The upcoming year will feature an unprecedented number of democratic elections. In addition to the United States’s pivotal federal elections, countries that collectively make up more than half of the world’s populations will head to the polls. These elections are taking place against the backdrop of pervasive security vulnerabilities and come on the heels of a series of elections that have featured all kinds of digital meddling. Mick Baccio served as the first-ever chief information security officer of a presidential campaign, working on the Pete Buttigieg campaign in 2020. On this episode of Safe Mode, he sits down with host Elias Groll to discuss what it takes to secure a political campaign in 2024. CyberScoop reporter AJ Vicens also joins the show to discuss the FBI’s efforts to combat cybercrime and how the NSA is relying on AI to combat Chinese hacking operations.

How do you prevent a political campaign from getting hacked?

In the year 2024, elections will take place around the world affecting some 4 billion people — an election year unlike any other. Besides the United States, voters will go to the polls in the European Union, the United Kingdom, India, Mexico and Indonesia, just to name a few. The next time we’ll see this many elections in one year will be in 2048. On Safe Mode this week, host Elias Groll sits down with Katie Harbath, who spent a decade at Facebook overseeing the platform’s work on elections, to discuss how the major technology platforms are preparing for an unprecedented election year. CyberScoop reporter Derek B. Johnson joins the show to discuss a deepfake robocall in the New Hampshire primary and what the incident tells us about what to expect regarding AI-driven disinformation in 2024.

Threats to elections in 2024 and a deepfake in New Hampshire

Whether you call it hacking or legitimate security research, getting computers to do things that they shouldn’t is an activity that exists in a legal gray area. Sometimes, hackers acting in good faith will find themselves on the other end of a cease-and-desist letter, a lawsuit, or even a prosecution. A new initiative called the Security Research Legal Defense Fund is trying to make sure that white hat hackers who do find themselves in trouble have the legal representation they need. Harley Geiger is the founder of the Security Research Legal Defense Fund and is also a cybersecurity lawyer at Venable. He sits down with host Elias Groll to discuss his work funding legal aid for hackers. CyberScoop reporter AJ Vicens joins the show to discuss calls by major tech companies for governments to do more to combat commercial spyware.

Legal aid for hackers; Big Tech wants action on commercial spyware

When Hamas fighters crossed into Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping hundreds more, it marked a new era of the conflict between Israel and an array of militant groups. Most of that conflict has played out in the form of brutal, bloody fighting, but it has also taken place online in the form of cyber operations. Adam Meyers, Crowdstrike’s head of counter adversary operations, sits down with host Elias Groll to discuss how the digital dimensions of the conflict have played out. CyberScoop reporter AJ Vicens also joins the show to discuss a wide-ranging takedown operation targeting the LockBit ransomware gang.

LockBit’s very bad day; Adam Meyers on Israel-Gaza cyber ops

In recent months, U.S. security officials have issued a series of dire warnings about the hacking threat to American critical infrastructure. According to a chorus of intelligence officials, Chinese hacking groups have infiltrated U.S. critical infrastructure entities like ports and power grids, prepositioning themselves in the event of a conflict. But Chinese hackers are just one part of the threat landscape facing critical infrastructure entities. Dragos CEO Robert M. Lee is on the frontline of protecting critical infrastructure entities and he sits down with host Elias Groll to discuss how Chinese operations are shifting. CyberScoop reporter AJ Vicens joins the show to discuss claims by LockBit that the ransomware group has returned following last week’s takedown operation.

Robert M. Lee on critical infrastructure attacks; and is LockBit back?

Every day, AI models are being deployed in new places, and that is creating demand for a new industry: companies that secure AI systems. Whether it’s preventing models from being used to write malicious code or creating spearphishing emails or keeping safe the data that companies are using to train AI systems, large language models raise a host of new security challenges. David Haber is the CEO of Lakera, a start-up that builds tools to keep AI models secure, and he sits down with host Elias Groll to discuss this new industry and how companies are approaching the challenge of securing AI systems. CyberScoop reporter AJ Vicens joins the show to discuss a ransomware attack by the group known as ALPHV that has caused major disruptions to the U.S. health care systems.

David Haber breaks down the AI security industry; ALPHV snarls U.S. health care

Kiersten Todt has worked on just about every hot-button cybersecurity issue you can imagine. Currently the CEO of Liberty Group Ventures, her most recent role in government was as the chief of staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. As a Senate staffer, she drafted key parts of the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security, and during the Obama years, she was the executive director of the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. She sits down with host Elias Groll for a wide-ranging conversation about the cybersecurity policy landscape. CyberScoop reporter Derek B. Johnson also joins the show to discuss his reporting on how election officials are preparing for the ways AI might disrupt this fall’s elections.

Kiersten Todt on the cybersecurity policy landscape; AI training for election officials

When ChatGPT debuted in the fall of 2022, it set the internet ablaze and opened many people’s eyes to the capabilities of a new generation of machine learning technology. It also caught the attention of some of the world’s most sophisticated hackers. For the companies developing leading edge AI models, preventing hackers from misusing them now represents a key challenge. Sherrod DeGrippo is the director of threat intelligence strategy at Microsoft, and on this episode of Safe Mode sits down with host Elias Groll to discuss how state-backed hackers are experimenting with AI tools. CyberScoop reporter Christian Vasquez also joins the show to discuss how industrial cybersecurity experts are responding to Chinese hacking operations targeting critical infrastructure.

Sherrod DeGrippo on APT groups experimenting with AI

Journalist Byron Tau sits down with host Elias Groll to discuss his eye-opening book about commercially available data. CyberScoop reporter Derek B. Johnson joins the show to discuss recent indictments and sanctions targeting Chinese hackers accused of surveilling politicians and dissidents.

Byron Tau on data brokers; US sanctions, indicts Chinese hackers

In order to deliver major improvement in the security of the digital systems we all rely on, the Biden administration has embarked on a major initiative known as secure by design. That initiative aims to build more secure hardware and software by prioritizing security in the design process and asks developers to rethink how they approach building products. So can it be done? On this episode of Safe Mode, the veteran cybersecurity executive Dave Aitel, who spent six years at the National Security Agency before founding the security firm Immunity, sits down with host Elias Groll to offer a hacker’s perspective on secure by design. CyberScoop reporter Christian Vasquez joins the show to discuss the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s proposed new rules for when critical infrastructure entities will have to report cybersecurity incidents.

Dave Aitel on ‘secure by design’; CISA’s rules for cyber incident reporting

Kiersten Todt has worked on just about every hot-button cybersecurity issue you can imagine. Currently the CEO of Liberty Group Ventures, her most recent role in government was as the chief of staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. As a Senate staffer, she drafted key parts of the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security, and during the Obama years, she was the executive director of the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. 

She sits down with CyberScoop’s Elias Groll for a wide-ranging conversation about the evolving cybersecurity policy landscape.

The evolution of the cybersecurity policy landscape

Amid the endless hype about AI — how it will either revolutionize the world or end it as we know it — Sayash Kapoor is a rare voice of reason. A PhD candidate at Princeton University and a researcher at the Center for Information Technology and Policy, he is also the author of the newsletter AI Snake Oil, an essential resource to understand AI, its risks, and what to do about them. On this episode of Safe Mode, he sits down with host Elias Groll to discuss his research around AI risk, how best to understand it and the interventions necessary to better study AI models. CyberScoop reporter Tim Starks and FedScoop reporter Rebecca Heilweil also join the show to describe how U.S. federal agencies have been affected by a breach of Microsoft carried out by a notorious Russian hacking group.

Sayash Kapoor on AI risk; Federal agencies affected by Russian breach of Microsoft

Around the world policymakers seem to be grappling with the same question: How best to govern artificial intelligence? The Center for Security and Emerging Technology, a Washington-based think tank, has emerged as a key and influential player in that conversation. And on this episode of Safe Mode, its executive director, Dewey Murdick, sits down with host Elias Groll to describe what he sees as the enabling principles of AI governance. Also on the show this week, CyberScoop reporter AJ Vicens discusses a landmark breach affecting AT&T that saw call and text records of nearly all the company’s customers be stolen.

Dewey Murdick on enabling principles for AI governance; a landmark breach at AT&T

 In the latest episode of Safe Mode, we talk to Peter Anaman, principal
investigator in Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit. Peter takes us on a deep dive on how the Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) has morphed since its inception in 2008. We'll explore how investigative approaches have evolved over the years and discuss how cybercriminals are adapting in response to disruptive actions.


In our reporter chat, Greg Otto talks with Christian Vasquez about Cape, a new mobile phone company looking to change the privacy game with a hardened phone that doesn’t keep metadata, while also adhering to the strict U.S. criminal and national security laws.

LINK: https://cyberscoop.com/cape-phone-privacy-calea-tracking/


The evolution of Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit

Episode 5 of 5: Behavior-based detection and dynamic threat intelligence are essential to enhancing security operations and reducing cyber threat response times, says ThreatLocker CEO Danny Jenkins. This episode is part of a 5-episode series produced by Scoop News Group for CyberScoop and sponsored by ThreatLocker.

The evolving landscape of detection in a zero-trust environment | ThreatLocker's Danny Jenkins

In this episode, Greg Otto talks with Ken Bagnall, CEO of Silent Push Ken sheds light on the dynamics of the current cybercrime ecosystem. Ken reveals that a significant portion of the infrastructure is actually operated by affiliate networks using pre-existing technologies. During the discussion, Ken elaborates on how this ecosystem is fueled and examines the influential role played by affiliate groups, particularly those emerging from Africa and other developing countries. By offering these insights, the episode provides a fresh perspective on the often-overlooked aspects of global cybercrime operations.

In our reporter chat, Greg talks with Matt Kapko about the growing problem with remote IT workers from North Korea.


Ken Bagnall on how companies can work with governments to take down malicious infrastructure

In this episode, Greg talks with Alexander Leslie, Threat Intelligence Analyst for Recorded Future’s Insikt Group and his research on “Marko Polo” – a notorious cybercriminal empire that orchestrates an array of scams, primarily using infostealer malware. Discover how this sophisticated syndicate has victimized tens of thousands worldwide and raked in millions in illicit revenue. Our guest breaks down the inner workings of these elusive "traffer teams," exploring their adaptable tactics, relentless persistence, and the insidious underground economy they fuel. 

Greg Otto breaks down his biggest takeaways from the RSAC 2025 Conference. 

Recorded Future’s Alexander Leslie on the ‘MarkoPolo’ traffer team

In this episode, Greg sits down with Olivia Rose, Founder and CISO of the Rose CISO Group, to talk about her role in "CISO: The Worst Job I Ever Wanted," a groundbreaking cybersecurity docuseries that reveals the real experiences of Chief Information Security Officers. This podcast uncovers the pressures, sleepless nights, and personal sacrifices these leaders endure while making critical decisions and shouldering the responsibility of defending the digital world. Through honest and compelling stories, listeners gain a rare glimpse into the human side of one of the most challenging and misunderstood roles in technology.

In our reporter chat, Greg Otto talks with Derek Johnson and Tim Starks about their deep dives into why Salt Typhoon may never be out of U.S. telecom systems.

Olivia Rose on why the CISO role may not be the pinnacle of security work

Greg Otto talks with RSA CEO Rohit Ghai on the global shift toward passkeys and passwordless authentication. Together, they explore pressing issues including the differences between consumer and enterprise solutions, infrastructure vulnerabilities, regulatory challenges, and how emerging threats are evolving as passwordless adoption accelerates. The discussion also covers the complexities practitioners face as they navigate credential transitions in a rapidly changing security landscape.

In the reporter chat, Greg talks with Matt Kapko about the attack on a top grocery distributor in the United States. 

RSA CEO Rohit Ghai on the promise and peril of passkeys

A podcast covering the latest news & trends facing top government leaders on topics such as technology, management & workforce. Hosted by Billy Mitchell on FedScoop and released Monday-Friday.

CyberScoop delivers leading cybersecurity news with a devoted audience of information security leaders and power players in the public and private sectors.

New tracks tagged #CyberScoop