Join us on “Intelligence Tradecraft”, where we explore the adoption of intelligence tradecraft in the private sector. Hosted by an intelligence and cyber threat intelligence professional, each episode features interviews with top researchers, authors, and practitioners offering practical insights for experts and beginners alike. Whether you’re a seasoned intelligence analyst or just starting your journey, this videocast provides the tools, techniques, and inspiration to elevate your craft and sharpen your analytic advantage. Join our community and master intelligence tradecraft.
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Building a CTI Team: Buy-In, Budgets, and Better Intelligence - Interview with Sherman Chu S3E5
Season 3 · Episode 5
Wednesday, October 14, 2026 • Duration 01:27:17
What does it take to build and run a cyber threat intelligence function, and how can you tell whether the intelligence you’re producing is any good? In this episode, host Freddy Murre sits down with Sherman Chu, who at the time of the interview worked at BlackRock, for a conversation about lessons learned on the job, tradecraft and AI.
Sherman recounts his path from Army intelligence support through grad school and a vendor role at Flashpoint, then to end-user teams in financial services, building New York City’s CTI program from the ground up, and a stint at Deloitte. He explains what changes when you move from serving a broad customer base to serving specific stakeholders, and why end-user teams must also collect internally.
Freddy and Sherman cover team-building: finding buy-in, keeping collection minimal, justifying budgets, evaluating vendors, and why training so often fails to change how a team works. Sherman shares the courses and books he considers foundational, including The Diamond Model of Intrusion Analysis and Heuer’s Psychology of Intelligence Analysis.
A key question that comes up is what separates intelligence from data and information. Sherman offers his own definition, then breaks down what bad intelligence looks like, from marketing dressed up as analysis to context-free indicator sharing. He also explains how inconsistent terminology holds the field back.
Over the last couple of years, Sherman’s view of AI has shifted from early skepticism to cautious adoption. He shares how he pairs deterministic code with LLMs to extract adversary procedures from reports, where models still hallucinate, and why analysis remains the hardest step to automate.
Their advice for newcomers is to stay curious, build a pet project, and stay humble. If you lead a CTI team, want to join one, or are weighing where AI belongs in your workflow, this episode is well worth your time.
RESOURCES
Flashpoint - https://flashpoint.io/
Columbia University MA program - https://www.sipa.columbia.edu/sipa-education/masters-programs/concentrations/international-security-and-diplomacy
SANS FOR578 CTI -https://www.sans.org/cyber-security-courses/cyber-threat-intelligence
Sergio's course "Diamond Model of Intrusion Analysis" -https://school.threatintel.academy/courses/diamond/
Joe Slowik's Training - https://paralus.co/training/ Pherson's
Richards J. Heuer, Jr. The Psychology of Intelligence Analysis -https://www.ialeia.org/docs/Psychology_of_Intelligence_Analysis.pdf
Scott J. Roberts & Rebekah Brown's book "Intelligence-Driven Incident Response - https://www.amazon.com/Intelligence-Driven-Incident-Response-Outwitting-Adversary/dp/109812068X/
VISMA and APT Attribution discussion - https://therecord.media/norway-says-chinese-group-apt31-is-behind-catastrophic-2018-government-hack
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction and Career Overview
02:09 From Army Intelligence to Academia
06:05 Vendor Versus End User Intelligence
13:54 Building a Government CTI Program
17:17 Training, Certifications, and Key Books
25:14 Building a CTI Function
37:46 Budgets, Tools, and Training Value
47:28 What Counts as Intelligence
52:49 What Makes Intelligence Bad
01:00:06 Shared Language and Industry Maturity
01:07:38 AI Across the Intel Cycle
01:13:13 Hybrid LLM and Code Workflows
01:16:22 AI Limits, Risks, and Democratization
01:22:44 Traits for Aspiring Analysts
01:25:01 Neurodivergence and Staying Humble
Bringing CTI to the Executive Table - Interview with Jan Henrik Schou Straumsheim S3E4
Season 3 · Episode 4
Wednesday, September 30, 2026 • Duration 01:30:49
Jan Henrik Schou Straumsheim, a partner in PwC's cyber advisory practice, sits down with host Freddy Murre to talk about the real work behind cyber threat intelligence. His interest in the field traces back to getting his hands on his father's old 386 computer and a book his mother gave him on the history of codes, and later took shape during years as a reserve infantry officer in Norway's armed forces, where he trained at the Defense Intelligence School and eventually became his unit's intelligence officer (S-2).
From there, his career moved through a summer internship at Accenture, a part-time job in the security operations center at mnemonic, a pivot into consulting, and almost a decade now at PwC.
The conversation explores what actually separates CTI from cybersecurity, and why so much of what gets sold as intelligence is really just unfiltered data dumps. Jan Henrik and Freddy debate how analysts should weigh sources, including the tricky question of trusting personas on dark web forums, then turn to how private-sector teams train and retain analytical skill, and why Nordic organizations still lag in treating CTI as more than a detection add-on. Jan Henrik shares a real client case, where a board commissioned a foresight report on AI risk, showing what it looks like when CTI actually reaches the boardroom.
The conversation then shifts to AI's role in intelligence work: how Jan Henrik uses large language models every day, why he still insists on a human checking every output before his name goes on it, and where the line sits between AI as a sparring partner and AI replacing analytical judgment altogether. They close on a reminder that opportunity often comes from someone else opening a door, and why passing that on matters.
This episode with Jan Henrik is a grounded, occasionally blunt conversation about what good intelligence work actually requires, well worth a listen for anyone trying to make CTI matter to the business it's meant to serve.
Breaking In, Proving Value, and Staying Ahead in CTI - Interview with Rebecca Ford S3E3
Season 3 · Episode 3
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 • Duration 01:17:35
In this episode of Intelligence Tradecraft, host Freddy Murre sits down with Rebecca Ford, a cyber threat intelligence analyst who started out on the government side with Army Cyber and DISA, focused heavily on North Korea and the Asia-Pacific region. From there, she moved into the private sector, where she's spent the better part of a decade helping grow a CTI function from an early-stage team into something far more mature.
Rebecca traces her path into the field: an overheard conversation about true-crime shows that led an Army analyst to recruit her, on-the-job training in an era before cyber threat intelligence even had a name, and the 2014 Sony hack as the moment the discipline truly landed on the map.
She and Freddy explore what separates useful intelligence from what she calls being reduced to "news reporters with a microphone." The difference lies in handing stakeholders a raw threat feed versus giving them analysis that actually drives a decision. Rebecca shares her working definition of intelligence, built around an adversary's intent, opportunity, and capability. They also get into the two very different audiences an analyst serves, senior leadership and network defenders, and why treating report counts as a success metric misses the point entirely.
The conversation covers building real relationships with stakeholders, the argument for "fusion centers" that merge cyber, physical, travel, and financial-crime intelligence, and the considerable value of community and mentorship in a field where, as Rebecca puts it, your next opportunity usually comes from someone who already knows you.
A large part of the discussion is about AI: where it genuinely speeds up research and helps an analyst get started, why Rebecca still verifies everything by hand before it goes out, and why she believes human judgment should stay in charge of the final call.
Rebecca ends with a reminder that showing up and investing in the community, whether at conferences, in focus groups, or at vendor events, is part of the job for anyone hoping to build a career in the field.
Intelligence Work Demands Honesty About Uncertainty - Interview with Rebekah Brown (S3E2)
Season 3 · Episode 2
Wednesday, September 2, 2026 • Duration 01:22:31
In this episode of Intelligence Tradecraft, host Freddy Murre talks with Rebekah Brown, senior researcher at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, about what it actually takes to do intelligence work well, in government and in the private sector. Rebekah's background spans the field: she started as a Marine Corps cryptologic linguist and NSA analyst, later led threat intelligence at Nike, and worked the vendor side at Rapid7. Today, she co-authors the SANS FOR578 course and has co-written an incident response book with Scott Roberts.
The conversation traces how a clerical error sent her through Mandarin Chinese training instead of Korean, why private-sector CTI teams so often import government habits that don't fit the business they're protecting, and why translating between technical teams and leadership is often the real job description.
They spend real time on definitions: what separates intelligence from reporting, what makes intelligence good or bad, and why so much of what gets labeled cyber threat intelligence in the private sector is really just collected information without analysis behind it.
Rebekah and Freddy also trade stories about the growing pains of building a threat intelligence function inside a business that doesn't think in nation-state terms, and what it actually takes to make expensive training change how a team works day to day.
When it comes to AI, Rebekah explains where she believes LLMs can genuinely support brainstorming, coding, and research tasks, and where she draws a hard line at analysis itself. The two also debate how AI might reshape the size and shape of intelligence teams in the years ahead.
It's a grounded, experience-driven conversation for analysts, team leads, and anyone trying to prove the value of intelligence inside their organization.
Good Intelligence vs Noise and the Skills AI Can't Replace - Interview with Josh D. MacLellan (S3E1)
Season 3 · Episode 1
Wednesday, August 19, 2026 • Duration 01:12:52
Staff Threat Intelligence Advisor Josh Darby MacLellan at Feedly kicks off season three by unpacking his path into CTI, what separates intelligence that gets used from intelligence that gets ignored, and why core skills like stakeholder communication may outlast technical specialties as AI reshapes the field. Josh started his career with childhood dreams of becoming a criminal lawyer, shifted through academic study of international relations and security, and unfolded into more than a decade of private-sector threat intelligence work across Canada, the US, and multiple specialties within CTI. Josh is blunt about where the field falls short. Good intelligence is connected to a decision and a decision-maker, versus reports written for other analysts that never get read. Josh and Freddy discuss team structure, and why CTI teams that skew small and heavily technical tend to miss the core skills of stakeholder conversation that keep a function relevant when budgets tighten. Josh argues communication is a trainable skill, the same way he trained himself to become a clearer public speaker despite two speech impediments and years of mumbling through bombed public talks.As for AI, Josh draws a clear line between what he'll delegate and what he won't. He uses LLMs for collection support, editing, and even as a stand-in second analyst to catch his own blind spots, but he won't hand over the analysis stage. Trusting an unreviewed AI process, he argues, is a bit like citing a source you've never actually read. Freddy pushes back with his own testing of LLMs on structured analytic techniques, and the two get into what's actually lost when a black box quietly decides what information matters.
RESOURCES
NATO Intelligence Cycle - https://ac.nato.int/resources/uploads/2284/picture2-intel-8Wgsa2.png
Freddy's Intelligence Architecture Mind Map - https://github.com/Errum/IntelArchitectureMap/files/14615837/240315.-.Intelligence.Architecture.v0.7.42.pdf
Gert Jan's Measuring value of CTI - https://github.com/gertjanbruggink/metrics
The librarian who founded modern OSINT: Sources, tradecraft & AI - Interview with Arno Reuser (S2E8)
Season 2 · Episode 8
Wednesday, July 1, 2026 • Duration 01:37:52
If you've ever read a text or sat in a briefing and quietly wondered what actually separates this "intelligence" from someone's hot take on LinkedIn, a journalist with a deadline, an analyst with a search bar, or an AI, this episode is for you.
The host, Freddy Murre, sits down with Arno Reuser, the man who founded the Dutch Defence Intelligence Service's open-source intelligence (OSINT) capability in the early 1990s, before most of Europe had a word for it. What follows is less an interview than a working argument about how OSINT should actually be done, and where the field has gone soft.
Arno doesn't mince words. He'll tell you the "information explosion" everyone complains about is just proof you skipped your stakeholder and requirement analysis. That most of what gets sold as OSINT is the word "OSINT" stapled to “everything”, such as tools. That he has, by deliberate choice, never written an analytical judgment in his life, and why that line between collection and analysis matters more than people think. For anyone who's argued about what counts as OSINT versus PAI (Publicly Available Information), or where collection ends and all-source begins, this is the debate you want to engage with.
Along the way: the librarian's discipline, he says, underpins all good intelligence work, the collection plan he calls "worth gold," the classroom trick thousands of students have failed, and a run of war stories from his teachings, such as a prison break by email to a deepfake that fooled cyber experts who personally know him.
The back half takes on two problems every practitioner is living with right now. How do you put a value on intelligence when the same report is priceless to one decision-maker and useless to the next? And what is AI actually good for? Arno uses LLMs daily and is genuinely amazed by them, but only for things he can verify. He and Freddy get specific on hallucinations, sycophancy, model collapse, and the difference between a real summary and a machine that just shortens the text and deletes the one sentence that mattered.
From Dutch Military Intelligence to Private Sector Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) - Interview w/Martijn (S2E7)
Season 2 · Episode 7
Wednesday, June 17, 2026 • Duration 01:42:14
SUMMARY
Former military intelligence analyst turned consultancy director Martijn Docters van Leeuwen joins Freddy Murre to unpack what cyber threat intelligence really is, and why so many teams "talk the talk" without "walking the walk", i.e. doing the work.
Martijn Docters van Leeuwen has done the whole journey, infantry, military intelligence, stopping ATM skimming and gas attacks in the Netherlands, to building a bank's first CTI team, and now being a cybersecurity consultant.
So when he talks about CTI being a tradecraft and not a report that magically lands in your inbox, he's not theorizing. He's been the only analyst in the room wearing all seven hats, the guy getting asked "why does this cost so much?", the one trying to prove value in the six quiet months when nothing's on fire.
We get into the stuff analysts actually argue about: why most teams are great at talking the talk and bad at doing it, the trap of living in your own little football field while the business has no idea what you do, how people game their own metrics to manufacture a crisis, and where AI genuinely helps versus where it's just a confident liar with no fingers. Threat vs. risk, mirror imaging, incident-driven vs. intel-driven, and the brutal truth that training does nothing if you walk out the door and never apply it.
If you do this work, or you're trying to convince someone it's worth doing, pour a coffee and settle in.
RESOURCES
Structured Analytic Techniques (SAT) Certification Training by Intel Tradecraft and Pherson - https://inteltradecraft.com/sat-certifications
Intelligence Mind Map - https://github.com/Errum/IntelArchitectureMap
Lessons from a Former US Navy Collector - Joe Slowik on intelligence tradecraft and AI in CTI (S02E06)
Season 2 · Episode 6
Thursday, June 4, 2026 • Duration 01:30:31
In this episode of Intelligence Tradecraft, host Freddy Murre sits down with Joe Slowik, a threat intelligence veteran whose career spans the US Navy, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MITRE, and the vendor world (Dragos, DomainTools, Gigamon, Huntress, and now DataMinr).
In the conversation, Joe makes the case that intelligence is fundamentally about decision support, not raw data feeds or research written for other analysts. He and Freddy dig into what separates good reporting from bad, why stakeholder alignment and rigor (ICD 203, clear separation of fact vs. assessment) matter, and when a "flash report" beats a polished deep-dive.
They also tackle the attribution debate — how-centric vs. who-centric attribution, the mess of overlapping naming schemas (APT10 vs. APT31, the Visma case), and why "trust us, we're Microsoft" isn't tradecraft. Joe explains the thinking behind his Applied Threat Intelligence training and the gap it was built to fill.
The back half turns to AI: where LLMs genuinely help (research, scripting), where they're dangerous (cognitive offloading, model decay, drying up the junior-to-senior pipeline), who's accountable for AI-generated output, and how threat actors are using these tools, from better phishing to voice cloning.
Joe's bottom line for newcomers: critical thinking, communication, and curiosity come before any prompt-engineering skill.
From US Army Intelligence to Private Sector Intelligence Advisor - Interview with Jeremy Levin (S02E05)
Season 2 · Episode 5
Wednesday, April 22, 2026 • Duration 01:50:39
In this interview, Jeremy Levin shares his journey into US Army intelligence and subsequent move into private sector intelligence. Jeremy has extensive experience in intelligence analysis, training, and management, emphasizing the importance of adaptable skills, continuous learning, and effective team utilization in the field.
Jeremy Levin accidentally entered military intelligence in the mid-90s by joining the U.S. Army intelligence. He served nearly 30 years in various government intelligence roles and as a contractor. After moving into the private sector he founded Questimation (“Better decisions discovered”) to teach thinking, analytic methods, and explore more objective calibration of qualitative probabilities.
This in-depth interview explores the challenges and opportunities in intelligence analysis, focusing on metrics, training, AI integration, and the mindset needed for future success. Discover how to measure impact, foster analyst development, and adapt to technological advances.
Resources and references mentioned
Questimation - https://www.questimation.com/
Julia Galef - The Scout Mindset - https://www.amazon.com/Scout-Mindset-Perils-Defensive-Thinking/dp/0735217556
IARPA Reason Project for AI in Analysis - https://www.iarpa.gov/research-programs/reason
US Intelligence Standards ICD 203 - https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICD/ICD-203.pdf
UK Intelligence Standards - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phia-common-analytical-standards/phia-common-analytical-standards
New Zealand Code of Ethics - https://nziip.org.nz/code-of-ethics/
From UK Defense intelligence, Warning Intelligence, and IEDs, to Private Sector Intelligence - Interview with Will Woodall (S2E4)
Season 2 · Episode 4
Wednesday, April 8, 2026 • Duration 01:17:44
Summary
Will Woodall shares his 14-year journey through intelligence roles in the UK government and transitioning to private sector intelligence. He explains motivations for leaving government (slow recruitment and limited recognition), contrasts public vs private sector work, and emphasizes core intelligence methodology: the yardstick/estimated probability language, source evaluation and confidence, structured analytical techniques, and clear writing and delivery tailored to customers. In the interview. Will and Freddy debate what distinguishes information from intelligence, how to measure intelligence program value through customer action and feedback, challenges like expert bias and stakeholder alignment, and how AI/LLMs can help with volume and practical tasks but require validation and human questioning. He advises aspiring analysts to pursue analytical subjects, develop domain expertise, and learn core intelligence components.
Freddy's Intelligence Architecture Mind Map - https://github.com/Errum/IntelArchitectureMap
Reuters IKEA bets on remote interior design as AI changes sales strategy - https://www.reuters.com/technology/ikea-bets-remote-interior-design-ai-changes-sales-strategy-2023-06-13/
CHAPTERS
00:00 Welcome & Rebecca's Background
00:57 Breaking Into Cyber Threat Intel
02:58 Learning Cyber Intel From Scratch
04:30 The Sony Hack Turning Point
06:53 From Army Cyber to DISA
09:32 Adjusting to the Private Sector
12:29 Defining Intelligence and Stakeholders
15:16 Proving Value and Building Community
23:14 Good Intelligence vs. Bad Intelligence
26:20 Mentorship and Learning From Mistakes
34:01 Team Diversity and Fusion Centers
40:25 Misconceptions and Measuring Impact
47:00 Communicating With Stakeholders
55:07 Where AI Fits in Intel
1:13:15 Mentors, Advice & Closing Thoughts
RECOURCES
The Marine Corps Logo - https://www.war.gov/Multimedia/Photos/igphoto/2001789719/ Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center - https://www.dliflc.edu/
University of Toronto Citizen Lab - https://citizenlab.ca/
The Cuckoo's Egg - https://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Computer-Espionage/dp/1668048167/
Ghost Net Report - https://citizenlab.ca/research/tracking-ghostnet-investigating-a-cyber-espionage-network/
Webinar: What CTI practitioners recommend you focus on in 2026 - https://feedly.com/ti-essentials/posts/what-cti-practitioners-recommend-you-focus-on-in-2026
Freddy and Josh Think smarter, not harder: Making SATs work in CTI - https://feedly.com/ti-essentials/posts/think-smarter-not-harder-making-sats-work-in-cti
Feedly AI - https://feedly.com/ai
MLitt in Terrorism Studies - https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/subjects/international-relations/terrorism-mlitt/
00:00 From literature searcher to founding military OSINT
04:00 Becoming a librarian: the Kampen archive moment
08:00 Where OSINT stops and intelligence begins
11:00 Why "cyber" keeps getting OSINT wrong
15:00 What actually makes something "intelligence"?
24:00 The information explosion myth
32:00 The classroom trick: think before you type
36:00 The collection plan that's "worth gold"
42:00 The human factor cyber keeps ignoring
45:00 War stories: validation and getting fooled
51:00 Learning the craft: sources, sources, sources
55:00 Customers ask for what they think you can do
01:08:00 Can you measure the value of intelligence?
01:11:00 AI and LLMs: amazed but skeptical
01:32:00 Deepfakes, the NATO photo & "how likely is it?"
When does something go from a Google answer to Intelligence - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/fmurre_in-your-opinion-when-does-something-go-from-activity-7181221399561203712-mV-m/
Mark Arena - CTI: Comparing the incident-centric and actor-centric approaches - https://medium.com/@markarenaau/cyber-threat-intelligence-comparing-the-incident-centric-and-actor-centric-approaches-f20cfba2dea2
ASML The world's supplier to the semiconductor industry - https://www.asml.com/en
SANS FOR578 CTI - https://www.sans.org/cyber-security-courses/cyber-threat-intelligence
TIBER European Central Bank - https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/cyber-resilience/tiber-eu/html/index.en.html
Freddy's resources on SANS - https://www.sans.org/profiles/freddy-murstad#resources
The intelligence cycle - https://github.com/Errum/IntelArchitectureMap
Basic cyber-hygiene guidance from CISA - https://www.cisa.gov/topics/cybersecurity-best-practices
06:11 The Evolution of Cyber Threat Intelligence and intelligence
15:05 Rigor, reporting, & attribution
29:50 The Relevance of Intelligence in Incident Response and CTI
47:09 Building & measuring a CTI function
01:00:13 Training teams (and why it doesn't stick)
01:07:37 Integrating LLMs in Intelligence Work
01:19:50 Skills for the Future of CTI
Chapters
00:00 Meet Jeremy Levin
07:52 Contractor Life and 9/11
22:43 Going Independent and forming Questimation
30:30 What Counts as Intelligence
35:22 Analyst Tasks and Management
41:53 Value of Warning and Training
57:51 Metrics Drive Output
01:02:20 Measuring Intelligence Value
01:12:00 Defining Success Metrics
01:22:18 Analytic Standards Matter
01:25:48 AI and Tradecraft Future
01:48:10 Mentors and Closing
This conversation is a compressed edit of an interview Freddy has conducted as part of his PhD research. The interview happened on July 2nd, 2025 in London, UK.
00:00 Introduction to Intelligence and Personal Journey
07:15 Transitioning from Government to Private Sector
11:53 Understanding Intelligence Methodology and Standards
18:59 Defining Intelligence vs. Information
23:27 The Role of AI in Intelligence
31:02 Training and Methodologies in Intelligence
47:06 Challenges in Implementing Intelligence in the Private Sector
54:16 Measuring Success of Intelligence Programs
58:13 Challenges in Applying Intelligence in Organizations
01:02:06 Advice for Aspiring Intelligence Professionals
01:15:50 Influential People and Career Moments
01:17:28 Closing Remarks and Future Outlook
This conversation is a compressed edit of an interview Freddy has conducted as part of his PhD research. The interview happened on July 2nd, 2025 in London, UK.
