Think like a criminal. Act like an angel. Twenty-six years in cybersecurity led Jonathan Palmer, CEO of CDL Cyber Intelligence, to that motto.

Criminals case a target before they strike. Palmer explains how dark web monitoring shows them doing it, often months before an attack lands. A Marsh McLennan study with Searchlight Cyber found organizations with compromised accounts on the dark web were about 2.5 times as likely to suffer a cyber incident.

Palmer also tells the story of how a cup of tea in a Leeds basement started his career in encryption. He explains why a five-person yoga studio and a global company can fall for the same fraud, and why attackers often go after your suppliers instead of you.

For the insurance market, Palmer argues dark web intelligence can give underwriters a sharper view of risk than a self-certified questionnaire. He also covers what CISOs struggle to tell their boards, why tabletop exercises matter, and why shadow AI is the first thing to audit in 2026.

Read the article: https://cyberinsurancenews.org/dark-web-monitoring-cdl-cyber-palmer-podcast/

Jonathan Palmer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-palmer-1320551/

CDL Cyber Intelligence: https://www.cdlcyber.com/

More on the Marsh McLennan and Searchlight Cyber study: https://cyberinsurancenews.org/dark-web-exposures-impact-on-cyber-insurance-risk-report/

This episode is brought to you in association with CDL Cyber Intelligence.

Cyber Insurance News & Information: https://cyberinsurancenews.org

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