Digital crime-fighter Donal Keating revisits the podcast, but this time… it’s personal. *cue dramatic crime-fighting music* The Director of Innovation and Research of the Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) at Microsoft joins hosts Nic Fillingham and Natalia Godyla to regale us with the origin story of the DCU and his captivating career exploits. Whether it’s tales of his early days preventing Windows 98 counterfeits in Ireland or the many international law enforcement raids he’s participated in…there’s no shortage to Donal’s crime-fighting adventures. In This Episode, You Will Learn: • The mission of Microsoft’s DCU and the techniques used to combat fraud • The events and needs that led to the creation of a forensic analytic lab at Microsoft • How counterfeiting and intellectual property crime have evolved over the years with advanced technology • What it’s like partnering with law enforcement to take down criminals around the world Some Questions We Ask: • What does a day in the life of Donal look like in the DCU? • Was there ever a counterfeit example that shocked Donal at just how good it was? • With so many shifts in Donal’s work, what in his background has prepared him to stay on top of the changes? • What does a digital crime fighter do in their time off? Resources:   Donal’s LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/donal-keating/   Nic’s LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicfill/       Natalia’s LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliagodyla/       Microsoft Security Blog  https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/    Transcript (Full transcript can be found at https://aka.ms/SecurityUnlockedEp17) Nic Fillingham: Hello, and welcome to Security Unlocked, a new podcast from Microsoft where we unlock insights from the latest in news and research from across Microsoft Security engineering and operations teams. I'm Nic Fillingham. Natalia Godyla: And I'm Natalia Godyla. In each episode, we'll discuss the latest stories for Microsoft Security, deep dive into the latest threat intel, research and data science- Nic Fillingham: And profile some of the fascinating people working on artificial intelligence in Microsoft Security. Natalia Godyla: And now, let's unlock the pod. Hi, Nic. How's it going? Nic Fillingham: Hello, Natalia. It's going well. How are you? Natalia Godyla: It's going well. I am super-excited for this episode, because it will be a trip down memory lane. We're gonna be talking about counterfeiting CDs and Beanie Babies. Well, Beanie Babies aren't covered in this episode, but they're counterfeited. Nic Fillingham: So we were, we were having a conversation before we started recording about, you know, things that have been counterfeited, and one of the examples that we stumbled upon was Beanie Babies, and I said, "What's a Beanie Baby?" And Natalia said "How do you not know what Beanie Babies are?" So 15 minutes ago, you, you educated me on a Beanie Baby, and I've learned something about you, is that you collected Beanie Babies. Is that right? You were in the Beanie Baby fad. You were in the, the trend. Natalia Godyla: Oh, yes. Yes. Beanie Babies and Pokemon cards. I definitely collected them. Nic Fillingham: Do you still have your Pokemon cards? Natalia Godyla: Yes. Yes, I do. Nic Fillingham: And do you still have your Beanie Babies? Natalia Godyla: I've got one Beanie Baby left. Nic Fillingham: Do you know, with certainty, that it is not a counterfeit Beanie Baby? Natalia Godyla: I don't, but I don't think I wanna find out. Nic Fillingham: If only there were some kind of technology. Maybe a, a hologram or something, embedded into the Beanie Baby for you to have a high degree of certainty- Natalia Godyla: (laughs) Nic Fillingham: That it was real. Natalia Godyla: (laughs) Nic Fillingham: And I'm talking about holograms because our guest on the po