In the latest episode of WE’RE IN!, Selena Larson shares insights into malicious hackers and scammers she’s tracking as senior threat intelligence analyst for Proofpoint. Business email compromise, ransomware, sextortion, multi-factor authentication bypass techniques – dealing with the onslaught of modern cyberthreats “is very much like playing whack-a-mole,” she said. By unpacking attackers’ motivations and psychological profiles, defenders can train themselves and their teams to avoid falling into common traps.

Philanthropist Craig Newmark is most famous for founding the classifieds site Craigslist nearly 30 years ago. But he’s recently earned praise in the cybersecurity community for pledging $50 million in early 2022 to support a cyber civil defense initiative through his namesake philanthropy. On the latest episode of WE’RE IN!, hear Craig describe what he means by cyber civil defense and listen to his candid thoughts on everything from quantum computing to the dangers of state-sponsored disinformation campaigns. He also shares insights into the philanthropic strategy driving many of his contributions to the field of cybersecurity and continuing education.

Journalist Andy Greenberg is no stranger to the murky world of cryptocurrency. The senior writer for WIRED and longtime cybersecurity journalist was one of the last reporters to interact with pseudonymous Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto before they evidently ceased communications. In his new book, “Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency,” Andy follows the gripping story of IRS special agent Tigran Gambaryan as he follows the money to zero in on some of the most mysterious and monstrous criminals in the cyber underground.

Ready to hear from top cybersecurity newsmakers, executives and storytellers? Eager for advice on how to launch a successful cyber career? Curious about hacking threats that seem to grow more menacing by the day? Get ready for Season 2 of WE'RE IN! Co-hosted by Synack security operations engineer Bella DeShantz-Cook and longtime cybersecurity journalist Blake Sobczak, WE'RE IN! takes you inside the brightest minds in cybersecurity for unique insights and colorful stories from the front lines of our digital transformation. Don't miss the latest season of this breakout podcast, sponsored by Synack!

Application security maven Tanya Janca – AKA SheHacksPurple – is an accomplished author, pentester and onetime music festival organizer. But she’s perhaps best known as the founder of We Hack Purple, a community of security professionals dedicated to sharing useful cyber information including coding trainings and coursework. (Dynamic application security testing Bright Security acquired We Hack Purple earlier this year, bringing its own approach to the “shift left” dilemma of moving cybersecurity earlier in the software development cycle.) Tanya has spent much of her career in cybersecurity and IT empowering others to strengthen their own skills. With We Hack Purple, she built a community from the ground up, and she’s organized plenty of security talks and capture-the-flag tournaments along the way. Computer science can be a nebulous, wide-ranging field – Tanya has further helped people zero in on what they should focus on learning in the wide world of cybersecurity.

Melanie Teplinsky fell in love with cryptography at an early age, which led her to landing her first job at the National Security Agency at 16. From there, she found her niche in cybersecurity at the intersection of technology and the law. As a senior fellow at American University in the Law Tech, Law, and Security Program, Melanie helps craft cybersecurity policies that scale and attempt to solve big, societal problems. First, she has to understand how cybersecurity technology and models, such as zero trust, are implemented at companies and organizations of all sizes. Then, she applies those principles to existing laws and government mandates to understand the pitfalls and gaps. Between her early start in cyber and national policy-making, Melanie has a unique perspective to share with the infosec community.

Zinet Kemal is an infosec powerhouse. After emigrating from Ethiopia to Minnesota with her husband, she started her life over. She left behind her community and career as a lawyer and dived into the world of information security. She has since become a children’s book author and works as a cloud security engineer for Best Buy, while raising her four kids and completing her master’s degree in cybersecurity from Georgia Tech University. In the latest episode of WE’RE IN!, Zinet shares how she published two children’s books during the pandemic, “Proud in Her Hijab” and “Oh, No ... Hacked Again!: A Story About Online Safety,” and about her work with Black Girls in Cyber.

Sean Zadig has plenty to be paranoid about. The internet is a frightening place, and Yahoo’s Paranoids–the name for the company’s infosec team–have their work cut out for them protecting Yahoo’s more than one billion global users. As vice president, chief information security officer and “Chief Paranoid” for Yahoo, Sean is charged with keeping sensitive company data safe from an onslaught of cyberthreats, working collaboratively across all Yahoo’s media and technology brands. In the latest WE’RE IN! episode, Sean speaks to the need for balance in security messaging and shares how he addresses risks like Log4j. It takes patience and finesse to build a strong culture of security in any organization, let alone a global tech and media company with thousands of employees. “It's important to not shame people, so you don't want to say, ‘how could you miss this?’ Or, ‘what happened? Why, why did you commit that code?’” Sean says. “Instead, we use it as a learning experience.”

Four years ago, Jack Rhysider quit his job as a security engineer to move full time into the storytelling business. His podcast, Darknet Diaries, now boasts tens of millions of total downloads and has explored cybersecurity topics from Stuxnet to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox. Building Darknet Diaries into a successful show was no cakewalk. In the latest episode of WE’RE IN!, Jack shares his experience putting on a great podcast, from ideation and guest selection all the way to monetization and fielding calls from Hollywood producers. “Don’t think about how big of an audience you have,” he said. “You need to find the right person in your head, of who would love this show, and just deliver it to them in a great way.”

Tracy Maleeff led a successful career transition into the tech and cybersecurity world nearly seven years ago. Now a security researcher with the Krebs Stamos Group, the former librarian still uses her hard-won open source intelligence skills to sort through a deluge of cybersecurity information for clients and for subscribers of her free InfoSecSherpa news roundups. In the latest WE’RE IN! episode, she speaks to the importance of having diverse perspectives at the table when it comes to cybersecurity and warns of a disconnect between tech hiring managers and HR departments.