Hacking Humans

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fast flux (noun) [Word Notes] Oct 22, 2024

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Please enjoy this encore of Word Notes.

A network designed to obfuscate the location of a cyber adversary's command and control server by manipulating the domain name system, or DNS, in a way that rotates the associated IP address among large numbers of compromised hosts in a botnet.

Cybercriminals thrive in vulnerable moments. Oct 17, 2024

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Maria Varmazis, host of N2K's daily space show T-Minus, joins Dave and Joe to share the story of how cybercriminals are exploiting the chaos following Hurricane Helene in Florida by launching scams and phishing attacks. Veriti’s research highlights three key threats: FEMA claim scams, phishing using hurricane-related domains, and malicious files disguised as FEMA documents, all targeting vulnerable individuals. This week, Joe's got three hard-hitting stories lined up! First, U.S. authorities have charged 18 individuals and companies for pulling off fraudulent schemes to manipulate cryptocurrency markets. Next, leaders from four crypto firms and market makers face charges for wash-trading and inflating prices to lure in investors. Finally, in a groundbreaking move, federal prosecutors have launched the first-ever criminal case targeting wash trading in digital assets, shaking up the crypto world. Dave share's a Facebook watch you can't say no too. Our catch of the day comes from Reddit, and follows a chain of messages where a scammer is sharing news that sounds a bit too good to be true.

Links to the stories:

You can hear more from the T-Minus space daily show here.

Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@n2k.com.

Election Propaganda: Part 3: Efforts to reduce the impact of future elections. [CSO Perspectives] Oct 16, 2024

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Thinking past the US 2024 Presidential Election, In part three of the series, Rick Howard, N2K CyberWire’s Chief Analyst and Senior Fellow, discusses reducing the impact of propaganda in the future elections with Perry Carpenter, Chief Human Risk Management Strategist at KnowBe4 and host of the 8th Layer Insights Podcast, Nina Jankowicz, Co-Founder and CEO of the The American Sunlight Project, and Scott Small, Director of Cyber Threat Intelligence at Tidal Cyber.

Check out Part 1 & 2!

Part 1: Election Propaganda Part 1: How Does Election Propaganda Work? In this episode, Rick Howard, N2K CyberWire’s Chief Analyst and Senior Fellow, discusses personal defensive measures that every citizen can take—regardless of political philosophy—to resist the influence of propaganda. This foundational episode is essential for understanding how to navigate the complex landscape of election messaging.

Part 2: Election Propaganda: Part 2: Modern propaganda efforts.In preparation for the US 2024 Presidential Election, Rick Howard, N2K CyberWire’s Chief Analyst and Senior Fellow, discusses recent international propaganda efforts in the form of nation state interference and influence operations as well as domestic campaigns designed to split the target country into opposing camps. Guests include Nina Jankowicz, Co-Founder and CEO of the The American Sunlight Project and Scott Small, Director of Cyber Threat Intelligence at Tidal Cyber.

References:

Rick Howard, 2024. Election Propaganda Part 1: How does election propaganda work? [3 Part Podcast Series]. The CyberWire.

Rick Howard, 2024. Election Propaganda: Part 2: Modern propaganda efforts. [3 Part Podcast Series]. The CyberWire.

Christopher Chabris, Daniel Simons, 2010. The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us [Book]. Goodreads.

Chris Palmer, 2010. TFL Viral - Awareness Test (Moonwalking Bear) [Explainer]. YouTube.

David Ehl, 2024. Why Meta is now banning Russian propaganda [News]. Deutsche Welle.

Eli Pariser, 2011. The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You [Book]. Goodreads.

Kara Swisher, Julia Davis, Alex Stamos, Brandy Zadrozny, 2024. Useful Idiots? How Right-Wing Influencers Got $ to Spread Russian Propaganda [Podcast]. On with Kara Swisher.

Nate Silver, 2024. What’s behind Trump’s surge in prediction markets? [Analysis]. Silver Bulletin.

Niha Masih, 2024. Meta bans Russian state media outlet RT for acts of ‘foreign interference’ [News]. The Washington Post.

Nilay Patel, 2024. The AI election deepfakes have arrived [Podcast]. Decoder.

Nina Jankowicz, 2020. How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News and the Future of Conflict [Book]. Goodreads.

Perry Carpenter, 2024. FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions [Book]. Goodreads.

Perry Carpenter, 2021. Meatloaf Recipes Cookbook: Easy Recipes For Preparing Tasty Meals For Weight Loss And Healthy Lifestyle All Year Round [Book]. Goodreads.

Perry Carpenter, n.d. 8th Layer Insights [Podcast]. N2K CyberWire.

Renee DiResta, 2024. Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality [Book]. Goodreads.

Robin Stern, Marc Brackett, 2024. 5 Ways to Recognize and Avoid Political Gaslighting [Explainer]. The Washington Post.

Sarah Ellison, Amy Gardner, Clara Ence Morse, 2024. Elon Musk’s misleading election claims reach millions and alarm election officials [News]. The Washington Post.

Scott Small, 2024. Election Cyber Interference Threats & Defenses: A Data-Driven Study [White Paper]. Tidal Cyber.

Staff, n.d. Overview: Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity [Website]. C2PA.

Staff, 2021. Foreign Threats to the 2020 US Federal Elections [Intelligence Community Assessment]. DNI.

Staff, n.d. Project Origin [Website]. OriginProject. URL https://www.originproject.info/

Stuart A. Thompson, Tiffany Hsu, 2024. Left-Wing Misinformation Is Having a Moment [Analysis] The New York Times.

encryption (noun) [Word Notes] Oct 15, 2024

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Enjoy this Word Notes encore.

The process of converting plain text into an unrecognizable form or secret code to hide its true meaning.

The e-commerce scam you didn’t see coming! Oct 10, 2024

Show notes

Maria Varmazis, host of N2K's daily space show T-Minus, joins Dave and Joe to share the story of a South Carolina couple, and how they were devastated to discover their vacant land in Concord, Massachusetts was fraudulently sold by thieves who posed as them, with the new owners already building a home on the property, prompting a lawsuit and an FBI investigation.

Our hosts share some follow-up on two intriguing listener contributions. John blocks Google ads using NextDNS, which catches ad wrappers unless manually disabled. Georgi from Japan describes a new Visa card with no visible number or CVV.

Dave's story is on triangulation fraud, a scam on e-commerce platforms like Amazon, where a fraudster lures buyers with fake listings for popular products at enticingly low prices, then uses stolen payment information to purchase the legitimate product from a seller, ultimately leaving the buyer unaware until debt collection notices arrive. Meanwhile, Joe has two stories this week. Police arrested five individuals in connection with a fake Brad Pitt scam that defrauded two women of $362,000. He also explores insights from the 2024 Global State of Authentication survey in a Q&A with Yubico VP Derek Hanson, who discusses the future of passkeys. Our catch of the day shares some royal secrets you won't want to miss.

Links to the stories:

You can hear more from the T-Minus space daily show here.

Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@n2k.com.

Election Propaganda: Part 2: Modern propaganda efforts. [CSO Perspectives] Oct 09, 2024

Show notes

In preparation for the US 2024 Presidential Election, Rick Howard, N2K CyberWire’s Chief Analyst and Senior Fellow, discusses recent international propaganda efforts in the form of nation state interference and influence operations as well as domestic campaigns designed to split the target country into opposing camps. Guests include Nina Jankowicz, Co-Founder and CEO of the The American Sunlight Project and Scott Small, Director of Cyber Threat Intelligence at Tidal Cyber.

References:

Scott Small, 2024. Election Cyber Interference Threats & Defenses: A Data-Driven Study [White Paper]. Tidal Cyber.

Renee DiResta, 2024. Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality [Book]. Goodreads.

Nina Jankowicz, 2020. How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News and the Future of Conflict [Book]. Goodreads.

keylogger (noun) [Word Notes] Oct 08, 2024

Show notes

Please enjoy this encore episode of Word Notes.

Software or hardware that records the computer keys pressed by a user.

Election Propaganda Part 1: How does election propaganda work? [CSO Perspectives] Oct 03, 2024

Show notes

Rick Howard, N2K CyberWire’s Chief Analyst and Senior Fellow, discusses personal defensive measures that an average citizen, regardless of political philosophy, can take in order to not succumb to propaganda.

References:

David Ehl, 2024. Why Meta is now banning Russian propaganda [News]. Deutsche Welle.

Jeff Berman, Renée DiResta, 2023. Disinformation & How To Combat It [Interview]. Youtube.

Niha Masih, 2024. Meta bans Russian state media outlet RT for acts of ‘foreign interference’ [News]. The Washington Post.

Quentin Hardy, Renée DiResta, 2024. The Invisible Rulers Turning Lies Into Reality [Interview]. YouTube.

Rob Tracinski, Renée DiResta, 2024. The Internet Rumor Mill [Interview]. YouTube.

Robin Stern, Marc Brackett, 2024. 5 Ways to Recognize and Avoid Political Gaslighting [Explainer]. The Washington Post.

Sarah Ellison, Amy Gardner, Clara Ence Morse, 2024. Elon Musk’s misleading election claims reach millions and alarm election officials [News]. The Washington Post.

Scott Small, 2024. Election Cyber Interference Threats & Defenses: A Data-Driven Study [White Paper]. Tidal Cyber.

Staff, 2021. Foreign Threats to the 2020 US Federal Elections [Intelligence Community Assessment]. DNI.

Staff, 2024. Election Cyber Interference Threats & Defenses: A Data-Driven Study [White Paper]. Tidal.

Stuart A. Thompson, Tiffany Hsu, 2024. Left-Wing Misinformation Is Having a Moment [Analysis. The New York Times.

Stuart A. Thompson, 2024. Elon Musk’s Week on X: Deepfakes, Falsehoods and Lots of Memes [News]. The New York Times.

Will Oremus, 2024. Zuckerberg expresses regrets over covid misinformation crackdown [News]. The Washington Post.

Yascha Mounk, Renée DiResta, 2022. How (Not) to Fix Social Media [Interview]. YouTube.

Renee DiResta, 2024. Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality [Book]. Goodreads.

Nina Jankowicz, 2020. How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News and the Future of Conflict [Book]. Goodreads.

The Dark Arts of cyber. [Only Malware in the Building] Oct 01, 2024

Show notes

Welcome, witches, wizards, and cybersecurity sleuths! You’ve entered, Only Malware in the Building. Join us each month to brew potions of knowledge and crack the curses of today’s most intriguing cyber mysteries. Your host is Selena Larson, Proofpoint intelligence analyst and host of their podcast DISCARDED. Inspired by the residents of a building in New York’s exclusive upper west side, Selena is joined by N2K Networks Dave Bittner and Rick Howard to uncover the stories behind notable cyberattacks.

Being a security researcher is a bit like being a detective: you gather clues, analyze the evidence, and consult the experts to solve the cyber puzzle. On this episode, we dive into how Proofpoint researchers uncovered an espionage campaign casting custom malware known as "Voldemort" in August 2024.

The Dark Arts practitioner behind this campaign targeted global organizations, disguising themselves as mundane tax authorities and weaving clever enchantments like using Google Sheets for command and control (C2). While their ultimate motive remains as shadowy as a cursed Horcrux, this malware is built for intelligence gathering and is primed to unleash additional attacks — likely summoning something even darker, like Cobalt Strike.

Prepare your wands, and let’s dive into this tale of digital sorcery!

non-fungible tokens (NFT) (noun) [Word Notes] Oct 01, 2024

Show notes

Enjoy this encore of Word Notes.

Digital assets that are cryptographically protected on a blockchain and contain unique identification codes and metadata that makes them one of a kind.

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