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PODCAST

Talos Takes

Every fortnight, host Hazel Burton brings on a new guest from Talos or the broader Cisco Security world to break down a complicated security topic. We cover everything from breaking news to attacker trends and emerging threats.

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All Episodes

24:08

When You’re Told “No Budget”: The Blueprint for...

Talos Takes ·

2025/11/25

What happens when your to-do list keeps growing but your budget doesn’t? Hazel is joined by three Cisco Talos Incident Response experts to talk about the reality many organizations face: rising threats, aging infrastructure, and fewer people to defend it all. From configuring what you already have, to open-source strategies, to the impact of cybersecurity layoffs, this episode is packed with practical guidance for securing your organization during an economic downturn. Resources mentioned: ht...

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11:21

How Attackers Use Your Own Tools Against You (IR...

Talos Takes ·

2025/11/13

In this episode of Talos Takes Hazel sits down with Talos' Bill Largent and Craig Jackson to discuss the latest Cisco Talos Incident Response Quarterly Trends Report (Q3 2025). From a wave of Toolshell events, to a rise in post-exploitation phishing, and the misuse of legitimate tools like Velociraptor, this quarter’s cases all point to a theme: attackers are getting very good at living off what’s already in your environment. Read the full report at https://blog.talosintelligence.com/ir-...

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15:08

Passwordless Security: Debunking the Biggest Myths

Talos Takes ·

2025/10/24

On this episode of Talos Takes, Hazel welcomes Cisco Duo experts Steven Leung and Tess Mishoe to bust the most common myths around passwordless security and multi-factor authentication (MFA). Discover why not all MFA is created equal, why passwordless doesn't mean less security, and the most seamless way to adopt passwordless solutions. Plus, learn the truth about how passwordless may affect compliance and audits, and whether passwordless really is more vulnerable to phishing.

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47:21

You Can't Patch Burnout: When Cybersecurity Takes a Toll

Talos Takes ·

2025/10/02

Every October, Cybersecurity Awareness Month brings a wave of tips: update your software, enable MFA, use strong passwords. But what good is any of that if the people behind the defenses are feeling burned out? In this episode of Talos Takes, Hazel sits down with Joe Marshall for a candid, vulnerable conversation about the human cost of cybersecurity. Joe opens up about his experience during the VPNFilter campaign — months of secrecy, long hours, immense pressure, and the trauma it left behin...

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11:22

Tampered Chef: When Malvertising Serves Up Infostealers

Talos Takes ·

2025/09/18

Imagine downloading a PDF Editor tool from the internet that works great...until nearly two months later, when it quietly steals your credentials. That’s the reality of “Tampered Chef,” a malvertising campaign that preyed on users searching for everyday software. In this episode, Nick Biasini explains how cybercriminals are investing in "malvertising", why enterprises are prime targets, and why there are additional challenges when it comes to defending against time-delayed attacks.

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23:05

Inside the Black Hat NOC: Lessons in Securing One of...

Talos Takes ·

2025/09/03

How do you build and defend a network where attacks are not just expected-they're part of the curriculum? In this episode, Hazel talks with Jessica Oppenheimer, Director of Security Operations at Cisco, about the ten years she's spent in the Black Hat Network Operations Center (NOC). Explore the technical challenges of segmenting and monitoring a network designed for experimentation, live hacking, and hands-on training, including how malicious and benign behaviors are distinguished in real ti...

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15:33

Breaking Down Chaos: Tactics and Origins of a New...

Talos Takes ·

2025/08/01

Hazel is joined by threat intelligence researcher James Nutland to discuss Cisco Talos’ latest findings on the newly emerged Chaos ransomware group. Based on real-world incident response engagements, James breaks down Chaos’ fast, multi-threaded encryption, their use of social engineering and remote access tools like Quick Assist, and the group’s likely connections to former BlackSuit operators. James also shares what defenders should be watching for and how to stay ahead of evolving ransomwa...

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14:22

Why Attackers Love Your Remote Access Tools

Talos Takes ·

2025/07/17

Attackers are increasingly abusing the same remote access tools that IT teams rely on every day. In this episode, Hazel sits down with Talos security researcher Pierre Cadieux to unpack why these legitimate tools have become such an effective tactic for adversaries. Pierre explains how the flexibility, legitimacy, and built-in capabilities of remote access management tools make them ideal for attackers who want to stay under the radar. They discuss trends Talos Incident Response is seeing in ...

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16:16

Teaching LLMs to spot malicious PowerShell scripts

Talos Takes ·

2025/06/26

Hazel welcomes back Ryan Fetterman from the SURGe team to explore his new research on how large language models (LLMs) can assist those who work in security operations centers to identify malicious PowerShell scripts. From teaching LLMs through examples, to using retrieval-augmented generation and fine-tuning specialized models, Ryan walks us through three distinct approaches, with surprising performance gains. For the full research, head to https://www.splunk.com/en_us/blog/security/gui...

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17:05

How cybercriminals are camouflaging threats as fake...

Talos Takes ·

2025/06/05

Chetan Raghuprasad joins Hazel to discuss his threat hunting research into fake AI tool installers, which criminals are using to distribute ransomware, RATS, stealers and other destructive malware. He discusses the attack chain of three different campaigns, including one which even tries to justify its ransom as "humanitarian aid." For the full research, read Chetan's blog at https://blog.talosintelligence.com/fake-ai-tool-installers/

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16:29

Inside the attack chain: A new methodology for...

Talos Takes ·

2025/05/22

Edmund Brumaghin joins Hazel to discuss how threat actors (including state sponsored attackers), are increasingly compartmentalizing their attacks i.e they're bringing in specialist skillsets from other groups to handle different aspects of the attack chain. Edmund discusses why this is happening, and the challenges this poses for defenders when it comes to attribution and reporting. He then discusses several solutions which seek to evolve traditional threat modelling, and help provide clarit...

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16:38

Follow the motive: Rethinking defense against Initial...

Talos Takes ·

2025/05/15

In this episode, Hazel welcomes Talos researcher Ashley Shen to discuss the evolution of initial access brokers (IABs) and the importance of distinguishing between different types of IABs. We talk about the need for a new taxonomy to categorize IABs into three types: financially motivated (FIA), state-sponsored (SIA), and opportunistic (OIA) initial access groups. This taxonomy aims to improve threat modeling and defense strategies by providing a clearer understanding of the motivations and b...

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32:19

Year in Review special pt. 4: How AI is influencing...

Talos Takes ·

2025/05/01

A jam packed episode of guests means a slightly longer Talos Takes for your feed today! We welcome Amy Chang and Omar Santos from Cisco, Vitor Ventura from Talos, and Ryan Fetterman from Splunk. Together, we discuss how AI isn't rewriting the cybercrime playbook, but it is turbo charging some of the old tricks, particularly on the social engineering side. We also touch on threat actor-built LLMs and where things may be headed. We then talk about how defensive strategies can leverage AI, parti...

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22:58

Year in Review special part 3: Identity and MFA attacks

Talos Takes ·

2025/04/24

Steven Leung from Cisco Duo joins Hazel to discuss the prevalence of identity-based attacks, why they're happening, and the various methods attackers are using to circumvent MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication), based on data in Talos' 2024 Year in Review. Topics we touch on include phishing, push spray attacks, and Adversary-in-the Middle campaigns, and throughout the episode Steven provides best practice recommendations for implementing MFA at scale, without increasing user friction. For...

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18:41

Year in Review special part 2: The biggest ransomware...

Talos Takes ·

2025/04/17

Azim Khodjibaev and Lexi DiScola join Hazel to discuss some of the most prolific ransomware groups (and why LockBit may end this year very differently to how they ended 2024). They also discuss the dominant techniques of ransomware actors, where low-profile tactics led to high-impact consequences. For the full analysis, download Talos' 2024 Year in Review at https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2024yearinreview/

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18:15

Year in Review special part 1: vulnerabilities, email...

Talos Takes ·

2025/04/10

Talos researchers Martin Lee and Thorsten Rosendahl join Hazel for the first of our dedicated episodes on the top findings from Talos' 2024 Year in Review. We discuss the vulnerabilities that attackers most targeted, how this compares with CISA's list, and how to protect network devices. Given how email lures are evolving, we spend some time chatting about how the current world news cycle may play into adversary's campaign cycles. And finally we touch on how to spot signs that your own sysadm...

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13:43

A blueprint for protecting major events

Talos Takes ·

2025/02/26

Have you ever wondered what it takes to put on a major event like a World Cup or the Olympics, and all the cybersecurity and threat intelligence that needs to be done beforehand? Today’s episode is all about that. Hazel is joined by one of our global Cisco Talos Incident Response leaders, Yuri Kramarz, who has helped some of the biggest events around the world take place securely. We chat about risk factors, focus areas such as endpoint protection, threat hunting and incident response, and wh...

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9:59

Why attackers are using hidden text salting to evade...

Talos Takes ·

2025/02/12

In this episode Hazel chats with Omid Mirzaei, a security research lead in the email threat research team at Cisco Talos. Omid and several Talos teammates recently released a blog on hidden text salting (or poisoning) within emails and how attackers are increasingly using this technique to evade detection, confuse email scanners, and essentially try and get phishing emails to land in people’s inboxes. Hidden text salting is a simple yet effective technique for bypassing email pars...

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16:01

How to establish a threat intelligence program (Cisco...

Talos Takes ·

2025/02/05

It's an European takeover this week, as Hazel sits down with Talos EMEA threat researchers Martin Lee and Thorsten Rosendahl. They're heading to Cisco Live EMEA next week (February 9-14) to deliver a four hour session on how to establish a threat intelligence program. If you can't make it - here's a 15 minute version! Thorsten and Martin provide best practices for threat intelligence, the different flavors of it (tactical, operational, and strategic), and the significance of curiosity and lea...

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13:59

Web shell frenzies, the first appearance of...

Talos Takes ·

2025/01/31

Joe Marshall and Craig Jackson join Hazel to discuss the biggest takeaways from Cisco Talos Incident Response's latest Quarterly Trends report. This time the spotlight is on web shells and targeted web applications – both have seen large increases. There’s a brand new ransomware actor on the scene – we’ll talk about the new Interlock ransomware and how we’ve seen this group show up this quarter. Plus, Talos IR observed threat actors using remote tooling in 100% of ransomware incidents this qu...

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221 results

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