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
Defenders: The life of a threat researcher
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
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 remains largely hidden from view.
In this episode of Masked Actors, Group-IB’s Gary Ruddell is joined by Anastasia Tikhonova, Global Threat Research Lead at Group-IB and author of the High-Tech Crime Trends report.
With over a decade spent tracking advanced persistent threat activity linked to nation-state actors, Anastasia pulls back the curtain on what it really means to operate on the front lines of cyber defence. From following evidence trails through the dark web to uncovering emerging threats before they strike, this is the inside story of the people tracking cybercriminals where they operate best: in the shadows.
By understanding who these actors are and how they operate, you can better anticipate threats and protect yourself in an increasingly hostile digital world.
Subscribe to learn more about Group-IB's top 10 Masked Actors - and stay one step ahead in the fight against cybercrime.
FOLLOW GROUP-IB
- Group-IB Threat Intelligence on X: https://www.x.com/GroupIB_TI
- Group-IB on X: https://www.x.com/GroupIB
- Group-IB on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/group-ib
- Group-IB on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groupibHQ/
- Group-IB on Instagram: ...
.png)
