CyberWire Daily

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Hacking the Czech Foreign Ministry. Microsoft patches new wormable bugs. More controversial human review of AI. Insecure links, exposed databases, and a California vanity plate. Aug 14, 2019

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The Czech Senate wants action on what it describes as a foreign state’s cyberattack on the country’s Foreign Ministry. Microsoft warns against the wormable DéjaBlue set of vulnerabilities. More humans found training AI. Insecure airline check-in links. Exposed databases involve BioStar 2 and Choice Hotels--the latter was held at a third-party vendor. And the LAPD doesn’t find a vanity license plate with the letters N-U-L-L particularly funny. David Dufour from Webroot with thoughts on cyber security insurance policies. Guest is Elisa Costante from ForeScout on building automation vulnerabilities.

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UN Security Council looks at North Korean cybercrime. Notes on PsiXBot and BITTER APT. The state of spearphishing. Election security. A final look back at Black Hat and Def Con. Aug 13, 2019

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More on the UN Security Council’s report on North Korean state-sponsored cyber crime. PsiXBot evolves. BITTER APT probes Chinese government networks in an apparent espionage campaign. A study looks at the state of spearphishing. It’s not just the three-letter agencies out securing US voting systems; it’s the four-letter agencies who are taking point. And a last look back at Black Hat and Def Con. Jonathan Katz from UMD on Apple’s clever new cryptographic protocol. Guest is Mike Overly from Foley and Lardner LLP on the House’s hold on the State Department’s proposal for a Bureau of Cyberspace Securities and Emerging Technologies.

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A look back at Black Hat and Def Con. Sometimes failures that look like accidents are accidents. Russia wants better content suppression from Google. Notes on intelligence services. Aug 12, 2019

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A look back at Black Hat and Def Con, with notes on technology and public policy. Participants urge people to contribute their expertise to policymakers. Power failures in the UK at the end of last week are largely resolved, and authorities say they’ve ruled out cyberattack as a possible cause. Russia puts Google on notice that it had better moderate YouTube content to put an end to what Moscow considers incitement to unrest. And China says reports of criminal activity are bunkum. Joe Carrigan from JHU ISI with thoughts on corporate password policies. Guest is Ralph Russo from Tulane University on how schools like Tulane are shaping their programs to meet the needs of business and government.

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Unpacking the Malvertising Ecosystem. [Research Saturday] Aug 10, 2019

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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/2019/07/malvertising-deepdive.html

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Voting machine security. Airliner firmware. Attribution and deterrence in cyberwar. Monitoring social media. Broadcom buys Symantec’s enterprise security business. Policing, privacy, and an IoT OS. Aug 09, 2019

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Are voting machines too connected for comfort? Airliner firmware security is in dispute. Attribution, deterrence, and the problem of an adversary who doesn’t have much to lose. Monitoring social media for signs of violent extremism. Broadcom will buy Symantec’s enterprise business for $10.7 billion. Amazon’s Ring and the police. A CISA update on VxWorks vulnerabilities. And human second-guessing of AI presents some surprising privacy issues. Justin Harvey from Accenture with his insights from the Black Hat show floor. Guest is Tim Tully from Splunk on the AI race between the US and China.

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Hacking in the Gulf region. Vulnerability research into airliner avionics. Phishing and ransomware move to the cloud. EU data responsibilities. US bans five Chinese companies. Aug 08, 2019

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Tensions in the Gulf are accompanied by an increase in cyber optempo. A warning about vulnerable airliner avionics. Phishing is moving to the cloud, and so is ransomware. Android’s August patches address important Wi-Fi issues. An EU court decision clarifies data responsibilities. The US bans contractors from dealing with five Chinese companies. Bogus Equifax settlement sites are established for fraud. Our guests are both offering insights and observations from this year’s Black Hat conference. Matt Aldridge is from Webroot and Bob Huber is CSO at Tenable.

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Another speculative execution flaw. LokiBot evolves. APT41 moonlights. Scammers exploit tragedies. Black Hat notes. Aug 07, 2019

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A new speculative execution processor flaw is addressed with software mitigations. LokiBot gets more persistent, and it adopts steganography for better obfuscation. The cyber-spies of APT41 seem to be doing some moonlighting. An accused criminal who bribed telco workers to unlock phones is in custody. Scammers are exploiting the tragedies in El Paso and Dayton. And a call at Black Hat for the security sector to bring in some safety engineers. Ben Yelin from UMD CHHS on Virginia updating legislation to address Deep Fakes. Guest is James Plouffe from MobileIron on the challenges of authentication and the legacy of passwords.

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Fancy Bear is snuffling around corporate IoT devices. Machete takes its cuts at Venezuelan military targets. What Mr. Kim is buying. MegaCortex goes for automation. Vigilantes, misconfigurations, etc. Aug 06, 2019

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Fancy Bear is back, and maybe in your office printer. El Machete, a cyber espionage group active at least since 2014, is currently working against the Venezuelan military. A UN report allegedly offers a look at what Mr. Kim is doing with the money his hackers raked in. MegaCortex ransomware shows growing automation. Another unsecured AWS S3 bucket is found. A bank stores some PINs in a log file. Vigilante smishing. And when popping off becomes arguably criminal. Craig Williams from Cisco Talos with updates on Sea Turtle. Guest is Chris Roberts from Attivo Networks with a preview of his Black Hat keynote, A Hacker’s Perspective, Where Do We Go From Here?

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

https://thecyberwire.com/issues/issues2019/August/CyberWire_2019_08_06.html

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Ransomware attacks in Mexico and Germany. Wipers in criminal service. Supervising Siri and Alexa. Mass shooters find inspiration and online expression. Aug 05, 2019

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A Mexican publisher is hit with an extortion demand. Ransomware increasingly carries a destructive, wiper component: Germany is dealing with a virulent strain right now. Apple and Amazon, after the bad optics of reports that they’re farming out Siri and Alexa recordings to human contractors for quality control, are both modifying their approaches to training the assistants. And investigators sort through mass shooters’ digital trails. Joe Carrigan from JHU ISI on the VXWorks operating system vulnerabilities. Guest is Eli Sugarman from the Hewlett Foundation on their efforts to reimagine cybersecurity visuals.

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Package manager repository malware detection. [Research Saturday] Aug 03, 2019

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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

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