The BlueHat Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Mastering the Bug Hunt: Insights and Ethics with Nestori Syynimaa Dec 13, 2023

Show notes

Senior Principal Security Researcher Nestori Syynimaa joins Wendy Zenone and Nic Fillingham on this week's episode of The BlueHat Podcast. Nestori is an ICT professional with a strong practical and academic background. Since April 2021, Nestori has worked as a Senior Principal Security Researcher at Secureworks' Counter Threat Unit. Before joining Secureworks, he worked as a joint CIO for eight cities and municipalities surrounding Tampere, the largest inland city in Scandinavia. Nestori, Wendy, and Nic discuss the importance of understanding the dynamics between researchers and organizations in addressing security concerns, Nestori's journey as a researcher, his academic background, and his experiences speaking at various conferences worldwide.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

Challenges and successes in the bug bounty process
The importance of researchers confirming fixes to make the process more efficient
Ethical considerations for researchers and motivations within the hacking community

Some Questions We Ask:

What challenges do many organizations face running bug bounty programs?
How can you find a trustworthy peer or seasoned researcher to get feedback on your work?
Has encountering different cases shaped your understanding of bug bounty programs?

Resources:

View Nestori Syynimaa on LinkedIn

View Wendy Zenone on LinkedIn

View Nic Fillingham on LinkedIn

Related Microsoft Podcasts:

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

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Service Principles in the Spotlight: Insights from Microsoft’s Security Experts Nov 29, 2023

Show notes

Senior Data Scientist Emily Yale and Senior Threat Hunt Analyst at Microsoft Chris Bukavich join Wendy Zenone and Nic Fillingham on this week's episode of The BlueHat Podcast. Chris focuses on incident response, investigation, and detection of major incidents, while Emily works on developing and improving detections for Microsoft's internal security. Emily and Chris were co-presenters at this year's BlueHat conference. They discussed unmasking Azure-based adversaries with an emphasis on monitoring service principles, how their respective expertise in data science and cybersecurity contributed to the session, and the challenges of monitoring service principles in Azure. This concept has evolved from traditional service accounts.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

The importance of monitoring spikes in activity
Criteria for identifying malicious behavior targeting service principles
Historical context of service principles and their increasing relevance

Some Questions We Ask:

How can you proactively monitor and detect anomalies related to service principles?
What challenges arise when profiling service principles based on past behavior?
When can service principles be tied to user authentication?

Resources:

View Emily Yale on LinkedIn

View Chris Bukavich on LinkedIn

View Wendy Zenone on LinkedIn

View Nic Fillingham on LinkedIn

Related Microsoft Podcasts:

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kaileigh McCrea: Navigating the Privacy Maze: Insights from the Yandex Controversy Nov 15, 2023

Show notes

Kaileigh McCrea, Lead Privacy Engineer at Confiant, joins Wendy Zenone on this week's episode of The BlueHat Podcast. Kaileigh explains her journey into privacy engineering, the ever-evolving nature of privacy regulations, and the challenges of defining protected data. Wendy and Kaileigh also delve into Yandex's extensive reach, connections to the Netherlands, and the complexities surrounding its ownership and compliance in the face of global sanctions. Overall, the discussion emphasizes the importance of protecting personal data and being aware of potential risks, even if one believes they have nothing to hide.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

The importance of protecting personal data, even with nothing to hide
Implications of the Yandex data leak
Challenges Yandex faces in trying to sell off its assets

Some Questions We Ask:

What kind of analytics data was involved in the Yandex leak?
How could this data be misused from a national security perspective?
Why is protecting one's data so tricky due to the scale of data collection?

Resources:

View Kaileigh McCrea on LinkedIn

View Wendy Zenone on LinkedIn

View Nic Fillingham on LinkedIn

Related Microsoft Podcasts:

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Deprecating NTLM is Easy and Other Lies We Tell Ourselves with Steve Syfuhs Nov 01, 2023

Show notes

Steve Syfuhs, Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft, joins Nic Fillingham and Wendy Zenone on this week's episode of The BlueHat Podcast. Steve has spent the last decade building secure systems and is working at Microsoft as a Principal Developer. In this episode, Steve, Nic, and Wendy discuss how continually improving hardware allows for faster brute-force attacks, the technical and security aspects of password-based authentication protocols, and why the longevity of password security can be extended through incremental improvements.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

Technical and security aspects of password-based authentication protocols
Why passwords should not be the primary authentication mechanism
The challenges of making significant changes to long-standing systems

Some Questions We Ask:

Why explore secure and user-friendly alternatives like biometrics or hardware keys?
How quickly can you guess an 8-character password using specialized hardware?
Will audits within Microsoft help understand and improve NTLM usage and security?

Resources:

View Steve Syfuhs on LinkedIn

View Wendy Zenone on LinkedIn

View Nic Fillingham on LinkedIn

Related Microsoft Podcasts:

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BlueHat Oct 23 Day 1 Keynote: John Lambert Oct 18, 2023

Show notes

In this week’s special episode, we bring you the BlueHat Oct 23, day 1 keynote delivered by John Lambert, Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Security Fellow. In his BlueHat Oct day 1 keynote, John discusses the importance of incidents in the security field, strategies for finding security incidents, and the importance of looking beyond traditional defense measures to discover attackers and traces outside of one's network. John introduces the idea of "hunting until closure," which involves systematically investigating various attacker actions to learn more about their activities. He also mentions the concept of "time travel breach detection," which uses historical logs to trace and identify previous attacker actions.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

The importance of security incidents in shaping the cybersecurity field
Why logs and telemetry data in cybersecurity are essential when tracking attacker actions
How valuable mutual respect is in the security community

Some Questions We Ask:

How do escalating conflicts within teams affect productivity?
What role did trust and collaboration play in responding to the SolarWinds incident?
Why must the security community work together to protect customers?

Resources:

View John Lambert on LinkedIn

View Wendy Zenone on LinkedIn

View Nic Fillingham on LinkedIn

Related Microsoft Podcasts:

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bluehat Oct 23 Preview with Jessica Payne Oct 04, 2023

Show notes

Microsoft Threat Intelligence Analyst Jessica Payne joins Nic Fillingham and Wendy Zenone on this week's episode of The BlueHat Podcast. Nic, Wendy, and Jessica discuss Jessica's background in cybersecurity, her journey to Microsoft, her passion for making security more accessible, and the importance of diversity in the field. Jessica also emphasizes the need to focus on actionable threat intelligence and how ransomware has changed the security landscape while also providing insights into the process of submitting a presentation for The BlueHat Conference.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

Jessica's contributions to the Threat Intelligence Village
Sessions and keynotes scheduled for the bluehat conference
The importance of diversity and inclusion in the conference's selection process

Some Questions We Ask:

What makes BlueHat unique compared to other conferences?
Why does BlueHat avoid marketing and encourage a research-focused atmosphere?
What interactive activities does BlueHat have planned for the Threat Intelligence Village?

Resources:

View Wendy Zenone on LinkedIn

View Nic Fillingham on LinkedIn

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sherrod DeGrippo on Why She Loves Cyber Crime Sep 20, 2023

Show notes

Sherrod DeGrippo, Director of Threat Intelligence Strategy at Microsoft and Host of The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Podcast, joins Nic Fillingham on this week's episode of The BlueHat Podcast. Sherrod is a frequently cited threat intelligence expert in media, including televised appearances on the BBC news and commentary in the Wall Street Journal, CNN, New York Times, and more. She is a well-known public speaker, having presented at Black Hat, RSA Conference, RMISC, BrunchCon, and others. Sherrod and Nic discuss various topics, including different types of threat actors, the overlap between nation-state actors and cybercrime, and Sherrod's fascination with cybercrime, emphasizing cybercriminals' creativity and ingenuity, particularly those who use social engineering techniques.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

Why many cybercriminals don't believe they are engaging in criminal activity
How understanding a threat actor's psychology is essential to creating detection methods
The importance of maintaining proper security hygiene

Some Questions We Ask:

How can threat actors operate with impunity?
Should individuals and small businesses worry about nation-state threat actors?
Can we reform and convince cybercrime groups to use their talents for good?

Resources:

View Sherrod DeGrippo on LinkedIn

View Wendy Zenone on LinkedIn

View Nic Fillingham on LinkedIn

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Deciphering Privacy in the Age of AI: An Expert Discussion Sep 06, 2023

Show notes

Giovanni Cherubin and Ahmed Salem join Nic Fillingham and Wendy Zenone on this week's episode of The BlueHat Podcast. Giovanni is a Senior Researcher in Machine Learning and Security at Microsoft Research Cambridge, and Ahmed is a researcher in Confidential Computing at the Microsoft Research lab in Cambridge, UK. They're both interested in artificial intelligence and are researching the privacy, security, fairness, and accountability risks of the different machine learning settings. In this episode, they discuss how to identify and address privacy threats in machine learning models, the connection between privacy and information leakage, and how privacy is perceived in academia and industry.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

Algorithmic procedures for describing threats and attacks
The rapid growth of machine learning research in attacks and defense
The framework for fostering collaboration and understanding within the field

Some Questions We Ask:

What are the main threats you are currently focused on?
Who will benefit from this research besides academics and researchers?
Can you explain the concept of privacy as it relates to information leakage?

Resources:

View Giovanni Cherubin on LinkedIn

View Ahmed Salem on LinkedIn

View Wendy Zenone on LinkedIn

View Nic Fillingham on LinkedIn

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Not with a Bug but with a Sticker Aug 23, 2023

Show notes

Hyrum Anderson and Ram Shankar join Nic Fillingham and Wendy Zenone on this week’s episode of The BlueHat Podcast. Hyrum Anderson is a distinguished ML Engineer at Robust Intelligence. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, emphasizing signal processing and machine learning. Much of his technical career has focused on security, and he has directed research projects at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. Ram Shankar works on the intersection of machine learning and security at Microsoft and founded the AI Red Team, bringing together an interdisciplinary group of researchers and engineers to proactively attack AI systems and defend them from attacks.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

The difference between AI and machine learning
Why embracing a holistic, healthy AI development is to our advantage
The security vulnerabilities and risks associated with AI and Machine Learning

Some Questions We Ask:

Who did you write this book for, and what will the readers learn?
What type of vulnerabilities are you finding the most concerning currently?
How do adversarial attacks exploit vulnerabilities in AI algorithms?

Resources:

View Hyrum Anderson on LinkedIn

View Ram Shankar on LinkedIn

View Wendy Zenone on LinkedIn

View Nic Fillingham on LinkedIn

Not with a Bug, But with a Stickeris available here

Follow Hyrum on Twitter

Follow Ram on Twitter

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

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Fuzzing, Forensics and Flowers with Amanda Rousseau AKA Malware Unicorn Aug 09, 2023

Show notes

Amanda Rousseau, Offensive Security Engineer for the Microsoft Offensive Research and Security Engineering Team, joins Nic Fillingham and Wendy Zenone on this week's episode of The BlueHat Podcast. Amanda loves malware; she worked as an Offensive Security Engineer on the Red Team at Facebook, a Malware Researcher at Endgame, and the U.S. Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center. Amanda mainly focuses on vulnerability, research fuzzing, and security engineering and discusses with Nic and Wendy her time reviewing and analyzing offline digital devices, known as Dead-Box Forensics, reverse engineering malware, and how she finds success from her creative and artistic background.

In This Episode You Will Learn:

What "shift left" means as a security professional
How to learn more about fuzzing and understand some of the tooling
Why having a creative background helps when communicating with security teams

Some Questions We Ask:

How would you describe fuzzing for someone that's doesn't know the definition?
What is Dead-Box Forensics, and can you share the investigative process?
How can we make fuzzing and security more accessible and less intimidating for developers?

Resources:

View Amanda Rousseau on LinkedIn

View Wendy Zenone on LinkedIn

View Nic Fillingham on LinkedIn

Follow Amanda on Twitter and malwareunicorn.org

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.