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.
ShinyHunters has left an alleged trail stretching from university campuses, and major healthcare providers, to government agencies. It even turned on its peers, extorting and publicly humiliating Cl0P ransomware group in a turf war that offered a rare glimpse of the power struggles that underpin the criminal underworld.
In this debut episode of Masked Actors: The Wire, where we take the cyber stories breaking right now and look past the headlines to the threat actors behind them, host Gary Ruddell is joined by Group-IB's Global Threat Research Lead, Anastasia Tikhonova to explore this group's rise. From the FBI investigation to a growing culture of criminal infighting, we unpack why ShinyHunters has become one of the most talked-about names in the underground and what its rise tells us about the future of cyber extortion.
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.
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