Eric Escobar (Twitter; LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss compromising networks and information security. He has a coveted DEFCON Black Badge. 

-What keeps Eric up at night  

-Thinking like an ethical hacker (aka a “penetration tester) 

-Protecting your information (i.e., “Hardening the attack surface”) 

-Plain English explanations of key cyber concepts like “Kill Chains” and “Zero Days” 

-Having a cool job 

-The information revolution and life in the modern world 

Eric Escobar commits several thousand felonies on any given day, if he didn’t have permission to do what he was doing. 

A Principal Security Consultant with SecureWorks, Eric has compromised pretty much everything out there: from healthcare and banking to technology and critical infrastructure, through to amusement parks and next generation military aircraft. 

“From my perspective, it’s the coolest job in the entire world.” 

His team consecutively won first place in the Wireless CTF category at DEF CON 23, 24, and 25, snagging a Black Badge along the way. He has a BS and MS in Civil Engineering.  

And… 

The links between computing, hacking and the 60’s counterculture are FASCINATING. Learn more by dipping your toes here and here, or dive deeper with What the Dormouse Said (2005) by John Markoff and From Counterculture to Cyberculture (2006) by Fred Turner.   

"Watching any critical infrastructure get compromised is really the thing that keeps me up at night because lives are in the balance…and we do a lot of testing for critical infrastructure, and I've seen computers and machines that have been online and not been taken offline, longer than I've been alive…So really interesting to see those types of things because they interact with really big, expensive hardware…there's a catch 22 that happens where you can't really take the machine offline to do maintenance on it because it's critical infrastructure. So then how do you test it to make sure that a hacker can't take it offline, or maintenance can't be done on it? " – Eric Escobar.

-Word Notes  

From beginner thru advanced, you’ll find some helpful definitions of things like “Web 3.0,” “NFT’s” and “Digital Transformation” on this Cyberwire audio glossary. 

-Inside Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) – with John Lambert and Cristin Goodwin (2021) 

-The Cyber Zeitgeist – with Dave Bittner (2021) 

-Securing Cyberspace – with Charlie Mitchell (2016) 

-What is Hacking? The Economic Times (n.d.) [web] 

-Ethical Hacking in 8 Minutes, Simplilearn (2020) [8 min video] 

-Cybersecurity in 7 minutes, Simplilearn (2020) [7 min video] 

-The Cyberweapons Arms Race, N. Perloth (Bloomsbury, 2021) 

-Cult of the Dead Cow, J. Menn (PublicAffairs, 2020) 

-Breaking & Entering, J. Smith (Mariner Books, 2019) 

-The Art of Invisibility, K. Mitnick (L, B & C, 2017) 

-Ghost in the Wires, K. Mitnick (Back Bay Books, 2012) 

-Kingpin, K. Poulson (Crown, 2012) 

-The Cuckoo’s Egg, C. Stoll (Doubleday, 1989) 

-Neuromancer, W. Gibson (Ace, 1984) 

-2022 State of the Threat: A Year in Review, Secureworks (2022) 

-The Anthropology of Hackers, The Atlantic (2010) 

-Timeline Since 2006: Significant Cyber Incidents, CSIS (n.d.) 

-DEFCON, The Documentary Network (2013) 

-Government Hacking Bibliography, S. Quinlan, New America Foundation (2016) 

-“The Aurora Shard” 

Come to the International Spy Museum to see an ugly chunk of metal. Why? Well, it speaks to a revolution in the relationship between the material world and the non-material world. Broken down? 30 lines of code blew up a 27-ton generator. Zeros and ones can cause violent explosions! 

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Alan Kohler joins Andrew to discuss the FBI’s counterintelligence division. He is a recipient of the FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Counterintelligence Investigation. 

-Counterintelligence vs. Counterespionage

-How the FBI recruit’s foreign agents 

-Ideological motivations behind spying

-Effect of technology on counterintelligence

-Staying grounded under pressure 

-The value of creativity

Alan Kohler (LinkedIn, Website) has been the FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence since 2020. Alan and Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) talk all things counterintelligence.

-The FBI & Cyber with Cyber Division Chief Bryan Vorndran, Part 1 (2022)

-The FBI & Cyber with Cyber Division Chief Bryan Vorndran, Part 2 (2022)

-My Global Career as a Female FBI Agent with Kathy Stearman (2021)

-The FBI Way with Counterintelligence Spy Chief Frank Figliuzzi (2021)

-What We Investigate, FBI (n.d.) [webpage]

-FAQ’S, FBI (n.d.) [webpage]

-US Opens Counterintelligence Investigation into China Every 12 Hours (Dir. Wray), MSNBC (2022) [video]

-What We Know About China’s Spy Agency, Bloomberg Originals (2019) [video]

-Hollow Nickel/Rudolf Abel, FBI (n.d.) [Article]

-NCSC Mission, Vision, and Goals, ODNI (n.d.) [Website]

-Counterintelligence: Information gathered, and activities conducted to identify, deceive, exploit, disrupt, or protect against espionage or other intelligence activities

-FBI Attaché: a special agent assigned to a U.S. embassy or consulate overseas to liaise with local law enforcement and intelligence agencies. They pursue terrorist, intelligence, and criminal threats with international dimensions. 

-Occam’s Razor: a rule of thumb theory that states when you are faced with competing explanations for the same phenomenon, the simplest one is probably the correct one. Attributed to William of Ockham, a 14th century English theologian. 

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Shane Harris (Twitter, LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss the role of intelligence in the Ukraine conflict one year after it began. Shane reports on intelligence for the Washington Post and is the author of two books.

-Where we are with the war in Ukraine

-The role intelligence agencies are playing in the conflict

-The leadership of Zelensky and Putin

-What it’s like to report on spies

-Dealing with sources inside the intelligence agencies

-The tenacity of the Ukrainian people and army

-History as both repetitive and unpredictable 

This week on SpyCast, Shane Harris of The Washington Post joins Andrew to reflect on the previous year and discuss the role of intelligence within the war in Ukraine. He has been writing about these issues for more than two decades, including a period with the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of two books, The Watchers, on the rise of surveillance in the US, and @War, on the rise of the military-internet complex. He was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2021.

“At the outset, [I] believed that what we were looking at was probably a pretty swift Russian victory … They would come in, they would decapitate the central government in Kiev in the first 72 hours, and it would be bloody, and it would be violent, but that Russia would prevail because they were deemed to have the superior military in terms of technology experience numbers. Turns out, all those things were spectacularly wrong.” – Shane Harris.

-How Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Spy Game with Mike Susong (2023)

-Dealing with Russia A Conversation with Counterintelligence Legend Jim Olson (2022)

-Becoming a Russian Intelligence Officer with Janosh Neumann (2022)

-The Information Battlespace: Foreign Denial and Deception with Bill Parquette (2022)

-Has Putin's war failed and what does Russia want?, P. Kirby, BBC (2023)

-A Brief History of Modern Ukraine, BBC (2022) [YouTube video]

-Russia-Ukraine Relations in 60 Seconds, CBC News (2022)

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Bonny Lin (Biography) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss the current state of China and intelligence. Bonny is the Director of the ChinaPower Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

-China’s economic power and status 

-The current landscape of Chinese intelligence 

-China’s relationship with Taiwan

-The ChinaPower Project

-Power and prominence 

-The global community as a complicated ecosystem 

“In the last couple of years, we've seen really a securitization of how China views intelligence and national security in general. And just this July, we saw China pass a revised counter espionage law. So with the whole host of laws of China's past since 2014 … it basically has made collection of intelligence and protecting Chinese national security the responsibility of every Chinese citizen.” - Bonny Lin.

-The Eye of Horus: Egyptian Intelligence with Dina Rezk (2023)

-China’s Corporate Spy War with CNBC’s Eamon Javers (2023) 

-The Counterintelligence Chief with FBI Assistant Director Alan Kohler (2023)

-Trafficking Data: The Digital Struggle with China with Aynne Kokas (2022)

-China-Taiwan crisis explained: What is behind the tensions?, ITV News, YouTube (2022) [3 min. video]

-8 things you need to know about China’s economy, World Economic Forum (2016) [Short article]

-Xi Jinping, Forbes (n.d) [Brief profile]

-Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World, A. Joske (Hardie Grant, 2022) 

-The Chinese Invasion Threat: Taiwan’s Defense and American Strategy in Asia, I. Easton (Eastbridge Books, 2019)

-The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower, M. Pillsbury (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2016) 

-National Intelligence Estimate – China-Taiwan: Prospects or Cross-Strait Relations (1999) 

-Forecasting the Sino-Vietnamese Split (1986)

-China-Vietnam: A Status Report (1983)

-Establishment of a China Task Force (1966) 

-Communist Chinese Intervention in the Vietnam War (1966)

-Controls on Trade with Communist China (1955)

-Need a good cookie recipe for the holidays? Try this recipe adapted from the 1300-year old cookies found during the 1915 excavation of the Astana Cemetery in Xinjiang, China. 

-The petrified cookies are currently part of the collection of the British Museum, and still look quite tasty! 

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Barry Zulauf (Twitter; LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss his extensive experience working across the American intelligence community. Barry is the President of the International Association for Intelligence Education. 

“[Fentanyl] is an enormous, enormous problem and no single organization, even as big as the Defense Intelligence enterprise, can deal with it alone. So, it's going to be a lot of diplomacy and a lot of building bridges, convincing people to do the right thing.”  – Barry Zulauf.

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Robert Wittman (Website; Twitter) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss his career and the FBI’s Art Crime Team. Bob recovered over $300 million worth of stolen art and cultural property over the course of his career. 

“The motivation for writing the book was to get the word out how important cultural heritage is. It really is important to make the public realize that this is an important program that should be supported by law enforcement both local and federal.” – Robert Wittman.

*Wildcard Resource*

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Dina Rezk (LinkedIn) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss Egyptian intelligence. Dina is an Associate Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at the University of Reading. 

“I think that's one of the ways in which the Egyptian Intelligence Service sort of conceives of its primary responsibility. It's about maintaining internal security, and particularly at the moment you know, since 2014, I would say sort of eliminating any sort of political opposition, any possibility of political opposition.” – Dina Rezk.

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Rear Admiral Tim Woods (Biography) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss his role as Britain’s Defence Attaché to the United States. Tim previously served as the British Defence Attaché in Kyiv, Ukraine. 

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Laura Tohe (Website) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss the stories of the WWII Navajo Code Talkers. Laura is a Diné author and the Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation. 

“When they got into the service they were told, ‘Now you're going to use your language to develop a code.’ They said, ‘But, back at home they told us not to speak Navajo, and now they want us to develop a code in Navajo?’ So, they were not only astounded, they were puzzled why they would be asked to do this when they were in a school where their identity was being erased.” – Laura Tohe.

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Andrew leads a SPY Museum panel discussion between four experts on the most damaging mole in FBI history, Robert Hanssen. This program was in collaboration with CBS/Paramount on their new podcast “Agent of Betrayal"

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