mnemonic security podcast

Ever wondered how INTERPOL tackles organised crime and cyber threats?

In this episode of the mnemonic Security Podcast, we’re joined by Bjørn Watne, Global Chief Information Security Officer at INTERPOL, for a conversation on how cybercrime is evolving, and what it takes to combat it.

Bjørn draws on more than 25 years of experience across industries including law enforcement, financial services and telecoms. In his role at INTERPOL, he explains how the organisation connects and supports law enforcement across 196 countries, tackling terrorism, organised crime, financial crime, and cybercrime. He also explains how and why INTERPOL distinguishes between cybercrime and cyber-enabled crime, highlighting how traditional crimes are increasingly amplified by digital tools, AI, and cloud technologies.

During Bjørn and Robby's conversation, Bjørn outlines INTERPOL’s coordination model with local jurisdictional leads, partnerships with private expertise, and the need for neutrality, including avoiding state-on-state cyber war issues. As well as discusses the “cybercrime supply chain”, attribution challenges, and where they've observed AI do the most harm.

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“Human behavior is not going to change significantly year after year.”

In our latest podcast episode, Robby is joined by Rob Shapland, ethical hacker and Director at Cyonic Cyber, to explore how social engineering works in practice today.

Despite advances in technology, social engineering remains an effective attack method. Whether it is a convincing email, a friendly conversation, or a well-timed request to the support desk, attackers continue to exploit human trust.

In this episode, we discuss how social engineering tactics have evolved and what still stays the same, how new tools are making attackers more effective, and real-world stories, including how many buildings Rob has gained access to during his career so far.

Rob will also be speaking at mnemonic’s annual conference, C2 Summit, this May. Check out the program and see if you should join us as well: mnemonic.io/c2-summit-2026 

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In this episode of the mnemonic security podcast, we’re joined by Will Thomas, Senior Threat Intelligence Advisor at the CTI company Team Cymru, to discuss the latest trends in initial access.

Will shares what he is currently observing, including the growing exploitation of edge devices, the targeting of SaaS environments using infostealers and stolen credentials, and the rise of ClickFix-style social engineering techniques.

He also explains how these trends differ between threat actors depending on their motivations, and what organisations should prioritise to stay ahead. Will outlines practical steps defenders can take and the key questions security teams should be asking to stay ahead of attackers.

The conversation also covers Will’s main concerns around threat actors’ use of LLMs, and how CTI and threat hunting should ideally be carried out to support security operations.

Want more Will Thomas? Here you can find his Ransomware-Tool-Matrix: https://github.com/BushidoUK/Ransomware-Tool-Matrix/tree/main/Tools

And his own podcast Future of Threat Intelligence (FoTI) Podcast:
https://www.team-cymru.com/future-of-threat-intelligence-podcast

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"It's prime time for runtime!"

In this episode of the mnemonic security podcast, we're joined by Sergej Epp, Global CISO & Member of the Executive Team of Sysdig, to discuss threats at machine speed and runtime security.

Sergej explains how runtime security enables organisations to understand what is really happening inside containers and serverless workloads, and why, without it, they are effectively blind to critical activity within their cloud-native environments. He shares recent examples of supply chain incidents that highlight these risks, including the GitHub Actions compromise, NPM attacks, and the two waves of Shai-Hulud.

Robby and Sergej also discuss the most common ways that attackers get access to clusters and containers, and how organisations can stay ahead of attacks using real-time telemetry.

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"We are not really seeing as many attacks in the cloud where people hack in. It's more likely that they simply log in."

In this episode of the mnemonic security podcast, we're exploring Cloud Detection & Response (CDR) together with Brian Contos; returning guest, fellow podcast host, author, and serial security entrepreneur. In his conversation with Robby, he shares from his new role as Field CISO for the Cloud Detection & Response platform Mitiga.

They discuss the Salesforce supply chain attack and the challenges of protecting interconnected cloud ecosystems, the evolution of Cloud Detection & Response so far, and what we should expect in the near future.

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Pentesting anno 2026

Erica Burgess, an experienced penetration tester and security consultant, joins us for this episode of the mnemonic security podcast to deliver a state of the union on penetration testing in 2026. Drawing on her Black Hat Europe AI Security Summit keynote, “Never Break the Chain: Attack Chaining for 0-Days,” Erica breaks down how seemingly low-severity or “informational” findings can be chained together into full system compromises.  

Erica details her practical approach to using customized AI agents for subtasking, from validating dynamic scanner results to finding obscure commands that bypass blacklists. Tasks that once required three days of manual research can now be completed in minutes, dramatically increasing the volume and sophistication of findings during time-constrained engagements.

They also explore the broader implications of AI-assisted hacking: the risk of new blind spots when everyone leans on similar models, and the uncomfortable questions this raises about creativity, labor, and the future of junior talent in cybersecurity. Erica emphasizes the importance of maintaining human intuition and critical thinking, warning that over-reliance on AI can literally reduce brain activity, while acknowledging that pen testers who don't adapt to these tools risk being left behind.

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We’re kicking off the new year by taking a closer look at some of the threats that will shape 2026, and how they impact defenders.

In this episode of the mnemonic security podcast, Robby welcomes Candid Wüest, Principal Security Advocate at xorlab, drawing on more than 25 years of experience in the field. After seeing Candid's talk “The Rise of AI-Driven Malware: Threats, Myths, and Defenses” at BlackHat Europe, Robby invited him to share his research and perspectives on the current state of AI-driven malware.

They talk about the most common misunderstandings around AI-powered, AI-generated and AI-supported threats, as well as which types of LLM-related attacks Candid expects to make the news, and actually be effective, in 2026.

Candid also shares his thoughts on how defenders’ roles are evolving, where he has seen organisations successfully implement AI in defense, and why going back to basics still matters. They also explore some of the biggest topics from Black Hat Europe in December, including AI-enabled SOCs.

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What is the future of MDR?

In this episode of the mnemonic security podcast, Robby is joined by Migjen Hakaj from mnemonic's Innovation & Emerging Technologies Department and Amine Besson, Director at Behemoth Security.

They've joined forces by collecting their shared extensive experience with security monitoring, and published a popular three-part blog series on what Managed Detection and Response (MDR) really is on a deep level, where they examine the past, present, and future challenges within the field.

In their conversation they talk about the evolution of the SOC space, what main forms of security operations they are seeing today, and why they believe the SOC needs to change.

They also explain why it's hard to define what MDR really is today, the main value proposition of MDR providers, and what the next big differentiators for MDR providers will be. As well as in what ways they've seen that the industry has matured over the last few years, where the industry needs radical change, and where AI SOC has a place and where its main challenges lie.

Interested in more? Visit their blog series:

The Present and Future of Managed Detection and Response: https://detect.fyi/the-present-and-future-of-managed-detection-and-response-01a72088e6f6

The missing link in MDR. Spoiler, it starts with a Detection Engineering framework: https://detect.fyi/the-missing-link-in-mdr-spoiler-it-starts-with-a-detection-engineering-framework-5f836347c92f

Beyond Detections : Scaling Analysis & Response to keep MDR relevant: https://detect.fyi/beyond-detections-scaling-analysis-response-to-keep-mdr-relevant-592285d0fd25

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In this short and sweet episode on agentic browsers, we’re joined by Helen Kearney, a leader in helping humanitarian and non-profit organisations use technology strategically, responsibly, and with real impact.

Robby and Helen discuss the challenges and opportunities posed by these new browsers, where their "agentic" abilities create new risks, raise questions about ethical AI use, and heighten concerns around safeguarding sensitive data.

Helen also shares the conversations she’s having across the humanitarian sector as AI tools go mainstream - what’s inspiring, what’s misunderstood, and the developments she believes deserve far more attention.

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Start your week with a laugh. And yes, it’s work-relevant.

Today’s guests, John Fokker, Head of Threat Intelligence, and Jambul Tologonov, Security Researcher at Trellix, have spent years monitoring the dark web and have quite a few stories to tell.

They are joining Robby to talk about their concept "Dark Web Roast", a satirical look at cyber criminals and their world of crime, aiming to show that at the end of the day, these threat actors are just human beings, messing up just like anyone else.

In the episode, they take us behind the scenes of the dark web: exposing failures among cybercriminals, uncovering ransomware-group drama, and revealing the vanity and rivalries fueling it all.

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