Security Explained

In today's episode listen to Chris, Drew, and Logan struggle with the potential ramifications of companies retaliating against hackers by hacking them back!How do you handle attribution? What about collateral damage?Who in the world would actually notify the FBI prior to doing this??Let's (potentially) find out in today's episode!

Join us as we walk through new and exciting developments in social engineering!FTX/SBF deepfake link below - don't go to ftxcompensation.comhttps://twitter.com/jason_koebler/status/1594720003923722240 Bonus content: Twilio is put on blast and we lament our AI laden futureHappy Holidays everybody!

As 2022 comes to an end, lets look at the best hacks, breaches, and just weirdness in the world of security. 

Twitter, its been in the news lately, but what does it have to do with Security? In this episode we discuss the most notable items that have been happening along this new Twitter journey and how it is affecting your privacy and security on the platform and if it is going to get better. 

Telling the difference between a user that's a program and a user that's a real human is a hard problem. It's also a problem that is growing in importance as more and more of our lives are subject to what happens online. We've seen incredibly successful PSYOPS campaigns, service outages, anti-competitive litigation, and myriad other harmful events occur as a direct result of automated abuse.So what is a bot and how can you successfully deal with them? We share some of our best secrets for effectively dealing with these bad internet denizens in today's episode.

Uber's CISO has been charged with obstruction of justice and is facing up to 8 years in prison. The question is "What does this mean for CISOs today?"We take a look at that and share what we think it means for CISOs now one has been formally charged. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/press-release/file/1306781/download

Welcome back for our FIFTH season :)So it turns out that Uber got hacked... and it looks to be bad. Hats off to their PR team for the job they've done keeping things quiet since. We go over the ins and outs of what we know so far and touch on the status of our DEF CON recordings too!Here's to our best season yet!- https://twitter.com/BillDemirkapi/status/1570602097640607744- https://twitter.com/MalwareTechBlog/status/1570600059909345280- https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/26/london-police-arrest-uber-rockstar/- https://blog.avast.com/uber-hack#

It's the last episode of our fourth season! The security gods were kind to us and gave us a softball with some exploits that are in the news recently; code execution in Confluence and a new ms-msdt code execution exploit in Windows. Lastly, we talk about preparations for DEF CON (we hope to see you there)!We've loved his journey so far and are so thankful to have you all as listeners. Come say hi at DEF CON and grab a beer with us.- Windows ms-msdt PoC - https://gist.github.com/tothi/66290a42896a97920055e50128c9f040- Confluence OGNL Injection PoC - https://github.com/Nwqda/CVE-2022-26134

We directly address the question of how hacking actually works by going through some of the underlying issues that contribute to a hack, tell hacking stories, then wrap up with a very brief explanation of the differences with state sponsored hacking!https://xkcd.com/327/ - Little Bobby Tableshttps://www.saleae.com/ - Example Logic Analyzer

We cover 3 security related news events as well as 1 space related news event in this weeks episode. From ransomware to NASA sending nudes into space, get your download of news that sparked our interest in this episode. 

Join us as we discuss the black magic of radio communications! What is a radio? Why do phones have so many of them? After covering the basics of radio  we delve into radio security (confidentiality/availability/integrity) and its implications with the war in Ukraine.

How inclined are you to use tobacco? What were your salaries at your previous jobs? Your family and friends may not know, but data brokers sure do!Join us as we discuss CCPA and GDPR, two foundational privacy laws which lay the groundwork for taking back our privacy. We discuss actions citizens of California and EU can take to exercise the rights afforded to them under their respective laws.Later in the conversation we discuss privacy as a human right, the impact of surveillance capitalism on our everyday actions, and possible ways of unwinding the assimilation of your private data into large machine learning models.Links from the show:https://www.wired.com/story/verizon-user-privacy-settings/https://www.oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpahttps://gdpr.eu/

It's been a bit over a week since some troublesome photos were posted to Twitter that appeared to show a breach of Okta's administrative portal. In the days since there have been a number of statements from Okta that leave us... disappointed to say the least. When you're such a critical part of modern digital infrastructure (and a security product to boot) one would hope that a breach and the remediation process would be handled with diligence and care. That doesn't seem to be the case here.Join us as we talk about Oofta, our new tag line for the Okta breach.- Okta "We Made a Mistake" - https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/okta-we-made-a-mistake-delaying-the-lapsus-hack-disclosure/- Okta Breach FAQ - https://support.okta.com/help/s/article/Frequently-Asked-Questions-Regarding-January-2022-Compromise?language=en_US- Mandiant Forensic Report for Okta Breach - https://twitter.com/BillDemirkapi/status/1508527487655067660

It's been a few weeks since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Throughout the war we have seen repeated examples of what it means to be engaged in a 21st century war. In this episode we dive in to some of the electronic warfare that we've observed so far coming from both sides of the conflict. It's no exaggeration to say that there have been a number of surprises in a short amount of time.Links from the show:- Generations of Warfare - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generations_of_warfare- Network Battalion 65 Twitter - https://twitter.com/xxnb65- Live UA Map - https://liveuamap.com/

Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Royal Rivera, CCO of HaasOnline. We discuss some of the major hacks and current cases in the Crypto space. HAAS Onlinehttps://www.haasonline.com/4.5 Billion of Stolen Crypto https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/two-arrested-alleged-conspiracy-launder-45-billion-stolen-cryptocurrencyOpen Seas Social Engineering Hackhttps://threatpost.com/nft-investors-lose-1-7m-in-opensea-phishing-attack/178558/Bitfinex Exchange Hack in Hong Konghttps://fortune.com/2016/08/03/bitcoin-stolen-bitfinex-hack-hong-kong/SOL Wormhole Hackhttps://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/320-million-stolen-from-wormhole-bridge-linking-solana-and-ethereum.htmlCrypto CEOs testify before lawmakers on digital assets — 12/8/21https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_kZELcynKQRap video from 4.5 Billion Dollars Defendent (NSFW, and terrible)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jlSHGAem6g

Today we have Covert Entry expert Deviant Ollam to talk about physical security, how he got into the industry, his stories from in the field as a Red Teamer, and how he is looking to change a phrase that many have adopted in the industry. https://deviating.net/ YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/user/DeviantOllam  Twitter:https://twitter.com/deviantollam Instagram:https://instagram.com/deviantollam GitHub:https://github.com/deviantollam Trainings:https://www.redteamalliance.com/RTCG.html

Hello and welcome back!It's been a bit of a hiatus for us here at Security Explained, but we're BACK in action and kicking things off with a casual conversation with our good friend Samy Kamkar.Samy has been a staple in the infosec community for years and even has a worm named after him (the Samy Worm!). He's got a list of wild projects longer than most resumes and has recently been part of an acquisition in his role at OpenPath.Join us for a fun conversation with one of the sharpest hackers you're likely to meet!Samy Kamkarhttps://samy.plhttps://www.openpath.com/https://twitter.com/samykamkar

We're currently on an extended break between seasons 3 and 4 but LO AND BEHOLD the Internet has given us an early Christmas (non)gift .Log4j has been all over the news recently as one of the most impactful vulnerabilities disclosed in recent memory. From AWS to GCP, Cloudflare to DigitalOcean, the Log4shell vulnerability is forcing all manners of security teams to stay up late patching their systems.Join us in this impromptu dive into what is arguably the most impactful vulnerability of the last decade!

In this final episode of our third season we take the time to chat about a topic near and dear to our hearts - security research! We each picked one of our favorite projects to discuss, ranging from enumerating IPv6 addresses on the Internet to hacking the fledgling Ubuntu mobile phone to Drew's mischievous habits spinning up his own cellular base stations. We've mentioned security research time and again on the show, but this is the first time that we're diving into specific research that has played a significant role in our respective lives and careers.Thank you so much for joining us on our journey thus far and we can't wait to come back in season 4 with even better tips and tricks!

With the spectacular new Dune movie just having been released, it's only appropriate to talk about one of the most devious of Internet malware denizens - worms!! While certainly technologically interesting, worms are some of the most destructive instances of malware to ever be created. What's more is that these days, worming technology is so ubiquitous that it's not something that even distinguishes malware from the pack!Join us in this conversation about the trickiest of Internet beasts and the tool that is meant to (if unsuccessfully) protect against them!

We weren't planning on it, but too much happened since our last episode to not do another security in the news episode! We'll be covering the Twitch hack, Facebook global outage, another Epik hack release from Anonymous, and the Pandora Papers.

The news has been ripe with some pretty wild security stories recently, and in this episode we dive into the nitty gritty on the two that we found most interesting. Specifically, we're talking about the multiple Apple zero days which have been released and the controversy around them as well as the Epik hack named Epik Fail. Join us!

In this episode we dive into the details of recent (ie: the last 5 years) security trends, where things stand currently, and where those trends are likely to continue. From application security, to corporate security, to infrastructure security, to physical security, the last half a decade has seen some serious changes with respect to how secure modern enterprises are and the problems they face on a regular basis. The future of security looks bright in many ways, dark in some, but interesting in all.

If you've been keeping up on security news recently you've likely heard of the Pegasus spyware and its authors, the Israeli firm NSO Group. While Pegasus is an impressive piece of software, the capabilities it brings to the table are nothing new (nor are the ethical and moral implications of government surveillance programs).Join us as we sit down with renowned security journalist Kim Zetter and hear what she has to say about these recent events and surveillance programs more generally.More of Kim's work can be found at:- https://zetter.substack.com/- https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/219931/countdown-to-zero-day-by-kim-zetter/

Today we have special guest Kevin Mitnick. The most wanted hacker in the world now helps secure businesses worldwide. We cover the topic of social engineering as Kevin talks about his real-world exploits, he performed on some of the largest companies in the world. Join us on our lighthearted conversations on social engineering with one of the greats in the field. Kevin Mitnick Site:https://www.mitnicksecurity.com/Where to find Kevin Mitnick's books:https://www.mitnicksecurity.com/bestselling-books-by-kevin-mitnick

With DEFCON about to start, we wanted to give folks a peek inside of what one should expect during a hacking conference as well as list some of our favorite conferences. From everyday tips and tricks for surviving the con to how to make the most of it, join us as we talk about hacker summer camp and more. 

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you. Government spying on citizens is so common place that folks are not even surprised by it any more. While US citizens are often not surprised, they are unaware of the particular details. So, sit back and relax while we walk you through some of the history of government spying on its citizens and how it impacts you.Links:https://www.eff.org/https://www.aclu.org/https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-room-641a/ https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-united-states-secrets-part-one/https://signal.org/blog/cellebrite-vulnerabilities/

From the Colonial Pipeline to the NYC MTA, from the city of Atlanta to CD Projekt, ransomware is doing its dirty deeds across numerous sectors and industries and causing real harm to individuals and businesses. Initially more of a novelty that some creative criminals came up with, ransomware has grown into a massive criminal enterprise with significant economic upside. In the first episode of our third season we dig into the nitty gritty of what ransomware is, how it works, how it can be prevented, and what to do if you find yourself at its mercy. Join us!

It's one of the more controversial topics within the information security realm - vulnerability research. It's the practice of pulling software and services apart and finding how they were put together incorrectly. What you do with that research, whether it be submitting to a bug bounty, responsibly disclosing, or selling the information on an exploit broker, can seriously impact individuals and corporations. It's an interesting topic with compelling arguments on most sides, and we're going to dig into the details here today.

Whether you're on the enterprise side looking to hire some short-term expertise, or on the consulting side looking to cut your teeth and learn some security chops, security consulting is an industry that receives a bit of well-deserved attention. That doesn't come without its drawbacks, though, and in this episode we discuss at length the pros and cons of security consulting and how it might benefit you. If you've ever thought about going down the road of being a security consultant, this episode is for you!

It's a question we get all the time - "what can I do to be more secure?"It's also a question that there's not a great concise answer to. That being said, we did our best to boil down the hottest tips that we have for keeping  your personal things and data secure. From password managers to multi-factor authentication, from browser plugins to downloading your data from companies whose services you use, we have a few recommendations that we think can meaningfully improve your security well-being with a modicum of effort (and in some cases, money). With these tricks in hand, it's likely that you won't be the lowest hanging fruit!

Securing your small business may seem like an impossible task or something you do not have to worry about right now. Unfortunately, it is something every small business has to worry about in todays world. In this episode we talk about how non-technical small business owners can improve their security around their business without breaking the bank, with most items able to be done for free.  

Is your refrigerator running? If so, perhaps it's participating in a DDOS attack.This is the reality of the world we live in. There's a computer in just about everything, and in many cases those computers are compromised are part of a botnet. In this episode we sit down with our friend and industry expert Yacin Nadji and hear from him on what botnets are, the role they play in the modern technological world, and ways that we can protect ourselves from them and, maybe, even take them down. https://www.benzinga.com/general/20/11/18293606/the-7-biggest-botnets-of-all-time

Hacker culture is one of those terms that means different things to just about every member of the security community, and in this episode we do what we can to describe what it means to us. From our experience in industry, to our participation in conferences and security research, to our open source projects and the ridiculous depictions of “hackers” in popular media, we cover a bit of the good, the bad, and the ugly of hacker culture as we see it. Join us in part one of this conversation around our personal experiences in the hacker community!

It's the year 2021 and just about every common household good can be purchased with a computer in it. From your refrigerator to your toaster to your television to your water bottle, it seems that there is no end in sight for just how many "helpful" things computers can do for your home and life.We're here to challenge that assumption and hopefully convince you that not everything benefits from having a computer in it. Even moreso, this prevalence of insecure and cheap devices all across your life can leave some worrying problems behind when it comes to your privacy and security.

In today's episode we have our first installment of Righteous Hacks, a discussion of some of the coolest, most impactful, or funny hacks seen in the world. From State sponsored to lone researcher, we break down a few of the most righteous hacks.

In this week’s episode we’ll be discussing a burgeoning new asset class, cryptocurrencies. "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." This is the message which is embedded in the genesis block of Bitcoin, the most valuable cryptocurrency in the world. In just under twelve years, Bitcoin has gone from nothing to a $345 billion market cap asset with SEC regulation.What are cryptocurrencies? What are they good for, how do they work, and why is bitcoin so valuable? We’ll be covering these topics and, if you own any, how best to secure your digital assets.DEF CON 23 Cracking CryptoCurrency Brainwallets - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foil0hzl4Pg Etheroll Crypto Casino - https://etheroll.com/#/about

In this episode of Security Explained we cover one of our favorite hacking targets, cars! We cover the myths and realities of car hacking with special guest Craig Smith, a leader in the car hacking community and the man who literally wrote the book on car hacking. Some of the topics we cover include the DEFCON car hacking village, right to repair laws, and that one scene from the Fast and the Furious 8.https://www.carhackingvillage.com/ https://nostarch.com/carhacking http://opengarages.org/index.php/Main_Page

Throughout our careers in the security industry it’s not uncommon that we’re asked “how can I get started in security?” It’s also one of the questions we like to answer most, as we love for others to be able to learn from our mistakes (of which we have made plenty).In this episode we talk about reasons to consider or avoid the industry, our personal journeys into our current positions, what sort of skills you’ll need and how best to hone them, what free resources are at your disposal to learn, and how you can turn those resources into gainful employment. While the information security industry may not be for everyone, it has certainly been an enjoyable place for us to call home, and we encourage you to consider it as well. Join us in this conversation!https://www.slideshare.net/ChrisGrayson/so-you-want-to-be-a-hackerhttps://www.vulnhub.com/http://www.securitytube.net/https://opensecuritytraining.info/https://www.amazon.com/Tangled-Web-Securing-Modern-Applications/dp/1593273886https://www.hackerone.com/https://ctftime.org/ctf-wtf/https://defcongroups.org/dcpages.htmlhttps://www.offensive-security.com/courses-and-certifications/https://www.corelan.be/

When we're considering the security properties of something, whether it's a building, an app, an API, a network, or really anything else, there is a core set of concepts that we lean on to inform our evaluation. These core concepts provide a foundation to reason about whether the security provided by the entity in question is sufficient and, in the case that it's not, how you can mitigate the risks posed by its flaws. In this first episode on core security concepts we discuss authentication vs. authorization, the principle of least privilege, some flaws of human behavior, security vs. usability, and the elusive notion of perfect security. With these concepts in hand you will be better equipped to consider the risks of everything you interact with in your day-to-day life.

It's the year 2020 and if you're anything like us, you may feel that there's no such thing as objective truth anymore. The tirade of untrue statements, propaganda, and conspiracy theories is enough to make even the most resilient people wary of their own minds and experiences. We are all collectively being gaslit through both misinformation and targeted disinformation campaigns, and they're working to devastating effect.So what is misinformation? How about disinformation? Is there a difference? What purposes do they serve? How can you try to tease out the signal from the noise?Join us in a conversation around how false "facts," propaganda, and conspiracy theories are spread and what effect they can have on you.Links:https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/us/politics/coronavirus-china-disinformation.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/us/coronavirus-text-messages-national-quarantine.htmlhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3490543/ https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:uDwvS9v6FL8J:https://www.latimes.com/business/la-xpm-2014-feb-23-la-fi-hiltzik-20140221-story.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-b-1-dhttps://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/bb7t71/reddit_for_sale_how_we_bought_the_top_spot_for/https://www.facebook.com/will.allen.9400/videos/4805424976137953/https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/28/tech/twitter-donald-trump-jr/index.htmlhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8589497/Coca-Colas-work-scientists-low-point-history-public-health.html

Have you ever seen one of those ADT stickers on the window of someone's home and wondered if they actually have a home security system? Does having a sticker alone offer much security for your home? What is the best way to keep your home and its contents safe from intruders?Join us in this week's episode as we cover home security systems, how they work, how they're flawed, and how you can better protect your home with one.

The Department of Justice has recently released a new memo entitled "International Statement: End-To-End Encryption and Public Safety," and while it says a lot about helping trafficked kids and combating other crime, the memo outlines proposals that will do nothing of the sort. In this episode we discuss the content of this memo and the eerily similar-sounding EARN IT act, pick apart which parts of both are valid and which aren't, and talk about the real motivations behind these documents. We cover the current processes for gaining lawful access to data and how these new proposals don't amount to any true improvement upon existing capabilities.As has been the standard theme for the past two decades, American privacy is under attack. These new positions reflect a stark step in the wrong direction if you care to preserve human privacy.

Did you know that there's a Nigerian prince that just so happens to know you and needs you to help them transfer some money into your country? How about you download and share this FREE Starbucks gift card that your company's benefits program has enrolled in? Do you need to update Adobe Flash?If you've ever seen an email informing you of anything above, chances are you were on the receiving end of a phishing attack. In this episode we cover what phishing means, what forms of phishing attacks are out there, how you can improve your chances at identifying communications as phishing, and we share a few stories about the phish we have caught.

With 20 days left until election day, the security of America's upcoming presidential election is something on a lot of peoples' minds. What can you do to ensure that your vote gets counted? What should you be concerned about and what isn't such a big deal? How are elections hacked and how can we protect them? We've got some stories and information to share with you.

There's a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) when it comes to stories of governments being able to hack into everything, corporations listening to your every move, and radio waves causing disease. Join us for the first installment in our conversations on conspiracy theories, where we'll help debunk (or potentially lend credence to) a number of seemingly far-fetched conspiracy theories in the security world.

Passwords are like opinions - everyone's got them. The bad news is that it's likely the bad guys have your password(s) too! In this episode we cover the basics of passwords, why they're so ubiquitous, where they fail from a security standpoint, and how you can protect your accounts from getting hacked even when someone else steals your password.

In this episode we cover the ins and outs of virtual private networks (VPNs) and how they can affect your security and privacy. Have you heard that VPNs will make you unhackable? That they'll make you untraceable? We've heard all that too, so let's talk about what they'll actually do for you.Featuring Chris Grayson, Drew Porter, and Logan Lamb.