EP. 94 | The FBI Said He Was on an ISIS Kill List

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomkirkham/https://www.kirkhamirontech.com/Tom Kirkham has been in cybersecurity for 26 years. He's seen everything from bragging rights hackers in the late 90s to an industrial-scale trillion-dollar criminal industry.But nothing changed his perspective quite like the day an FBI agent showed up at his office and told him he was on an ISIS kill list — because a company he signed an NDA with got hacked.Today Tom runs Kirkham IronTech, a managed security services provider ranked in the top 250 MSPs globally for four consecutive years. We talk about how hacking became a $10 trillion industry, why 95% of breaches are caused by human error, how AI is now scaling personalized attacks to target anyone, what ransomware actually looks like from the inside, and why your coffee machine might be your biggest security risk.Timestamps:0:00 – Intro: What Kirkham IronTech does1:01 – 26 years in IT and security — top 250 MSP globally2:06 – Starting the company from a dining room table on January 1, 20003:02 – When hackers did it for bragging rights — and when that changed4:11 – 95% of breaches are caused by human error, not technical exploits5:00 – How a ransomware campaign works — the math behind $10M paydays5:26 – The FBI showed up and said: you're on an ISIS kill list6:19 – How he ended up on the list (a Sun Microsystems NDA got hacked)9:14 – Stoicism helped him make peace with it in weeks13:31 – The number one threat to every business: ransomware14:33 – Hacking is now a $10 trillion industry — third largest GDP on the planet16:39 – AI now scales personalized attacks to everyone, not just high-value targets17:05 – Matt's real experience: CEO identity stolen, employees sent to buy gift cards18:14 – Proactive vs. reactive: how Kirkham operates19:07 – Gas pump skimmers, phishing, and cybersecurity beyond the office20:17 – Why traditional antivirus (Norton, McAfee) is no longer enough22:59 – Chinese cyber warfare and the greatest IP theft in human history26:10 – The three pillars: technology, training, governance27:28 – Why old laptops are costing you more than new ones28:48 – Why Tom replaced every Mac in the company within 6 months of Apple Silicon30:22 – They qualify clients as much as clients qualify them32:36 – Clients who've been with them 20+ years — and why churn is minimal35:29 – From a dining room to a radio show — how he built regional brand awareness37:50 – AI in the company: privacy governance comes first42:49 – Executive intelligence briefings — what's coming next46:55 – What Tom would tell his younger self: trust your gut, embrace failure50:17 – MSP 4.0: managed intelligence providers and the AI governance opportunity53:09 – Closing thoughts