CyberWire Daily

Latest Episodes:

James Hadley: Spend time on what interests you. [CEO] [Career Notes] Nov 22, 2020

Show notes

Founder and CEO of Immersive Labs James Hadley takes us through his career path from university to cybersecurity startup. James tells us about his first computer and how he liked to push it to its limits and then some. He joined GCHQ after college and consulted across government departments. Teaching in GCHQ's cyber summer school was where James felt a shift in his career. As a company founder, he shares that he is very driven, very fast and also very caring. James offers advice to those looking to get into the industry recommending they chase what interests them rather than certifications. We thank James for sharing his story with us.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Misconfigured identity and access management (IAM) is much more widespread. [Research Saturday] Nov 21, 2020

Show notes

Identity and access are intrinsically connected when providing security to cloud platforms. But security is only effective when environments are properly configured and maintained. In the 2H 2020 edition of the biannual Unit 42 Cloud Threat Report, researchers conducted Red Team exercises, scanned public cloud data and pulled proprietary Palo Alto Networks data to explore the threat landscape of identity and access management (IAM) and identify where organizations can improve their IAM configurations.

During a Red Team exercise, Unit 42 researchers were able to discover and leverage IAM misconfigurations to obtain admin access to a customer’s entire Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud environment – a potentially multi-million dollar data breach in the real-world. These examples highlight just how serious the failure to secure IAM can be for an organization.

Joining us in this week's Research Saturday to discuss the report for Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 is CSO of Public Cloud, Matt Chiodi.

The research can be found here:

Highlights from the Unit 42 Cloud Threat Report, 2H 2020

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prime Minister Johnson tells Parliament about the National Cyber Force. Vietnam squeezes Facebook. Chinese cyberespionage. SEO poisoning. Printing ransom notes. CISA leadership. Nov 20, 2020

Show notes

Her Majesty’s Government discloses the existence of a National Cyber Force. Hanoi tells Facebook to crack down on posts critical of Vietnam’s government. Chinese cyberespionage campaign targets Japanese companies. Egregor ransomware prints its extortion notes in hard copy. SEO poisoning with bad reviews. Mike Benjamin from Lumen on credential stuffing and password spraying. Our guest is Mark Forman from SAIC with a look at government agencies' COVID-19 response. And CISA may have a permanent director inbound.

For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief:

https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/225

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Haunted virtual meetings. AWS APIs share vulnerabilities. US Intelligence Community conducts a post mortem on 2020 foreign election interference. Meet the future (a lot like the present, only moreso). Nov 19, 2020

Show notes

Ghosts in the virtual machines. Cloudbursts in the forecast. The US Intelligence Community is preparing a report on foreign election interference. CISA has a new interim director. A view of the threat landscape from Canada. Caleb Barlow from Cynergistek on reclassifying the internet as critical infrastructure. Our guests are Shai Cohen and Brooke Snelling from TransUnion on building trust in a digital consumer landscape. And a look into the near future.

For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief:

https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/224

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dream a FunnyDream of me. US CISA Director dismissed. Facebook, Twitter CEOs virtually visit the US Senate. Huawei CFO extradition update. Bad passwords. Nov 18, 2020

Show notes

FunnyDream? No, it’s real: a cyberespionage crew operating against Southeast Asian governments. President Trump fires US CISA Director Krebs. Twitter and Facebook CEOs testify before the Senate as legislators consider Section 230. The extradition hearing for Huawei’s CFO continues in Vancouver. Joe Carrigan looks at fleeceware on the Google Play store. Rick Howard speaks with Tenable’s Steve Vintz on communication between C-Suites and security teams. And the most common passwords in 2020 are now out, and “password” only comes in at Number 4. We’re not sure that really represents progress, because wait ‘til you hear Number 1.

For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief:

https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/223

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hidden Cobra’s new tricks. Notes from the criminal underground. Draft EU data transfer regulations. And the coming ape-man disinformation. Nov 17, 2020

Show notes

Hidden Cobra inserts Lazarus malware into security management chains. Malsmoke malvertizing doesn’t need exploit kits, anymore. Ransomware operators shift toward social engineering as the ransomware-as-a-service criminal market flourishes. Draft EU data transfer regulations implement the Schrems II decision. Robert M. Lee from Dragos shares a little love for the lesser-known areas of ICS security. Our guest is Greg Smith from CAMI with insights on promoting cyber capabilities at the state level. And the next thing in disinformation? No surprises here: it’s COVID-19 vaccines.

For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief:

https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/222

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cyberespionage and international norms of conduct in cyberspace. DarkSide establishes storage options for its affiliates. TroubleGrabber in Discord. Unapplied patches. Nov 16, 2020

Show notes

Nation-states continue to probe COVID-19 vaccine researchers. The Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace proposes international norms for promoting stability in cyberspace. DarkSide ransomware-as-a-service operators sweeten their offer with storage options. TroubleGrabber is stealing credentials via Discord. SAD DNS code pulled from GitHub. Betsy Carmelite from Booz Allen with a forward-looking view of 5G. Rick Howard takes a look at SOAR. Many patches remain unapplied, and CMMS wants US Defense contractors to move toward positive security.

For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief:

https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/221

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Malek Ben Salem: Taking those challenges. [R&D] [Career Notes] Nov 15, 2020

Show notes

Americas Security R&D Lead for Accenture Malek Ben Salem shares how she pivoted from her love of math and background in electrical engineering to a career in cybersecurity R&D. Malek talks about her interest in astrophysics as a young girl, and how her affinity for math and taking on challenges lead her to a degree in electrical engineering. She grew her career using math for data mining and forecasting eventually pursuing a masters and PhD in computer science where she shifted her focus to cybersecurity. Malek now develops and applies new AI techniques to solve security problems at Accenture. We thank Malek for sharing her story with us.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That first CVE was a fun find, for sure. [Research Saturday] Nov 14, 2020

Show notes

In the late 90s, hackers who discovered vulnerabilities would sometimes send an email to Bugtraq with details. Bugtraq was a notification system used by people with an interest in network security. It was also a place that might have been monitored by employees of software companies looking for reports of vulnerabilities pertaining to their software. The problem was - there wasn't an easy way to track specific vulnerabilities in specific products.

It was May 1999. Larry Cashdollar was working as a system administrator for Bath Iron Works under contract by Computer Sciences Corporation. Specifically, he was a UNIX Systems Administrator, level one. His team managed over 3,000 UNIX systems across BIW's campuses. Most of these were CAD systems used for designing AEGIS class destroyers. This position gave me access to over 3,000 various flavors of UNIX ranging from Sun Solaris to IBM AIX.

Joining us in this week's Research Saturday to discuss his journey from finding that first CVE through the next 20 years and hundreds of CVEs is Akamai Senior Response Engineer Larry Cashdollar.

The research can be found here:

MUSIC TO HACK TO: MY FIRST CVE AND 20 YEARS OF VULNERABILITY RESEARCH

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CISA offers its assessment (high) of US election security. An alleged GRU front media group is fingered. Notes on cybercrime, and one cheap proof-of-concept. Nov 13, 2020

Show notes

CISA says US elections were secure, that recounts are to be expected in tight races. (But election-themed malspam continues, of course.) A news platform is flagged as a GRU front. A new ransomware strain takes payment through an Iranian Bitcoin exchange. The Jupyter information-stealer is out and active. David Dufour on detecting deepfakes and misinformation. Dr. Jessica Barker on her new book Confident Cyber Security - How to Get Started in Cyber Security and Futureproof Your Career. And PlunderVolt is a $30 proof-of-concept.

For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief:

https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/220

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected