Risky Business News

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq take a look at a new AI-powered covert influence campaign and compare it to World War 2 efforts. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes

Email accounts compromised at the Washington Post, shady email provider Cock.li gets hacked, hackers steal data from a French university, and the EU invests €145 million in hospital cybersecurity. Show notes

In this Risky Bulletin sponsor interview Michael Leland, Field CTO of Island, talks about how Island manages risks from extensions, phishing and infostealers. Even when credentials are stolen, it is still not game over and there are still ways to prevent data loss and breaches. Show notes

Intellexa is alive and well despite US sanctions, Paragon spyware used a zero-click iMessage exploit, South Korea's largest online bookstore gets ransomwared, and law enforcement takes down several cybercrime operations. Show notes

Tom Uren and Patrick Gray talk about how a Trump executive order has scaled back the government's cyber security ambitions. The carrots and sticks that would have been used to encourage organisations to adopt stricter security standards are gone. They also discuss North Korea's use of AI in its IT worker scam and the emergence of espionage-as-a-service… perhaps. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes

SentinelOne dodges a Chinese APT hack, anonymous sources point to more Salt Typhoon victims, a cyberattack disrupts grocery deliveries in the US, and 140 arrested in Kazakhstan for selling citizens' data. Show notes

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq take a look at the hackers of Unit 29155, Russian military intelligence's sabotage and assassination group. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes The Insider 'Hidden Bear' investigation Japanese Tokuryū Ukraine SSSCIP report H1 2023

The EU launches its own DNS service, Trump revises previous administrations' cyber executive orders, a supply chain attack hits popular NPM packages, and mysterious iOS attacks spotted in the wild. Show notes

In this sponsored interview, Casey Ellis interviews Push Security co-founder and Chief Product Officer Jacques Louw about how good phishing crews have gotten at evading detection. Attackers are hiding their payloads behind legitimate bot-detection tools to stop things like email security gateways from seeing them, as well as locking up phishing pages behind OAuth challenges. Push sees all this because it's installed as a browser plugin and sees what users see. Show notes

A hacking group goes after Salesforce data, the FBI takes down the BidenCash carding forum, China offers rewards for Taiwanese military hackers, and high risk bugs are patched in enterprise software from HPE and Infoblox. Show notes

Tom Uren and Patrick Gray talk about how Operation Endgame, the multinational law enforcement effort to tackle ransomware is approaching the problem holisitically. It's tackling the enablers of ransomware and although it won't eliminate the crime, it'll make it harder for criminals. They also discuss the spyware app that helped to dismantle the Syrian regime, at least maybe a little bit, and how Russian military intelligence's sabotage and assasination unit got into cyber operations. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes

A spyware app infected the Syrian Army's soldiers before the regime collapsed, NSO appeals its WhatsApp verdict, Chrome and Qual-comm patch zero-days, and an emergency services information sharing group shuts down. Show notes

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq look at NSA's take on information warfare, all the way back from 1997. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes Cryptolog, The Journal of Technical Health, from NSA in 1997

Law enforcement agencies take down A-V-Check, four US Senators urge for the reinstatement of the Cyber Safety Review Board, Germany identifies the leader of the TrickBot gang, and an AI-vibe-coding platform leaks user data and API keys. Show notes

In this sponsored interview, Risky Business Media's brand new interviewer Casey Ellis chats with runZero founder and CEO HD Moore about why vuln scanning tech is awful and broken. He also talks about how they're trying to do something better by glueing their own discovery product to the nuclei open source vulnerability scanner. Show notes

Windows Update will deliver third party app updates, a public database exposed Russia's nuclear secrets, US banks ask the SEC to rescind cyber breach disclosure rule, and ConnectWise discloses an APT breach. Show notes

Tom Uren and Patrick Gray talk about Russian DanaBot malware developers making a tailored variant of their malware specifically for espionage. This fills in some of the blanks on the exact relationship between Russian criminals and the country's intelligence services. They also discuss a US Director of National Intelligence initiative to centralise the purchase of commercially acquired information. Although this information can be used maliciously, having a one-stop-shop should make it easier to check that it is being used responsibly. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes

Dutch intelligence discovers a new Russian APT, a ransomware attack hits the maker of MATLAB, 20 arrested in Nigeria over hacking exam results, and an Iranian pleads guilty for the Robbinhood ransomware attacks. Show notes

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq talk about cyber's ‘hard problems' and why they are intractable. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes Cyber Hard Problems, from the National Academies of Sciences

A major exodus of leadership is underway at CISA, the US government will audit NIST over its vulnerability backlog; an ancient and mysterious APT has been linked to Spain's government, and the SVG image format is great for phishing. Show notes

In this Risky Business News sponsor interview, Catalin Cimpanu talks with Bobby Filar, Head of Machine Learning at Sublime Security. Bobby takes us through the rising problem of spam bombing, or email bombing, a technique threat actors are increasingly using for initial access into corporate environments. Show notes Bobby Filar Sophos MDR tracks two ransomware campaigns using “email bombing,” Microsoft Teams “vishing” Ongoing Social Engineering Campaign Linked to Black Basta Ransomware Operators Storm-1811 exploits RMM tools to drop Black Basta ransomware Massive Email Bombs Target .Gov Addresses A familiar playbook with a twist: 3AM ransomware actors dropped virtual machine with vishing and Quick Assist

Law enforcement takes down the DanaBot and Lumma Stealer malware operations, the US government wants a centralized data broker platform, Turkey dismantles a Chinese IMSI catcher spy ring, and Russia hacked border cameras to track Ukrainian military aid. Show notes

Tom Uren and Patrick Gray talk about how Telegram took down the two largest ever criminal marketplaces recently. They used Telegram for all their communications and had collectively sold over USD$30 billion in illicit products. The pair discuss why Telegram is now cooperating with authorities after historically being reluctant and whether this assistance will continue. They also discuss how Meta is awash with scam advertisements and how Chinese mobile app encryption is suspiciously awful. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes

DDoSecrets archives 400GB of stolen TeleMessage data, the FBI closes its FISA watchdog office, Predatorgate lawsuit delayed due to interpreter shortage, and a wave of DDoS attacks disrupt Russian government portals. Show notes

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq examine what makes it hard for even competent hackers to contribute to state-backed espionage agencies. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes The I-Soon cyber espionage contractor data leak

Japan passes a new active cyber defense law, printer software gets shipped with malware, a UK telco leaks user data and geolocation via its 4G network, and Volkswagen patches major bugs in its mobile app. Show notes

In this Risky Bulletin sponsor interview Justin Kohler, Chief Product Officer at SpecterOps talks to Tom Uren about the impossible challenge of managing identity directory services securely. Organisations try to implement the principle of least privilege but have no idea if they have done a good job. Justin talks about approaches SpecterOps is developing to address this problem. Show notes

Coinbase was extorted by hackers who bribed employees for user data, America's largest steel producer halts production after a cyberattack, Scattered Spider shifts to targeting US retailers, and the US abandons plans to protect Americans from data brokers. Show notes

In this special edition of the Seriously Risky Business podcast Patrick Gray speaks with former NSA Cybersecurity Director Rob Joyce and former director of the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence Andy Boyd. The talk about what offensive cyber could look like under Trump 2.0, and the shake-up the intelligence community is going through under various White House initiatives. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes

The EU launches its own vulnerability database, a Turkish APT deploys a zero-day in Iraq, North Korea tasks an APT to Ukraine, and Spain will probe cyber's role in last month's energy grid collapse. Show notes

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq examine whether the US should steal intellectual property from Chinese companies. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes Stewart Baker's Lawfare article Bunny Huang's 'Essential Guide to Electronics in Shenzhen' BTN44 on the rights and wrongs of intellectual property theft Corelight sponsor interview with James Pope

The Kaleidoscope ad fraud network infects 2.5 million devices a month, Germany seizes the eXch crypto-mixing service, the US takes down the Anyproxy botnet, and Chrome will use on-device AI to detect tech support scams. Show notes

In this Risky Bulletin sponsor interview James Pope, Director of Technical Enablement, talks to Tom Uren about his experience running networks and security centres at Black Hat conferences around the world. Pope talks about the challenges of running a SOC at a hacker conference, how conference networks around the world have a different character and talks about all the weird and wonderful security snafus he has found. Show notes

France says Russia's influence operations are achieving results, Crowdstrike lays off 5% of its staff, a hacker dumps LockBit's ransomware database, and a ransomware attack slows production at a major US medical device maker. Show notes

Tom Uren and Patrick Gray talk about how the US is planning to take the gloves off in cyberspace and conduct much more aggressive offensive cyber operations. US responses to cyber espionage have not been very aggressive to date, but Tom is not convinced that cyber punches are required, so much as blows that really hurt. The pair also discuss TeleMessage, the Signal clone the Trump cabinet has been using. The app managed to sidestep certification and assessment processes and ended up being used by various agencies in the US government. And the White House. It's a mystery how this happened. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes

NSO Group ordered to pay Meta $167 million dollars, the White House tells N-S-A to cut 8% of its civilian staff, the US sanctions a Myanmar militia group leader for cyber scams, and one of the Nomad Bridge hackers gets arrested in Israel. Show notes

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq talk about an in-depth report on a Ukrainian hacking control panel. The panel shows how the Ukrainian group thinks about hacking operations and the pair discuss why the report exists and what it achieves. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes Bulldog backdoor web panel analysis

The Trump admin's Signal clone gets hacked, a six-year-old backdoor comes to life to hijack online stores, a Phishing kingpin identified as a 24-year-old Chinese man, and Ireland fines TikTok for transferring EU user data to China. Show notes

In this Risky Bulletin sponsor interview Mike Wiaceck, CEO and founder of Stairwell, explains why he believes security is really a data storage and retrieval problem. He demonstrates how that pays off with in the analysis of new malware. Show notes

New Microsoft accounts will be passwordless by default, a Chinese APT is hijacking software updates, the US dominates EU cybersecurity market, and Commvault discloses a breach. Show notes

Tom Uren and Patrick Gray talk about a SentinelOne report about how it is constantly targeted by both cybercriminal and state-backed hackers. Security firms are high-value targets, so constant attacks on them are the new normal. They also discuss an article that calls Signal “a kind of dark matter of American politics and media”. Many policy discussions occur on the app, and this explains the Trump administration's extensive use of the app. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes

The French government calls out Russian hacks for the first time, Marks & Spencer sends staff home after a ransomware attack, China accuses America of hacking a major cryptography provider, and AirBorne vulnerabilities impact Apple's AirPlay. Show notes

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq discuss the Southeast Asian criminal syndicates that run online scam compounds. Should organisations like US Cyber Command or the UK's National Cyber Force target these gangs with disruption operations? This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes UN Office of Drugs and Crime on Southeast Asian transnational cyber scammers

A new prompt injection attack is effective against all the big AI models, Poland says Facebook is failing to remove malicious ads, Africa's largest telco discloses a security breach, and hackers breach Malaysian brokerage accounts. Show notes

In this Risky Business News sponsor interview, Catalin Cimpanu talks with Edward Wu, founder and CEO of Dropzone AI. Edward talks about the impact AI in modern-day SOC teams and how its role slowly becomes a force multiplier and productivity boost rather than workforce replacement. Show notes

Cybercriminals stole more than $16 billion last year, Iran tries to hack an EU official, the Lazarus Groups pulls off a successful watering hole and zero-day attack, and WhatsApp adds new chat privacy features. Show notes

Tom Uren and Adam Boileau talk about how scam compound criminal syndicates are responding to strong government action by moving operations overseas. It's good they are being affected, but they are shifting into new countries that don't have the ability to counter industrial-scale transnational organised crime. They also discuss CISA's Secure by Design initiative and that key people behind the program have left the organisation. Given prospective job cuts at CISA it is hard to see the initiative getting a lot of love, but international cyber security authorities should pick up the slack. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes Cyberfraud in the Mekong reaches inflection point, UNODC reveals

Russian military personnel targeted with Android spyware, Trump defends Hegseth after second Signalgate scandal, CISA's Secure by Design leaders depart the agency, and forced-labour cyber scam compounds expand globally. Show notes

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq discuss whether cyber operations can be ‘strategic', that is, can they affect the fate of nations. This episode is also available on Youtube. Show notes

Zoom has a remote control feature so of course crypto thieves are abusing it, hackers make $700 million in unauthorised stock trades, a Chinese APT leaks its exploits and Euro MPs traveling to Hungary are offered anti-spying pouches for their phones. Show notes

In this Risky Bulletin sponsor interview Shane Harding, CEO of Devicie, talks to Tom Uren about trends in the enterprise software and security market that he thinks will have huge impacts. Software is becoming smarter and aims to solve problems rather than simply provide capabilities and Microsoft has embarked on a big push into the SME security market. Show notes