The CyberWire: Recent Episodes
Alan Geason
More signal, less noise—we distill the day’s critical cyber security news into a concise daily briefing.
A young man claiming responsibility for the T-Mobile breach talks to the Wall Street Journal. A new cyberespionage group, “SparklingGoblin,” seems particularly interested in educational institutions, especially in Southeast and East Asia. Are governments training AI with stolen data? Mitigations for Microsoft issues. Cellebrite tools may still be available to Chinese police. Kevin Magee from Microsoft wonders if leaders have over pivoted toward technical skill. Our guest is Bill Wright of Splunk on the ongoing geopolitical ransomware trend. And another ransomware gang says it’s going out of business...we’ll wait and see.
For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing:
https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/10/166
Al Qaeda online sources cheer the Taliban’s ascendancy. The new rulers of Afghanistan are likely to have acquired a good deal of sensitive data along with political rule and a quantity of US-supplied military equipment. Terrorist watchlist data were found in an exposed server (now taken offline). Connections between gangland and Russian intelligence. T-Mobile was hacked, but it’s unclear what if any data were compromised. Joe Carrigan on FlyTrap Android Malware Compromising Thousands of Facebook Accounts. Our guest is Liam O’Murchu from Symantec on what keeps him up at night. And some personal information was exposed in the Colonial Pipeline incident.
For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing:
https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/10/158
More stolen coin is returned in the case of the Poly Network cross-chain hack. Accenture says the incident it sustained had no significant effect, and the LockBit ransomware gang who claimed responsibility release some relatively anodyne files. Home routers are under attack. Crooks are offering what they claim to be Bkav source code for sale on Raidforums. Magniber weaponizes a PrintNightmare flaw. Dinah Davis from Arctic Wolf shares stats on the state of women in cyber. Our guest is Peter Voss of Aigo.ai on what’s missing in artificial intelligence. Two extradition cases proceed. And the Solarium Commission reports.
For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing:
https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/10/155
Guest Nathan Howe, Vice President of Emerging Technology at Zscaler, joins Dave to discuss his team's work, "2021 “Exposed” Report Reveals Corporate and Cloud Infrastructures More at Risk Than Ever From Expanded Attack Surfaces." The modern workforce has resulted in an increase of users, devices, and applications existing outside of controlled networks, including corporate networks, the business emphasis on the “network” has decreased and the reliance on the internet as the connective tissue for businesses has increased.
Zscaler analyzes the attack surface of 1,500 organizations and identifies trends affecting businesses of all sizes and industries, across all geographies. Key findings include:
The attack surface impact based on company size
The countries with the greatest attack surface
The industries that are most exposed
The research can be found here:
“Exposed”: The world’s first report to reveal how exposed corporate networks really are.
Guest Dr. Shreyas Sen, a Perdue University associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, joins us to discuss the following scenario:. Instead of inserting a card or scanning a smartphone to make a payment, what if you could simply touch the machine with your finger? A prototype developed by Purdue University engineers would essentially let your body act as the link between your card or smartphone and the reader or scanner, making it possible for you to transmit information just by touching a surface.
The research can be found here:
Tech makes it possible to digitally communicate through human touch (press release)
BodyWire-HCI: Enabling New Interaction Modalities by Communicating Strictly During Touch Using Electro-Quasistatic Human Body Communication (research paper)
What’s North Korea doing with all that money the Lazarus Group steals? Buying atom bombs, apparently. Iran’s Domestic Kitten is scratching at some international surveillance targets. Not everyone who says they’re a Bear really is one. Parking malware in Discord. Notes on Patch Tuesday. Joe Carrigan details a gift card scam that hit a little close to home. Our guest is Saket Modi, CEO of Safe Security with thoughts on quantifying risk. And the latest on the water system cyber sabotage down in Florida.
For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief:
https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/10/27
Myanmar blocks data networks. Notes on offensive cyber operations, from present and former Five Eyes officials. SilentFade seems to be back, with more ad fraud. Iranian cyber operators up their surveillance game. Brazil’s big data breach remains under investigation. Company towns may make a return in Nevada. Rick Howard casts his gaze on the AWS cloud. We welcome Dinah Davis from Arctic Wolf as our newest industry partner. And why in the world are hackers interested in other people’s colonoscopies?
For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief:
https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/10/25
This special edition podcast highlights three women, Priyanka, Ashley and Lauren, who chose to focus their careers in cybersecurity for the mission-based organization Northrop Grumman. Kathleen Smith from ClearedJobs.Net joins us as our panel moderator. The CyberWire's Jennifer Eiben hosts the event. We are excited to share this look into the world of women in cybersecurity.