Detonation Point.
Inside the fight against cybercrime. Conversations with investigators, CISOs, and security researchers on the front lines — hosted by a former U.S. Secret Service Deputy Special Agent in Charge of Cyber Operations.
Former U.S. Secret Service Deputy Special Agent in Charge of Cyber Operations. Led global cyber investigative strategy, directed the agency's first criminal investigative fusion center, and oversaw $1.6B in asset seizures across transnational cybercrime operations. 25 years on the front lines of cybercrime.
Episodes
Latest conversations.
Every guest has operated at the intersection of law enforcement, enterprise security, and financial crime — not just analyzed it from a distance.
Latest Episode
Ransomware Tactics, Crypto, and Organizational Resilience
with Costas Kourmpoglou
December 25, 2025
Matt O'Neill and Costas Kourmpoglou explore the evolution of ransomware tactics, the business model behind modern attacks, and the role of cryptocurrency in facilitating cybercrime. They cover initial access vectors, cultural challenges inside organizations, cyber insurance implications, and what backup strategy actually means under real attack conditions.
Listen on SpotifyEpisode
America's Most Prolific Identity Thief — and the Agent Who Caught Him
with Hieu Minh Ngo
March 15, 2026
Matt sits down with Hieu Minh Ngo — once the nation's most prolific identity thief, and the man he arrested. They revisit hacked data brokers, fake PI licenses, and the sting in Guam, unpacking the social engineering tactics and human blind spots that fuel cybercrime.
Listen on SpotifyEpisode
SIM Swapping, Pig Butchering, and the Fight for Victims
with Erin West, Former Prosecutor
October 15, 2025
Former prosecutor Erin West on tackling SIM swapping and pig butchering scams — the evolution of these crimes, the challenges for law enforcement, and initiatives like Operation Shamrock that mobilize resources against cyber-enabled fraud.
Listen on SpotifyEpisode
Cryptocurrency, Ransomware, and the Regulatory Landscape
with Carole House, Former NSC Director
October 12, 2025
Matt and Carole House — former White House NSC Director for Cybersecurity — discuss the evolution of cybercrime, cryptocurrency's role in facilitating ransomware, and the regulatory challenges facing law enforcement and financial institutions.
Listen on SpotifyEpisode
Deep Dive Into Ransomware Tactics — Inside Elastio's Detection Engine
with Dr. Srinidhi Varadarajan, Chief of Cyber Intelligence, Elastio
October 16, 2025
Srinidhi shares how a teenage incident with a school computer sparked a lifelong mission to outsmart cybercriminals. He and Matt discuss how Elastio's technology withstands EDR bypass and evasion tactics, the assume-breach approach, and how AI is reshaping the attacker-defender balance.
Listen on SpotifyEpisode
BEC, Deepfake Fraud, and the Rise of Transnational Cybercrime
with Stephen Dougherty, Dougherty Intelligence and Investigations
November 3, 2025
From Business Email Compromise and deepfake-driven fraud to AI and transnational criminal networks — a frontline perspective on how cyber-enabled scams are reshaping modern crime and why a national anti-scam center is urgently needed.
Listen on SpotifyEpisode
How Cybercrime Became a Global Organized Enterprise
with Nick Palmer, Group-IB
October 27, 2025
Nick Palmer of Group-IB on how ransomware-as-a-service and the industrialization of digital crime have changed the threat landscape, how Group-IB tracks and disrupts cybercriminal networks, and why private-public collaboration is now mission-critical.
Listen on SpotifyEpisode
Not All Fraud Is the Same — and That Blind Spot Is Costing Us
with Natalie Loebner
December 8, 2025
From organized crime syndicates to elder abuse and first-party fraud within families — why treating all fraud as one problem creates critical blind spots, and how communication gaps across institutions allow criminals to exploit systemic weaknesses.
Listen on SpotifyEpisode
AI That Learns From Humans, Not Just Data
with Carl Wocke, Merlynn AI
December 8, 2025
Carl Wocke on Merlynn AI's approach to building from human expertise rather than data alone, the challenge of bias and hallucinations, AI's potential to reshape jobs, and the risks of adversarial AI — including implications for banking and law enforcement.
Listen on SpotifyEpisode
North Korea's Cybercrime Playbook — Crypto Theft, Counterfeits, and Ransomware
with Geoff White, Journalist
December 8, 2025
Journalist Geoff White on North Korea's cybercrime activity — from the "supernote" counterfeit scheme to large-scale crypto thefts — how the regime funds its nuclear program through cyber operations, and the geopolitical implications of state-sponsored cybercrime.
Listen on SpotifyAbout the Podcast
Inside the fight against cybercrime.
Detonation Point is hosted by Matt O'Neill, former U.S. Secret Service Deputy Special Agent in Charge of Cyber Operations — a 25-year veteran of cybercrime investigation who led the agency's global cyber strategy, directed its first cross-division investigative fusion center, and personally prosecuted some of the most high-profile cybercrime cases in U.S. history.
Each episode features practitioners who have operated at the intersection of law enforcement, enterprise security, and financial crime — investigators, CISOs, researchers, and policymakers who have faced these threats firsthand, not just analyzed them from a distance.
Topics span ransomware tactics and recovery, cryptocurrency-enabled crime, organizational resilience, regulatory mandates, AI in cybercrime, and what it actually takes to defend and recover when attacks succeed.
Detonation Point is proudly sponsored by Elastio — the Active Cyber Resilience platform that hunts for ransomware inside your data and proves recovery will succeed from a verified clean point. Matt O'Neill serves on Elastio's Cyber Resilience Council.
Years of cybercrime investigation experience — Matt O'Neill, U.S. Secret Service
In assets seized under Matt's leadership at the Secret Service Asset Forfeiture Branch
Americans' records exposed in a single case Matt's team investigated and prosecuted
Episodes — available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube
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