CyberCX experts track 'fugitives' in 3rd season of Hunted

The third season of Channel 10’s hit series Hunted has been run and won, with a team from CyberCX among the detectives and intelligence agents in pursuit of the fugitives at every step.

For the uninitiated, the basic premise of Hunted sees pairs of ‘fugitives’ attempt to evade capture for 21 days for a share in the prize money, while a crack-team of ‘hunters’ adopt modern surveillance techniques in an effort to track them down.

For its third season, the show welcomed back a five-person team of digital experts from cybersecurity services and consulting firm CyberCX, including Sydney-based cyber intelligence lead Leah Pinto in her first appearance at Hunted HQ.

“What a wild ride the Hunted Australia experience has been,” said Pinto, a former member of the NSW Police Force who crossed to CyberCX from Accenture in 2022. “I couldn’t have hoped for a better team to be on the journey with. Every member was hand-picked for their expertise, specialising in research, open-source intelligence, ethical hacking and digital forensics.”

Pinto was joined this year by another new face in Luke Burns, a security consultant and ‘ethical hacker’ out of Brisbane, along with fellow Melbourne-based penetration tester Vikki Grouios, who brought a decade worth of experience between PwC and CyberCX to her third appearance on the show. The pair explained the difference between so-called ‘white hats’ and malicious online actors.

“The ethical part comes in as cybersecurity experts work with organisations and fix issues to prevent them being exploited by real criminals,” Grouios stated, with Burns adding; “I think the general public definitely underestimate cybersecurity and what ethical hackers are capable of, as people just aren't aware of how vulnerable their digital footprint can be.”

Also making their third appearances were original team members Jay Banerji, a digital forensics and incident response managing investigator currently based out of Melbourne – who, like some real-life Matrix character also teaches karate – and Darwin-based open-source intelligence specialist Carter Smith, an expert in the collation and assessment of publicly available data.

Carla Coslovich said one of the most rewarding aspects of her first season as the hunters’ intelligence lead was working with the CyberCX team; “Their skills and ability to ‘find things’ was outstanding, and incorporating my world of intelligence and the cyber team’s expertise created a platform whereby information was transformed into meaningful intelligence within minutes.”

Speaking ahead of the season, CyberCX CEO John Paitaridis stated; “We’re proud to see our cyber experts returning to Hunted. They help enterprise and government organisations tackle threats from cyber criminals, malicious insiders, and nation state actors on a daily basis. The ordinary fugitives are going to have a hard time outsmarting our team of mission-driven and incredibly determined experts.”