CyberWire Daily

In today's podcast we hear a bit more on Variant 4—we may see more like it. Mitigations are under preparation. The Confucius threat group modifies its approach to targets. Turla adopts a two-stage infection technique. A misconfigured AWS S3 bucket exposes a California not-for-profit's clients. ZTE's lifeline may not be so strong after all: the US Administration wants significant concessions and th...

In today' podcast we hear about the Speculative Store Bypass vulnerability that's been found in most current chipsets. GPON-based routers assembled into botnets. Comcast and TeenSafe close vulnerabilities in transmission and storage of customer data. Roaming Mantis banking Trojan acquires new functionality. Is Moscow waiting for the World Cup to conclude before going on cyberattack? How about Iran...

In today's podcast, we hear that North Korea's Sun Team is rising in Red Dawn. Much PII, mostly out of Japan, appears in the black-market stall of a poorly reviewed vendor. The Mexican bank raid seems, the Central Bank says, to have started with a small brokerage and spread from there. Facebook and Google+ continue to be infested with jihadist inspiration. More charges for alleged Syrian Electroni...

Researchers from Arbor Networks' ASERT Threat Intelligence Team recently published a report titled, "Lojack Becomes a Double Agent." It outlines how threat actors are altering legitimate recovery utility software and simulating its command and control servers to gain access to target machines.  Richard Hummel is manager of the ASERT Threat Research Team, and he joins us to describe their work.  Le...

In today's podcast, we hear that a new Mirai variant is out and about: they call it "Wicked." MEWkit automates coin theft. LocationSmart was buggy and leaky. The US Senate has confirmed Gina Haspel as Director of Cetnral Intelligence. Relaxed tensions along the 38th Parallel aside, North Korea remains active against South Korea in cyberspace. There's a lot of fraud in cryptocurrency investing, and...

In today's podcast, we hear that Al Qaeda is back, howling online toward whatever lone wolves might be within earshot. The CHRYSENE ICS threat group may be looking beyond the Arabian Gulf. AnonPlus is after US state governments—New Mexico, Idaho, and Connecticut have received the hacktivists' puzzling vandalism. What the EU will expect of you within seventy-two hours of discovering a breach. The U...

In today's podcast we hear that a spyware campaign centered on Pakistan and thought to be the work of Pakistan's military, comes in two variants: one for Android, the other for iOS. Vietnam is said to be phishing in a compromised Phom Penh Post website. Signal patches a cross-site-scripting issue very rapidly. The US Department of Homeland Security releases its cybersecurity strategy. The Cambridg...

In today's podcast, we hear about reports of email client vulnerabilities. Worries about Russian and Chinese software and hardware vendors. Security and trade policy notes. FinFisher found used in Turkey. The data scandal that brought down Cambridge Analytica moves to the University of Cambridge, but there the issues seem to be security, anonymization, and possible oversharing. Adobe and Samsung i...

In today's podcast we hear that Mexican banks may have sustained unauthorized funds transfers. Presidents Trump and Xi seem willing to toss a lifeline to drowning ZTE. Some researchers report an uptick in Iranian cyber operations. Russia's premier troll farm bought Facebook and Instagram ads targeting American teenaged girls. Apple, Facebook, and Twitter tighten their grip on apps connecting to th...

Bobby Filar is a Principal Data Scientist at Endgame, and coauthor of the research paper, The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation. The report surveys the landscape of potential security threats from malicious uses of AI, and proposes ways to better forecast, prevent, and mitigate these threats. Bobby Filar joins us to discuss the paper, and his views o...

In today's podcast, we hear that vigilantes have visited ZooPark, and the lights go out—voluntarily—on some Georgia hacktivists. Treasure Hunter source code posted to a criminal forum. Malicious Chrome extensions and malicious Android photo-editing apps. GrandCrab ransomware served by compromised legitimate sites. Russian influence ops. Concerns about a resumption of Iranian hacking. Ex-CIA office...

In today's podcast we hear that US withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal is widely taken as heralding a new round of cyber conflict. Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure are seen as an asymmetric way of war. The ALLANITE threat group is observed successfully reconnoitering US and UK electrical power grids. Jack-in-the-Box does nasty things with images. Signal's self-deleting messages don't,...

In today's podcast we hear about Hide-and-Seek, a hard to flush botnet. A phishing technique takes advantage of an email client's rendering of HTML. Facebook death threats in 2015 are said to have been the work of Fancy Bear, dressed up as the Cyber Caliphate. Nigeria's Yahoo boys are busier than ever. DHS wonders what it will take to get US Federal contractors to get rid of Kaspersky. Crooks turn...

In today's podcast we hear that hacktivist lightning is flashing across the Aegean, hitting Greek and Turkish TV stations. Process Doppelgänging is observed in ransomware circulating in the wild. Unstructured data could expose enterprises to GDPR regulatory risk. So might transitive data sharing. Big US companies are ready to follow GDPR standards in North America as well as Europe. Older Lantech...

Just before the RSA conference this year, we spoke with a pair of industry experts for their take on the year so far, and what they expect to see in the coming months. In this CyberWire Special Edition, we hear from Craig Williams, Director of Talos Outreach at Cisco, and later in the show from Jon Rooney, Vice President of Product marketing at Splunk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megap...

In today's podcast we hear that Chinese intelligence services have been seen beneath the Winnti Umbrella. North Korea's off-shoring of cyber operations. ZooPark Android spyware is now in its fourth generation, and still active in the Middle East and North Africa. Vulnerabilities in Dasan GPON routers are exploited in the wild. Russian Twitterbots are suspected of tweeting death threats in the UK. ...

Kevin Epstein is Vice President of Proofpoint's Threat Operations Center. We’re discussing two bits of research with him today. The first is about BlackTDS, a traffic distribution tool for sale in dark web markets. A little later in the show, he’ll tell us about ThreadKit, a document exploit builder.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's podcast we hear that they're hoping in Australia that backup tapes made it to the shredder, and didn't fall off the truck. Equifax's board of directors gets reelected. Are China's espionage services preparing the battlespace for a supply chain attack. New Spectre-like vulnerabilities are found in Intel chips. Google and Amazon clamp down on domain fronting, and anti-censorship advocates...

In today's podcast we look at some indications that LoJack for Laptops might have been compromised to report back to Moscow. World Cup cybersecurity. Schneider Electric patches developer's tools. Travel and hospitality rewards points are the menhaden of the black market. Medical device vulnerabilities. Taking the gloves off Cyber Command. It's National Password Day, and Microsoft (along with many...

In today's podcast we hear that more nation-states have acquired and are using cyber capabilities. North Korea's SiliVaccine anti-virus product appears to have pirated an old version of Trend Micro's scan engine. Despite warnings of credential stuffing, people still reuse passwords. GravityRAT now takes its victims' temperature. Many firms remain unprepared for GDPR. Questions arise about possible...

In today's podcast, we hear that a possible bank payment system hack remains under investigation in Mexico. Medical zero-days for sale, and not on the black market. SamSam continues to spread. What to look for in bad bots. Patched vulnerabilities are being weaponized at higher rates. Proof-of-concept car hacking demonstration shows in-vehicle infotainment system vulnerabilities. And when you see t...

In today's podcast, we hear about an attempted banking hack in Mexcio. Hidden Cobra gets busy around diplomacy. The FacexWorm adds cryptomining functionality. SamSam ransomware looks to catpure entire enterprises. A Sunday Times investigation finds that Russian Twitterbots tried to swing British voters toward Labour. The US House Intelligence Committee has released its report on influence operatio...

Researchers at Trend Micro recently discovered a backdoor targeting MacOS users that they believe is the work of the OceanLotus threat group, an organization previously thought to have launched targeted attacks against human rights organizations, media organizations, research institutes, and maritime construction firms. Mark Nunnikhoven is VP of Cloud Research at Trend Micro, and he explains what...

In today's podcast we hear that Rubella hits the shelves of the criminal black market—it's the crimeware kit, not the German measles. Necurs gets shifty by going retro. iPhone unlocking specialists endure an apparently minor breach. The sad story of structural extremism on the Internet. Finland says the Russians are coming there, too. Snooper's Charter setback. Proposed bill would make it easier f...

In today's podcast we hear about another exposed data base, trouble with routers, issues with storage cameras, and problems with storage devices. Some have been promptly fixed, but others are offering users Hobson's choice: take it or leave it. An apparent ransomware campaign says payment demands are "non-negotiable," unless, of course, you happen to be Russian, in which case, let's talk. Citizen...