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Detecting Twitter bots in real time. [Research Saturday] Aug 01, 2020

Show notes

NortonLifeLock Research Group (NRG) released a prototype browser extension called BotSight that leverages machine learning to detect Twitter bots in real-time. The tool is intended to help users understand the prevalence of bots and disinformation campaigns within their Twitter feeds, particularly with the increase in disinformation of COVID-19.

Joining us on this week's Research Saturday to discuss this tool is Daniel Kats from NortonLifeLock Research Group.

You can find the research here:

Introducing BotSight

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Social engineering at Twitter. Phishing kits and hackers for hire. Cyberespionage. The EU sanctions actors for Cloudhopper, WannaCry, and NotPetya. And security advice from NSA and NIST. Jul 31, 2020

Show notes

An update on social engineering at Twitter. A quick look at the phishing kit criminal market. The European Union sanctions individuals and organizations in Russia, China, and North Korea for involvement in notorious hacking campaigns. North Korea’s North Star campaign is back and dangling bogus job offers in front of its marks. Deceptikons snoop into European law firms. Zully Ramzan from RSA on Digital Contact Tracing. Our guest is Tom Kellermann from Vmware Carbon Black on top financial CISOs analyzing the 2020 attack landscape. And both NSA and NIST have some advice on shoring up your security.

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

https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/148

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A quick look at Big Tech’s antitrust testimony. BootHole may be tough to patch. Fake COVID contact tracers. Netwalker warning. And Chinese espionage against the Vatican and the United Kingdom. Jul 30, 2020

Show notes

Yesterday’s antitrust hearings in the US House of Representatives focus on Big Tech’s big data as something open to use in restraint of trade. And there are questions about community standards as well. The BootHole vulnerability may not represent an emergency, but it will be tough to fix. Android malware masquerades as COVID-19 contact-tracers. The FBI warns against Netwalker ransomware. China says it didn’t hack the Vatican. Justin Harvey from Accenture demystifies red teaming. Our guest is Christopher Ahlberg from Recorded Future on trends in threat intelligence. And somebody’s spoofing a British MP: he’s looking at you, Peoples Liberation Army.

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

https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/147

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Alleged Russian disinformation campaigns. Beijing’s cyberespionage hits the Vatican. Costly PII losses. VPNs and OT security. Big Tech’s day with Congress. Online bar exams. Snooping for the Saudis. Jul 29, 2020

Show notes

Alleged Russian influence operations described by US intelligence services. “Ghostwriter” targets the Baltic region with anti-NATO false narratives. Chinese intelligence is said to have compromised Vatican networks. Loss of customer PII seems the costliest kind of data breach. VPN bugs represent a risk to OT networks. Big Tech comes to Capitol Hill, virtually. Michigan’s online bar exam knocked offline, briefly, by a cyber attack. Joe Carrigan on password stealers targeting gaming. Our guests are Troy Smith and Mike Koontz from Raytheon on defending communications operations across cloud platforms. And a superseding indictment for two ex-Twitterati charged with snooping for Saudi Arabia.

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

https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/146

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Data breaches and responsibility. Where do you get a decryptor for WastedLocker? Third-party risk. Misconfigured databases. Follow-up on the Twitter hack. Jul 28, 2020

Show notes

Cloudflare says that reported Ukrainian breaches aren’t its issue. Trend Micro describes a new and unusually capable strain of malware. Garmin is reported to have obtained a decryptor for WastedLocker ransomware. Third-party risk continues in the news, as do misconfigured databases that expose personal information. Huawei’s CFO alleges misconduct by Canadian police and intelligence agencies. Ben Yelin examines the EFF's online Atlas of Surveillance. Dave DeWalt with SafeGuard Cyber on the evolving threat landscape as folks return to the workplace. And the Twitter incident seems to have been a problem waiting to appear.

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

https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/145

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Vigilante action against Emotet. Third-party risks and data breaches. Cerberus is for sale. And WastedLocker ransomware and the fortunes of crime. Jul 27, 2020

Show notes

A vigilante appears to be interfering with Emotet’s payloads. A fintech breach is blamed on a third-party service provider. A list of Cloudflare users is dumped online. There’s a going-out-of-business sale over at the Cerberus cybergang. Malek ben Salem from Accenture Labs on DeepFake detection. Our own Rick Howard gathers the Hash Table to sort some SOCs. And Garmin, restoring its services after last week’s attack, may have been the victim of Evil Corp’s WastedLocker ransomware.

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

https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/144

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No matter the statistic, even if against the odds, focus on what you want. [Career Notes] Jul 26, 2020

Show notes

Privacy and data security lawyer, Dominique Shelton Leipzig shares that she has always wanted to be a lawyer, ever since she was a little girl. She talks about what her role is with clients in protecting and managing their data, sometimes adhering to up to 134 different data protection laws for global companies. Learn that not a lot has changed for an African-American woman partner at an Amlaw 100 firm as far as diversity during Dominique's career, and how Dominique suggests young lawyers should address those odds. Our thanks to Dominque for sharing her story with us.

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It was only a matter of time. [Research Saturday] Jul 25, 2020

Show notes

On April 29, 2020, the Salt management framework, authored by the IT automation company SaltStack, received a patch concerning two CVEs; CVE-2020-11651, an authentication bypass vulnerability, and CVE-2020-11652, a directory-traversal vulnerability.

On April 30, 2020, researchers at F-Secure disclosed their vulnerability findings to the public, with an urgent warning for Salt users - patch now. Before the weekend was out, criminals were deploying malware and targeting vulnerable Salt installations, successfully affecting operations at Ghost, DigiCert, and LineageOS. The malware is a cryptominer, but there is an additional component, a Remote Access Tool written in Go called nspps. Researchers at Akamai have also observed in-the-wild attacks on Salt vulnerabilities.

Joining us on this week's Research Saturday is Larry Cashdollar, Senior Security Response Engineer at Akamai, to discuss this issue.

The research can be found here:

SaltStack Vulnerabilities Actively Exploited in the Wild

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A warning for US critical infrastructure operators. Blackbaud extortion and data breach update. Who’s got the keys to Twitter? Sino-American cyber tensions. Jul 24, 2020

Show notes

CISA and NSA warn of a foreign threat to US critical infrastructure. A look at what the Bears have been up to lately. The Blackbaud extortion incident shows its ripple effects. An awful lot of Twitter employees had access to powerful admin tools. China orders a US consulate closed in a tit-for-tat response to the closure of China’s consulate in Houston. Andrea Little Limbago on cyber in a re-globalized world system. Our guest is Dominique Shelton Leipzig from Perkins Coie LLP on the CA Consumer Privacy Act. And DJI drones may be a bit nosey.

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

https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/143

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Twitter: hackers got a few accounts’ DMs. French policy toward Huawei hardens. Crooks against British sport. You and your boss should talk more. Jul 23, 2020

Show notes

Twitter updates the news of last week’s incident: the attackers seem to have accessed some direct messages. France’s partial permission for Huawei to operate in that country now looks like a ban with a 2028 deadline. A quiet cryptominer. The cyber threat to British sport. Awais Rashid from the University of Bristol on cyber security and remote working. John Ford from IronNet Cybersecurity with updated 2020 predictions and cyber priorities. And bosses and employees see things differently, cyberwise.

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

https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/142

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