The new era of AI-powered cybercrime

Summary

Podcast Summary: Short Wave – "The New Era of AI-Powered Cybercrime"

Podcast: Short Wave (NPR)
Hosts: Emily Kwong & Regina Barber
Episode Date: August 3, 2026
Episode Theme: Exploring how artificial intelligence is transforming cybercrime—making attacks easier, harder to detect, and raising the stakes for defenders in the escalating cat-and-mouse game of cybersecurity.

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Episode Overview

This episode delves deep into the mounting challenges posed by AI-driven cybercrime, examining real-world impacts, the rapid evolution of hacking tactics, and the urgent need for advanced defenses and education. Featuring expert insights from cybersecurity professionals, the hosts mix engaging anecdotes, practical advice, and a dash of humor to break down a complex issue for listeners.

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1. The Rise of AI-Powered Cybercrime

• Record-breaking cybercrime: The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 1 million complaints in 2025—"a record high" (00:22).
• Hackers’ evolving methods: From classic social engineering (think phishing emails) to advanced AI-assisted attacks that are more convincing and damaging.
• Movie reference: The hosts recall Rihanna’s hacker character in Ocean’s Eight, highlighting the use of personalized bait—a precursor to today’s AI-powered tactics (01:04–01:37).

“She actually does it perfectly. She understands what kind of content he would interact with and be likely to respond to. And she phishes him. Shout out to Rihanna on this one. Great cybercriminal example there.”
—Ryan Calimer, Chief Strategy Officer, Proofpoint (01:37)

2. Why AI Changes the Game

• AI's advantages for attackers:
  • Streamlines phishing (hyper-personalized, multi-lingual, grammatically perfect)
  • Finds software vulnerabilities rapidly
  • Automates and scales attacks
  • Makes detection more difficult
• AI helps both sides: AI can enable defenders to find and patch vulnerabilities faster—but attackers benefit, too, creating a “race” between good and bad actors (02:07–08:09).

"It helps both sides if they make use of it properly. It makes us faster. It makes our adversaries faster. And the question was, who was going to win that race?"
—Ryan Calimer (07:59)

• Policy response: President Trump signed an executive order requiring some AI models to undergo government review before public release, aiming to slow down the abuse of advanced tools for cybercrime (08:09–08:32).

3. The Basics: What Are Defenders Up Against?

• Cybersecurity Triad (CIA):
  • Confidentiality: Keeping data private (e.g., encrypted health records)
  • Integrity: Preventing unwanted changes (no unauthorized edits to medical data)
  • Availability: Ensuring information is accessible to the right people
• Ransomware example: In 2016, Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital paid hackers in bitcoin after being locked out of systems for two weeks—a case where all three triad elements broke down (04:56–05:24).

4. Who Are the Cybercriminals?

• Beyond the ‘hacker in a hoodie’: Today’s cybercrime is conducted by loosely organized global networks, sometimes in partnership with governments (nation-state actors).
• Nation-state threats: Real-world examples include Russian military unit "Fancy Bear" and similar actors in North Korea, Iran, and China (06:27–06:46).

5. How AI Supercharges Threats

• Eliminating language barriers: Malicious emails now arrive in perfect Japanese, no longer easily flagged for errors (06:50–07:00).
• Hyper-personalization & deepfakes: AI crafts convincing fake voice/video calls, greatly raising the bar for awareness and skepticism (07:00–07:25).
• Vulnerability detection: Tools like Anthropic’s "Claude Mythos" can find code weaknesses—a double-edged sword helping both attackers and defenders (07:35–08:09).

6. The Human & Technical Response

• Training both people and machines:

  • AI must be trained to resist manipulation: "If our AI agents are just as gullible as us, that's a big problem." (09:11)
  • Defender workforce shortage: Over 500,000 unfilled positions in the U.S. cybersecurity sector (09:49–10:09).

• Education matters:

  • Early training: Charlene Cooper (cyber.org) focuses on K–12 digital hygiene, guiding both kids and caregivers (10:10–10:59).
  • “I live by the old X Files rule. Trust no one. Right? Like, I tell my kid to always verify... She is skeptical of the Internet.”
    —Charlene Cooper (10:35–10:48)
  • Hands-on learning: Ashley Podoradsky (Cyberher, Dakota State University) runs summer camps teaching students how to crack—and then secure—passwords (11:19–12:10).

"Not because we're trying to create little hackers, but we're trying to get them to understand how easy it is for a bad actor to crack a password."
—Ashley Podoradsky (11:50)

7. The Future: Critical Thinking Above All

• Cybersecurity isn’t just for techies: Experts say it's a critical thinking field—a problem-solving challenge for the curious.
• Shifting the approach:

  "Are you curious? Do you like technology? Do you want a high paying job? ... that's something that they should pursue for STEM and Cyber."
  —Ashley Podoradsky (12:34)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "I feel like this whole episode, I'm just watching your eyes get wider and wider and wider."
  —Emily Kwong, reflecting on Regina’s shock (09:24)
• “AI is having almost a civil war within itself, like good AI fighting bad AI...”
  —Regina Barber (08:51)

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Key Timestamps

• 00:22 – Cybercrime complaint stats
• 01:04 – Ocean’s Eight phishing example
• 02:07 – How AI is changing cybercrime tactics
• 04:07 – Introduction to the Cybersecurity Triad (CIA)
• 05:14 – Hollywood Presbyterian ransomware case
• 06:31 – Nation-state actors & Fancy Bear
• 06:50 – How AI eliminates language barriers in attacks
• 07:35 – AI for good vs. AI for bad (Claude Mythos example)
• 08:09 – Policy response: Executive order on AI
• 09:11 – AI email agents susceptible to manipulation
• 09:43 – Defender workforce shortage
• 10:27 – Charlene Cooper on K–12 cybersecurity education
• 11:19 – Ashley Podoradsky on camps for young defenders
• 12:34 – Reframing STEM and cybersecurity career advice

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Takeaways

• AI is fueling an unprecedented wave of cybercrime, lowering the skill barrier for attackers and making scams far more convincing.
• Personal and institutional defenses must keep pace—from smarter AI agents to a well-trained (and much larger) cybersecurity workforce.
• Early education and skepticism are essential, with critical thinking as valuable as technical skills in fighting future threats.
• The cybersecurity arms race is ongoing, and the side best able to adapt—using both people and technology—will have the upper hand.

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For more resources on cybersecurity education and career pathways, explore cyberher and cyber.org, as referenced in the episode.

Transcript

[Workday/Ad Announcer]

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[Emily Kwong]

You're listening to Shortwave from npr.

[Regina Barber]

Hey, shortwavers.

[Emily Kwong]

Regina Barber here and Emily Kwong. And in today's episode of our Tech Camp series, we're talking about hackers, AKA cybercriminals. Cybercrime is on the rise around the world, including in the U.S. the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint center received over 1 million complaints of cybercrime in 2025. That is a record high. Wow. And listen, hackers are always trying to get more creative, but these days, there are so many different ways a cybercriminal can trick you into handing over your password or transferring money or giving them something that they want. And one way is by pretending to be somebody that you can trust.

[Workday/Ad Announcer]

A perf.

[Emily Kwong]

A perfect example of this is in the movie Ocean's Eight.

[Regina Barber]

Yeah, I remember this. Rihanna, she plays this hacker, and she figures out that somebody at the Metropolitan Museum of Art loves, like, a specific kind of dog.

[Emily Kwong]

Wheaton terriers.

[Regina Barber]

Yeah. And she sends them an email with this, like, adoption poster.

[Emily Kwong]

It's, like, flashing. There's colors.

[Regina Barber]

Yeah. And this is so that her and her team can gain access to the Met's security system.

[Emily Kwong]

Poor thing. He has heart eyes for the terriers. And he totally clicks on the flyer. This scene, by the way, Ryan Calimer loves it. He's the Chief Strategy Officer at Proofpoint, a major cybersecurity company.

[Ryan Calimer]

She actually does it perfectly. She understands what kind of content he would interact with and be likely to respond to. And she fishes him. Shout out to Rihanna on this one. Great cybercriminal example there.

[Regina Barber]

I mean, Rihanna can do anything, really.

[Emily Kwong]

Musician, entrepreneur, hacker.

[Regina Barber]

Yeah, she's a master hacker. And I guess that's why we need cybersecurity people like Ryan to stand up to them.

[Emily Kwong]

Yeah, yeah. And his field is getting more complicated because of clever attacks like these and in part because of AI, because why wouldn't you?

[Ryan Calimer]

It's easier, it's faster, and it's actually harder to detect in a lot of cases.

[Emily Kwong]

For cybercriminals who know what they're doing, AI is a tool that can help them write trickier emails, find more bugs in software, and automate parts of their attacks. And it's creating a lot more work for the people defending your networks.

[Regina Barber]

So today on the show, the future of cybersecurity how AI is transforming tech,

[Emily Kwong]

and what can be done to stop

[Regina Barber]

hackers in their tracks. I'm Regina Barber.

[Emily Kwong]

And I'm Emily Kwong.

[Regina Barber]

And you're listening to Short Wave, the science podcast from npr.

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[Regina Barber]

All right, Em, I'm super excited for this episode, and I'm also very unsure of where to start because it feels like these attacks can come from anywhere.

[Emily Kwong]

Yeah, so much of daily life is connected to the Internet, and that is why, my friend cyber security is so important. So I want to start with one of the key principles in cyber security. It is called the CyberSecurity Triad, or CIA.

[Ryan Calimer]

Not that CIA, a different CIA, of course.

[Emily Kwong]

This is Ryan at Proofpoint, who we met earlier, the one who really likes that Ocean's 8 scene. And he explained to me that this CIA stands for confidentiality, integrity and availability. That is the Cybersecurity North Star.

[Regina Barber]

So can you give me an example of CIA in action?

[Ashley Podoradsky]

Yeah.

[Emily Kwong]

Okay, I'll give you an example. So say your health records are stored digitally on a shared computer system, right? These records should be available to you, to your medical team, maybe someone at your insurance company. But to stay within that closed circle, they better be encrypted.

[Regina Barber]

Okay, so that's the confidentiality part.

[Emily Kwong]

Now, the integrity part means no one should be able to corrupt or edit your health records, you know, to change something about your medication, et cetera. And availability is just. Just about being able to access your data at all.

[Ryan Calimer]

In a ransomware attack, your health care information is not available to you, not available to Your doctor to your nurse to anybody else involved in your care, which has happened in so, so, so many famous cases. Hollywood Presbyterian, actually, where my father was born, was the first noteworthy one.

[Emily Kwong]

So back in 2016, this hospital was locked out of their system for two weeks and ended up paying the hackers in bitcoin to regain access.

[Regina Barber]

That is so long.

[Emily Kwong]

Yeah. And 10 years later, this perfect triad is becoming more difficult to maintain. Here's Ryan again.

[Ryan Calimer]

It's easier to do cybercrime than it's ever been before because the resources to educate yourself or even do it for you are freely available to anybody on the Internet.

[Regina Barber]

Oh, that's so scary. But let's, like, put a face to the name. Like, who are these cybercriminals these days? I have this mental image of somebody, like, in a hoodie and in a garage. But I imagine, like, cybercrime is more sophisticated now.

[Emily Kwong]

It is, for sure. Picture loosely organized networks all over the world stealing money, information targeting individuals. Yes. But we're also seeing attacks on major companies and supply chains. There is a lot of money to be made there. And sometimes, Gina, these cybercriminals will partner with governments. Hackers doing the bidding of governments are called nation state actors. There's a lot of this in North Korea, Iran, China, and the Russian Federation.

[Regina Barber]

Right. This makes me think of the Russian hacking group that interfered with the 2016 election.

[Emily Kwong]

Yeah. And that group, now known as Fancy Bear, was an actual unit of Russian military intelligence. Nation state actors are always trying to get better and harder to detect. But I want to focus this episode, really, on cyber criminals and what we know about how they're using AI.

[Regina Barber]

So can you say more about that? How is AI making cyber attacks better?

[Emily Kwong]

Yeah. So one of the reasons a lot of people use AI is for language. Right. And AI breaks the language barrier. Those emails from someone claiming to be a Nigerian prince written haphazardly in Google Translate are a thing of the past. Now Ryan says he's seeing tidal waves of malicious emails in almost perfect Japanese. Wow. Then there's the fact that AI makes attacks harder to spot. Think hyper personalized emails, deep fake voice calls, deep fake video calls. Lastly, there are certain AI models that can find vulnerabilities in computer code itself.

[Regina Barber]

Yeah, I remember all of our, like, cyber security training lessons here at npr. And AI was being used to, like, trick us. So can AI be used for good,

[Emily Kwong]

like, with the vulnerability detection work? Yes, but if bad actors get their hands on those same vulnerability detecting models, that's bad. That worries cybersecurity. Folks like Ryan. So that's why there's a lot of chatter about this new model from the company Anthropic called Claude Mythos that is really good at discovering computer code vulnerabilities. It helps defenders, but it could also help attackers.

[Ryan Calimer]

It helps both sides if they make use of it properly. It makes us faster. It makes our adversaries faster. And the question was, who was going to win that race?

[Emily Kwong]

In June, President Trump signed an executive order about this. The administration wants to require developers to submit certain AI models for government reviews 30 days before going public with them. All of this is to mitigate the cybersecurity threats posed by AI.

[Regina Barber]

Wait, so this seems like a change of stance for the president. Wasn't the Trump administration not going to regulate AI?

[Emily Kwong]

It did seem that way, yeah. But their argument now is these tools could be dangerous in the hands of cybercriminals and other bad actors. I will say, though, the same is true on the other side. AI can help the good guys, too. It can help cybersecurity experts like Ryan find holes in code and patch them.

[Ryan Calimer]

Wow.

[Regina Barber]

So AI is having almost a civil war within itself, like good AI fighting bad AI, and then it turns into

[Emily Kwong]

good AI at the direction of humans. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And one of the things Ryan wants to do is train our email agents like Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini to stand their ground against this other malicious AI.

[Ryan Calimer]

If you can just convince the AI to do something, then some of that same human risk has now become AI risk. And if our AI agents are just as gullible as us, that's a big problem.

[Regina Barber]

Wow. I hadn't even thought of that.

[Emily Kwong]

Yeah, I feel like this whole episode, I'm just watching your eyes get wider and wider and wider.

[Regina Barber]

Yeah.

[Emily Kwong]

But no, at the end of the day, governments and companies and cybersecurity experts are responsible for this. They have a lot of work to do to deal with these problems. And in the meantime, training can help prepare US Individuals for this future.

[Ryan Calimer]

What I would love is if, for once, the defenders are able to move faster than the attackers.

[Emily Kwong]

But we need to mobilize the defender workforce. Not enough people like Ryan do this work. According to the ISC2 2024 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, there are over 500,000 unfilled cybersecurity positions in the U.S. yeah, I remember

[Regina Barber]

when I was teaching at Western Washington University, there was just a huge push for people to go into this field.

[Emily Kwong]

Oh, really?

[Regina Barber]

Yeah.

[Emily Kwong]

So someone also trying to make that push is Charlene Cooper. She's the director of cyber.org and focuses on K through 12 cybersecurity education. Charlene's got a 16 year old son and has learned this technology for all its upsides and downsides. Right alongside him, there was a misconception

[Regina Barber]

he had about people that were online.

[Emily Kwong]

And it was like, well, this person

[Regina Barber]

says they're from here, here and here.

[Emily Kwong]

And I'm like, but how do you

[Regina Barber]

know that for sure? I live by the old X Files rule. Trust no one. Right? Like, I tell my kid to always verify and just like don't talk to strangers. I've made her more scared of the world. But you know what? She is skeptical of the Internet.

[Emily Kwong]

Yeah, that makes sense. Because honestly, a lot of Charlene's work lately is focused on training caregivers and teachers to be comfortable talking to their kids about their digital hygiene.

[Regina Barber]

Asking questions like, what do you like to do online? What types of sites are you going to?

[Emily Kwong]

And especially if your child is engaging in chatting people on websites, on online video games.

[Ashley Podoradsky]

Roblox.

[Emily Kwong]

Teach your kid to not give away any personal information.

[Ashley Podoradsky]

Their name, their school name, their age, where they live.

[Regina Barber]

Ugh. Stranger danger.

[Emily Kwong]

They need to know that, yeah, stranger danger will save you. And for kids who want to level up their cybersecurity education even further, they can go to camp. So I'm going to introduce you to Ashley Podoradsky. She's the vice president for research and economic development at Dakota State University. And there she co founded an entire organization devoted to teaching the next generation cybersecurity. It's called Cyber. And at cyberher, they offer a residential cybersecurity summer camp for students who want to learn how to do things like crack a password.

[Ashley Podoradsky]

Not because we're trying to create little hackers, but we're trying to get them to understand how easy it is for a bad actor to crack a password.

[Emily Kwong]

And then she has campers make their own password as a test.

[Ashley Podoradsky]

And then the algorithm that we're using to crack the password says it's going to take 200 years with current computing power, then they know they made a good password.

[Regina Barber]

Oh, that's so cool. It's like being graded right away too.

[Emily Kwong]

You're such a student. I know, and that's good. That's the right attitude. I mean, all the experts I spoke to kept saying cybersecurity is not an all tech field. It's really a critical thinking field. It's about problem solving. So if AI is making it easier to commit cybercrimes, let's make it easier for young people to get involved and fight back.

[Ashley Podoradsky]

Here's Ashley So growing up people always said, are you good at math and science? Maybe you should look at a career in stem. I think we need to flip that. I think we need to ask kids, are you curious? Do you like technology? Do you want a high paying job? And if they can say yes to those three, then that's something that they should pursue for STEM and Cyber.

[Regina Barber]

Emily Kwong, thank you so much for bringing another illuminating story.

[Emily Kwong]

You're welcome, Gina. There are a ton of resources we've included with this episode from cyberher and cyber.org, check out the link in our show notes.

[Regina Barber]

If you like this episode, check out the rest of our series on our tech future. We're airing episodes every Monday through August.

[Emily Kwong]

We know the future's scary, but we can get through it together.

[Regina Barber]

I'm excited about the future.

[Emily Kwong]

This episode was produced by Hannah Chin. It was edited by our showrunner Rebecca Ramirez and fact checked by Tyler Jones. Special thanks also to Jenna McLaughlin, NPR's cybersecurity correspondent who reports on this stuff

[Regina Barber]

around the clock, Robert Rodriguez. This was the audio engineer. I'm Regina Barber.

[Emily Kwong]

And I'm Emily Kwong. Thank you for listening to Shortwave from npr.

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