{"podcast":{"title":"The Backup Wrap-Up","slug":"the-backup-wrap-up-758069","podcast_index_feed_id":758069,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/backupwrapup/","website_url":"https://www.backupwrapup.com","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/4670d4e3-81d6-4770-aeca-fe0331f5ce9e/IO00Uwof5u-hiUJElhkbBmKT.jpg","author":"W. Curtis Preston (Mr. Backup)","episode_count":355,"summary":"Formerly known as \"Restore it All,\" The Backup Wrap-up podcast turns unappreciated backup admins into cyber recovery heroes. After a brief analysis of backup-related news, each episode dives deep into one topic that you can use to better protect your organization from data loss, be it from accidents, disasters, or ransomware. The Backup Wrap-up is hosted by W. Curtis Preston (Mr. Backup) and his co-host Prasanna Malaiyandi. Curtis' passion for backups began over 30 years ago when his employer, a $35B bank, lost its purchasing database – and the backups he was in charge of were worthless. After miraculously not being fired, he resolved to learn everything he could about a topic most people try to get away from. His co-host, Prasanna, saw similar tragedies from the vendor side of the house and also wanted to do whatever he could to stop that from happening to others. A particular focus lately has been the scourge of ransomware that is plaguing IT organizations across the globe. That's why in addition to backup and disaster recovery, we also touch on information security techniques you can use to protect your backup systems from ransomware. If you'd like to go from being unappreciate…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-06T22:18:00.235096+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-backup-wrap-up-758069"},"episode":{"title":"What Is an Initial Access Broker — and Why Should You Care?","slug":"what-is-an-initial-access-broker-and-why-should-you-care","published_at":"2026-03-02T11:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-backup-wrap-up-758069/what-is-an-initial-access-broker-and-why-should-you-care","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-backup-wrap-up-758069","url":"https://www.backupwrapup.com/what-is-an-initial-access-broker","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/32857d62-03f9-4d4f-9c95-cdcfe484527f.mp3","summary":"What is an initial access broker — and why does it matter to your organization? In this episode, W. Curtis Preston and Prasanna Malaiyandi are joined by Dr. Mike Saylor of Black Swan Cybersecurity to break down the role of the initial access broker in today's ransomware attacks. Most people picture ransomware as a single bad guy with a keyboard. The reality is way scarier. There's an entire criminal supply chain out there, and the initial access broker is the specialist at the front of it. These are the people who do nothing but break in — stealing credentials, exploiting vulnerabilities, hijacking sessions — and then sell that access to other criminals who do the dirty work. Dr. Mike Saylor walks us through a real case study from 2024 where an employee's personal Gmail account — with a Google Docs folder literally named \"passwords\" — became the entry point for a corporate ransomware attack months later. This stuff is real, it's happening constantly, and most organizations have no idea how exposed they are. We cover what IABs target, how they package and sell access, what \"coincidental passwords\" are and why they're so dangerous, and what practical steps you can take today to make your organization a harder target. Chapters: 00:00 - Intro: What Is an Initial Access Broker? 02:12 - Welcome, Introductions, and a Little Judging 03:33 - Defining the Initial Access Broker 04:31 - Real Case Study: How Bob's Gmail Became a Corporate Breach 07:16 - How IABs Package and Sell Access 10:32 - How Stolen Credentials Get Bundled and Priced 29:48 - RDP, VPN Vulnerabilities, and What IABs Are Hunting 32:54 - Web Shells Explained 35:08 - Session Hijacking and Man-in-the-Middle Attacks 36:16 - Would Eliminating IABs Stop Ransomware? 36:49 - How the Cybercriminal Ecosystem Evolved to Cre…","meta_description":"What is an initial access broker — and why does it matter to your organization? In this episode, W. Curtis Preston and Prasanna Malaiyandi are joined by D…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2613,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-backup-wrap-up-758069/episodes/what-is-an-initial-access-broker-and-why-should-you-care/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-backup-wrap-up-758069/what-is-an-initial-access-broker-and-why-should-you-care.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}