Insider Threats | When the Hacker Already Has a Badge

🔥The Cybercrime Junkies show debunks the myth of the typical cyber villain, focusing on how everyday situations can lead to significant `cyber security` breaches. We discuss real-world `cybercrime` scenarios involving `insider` threats and the critical need for `insider threat detection`. Understanding these risks is key to effective `risk management` in today's digital landscape. 

New Episode🔥Insider Threats | When Employees Become the BIGGEST Attackers! The Cybercrime Junkies show dives into the world of cybercrime and cybersecurity, offering insights for cybersecurity for beginners and seasoned pros alike. Learn about the latest threats, including ransomware and malware, and the minds of the hackers behind them. Stay informed and protect yourself from cyber crime.

CHAPTERS
00:00 – The Cyber Villain Myth (It’s Not a Hoodie in a Basement)
01:38 – The Real Threat Already Has a Badge
03:38 – Screenshots Took Down a Cybersecurity Giant
05:41 – “Out of an Abundance of Caution” (Corporate Panic Translation)
06:55 – Escalation Begins: From Screenshots to Sabotage
08:03 – Fired Contractor Deletes Government Databases
10:26 – Asking AI How to Cover Up a Crime
12:54 – The Real Cost of Bad Offboarding
15:17 – The Haunted Admin Account Everyone Is Afraid to Touch
17:42 – Insider Threats Aren’t Evil, They’re Negligent
18:55 – Final Takeaway: Hackers Break In, Insiders Log In

Season 8 is officially here — and it’s the most unhinged, hilarious, and dangerously educational season we’ve ever done with full cyber chaos:

🔥 Interviews with spies & double agents 💥 Cyber WTF moments 🎮 New interactive segments & games 🛡️ Business-grade cybersecurity insights 😂 More humor, more banter, more chaos

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Transcript

Insider Threats | When Employees Become the BIGGEST Attackers!        

insider threat, insider threat cybersecurity, insider threat attack, insider threat real story, insider threat prevention, insider threat detection, insider risk, insider risk management, employee data theft, employee sabotage, privileged access abuse, government insider threat, cyber crime story, cybersecurity podcast, cyber security, information security, data breach, data destruction, ai cyber crime, ai misuse, cyber espionage, zero trust, identity and access management, offboarding security, access control failure

00:00 – The Cyber Villain Myth (It’s Not a Hoodie in a Basement)
 01:38 – The Real Threat Already Has a Badge
 03:38 – Screenshots Took Down a Cybersecurity Giant
 05:41 – “Out of an Abundance of Caution” (Corporate Panic Translation)
 06:55 – Escalation Begins: From Screenshots to Sabotage
 08:03 – Fired Contractor Deletes Government Databases
 10:26 – Asking AI How to Cover Up a Crime
 12:54 – The Real Cost of Bad Offboarding
 15:17 – The Haunted Admin Account Everyone Is Afraid to Touch
 17:42 – Insider Threats Aren’t Evil, They’re Negligent
 18:55 – Final Takeaway: Hackers Break In, Insiders Log In

Host (00:00.374)
Everyone loves the idea of a cyber villain, the shadowy figure, a hoodie, a basement, somewhere far away where the coffee's really bad, it's cold, and the extradition treaties are optional. Because at the end of the day, that's comforting. That version lets you say, well, obviously that wouldn't happen here. But today's story, no hoodie.

No basement, no dramatic typing scene. Today's cyber threat clocks in at nine o'clock, uses your wifi, knows where the snacks are. And this isn't a story about hackers breaking in. This is a story about people we invited in, those we hire and those who already logged in. People with badges, credentials, passwords and opinions, which is awkward.

because you can't block somebody who already has the key. So if you're picturing a foreign adversary right now, just relax. The real plot twist I'm going to explain today is way closer to your heart. It's not coming from overseas. It's coming from inside. It's the boys and girls down the hall, inside your fire. And somehow, that's worse.

This is Cybercrime Junkies, and now the show.

Host (01:37.967)
So yeah, that's the fun part. Finding out the cyber boogie man doesn't live in a bunker. He lives two deaths over and microwaves fish. Hi, welcome back to cyber crime junkies. The show where we ruin comforting narratives one episode at a time. If you're new here, this is the part where I normally say something reassuring. Don't worry, we'll explain everything. Well, we will eventually. But first, let's acknowledge something.

The most dangerous threats are never the ones that look dangerous. They look familiar, helpful, trusted, which is why today's stories are extra fun because nothing spices up cybersecurity like betrayal with a badge. So settle in because today we're not chasing hackers. We're talking about the people who already have access.

And yeah, it's going to get weird fast.

So let's start with something harmless, something, I don't know, almost adorable screenshots, not zero day attacks, not nation state hackers, not geopolitical espionage screenshots, not polymorphic ransomware, new AI filtered things, no glowing red terminal with techno music playing screenshots.

the digital equivalent of taking a picture of your television with your phone. You got, it's all crooked. You've got your thumb in the frame. And that's the first story today. An insider at one of the largest cybersecurity firms on the planet, the ones who advertise in the Superbowl that say, we stop breaches. We see everything.

Host (03:37.519)
And before your brain goes to DEF CON 1, just relax. This isn't a story about master hackers. It's a story about a guy who knew where the print screen button lived. Think about that. A global security firm, billions in valuation. Threat Intel, Falcon this, endpoint that, undone by a frigging rectangle.

I know you're thinking surely this was sophisticated. It had to be strategic. Surely this was some elaborate plan, right? Nope, nope, nope. This was not oceans 11. This was oceans $11 an hour. Screenshots of internal dashboards sold for cash. Not movie money, not yacht money, not disappeared to an island money.

More like cover rent and still drive the same crappy car money. Which raises the first absurd question in my mind, and that is if you're going to risk prison, torture career and become a cautionary tale that I'm going to use in security slide decks for the foreseeable future, why are you going to do it at a discount?

at least respect the hustle, respect the risk. And here's where it gets funny, not funny, ha ha, funny like, are you freaking kidding me funny? He didn't need special access. He didn't need God mode. He didn't need to reroute traffic or decrypt anything. He just needed basic login credentials.

The kind that were given to him by his employer. The kind we use every day at work. The kind you get by showing up, logging in and doing your job. Which is... Awkward.

Host (05:41.059)
Because that's not a breach. That's Tuesday. And the company response? Chef's kiss. Public statements always sound like this. Out of an abundance of caution, there was only limited exposure, no impact to customers. Which is corporate for this. We're calm. Please be calm. Everyone stay calm. Why are you not calm?

But every security leader worth their salt watching this knows the truth. If screenshots were enough, then screenshots are enough. And this is the part where you're supposed to feel nervous. But don't yet, because this is still the warm up act. This is the appetizer. This is a small silly story you can laugh at and blame the big behemoth and just remind them that this was embarrassing.

because now in the next segment of this episode, we upgrade from screenshots to people who decided that deleting entire databases was a responsible, emotional and reasonable response. Because wait, it gets dumber. So let me take you on a journey and escalation through irony. Okay. So remember how we started with screenshots? They were cute, harmless.

Like a toddler holding a fork. Now let's escalate that because apparently somebody heard that story and said, hold my beer. Enter the twins. And anytime twins show up in a crime story, just know that it's no longer an incident. It becomes a franchise. These were government contractors, which already tells you three things. If they're government contractors, they have access, they have clearance and trust. And someone's somewhere.

skipped a frigging checkbox. So here's the irony. These weren't outsiders. These weren't infiltrators. These weren't hackers pounding on the door or sneaking in as ghosts in the wire. These were people granted access and sitting on the inside, logged in, authenticated, probably on company wifi. One of them gets fired, which happens. It's a Tuesday thing.

Host (08:02.703)
People get fired every day and somehow don't delete federal infrastructure over it as an emotional response. But this sorry punk, this guy, no exit interview energy, no sad LinkedIn post. He logged back in within minutes because offboarding apparently was scheduled for whenever. And then he didn't just steal a file.

He didn't snoop. didn't quietly copy something to take with him. He just went in and deleted dozens of government databases. Not one, not two. So many databases. It stopped sounding like revenge and started sounding like cardio exercise. All in all, he deleted over 90 separate government databases in minutes of being fired. How's the HR hiring and recruiting model looking now, Jenny? And

When you think at least the chaos stopped there, no, because after the digital bonfire, he allegedly asked an AI chat bot how to clear logs and cover his tracks. Nothing says confidence like committing a federal crime and immediately asking a robot for advice. That's not criminal mastermind behavior. That's panic Googling with better branding.

This is where we pause and appreciate the theme of this episode. No malware, no elite tooling, no hoodie, just access and screwed up feelings. Which brings me to a brief personal rant. Why is it that every organization believes unequivocally that their off-boarding process is pretty solid? It's never solid. It's all just built on vibes.

Here it was just a vibe and the American people pay the price. We think IT disabled that. HR said they were leaving Friday. Facilities has the badge. Cool. Meanwhile, Terminated employees log in. Well, that still works. Let's bring it back to a little fun because the real comedy here is scale. See, the first story was screenshots, a rectangle, a print screen button. The other is mass deletion. Same root cause.

Host (10:25.443)
different chaos setting. And remember that comforting idea I mentioned at the beginning? The foreign hacker, the basement, the dramatic typing. Yeah. Meanwhile, the real threat is reheating fish in the break room and wondering why nobody trusts them anymore. Look, screenshots were enough to take down CrowdStrike. And it set an example of what to do to them in the future. Deleting over 90 databases

was also enough to damage the US government. Because when you already have the key, you don't need a battering. And before this starts feeling serious, just relax because we're still playing because next up is where we talk about what happens after everyone realizes all of the dumbass things that have already happened. So this is part of the story where consequences show up. Not dramatically, not with sirens, more like an awkward email threat.

because consequences in cyber incidents are rarely cinematic. They're administrative. Their meetings, their calendars suddenly get very full with people speaking curtly and their red faces flushed with high blood pressure. First comes the scramble, logs, backups, audits, emergency calls start with, hey, so quick question. That's when everybody realizes the same thing at the same time. The damage is already done.

which is hilarious in a dark professional way because all of this started with behavior that looks stupid. Screenshots, lingering logins, crappy offboarding that is so 1992. Someone who has already fired still having access. And now it's lawyers, depositions, subpoenas, regulators, incident response team, billing by the hour like it's a competitive sport. See, here's the contrast.

The action was dumb, but the impact isn't. It was real. Customer trust, operational chaos, entire teams pulled off of actual work to clean up something that never should have happened in the first place. All because nobody wanted to be the adult in the room. Nobody wanted to be the person who said, hey, why does this account still exist? Why are we allowing our employees to send over screenshots?

Host (12:53.143)
of confidential dashboards. I'll tell you why. Because cyber companies try too hard to be cool and popular. See that responsible person I just mentioned above? Well, that person is never popular, but they're always right. And let's talk about reputations for a second. The cybersecurity industry always gets it wrong when they talk about the risk of reputation loss from a data breach. Let me clear it up for everybody.

You don't lose reputation because of a hacker or because you got breached. You don't. You lose it because people find out it was completely preventable. It's almost like you chose to get breached. wow. This happened because somebody forgot to do something they've been doing since 1992. Yeah. Or somebody forgot to turn one thing off. Yeah. Your reputation should be gone.

That sentence does more damage than any malware. And yet despite all of this, despite the fallout, despite long nights and incident response reports and hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars wasted, no one involved ever will wake up thinking we are the villains. Everyone thinks they were reasonable. Just busy. Assuming someone else was supposed to handle it.

which is how every insider story ends. Not with evil laughter, with shrug shoulders that says, well, in hindsight, we should have done this. Did you ever notice that every company has that one file or account location nobody will touch? Not because it's important, because nobody knows what it does.

It's always named something like super important SVC temp file version two, do not delete. And everyone treats it like it's a haunted house. yeah, that account, don't touch that. Pretty sure everything breaks if that dies. No one knows who created it. No one knows who owns it. But somehow it's still alive, still logged in, still powerful. That's insider threat culture in a nutshell.

Host (15:16.525)
Not evil, just collectively negligent, cowardice. And that's why this still stays funny, because the stupidity is human and it's funny to laugh at. The impact is real and the gap between those two things is where chaos lives. You laugh, then you wince, then you laugh again because it's either that or you're going to scream.

And unfortunately, we're not even done yet. Up to now, everything sounds ridiculous because it is. But here's the quiet part. I'm going to say it out loud. None of this requires malice. It just requires momentum. See, access accumulates, permissions stack. Nobody cleans it up because nobody feels the pain yet. So it stays. That's the danger.

Not villains, not masterminds, definitely. Just drift. And drift is boring, which is why it always wins. The insider doesn't wake up thinking, today I destroy everything. They wake up thinking, hell, I still have access. Which sounds harmless, until it isn't. The dry irony here is simple. Security teams spend years planning

for ransomware attacks and massive intrusions, but minutes planning for employee exits. Onboarding gets a checklist, offboarding gets a reminder sometimes, and no one is evil for this. They're busy, they're human, they assume, but those assumptions scale. That's the part nobody jokes about. So we joke around about it, because it's easier to laugh at screenshots than to admit

How many accounts still exist in your organization that shouldn't? This isn't fear, it's friction. The kind that builds quietly, the kind that only shows up when something snaps and it all goes wrong. And when it does, everybody suddenly agrees, this should have been obvious, which is the most expensive sentence in cybersecurity.

Host (17:41.807)
So let's end where we started. Not with a hacker, not with a hoodie, with screenshots, a rectangle, a button your keyboard has had this whole time since they were invented. And people already given access, already logged in, already trusted, already inside, which is funny until it isn't. If this episode made you laugh a little and then quietly check who still has access to your organization, good.

That's the correct emotional journey. No panic, no doom, just awareness and a little common sense action. And maybe one fewer account lingering around like expired milk in the fridge. If you like this kind of chaos, subscribe, follow, share it with a coworker who still somehow has admin rights. And remember, hackers break in, insiders log in.

And sometimes all it takes to cause a mess is a badge, a password, and a really bad day.

Host (18:54.223)
Catch us on YouTube, follow us on LinkedIn, and dive deeper at cybercrimejunkies.com. Don't just watch, be the type of person that fights back. This is Cybercrime Junkies, and now the show.