Ready for a riddle? What do 40 hypothetical high school students and our guest on this episode have in common? Why they can help you understand complex cyber-attack methodology, of course! 

In this episode of Security Unlocked, hosts Nic Fillingham and Natalia Godyla are brought back to school by Principal Security Researcher, Jonathan Bar Or who discusses vulnerabilities in NETGEAR Firmware. During the conversation Jonathan walks through how his team recognized the vulnerabilities and worked with NETGEAR to secure the issue, and helps us understand exactly how the attack worked using an ingenious metaphor.  

In This Episode You Will Learn: 

• How a side-channel attack works 
• Why attackers are moving away from operating systems and towards network equipment 
• Why routers are an easy access point for attacks 

Some Questions We Ask: 

• How do you distinguish an anomaly from an attack? 
• What are the differences between a side-channel attack and an authentication bypass? 
• What can regular users do to protect themselves from similar attacks? 

Resources: 

Jonathan Bar Or’s Blog Post

Jonathan Bar Or’s LinkedIn

Microsoft Security Blog

Nic’s LinkedIn

Natalia’s LinkedIn

Related:

Listen to: Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson

Listen to: Security Unlocked: CISO Series with Bret Arsenault 

Discover and follow other Microsoft podcasts at microsoft.com/podcasts

Security Unlocked is produced by Microsoft and distributed as part of The CyberWire Network. 

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