Talkin' Bout [Infosec] News Palo Alto Fears China Retaliation – 2026-02-16
In this episode, the crew dives into reports that Palo Alto Networks allegedly avoided directly attributing a threat campaign to China over fears of retaliation—sparking a broader debate about corporate and government threat attribution, geopolitics, and whether attribution still matters in today’s cyber landscape.
They also explore the escalating AI arms race, including Meta’s aggressive (and expensive) talent poaching, the growing rivalry between OpenAI and Anthropic, and what it all means for the future of the industry.
Rounding out the episode, the team discusses the unintended consequences of the AI boom—like global hardware shortages stretching beyond GPUs to hard drives—and examines emerging prompt injection attack techniques, highlighting real-world examples and the growing security risks surrounding AI-powered tools.
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A weekly Podcast with BHIS and Friends. We discuss notable Infosec, and infosec-adjacent news stories gathered by our community news team.
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Chapters
- (00:00) - PreShow Banter™ — Threat Actor Age Range
- (05:37) - Palo Alto Fears China Retaliation – 2026-02-16
- (11:28) - Story # 1: Exclusive: Palo Alto chose not to tie China to hacking campaign for fear of retaliation from Beijing, sources say
- (16:01) - Story # 2: Rent a Human
- (20:39) - Story # 3: OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger joining OpenAI, Altman says
- (24:31) - Story # 4: Western Digital runs out of HDD capacity: CEO says massive AI deals secured, price surges ahead
- (28:30) - Story # 5: GTIG AI Threat Tracker: Distillation, Experimentation, and (Continued) Integration of AI for Adversarial Use
- (30:32) - Story # 6: Data Exfil from Agents in Messaging Apps
- (32:15) - Story # 7: AMOS infostealer targets macOS through a popular AI app
- (39:25) - Story # 8: Discord Voluntarily Pushes Mandatory Age Verification Despite Recent Data Breach
- (46:11) - Story # 9: Vietnam bans unskippable online video ads longer than 5 seconds from next month
- (49:59) - Story # 10: SolarWinds Web Help Desk Exploitation - February 2026
- (54:00) - Story # 11: Devilish devs spawn 287 Chrome extensions to flog your browser history to data brokers
- (58:13) - Story # 12: Snail mail letters target Trezor and Ledger users in crypto-theft attacks
- (01:00:59) - Eric's Workshop
- (01:01:31) - Jennifer's Workshop
- (01:04:36) - SOC Summit 2026
Links
Story # 1: Exclusive: Palo Alto chose not to tie China to hacking campaign for fear of retaliation from Beijing, sources say
Story # 2: Rent a Human
Story # 3: OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger joining OpenAI, Altman says
Story # 4: Western Digital runs out of HDD capacity: CEO says massive AI deals secured, price surges ahead
Story # 5: GTIG AI Threat Tracker: Distillation, Experimentation, and (Continued) Integration of AI for Adversarial Use
Story # 6: Data Exfil from Agents in Messaging Apps
Story # 7: AMOS infostealer targets macOS through a popular AI app
Story # 8: Discord Voluntarily Pushes Mandatory Age Verification Despite Recent Data Breach
Story # 9: Vietnam bans unskippable online video ads longer than 5 seconds from next month
Story # 10: SolarWinds Web Help Desk Exploitation - February 2026
Story # 11: Devilish devs spawn 287 Chrome extensions to flog your browser history to data brokers
Story # 12: Snail mail letters target Trezor and Ledger users in crypto-theft attacks
01:01:00 - Eric’s Workshop
01:01:31 - Jennifer’s Workshop
01:04:37 - SOC Summit 2026
Creators & Guests
- Corey Ham - Host
- Wade Wells - Host
- Bronwen Aker - Host
- Ralph May - Host
- Ched "cheddar" Wiggins - Guest
- Jennifer Shannon - Guest
- Eric Kuehn - Guest
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