Symantec Cyber Security Brief Podcast

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief, Brigid O Gorman and Dick O’Brien discuss the latest Symantec blog, some updated research about the Yanluowang ransomware gang, with fresh activity appearing to show that this ransomware isn’t a flash-in-the-pan. We also discuss how quickly exposed cloud services are compromised by malicious actors, how off-putting strong passwords are for attackers employing brute-forcing techniques, and apparent attempts by Russian hackers to collaborate with Chinese-speaking actors. Also, the Conti gang’s possible role in the return of Emotet, and North Korean actors continue to target security researchers with fake job offers.

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief, Brigid O Gorman and Dick O’Brien discuss some recent attack campaigns aimed at critical infrastructure organizations in several countries around the world, the possible return of the Emotet botnet, and some law enforcement activity that has led to the arrest of people involved with both the REvil and Gandcrab ransomware. We also discuss some new techniques being used by the BazarLoader gang, and an FBI system being compromised and used to send out fake information security alerts.

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief, Brigid O Gorman and Dick O’Brien discuss some of our recent blogs, including at least one BlackMatter ransomware affiliate using a new data exfiltration tool in attacks, and also the breaking news that the BlackMatter ransomware operation is apparently winding down. We also discuss another recent blog we published about banking Trojan activity in Latin America, while recent law enforcement activity cracking down on ransomware criminals is also up for discussion. Elsewhere, we also talk about SquirrelWaffle, a reasonably new malware that is used as a loader and has been mentioned as a potential successor to the notorious Emotet for the delivery of threats.

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief, Brigid O Gorman and Dick O’Brien discuss several new blogs that the Symantec Threat Hunter Team has published recently. Firstly, we uncovered a new ransomware threat that we dubbed Yanluowang, which appears to be deployed in a targeted fashion and is certainly a new threat as various indications point towards it still being in development. We also published two blogs detailing two separate campaigns targeting organizations in Asia. The Harvester group is a previously unknown, likely nation-state backed group targeting victims in South Asia, while elsewhere a new espionage campaign is targeting the defense, healthcare, and ICT sectors in South East Asia. Meanwhile, we also discuss new activity from a targeted attack group dubbed LightBasin, and the return of the Lyceum group.

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief, Brigid O Gorman and Dick O’Brien discuss how the UK and the U.S. are planning to increase their efforts to tackle cyber crime, ransomware being blamed in court for the death of a baby, and the arrests of some ransomware criminals in Ukraine. Also, the Conti ransomware gang makes some threats, evidence of the Pegasus spyware allegedly found on the phones of French cabinet ministers, and an interesting targeted phishing campaign.

We are back for Season 4 after our summer break, and on this week’s Cyber Security Brief podcast Dick O’Brien and Brigid O Gorman spend a lot of time discussing the subject that also dominated the last season of the podcast - ransomware. We discuss some of the ransomware stories we missed while we were off air, as well as a ransomware whitepaper we recently worked on and made available to our customers. Apart from ransomware, we also discuss Mēris - a huge botnet that emerged over the summer and has aimed massive DDoS attacks at various organizations around the world.

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief, we discuss some recent ransomware stories, as well as giving a sneak peek into some research we have been doing into ransomware. We also talk about recent announcements from U.S. authorities that attributed some recent cyber attacks, including the Microsoft Exchange Server campaign, to Chinese actors, and we also discuss the rising cost of data breaches. This is the last podcast of season 3, we will be taking a short break and will return with new episodes in September.

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief, Gavin O’Gorman joins us to discuss the Kaseya ransomware supply chain attack that occurred over the July 4 holiday weekend in the U.S. The REvil/Sodinokibi ransomware gang were behind this attack, and Gavin and Dick O’Brien discuss whether this is a sign that we now need to be aware of ransomware actors targeting victims through supply chain attacks, which would more traditionally be associated with state-sponsored hackers, as well as some of the other interesting aspects of this attack. Meanwhile, Brigid O Gorman discusses the latest news of a new vulnerability in SolarWinds software being exploited by a Chinese hacking group, energy companies being targeted in a year-long espionage campaign, and the rising cost of cyber insurance.

On this week’s Cyber Security Brief podcast, Dick O’Brien fills us in on the latest research we have published on our blog about how a growing number of ransomware attackers are using virtual machines in their attacks. We also discuss a few other ransomware-related stories, including REvil introducing a new Linux version of its ransomware, a Babuk ransomware builder being leaked online, and a couple of stories showing the amount of money that can be involved in ransomware operations. Elsewhere, the FBI recently released a report stating that over-60s lost around $1 billion through online fraud in 2020, the U.S. Secret Service released a cyber crime Most Wanted list, a FIN7 gang member was jailed, and the EU launched a new cyber security unit.

In this week’s Cyber Security Brief podcast, Dick O’Brien and Brigid O Gorman discuss some of the biggest cyber security stories of the last two weeks. Ransomware has once again dominated the news headlines, with news about huge ransom payments and ransom recovery operations being reported. Meanwhile, cyber security comes to the fore in the political sphere following pronouncements from the G7 and NATO summits. Elsewhere, attackers leveraged Slack to attack one of the world’s biggest gaming companies, one of the largest online marketplaces for stolen credentials in the world was taken down by authorities, and how law enforcement used a backdoored chat app to spy on criminals, leading to hundreds of arrests.