The Economy for Phish

This episode, we’re joined by Ford Merrill, Senior Director of Research and Innovation at SEC Alliance, to discuss the evolution and sophistication of Phishing as a Service (PhaaS). Merrill shares from his 11 years of experience working on security research in primarily the areas of phishing and DDoS botnets. In the episode, he talks about the shift from Russian to Chinese-speaking operators, who the developers of advanced kits like Darcula and Lighthouse are, and who actually uses them to impersonate brands for financial gain. Merrill also outlines a complex ecosystem with supporting technologies and roles involving spammers, data brokers, and money launderers. He also shares what thinks needs to be done to respond this problem, and where he sees rays of hope already. Related resources: If you haven’t listened to our series on Darcula, a phishing-as-a-service operation targeting victims globally, check out episode 137 and 138 to hear Robby’s interview with mnemonic's security researchers Erlend Leiknes and Harrison Sand about the findings from their technical investigation into the phishing kit platform Magic Cat. And hear how this story progressed as Robby interviews investigative journalist Martin Gundersen from the Norwegian media agency NRK. Send us Fan Mail

You can listen to The Economy for Phish online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Economy for Phish is an episode from mnemonic security podcast by mnemonic.

This episode is 50:23 long.

This episode was published on Aug 18, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from mnemonic security podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.