Risky Bulletin

A ransomware group used a supply chain compromise to hack around 40 shipping companies, the Pentagon assembles a technology sabotage unit, PHP2Shell exploitation gets underway and GoDaddy revokes 400,000 certs.

Tom Uren and Amberleigh Jack talk about the weird bugging incident at OpenAI. It doesn’t look at all like it was normal state-backed espionage, but there are still  good reasons  the frontier labs should ensure that their crown jewels are safe.

They also discuss how cybercriminals are rapidly evolving their use of AI. The technology and harnesses available are getting better and the criminals are also discovering business models where they can sit back while AI automates most of the work.

This episode is also available on YouTube.

A hacker hijacks more than 10% of Tor’s exit nodes, a second ransomware negotiator has been linked to ShinyHunters, a Chinese crime ring hacked Staples, and a hacker leaks emails from German far-right party AfD.

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq discuss whether the rise of AI coding will result in more or less bugs and whether it will ultimately make software more secure.

This episode is also available on YouTube.

A serious vulnerability lets attackers escape Kernel-based virtual machines, OpenCode users become collateral damage in a distillation attack, supply chain incidents hit AOMEI and ConnectWise and Intel will discontinue SGX.

In this Risky Business sponsored interview James Wilson chats with Sondera co-founder and CEO, Josh Devon, about how AI agents are highly capable, but they’re not the best rule followers or decision makers.

The pair find themselves in the philosophical weeds about why agents lack the ability to determine, or care about, right from wrong before getting into how Sondera’s autoformalisation, that gives specific behaviour guardrails to agents, can help.

Three DataSuckers hacking group suspects arrested in Russia, Al Jazeera employees targeted with Candiru spyware, the US disrupts 40 North Korean laptop farms, and an OpenAI employee was arrested for planting a spy device.

Tom Uren and Amberleigh Jack talk about Russian targeting of Ukrainian data centres. That’s not good, but it looks like Russia is very poorly prepared for Ukraine’s retaliatory strikes. Karma!

They also discuss how open-weight models are getting good at cyber tasks while safeguards are easily bypassed. There is no chance of international regulation that will rein in these models, so it is time to loosen cyber safety restrictions on American frontier models.

This episode is also available on YouTube

Spyware chips found inside Ledger crypto-wallets, a cyberattack defrosts supermarket freezers across France, Dutch-owned supermarkets go offline in multiple countries following a cyberattack, and the EU wants smart glasses to beep loudly when they’re recording.

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq examine how ShinyHunters and the FBI both deceived themselves into believing they were immune to cyber threats.

This episode is also available on YouTube.