Masked Actors
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.
Masked Actors
Latest Episodes
Defenders: Two Front Lines - Fraud From the Case File and the Comments Section
Most people experience fraud as a single event. A suspicious text message, a fake investment opportunity, or a phone call from someone pretending to be their bank.The reality is that modern fraud is an organised global economy, powered b...
GoldFactory: Rethinking Digital Identity in the Age of Biometric Theft
For years, stronger authentication was seen as the answer to online fraud. As passwords became easier to steal, organisations turned to stronger forms of verification, from facial recognition and voice authentication to digital identity checks....
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TX-NFC: Ghost Tap — can your bank catch fraud from a card that never left your pocket?
Contactless payments have become such a routine part of everyday life that we rarely think twice about how they are secured. For decades, every contactless transaction has been built on the assumption that your card needs to be physically prese...
Defenders: The life of a threat researcher
Threat researchers work deep in the digital underground, mapping adversaries, exposing tactics, and turning fragments of intelligence into protection that actively stops attacks. Despite the impact of their work, the reality of what they do rem...
Scattered Spider: Could one phone call bring down your whole organization?
Can you recognise every employee in your organisation? Most companies cannot — and attackers know it.A routine IT request comes in from a senior leader locked out of their account. Everything checks out, so access is restored. Except it ...
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