Presidential authorization for US Cyber Command action. DPRK hacking and internal regime dynamics. TrickBot’s developers. Cybercriminals in the dock.
President Trump says he authorized US Cyber Command’s retaliation against Russia’s Internet Research Agency for midterm election meddling. North Korean financially motivated hacking as a sign of inter...
13 Jul 202021min
Turn challenges into opportunities. [Career Notes]
Cybersecurity and disinformation researcher Bilyana Lilly shares her career path from studying where she was always a foreigner to an expert on the Russian perspective. While studying international la...
12 Jul 20205min
Are you running what you think you're running? [Research Saturday]
Built into virtually every hardware device, firmware is lower-level software that is programmed to ensure that hardware functions properly. As software security has been significantly hardened over th...
11 Jul 202016min
The importance of staying up-to-date. Conti ransomware gains as Ryuk fades. Germany warns of Chinese companies’ data collection. Huawei’s fortunes in Canada and UK. Hushpuppi update.
Unpatched and beyond-end-of-life systems are (again) at risk. Conti ransomware appears to be steadily displacing its ancestor Ryuk in criminal markets. Are privacy laws as consumer friendly as they’re...
10 Jul 202025min
Coordinated inauthenticity with a domestic bent. Preinstalled malware in discount phones. Evilnum and the Joker continue to evolve. Incidents at FreddieMac and RMC.
Facebook takes down more coordinated inauthenticity. Preinstalled malware is found in discount phones available under the FCC’s Lifeline program. The Evilnum APT continues its attacks against fintech ...
9 Jul 202021min
Traditional sabotage at Natanz. CISA’s ICS strategy. DDoSecrets’ server seized by German police at the request of the US. COVID-19-themed phishing infrastructure taken down. Cyberespionage.
The Natanz blast looks like traditional sabotage. CISA releases its strategy for securing industrial control systems. Authorities in Germany seize DDoSecrets’ server pursuant to a US request. Microsof...
8 Jul 202022min
Sabotage, not cyber? Cosmic Lynx pounces on some big companies with BEC. Purple Fox upgrade. Coordinated inauthenticity in the journalistic supply chain.
Explosions at Iranian nuclear sites remain unexplained, but look increasingly like conventional sabotage as opposed to cyberattacks. The Cosmic Lynx gang sets a high bar for business email compromise....
7 Jul 202022min
Damage at Natanz, maybe cyber-induced but maybe not. Official Huawei skepticism spreads. Big European dragnet. Hushpuppi in custody.
An Iranian nuclear installation may have been hacked. Or maybe not, but in any case it was damaged. Huawei gets more skeptical looks. European police round up hundreds of online contraband dealers. Th...
6 Jul 202021min
