The Defender's Advantage Podcast
by Mandiant
Learn about the latest threat and cybersecurity trends on The Defender’s Advantage Podcast! Hear from experts in the field as Host Luke McNamara, from Google Threat Intelligence Group, interviews analysts, researchers and other guests on the frontlines of the latest attacks. Episodes dive deep into various topics, including nation-state activity, cybercrime, malware and tradecraft, incident response, defensive guidance, and more. Don't forget to subscribe!
Episodes
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ARTEX and Friends: Enter Agentic Offensive Frameworks
Aurora Blum and Rohit Nambiar from Google's Threat Intelligence Group join host Luke McNamara to discuss their research into agentic pentesting frameworks such as ARTEX. They detail the progression this year from prompt-based usage of LLMs to autonomous frameworks that require little operator...
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From Prompting to Autonomy: The Evolution of Adversarial AI
Authors' of GTIG's AI Threat Tracker report, Aurora Blum and Kelli Vanderlee, join host Luke McNamara to discuss the latest observations from the Q3 version of this report. Aurora and Kelli note the shift to more agentic use cases, as actors evolve being individual prompting, the rise of…
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The New Frontline of Supply Chain Attacks
In this episode of Mandiant’s Defender’s Advantage Podcast, host Luke McNamara sits down with Ben Read, Head of Strategic Threat Intelligence at Wiz, to explore the rapidly shifting landscape of software supply chain compromises. While historic, nation-state operations like SolarWinds focused on...
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Shadow LLMs, Agentic Identities, and Securely Integrating AI
Host Luke McNamara sits down with Muhammad Muneer, Technical Manager on Mandiant's Incident Response team, to unpack the stark realities of enterprise AI adoption. They explore why securing AI starts with resolving legacy security debt (specifically around IAM, supply chain, and secrets…
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Human-Machine Teaming: Applying AI to Frontline Threat Intelligence Workflows
Host Luke McNamara is joined by Jake Nicastro, who leads the AI function for the Frontline Intelligence Operations team within the Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG). Jake details how his team is shifting from simple prompt engineering to more advanced agentic workflows, focusing on a model…
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Google's Disruption Mission
Host Luke McNamara is joined by Charley Snyder, Head of Disruption Operations at Google Threat Intelligence Group, to delve into how Google is crafting a more coordinate approach to disrupting adversary cyber operations. Charley describes how this disruption focus is not hacking back, how it…
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Takeaways from the 2026 M-Trends Report
Host Luke McNamara is joined by Chris Linklater, Practice Leader at Mandiant, to discuss the 2026 edition of Mandiant's M-Trends Report. Chris dives into the latest trends observed in breached throughout 2025 and into this year, noting some of the key aspects organizations should focus on in...
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Using GTI to Hunt Adversaries on the Dark Web
In this episode of the Defenders Advantage Podcast, host Luke McNamara sits down with Google Threat Intelligence experts Jose Nazario and Brandon Wood. They dive into the rollout of new dark web and underground monitoring capabilities, explaining how AI is fundamentally changing the way defenders...
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How Android Combats Mobile Scams
Host Luke McNamara is joined by Eugene Liderman, Senior Director in Android's Security and Privacy Group, to discuss the evolving world of mobile-targeting scams. Eugene details some of the unique aspects to mobile scams, regional variations in tactics by scammers, and the steps Android has taken...
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UNC5221 and the BRICKSTORM Campaign
Sarah Yoder (Manager, Mandiant Consulting) and Ashley Pearson (Senior Analyst, Advanced Practices on Google Threat Intelligence Group) join host Luke McNamara to discuss UNC5221 and their operations involving BRICKSTORM backdoor. This highly sophisticated, suspected China-nexus cyber-espionage...
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How vSphere Became a Target for Adversaries
Stuart Carrera (Senior Consultant, Mandiant Consulting) joins host Luke McNamara to discuss how threat actors are increasingly targeting the VMware vSphere estate, and leveraging in this environment to conduct extortion and data theft. Stuart details why this has become an attractive target, and...
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AI Tools and Sentiment Within the Underground Cyber Crime Community
Michelle Cantos (Senior Analyst, Google Threat Intelligence Group) joins host Luke McNamara to discuss some of the recent trends in underground marketplaces around the selling of illicit AI tools and services. Michelle discusses GTIG's research into this space, how threat actors are seeking to...
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Protecting the Core: Securing Protection Relays in Modern Substations
Host Luke McNamara is joined by members of Mandiant Consulting's Operational Technology team (Chris Sistrunk, Seemant Bisht, and Anthony Candarini) to discuss their latest blog on securing assets in the energy grid....
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The Rise of ClickFix
Dima Lenz (Security Engineer, Google Threat Intelligence Group) joins host Luke McNamara to discuss how threat actors have been using ClickFix to socially engineer users. Dima recounts the growth of this technique in 2024, some of the campaigns and actors that have leveraged it, and where it may…
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Vishing in the Wild
Nick Guttilla and Emily Astranova, from Mandiant Consulting's Offensive Security team, join host Luke McNamara for an episode on voice-based phishing, or "vishing." Nick and Emily cover their respective blogs and experiences, diving into how they employ vishing techniques to social engineer...
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Responding to a DPRK ITW Incident
JP Glab (Mandiant Consulting) joins host Luke to discuss responding to activity from North Korean IT workers. He walks through what initially triggered the investigation at this organization, how it progressed in parallel with an HR investigation, and ultimately what was discovered. For more on…
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UNC5221 and The Targeting of Ivanti Connect Secure VPNs
Matt Lin (Senior Incident Response Consultant, Mandiant) and Daniel Spicer (Chief Security Officer, Ivanti) dive into the research and response of UNC5221's campaigns against Ivanti. They cover how this threat actor has evolved from earlier campaigns, the continued focus of edge infrastructure by...
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Windows Remote Desktop Protocol: Remote to Rogue
Host Luke McNamara is joined by GTIG Senior Security Researcher Rohit Nambiar to discuss Rohit's recent blog on some interesting usage of RDP by UNC5837. Rohit covers the discovery of the campaign, and the novel functionalities they were using to likely support cyber espionage goals. He delves…
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Cybersecurity Conversations with the C-Suite and Board
Imran Ahmad (Senior Partner, Canadian Head of Technology and Canadian Co-Head of Cybersecurity and Data Privacy at Norton Rose Fulbright) joins host Luke McNamara to discuss how executives are thinking about cyber risk in a changing and evolving landscape. He touches on the importance of training...
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What to Watch For in 2025
Kelli Vanderlee, Kate Morgan, and Jamie Collier join host Luke McNamara to discuss trends that are top of mind for them in tracking emergent threats this year, from nation state intrusions to financially motivated ransomware campaigns....
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Signals of Trouble
Dan Black (Principal Analyst, Google Threat Intelligence Group) joins host Luke McNamara to discuss the research into Russia-aligned threat actors seeking to compromise Signal Messenger. Dan lays out how this latest evolution of Russia's usage of cyber in Ukraine compares to previous phases of…
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Agentic AI in Cybersecurity
Steph Hay (Senior Director for Gemini Product and UX, Google Cloud Security) joins host Luke McNamara to discuss agentic AI and its implications for security disciplines. Steph walks through how generative AI is already impacting the finding of threats, reduction of toil, and the scaling up of...
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The Art of Remediation in Incident Response
Jibran Ilyas (Consulting Leader, Mandiant Consulting) joins host Luke McNamara to discuss remediation as part of incident response. Jibran covers various scenarios (espionage and ransomware) and how they may differ in approaching remediation, how types of architecture could shape remediation...
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How to Run an Effective Tabletop Exercise
Mandiant Senior Consultant Alishia Hui joins host Luke McNamara to discuss all things tabletop exercise related. Alishia walks through the elements of a tabletop exercise, important preparatory steps, the success factors for a good exercise, and how organizations can implement lessons learned....
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Using LLMs to Analyze Windows Binaries
Vicente Diaz, Threat Intelligence Strategist at VirusTotal, joins host Luke McNamara to discuss his research into using LLMs to analyze malware. Vicente covers how he used Gemini to analyze various windows binaries, the use cases this could help address for security operations, technical…
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How Threat Actors Bypass Multi-Factor Authentication
Josh Fleischer, Principal Security Analyst with Mandiant's Managed Defense organization sits down with host Luke McNamara to discuss trends in MFA bypass and how threat actors are conducting adversary in the middle (AiTM) attacks to gain access to targeted organizations. Josh walks through a case...
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TAG's Work Tracking Commercial Surveillance Vendors
Host Luke McNamara is joined by Clement Lecigne, security researcher at Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) to discuss his work tracking commercial surveillance vendors (CSVs). Clement dives into the history and evolution of the CSV industry, how these entities carry out operations against...
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What Iranian Threat Actors Have Been Up To This Year
Mandiant APT Researcher Ofir Rozmann joins host Luke McNamara to discuss some notable Iranian cyber espionage actors and what they have been up to in 2024. Ofir covers campaigns from suspected IRGC-nexus actors such as APT42 and APT35-related clusters, as well as activity from TEMP.Zagros. For…
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Mandiant's Approach to Securely Using AI Solutions
Mandiant Consultants Trisha Alexander, Muhammed Muneer, and Pat McCoy join host Luke McNamara to discuss Mandiant's recently launched services for securing AI. They discuss how organizations can proactively approach securing the implementation of AI workloads, red-team and test these security...
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Lessons Learned from Responding to Cloud Compromises
Mandiant consultants Will Silverstone (Senior Consultant) and Omar ElAhdan (Principal Consultant) discuss their research into cloud compromise trends over 2023. They discuss living off the land techniques in the cloud, the concept of the extended cloud attack surface, how organizations can better...
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The ORB Networks
Michael Raggi (Principal Analyst, Mandiant Intelligence) joins host Luke McNamara to discuss Mandiant's research into China-nexus threat actors using proxy networks known as “ORBs” (operational relay box networks). Michael discusses the anatomy and framework Mandiant developed to map out these...
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Investigations Into Zero-Day Exploitation of the Ivanti Connect Secure Appliances
Mandiant Principal Analysts John Wolfram and Tyler McLellan join host Luke McNamara to discuss their research in the "Cutting Edge" blog series, a series of investigations into zero-day exploitation of Ivanti appliances. John and Tyler discuss the process of analyzing the initial exploitation…
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M-Trends 2024 with Mandiant Consulting Vice President Jurgen Kutscher
Jurgen Kutscher, Mandiant Vice President for Consulting, joins host Luke McNamara to discuss the findings of the M-Trends 2024 report. Jurgen shares his perspective on the "By the Numbers" data, the theme of evasion of detection in this year's report, and how Mandiant consultants have been...
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Assessing the State of Multifaceted Extortion Operations
Kimberly Goody, Head of Mandiant's Cyber Crime Analysis team and Jeremy Kennelly, Lead Analyst of the same team join host Luke McNamara to breakdown the current state of ransomware and data theft extortion. Kimberly and Jeremy describe how 2023 differed from the activity they witnessed the year...
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Hunting for "Living off the Land" Activity
Host Luke McNamara is joined by Mandiant consultants Shanmukhanand Naikwade and Dan Nutting to discuss hunting for threat actors utilizing "living off the land" (LotL) techniques. They discuss how LotL techniques differ from traditional malware based attacks, ways to differentiate between normal...
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Director of NSA's Cybersecurity Collaboration Center on Trends in 2024
Morgan Adamski, Director of the NSA's Cybersecurity Collaboration Center (CCC) joins host Luke McNamara to discuss the threat posed by Volt Typhoon and other threat actors utilizing living off the land (LotL) techniques, zero-day exploitation trends, how the CCC works with private sector...
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The North Korean IT Workers
Principal Analyst Michael Barnhart joins host Luke McNamara to discuss Mandiant's research into the threat posed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) usage of IT workers to gain access to enterprises. For more on Mandiant's analysis of North Korea's cyber capabilities, please…
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Prescriptions for a Healthy Cybersecurity Future with Google Cloud's OCISO
Taylor Lehmann (Director, Google Cloud Office of the CISO) and Bill Reid (Security Architect, Google Cloud Office of the CISO) join host Luke McNamara to discuss their takeaways from the last year of threat activity witnessed by enterprises within healthcare and life sciences. They discuss…
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Is The CTI Lifecycle Due For An Update?
Mandiant Intelligence Advisor Renze Jongman joins host Luke McNamara to discuss his blog on the CTI Process Hyperloop and applying threat intelligence to the needs of the security organization and larger enterprise. For more on this topic, please see:...
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Threat Trends: Hacktivists' Continued Use of DDoS
For our first episode of 2024, host Luke McNamara is joined by Mandiant Senior Technical Director Jose Nazario and Principal Analysts Alden Wahlstrom and Josh Palatucci, to discuss the hacktivist DDoS activity they tracked over the last year.
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Threat Trends: Tales from the 2023 Trenches
Doug Bienstock and Josh Madelay, Regional Leads for Mandiant Consulting, join host Luke McNamara to walk through some of the trends they have witnessed responding to breaches in 2023. Josh and Doug cover what is happening with business email compromise (BEC), common initial infection vectors,...
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Threat Trends: DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in Conversation with Kevin Mandia
Host Luke McNamara is joined for this special episode highlighting October as Cybersecurity Awareness Month by Kevin Mandia and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Secretary Mayorkas and Kevin discuss the threat landscape, collaboration between the private sector and government, improving the…
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Threat Trends: Addressing Risk in the Cloud with Wiz
Host Luke McNamara is joined by Amitai Cohen, Attack Vector Intel Lead at Wiz to discuss trends in cloud security, managing risk, and more. For more on Wiz's research, please see: https://www.wiz.io/blog and https://www.wiz.io/crying-out-cloud
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Threat Trends: Unraveling WyrmSpy and DragonEgg Mobile Malware with Lookout
Host Luke McNamara is joined by Kristina Balaam, Staff Threat Researcher at Lookout, to discuss her work attributing two new mobile malware families to APT41. For more on Lookout's report on WyrmSpy and DragonEgg:...
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Threat Trends: The Implications of the MOVEit Compromise
Charles Carmakal, CTO for Mandiant Consulting, joins host Luke McNamara to discuss the long tail impact of FIN11's compromise of the MOVEit file transfer solution. Charles breaks down some of the differences with this compromise in comparison to FIN11's previous operations, why the impact from…
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Threat Trends: A Requirements-Driven Approach to Cyber Threat Intelligence
Dr. Jamie Collier (Senior Threat Intelligence Advisor, Mandiant) joins host Luke McNamara to discuss the recent white paper from Mandiant about developing a requirements-driven approach to intelligence, challenges organizations face in this area, and the importance of recurring stakeholder…
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Frontline Stories: Crisis Communications During a Breach
Dan Wire from Mandiant joins host Kerry Matre to discuss the ins and outs of crisis communications during a breach as well as what you can do to prepare for a crisis.
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Threat Trends: UNC961 and How Managed Defense Approaches Threat Hunting
Ryan Tomcik, Dan Fenwick, and Tim Martin join host Luke McNamara to discuss how Managed Defense conducts proactive hunting, illustrated by several UNC961 intrusions. For more, please see: https://www.mandiant.com/resources/blog/unc961-multiverse-financially-motivated Follow Ryan @heferyzan and…
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Frontline Stories: The Executive's Role in Cybersecurity
What role do executives and the board play in cybersecurity and breach management. Hear from Jesse Jordan and Howard Israel of Mandiant discuss their experiences helping executives get the right information from their security leaders and understanding their role during a breach.
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Threat Trends: Bonus Episode - How Will AI Impact Threat Intelligence?
The endless battle of threat actors versus cybersecurity professionals may come down to who deploys AI better. In this interview from RSA, John Hultquist, Senior Manager, Mandiant Intelligence, surmises how the bad guys may use AI in the near future to scale attacks, while Vijay Ganti, Head of...
About this show
Learn about the latest threat and cybersecurity trends on The Defender’s Advantage Podcast! Hear from experts in the field as Host Luke McNamara, from Google Threat Intelligence Group, interviews analysts, researchers and other guests on the frontlines of the latest attacks. Episodes dive deep into various topics, including nation-state activity, cybercrime, malware and tradecraft, incident response, defensive guidance, and more. Don't forget to subscribe!
Hosted by
Mandiant
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