Listen to Talos security experts as they bring their hot takes on current security topics and Talos research to the table. Along the way Hazel, Mitch, Matt and a rotating chair of special guests will talk about anything (and we mean anything) that's on their minds, from the latest YouTube trends to Olympic curling etiquette. New episodes every other Thursday.
This week, the B-Team gets an upgrade as we’re joined by Sara McBroom from Talos’ nation-state threat intelligence and interdiction team. Sara shares her journey from a liberal arts major to tracking some of the world’s most advanced adversaries. Along the way, she talks about moving from the U.S federal service to Talos, mentoring, leading with empathy, and why making bad actors miserable is a pretty good day’s work.
Before diving into Sara’s story, we hit the security headlines (ouch) and also discuss a Dutch hacker camp with flaming badges and port-a-potty internet. But from 17 minutes in, it’s all about Sara — her path, her research (Static Tundra, anyone?), and how she leads her team without micromanaging.
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to ruin an APT’s day for a living, this is the episode.
Here's the research that Bill mentioned: "Psychopathia Machinalis: A Nosological Framework for Understanding Pathologies in Advanced Artificial Intelligence" https://www.psychopathia.ai
Every week, our host brings on a new guest from Talos or the broader Cisco Security world to break down a complicated security topic in just five or 10 minutes. We cover everything from breaking news to attacker trends and emerging threats.
How do you build and defend a network where attacks are not just expected-they're part of the curriculum? In this episode, Hazel talks with Jessica Oppenheimer, Director of Security Operations at Cisco, about the ten years she's spent in the Black Hat Network Operations Center (NOC).
Explore the technical challenges of segmenting and monitoring a network designed for experimentation, live hacking, and hands-on training, including how malicious and benign behaviors are distinguished in real time. Jessica shares how the NOC leverages Cisco technologies like the new machine learning-powered SnortML engine to detect zero-days, outliers, and advanced attack patterns that traditional rule sets miss.
Learn how automation, contextual analysis, and collaborative response drive decision-making in this high-stakes environment, and how those lessons now influence security at global events like the Olympics and the Super Bowl.
For more details, check out the Cisco blog wrap detailing all our Black Hat NOC activity https://blogs.cisco.com/security/bhusa-2025-noc