Three Buddy Problem
Hosted by Ryan Naraine & Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade & Costin Raiu
Three veteran APT hunters argue about nation-state malware, attribution, and the week's zero-days for two hours.
- Level
- Expert, assumes deep technical background
- Status
- Active, last episode
- Who's behind it
- Independent, The Naraine Group sourceAd-supported; episodes carry sponsor reads such as Thinkst Canary.
- Last verified
- Transcripts for some episodes
Listed underThreat intel and newsOffensive security
Editorial take
The best show for nation-state threat intelligence, and nothing else is close. Costin Raiu led Kaspersky's GReAT research team; Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade (JAGS) is a well-known APT researcher; Ryan Naraine is a veteran security journalist and runs the show. Together they cover zero-days, exploit markets, attribution politics, and the threat reports vendors publish, and they say when a vendor report is thin. The weekly panels run two hours or more, so this is long-form listening, and the in-jokes assume you know who Turla and Lazarus are. Shorter interview episodes with researchers like Dave Aitel and Mark Dowd are a gentler way in.
Last hand-checked 2026-09-30.
Listen if you …
- work in threat intelligence or malware analysis and want expert argument, not summaries
- follow nation-state operations and want attribution debated honestly
- care about zero-day markets, exploit economics, and mobile spyware
Skip if you …
- you are new to security, the show assumes you know APT naming and exploit chains
- you want short episodes, the weekly panel runs two hours or more
Start with these 3 episodes
- 01
Threat Hunter Greg Linares on the modern ransomware playbook
· 50 min · Practitioner
A 50-minute interview, not a two-hour panel, and a clear walk through how ransomware crews operate now.
- 02
Inside the Turla Playbook: Hijacking APTs and fourth-party espionage
· 107 min · Expert
Russia's Turla stealing another APT's access: the show's core material of espionage and attribution.
- 03
Fast16, Fanny, and Stuxnet: Cyber Paleontology Redux
· 144 min · Expert
Episode 100: the hosts on cyber paleontology and the death of the malware report, with the sharpest debate in the run.
About the show
Three Buddy Problem is a weekly panel from Security Conversations, the podcast and media brand run by journalist Ryan Naraine. The panel launched in June 2024 with Naraine, Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, and Costin Raiu. The same feed also carries Security Conversations interview episodes dating back to 2017.
Weekly episodes run 90 minutes to over two hours and cover nation-state malware, zero-days, attribution, and security policy. Between panels the feed publishes shorter one-on-one interviews and recorded conference talks, including LABScon keynotes. Episodes carry sponsor reads.
Notable guests
- Dave Aitel
- Mark Dowd
- Katie Moussouris
- Thomas Rid
- Mikko Hypponen
- Greg Lesnewich
- Dakota Cary
- Aaron Portnoy
- Chris Eng
- Perri Adams
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