A Life of Second Shots

Gene Yu’s journey has been nothing short of remarkable, spanning multiple heroic positions – from military combat hero, to kidnapping rescue hero, and now, a fraud-fighting and cybersecurity hero – attributing his success to “second shots.” Yu reflected on his life achievements and resilience during his virtual keynote session at the 2024 ACFE Fraud Conference Asia-Pacific.  

Yu is a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran, author, and founder and CEO of Blackpanda Group, which he described as the “Asia region’s leading cybersecurity incident response services and insurance firm.” He said “second shots” harken back to his time in the military, and specifically sniper training. 

“The official sniper motto is ‘One shot, one kill,’” said Yu. “But I learned as a student at U.S. Army Sniper School, that the true hallmark of a great sniper team is not whether they hit the target on the first shot, but rather the second shot.” 

Yu said the sniper’s spotter helps adjust the shot and bring the sniper on target for the second shot. He said this same motto applied to various aspects of his own life.  

“My life, more than anything else, is a story of second chances.” 

Humble Beginnings 

Yu grew up in New England and later California. He said he was treated as an outsider in both communities because he was an Asian-American, making his childhood and teen years difficult. His perspective shifted when he discovered a book written about an Asian-American in West Point, the United States Military Academy. Inspired by the story, Yu set his sights on West Point and was accepted in 1997. He graduated in 2001, just months before the September 11 attacks, which would soon launch the U.S. into two decades of war.  

“Setbacks are set-ups for comebacks” 

After graduating from West Point, Yu was determined to join the U.S. Army Special Forces, commonly known as the Green Berets. To make it into the Special Forces, Yu had to pass the star course, a three-day solo land navigation course that required him to carry 60 pounds in some of the most difficult terrain in the U.S. 

On his first try, Yu did not pass. Not giving up on his goal, he spent every weekend for the next several months practicing on his own, eventually passing and becoming a Special Forces team leader. It was a challenging role, as he was deployed several times to Iraq, Kurdistan, the Philippines and several other locations during a violent period marked by daily attacks on the military. 

Defying the odds, Yu was selected for early promotion to Major, one of only nine Special Forces captains in the entire U.S. Army to receive that honor. However, just as his military career was taking off, trouble was brewing for Yu. Rumors began to circulate about his relationship with his uncle, the sitting president of Taiwan, a man Yu said he barely knew. This led to an investigation questioning his loyalty to the U.S., which took a personal toll, leaving him “confused and bitter.” At 30, Yu decided to leave the military, the only career he had ever known, and began the journey to rediscovering himself “outside the confines of military life.” He took a job in investment banking in Hong Kong, where he said, “I was thriving, but I wasn’t fulfilled.” After catching up with a fellow West Point graduate at a training program, he was encouraged to take a job at the technology start-up Palantir Technologies, but for reasons still unclear to him, he lost his job there. 

“I learned that if I wanted to have true financial security, I needed to learn how to make it on my own,” said Yu. “But first I had to find it.” 

Then, something unexpected happened. Yu discovered that a family friend, Evelyn Chang, had been kidnapped by terrorists, and her husband had been killed while they were on vacation in the Philippines. After making numerous phone calls, he realized that no one could help rescue Chang, so he felt compelled to act. Over the course of 30 days, he orchestrated Chang’s rescue. Though Yu was hailed a hero, he insists those claims are “wildly inaccurate.” Still, for his efforts, he won medals of loyalty and valor from the government of Taiwan. He goes into full detail about this incident in his upcoming book, “The Second Shot: A Green Beret’s Last Mission.” 

Building Blackpanda 

In 2015, Yu founded Blackpanda Group, initially focusing on crisis response and kidnap-and-ransom insurance. The company later pivoted to the technical space, expanding into cybersecurity services and insurance. Most of the cyber-attacks the company responds to involve financial fraud, including ransomware, funds transfer fraud attacks and more. Today, the company has established offices in Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Tokyo and, most recently, San Francisco.  

“What built me is what, in turn, built Blackpanda,” said Yu. “My path has been anything but straightforward.”  

Before his keynote session ended, attendees posed questions to Yu about the current state of cybersecurity. When asked about the most concerning cyber threats in the Asia-Pacific region, Yu said the number one attack his team sees is ransomware. His advice? Avoid paying the attackers, as they will still extort and threaten you again, knowing they still possess your data. Instead, he recommended organizations to bring in expert teams like his to clean up the mess, patch up any vulnerabilities for victim organizations and hire crisis public relations firms to ensure transparent communication with the company’s customers and partners.