New Book: SPIES, LIES, AND CYBER CRIME | Former FBI Spy Hunter Eric O'Neill Explains How Cybercriminals Use Espionage techniques to Attack Us | Redefining Society And Technology Podcast With Marco Ciappelli

Oct 21, 2025

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____________Podcast
Redefining Society and Technology Podcast With Marco Ciappelli
https://redefiningsocietyandtechnologypodcast.com

WebSite: https://marcociappelli.com
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marco-ciappelli/

____________This Episode’s Sponsors

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____________Title
New Book: SPIES, LIES, AND CYBER CRIME | Former FBI Spy Hunter Eric O'Neill Explains How Cybercriminals Use Espionage techniques to Attack Us | Redefining Society And Technology Podcast With Marco Ciappelli

____________Guests:

Eric O'Neill
Keynote Speaker, Cybersecurity Expert, Spy Hunter, Bestselling Author. Attorney
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-m-oneill/
Find the book on Eric Website: https://ericoneill.net

Sean Martin, CISSP
GTM Advisor | Journalist, Analyst, Technologist | Cybersecurity, Risk, Operations | Brand & Content Marketing | Musician, Photographer, Professor, Moderator | Co-Founder, ITSPmagazine & Studio C60Sean Martin, Co-Founder, ITSPmagazine and Studio C60
Website: https://www.seanmartin.com

____________Short Introduction
Former FBI counterintelligence specialist Eric O'Neill, who caught the most damaging spy in US history, reveals how cyber criminals use traditional espionage techniques to attack us. In his new book "Spies Lies and Cyber Crime," he exposes the $14 trillion cybercrime industry and teaches us to recognize attacks in our Hybrid Analog Digital Society.

____________Article
Trust has become the rarest commodity on Earth. We can't trust what we see, what we hear, or what we read anymore. And the people exploiting that crisis? They learned their craft from spies.

Eric O'Neill knows this better than most. He's the former FBI counterintelligence specialist who went undercover—as himself—to catch Robert Hanssen, Russia's top spy embedded in the FBI for 22 years. That story became his first book "Gray Day" and the movie "Breach." But five years later, Eric's back with a very different kind of warning.

His new book "Spies Lies and Cyber Crime" isn't another spy memoir. It's a field manual for surviving in a world where criminal syndicates have weaponized traditional espionage techniques against every single one of us. And business is booming—to the tune of $14 trillion annually, making cybercrime the third largest economy on Earth, bigger than Japan and Germany combined.

"They're not attacking our computers," Eric told me during our conversation. "They're attacking you and me personally. They're fooling us into just handing everything over."

The pandemic accelerated everything. We were thrown into a completely virtual environment before security was ready, and that moment marks the biggest single rise of cybercrime in history. While most of us were stuck at home adjusting to Zoom calls, cyber criminals were innovating faster than anyone else, studying how we communicate, work, and associate in digital spaces.

Here's what makes Eric's perspective invaluable: he understands both sides of this war. He spent his FBI career using traditional counterintelligence techniques—deception, impersonation, infiltration, confidence schemes, exploitation, and destruction—to catch spies. Now he watches cyber criminals deploy those exact same tactics against us through our screens.

The top cybercrime gangs have actually hired active intelligence officers from countries like Russia, China, and Iran. These spies moonlight as cyber criminals, bringing state-level tradecraft to street-level scams. It's sophisticated, organized, and shockingly effective.

Consider the romance scam Eric describes in the book: a widowed grandfather receives a simple text saying "Hey." Being polite, he responds "Sorry, wrong number." That single response marks him as a target. Over weeks, a "friendship" develops. His new best friend chats with him daily, learns his hopes and dreams, then introduces him to an "investment opportunity."

Within months, the grandfather has invested his entire pension—hundreds of thousands of dollars—into what looks like a legitimate cryptocurrency platform with secure logins and rising account values. When he tries to withdraw money for a family vacation, his friend vanishes. The company doesn't exist. The website was a dummy. Everything is gone.

That's not a quick phishing scam—that's a confidence scheme straight from the spy playbook, adapted for our Hybrid Analog Digital Society where we live in little boxes on screens, increasingly disconnected from physical reality.

The sophistication extends to ransomware operations. These aren't kids in hoodies—they're organized businesses with affiliate programs, marketing departments, tech support teams, and customer service. They're polite as they negotiate your ransom. They help you decrypt your data after you pay. Some even donate to charities. And yes, many victims get hit again a month later by the same group.

What struck me most about our conversation was Eric's emphasis on preparation over panic. He's developed a methodology called PAID: Prepare (ahead of the attack), Assess (constantly look for threats), Investigate (when you identify something suspicious), and Decide (take action).

"You don't want to be in a dark alley before you think about physical security," he explained. "Same with cyber. Don't wait until you're in the middle of a ransomware attack to build your defenses. That's ten times more expensive."

The scale of this threat hasn't fully registered with most people. Cybercrime is projected to hit $18 trillion next year, yet individuals and companies alike operate as if attacks are rare events that happen to other people. The reality? It's not if you'll be attacked, it's when.

Eric wrote "Spies Lies and Cyber Crime" as if you're taking a training course at the FBI Academy for Cyber Criminals. The first part teaches you to think like a bad guy—to recognize deception, impersonation, and confidence schemes. The second part gives you the tools to defend yourself, whether you're protecting your family's data or running enterprise security.

One detail Eric insists on: every parent must read chapters 10 and 11 with their teenagers. The book addresses cyberbullying, exploitation, and social media dangers that have led to teen suicide. Some conversations are that critical.

As we closed our conversation, Eric demonstrated how vulnerable we've become. "How do you even know you're talking to me?" he asked. "I could be sitting here in my pajamas, typing what I want my avatar to say." He's right—deepfakes are that sophisticated now. His advice? Ask everyone in a video meeting to pick up a pen or wave their hands. Avatars can't do that yet.

The word "yet" hangs heavy in that sentence.

We're moving into a world where trust is the most valuable thing on Earth, and cyber criminals are actively destroying it for profit. Eric O'Neill spent his career catching spies who betrayed their country. Now he's teaching us to catch criminals who are betraying all of us, one click at a time.

Subscribe to continue these essential conversations about security, technology, and society. In our increasingly digital world, understanding how cyber criminals think isn't optional anymore—it's survival.

____________About the book

Spies, Lies and Cybercrime

Spies, Lies and Cybercrime will appeal to every person curious or frightened by the prospect of a cyberattack, from students and retirees to the C-Suite and boardroom. Readers will take up arms in the current cyber war instead of fleeing while the village burns. They will become email archeologists and threat hunters, questioning every movement online and spotting the attackers hiding in every shadow. They will learn how to embed cybersecurity intrinsically into the culture and technology of their businesses and lives. Only then can we begin to move the needle toward a world safe from cyber-attacks.

Find it on: https://ericoneill.net

____________Enjoy. Reflect. Share with your fellow humans.

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____________End of transmission

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