DISCARDED: Tales From the Threat Research Trenches

Selena Larson, Sarah Sabotka

Booking Overview

This is a cybersecurity threat-research interview show focused on malware, threat actors, exploit chains, and attack patterns, featuring Proofpoint researchers alongside occasional outside specialists. Suitable pitches include threat intelligence researchers, malware reverse engineers, incident responders, and cloud or email-security experts with original research or hands-on investigation experience; booking difficulty is medium because the subject matter is highly specialized and the show frequently draws from its publisher’s own research team.

Metrics

Episodes: 113

Frequency: Irregular

Rating: 4.9/5.0

Estimated listeners: 1k-10k

Gender skew: Male

Location: USA

YouTube: 7.7k subscribers

Instagram: 5.9k followers

Contact Information

Publicly listed emails

pfpt-podcasts@proofpoint.com

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Host

Selena Larson - Cybersecurity host and threat-research commentator covering malware, threat actors, vulnerabilities, and emerging attack techniques.

Sarah Sabotka - Cybersecurity professional and webinar host focused on threat research and emerging attack techniques.

Booking Intelligence

Booking Requirements

medium

Typical Credentials:

Threat researchers, malware analysts, reverse engineers, cloud-security specialists, and incident-response professionals with hands-on investigative experience and original research into active cyber threats.

Required Achievements:

Published original threat-intelligence or vulnerability research, Conducted malware reverse engineering or adversary tracking, Contributed to major incident investigations or infrastructure-disruption operations, Collaborated with technology companies, law enforcement, or other security researchers

Recent Guest Discussions

Dave Galazin - Windows Kernel Exploitation, Privilege Escalation, Exploit Development, And Evidence Of Long-held Zero-day Capabilities

Julia Paluch - Chrome V8 Exploitation, Sandbox Escapes, Patch Gaps, And The Weaponization Of Public Regression Tests

Mark Kelly - State-aligned Threat Actors, Exploit Chains, Chrome And Windows Vulnerabilities, Ai-assisted Exploit Development, And Defensive Detection

Rachel Rabin - Cloud Brute-force Attacks, Microsoft Entra ID, User-agent Spoofing, Oauth Client ID Spoofing, And Identity-defense Recommendations

Mark Kelly - Chinese Threat Activity, Roundcube Exploitation, Mail-server Attacks, Ai-assisted Adversary Tradecraft, And Offensive-research Disclosure

Recent Topics

Technology, Cybersecurity, Threat Intelligence, Malware, Cyber Espionage

Episodes

Here's the recent few episodes on

DISCARDED: Tales From the Threat Research Trenches

FOMO as an Attack Vector: How Fake Party Invites Are Hijacking Inboxes

September 29, 2026

Send us fan mail!Hello to all our cyber party pals! This week, Selena is joined by co-host Sarah Sabotka (and several very persistent, very uninvited pod crashers) to talk about a threat that's landed in a lot of listeners' personal inboxes lately: malicious event invitations.Selena and Sarah walk through what these lures actually look like — polished, Evite- or Paperless Post-style invitations for birthdays, weddings, baby showers, housewarmings, and even generic "Celebrate w...

Once in a BlueMoon: Inside the Exploit Chain Four Espionage Groups Adopted in Days

September 16, 2026

Send us fan mail!Hello to all our cybernauts!This week Selena is joined by not one, not two, but three guests — Mark Kelly, Julia Paluch, and Dave Galazin — to unpack Proofpoint's latest research. Mark walks through how it started: on August 28, the China-aligned actor TA412 (aka Violet Typhoon), previously known mostly for device registration phishing, suddenly began delivering a Chrome exploit — kicking off a frantic cross-team investigation involving partners at Google and Microsoft. ...

Intercepted: How Hackers Take On the Cloud

September 03, 2026

Send us fan mail!Hello to our Cyber Pals! This week, Selena hands the mic over to a recording of Proofpoint's Intercepted webinar — a monthly video series she co-hosts with Sarah Sabotka — for a deep dive into how cloud brute force attacks are quietly getting more sophisticated. Joining Sarah and webinar host Jason is Rachel Rabin, a threat researcher on Proofpoint's Cloud Threat Research Team, to unpack two spoofing techniques she's seen increasingly weaponized against Microso...

Publicly listed emails

pfpt-podcasts@proofpoint.com

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