CyberWire Daily

In today's podcast, we hear that CoinHive was installed via a misconfigured AWS S3 bucket. Unintentional password collection. Threat and risk trends for 2018. Avalanche phisher king rearrested in Kiev. Huawei says it's being picked on. Apple makes nice with Beijing. Industry notes—controlling interests and an ICS security Series B round. Reality Winner wants her confession suppressed. Hal Martin's...

In today's podcast, we hear that anonymous US Intelligence sources call the Olympic hacks a Russian false flag operation. More cyberattacks are expected from the infrastructure set up to hit the Games. Calls for international norms for cyber conflict rise. CrowdStrike's Global Threat Report sees proliferation and commodification of attack tools. Ad network serves cryptojacker. Malicious smartphone...

Or Katz is principal lead security researcher for Akamai's Enterprise Security Business Unit, and the research he’s sharing today is a widespread phishing campaign targeting users using an advertising tactic. The research is titled, “Gone Phishing for the Holidays." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's podcast we hear, OMG, that Mirai is out in a new and improved form. Researchers find buggy smart contracts on Ethereum. A Chase glitch briefly exposed banking customers' information to other banking customers. Hacktivists continue to hit spyware companies. Verizon's Mobile Index warns that mobile security is being traded for business efficiencies. Thales looks at data security and finds...

In today's podcast, we hear that counterfeit certificates are on sale in criminal souks. Cybercrime is said to cost $600 billion globally every year. Russia objects to being called a bad actor in cyberspace. North Korea's Reaper threat actor steps out from the shadow of its big brother, the Lazarus Group. Catphish from Lebanon spread spyware through Facebook. Israel says it gave Australia a cyber...

In today's podcast, we hear that SWIFT phishbait is hitting inboxes. North Korean hackers show fresh sophistication and new ambitions. Fancy Bear seems to be snuffling east. Monero miners in Word, and why cryptojacking for Bitcoin is harder than it is for other currencies. The Coldroot RAT hides in plain sight. The US Departments of Justice and Homeland Security undertake new approaches to electio...

In today's podcast we hear that SWIFT fraud has hit an Indian lender. North Korean hacking continues, even during the DPRK's Winter Olympics charm offensive. US indicts Russian influence operators—the Internet Research Agency is the leading defendant. Russian trolling continues, exploiting the Florida school shooting. (And the alleged shooter apparently expressed his intentions online.) Rick Howar...

The research we’re discussing today is called, “Beware the Hex Men”, and it tracks multiple attack campaigns conducted by a Chinese threat actor. The GuardiCore Labs team identified three attack variants that they named Hex, Hanako and Taylor, targeting SQL servers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's podcast, we hear more about Olympic Destroyer: its relationship status with known threat actors is "complicated." The US joins the UK in blaming Russia for NotPetya, and seems to be considering sanctions. The US Congress considers election security, and considers a state-level option: let governors call in the National Guard. New York cyber law reaches its second milestone. Zulfikar Ram...

In today's podcast we hear that Olympic Destroyer may have started with a supply-chain compromise back in December. The British Foreign Office blames Russia for NotPetya pseudoransomware, and the Russian Foreign Ministry says they didn't do anything. Trend Micro researchers find a new Monero cryptomining campaign underway. Coinherder phishes in alt-coin wallets. The Satori botnet has expanded its...

In today's podcast, we hear that Olympic Destroyer exploits EternalRomance and morphs as it moves from machine to machine. Other Olympic hacks are out there, too. The US Intelligence Community tells Congress to expect a more assertive Iran, Russia, and North Korea in cyberspace. They also forecast more election influence operations. General Nakasone has been nominated to succeed Admiral Rogers at...

In today's podcast, we hear that Patch Tuesday will not include a Skype fix—that one will take some time and attention. Olympic Destroyer is the malware thought to be infesting the Winter Games. Attribution remains unclear, but a lot of suspicious eyes are looking at you, Mr. Putin.  The Lazarus Group is stepping up its cryptocurrency stealing game. Questions swirl around the alleged BitGrail cryp...

In today's podcast we hear that the the Winter Olympics report ongoing hacking. Cryptojacker hits government websites in the UK, Australia, and the US. Engineers use a research institute's supercomputer to mine Bitcoin in Sarov, Russia. The Equifax breach may be bigger and worse than hitherto believed. The Sacramento Bee deletes encrypted database rather than pay ransom. IBM patches Spectre and Me...

IcedID is a banking trojan recently discovered and tracked by IBM's X-Force research team, targeting banks, payment card providers, mobile services providers, payroll, webmail and e-commerce sites in the U.S.  Limor Kessem is an executive security advisor with IBM Security. She returns to Research Saturday to describe what she and her team found. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.f...

In today's podcast we hear that phishing has gotten more personal with conversation hijacking and attempts on direct deposit instructions. The Olympics have opened: do you know where your hackers are? Apple finds leaked iOS source code on Github. Cryptominers found in hospital systems. Litecoin picks up black market share. Notes on recent patches. Concerns about Russian influence operations contin...

In today's podcast we hear that Operation Shadow Web has tken down the Infraud criminal carding gang. Two more Fancy Bear sightings—one in voter databases, one in Defense contractor emails. North Korea may have purchased its Flash Player zero-day from a third-party. Cryptojacking hits a European water utility. US Senate considers banning Huawei and ZTE from Federal use. Johannes Ullrich on cryptoc...

In today's podcast we hear that Dutch police have made an arrest in last week's financial sector DDoS case: it's a teenager. North Korean interest in stealing cryptocurrency remains high. Adobe patches the zero-day Pyongyang had exploited against Seoul. Hardware wallets found vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks. Crytpojacking trends. US regulators take a hard look at alt-coins and how they're...

In today's podcast, we hear that the Shadow Broker exploits have now been found to be more exploitable. Cryptocurrency miners are recognized as a problem: MacUpdate sustained a brief infestation late last week, and a new Android mining campaign takes a page from Mirai's playbook. Smominru botnet rakes in $3.6 million. T-Mobile warns of SIM-hijacking. Comment period extended for NIST Special Public...

In today's podcast, we hear that Flash Player is being exploited by DPRK's TEMP.Reaper, also known as Group 123. ISIS may have a hacker help-wanted sign out. JenX botnet update. Scareby ransomware tells victims it will shred their files if they don't pay up. The Nunes Memo remains a political Rohrschach Test. A Japanese teenager is arrested for writing cryptocurrency-stealing code. Lauri Love will...

Adware is generally considered unsophisticated, and because of its low perceived threat level it's often ignored. Researchers at the Booz Allen Dark Labs' Advanced Threat Hunt Team have recently published research describing a more advanced type of adware, using infection techniques usually attributed to nation-state actors.  Jay Novak is a threat hunter and tech lead at Booz Allen, and he takes u...

In today's podcast, we hear that the JenX botnet will conduct DDoS-for-hire, if you've got twenty bucks. South Korea's CERT warns of an Adobe Flash Player zero-day being exploited in the wild. Bitcoin's price drops below $9000, but miners and scammers are still after this and other cryptocurrencies. BeeToken's ICO is used to phish for Ethereum. ICS security reflections in the wake of the Triton/Tr...

In today's podcast, we hear that ISIS inspiration is increasingly directed at children. Cryptomining botnets use same EternalBlue exploit as WannaCry. Criminals experiment to weaponize Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. Phishing campaigns exploit well-known services including Google Docs and Outlook. Patch notes. Ben Yelin from UMD CHHS on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners ado...

In today's podcast we hear about a possible Charming Kitten sighting. Phishing in Tibet shows just how successful cheap skid labor can be. Cisco patches a serious flaw in VPN products. Fitness app Strava says it will work to close privacy holes. Experts say you're just a tap away from giving yourself away, and it's not just Strava, not by a long shot. South Korea considers how cryptocurrency might...

In today's podcast we hear that the Dutch financial sector is well on its way to recovering from the recent DDoS wave, which could be the work of anyone from teenaged skids to some nation's intelligence service. Lizard Squad may have a connection to Mirai. The reptiles are also getting into the coin mining business. Patient phishing relieves IOTA cryptocurrency users of the contents of their walle...

In today's podcast, we hear that hackers have looted cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck to the tune of about $530 million. Experty's ICO speculators get phished by crooks. Jackpotting hits American ATMs. The Dridex banking Trojan apparently has a ransomware sibling: FriedEx. Transduction attacks could hit IoT sensors. Steganographic app "Muslim Crypt" is designed for jihadist communication. North K...