Alex Holden has a knack for tracking Russian cyber criminals. The Ukrainian-born cybersecurity expert understands what it takes to infiltrate ransomware outfits, learn their secrets and help organizations protect themselves against their tactics. Beyond that, his firm is responsible for detecting some of the biggest breaches in recent history. In this episode, Alex talks about his approach to tracking the world's most notorious criminal hackers, the current cyber threat in Eastern Europe and his own journey from Kyiv to the American midwest. 

Why should listen:

* Get the inside story of how the Conti ransomware gang and other Eastern European cybercrime syndicates operate.

* Hear about how the current Ukrainian War could shift the cyber threat landscape.

* Discover how one of the leading threat intelligence researchers uncovered some of the biggest data breaches in history.

Key quotes:

* "Russia knows how to wage cyber warfare. And they continuously keep showing us that they can ... So I think Russia is in [a] very powerful position to flex their cyber muscle to do damage."

* "We are watching a huge change in the cybersecurity threat landscape in Eastern Europe. Ukrainian cybercrime is not dead. They're still doing certain things in the western part of Ukraine. Some of them are moving into Eastern Europe ... The same is happening in Russia. Cyber criminals are afraid that the recent crackdown of the Russian government against them will continue." 

* "If you are at all interested in threat intelligence or in cybersecurity, I would recommend sitting down and reading [the Conti leaks] because you're going to see how the real criminals work, how they think, how they evolve and how the everyday gang works."

Links:

* https://holdsecurity.com/

* https://www.synack.com/