Want fewer fire drills and smarter security moves? This season finale brings together the strongest lessons from our guests on how cyber threat intelligence turns uncertainty into clarity—and clarity into action. We share what actually works when the data is partial, the stakes are high, and leadership wants proof that CTI moves the needle on risk and cost.

We start with the core: prioritization under uncertainty. You’ll hear how teams use intelligence to decide what to patch first, where controls matter most, and how to focus limited resources without missing the threats that can take a business offline or put customer data at risk. We dig into the language of value—money saved, revenue protected, efficiency gained—and why BLUF, clear implications, and stakeholder interviews beat jargon every time. If you’ve wrestled with KPIs, KRIs, or ROI, we unpack practical metrics that reflect real outcomes, not vanity numbers.

From there, we look ahead. Forecasting adversary capabilities, mapping susceptibility, and choosing proactive mitigations can shift a security program from reactive to resilient. You’ll get candid perspectives on building CTI the right way—starting tactically and growing into operational and strategic impact, or choosing a build-vs-buy path aligned to budget and goals. We also talk careers and team shape: why diverse backgrounds thrive in CTI, how small teams can deliver outsized results, and the discipline of deciding what you will not do so you can excel at what matters.

If you want CTI to influence decisions at every level—SOC, IR, red and purple teams, and the board—this wrap-up offers the playbook: stakeholder-first communication, focused scope, useful metrics, and a relentless push toward proactive defense. Follow, share, and leave a review to help more practitioners find these insights—and tell us: what CTI metric best proves your impact?

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Thanks for tuning in! If you found this episode valuable, don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review. Got thoughts or questions? Connect with us on our LinkedIn Group: Cyber Threat Intelligence Podcast—we’d love to hear from you. If you know anyone with CTI expertise that would like to be interviewed in the show, just let us know. Until next time, stay sharp and stay secure!

Want a front-row seat to how cyber threat intelligence turns noise into decisions that save real money and protect trust? Pedro Kertzman sits down with Alex Keedy, a seasoned CTI leader with experience at Flashpoint, ZeroFox, Intel 471, Deloitte, and Booz Allen Hamilton, to unpack the craft of translating technical signal into business impact. From a political science beginning to profiling actors and advising executives, Alex shows why great intelligence starts with curiosity and ends with clarity: here’s what’s happening, what it means for us, and what we should do next.

We dig into the tough question every leader asks: how do you prove ROI for attacks that never landed? Alex breaks down practical models that map blocked activity to benchmark costs, balance tangible savings with brand and trust impacts, and prioritize the few actions that reduce the most risk. For mid-sized organizations, she lays out a pragmatic roadmap: start small, tap managed services, automate the obvious, and use early wins to earn budget. You’ll hear how a$10 stolen credential becomes a$50M outage, why ransomware-as-a-service thrives, and how to disrupt that supply chain before it reaches your environment.

Alex also opens the curtains on dark web tradecraft. Reputation-driven marketplaces demand embedded personas to validate threats, verify leaks, and ask the questions victims can’t. That access helps teams confirm exposure, guide response, and even support law enforcement—with examples spanning financial fraud, takedowns, and human trafficking investigations. Along the way, we share actionable learning paths: SANS webcasts, vendor blogs, Security+ or Network+ for baseline fluency, and community routes like B‑Sides and scholarships that lower barriers for new talent.

If you care about cybersecurity strategy, budget impact, and real-world outcomes, this conversation delivers the playbook: align intelligence to business risk, measure what matters, and communicate in plain language. Subscribe, share with a teammate who needs stronger CTI outcomes, and leave a review telling us the one question you want answered next.

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Thanks for tuning in! If you found this episode valuable, don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review. Got thoughts or questions? Connect with us on our LinkedIn Group: Cyber Threat Intelligence Podcast—we’d love to hear from you. If you know anyone with CTI expertise that would like to be interviewed in the show, just let us know. Until next time, stay sharp and stay secure!

Curiosity can rewrite a career—and change how an investigation ends. We sit down with Valeri Soloninka, a Russian-speaking cybersecurity professional now protecting government entities in the UAE, to trace a path from hands-on engineering to enterprise SOC work and into the high-impact world of operational and tactical cyber threat intelligence. Along the way, we unpack how fundamentals like networking, DNS, and OS internals still power great CTI, even as LLMs speed up drafting and research.

Valeri takes us inside Russia’s cybersecurity market—large, regulated, and comparatively closed—where public reporting is scarce and partnerships carry the weight of intelligence sharing. That perspective meets a striking case from the Middle East: identifying Lazarus Group activity tied to Russian-language lures, a reminder that geopolitics and targeting rarely align neatly. Allies still spy, strategic programs demand data, and defenders must follow evidence over assumptions. We break down how to translate adversary tactics into detections, drive incident response with attribution-aware guidance, and help vulnerability teams prioritize what matters.

Thinking about moving from SOC to CTI? Valeri’s playbook emphasizes relentless curiosity, a bias for action, and the technical backbone to make sense of infrastructure, indicators, and behavior at speed. We also talk candidly about the Gulf market—its boom years, current hiring realities, and why safety, services, and zero income tax continue to draw talent. For learners at every stage, you’ll hear practical recommendations on podcasts, YouTube channels, Reddit communities, and books that build lasting baselines.

Join us for a candid, story-driven look at building a meaningful CTI career, spotting threats where others aren’t looking, and becoming the teammate IR and SOC leaders seek out when stakes are high. If this conversation helps you think differently, subscribe, share the show with a colleague, and leave a quick review to help others find it. What topic should we dig into next?

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Support the show

Thanks for tuning in! If you found this episode valuable, don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review. Got thoughts or questions? Connect with us on our LinkedIn Group: Cyber Threat Intelligence Podcast—we’d love to hear from you. If you know anyone with CTI expertise that would like to be interviewed in the show, just let us know. Until next time, stay sharp and stay secure!