CyberWire Daily

Social engineer and CEO of Hekate, Marina Ciavatta, shares her story of how people think her job is a la Mission Impossible coming from the ceiling with a rope and stealing stuff in the dead of the night. Marina does physical pentesting. Starting with an unused degree in journalism, Marina turned her talent for writing into a job as a content producer for a technology company and this appealed to...

This episode features guest Alissa Knight, former hacker and partner at Knight Ink, along with Karl Mattson, CISO from Noname Security, discussing findings on severe API vulnerabilities in U.S. banking applications research that was conducted by Alissa and funded by Noname Security. The research, “Scorched Earth: Hacking Bank APIs,” unveils a number of vulnerabilities in the banking, cryptocurrenc...

A large-scale cyberattack against Ukrainian websites looks like an influence operation, and Russian intelligence services are the prime suspects. The FSB raids REvil. The White House Open Source Software Security Summit looks toward software bills of materials. MuddyWater exploits Log4shell. The DPRK is working to steal cryptocurrency. Caleb Barlow shares the consequences of the 3G network shutdow...

A White House government-industry summit today addresses open-source software security. The US officially makes its second attribution of the week to a nation-state: it calls out Iran as the operator of the MuddyWater threat group. Israel arrests five on charges related to spying for Iran (they’re thought to have been recruited through catphishing). Citizen Lab finds Pegasus in Salvadoran phones....

The US issues an alert over the prospect of Russian cyberattacks, and the EU begins a series of stress tests, both in apparent response to concerns over the prospect of a Russian attack on Ukraine. NIST updates its guidance on Engineering Trustworthy Secure Systems. NIght Sky ransomware exploits Log4shell. Phishing afflicts a hotel chain. Carole Theriault examines international efforts to stop dig...

Log4shell as an instance of a more general software supply chain issue. An APT apparently mistakenly infects itself with its own RAT. A new backdoor, SysJoker, is in use in the wild. A warning on commercial surveillance software. A leak investigation continues in Denmark. Joe Carrigan explains bogus QR codes. Our guest is Casey Allen of Concentric on cyber vulnerabilities in automobiles. And, Euro...

CISA describes progress toward remediating Log4shell. Other open-source libraries are found to have similar issues, in one case problems deliberately introduced by the developer. Concerns are expressed over undersea cable security. FIN7’s BadUSB campaign. Security questions about another Chinese-made phone. Our guest is Bob Maley from Black Kite on their report - The Government Called, Are You Rea...

Senior Vice President and Executive in Residence with Rapid7 and Chairman for Cyversity, Julian Waits, grew up in the era of the Justice League and Superman and it shaped his career. Julian always wanted to do something where he could find a way to help society to basically help others. Starting out as a Baptist minister with aspirations of being a professional musician, Julian found it more pract...

Guest Rob Boyce, Accenture's Global Lead for Cyber Incident Response and Transformation Services, joins Dave to discuss their research "Karakurt rises from its lair." Accenture Security has identified a new threat group, the self-proclaimed Karakurt Hacking Team, that has impacted over 40 victims across multiple geographies. The threat group is financially motivated, opportunistic in nature, and s...

Kazakhstan shuts down its Internet as civil unrest continues (and one consequence is a disruption of alt-coin mining in that country). The UK’s NHS warns of unknown threat actors exploiting Log4j bugs in unpatched VMware Horizon servers. In the US, CISA continues to assist Federal agencies with Log4j remediation, and observers call for more Government support of open-source software security. A ma...

ICS vendors address Log4j vulnerabilities. Regulators and legislators think about addressing issues in the software supply chain. Ransomware gangs were quick to exploit Log4shell. An old, and patched, Windows vulnerability is being exploited by the Malsmoke gang. Social engineering of Google Docs users is up. Mr. Klyshin pleads not guilty. Robert M. Lee from Dragos makes the case for salary transp...

CISA says US Federal agencies are now largely in compliance with Log4j risk mitigation guidance. The FTC issues advice and a warning on Log4j to US businesses. A skimmer is installed through cloud-delivered video. The Vice Society’s ransomware is meddling with supermarket operations in the UK. The Atlantic Council offers advice on strategy for the grey zone. Hacktivists are expected to punish gree...

It’s going to take time, vigilance, and attention to detail to manage the Log4j risks. A North Korean APT is trying to install the Konni RAT into Russian diplomats’ devices. More hacktivist-looking incidents follow the anniversary of Iranian General Soleimani’s death. Other, self-inflicted, software supply chain incidents. The Kremlin is said to be worried about what Mr. Klyushin might tell the Am...

Aquatic Panda has been found working Log4shell exploits against an academic institution. Apache fixes new Log4j issues reported last week, and Microsoft also updates Windows Defender to address Log4j risks. Cyberattacks, criminal or hacktivist in motivation, hit news outlets around the new year. Microsoft works on fixing a Y2K22 bug in on-premise Exchange Server. Andrea Little Limbago from Interos...

Head of Cyber Governance with Red Sift, Dr. Rois Ni Thuama shares the circuitous route of her career into cyber governance. She notes the route "looks really clean, but actually it was a bit more Jeremy Bearimy." While at Trinity College, Rois was moved to be part of history unfolding in South Africa and pause her studies. While there, she began making music videos and wildlife documentaries. Upon...

Industry experts discuss their cybersecurity predictions for 2022, what trends and attacks will be most prevalent in the year ahead, and how organizations should be preparing for the new year. In this show, we cover what they think the industry might see in 2022 (and some we probably won't see). The CyberWire's Rick Howard speaks with Hash Table member Kevin Magee, Chief Security Officer at Micros...

Our guest Doel Santos, Threat Research Analyst at Palo Alto Networks, joins Dave Bittner to talk about Unit 42's work on "Ransomware Groups to Watch: Emerging Threats." As part of Unit 42’s commitment to stop ransomware attacks, they monitor the activity of existing groups, search for dark web leak sites and fresh onion sites, identify up-and-coming players and study tactics, techniques and proced...

During our winter break, our team thought you might like to try a sample of a CyberWire Pro podcast called Interview Selects. These podcasts are a series of extended interviews, exclusives, and a curated selection of our most engaging and informative interviews over the years, featuring cyber security professionals, journalists, authors and industry insiders. On this episode, the interview origina...

During our winter break, our team thought you might like to try a sample of a CyberWire Pro podcast called Interview Selects. These podcasts are a series of extended interviews, exclusives, and a curated selection of our most engaging and informative interviews over the years, featuring cyber security professionals, journalists, authors and industry insiders. On this episode, the interview origina...

During our winter break, our team thought you might like to try a sample of a CyberWire Pro podcast called Interview Selects. These podcasts are a series of extended interviews, exclusives, and a curated selection of our most engaging and informative interviews over the years, featuring cyber security professionals, journalists, authors and industry insiders. On this episode, the interview origina...

During our winter break, our team thought you might like to try a sample of a CyberWire Pro podcast called Interview Selects. These podcasts are a series of extended interviews, exclusives, and a curated selection of our most engaging and informative interviews over the years, featuring cyber security professionals, journalists, authors and industry insiders. On this episode, the interview origina...

Historian and Curator at the International Spy Museum. Dr. Andrew Hammond, shares how he came to share the history of espionage and intelligence as a career. Starting out in the Royal Air Force when 9/11 happened, Andrew found himself trying to understand what was going on in the world. Studying history and international relations gave him some perspective and led him on his career path which incl...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the CyberWire and our friends! Enjoy our rendition of the 12 Days of Malware created by Dave Bittner and performed by Dave and friends: Rachel Tobac, Jayson Street, Ron Eddings & Chris Cochran, Ray [Redacted], Dinah Davis, Camille Stewart, Rick Howard, Michelle Dennedy, Jack Rhysider, Johannes Ullrich, and Charity Wright. Ba dum bum bum. Sing along if you ar...

Enjoy a peek into CyberWire Pro's Research Briefing as the team is off taking our long winter's nap. This is the spoken edition of our weekly Research Briefing, focused on threats, vulnerabilities, and consequences, as they’re played out in cyberspace. This week's headlines: US Commission on International Religious Freedom reportedly hacked. Sophistication of NSO exploit on par with nation-state t...

During our winter break, our team thought you might like to try a sample of a CyberWire Pro podcast called Interview Selects. These podcasts are a series of extended interviews, exclusives, and a curated selection of our most engaging and informative interviews over the years, featuring cyber security professionals, journalists, authors and industry insiders. On this episode, the interview origina...