How a Ransomware Gang Convinces Itself It's Just a Business | Geoff White At Infosecurity EU 2026

A ransomware gang that clocks in at 9, calls its victims "clients," negotiates "professionally," and hands out a tidy security report after the attack — and somewhere along the way convinces itself it isn't committing crimes at all. Investigative journalist and author Geoff White has read 300,000 of their leaked internal messages, and in this On Location conversation from InfoSecurity Europe 2026 he takes us inside the story behind the BBC's Cyber Hack. We talk extortion versus blackmail, the Conti leaks, AI voice-cloning, and why storytelling — not jargon — is the only thing that makes cybercrime make sense to the rest of us. Geoff White is a British investigative journalist and author behind the hit BBC series The Lazarus Heist and its new strand, Cyber Hack, whose latest season turns to Conti, one of the world's largest ransomware gangs. In this conversation: • The difference between extortion and blackmail — and how ransomware quietly became both • Inside the Conti leaks: 300,000 messages, Russian slang, and why "Bitcoin" came out as "cue ball" • How a criminal gang rewrites its own story until it sees a legitimate business in the mirror • The real human cost: shut-down hospitals and a cancer patient's cancelled appointment • Cloning a parent's voice with AI — and the low-tech defense that still works • Why a hardcore cyber podcast landed in the US top ten, a few slots below Joe Rogan 📺 Watch | 🎙️ Listen | marcociappelli.com Geoff's earlier conversation with Marco on storytelling in cybersecurity:    • The Ransomware Gang That Ran Like a Startu...   Full InfoSecurity Europe 2026 coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/infosecu... All ITSPmagazine event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/technolo... CHAPTERS 0:00 - A song, a banger, and hope for all us old people 1:15 - Eight years at InfoSecurity Europe — and a conversation that outgrew the tech 2:30 - Who is Geoff White: telling the whole story, start to finish 4:00 - Cyber Hack and Conti: extortion, blackmail, and the line between them 6:15 - "We're just a business": how a gang narrates its way out of guilt 8:30 - The candy store: 300,000 leaked messages, cue balls and grandmothers 11:00 - The human cost: a cancelled cancer appointment 12:45 - Cloning mom's voice: AI, trust, and the analog defense 14:30 - When and where to listen #Cybersecurity #Infosec #Ransomware #Conti #CyberHack #GeoffWhite #InfosecurityEurope #Storytelling #TrueCrime #AnAnalogBrainInADigitalAge