In this episode of The Dark Dive we're joined by incident response heavyweight Caleb Barlow (former head of IBM X-Force and now CEO of Cyberbit) and Searchlight Cyber's Head of Threat Intelligence Luke Donovan to discuss the best ways to respond to a cyberattack. Caleb and Luke share war stories, talk about what progress has been made in the cybersecurity industry (and areas of improvement!), and each give their own take on how organizations can best prepare for the fateful day that their...

Can you quantify the risk the dark web poses to organizations? In this episode of the podcast, we discuss a landmark study that has tried to do just that. We're joined by Scott Stransky, Managing Director and Head of the Marsh McLennan Cyber Risk Intelligence Center and Ben Jones, CEO of Searchlight Cyber and Scott unravel the findings of the report "The Correlation Between Dark Web Exposure and Cybersecurity Risk". We discuss how cyber insurance loss data can be used to calculate the impact...

This episode of the podcast looks at the Qilin ransomware group's attack on the UK's National Health Service. Or - more accurately - their ransomware attack against Synnovis, a third party pathology testing organization for a number of London hospitals. Guests Louise Ferrett and Joe Honey go through time timeline of the attack - discussing the group's history, whether to trust claims that the attack was politically motivated, and the reasoning behind leaking 400gb of stolen patient data. This...

This episode of The Dark Dive takes a listener's question as a jumping off point to talk about the topic of data leaked on the dark web. Guests Luke Donovan and Adam Wilson discuss noteworthy data leaks from over the years - impacting organizations such as 23andMe, Ashley Madison, and Yahoo! - and bring things right up to the present day (June 2024) by looking at the data leaks on BreachForums impacting Ticketmaster and Santander customers. We look at how data such as credit card information,...

In the first episode of season two, The Dark Dive takes a forensic look at Operation Cronos, the international law enforcement takedown of the notorious ransomware group LockBit. Dr. Gareth Owenson and Louise Ferrett give an overview of LockBit, explain how Operation Cronos has unfolded, and discuss why law enforcement has taken an unconventional approach (“the most epic trolling in cybersecurity history”) to this ransomware group takedown. Recorded on May 14, this episode includes the...

In this first episode of The Dark Dive we start at the beginning, with the question: what is the dark web? Renowned dark web academic Dr. Gareth Owenson and threat intelligence expert Jim Simpson define exactly what the "dark web" is in relation to the "clear web" and the "deep web", how dark web networks like Tor work, and why it's relevant to law enforcement and cybersecurity professionals. They also provide an overview of the types of traditional and cyber criminal activity that take...

In this episode of The Dark Dive - the podcast that delves into the depths of the dark web - we take a forensic look at dark web markets. Guests Louise Ferrett and Dave Osler outline the different types of marketplaces that exist on the dark web, the illicit and criminal goods they sell, and the challenges they create for law enforcement. In the process, we discuss the difference between drug and digital goods markets (known as "autoshops"), the short lifespan of marketplace sites, and the...

We're joined by threat intelligence experts Joe Honey and Vlad to delve into dark web hacking forums. The conversation covers how dark web forums differ from regular internet forums, the topics that users are discussing, and how forums manage to have such longevity in comparison to criminal marketplaces. On the way our guests explain the "barrier to entry" to getting onto these forums, the blurry line between Russian, English language, and Chinese forums, and how these sites act as a market...

In this episode of The Dark Dive we look at how cyber defender's biggest nemeses - ransomware groups - use the dark web. Returning threat intelligence experts Jim Simpson and Louise Ferrett explain all of the functions of a ransomware leak site, how ransomware group members use dark web forums, and how monitoring this activity helps us understand how ransomware threat is evolving. We cover some of the biggest groups*, take a fascinating look at how they work with each other, and host Aidan...

This episode of The Dark Dive looks at what host Aidan Murphy describes as "dark web service providers" - i.e. the services that keep dark web criminality ticking. In particular, threat intelligence experts Carlito Perschky and Rob Fitzsimons explain where cryptocurrency fits into the dark web, how it has enabled illegal marketplaces to flourish, and the methods criminals use to hide where their funds are going to and from. We also discuss the paradox of dark web search engines and link sites...

The final episode of this limited series looks at how law enforcement and cybersecurity professionals can respond to the dark web criminality outlined in the previous five episodes. Returning guest Dr. Gareth Owenson is joined by Ben Jones, CEO of Searchlight Cyber, and Evan Blair, General Manager of North America, to discuss the actions that law enforcement agencies and private organizations are tackling threats that emerge from the dark web. This bumper conversation ranges from how officers...

Introducing The Dark Dive, the podcast that demystifies the dark web.