CyberWire Daily

In today's podcast, we discuss a report from Symantec that Shamoon may be connected to Greenbug. Google is purging HummingWhale malware from the Play Store. Apple issues a major set of patches across its product line. CIA has a new director; GCHQ's still looking for one. Yahoo!'s deal with Verizon will be delayed until April at least. Other industry M&A and venture funding news is more upbeat. Lloyds Bank is said to have been targeted with cyber extortion. Ben Gurion University's Yisroel Mirsky describes vulnerabilities with 3D printers. And there's no honor among thieves—if you don't believe us, ask the thieves.

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In today's podcast we discuss some fake tweets from hijacked news accounts around the time of the US Presidential transition—OurMine seems to have some at least tangential involvement. BankBot Android Trojan evolves, and Skyfin will quietly buy stuff you don't want from the Google Play Store. Sage 2.0 ransomware distributed by repurposed spam. Ill-named Dharma ransomware hits Indian pony site. Lloyds Bank disclosed DDoS attacks. Cryptographer Matthew Green describes Google new open source Key Transparency project. Jonathan Katz from the University of Maryland explains multivariate encryption. The SEC looks at Yahoo!'s breach disclosure record. And the FBI is taking an interest in the gentleman Krebs fingered as Mirai's master.

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In today's podcast, we hear about how the Carbank cyber gang is getting trickier and more ambitious. In other cybercrime news, ransomware takes off after more databases. There's a new ransomware-as-a-service offering in the black market. Emily Wilson from Terbium Labs addresses perceptions of terrorists on the dark web. Simone Petrella from CyberVista provides her perspective on cyber security workforce issues. A new strain of Android ransomware hits Russian-speaking users. Locky's back, but in a feeble sort of way. Cybercriminals lock files at a cancer service not-for-profit. Russian policy wonks seem to suggest that we're not at the point in history where 2016 yielded to 2017. Instead—calling all Cold Warriors—1948 just ticked over into 1949. 

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France prepares for election hacking. Ukrenergo [yook-REN-air-go] acknowledges its electrical service was hacked. Malwarebytes reports on Fruitfly, malware swarming about biomedical research facilities. Krebs believes he's found the author of Mirai. Anonymous says it's going to dox US President-elect Trump. Ben Yelin reviews your rights to privacy at the border. Nir Giller from CyberX addresses the false sense of security when it comes to ICS. And the RSA Conference announces the finalists in the Innovation Sandbox.

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Carbanak is back, and in the cloud. GhostAdmin quietly assembles a few good bots. Malware writers troll security researchers on VirusTotal. Oracle issues a big patch; Apple is said to be preparing a smaller one. M&A activity is in the news. Australia investigates fallout from the Yahoo! breaches. Experts warn European election officials and politicians to be on the lookout for Bears. Rick Howard from Palo Alto Networks seeks a unified theory of security. David Bianco from Sqrrl offers advice on threat hunting. And US President Obama issues some pardons and commutations—General Cartwright and Private Manning are on the list. Not so Mr. Snowden.

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In today's podcast we hear warnings that electrical utilities should regard hacks of Ukraine's power grid as a wake-up call (the squirrel threat notwithstanding). Various nations work to shore up their defenses against Russian government hacking and influence operations. Russia protests its innocence, but there are some reliable reports of Fancy Bear sightings in Norway. Cyber criminals are back, except for those behind Locky ransomware, who seem to still be on holiday break. New approaches to ransomware and phishing. Dale Drew from Level 3 Communications tell us about the BGP Flowspec. And a loyalty program at the Golden Arches may be proving problematic. 

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In today's podcast we get updates on grid hacking in Ukraine and the case of the EyePyramid spyware in Italy. Smartphone forensics shop Cellebrite suffers a data breach. WhatsApp appears to have an encryption issue, but most observers think it's not really a backdoor. WordPress gets eight patches. ENISA issues recommended best practices for securing connected cars. A US Justice Department IG will look into the FBI's investigation of classified information handling in the Clinton State Department. President Obama expands NSA's authority to share raw SIGINT with other intelligence agencies. The Johns Hopkins University's Joe Carrigan reminds us to protect our mobile phone numbers. Stanford Cyber Initiative Executive Director Allison Berke shares that organization's mission. Guccifer 2.0 wants to clear a few things up, and the ShadowBrokers say "bye-bye," or maybe "do svidaniya."

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In today's podcast, we hear about the arrest of an Italian brother and sister for an EyePyramid spyware crime spree that may have been in progress since 2010. Ukraine confirms that Kiev's power grid was hacked last month, and the Ukrainian government tries to tide over some influence operations of its own. Policy wonks talk information operations and some realize that such ops aren't new. The peace sign hack joins the Gummibear hack as a challenge to biometric authentication. Yisroel Mirsky from Ben Gurion University explains new research using databases of exploits and vulnerabilities. Quick industry notes. And Hamas goes catphishing.

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In today's podcast we learn that Shamoon is back, and still a nasty piece of work. Ukraine's grid was hacked again last month, probably by the same people who did it at the end of 2015. A new strain of ransomware offers a tiered extortion model (and unfortunately pretty solid encryption). France and Britain prepare for Russian election hacking. Awais Rashid from Lancaster University outlines the human factors in cyber security. Limor Kessem from IBM Security discusses their recently released ransomware study.The debate over influence operations flares again in the US. And China still finds Pokemon threatening.

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California says a nation-state was behind the Anthem hack. The ShadowBrokers hold a yard sale (we'd pass on the malware, but if they had a nice blender out we'd consider it). WikiLeaks says it's interested in relationships, not doxing. The US FDA confirms vulnerabilities in cardiac devices. Hello Kitty gets breached. Yahoo! will become Altaba, and get new leadership. Germany and the UK study ways of increasing cyber capability. The University of Maryland's Jonathan Katz reviews emerging encryption types. Uri Sternfeld from Cybereason explains their free ransomware prevention tool, RansomFree. Russia complains it's the subject of a witch hunt. 

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