The Problem of Trust: Identity Fraud, Deepfakes & APAC Threat Trends with Anastasia Tikhonova

What happens when cybercriminals stop attacking your CEO and start targeting your developers instead? In this episode of Cyber Voices, host David Savva-Willett sits down with Anastasia Tikhonova, Global Threat Research Lead at Group-IB, joining live from Phuket, Thailand, to unpack the threat trends defining 2026 — and why Australia remains squarely in the crosshairs. Anastasia shares how her team connects threat intelligence dots across APAC, EMEA, and Latin America, and explains why she calls 2026 the year of "the problem of trust" — where attackers no longer need just your email and password. They want your voice, your face, your LinkedIn, and your professional connections to impersonate you convincingly enough to compromise the organisations you work with. In this episode, you'll hear about:

The rise of identity fraud, deepfakes, and AI-powered social engineering
Why Scattered Spider, Lazarus Group and others are shifting from mass campaigns to highly targeted persona attacks
The Axios NPM supply chain compromise (80 million weekly downloads) and what it means for every organisation
How dark web marketplaces, arbitration "courts," and Telegram-based criminal communities operate today
Why Australia is the #2 ransomware target in APAC — and the lessons from the April 2025 super fund attacks
The role of hacktivism, geopolitical conflict, and national state actors in Australian threat activity
Practical advice on managing your digital footprint when you, your family, or your executives have a public profile

Whether you're a CISO, security analyst, developer, or simply curious about how cybercrime is evolving, this conversation delivers global perspective with sharp Australian relevance. Cyber Voices is the official podcast of the Australian Information Security Association (AISA) — bringing you the voices shaping cybersecurity in Australia and beyond. 🎧 Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow AISA for more.