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Understanding Ransomware and Defense Strategies

Release Date: 04/09/2025

Easy Prey

Cybercriminals are accelerating their attacks in ways that weren’t possible a few years ago. Artificial intelligence is giving them the ability to spin up phishing campaigns, voice clones, and deepfakes in minutes instead of days. As a result, the gap between what’s genuine and what’s fake is closing fast, making it harder for both individuals and organizations to defend themselves. I’m thrilled to welcome Brett Winterford, Vice President of Okta Threat Intelligence. Brett has had a front row seat to these changes. His team analyzes identity-based attacks and delivers insights to help...

Vanishing is a Lie

Easy Prey

Trying to erase yourself from the internet sounds simple until you start counting up old accounts, scattered social media posts, and the hundreds of data brokers quietly collecting and selling your information. The reality is messy, and for most people, the idea of fully disappearing online is more myth than possibility. But there are practical steps you can take to cut down what’s out there and regain some control. My guest, Max Eddy, is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter who covers privacy, security, and software platforms. For one of his projects, he set out to see how much of his own...

Hackers Are Winning

Easy Prey

Cyberattacks aren’t just about hackers in hoodies anymore. Today, we’re up against professionalized, well-funded organizations that run like businesses. They use AI to crack defenses, run labs that simulate the tools we rely on, and rake in trillions while defenders struggle to keep pace. The scary part? Even the strongest companies and governments can fall behind when the threat landscape moves this fast. My guest, Evan Powell, has spent nearly 30 years in the cybersecurity world. He’s the founder and CEO of Deep Tempo, and a serial entrepreneur who’s helped industries from cloud data...

Before the Fraud Tsunami Hits with Ritesh Kotak

Easy Prey

Scams aren’t what they used to be. These days, AI can write perfect emails, mimic voices, and even fake a video call so well you’d swear you were talking to the real person. The problem is, the timing of a scam can be just right when you’re distracted, busy, or looking for exactly what they’re offering. That’s when even the most careful person can get caught. My guest, Ritesh Kotak, knows this world inside and out. He’s a cybersecurity analyst, an Ontario lawyer, and a tech innovator who’s worked with Fortune 500 companies and served in policing, where he helped start one of...

Privacy is Dead

Easy Prey

Privacy in the digital age has grown from a background concern into one of the defining issues of our time. What began with simple questions about online safety has expanded into a complex, global conversation about how artificial intelligence, biometric data, and massive data ecosystems are reshaping daily life. Pam Dixon has been at the center of these discussions for more than two decades. As the founder and executive director of the World Privacy Forum, she’s worked across the U.S., Europe, India, Africa, and beyond, advising governments, international organizations, and policymakers on...

America’s Scam Crisis

Easy Prey

Most of us think of scams as random or isolated or something that just happens to unlucky people. But what if the truth is far more organized, far more disturbing? Behind many of today’s scams is a global web of criminal enterprises, structured like corporations and fueled by technology, data, and billions of stolen dollars. In this episode, we sit down with Ken Westbrook. Ken spent over three decades in the CIA before retiring, only to return to the fight after his own mother was targeted and lost most of her life savings to a tech support scam. That moment changed everything. He founded...

How Fraudsters Choose Targets

Easy Prey

It’s easy to think of fraud prevention as a technical problem with a software solution. But according to Brian Davis, effective fraud defense is just as much about people, trust, and communication as it is about tools and data. With over a decade of experience, Brian has built fraud teams from scratch, shaped company-wide strategy, and helped growing startups shift from reactive to proactive risk management. Brian is the Head of Fraud at Dodgeball, where he’s helping bring their orchestration platform to market, and the founder of House of Fraud, an invite-only community where top fraud...

Hidden Dangers of AI in Cybersecurity

Easy Prey

Everyone’s talking about AI these days, especially in cybersecurity. Sure, artificial intelligence can boost your defenses, but cybercriminals have noticed too. Now they're crafting phishing emails so believable it’s scary and finding clever paths around spam filters while zeroing in on vulnerabilities you didn’t even realize were there. Today, Aviad Hasnis joins the show. He's the CTO of Cynet Security and spent years running cybersecurity missions for the Israeli Defense Forces. Aviad’s here to help us figure out what the changing threat landscape really means, whether...

Author Scams Exposed

Easy Prey

Writers pour their hearts into their work, but unfortunately, that passion can make them prime targets for scams. From fake agents and vanity publishers to slick marketing schemes and social media impersonators, the tactics have only gotten more sophisticated over time. In this episode, we dig into the murky world of publishing scams and how they work and who they target. Along with why even experienced authors can get caught off guard. Today’s guest is Victoria Strauss. Victoria is the author of nine fantasy and historical novels for adults and teens, and she’s also the co-founder of...

Tricked by Followers and Badges

Easy Prey

What if your social media success was built on deception, and it was working? In today’s episode, we hear from someone who knows exactly how that happens. Tim O’Hearn is a former software engineer and the author of Framed: A Villain’s Perspective on Social Media, a book that pulls back the curtain on how follower factories, automation, and persuasive technologies have shaped the online world we now take for granted. Tim doesn’t just theorize, he built these systems himself. Tim walks us through how his small side gig growing Instagram accounts evolved into a lucrative business, one...

More Episodes

When it comes to cybersecurity, most people think about firewalls, passwords, and antivirus software. But what about the attackers themselves? Understanding how they operate is just as important as having the right defenses in place. That’s where Paul Reid comes in. As the Vice President of Adversary Research at AttackIQ, Paul and his team work to stay one step ahead of cybercriminals by thinking like them and identifying vulnerabilities before they can be exploited.

In this episode, we dive into the world of cyber threats, ransomware, and the business of hacking. Paul shares insights from his 25+ years in cybersecurity, including his experience tracking nation-state attackers, analyzing ransomware-as-a-service, and why cybercrime has become such a highly organized industry. We also talk about what businesses and individuals can do to protect themselves, from understanding threat intelligence to why testing your backups might save you from disaster. Whether you're in cybersecurity or just trying to keep your data safe, this conversation is packed with insights you won’t want to miss.

Show Notes:

[00:58] Paul is the VP of Adversary Research at AttackIQ.
[01:30] His team wants to help their customers be more secure.
[01:52] Paul has been in cybersecurity for 25 years. He began working in Novell Networks and then moved to directory services with Novell and Microsoft, Active Directory, LDAP, and more.
[02:32] He also helped design classification systems and then worked for a startup. He also ran a worldwide threat hunting team. Paul has an extensive background in networks and cybersecurity.
[03:49] Paul was drawn to AttackIQ because they do breach attack simulation.
[04:22] His original goal was actually to be a banker. Then he went back to his original passion, computer science.
[06:05] We learn Paul's story of being a victim of ransomware or a scam. A company he was working for almost fell for a money transfer scam.
[09:12] If something seems off, definitely question it.
[10:17] Ransomware is an economically driven cybercrime. Attackers try to get in through social engineering, brute force attack, password spraying, or whatever means possible.
[11:13] Once they get in, they find whatever is of value and encrypt it or do something else to extort money from you.
[12:14] Ransomware as a service (RaaS) has brought ransomware to the masses.
[13:49] We discuss some ethics in these criminal organizations. Honest thieves?
[16:24] Threats look a lot more real when you see that they have your information.
[17:12] Paul shares a phishing scam story with just enough information to make the potential victim click on it.
[18:01] There was a takedown of LockBit in 2020, but they had a resurgence. It's a decentralized ransomware as a service model that allows affiliates to keep on earning, even if the main ones go down.
[20:14] Many of the affiliates are smash and grab, the nation states are a little more patient.
[21:11] Attackers are branching out into other areas and increasing their attack service, targeting Linux and macOS.
[22:17] The resiliency of the ransomware as a service setup and how they've distributed the risk across multiple affiliates.
[23:42] There's an ever growing attack service and things are getting bigger.
[25:06] AttackIQ is able to run emulations in a production environment.
[26:20] Having the ability to continuously test and find new areas really makes networks more cyber resilient.
[29:55] We talk about whether to pay ransoms and how to navigate these situations.
[31:05] The best solution is to do due diligence, updates, patches, and separate backups from the system.
[35:19] Dealing with ransomware is a no win situation. Everyone is different.

Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.

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