Planet Money

Snapshot · Planet Money

Can computer hackers get inside your mind?

Explore episode Jun 17, 2026

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Meet Jags: The Cyber Paleontologist

At 2:48 · chapter starts 1:38

The hosts explain they sought out Jags to get a window into the invisible cyberwar. Juan Andrés Guerrero Saade — everyone calls him Jags — has a fauxhawk, sleeves of tattoos, and was on track for a philosophy PhD before pivoting to cybersecurity. He describes his role as a 'cyber paleontologist': digging up old malware buried on servers, reverse engineering what top-secret missions they were designed to carry out, and using that knowledge to defend against future attacks. Jags works at SentinelOne, protecting clients as varied as Samsung, the Golden State Warriors, and the U.S. government. The team notes his work is so significant that pieces based on it sit in the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. He jokes that in Jurassic Park terms, he's more Jeff Goldblum than Alan Grant — which, for a chaos-theory aficionado digging up digital dinosaurs, seems about right.

Technology
What Is a Cyber Paleontologist?

Can computer hackers get inside your mind? · Jun 17, 2026 Technology

Jags reverse-engineers old malware buried deep on servers to understand how hackers got in and what they did — so future attacks can be stopped. His work is significant enough to have pieces displayed at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.

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