Research Saturday

The electric utility industry is a valuable target for adversaries seeking to exploit industrial control systems (ICS) and operations technology (OT) for a variety of purposes. As adversaries and their sponsors invest more effort and money into obtaining effects-focused capabilities, the risk of a disruptive or destructive attack on the electric sector significantly increases. Selena Larson from D...

Some of our favorite and most trusted IoT devices help make us feel secure in our homes. From garage door openers to the locks on our front doors, we trust these devices to recognize and alert us when people are entering our home. It should come as no surprise that these too are subject to attack.  Steve Povolny is head of advanced research at McAfee; we discuss a pair of research projects they re...

Multiple e-commerce and financial organizations around the world are targeted by cybercriminals attempting to bypass or disable their security mechanisms, in some cases by using tools that imitate the activities of legitimate users. Linken Sphere, an anti-detection browser, is one of the most popular tools of this kind at the moment. Staffan Truvé is the CTO and Co-Founder of Recorded Future, he j...

Unit 42 (the Palo Alto Networks threat intelligence team) released new research on a Jira vulnerability that’s leaking data of technology, industrial and media organizations in the public cloud. The vulnerability (a Server Side Request Forgery -- SSRF) is the same type that led to the Capital One data breach in July 2019. Jen Miller-Osborn is the Deputy Director of Threat Intelligence for Unit 42...

Dan Woods is VP of the intelligence center and Shape Security. He shares insights on two noteworthy attacks tools, Genesis and Magecart. Before joining Shape Security Dan served as assistant chief agent of special investigations at the Arizona attorney general's office, where he investigated complex fraud. Prior to that, he spent 20 years with federal law enforcement agencies and intelligence orga...

Researchers at BlackBerry Cylance have been tracking ordinary WAV audio files being used to carry hidden malicious data used by threat actors.  Eric Milam is VP of threat research and intelligence at BlackBerry Cylance, and he joins us to share their findings. The research can be found here: https://threatvector.cylance.com/en_us/home/malicious-payloads-hiding-beneath-the-wav.html Learn more about...

Researchers at Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 recently published research outlining attacks on home and small-business routers, taking advantage of known vulnerabilities to make the routers parts of botnets, ultimately used to attack gaming servers. Jen Miller-Osborn is the Deputy Director of Threat Intelligence for Unit 42 at Palo Alto Networks. She joins us to share their findings. The research can...

Researchers at Anomali have been tracking China-based threat group, Mustang Panda, believing them to be responsible for attacks making clever use of Windows shortcut files.  Parthiban is a researcher at Anomali, and he joins us to share their findings. The research is here: https://www.anomali.com/blog/china-based-apt-mustang-panda-targets-minority-groups-public-and-private-sector-organizations Le...

Researchers at McAfee's Advanced Threat Research Team have been analyzing Sodinokibi ransomware as a service, also known as REvil. John Fokker is head of cyber investigations for McAfee Advanced Threat Research, and he joins us to share their findings. The research is here: https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/other-blogs/mcafee-labs/mcafee-atr-analyzes-sodinokibi-aka-revil-ransomware-as-a-service-...

Researchers from Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 have been tracking a Chinese cyber espionage group they've named PKPLUG. The group mainly targets victims in the Southeast Asia region. Ryan Olson is VP of threat intelligence at Palo Alto Networks, and he joins us to share their findings. The original research is here: https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/pkplug_chinese_cyber_espionage_group_attacking_a...

Until recently, usability was often an afterthought when developing security tools. These days there's growing realization that usability is a fundamental part of security. Lorrie Cranor is director of the CyLab Usable Privacy and Security lab (CUPS) at Carnegie Mellon University. She shares the work she's been doing with her colleagues and students to improve security through usability. The resea...

Researchers at Juniper Networks have been tracking a trojan they call Masad Stealer, which uses the Telegram instant messaging platform for part it its command and control infrastructure. (Telegram wasn't hacked; it's the innocent conduit.) Mounir Hahad is head of Juniper Threat Labs at Juniper Networks and he joins us to share their findings The original research is here: https://forums.juniper.n...

Researchers at Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) recently published a report titled SOHOpelessly Broken 2.0, Security Vulnerabilities in Network Accessible Services. This publication continues and expands previous work they did examining small office/home office (SOHO) routers, network-attached storage devices (NAS), and IP cameras.  Shaun Mirani is a security analyst at ISE, and he joins us t...

Michael Gillespie is a programmer at Emsisoft, as well as a host of the popular ID Ransomware web site that helps victims identify what strain of ransomware they may have been infected with, and what decryptors may be available. He's written many decryptors himself, most recently for the Syrk strain of ransomware.  Links to the research and Michael's work: https://blog.emsisoft.com/en/33885/emsiso...

Researchers at FireEye recently released a report detailing the activities of APT41, a Chinese cyber threat group notable for the range of tools they use, their origins in the world of video gaming, and their willingness to shift from seemingly state-sponsored activity to hacking for personal gain.  Nalani Fraser and Fred Plan contributed to the report, and they join us to share their findings. Th...

Researchers at Prevalion have been tracking a malware campaign making use of antiquated file formats and social engineering to target specific groups.  Danny Adamitis and Elizabeth Wharton are coauthors of the report, and they join us to share their findings. The research can be found here: https://blog.prevailion.com/2019/09/autumn-aperture-report.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit mega...

Many users of inexpensive internet routers use guest network functionality to help secure their home networks. Researchers at Ben Gurion University have discovered methods for defeating these security measures. Dr. Yossi Oren joins us to share their findings. The original research is here: https://www.usenix.org/system/files/woot19-paper_ovadia.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone...

A team of researchers have published a report titled, "KNOB Attack. Key Negotiation of Bluetooth Attack: Breaking Bluetooth Security." The report outlines vulnerabilities in the Bluetooth standard, along with mitigations to prevent them.  Daniele Antonioli is from Singapore University of Technology and Design, and is one of the researchers studying KNOB. He joins us to share their findings. The re...

Researchers at McAfee's Advanced Threat Research Team recently published the results of their investigation into a popular VOIP system, where they discovered a well-know, decade-old vulnerability in open source software used on the platform.  Steve Povolny serves as the Head of Advanced Threat Research at McAfee, and he joins us to share their findings. The original research can be found here: htt...

The Emotet malware came on the scene in 2014 as a banking trojan and has since evolved in sophistication and shifted its business model. Researchers at Bromium have taken a detailed look at Emotet, and malware analyst Alex Holland joins us to share their findings. The research can be found here: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.bromium.com/resource/emotet-a-technical-analysis-of-the-destru...

Researchers at Distil Networks have been tracking online bots targeting ecommerce gift card systems of major online retailers. The threat actors show remarkable resourcefulness and adaptability. Jonathan Butler is technical account team manager at Distil Networks, part of Imperva, and he joins to share their findings. The research can be found here: https://resources.distilnetworks.com/all-blog-po...

Researchers from King’s College London, University of Bristol, Boston University, and University of Melbourne recently collaborated to publish a report titled, "Automatically Dismantling Online Dating Fraud." The research outlines techniques to analyze and identify fraudulent online dating profiles with a high degree of accuracy. Professor Awais Rashid is one of the report's authors, and he joins...

Researchers at Cisco's Talos Unit recently published research exploring the tactics, technics and procedures of the global malvertising ecosystem. Craig Williams is head of Talos Outreach at Cisco, and he guides us through the life cycle of malicious online ads, along with tips for protecting yourself and your organization. The research can be found here:  https://blog.talosintelligence.com/2019/0...

Researchers at Reversing Labs have been tracking malware hidden in software package manager repositories, and it's use as a supply chain attack vector. Robert Perica is a principal engineer at Reversing Labs, and he joins us to share their findings.  The research can be found here: https://blog.reversinglabs.com/blog/suppy-chain-malware-detecting-malware-in-package-manager-repositories Learn more...

Researchers at bot mitigation firm White Ops have been tracking fraudulent apps in the Google Play store. These apps often imitate legitimate apps, even going so far as to lift code directly from them, but instead of providing true functionality they harvest user data and send it back to command and control servers. Marcelle Lee is a principal threat intel researcher at White Ops, and she shares t...