Cyber Recon: My Life in Cyber Espionage and Ransomware Negotiation

by Kurtis Minder

An up close and personal look at cyber espionage and digital spycraft

In Cyber My Life in Cyber Espionage and Ransomware Negotiation, thirty-year cybersecurity veteran Kurtis Minder delivers a fascinating exploration of real-world cyber espionage in some of the most dangerous places on the internet. He explains how cyber espionage is performed, the tools and skills that people like him use all the time, and the consequences of engaging with cybercriminals on a daily basis.

You'll learn about how private organizations spy on bad guys and how they negotiate with ransomware criminals to try and recover stolen data. You'll also discover critical lessons that Minder has learned as he's led his digital risk company, GroupSense, through many of the most dramatic incidents of online crime of the last few decades.

Inside the

● Dozens of original profiles of cyber espionage and negotiation professionals

● Anecdotes and illuminating stories about the author's experience building a business in the cyber market

● An original, non-technical primer on the people that populate the cyber risk landscape and the methods they use to carry out attacks

Genres: Technology

272 pages, Hardcover

Published July 22, 2025

Reviews

[Jonathan Cote]

“Cyber Recon” by Kurtis Minder is a very engaging book written by a seasoned expert in cyber espionage, threat intelligence, and threat actor engagement. The book provides excellent guidance on what makes a successful threat intelligence program and, more importantly, what does not. It does a great job of covering the dark web, illicit marketplaces, and hiding within these platforms with fake personas. Furthermore, it reinforces the learnings by providing real-life stories of Kurtis and his peers engaging with threat actors on behalf of their clients.

The book provides a good balance between not too high-level and not overly technical. This book can be read by all audiences, from experienced cyber pros to cyber newbies to even non-technical readers. His writing style is super clean, very personal, and a joy to read. He ties in some historical perspectives and many first-hand examples to the strategies and tactics he recommends.

Kurtis is very humble and has a deep understanding of the human aspect of cybercrime, which was the most surprising aspect of the book for me. Although he does not sympathize with the threat actors, his ability to empathize with their motivations and backgrounds is clearly a key factor in his success. Additionally, he consistently credits his teammates and peers in the industry, featuring a profile of a cyber professional at the end of each chapter, along with a link to a video interview. This demonstrates his commitment to giving back to those who have contributed to his success.

Though this book does not meet CyberCanon Hall of Fame criteria as it is a niche topic, I 100% recommend it to cybersecurity professionals, threat analysts, and cyber enthusiasts interested in understanding ransomware negotiations, threat actor engagement, and improving their threat intelligence programs.

Full review: https://cybercanon.org/cyber-recon-my...

[Daniel Rodríguez]

A must read for Incident Responders

In general I really like this book, It provides several recommendations for organizations and individuals to prevent and deal with Ransomware attacks, it also provides amazing tips for cyber threat intelligence and operations. I like how Kurtis emphasizes in contributing to our society and he promotes other cybersecurity professionals.
What I didn't like was his constant "stop clicking things" we should stop blaming people for that and instead improve other security layers. People click because it is normal, sometimes it's part of their jobs.

I will definitely keep this book as a reference and to recommend it to other security professionals. Well done Kurtis

[Theodore]

This is a great overview for people in positions of responsiblity