Curiosity can rewrite a career—and change how an investigation ends. We sit down with Valeri Soloninka, a Russian-speaking cybersecurity professional now protecting government entities in the UAE, to trace a path from hands-on engineering to enterprise SOC work and into the high-impact world of operational and tactical cyber threat intelligence. Along the way, we unpack how fundamentals like networking, DNS, and OS internals still power great CTI, even as LLMs speed up drafting and research.Valeri takes us inside Russia’s cybersecurity market—large, regulated, and comparatively closed—where public reporting is scarce and partnerships carry the weight of intelligence sharing. That perspective meets a striking case from the Middle East: identifying Lazarus Group activity tied to Russian-language lures, a reminder that geopolitics and targeting rarely align neatly. Allies still spy, strategic programs demand data, and defenders must follow evidence over assumptions. We break down how to translate adversary tactics into detections, drive incident response with attribution-aware guidance, and help vulnerability teams prioritize what matters.Thinking about moving from SOC to CTI? Valeri’s playbook emphasizes relentless curiosity, a bias for action, and the technical backbone to make sense of infrastructure, indicators, and behavior at speed. We also talk candidly about the Gulf market—its boom years, current hiring realities, and why safety, services, and zero income tax continue to draw talent. For learners at every stage, you’ll hear practical recommendations on podcasts, YouTube channels, Reddit communities, and books that build lasting baselines.Join us for a candid, story-driven look at building a meaningful CTI career, spotting threats where others aren’t looking, and becoming the teammate IR and SOC leaders seek out when stakes are high. If this conversation helps you think differently, subscribe, share the show with a colleague, and leave a quick review to help others find it. What topic should we dig into next?Send us a textSupport the showThanks for tuning in! If you found this episode valuable, don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review. Got thoughts or questions? Connect with us on our LinkedIn Group: Cyber Threat Intelligence Podcast—we’d love to hear from you. If you know anyone with CTI expertise that would like to be interviewed in the show, just let us know. Until next time, stay sharp and stay secure!

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