Research Saturday

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab Security and Privacy Institute claim to have made an important breakthrough in establishing root of trust (RoT) to detect malware in computing devices. Virgil Gligor is one of the authors of the research, and he joins us to share their findings.

Link to original research - 

https://www.ndss-symposium.org/ndss-paper/establishing-software-root-of-trust-unconditionally/

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Joep Gommers from EclecticIQ joins us to share their research tracking the information operations and and security methods they've been tracking that Russians have been using in advance of the recently held elections in Ukraine.

The research can be found here:

https://www.eclecticiq.com/resources/fusion-center-report-situational-awareness-ukraine-elections

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Researchers at Pen Test Partners recently examined a variety of third-party automotive security systems and found serious security issues, potentially giving bad actors the ability to locate, disable or meddle with multiple vehicle systems.

Ken Munro is a security researcher with Pen Test Partners, and he joins us to share their findings.

The original research can be found here:

https://www.pentestpartners.com/security-blog/gone-in-six-seconds-exploiting-car-alarms/

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Investigators from McAfee's advanced threat research unit, working with partners at Coveware, have reevaluated hasty attributions of Ryuk ransomware to North Korea and have explored the inner workings of the threat.

John Fokker is head of cyber investigations in McAfee's Advanced Threat research unit. He join us to share their findings.

The original research can be found here:

https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/other-blogs/mcafee-labs/ryuk-exploring-the-human-connection/

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Akamai's Larry Cashdollar joins us to describe an exploit he recently came across while researching MageCart incidents. It's a remote command execution vulnerability affecting ThinkPHP, a popular web framework.

The original research can be found here:

https://blogs.akamai.com/sitr/2019/01/thinkphp-exploit-actively-exploited-in-the-wild.html

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Vitali Kremez is a Director of Research at Flashpoint. His team discovered that the recently disclosed intrusion suffered in December 2018 by Chilean interbank network Redbanc involved PowerRatankba, a malware toolkit with ties to North Korea-linked group Lazarus. The intrusion represents the latest known example of Lazarus-affiliated tools being deployed within financially motivated activity targeted toward financial institutions in Latin America.

The original research can be found here:

https://www.flashpoint-intel.com/blog/disclosure-chilean-redbanc-intrusion-lazarus-ties/

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Researchers at Zscaler have been tracking a variety fake versions of the popular Fortnite game on the Google Play store, along with associated scams. Deepen Desai is head of security research at Zscaler, and he joins us to share their findings.

The original research can be found here:

https://www.zscaler.com/blogs/research/fake-fortnite-apps-scamming-and-spying-android-gamers

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Researchers at security firm Cylance have been tracking a threat group targeting the Rosneft Russian oil company. As Cylance uncovered details, suspicions shifted from state-sponsored espionage to business email compromise. 

Kevin Livelli is director of threat intelligence at Cylance, and he joins us to share what they found.

The original research can be found here:

https://threatvector.cylance.com/en_us/home/poking-the-bear-three-year-campaign-targets-russian-critical-infrastructure.html

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Researchers at Symantec have been tracking Seedworm, a cyber espionage group targeting the Middle East as well as Europe and North America. The threat group targets government agencies, oil & gas facilities, NGOs, telecoms and IT firms.

Al Cooley is director of product management at Symantec, and he joins us to share their findings.

The original research can be found here:

https://www.symantec.com/blogs/threat-intelligence/seedworm-espionage-group

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The team at Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 recently published research tracking trends in how organizations are addressing cloud security, along with tips for improvement. 

Ryan Olson is VP of threat intelligence at Palo Alto Networks, and he joins us to share their findings.

The original research can be found here:

https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/unit-42-cloud-security-trends-tips/

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