CyberWire Daily

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SIM swap scammer pleads guilty. Mar 19, 2024

Show notes

A SIM-swapper faces prison and fines. Here come the class action suits against UnitedHealth Group. Aviation and Aerospace find themselves in the cyber crosshairs. A major mortgage lender suffers a major data breach. A look at election misinformation. The UK shares guidance on migrating SCADA systems to the cloud. Collaborative efforts to contain Smoke Loader. Trend Micro uncovers Earth Krahang. Troy Hunt weighs in on the alleged AT&T data breach. Ben Yelin unpacks the case between OpenAI and the New York Times. And fool me once, shame on you…

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CyberWire Guest

Ben Yelin, Program Director at University of Maryland’s Center for Health and Homeland Security and cohost of our Caveat podcast, discusses the article on how “OpenAI says New York Times ‘hacked’ ChatGPT to build copyright lawsuit.”

Selected Reading

District of New Jersey | Former Telecommunications Company Manager Admits Role in SIM Swapping Scheme (United States Department of Justice)

Cash-Strapped Women's Clinic Sues UnitedHealth Over Attack (Gov Info Security)

Nations Direct Mortgage Data Breach Impacts 83,000 Individuals (SecurityWeek)

Preparing Society for AI-Driven Disinformation in the 2024 Election Cycle (SecurityWeek)

NCSC Publishes Security Guidance for Cloud-Hosted SCADA (Infosecurity Magazine)

Unit 42 Collaborative Research With Ukraine’s Cyber Agency To Uncover the Smoke Loader Backdoor (Palo Alto Networks Unit 42)

Prolific Chinese Threat Campaign Targets 100+ Victims (Infosecurity Magazine)

Troy Hunt: Inside the Massive Alleged AT&T Data Breach (Troy Hunt)

Kids’ Cartoons Get a Free Pass From YouTube’s Deepfake Disclosure Rules (WIRED)

Ransomware Groups: Trust Us. Uh, Don't. (BankInfoSecurity)

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Roselle Safran: So much opportunity. [Entrepreneur] [Career Notes] Mar 19, 2024

Show notes

CEO and Founder of KeyCaliber, Roselle Safran, takes us on her circuitous career journey from startup to White House and back to startup again. With a degree in civil engineering, Roselle veered off into a more technical role at a startup and she says "caught the startup bug." After convincing a hiring manager that she could learn on the job, she transitioned to computer forensics and started on the path of cybersecurity. Roselle worked in government for the Department of Homeland Security and then to the Executive Office of the President leading all of the security operations. She jumped back into the world of startups and has stayed there. Roselle tells people interested in a career in cybersecurity to just apply. Learn as much as you can and go for it. We thank Roselle for sharing her story with us.

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The hot pursuit of Volt Typhoon. Mar 18, 2024

Show notes

Volt Typhoon retains the attention of US investigators. The IMF reports a cyber breach. Fujitsu finds malware on internal systems. Securonix researchers describe DEEP#GOSU targeting South Korea. Subsea cable breaks leave West and Central Africa offline. Health care groups oppose enhanced cyber security regulations. A Pennsylvania school district grapples with a ransomware attack. AT&T denies a data leak. Our guest Kevin Magee of Microsoft Canada shared his experiments with board reporting. And Apex Legends eSports competitors get some unexpected upgrades.

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CyberWire Guest

Our guest today is Kevin Magee of Microsoft Canada sharing his experiments using N2K’s CSO Rick Howard's forecasting methodology from his Cybersecurity First Principles book regarding board reporting.

Selected Reading

US is still chasing down pieces of Chinese hacking operation, NSA official says (The Record)

IMF Investigates Serious Cybersecurity Breach (Infosecurity Magazine)

Tech giant Fujitsu says it was hacked, warns of data breach (TechCrunch)

Analysis of New DEEP#GOSU Attack Campaign Likely Associated with North Korean Kimsuky Targeting Victims with Stealthy Malware (securonix)

Ghana says repairs on subsea cables could take five weeks (Reuters)

Health care groups resist cybersecurity rules in wake of landmark breach (CyberScoop)

Pennsylvania’s Scranton School District dealing with ransomware attack (The Record)

AT&T says leaked data of 70 million people is not from its systems (BleepingComputer)

The Aviation and Aerospace Sectors Face Skyrocketing Cyber Threats (Security Affairs)

Massive ‘Apex Legends’ Hack Disrupts NA Finals, Raises Serious Security Concerns (Forbes)

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Encore: Dawn Cappelli: Becoming the cyber fairy godmother. [OT] [Career Notes] Mar 17, 2024

Show notes

Dawn Cappelli, OT CERT Director at Dragos, sits down to share what she has learned after her 25+ year career in the industry. She recalls wanting to have been a rockstar when she grew up, now she refers to herself as the fairy godmother of security. She shares some of the amazing things she got to work on throughout her career, including working with the Secret Service when the Olympics came to Salt Lake City, Utah in 2002. She shares how she was able to rise through the ranks to get to where she is now. Dawn talks about how she wasn't ready to retire quite yet because she loved the industry so much, saying "I retired, but I knew I still loved security. I have this passion for protection and so Dragos came along and they offered me this role of Director of OT CERT. I feel like I'm the security fairy godmother." She shares words of wisdom for all trying to get into the industry, saying that you need to always take the risk like she did when she first started her career. We thank Dawn for sharing her story with us.

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Unveiling the updated NICE Framework & cybersecurity education’s future. [Special Edition] Mar 17, 2024

Show notes

The Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity (NICE Framework) (NIST Special Publication 800-181, revision 1) provides a set of building blocks for describing the Tasks, Knowledge, and Skills (TKS) that are needed to perform cybersecurity work by individuals or teams. Through these building blocks, the NICE Framework enables organizations to develop their workforces to perform cybersecurity work, and it helps learners to explore cybersecurity work and to engage in appropriate learning activities to develop their knowledge and skills.

On this Special Edition podcast, N2K CyberWire's Dave Bittner is joined by the team at NIST and FIU's Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy to delve into the history of the NICE Framework through its latest update and looking into the future. Brian Fonseca, Director at the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy, shares an introduction to the NICE Framework. Karen Wetzel, NICE Framework Manager, discusses the updates to the framework. Rodney Petersen, Director of NICE, talks about what these updates mean to cybersecurity education's future.

Resources:

NICE Framework Resource Center
Getting Started with the NICE Framework
2024 NICE Conference and Expo: Strengthening Ecosystems: Aligning Stakeholders to Bridge the Cybersecurity Workforce Gap
Take advantage of the early bird pricing until March 19, 2024. Don’t miss out on this opportunity!
Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at Florida International University (FIU)
Veterans and First Responders Training Initiative
Intelligence Fellowship

And be sure to check out our live webinar: CISOs are the new Architects (of the Workforce)

Join N2K’s Simone Petrella and Intuit’s Kim Jones on Wednesday, March 27th for an online discussion about the pivotal role security leaders play in shaping the security workforce landscape, and how we can start showing up for the future of our industry. Learn more and register on the event page.

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Inside SendGrid's phishy business. [Research Saturday] Mar 16, 2024

Show notes

Robert Duncan from Netcraft is sharing their research on "Phishception - SendGrid abused to host phishing attacks impersonating itself." Netcraft has recently observed that criminals abused Twilio SendGrid’s email delivery, API, and marketing services to launch a phishing campaign impersonating itself.

Hackers behind this novel phishing campaign used SendGrid’s Tracking Settings feature, which allows users to track clicks, opens, and subscriptions with SendGrid. The malicious link was masked behind a tracking link hosted by SendGrid.

Please take a moment to fill out an audience survey! Let us know how we are doing!

The research can be found here:

Phishception – SendGrid is abused to host phishing attacks impersonating itself

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Flight fiasco: UK Defence Minister's jet faces GPS jamming. Mar 15, 2024

Show notes

Russia’s accused of jamming a jet carrying the UK’s defense minister. Senators introduce a bipartisan Section 702 compromise bill. The Cybercrime Atlas initiative seeks to dismantle cybercrime. StopCrypt ransomware grows stealthier. A Scottish healthcare provider is under cyber attack. Workers in France are at risk of data exposure. CERT-BE warns of critical vulnerabilities in Arcserve UDP software. The FCC approves IoT device labeling. Researchers snoop on AI chat responses. A MITRE-Harris poll tracks citizens’ concern over critical infrastructure. On our Solution Spotlight, N2K President Simone Petrella discusses the shortage of ethical hackers against the rise of AI with IOActive's CTO Gunter Ollmann. The FTC fines notorious tech support scammers.

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Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you’ll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn.

CyberWire Guest

On our Solution Spotlight, N2K President Simone Petrella discusses the shortage of ethical hackers against the rise of AI with IOActive's CTO Gunter Ollmann.

Coming this weekend

Tune in to the CyberWire Daily Podcast feed on Sunday for a Special Edition podcast we produced in collaboration with our partners at NICE, “Unveiling the updated NICE Framework & cybersecurity education’s future.” We delve into the history of the NICE Framework, dig into its latest update, and look into the future of cybersecurity education.

Selected Reading

Defence Secretary jet hit by an electronic warfare attack in Poland (Security Affairs)

Russia believed to have jammed signal on UK defence minister's plane - source (Reuters)

Senators propose a compromise over hot-button Section 702 renewal (The Record)

WEF effort to disrupt cybercrime moves into operations phase (The Register)

StopCrypt: Most widely distributed ransomware now evades detection (Bleeping Computer)

Scottish health service says ‘focused and ongoing cyber attack’ may disrupt services (The Record)

Massive Data Breach Exposes Info of 43 Million French Workers (Hack Read)

WARNING: THREE VULNERABILITIES IN ARCSERVE UDP SOFTWARE DEMAND URGENT ACTION, PATCH IMMEDIATELY! (certbe)

FCC approves cybersecurity label for consumer devices (CyberScoop)

Hackers can read private AI-assistant chats even though they’re encrypted (Ars Technica)

MITRE-Harris poll reveals US public's concerns over critical infrastructure and perceived risks (Industrial Cyber)

Tech Support Firms Agree to $26M FTC Settlement Over Fake Services (SecurityWeek)

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A CIA Psychologist on the Minds of World Leaders, Pt. 1 with Dr. Ursula Wilder [SpyCast] Mar 15, 2024

Show notes

In honor of Women's History Month, please enjoy this episode of the International Spy Museum's SpyCast podcast featuring part 1 of Andrew Hammond's discussion with Dr. Ursula Wilder of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Summary

Dr. Ursula Wilder (LinkedIn) joins Andrew (X; LinkedIn) to discuss the intersections between psychology and intelligence. Ursula is a clinical psychologist with over two decades of experience working at the Central Intelligence Agency.

What You’ll Learn

Intelligence

How psychology can be useful to national security
Historical examples of leadership analysis
Leadership personality assessments & the Cuban Missile Crisis
Psychoanalytic theory and espionage

Reflections

Human nature throughout history
History repeating itself

And much, much more …

Quotes of the Week

“Together, these documents are quite powerful. The psych assessments are very, very carefully, tightly held and are classified at a high level. Every intelligence officer has this fantasy about seeing the file that's kept on them by the opponents.”

Resources

SURFACE SKIM

SpyCasts

Agent of Betrayal, FBI Spy Robert Hanssen with CBS’ Major Garrett and Friends (2023)
The North Korean Defector with Former DPRK Agent Kim, Hyun Woo (2023)
SPY@20 – “The Spy of the Century” with Curators Alexis and Andrew on Kim Philby (2022)
“How Spies Think” – 10 Lessons in Intelligence with Sir David Omand (2020)

Beginner Resources

What is Psychoanalysis? Institute of Psychoanalysis, YouTube (2011) [3 min. video]
Psychologists in the CIA, American Psychological Association (2002) [Short article]
7 Reasons to Study Psychology, University of Toronto (n.d.) [Short article]

DEEPER DIVE

Books

Freud and Beyond, S. A. Mitchell (Basic Books, 2016)
Narcissism and Politics: Dreams of Glory, J. M. Post (Cambridge University Press, 2014)
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, E. Hoffer (Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2010)
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, D. K. Goodwin (Simon & Schuster, 2004)
Leaders, Fools, and Impostors: Essays on the Psychology of Leadership, M. F. R. Kets de Vries (iUniverse, 2003)

Primary Sources

Charles de Gaulle to Pamela Digby Churchill (1942)
Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat (1940)
Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (1885)
Gettysburg Address (1863)
House Divided Speech (1858)
Excerpt on Cleopatra from Plutarch's Life of Julius Caesar (ca. 2nd century AD)
Plutarch’s The Life of Alexander (ca. 2nd century AD)
Appian’s The Civil Wars (ca. 2nd century AD)
Virgil’s The Aeneid (19 B.C.E)

Wildcard Resource

On Dreams by Sigmund Freud (1901)
In this simplified version of the father of psychoanalysis’ seminal book The Interpretation of Dreams, you can get a small taste for Freudian philosophy. Freud believed that dreams were a reflection of the subconscious mind and that studying a person’s dreams can elucidate their inner wants and needs. What are your dreams telling you?

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TikTok showdown: U.S. lawmakers target privacy and security. Mar 14, 2024

Show notes

The US House votes to enact restrictions on TikTok. HHS launches an investigation into Change Healthcare. An Irish Covid-19 portal puts over a million vaccination records at risk. Google distributes $10 million in bug bounty rewards. Nissan Oceana reports a data breach resulting from an Akira ransomware attack. Meta sues a former VP for alleged data theft. eSentire sees Blind Eagle focusing on the manufacturing sector. Claroty outlines threats to health care devices. A major provider of yachts is rocked by a cyber incident. In our Threat Vector segment, David Moulton explores the new SEC cybersecurity regulations with legal expert and Unit 42 Consultant Jacqueline Wudyka. And ransomware victims want their overtime pay.

Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app.

Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you’ll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn.

CyberWire Guest

On the Threat Vector segment, host David Moulton explores the new SEC cybersecurity regulations that reshape how public companies handle cyber risks with legal expert and Unit 42 Consultant Jacqueline Wudyka. They discuss the challenges of defining 'materiality,' the enforcement hurdles, and the impact on the cybersecurity landscape.

Selected Reading

Bill that could spur TikTok ban gains House OK (SC Media)

What would a TikTok ban look like for users? (NBC News)

HHS to investigate UnitedHealth and ransomware attack on Change Healthcare (The Record)

How a user access bug in Ireland’s vaccination website exposed more than a million records (ITPro)

Google Paid $10m in Bug Bounties to Security Researchers in 2023 (Infosecurity Magazine)

Nearly 100K impacted by Nissan Oceania cyberattack (SC Media)

Meta Sues Former VP After Defection to AI Startup (Infosecurity Magazine)

Malware Analysis: Blind Eagle's North American Journey (esentire)

Only 13% of medical devices support endpoint protection agents (Help Net Security)

Billion-dollar boat seller MarineMax reports cyberattack to SEC (The Record)

City workers not getting paid overtime amid Hamilton's ransomware attack: unions (CBS News)

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Teresa Rothaar: Outwork the competition. [Analyst] [Career Notes] Mar 14, 2024

Show notes

Teresa Rothaar, a governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) analyst at Keeper Security sits down to share her story, from performer to cyber. She fell in love with writing as a young girl, she experimented with writing fanfiction which made her want to grow up to be in the arts. After attending college she found that she was good at math, lighting the way for her to start her cyber career. Teresa moved to being a writer at Keeper, finding she wanted to spread out and try more, so she ended up becoming an analyst while still doing writing on the side. She quotes David Duchovny in an interview once, explaining how sometimes you need to keep your head down and outwork others. Teresa said this resonated with her, saying, "that's how I went from a foreclosure box on the porch to where I am now. I have a good job and, and I have a career and I have a really good career and I absolutely love it." We thank Teresa for sharing her story.

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