Masked Actors
Masked Actors
Podcast Description
True crime meets cybercrime. Discover the people behind the keyboard.From Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) gangs to global financial crime syndicates, the rise of sophisticated cyber threats is reshaping the world. These aren’t lone hackers — they’re organized groups running multi-million dollar operations in the shadows.In the Masked Actors podcast, cyber threat expert and former soldier turned hacker Gary Ruddell joins forces with Nick Palmer, a seasoned financial crime fighter, to investigate the top 10 most dangerous cybercriminal groups of 2025 — drawn from Group-IB’s High-Tech Crime Trends Report.Each episode explores the tactics, motivations, and impact of major cybercrime groups, uncovering their role in the latest cybercrime, RaaS, and financial crime trends. You’ll learn how these actors exploit vulnerabilities, fuel geopolitical tension, and affect businesses and consumers alike.Tune in to Masked Actors — and stay one step ahead of cybercrime.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast delves into various aspects of cybercrime, focusing on topics such as Ransomware-as-a-Service, financial crime syndicates, and the tactics employed by cybercriminal groups. Notable episodes discuss the motivations behind high-stakes hacking operations and the impact of these groups on global security, revealing trends from Group-IB’s High-Tech Crime Trends Report.
True crime meets cybercrime. Discover the people behind the keyboard.
From Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) gangs to global financial crime syndicates, the rise of sophisticated cyber threats is reshaping the world. These aren’t lone hackers — they’re organized groups running multi-million dollar operations in the shadows.
In the Masked Actors podcast, cyber threat expert and former soldier turned hacker Gary Ruddell joins forces with Nick Palmer, a seasoned financial crime fighter, to investigate the top 10 most dangerous cybercriminal groups of 2025 — drawn from Group-IB’s High-Tech Crime Trends Report.
Each episode explores the tactics, motivations, and impact of major cybercrime groups, uncovering their role in the latest cybercrime, RaaS, and financial crime trends. You’ll learn how these actors exploit vulnerabilities, fuel geopolitical tension, and affect businesses and consumers alike.
Tune in to Masked Actors — and stay one step ahead of cybercrime.
Contactless payments have become such a routine part of everyday life that we rarely think twice about how they are secured. For decades, every contactless transaction has been built on the assumption that your card needs to be physically present to make the purchase.
Now, there is one Chinese-language Fraud-as-a-Service operation that has found a way to break that assumption. First uncovered by Group-IB researchers, TX-NFC relays stolen card data to a fraudster’s device and executes a transaction at a physical point-of-sale terminal, all with the victim's card in an entirely different country. TX-NFC is more than a novel fraud technique; it’s a commercial criminal ecosystem of social engineering operators, Telegram marketplaces and money mules operating in the shadows to turn stolen credentials into profit at scale.
In this episode, hosts Gary Ruddell and former INTERPOL Director of Cybercrime Craig Jones are joined by Neira Jones, an independent advisor, board-level strategist, and international expert in payments, fraud, and cybersecurity. Together, they trace the criminal supply chain behind TX-NFC, explore why traditional fraud controls struggle to detect it, and discuss what we can do to ensure our money stays safe when proximity can no longer protect us.
By understanding who these actors are and how they operate, you can better anticipate threats and protect yourself in an increasingly hostile digital world.
Subscribe to learn more about Group-IB's top 10 Masked Actors – and stay one step ahead in the fight against cybercrime.
FOLLOW GROUP-IB
- Group-IB Threat Intelligence on X: https://www.x.com/GroupIB_TI
- Group-IB on X: https://www.x.com/GroupIB
- Group-IB on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/group-ib
- Group-IB on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groupibHQ/
- Group-IB on Instagram: …
Disclaimer
This podcast’s information is provided for general reference and was obtained from publicly accessible sources. The Podcast Collaborative neither produces nor verifies the content, accuracy, or suitability of this podcast. Views and opinions belong solely to the podcast creators and guests.
For a complete disclaimer, please see our Full Disclaimer on the archive page. The Podcast Collaborative bears no responsibility for the podcast’s themes, language, or overall content. Listener discretion is advised. Read our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy for more details.