Kicking Off 2026 with Ransomware Insights and Defense Strategies

Resources: https://linktr.ee/ReliaQuestShadowTalkJoin hosts Brandon and Tehman as they discuss:The resurgence of LockBit 5.0 and its December 2025 surge in named organizationsHow top ransomware groups like Qilin, Akira, and Clop dominated in 2025.Actionable defense strategies for organizations to proactively combat ransomware in 2026Brandon Tirado: Director of Threat Research for ReliaQuest. Brandon is a skilled cyber defense professional with a unique combination of management and hands-on experience. With a deep understanding of adversary motives and the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) they use to achieve their goals, Brandon enjoys operationalizing his knowledge to make it more difficult for adversaries to operate within the environments of ReliaQuest customers. His managerial and hands-on experience enriches ShadowTalk with practical and strategic viewpoints.Tehman Tariq: Sr. Manager of Cyber Operations at ReliaQuest. He has spent a majority of my career leading our Incident Response, Security Architecture, and Detection teams. As well has working hand in hand with CISOs to introduce automation allowing for the maturity of their security programs.