Chances are you’re familiar with GDPR, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. It went into full effect back in May of this year, with the goal of improving the privacy and security of European citizens in particular, but the global community overall as well.

One of the impacts of GDPR was that it made the WHOIS database private. WHOIS is the searchable online directory of domain name registrations, and some security researchers had concerns that spammers might take advantage of this anonymity to increase their registration rate of domain names, making it easier for them to send out their spam.

Allan Liska is a senior security architect at Recorded Future and analyzed several months’ worth of data on spam rates to see if the expected uptick came to pass. Allan wasn’t alone on this project — he had assistance from his son, Bruce, who interned at Recorded Future this past summer and co-authored the report. We’ll hear from Bruce as well.

Perdue Farms is a major U.S. agricultural business, best known for its processing of chicken, turkey, and pork, and is one the nation’s top providers of grain. Founded nearly a century ago as a “mom-and-pop” business with a small flock of chickens, today the company marks sales in excess of $6.5 billion a year and has over 20,000 employees.

Chris Wolski is head of information security and data protection at Perdue Farms, and he joins us to describe the unique intersection of cyber and physical systems he and his team help protect.

Researchers from Recorded Future’s Insikt Group have previously analyzed both the U.S. and Chinese national vulnerability databases, examining the speed of publication of cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and how each respective country considers its NVD in the broader context of the national mission of cyber defense and operations. Recorded Future’s research team recently set their investigative sights on Russia’s vulnerability database to see how it compares.

Priscilla Moriuchi is director of strategic threat development at Recorded Future, and she joins us to share what they found.

We’ve got a special episode of the Recorded Future podcast for this week. Staffan Truvé, Recorded Future’s CTO and co-founder, returns to the show to lead a conversation with our guest Rolf Rosenvinge. Rolf is CEO of RCG – CyberInsights, a Stockholm-based cybersecurity management consulting firm. He shares his views on the state of cybersecurity in the EU; the effects GDPR is having; the evolving relationship between CTOs, CISOs, and boards; and the role of threat intelligence as we look toward the future.

Researchers from Recorded Future’s Insikt Group have been tracking new malware targeting the Tibetan community, continuing an ongoing effort by the Chinese state to use cyberespionage to keep tabs on perceived domestic threats. They’ve uncovered a sophisticated new backdoor with some peculiar characteristics, and also concluded that many of these activities are being originated from servers located at a major Chinese research university.

Winnona DeSombre and Sanil Chohan, threat intelligence researchers at Recorded Future, are co-authors of the report “Chinese Cyberespionage Originating from Tsinghua University Infrastructure,” along with their colleague Justin Grosfelt. Winnona and Sanil are our guests today, and they’ll take us through what they’ve learned.

https://www.recordedfuture.com/chinese-cyberespionage-operations/