CyberWire Daily

N2K Networks
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Nov 16, 2020 • 26min

Cyberespionage and international norms of conduct in cyberspace. DarkSide establishes storage options for its affiliates. TroubleGrabber in Discord. Unapplied patches.

Nation-states continue to probe COVID-19 vaccine researchers. The Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace proposes international norms for promoting stability in cyberspace. DarkSide ransomware-as-a-service operators sweeten their offer with storage options. TroubleGrabber is stealing credentials via Discord. SAD DNS code pulled from GitHub. Betsy Carmelite from Booz Allen with a forward-looking view of 5G. Rick Howard takes a look at SOAR. Many patches remain unapplied, and CMMS wants US Defense contractors to move toward positive security. For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief:https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/221 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Nov 15, 2020 • 5min

Malek Ben Salem: Taking those challenges. [R&D] [Career Notes]

Americas Security R&D Lead for Accenture Malek Ben Salem shares how she pivoted from her love of math and background in electrical engineering to a career in cybersecurity R&D. Malek talks about her interest in astrophysics as a young girl, and how her affinity for math and taking on challenges lead her to a degree in electrical engineering. She grew her career using math for data mining and forecasting eventually pursuing a masters and PhD in computer science where she shifted her focus to cybersecurity. Malek now develops and applies new AI techniques to solve security problems at Accenture. We thank Malek for sharing her story with us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Nov 14, 2020 • 28min

That first CVE was a fun find, for sure. [Research Saturday]

In the late 90s, hackers who discovered vulnerabilities would sometimes send an email to Bugtraq with details. Bugtraq was a notification system used by people with an interest in network security. It was also a place that might have been monitored by employees of software companies looking for reports of vulnerabilities pertaining to their software. The problem was - there wasn't an easy way to track specific vulnerabilities in specific products. It was May 1999. Larry Cashdollar was working as a system administrator for Bath Iron Works under contract by Computer Sciences Corporation. Specifically, he was a UNIX Systems Administrator, level one. His team managed over 3,000 UNIX systems across BIW's campuses. Most of these were CAD systems used for designing AEGIS class destroyers. This position gave me access to over 3,000 various flavors of UNIX ranging from Sun Solaris to IBM AIX.Joining us in this week's Research Saturday to discuss his journey from finding that first CVE through the next 20 years and hundreds of CVEs is Akamai Senior Response Engineer Larry Cashdollar.The research can be found here: MUSIC TO HACK TO: MY FIRST CVE AND 20 YEARS OF VULNERABILITY RESEARCH Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Nov 13, 2020 • 25min

CISA offers its assessment (high) of US election security. An alleged GRU front media group is fingered. Notes on cybercrime, and one cheap proof-of-concept.

CISA says US elections were secure, that recounts are to be expected in tight races. (But election-themed malspam continues, of course.) A news platform is flagged as a GRU front. A new ransomware strain takes payment through an Iranian Bitcoin exchange. The Jupyter information-stealer is out and active. David Dufour on detecting deepfakes and misinformation. Dr. Jessica Barker on her new book Confident Cyber Security - How to Get Started in Cyber Security and Futureproof Your Career. And PlunderVolt is a $30 proof-of-concept.For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief:https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/220 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Nov 12, 2020 • 24min

An overview of threat actors, two proofs of concept, and an IoT botnet bothers the cloud. Patch Tuesday notes. And control yourself, sir.

BlackBerry tracks a mercenary group providing cyberespionage services. A rundown from Dragos on threat actors engaging with industrial targets. An Iot botnet is active in the cloud. A research team offers a new proof-of-concept for DNS cache poisoning, and another group of researchers demonstrates a novel power side-channel attack. Patch Tuesday notes. Joe Carrigan wonders if you’re likely to get your money’s worth when paying baddies. Our guest is Michael Daniel from the CTA on the merging fields of cybersecurity and information operations. And a pro-tip: you do know that they can usually see you on Zoom, right?For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief:https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/219 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Nov 11, 2020 • 5min

shadow IT (noun) [Word Notes]

As we are not publishing in observance of Veterans Day, we thought you might like to check out a couple of episodes of our weekly Word Notes short form podcast that comes out on Tuesdays. Check it out and subscribe today! Technology, software and hardware deployed without explicit organizational approval. In the early days of the computer era from the 1980s through the 2000s security and information system practitioners considered shadow IT as completely negative. Those unauthorized systems were nothing more than a hindrance that created more technical debt in organizations that were already swimming in it with the known and authorized systems.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Nov 11, 2020 • 5min

remote access Trojan or RAT (noun) [Word Notes]

As we are not publishing in observance of Veterans Day, we thought you might like to check out a couple of episodes of our weekly Word Notes short form podcast that comes out on Tuesdays. Check it out and subscribe today! From the intrusion kill chain model, a program that provides command and control services for an attack campaign. While the first ever deployed RAT is unknown, one early example is Back Orifice made famous by the notorious hacktivist group called “The Cult of the Dead Cow,” or cDc, Back Orifice was written by the hacker, Sir Dystic AKA Josh Bookbinder and released to the public at DEFCON in 1998. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Nov 10, 2020 • 24min

A look at what’s up in some of the criminal markets. The continued resilience of TrickBot. What you can buy for $155,000.

Criminals get the news like everyone else, and online crime continues to follow current events. It’s up, it’s down, it’s up again--forget it: it’s TrickBot. A cyber incident affects computer maker Compal. Zoom settles an FTC complaint. Price check in the criminal markets. Ben Yelin on a Canadian shopping mall's collection of over 5 million shopper's images. Our guest is Ben Brook from Transcend with best practices in privacy and data protections.And spare a thought for a veteran tomorrow.For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief:https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/218 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Nov 9, 2020 • 25min

Supply chain security. New cyberespionage from OceanLotus. Data breaches expose customer information. And GCHQ has had quite enough of this vaccine nonsense, thank you very much.

Alerts and guidelines on securing the software supply chain (and the hardware supply chain, too). OceanLotus is back with its watering holes. Two significant breaches are disclosed. Malek Ben Salem from Accenture Labs explains privacy attacks on machine learning. Rick Howard brings the Hash Table in on containers. And, hey, we hear there’s weird stuff out there about vaccines, but GCHQ is on the case.For links to all of today's stories check out our CyberWire daily news brief:https://www.thecyberwire.com/newsletters/daily-briefing/9/217 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Nov 8, 2020 • 5min

Richard Clarke: From presidential inspiration to cybersecurity policy pioneer. [Policy] [Career Notes]

CEO and consultant Richard Clarke took his inspiration from President John F Kennedy and turned it into the first cybersecurity position in federal government. Determined to help change the mindset of war, Richard went to work for the Department of Defense at the Pentagon following college during the Vietnam War. From Assistant Secretary of the State Department, he moved to the White House to work for President George W. Bush's administration where he kept an eye on Al-Qaeda and was tasked to take on cybersecurity. Lacking any books or courses to give him a basic understanding of cybersecurity, Richard made it his mission to raise the level of cybersecurity knowledge. Currently as Chairman and CEO at Good Harbor Security Risk Management, Richard advises CISOs. We thank Richard for sharing his story with us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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