CyberWire Daily

Tensions between Russia and Ukraine remain high as NATO offers Ukraine cyber, diplomatic, and other support. North Korea gets DDoSed. DazzleSpy hits Hong Kong dissidents drawn to a watering hole. TrickBot ups its game. A quick look at ransomware trends. Microsoft’s Kevin Magee unpacks a recent World Economic Forum report. Our own Rick Howard speaks with Chriss Knisley from MITRE ATT&CK Defender on certifications. And Dame Fortune teaches Michiganders to throw caution to the winds.For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing:https://thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/11/17 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tensions remain high as Russia assembles troops near Ukraine and NATO moves to higher states of readiness. The Belarusian Cyber Partisans claim responsibility for a ransomware attack against Belarusian railroads. The BRATA banking Trojan spreads, as does DTPacker malware. REvil alumni may be getting the band back together. Ransomware operators working harder to recruit insiders at their targets. Joe Carrigan has the story of a romance scammer in custody. Mr. Security Answer Person John Pescatore has thoughts on BYOD. And there’s a major DDoS campaign shutting down the Internet in Andorra.For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing:https://thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/11/16 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Updates on the continuing hybrid war in Ukraine. The UK charges Russia with trying to install a puppet in Kyiv. Nominal hacktivists claim an attack against Belarusian railroads. Compromise of Greek parliamentary email accounts reported. Netherlands authorities warn against relaxing your guard against Log4j exploitation. Julian Assange will get another chance to avoid extradition. Rick Howard’s been pondering his reading list. Dinah Davis from Arctic Wolf on securing your smart speakers. And Russian privateers find that they’re expendable.For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing:https://thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/11/15 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

COO and Co-Founder of Query. AI, Andrew Maloney, shares how the building blocks he learned in the military helped him get where he is today. Coming from a blue collar family with a minimal knowledge of computers, Andrew went into computer operations in the Air Force. While deployed to Oman just after the start of the Iraq War, Andrew said he got his break into security. That's where he learned the components that fit together in order to effectively secure an environment. Andrew's words of wisdom: You've got to keep pushing and you've got to believe in yourself and never sell yourself short. We thank Andrew for sharing his story with us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest Rob Boyce, Accenture's Global Lead for Cyber Incident Response and Transformation Services, joins Dave to discuss joint research done by Accenture’s Cyber Threat Intelligence (ACTI) group and Prevailion’s Adversarial Counterintelligence Team (PACT). The teams dug into recently publicized campaigns of the cyber espionage threat group Lyceum (aka HEXANE, Spirlin) to further analyze the operational infrastructure and victimology of this actor. The team’s findings corroborate and reinforce previous ClearSky and Kaspersky research indicating a primary focus on computer network intrusion events aimed at telecommunications providers in the Middle East. Additionally, the research expands on this victim set by identifying additional targets within internet service providers (ISPs) and government agencies. Although all victim-identifying information has been redacted, this report seeks to provide these targeted industry and geographic verticals with additional knowledge of the threat and mitigation opportunities.The research can be found here:Who are latest targets of cyber group Lyceum? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

US and Russian talks over Ukraine conclude with an agreement to further exchanges next week. Western governments continue to recommend vigilance against the threat of Russian cyberattacks against critical infrastructure. The US Treasury Department sanctions four Ukrainian nationals for their work on behalf of Russia’s FSB and its influence operations. A firmware bootkit is discovered in the wild. Security turnover at Twitter. Caleb Barlow looks at wifi hygiene. Our guest is Allan Liska on his latest ransomware book. And a number station gets hacked, in style.For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing:https://thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/11/14 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Russian forces remain in assembly areas near the Ukrainian border, the US and Russia prepare for tomorrow’s high-level talks in Geneva. NATO members look to their cyber defenses. US President Biden issues a Memorandum on Improving the Cybersecurity of National Security, Department of Defense, and Intelligence Community Systems. Notes on C2C markets. Mirai is exploiting Log4j flaws. Verizon’s Chris Novak shares insights on Log4j challenges. Our guest is Ryan Kovar from Splunk with a look at the year ahead. And Olympic athletes heading to China? Better grab that burner phone.For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing:https://thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/11/13 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ukraine confirms that it was hit by wiper malware last week, as tension between Moscow and Kyiv remains high. It remains high as well between Russia and NATO, as Russia continues marshaling conventional forces around Ukraine. CISA advises organizations to prepare to withstand Russian cyberattacks. Other cyberespionage campaigns are reported, as is a new strain of ransomware. Microsoft’s Kevin Magee provides friendly counsel for CISOs and boards. Our guest is Clar Rosso from ISC2 on the communication gap between cybersecurity teams and executive leaders when it comes to ransomware. And the natural disaster in Tonga may offer lessons in resilience and recovery.For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing:https://thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/11/12 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new Chinese cyberespionage group is described. Cobalt Strike implants are observed hitting unpatched VMware Horizon servers. Ukraine attributes last week’s cyberattacks to Russia (with some possibility of Belarusian involvement as well). Microsoft doesn’t offer attribution, but it suggests that the incidents were more destructive than ransomware or simple defacements. The US warns of possible provocations. Ben Yelin looks at a bipartisan TLDR bill. Our guest is Lisa Plaggemier from the National Cybersecurity Alliance on the ongoing threat of phishing. And the REvil arrests in Russia may have been for “leverage.”For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news briefing:https://thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/11/11 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Social engineer and CEO of Hekate, Marina Ciavatta, shares her story of how people think her job is a la Mission Impossible coming from the ceiling with a rope and stealing stuff in the dead of the night. Marina does physical pentesting. Starting with an unused degree in journalism, Marina turned her talent for writing into a job as a content producer for a technology company and this appealed to her self-proclaimed nerdism. She fell in love with hacking and got into pentesting thanks to a friend. Marina recommends those interested in physical pentesting "try to find other social engineers to mingle. It's in the name. We are social creatures." We thank Marina for sharing her story with us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices