Libsyn Directory

Child Exploitation Cyber Investigations

Release Date: 05/28/2025

Easy Prey

In a world where we’re told to carry our entire lives in our pockets, we’ve reached a strange tipping point where the very devices meant to connect us have become windows into our private lives for those who wish us harm. It’s no longer a matter of looking for the "shady" corners of the internet; today, the threats come from nation-state actors, advanced AI, and even the people we think we’re hiring. We are living in an era where the most sophisticated hackers aren't just trying to break into your phone, they’re trying to move into your business by pretending to be your best...

Past, Present, and Future of AI agents

Easy Prey

The intersection of AI and cybersecurity is changing faster than anyone expected, and that pace is creating both incredible innovation and brand-new risks we’re only beginning to understand. From deepfake ads that fool even seasoned security professionals to autonomous agents capable of acting on our behalf, the threat landscape looks very different than it did even a year ago. To explore what this evolution means for everyday people and for enterprises trying to keep up, I’m joined by Chris Kirschke, Field CISO at Tuskira and a security leader with more than two decades of experience...

You Are Traceable with OSINT

Easy Prey

Publicly available data can paint a much clearer picture of our lives than most of us realize, and this episode takes a deeper look at how those tiny digital breadcrumbs like photos, records, searches, even the background of a Zoom call can be pieced together to reveal far more than we ever intended. To help break this down, I’m joined by Cynthia Hetherington, Founder and CEO of The Hetherington Group, a longtime leader in open-source intelligence. She also founded Osmosis, the global association and conference for OSINT professionals, and she oversees OSINT Academy, where her team trains...

Anyone Could Walk In

Easy Prey

Sometimes we forget how much trust we place in the little things around us like a lock on a door or a badge on someone’s shirt. We see those symbols and assume everything behind them is safe, but it doesn’t always work that way. A person with enough confidence, or the right story, can slip through places we think are locked down tight, and most of us never notice it’s happening. My guest today is Deviant Ollam, and he’s one of the rare people who gets invited to break into buildings on purpose. He talks about how he fell into this unusual line of work, the odd moments that shaped his...

The Scam You Never See Coming

Easy Prey

Fraud today doesn’t feel anything like it used to. It’s not just about somebody skimming a credit card at a gas pump or stealing a check out of the mail. It has gotten personal, messy, emotional. Scammers are building relationships, earning trust, and studying the little details of our lives so they can strike when we’re tired, distracted, or dealing with something big. And honestly, most people have no idea how far it’s gone. My guest, Ian Mitchell, has spent more than 25 years fighting fraud around the world and leading teams in the financial sector. He’s the founder of The Knoble,...

Hacking AI

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AI has brought incredible new capabilities into everyday technology, but it’s also creating security challenges that most people haven’t fully wrapped their heads around yet. As these systems become more capable and more deeply connected to the tools and data we rely on, the risks become harder to predict and much more complicated to manage. My guest today is Rich Smith, who leads offensive research at MindGard and has spent more than twenty years working on the front lines of cybersecurity. Rich has held leadership roles at organizations like Crash Override, Gemini, Duo Security, Cisco,...

The Ransomware War

Easy Prey

Ransomware isn’t a lone hacker in a hoodie. It’s an entire criminal industry complete with developers, brokers, and money launderers working together like a dark tech startup. And while these groups constantly evolve, so do the tools and partnerships aimed at stopping them before they strike. My guest today is Cynthia Kaiser, former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s Cyber Division and now the Head of the Ransomware Research Center at Halcyon. After two decades investigating global cyber threats and briefing top government leaders, she’s now focused on prevention and building...

Opportunistic Crimes

Easy Prey

Criminals are always adapting. Whether it’s copper wiring stripped from job sites or porch pirates grabbing deliveries in broad daylight, they keep finding new ways to take what isn’t theirs. But maybe prevention isn’t about harsher punishment or more cameras. Maybe it’s about smarter design and understanding what drives people to steal in the first place. My guest today is Dr. Ben Stickle, a professor of criminal justice at Middle Tennessee State University and one of the country’s top researchers on property crime. Before entering academia, he worked in law enforcement, which gives...

Post Scam Guidebook

Easy Prey

Fraud usually gets talked about in numbers like how much money was stolen, how many people were affected, how many cases got filed. But behind every one of those numbers is a person who’s been blindsided, manipulated, or left trying to rebuild trust in others and in themselves. This episode shifts the focus back to those human stories and the fight to protect them. My guest, Freddie Massimi, has spent more than a decade helping scam victims find both financial and emotional recovery, bringing empathy and understanding to a field that too often feels cold and procedural. As a certified...

Can You Trust Anything Online

Easy Prey

You think you’d never fall for a scam until you meet someone like Kitboga. He’s a software engineer who’s turned his curiosity about online fraud into a full-time mission to outsmart scammers and protect the people they target. His YouTube channel, The Kitboga Show, has millions of followers and nearly a billion views, thanks to his mix of humor, empathy, and clever ways of exposing how scams really work. In our conversation, Kit opens up about how this all started, what it’s really like to spend hours pretending to be a scam victim, and how organized crime has turned fraud into a...

More Episodes

Technology is a double-edged sword. It can empower us, connect us, and solve problems, but it can also be used to exploit, manipulate, and harm. When it comes to protecting children online, that line gets especially thin. Digital forensics, AI-powered image classification, and global law enforcement collaboration are now essential tools for keeping families safe in a world that moves faster than most of us can keep up.

Debbie Garner knows this world intimately. She’s a retired Special Agent in charge with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and former commander of the state’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. For years she led efforts to track down online predators and bring justice to survivors. These days she’s working in the private sector, serving on the boards of Raven and Revere Technologies, pushing for smarter tech solutions and stronger training to support those still on the front lines.

In this episode we talk about the growing problem of online child exploitation, the reality of underfunded cybercrime units and the ways technology is being used to fight back. Whether you’re a parent, an educator or just someone who cares about kids online, you need to hear this.

Show Notes:

[00:58] Debbie shares her law enforcement background over 30 years. She even worked undercover buying crack!
[02:19] She spent the last 8 years of her career as the Supervisor Special Agent in charge of GBI's Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit.
[02:45] Now that she's retired from law enforcement, she works in the private sector with technology companies.
[05:36] It's become her passion, even in retirement, to help those who are victims of exploitation.
[07:09] Most children are victimized by someone they know. There's also plenty of predators online.
[08:55] There are multiple organizations that work on child exploitation investigations.
[10:53] People in law enforcement do tend to prioritize these types of crimes.
[12:12] We talk about how the investigations begin.
[13:53] Cases have increased from 2400 tips a year to over 30,000.
[15:17] There's never enough technology to keep up with the increase.
[16:41] RAVEN is a lobbying group to request additional funding from Congress.
[18:33] With over 30,000 tips last year Georgia made over 450 arrests.
[22:13] There's now technology that will help find CSAM on phones. There are also some amazing investigations on the dark web.
[25:15] OSINT is helping investigate and it's a collaborative community.
[27:55] Channels to report exploitation. Start with the platform, then National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and law enforcement.
[31:34] Don't put images on the internet. Websites like Take It Down can help with images of underage people and Take It Down can help adults.
[33:43] Always mention if the person is underage when you make a report.
[34:10] Talk to your kids and start early with age appropriate conversations about CSAM.

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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