DISCARDED: Tales From the Threat Research Trenches

Send us fan mail! Threat actors always take the path of least resistance to their payday. But it's a mistake to think they aren't willing to put in the work to get a human to hand feed them. Their attempts to manipulate their targets into taking action are called social engineering. What role do people play in cybersecurity? In this episode, Daniel Blackford, Threat Researcher at Proofpo...

Send us fan mail! When you think about the most costly threat by personal losses, most people will assume ransomware. The real threat, however, is business email compromise (BEC). But why aren’t more companies talking about it, then? In this episode, Tim Kromphardt and Jake G. explain BEC and why organizations need to start paying more attention. Join us as we discuss: The definition of BEC &...

Send us fan mail! Chinese Threat Actor TA416, otherwise known as Mustang Panda, has been active for a long time, and every time they get knocked down, they get up again.  In this episode, Michael Raggi, Senior Threat Researcher, and Pim Trouerbach, Senior Reverse Engineer, both with Proofpoint, give us an overview of TA416 — the “Tubthumping” villains of the threat landscape.  Join us as we discus...

Send us fan mail! Cybercriminals. They’re just like us.  With the Russia Ukraine conflict, Conti found itself at odds with internal team members over the issue — Eventually leading to self destruction. Which begs the question: Are these organizations as impenetrable as we thought?  In this episode, we hear from Andrew Northern, Senior Threat Researcher at Proofpoint, about the resurrection of the...

Send us fan mail! How are threat actors like Olympic snowboard halfpipe athletes? When their good tricks get stolen by competitors, they add new ones to their repertoire. In this episode, we hear from Joe Wise, Threat Researcher at Proofpoint, about the latest tricks from TA2541 (and why it’s so fun to research that group). Join us as we discuss: Changes that TA2541 has made over time Their curren...

Send us fan mail! Until recently, threat actors haven’t really invested much time in MFA phish kits because not a lot of people used MFA. (Everyone needs MFA, full stop.) Consequently, threat actors are using more advanced multi-factor authentication-enabled phish kits. Find out why in our first episode of DISCARDED, where we hear from Tim Kromphardt, Email Threat Researcher at Proofpoint, about w...

Send us fan mail! If you asked for M&M’s and received Skittles, you might pop a few in your mouth, but it won’t take long to realize something’s off. This is exactly what’s happening with RTF files: Instead of the intended attachment, unaware companies are delivering these files and realizing later that they were actually malicious. On this episode of Protecting People, hosts Selena Larson and...