magazine Podcast, we speak with Allie Mellen, author of Code War: How Nations Hack, Spy, and Shape the Digital Battlefield, about the rising threat of nation-state cyber operations. Mellen breaks down how the US, Russia and China use cyber capabilities as core elements of military strategy, exploring the evolution of their cyber doctrines and how they differ in goals, escalation and integration with conventional warfare. From Russia’s hybrid warfare tactics to China’s long-term espionage campaigns, she explains why defenders must think strategically, not just technically. For CISOs and security leaders, this episode offers a vital briefing on the geopolitical realities of cyber threats, the rise of cyber mercenaries, supply chain weaponization and why all organizations must prepare for persistent cyber espionage. Code War: How Nations Hack, Spy, and Shape the Digital Battlefield is available now.

OpenClaw’s weak spots have not gone unnoticed and Australian pentester Jamieson O’Reilly, founder of DVULN, was among the first to call them out. Now, he’s been appointed OpenClaw’s security representative, tasked with hardening the project from within. In this exclusive Infosecurity interview (from 7.30), O’Reilly explains his journey from a critic, who created a ‘fake’ malicious OpenClaw skill called “What would Elon do?” to a custodian. He also shares why he still treats OpenClaw with caution and outlines the security roadmap he’s building to make the project safer without stifling innovation. O’Reilly’s vision goes beyond patches and firewalls. He advocates for treating OpenClaw skills, its modular tools, like mobile apps. This means standardized security reviews, supply chain checks and transparency requirements. He also highlights the need for better ways to analyze AI prompts and agent behavior. This reduces the risk of hidden threats in natural language interactions. If successful, his work could set a new bar for security in open-source AI projects. O’Reilly’s appointment signals a shift. The project is taking security seriously, but the road ahead is complex. For CISOs and developers, his insights offer a rare look at how to balance experimentation with real-world safeguards. Resources: • OpenAI's Promptfoo Deal Plugs Agentic AI Testing Gap, Infosecurity Magazine https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/openai-promptfoo-deal-agentic-ai/ • Researchers Reveal Six New OpenClaw Vulnerabilities, Infosecurity Magazine https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/researchers-six-new-openclaw/ • Researchers Find 40,000+ Exposed OpenClaw Instances, Infosecurity Magazine https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/researchers-40000-exposed-openclaw/ • Hundreds of Malicious Crypto Trading Add-Ons Found in Moltbot/OpenClaw, Infosecurity Magazine https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/malicious-crypto-trading-skills/ • OpenClaw’s main website: https://openclaw.ai/blog/virustotal-partnership • OpenClaw’s GitHub page: https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw • OpenClaw’s Trust page outlining the project’s security roadmap: https://trust.openclaw.ai/ • OpenClaw Partners with VirusTotal for Skill Security, OpenClaw https://openclaw.ai/blog/virustotal-partnership

For the fifth year running, the World Economic Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook report has provided a critical snapshot of the evolving cyber threat landscape – and this year’s findings mark a turning point. Cyber-enabled fraud has now overtaken ransomware as the top cybersecurity concern for organizations worldwide, signaling a fundamental shift in how attackers operate and the risks businesses face. In this episode, we sit down (4.55) with Giulia Moschetta, a research and analysis specialist at the World Economic Forum's Centre for Cybersecurity and one of the report’s lead authors, and Akshay Joshi, head of the WEF’s Centre for Cybersecurity, to break down the findings and what they mean for the future of cybersecurity. The discussion explores why fraud, from sophisticated payment scams to AI-driven social engineering, has become the dominant threat, while ransomware, though still potent, is no longer the sole focus of cyber defenses. Resources: -Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026, Centre for Cybersecurity, World Economic Forum: https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-cybersecurity-outlook-2026/ -“World Economic Forum: Cyber-Fraud Overtakes Ransomware as Business Leaders' Top Cybersecurity Concern,” Infosecurity Magazine: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/fraud-overtakes-ransomware-as-top/ -Unmasking Cybercrime: Strengthening Digital Identity Verification against Deepfakes, Cybercrime Atlas, World Economic Forum: https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Unmasking_Cybercrime_Strengthening_Digital_Identity_Verification_against_Deepfakes_2026.pdf -“World Economic Forum: Deepfake Face-Swapping Tools Are Creating Critical Security Risks,” Infosecurity Magazine: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/wef-deepfake-faceswapping-security/

This year, cybercrime got a teenage makeover. Groups like Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, part of the loose collective ‘The Com’ and filled with young, radicalized hackers, became a top threat. Their aggressive tactics led to high-profile breaches in 2025, including attacks on Marks & Spencer, the Co-op, and Jaguar Land Rover. Meanwhile, insider attacks exploded: employees secretly working for ransomware gangs, zero-day brokers selling to Russia, and a million-dollar-worth crypto heist at Coinbase. In 2025 we also saw AI evolve from being a futuristic threat to a threat which can power real malware, with AI tools like Claude helping criminals automate attacks at terrifying speed. We sat down with Rebecca Taylor, Threat Intelligence Knowledge Manage & Researcher at Sophos and Will Thomas, Senior Threat Intelligence Advisor at Team Cymru, to discuss 2025’s highs and lows in cybersecurity and cybercrime – and to make educated guesses on what to look for in 2026. Their prediction? That 2026 could bring live deepfake heists (imagine a fake CEO on a video call draining company funds) and nation-states weaponizing insiders for destructive cyberwar. This episode is sponsored by SailPoint.

Just in time for spooky season, this episode takes you into the darkest corners of the cyber underworld, where the real monsters aren’t ghosts or goblins, but ransomware gangs lurking in the shadows. We sat down with Matthew Maynard (3.42), a cybersecurity pro by day and a real-life cyber ghostbuster by night, who doesn’t just hunt vulnerabilities, but haunts the hackers themselves. While most bug bounty programs reward researchers for finding flaws, Matthew’s work is far more chilling (and thrilling). As part of threat intelligence programs like Halcyon’s Threat Research Intelligence Program (TRIP), he infiltrates ransomware gangs, extracts their secrets and helps shut down their operations before they strike. For CISOs and executives, Matthew’s experience offers a rare and critical perspective on how to shift from reactive fire-drills to proactive threat hunting. By leveraging dark web intelligence, undercover engagements, and threat actor profiling, security leaders can anticipate attacks, disrupt criminal operations, and even recover stolen data before it’s too late.

Generative AI is poised to revolutionize vulnerability discovery in critical infrastructure, but will it actually fix the problem, or just shift the burden? The recent AI Cybersecurity Challenge (AIxCC), a two-year competition sponsored by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), crowned winners whose AI systems autonomously discovered and patched zero-day flaws in real-world code. Now, with models potentially going open-source, the implications for defenders, attackers and policymakers are seismic. In this episode, we sat down with Taesoo Kim, the leader of Team Atlanta, the AIxCC winning team, and Andrew Carney, program manager for the AIxCC at DARPA and ARPA-H. In the interview (13.56), they discuss why the commercialization of GenAI-powered vulnerability scanning tools could be just around the corner and how "self-healing infrastructure" might soon become a reality.

In this special episode of the Infosecurity Magazine podcast, we dive deep into the rapidly evolving story surrounding Microsoft SharePoint On-Premises. Recent disclosures have revealed a series of vulnerabilities now being exploited in targeted campaigns, with Chinese threat actors at the centre but other threat actors joining in the attacks. This episode breaks down the complexities of the incident, the ongoing exploitations and the broader implications for security practitioners. Stay updated as this story unfolds and equip yourself with valuable insights to better understand and defend against emerging cyber threats. Our discussion includes: Timeline of events surrounding the ToolShell Microsoft SharePoint on-prem vulnerability (02.20) Interview with Charles Carmakal, CTO at Mandiant, now part of Google Cloud (06.38). Charles details these critical vulnerabilities and steps towards patching and what some orgnaizations may be missing, leaving them vulnerable to compromise. Interview Lorri Janssen-Anessi, Director of External Cyber Assessments at BlueVoyant. With extensive experience from her time at the NSA and the Department of Homeland Security, Lorri provides an in-depth perspective on the impact these attacks are having and what they mean for organizations today. (17.18) Sing up to receive Infosecurity Magazine's weekly newsletter here.