Welcome to ShadowTalk's new track on our Weekly Intelligence Summary. Host Harrison Van Riper invites Digital Shadows' analysts to discuss the week's top threat intelligence news. To download the full Weekly Intelligence Summary, visit https://resources.digitalshadows.com/weekly-intelligence-summary.

Rafael Amado and Richard Gold talk cybersecurity end of year predictions, but with a twist. Rather than focus on the threats and worrying trends on the horizon, the team instead concentrate on the positive developments that we can all look forward to in 2019. Richard and Rafael discuss open source tools that can help all of us become more secure, improvements to browser security, and long overdue changes in security awareness, education and diversity that should make 2019 an altogether better year for the information security community. You can see Richard’s full list of 10 predictions on https://twitter.com/drshellface/status/1072803919020154880?s=21

Simon Hall and Richard Gold join Rafael Amado to wade in on the topic of phishing. By looking at details revealed in law enforcement indictments against nation state and organized criminal groups, as well as the tips and tools being shared by actors on cybercriminal forums and messaging applications, the team discuss how organizations can prioritize the right controls and training policies to best protect themselves in the coming year. For more on this topic, read our recent research blog, Tackling Phishing: The Most Popular Phishing Techniques and What You Can Do About It, available on digitalshadows.com/blog-and-research/tackling-phishing-the-most-popular-phishing-techniques-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/

Rick Holland and Harrison Van Riper join Michael Marriott to discuss the implications of the Marriott data breach, as well as a look forward to trends we might see in 2019. Specifically, we dig into ransomware and discuss what you should be considering in 2019. To read more about these trends (and more) read Harrison’s blog (https://www.digitalshadows.com/blog-and-research/2019-cyber-security-forecasts-six-things-on-the-horizon/). To register for our upcoming webinar with the FBI, https://info.digitalshadows.com/LiveWebinar-CyberThreatstoWatchin2019-Registration.html?Source=podcast.

The dynamic duo of Dr Gold and Simon Hall join Michael Marriott to discuss our recent findings on threat actors using cracked versions of Cobalt Strike conduct attacks, and how defenders can use this to inform their defense. Read the blog to learn more: https://www.digitalshadows.com/blog-and-research/threat-actors-use-of-cobalt-strike-why-defense-is-offenses-child/. Building on this theme, in part two, Richard Gold outlines the benefits of mapping the Mitre ATT&CK framework to the ASD Essential 8. You can read Richard’s blog here: https://www.digitalshadows.com/blog-and-research/mapping-the-asd-essential-8-to-the-mitre-attck-framework/.

For this special mid-week edition of ShadowTalk, Harrison Van Riper, Jamie Collier, and Rafael Amado focus on cyber security threats over the Black Friday weekend and holiday season. Despite increased sales for retailers and bargain opportunities for consumers, Black Friday has had the unintended consequence of emboldening and enabling profit-seeking cybercriminals. The team discuss continuing activity by the Magecart group, as well as the ways in which cybercriminals are gearing up for the holidays from our investigations of online forums and messaging applications. For more, check out our Black Friday blog at: https://www.digitalshadows.com/blog-and-research/black-friday-and-cybercrime-retails-frankenstein-monster/

Some called him a hero. Some called him the most dangerous man to the defense industry. In today’s ShadowTalk, Dr. Richard Gold and Harrison Van Riper join Rafael Amado to discuss the vigilante hacker known as Phineas Fisher. Leaked court documents surfaced this week, detailing how Italian authorities tried and ultimately failed to identify and convict Phineas Fisher for the infamous breach against the Italian surveillance and technology company, Hacking Team. The team dive into the history of Phineas Fisher, the techniques used to break into the Hacking Team network, and the OPSEC practices that allowed Phineas Fisher to remain at large.

Michael Marriott flies in from San Francisco to cover the big vulnerability and exploit stories of the week. The team discuss the Cisco denial- of-service vulnerability affecting its Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA), as well as a vulnerability in Oracle’s VirtualBox technology posted to GitHub. Dr. Richard Gold, Rafael Amado and Michael debate the benefits and drawbacks of bug bounty programs, how you should consider operational value when assessing vulnerabilities, and the U.S. Cyber Command’s publication of malware samples to VirusTotal.

In this bonus edition of ShadowTalk, Dr Richard Gold and Rafael Amado discuss the recent BBC Russian Service investigation into Facebook accounts being sold online. As reported on Friday, at least 81,000 accounts with private messages were being advertised online. Digital Shadows assisted the BBC with its investigation. Richard and Rafael outline what we know so far, as well as answering some of the key questions raised by this story. For more, see our recent blog available at https://www.digitalshadows.com/blog-and-research/81000-hacked-facebook-accounts-for-sale-5-things-to-know/.

Two years on from the Tesco Bank fraud attacks that allowed cybercriminals to check out with £2.26m (roughly $3m) in customer funds, Dr Richard Gold and Simon Hall join Rafael Amado to discuss the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s investigation report. This episode will be crucial listening for anyone involved in the financial services industry, as well as those eager to learn about incident response processes and how poor execution can have disastrous, and costly, consequences. The FCA final notice is available on: https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/final-notices/tesco-personal-finance-plc-2018.pdf