CyberWire Daily

Tim Starks, CyberScoop reporter covering federal cybersecurity policy. Asaf Karan, Qualtrics CSO and author on AI and security. They discuss AI-driven threats and defenses in cybersecurity. They cover shifts in a federal cybersecurity scholarship toward AI and the worries it raises for students. Short, sharp conversations on minimizing attack surface, hardening basics, and staying curious about AI risks.

Dan Lorenc, CEO and co-founder of Chainguard and software supply chain expert, discusses a wave of AI-assisted supply chain attacks. He explains how CI/CD systems are being targeted and why build pipelines are high-value. He outlines mitigations like treating build systems as production and warns that AI is scaling attacker operations.

Payal Chakravarty, Head of Product for Security and Risk at Coalition, built cloud and container security products after roles at IBM and Sysdig. She traces a journey from data centers to cloud and container monitoring. Topics include shifting monoliths to SaaS, challenges of dynamic container workloads, user-centered product values, and navigating bias in tech with calm negotiation.

Maria Varmazis, N2K CyberWire contributor and special-series host, co-leads a ten-year look at cyber geopolitics. They revisit supply-chain shocks like NotPetya, Olympic Destroyer and SolarWinds. Conversation covers ransomware hitting critical infrastructure, cyber integration in the Russia–Ukraine war, nation-state intrusion campaigns, and emerging wildcards such as AI and quantum.

Mark Kelly, Staff Threat Researcher at Proofpoint who tracks China-aligned espionage, discusses TA416's resurgence against European diplomatic and government targets. He covers tracking-pixel reconnaissance, phishing from compromised diplomatic mailboxes, evolving infection chains like fake CAPTCHA and OAuth abuse, Pivot to Middle East targets, and persistent PlugX backdoor use.

Maria Vermazis, contributing host and geopolitics commentator, reflects on a decade of cyber geopolitics. She and Dave revisit how cyber threats became constant. They discuss Petya’s supply-chain shock, Ukraine as a cyber war laboratory, and China’s long-game supply-chain influence. They close with defense-in-depth and zero trust as practical responses.

Asdrúbal Pichardo, CEO of Squalify and cyber risk quantification expert advising banks on resilience, weighs in. He discusses whether banks are ready for multi-day cyber disruptions. He highlights weakest links like backups, incident response and supply-chain gaps. He also addresses how AI multiplies fraud and the need to test plans and validate backups.

Dov Yoran, CEO of Command Zero and security operations expert, discusses using AI to speed and standardize SOC investigations. He explains rapid onboarding of cloud AI tools, the need for guardrails and auditability, and how agentic workflows could boost analyst capabilities. The conversation focuses on practical AI adoption and governance in security operations.

Marcus Rauschecker, Executive Director at UMD CHHS and expert in cyber policy and emergency management, joins to stress the nontechnical side of cyber readiness. He discusses who must be involved in incidents and how decision authority and coordination should work. He highlights workforce development beyond pure tech and the cultural shift needed to make cybersecurity an enterprise responsibility.

Critical MOVEit auth bypass and urgent patching are highlighted. Concerns about restricted access to advanced AI and Pentagon AI agreements come up. Active Linux kernel exploitation and a Canvas education platform breach are reported. A Lazarus macOS social‑engineering campaign and coordinated international raids on crypto scam centers are covered.