How Microsoft Stays Ahead of the World’s Most Dangerous Hackers

In this episode of the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast, host⁠ ⁠⁠Sherrod DeGrippo (linkedin.com/in/sherroddegrippo) is joined by Aarti Borkar, Simeon Kakpovi, and Andrew Rapp for a behind-the-scenes look at how Microsoft Threat Intelligence and Microsoft Incident Response teams collaborate as part of a closed-loop system, the emotional toll of breaches, and how organizations of any size can build resilience through preparation and psychological safety. By listening to this segment, you’ll get a preview of what this group brought to the main stage of Black Hat this year.

Later, Sherrod chats with Snow, co-founder of the Social Engineering Community Village at DEF CON, about her journey from special effects makeup to elite social engineer, and how empathy, creativity, and even a ladder can be powerful tools in physical security testing.

In this episode you’ll learn:

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How Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit uses legal tactics to disrupt threat actors

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Why rehearsing your incident response plan can save weeks of recovery time

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How AI is being trained to make social engineering phone calls on its own

Some questions we ask:

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How would you describe the overall health of the global cybersecurity landscape?

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Why does tailoring AI prompts sometimes feel like social engineering?

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What is the feedback loop between incident response, intelligence, and product protections?

Resources:

View Aarti Borkar on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/aarti-borkar/?utm_source=chatg…)

View Simeon Kakpovi on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/kakpovi/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

View Andrew Rapp on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/andrew-rapp-a3684824/?utm_sour…)

View Sherrod DeGrippo on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/sherroddegrippo)

Microsoft at Black Hat USA 2025 (techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft-sec…)

Related Microsoft Podcasts:

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Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson (afternooncybertea.com)

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The BlueHat Podcast (bluehatpodcast.com)

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Uncovering Hidden Risks (uncoveringhiddenrisks.com)

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts atnews.microsoft.com/podcasts/https://news.micro…

Get the latest threat intelligence insights and guidance at Microsoft Security Insider (nam06.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=ht…)

The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast is produced by Microsoft and distributed as part of N2K media network.