CyberWire Daily

In today's podcast, we talk about thinking twice before opening pictures received via Facebook Messenger. A recruiting site exposes GitHub profiles. Investigation of credential abuse in the Three Mobile upgrade fraud continues. Fortinet warns German users against an Android banking Trojan. Much advice on how to stay safe online during holiday shopping is out. Symantec plans to buy LifeLock, and Op...

In today's podcast, we hear about US DNI Clapper's long-expected resignation and his contention that attributing election hacking to Russia seems to have induced Moscow to "curtail" such operations. The UK arrests suspects in an upgrade fraud scheme suffered by Three Mobile and its customers. Updates on Android spyware and banking Trojans. Siri might be helping bypass your iPhone's lockscreen. The...

In today's podcast, we hear about German concerns over Russian meddling in elections. In the US, the NSA Director says a nation-state made a conscious attempt to influence American elections. Dictators can use social media, too, it seems. Huawei and ZTE reassure customers about the Adups backdoor. Holiday shopping security warnings are out, and they're not just about online purchases, either—watch...

In today's podcast, we hear about some lawful intercept tools that have been found prospecting Android. Synack calls shenanigans on Shazam, but maybe no harm, no foul. Carbanak turns from banks to hospitality. Insider threats and how to mitigate them—if you've got a facility clearance, you've got a deadline coming up, and Steven Grossman from Bay Dynamics explains what it means. Arlington Capital...

In today's podcast we hear about a backdoor Kryptowire has found preinstalled in some Android phones. We speak with Ryan Johnson, the researcher who discovered the vulnerability.  The Locky ransomware takes a run at US Army Cyber Command. CrySis ransomware is decrypted. SpamTorte 2.0 is out, and it's thinking big. A Trojan may be implicated in the Tesco fraud campaign, and it may have more banks i...

In today's podcast, we follow up on last week's DDoS against Russian banks. Fancy Bear's been poking at think tanks, and ESET has a rundown of Fancy's fancies over the last couple of years. DDoS can be low and slow as well as high and noisy. Banks consider cyber lessons learned from Tesco heists. International recruiter Michael Page blames a third-party for data loss. Canada's Casino Rama—that's t...

In today's podcast, we look back at election hacking concerns in the US (most of which didn't happen) and we hear from some people who offer advice for the next administration's first 100 days. Fancy Bear is phishing with Adobe and Microsoft zero-days. Investigation of the Tesco fraud continues. It looks as if the Bangladesh Bank might recover some of its losses in the SWIFT heist. There's an OPM-...

In today's podcast we look at Patch Tuesday: Microsoft closes thirteen vulnerabilities (five of them "critical"), Adobe fixes Flash Player, and Google addresses Android issues. "Trigger-based" mobile malware, and why it's hard to see. Why usability matters to security. Tesco continues to recover from ATM fraud. Canadian police surveillance is scrutinized. Thermostat trouble in Finland. The Johns H...

In today's podcast we hear that US authorities are ready for election hacking, but assess the risk as low. (The information operations, however, seem to be another matter.) Flashpoint sees Mirai being fragmented in a black-market market correction. Users in Turkey flee censorship into Tor. Operation Hyperion shuts down a lot of dark web nastiness. Tesco fraud investigations continue. Palo Alto's R...

In today's podcast, we offer an Election Day Eve round-up of current cyber tensions, especially between the US and Russia: influence operations for sure, disruption possibly, vote manipulation maybe (but probably not). Ukrainian hacktivists continue to dox a major Putin consigliere. UK retail bank Tesco shuts down online operations due to a wave of fraud. Ben Yelin from the University of Maryland...

In today's podcast, we hear about how Liberia has sustained a significant DDoS attack (Mirai is behind it). Linux/Moose is also on the IoT loose. Hospitals in the UK continue to recover from ransomware attacks. Anonymous doesn't like ISIS, but it also doesn't like the governments who are fighting the Caliphate. Exaspy malware targets business leaders' Android phones. A new joint venture is poised...

In today's podcast we hear about how fallout from the FBI investigation of former Congressman Wiener continues to drop onto the Clinton campaign. WikiLeaks' Assange says he'll continue to dox, but denies he's doing so with Russian help. Iot-driven DDoS fears continue. A new exploit kit is replacing earlier stars in the criminal firmament. Jonathan Katz from the University of Maryland describes an...

In today's podcast, we hear about the Microsoft and Google disagreement over public vulnerability disclosure (with a side of Fancy Bear). We also get some industry reactions to the dispute. Terbium takes a good look at the dark web and finds it's not as uniformly sinister as many believe. Google and Mozilla move to reject dodgy certificates. NIST releases a job map. Anonymous gets a grade of incom...

In today's podcast we hear that the Shadow Brokers are back, and again mangling English like a bad scriptwriter doing Ensign Chekhov fan-fiction. Russian leaders continue to scoff at American elections, and WikiLeaks continues to leak. Microsoft doesn't patch fast enough to suit Google. Researchers consider the scope, threat, and mitigation of the Mirai IoT botnet. We welcome Rick Howard from Palo...

In today's Halloween podcast, we consider post mortems on the October IoT distributed denial-of-service attacks, which suggest there are bigger problems than just factory settings. Recalls of potentially compromised devices continue, and some think about hacking back. (A hint—think twice.) HackForums pulls down its network stressor offerings. South Korea says the North is up to more cyber badness....

On today's podcast, we hear that ransomware is still with us. A new study of online fraud is out, and one lesson is, it's better to take some, any, precaution than to whistle and hope for the best. The Australian Red Cross suffers a data breach affecting more than a million blood donors' records. Windows seems to suffer from an exploitable vulnerability—how serious it may prove remains to be seen....

In this CyberWire Podcast Special Edition, we examine the current state of cyber security education, speak to experts in the field, and learn about what it’s going to take to prepare the next generation of cyber security professionals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today's podcast, we hear more about the IoT worries people are sharing about both industrial systems and consumer-grade products. Iot device recalls continue. Analysts expect there are more, and worse, DDoS attacks to come. Cyber espionage surfaces again in the Middle East. Yisroel Mirsky from Ben-Gurion University on machine learning research. Thomas Pore from Plixer on the Mirai botnet source...

In today's podcast, we hear that Friday's Dyn DDoS may have been the work of skids and script kiddies, not high-end Russian spies. A recall of vulnerable IoT devices proceeds. Utilities see the DDoS attacks as a warning shot—they should maybe start by getting rid of all those pagers? ISIS tweaks its online messaging to point out that the Caliphate is enduring a divinely ordained period of trial. C...

In today's podcast we hear about some who think that IoT botnets may be best considered an instance of a more general problem with poorly secured endpoints. Good digital hygiene can be good digital citizenship. IoT device recalls follow the DDoS against Dyn. Attribution of the attacks remains up in the air—Clapper looks at "multinational hackers, Jester looks at Russia (and Russia looks at Jester...

In today's podcast we hear about how, while the Internet has recovered from Friday's DDoS attacks on DNS provider Dyn, its users are suffering a significant hangover. No attribution, but the Jester thinks he's (she's? they're) on the case. Observers see significant potential for more damaging IoT-based attacks to come. Virginia Tech's Dr. Charles Clancy weighs in on quantum computers and encryptio...

In today's podcast we follow the developing story of intermittent DDoS attacks affecting Internet sites throughout the US East Coast. Hotspot vigilantes try to get Julian Assange reconnected inside Ecuador's London embassy. More election documents appear in WikiLeaks. Russia offers to monitor US elections. NSA's Director talks about labor force issues. The University of Maryland's Jonathan Katz ex...

In today's podcast we hear about Czech authorities' arrest of a Russian man in connection with 2012's LinkedIn hack. US response to Russian election hacking is still under preparation. IoT botnets proliferate as Mirai source code spreads through the criminal underground. Some 200 strains of ransomware are reported in the wild. Financial regulators push greater security. Muddy Waters and St. Jude c...

In today's podcast, we hear that Ecuador has told the world they cut Assange's Internet connection (but will continue his asylum), and that they did so on their own. Russia Today remains predictably unconvinced. WikiLeaks shows no signs of stopping election doxing. The US may be considering a campaign of counter-embarrassment as its response to Russian information operations. Fallout from the Yaho...

In today's podcast we hear the current skinny on hacking the US elections. WikiLeaks' Assange lives, but he seems to be offline, and RT gets dumped by its British bank. The US continues to make noises about retaliating against Russian hackers. Russia sheds crocodile tweets over American gasconade. A retired general pleads guilty to lying to the FBI. The Shadow Brokers say, really, they want someon...