Welcome back to the podcast where the structure is theoretical and the only certainty is uncertainty. In this episode, the crew reassembles after a totally intentional and not-at-all accidental hiatus (blame is assigned, forgiveness is not).

We cover:

• AI-assisted IVF (spoiler: it's mostly robots and headlines)
• The dawning of Mind-games-as-a-service in ransomware operations
• Conference dogs that may have been the real security MVPs
• A possible underground war against dairy
• And the billionaires quietly building their own genetically-diversified endgame.

We also mourn Bill's departure as he abruptly quits the podcast after one pun too many.

As always, we make absolutely no guarantees that this episode makes any sense whatsoever.

Joe, Hazel, Bill and Dave break down Talos' Year in Review 2024 and discuss how and why cybercriminals have been leaning so heavily on attacks that are routed in stealth in simplicity. The team also provide insights into some of the topics of the report, including the top-targeted vulnerabilities of the year, network-based attacks, adversary toolsets, identity attacks, multi-factor authentication (MFA) abuse, ransomware and AI-based attacks.

For the full report, head to blog.talosintelligence.com/2024yearinreview

Bill springs a surprise topic on the team in this episode - how did you get into cybersecurity, and what skills have you brought with you throughout your career? What ensues is a rather lovely, vulnerable conversation that we hope will be helpful for anyone currently thinking about their next career move.

Before that Dave has some surprising facts about Tasmanian devils, what they didn't cover (or deliberately hid?) in Looney Tunes, and why the scientific name for Tasmanian devils is a hotly debated topic.

Some resources for getting into cybersecurity:

Threat intelligence 101 with Cisco Talos

Diversity in cybersecurity: A mosaic of career opportunities

How to hire the best (an earlier episode of BWT that Bill references)