The CyberWire Daily

A whistle-blower claims DOGE uploaded a sensitive Social Security database to a vulnerable cloud server. Allies push back against North Korean IT scams. ZipLine is a sophisticated phishing campaign targeting U.S.-based manufacturing. Researchers uncover a residential proxy network operating across at least 20 U.S. states. Flock Safety license plate readers face increased scrutiny. A new report chronicles DDoS through the first half of the year. LLM guard rails fail to defend against run-on sentences. A South American APT targets the Colombian government. Our guest is Harry Thomas, Founder and CTO at Frenos, on the benefits of curated and vetted AI training data. One man’s fight against phantom jobs posts.

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CyberWire Guest

Our guest today is Harry Thomas, Founder and CTO at Frenos, talking about the benefits of curated and vetted AI training data.  Learn more about the Frenos and N2K Networks partnership to utilize industry validated intelligence to build the first AI native OT security posture management platform.

Selected Reading

DOGE Put Critical Social Security Data at Risk, Whistle-Blower Says (The New York Times)

Governments, tech companies meet in Tokyo to share tips on fighting North Korea IT worker scheme (The Record)

ZipLine Campaign: A Sophisticated Phishing Attack Targeting US Companies (Check Point Research)

Phishing Campaign Targeting Companies via UpCrypter (FortiGuard Labs)

Belarus-Linked DSLRoot Proxy Network Deploys Hardware in U.S. Residences, Including Military Homes (Infrawatch)

CBP Had Access to More than 80,000 Flock AI Cameras Nationwide (404 Media)

Evanston shuts down license plate cameras, terminates contract with Flock Safety (Evanston Round Table)

Global DDoS attacks exceed 8M amid geopolitical tensions (Telecoms Tech News)

One long sentence is all it takes to make LLMs misbehave (The Register)

TAG-144’s Persistent Grip on South American Organizations (Recorded Future)

This tech worker was frustrated with ghost job ads. Now he’s working to pass a national law banning them (CNBC)

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A cyberattack disrupts state systems in Nevada. A China-linked threat actor targets Southeast Asian diplomats. A new attack method hides malicious prompts inside images processed by AI systems.Experts ponder preventing AI agents from going rogue. A new study finds AI is hitting entry-level jobs hardest. Michigan’s Supreme Court upholds limits on cell phone searches. Sen. Wyden accuses the judiciary of cyber negligence. CISA issues an urgent alert on a critical Git vulnerability. Hackers target Maryland’s transit services for the disabled. Our guest is Cristian Rodriguez, Field CTO for the Americas from CrowdStrike, examining the escalating three-front war in AI.  A neighborhood crime reporting app gets algorithmically sketchy.

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CyberWire Guest

Today we are joined by Cristian Rodriguez, Field CTO, Americas from CrowdStrike, as he is examining the escalating three-front war in AI.

Selected Reading

 Cybercrime Government Leadership News News Briefs  Recorded Future Nevada state websites, phone lines knocked offline by cyberattack (The Record)

Chinese UNC6384 Hackers Use Valid Code-Signing Certificates to Evade Detection (GB Hackers)

New AI attack hides data-theft prompts in downscaled images (Bleeping Computer)

How to stop AI agents going rogue (BBC)

AI Makes It Harder for Entry-Level Coders to Find Jobs, Study Says (Bloomberg)

Fourth Amendment Victory: Michigan Supreme Court Reins in Digital Device Fishing Expeditions (Electronic Frontier Foundation)

Wyden calls for probe of federal judiciary data breaches, accusing it of ‘negligence’ (The Record)

CISA Alerts on Git Arbitrary File Write Flaw Actively Exploited (GB Hackers)

Maryland investigating cyberattack impacting transit service for disabled people (The Record)

Citizen Is Using AI to Generate Crime Alerts With No Human Review. It’s Making a Lot of Mistakes (404 Media)

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Farmers Insurance discloses a data breach affecting over a million people. Agentic AI tools fall for common scams. A new bill in Congress looks to revive letters of marque for the digital age. Cybercriminals target macOS users with the Shamos infostealer. New Android spyware masquerades as antivirus to target Russian business executives. CISA seeks public comments on SBOM updates. A major third party electronics manufacturer reports a ransomware attack. Salesforce patches multiple vulnerabilities in its Tableau products. Over 370,000 user Grok conversations were accidentally indexed by Google. Ben Yelin examines the UK’s decision to drop digital backdoor requirements. WIRED gets duped by an AI author.

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CyberWire Guest

Ben Yelin from University of Maryland Center for Cyber Health and Hazard Strategies joins to discuss the U.K. dropping ‘back door’ demand for Apple user data. Read the article Ben discusses. If you enjoyed this conversation and want to hear more from Ben, check out our Caveat podcast here.

Selected Reading

Farmers Insurance Data Breach Impacts Over 1 Million People (SecurityWeek)

"Scamlexity": When Agentic AI Browsers Get Scammed (Guardio)

Bill would give hackers letters of marque against US enemies (The Register)

Fake macOS help sites push Shamos infostealer via ClickFix technique (Help Net Security)

New Android malware poses as antivirus from Russian intelligence agency (Bleeping Computer)

CISA Requests Public Feedback on Updated SBOM Guidance (SecurityWeek)

Electronics manufacturer Data I/O reports ransomware attack to SEC (The Record)

Salesforce patches multiple flaws in Tableau Server, at least one critical (Beyond Machines)

370,000 Grok AI chats leaked after being indexed on Google (Cyber Daily)

How WIRED Got Rolled by an AI Freelancer (WIRED)

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Please enjoy this encore of Career Notes.

Senior Vice President and Executive in Residence with Rapid7 and Chairman for Cyversity, Julian Waits, grew up in the era of the Justice League and Superman and it shaped his career. Julian always wanted to do something where he could find a way to help society to basically help others. Starting out as a Baptist minister with aspirations of being a professional musician, Julian found it more practical to take some technology classes and practice his saxophone when he had time. His first tech job was at Texaco where he worked on early networks and moved into systems engineering at Compaq. Julian notes his ADD made coding less attractive than talking with others to solve problems and Compaq provided him with opportunities to pivot. Searching out diversity, Julian moved to DC, and had his first taste of startups. He now describes himself as a serial entrepreneur. We thank Julian for sharing his story with us.

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This week, we are joined by Dr. Renée Burton, VP of Infoblox Threat Intel, who is discussing their work on VexTrio, a notorious traffic distribution system (TDS) involved in digital fraud. The VexTrio investigation uncovers a massive global ad fraud and scam operation powered by just 250 virtual machines, tying it directly to named individuals and shell companies across Europe.

The research exposes VexTrio’s full criminal supply chain—including fake apps, dating scams, affiliate networks, and payment processors—alongside a powerful CDN infrastructure ranked among the world’s top 10k domains. It also calls on the adtech industry to take accountability for enabling and sustaining such widespread abuse.

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The research can be found here:

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The FTC warns one country’s “online safety” may be another’s “censorship.” A new bipartisan bill aims to reduce barriers to federal cyber jobs. MURKY PANDA targets government, technology, academia, legal, and professional services in North America. MITRE updates their hardware weaknesses list. Customs and Border Protection conducts a record number of device searches at U.S. borders. A recent hoax exposes weaknesses in the cybersecurity community’s verification methods. A Houston man gets four years in prison for sabotaging his employer’s computer systems. A Florida-based provider of sleep apnea equipment suffers a data breach. Interpol dismantles a vast cybercriminal network spanning Africa.  Brandon Karpf shares his experience with fake North Korean job applicants. Being a smooth-talking English speaker can land you a gig in the cybercrime underworld. 

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CyberWire Guest

Today we are joined by Brandon Karpf, friend of the show discussing his experience with fake North Korean job applicants. You can also hear more from Brandon on our show T-Minus Daily, where he’s a regular guest on a monthly space segment—catch his latest episode this Monday!

Selected Reading

US warns tech companies against complying with European and British ‘censorship’ laws (The Record)

House lawmakers take aim at education requirements for federal cyber jobs (CyberScoop)

MURKY PANDA: Trusted-Relationship Cloud Threat (CrowdStrike)

MITRE Updates List of Most Common Hardware Weaknesses (SecurityWeek)

Phone Searches at the US Border Hit a Record High (WIRED)

The Cybersecurity Community's Wake-Up Call: A Fake Reward and Its Lessons (The DefendOps Diaries)

Chinese national who sabotaged Ohio company’s systems handed four-year jail stint (The Record)

CPAP Medical Data Breach Impacts 90,000 People (SecurityWeek)

Interpol-Led African Cybercrime Crackdown Leads to 1209 Arrests (Infosecurity Magazine)

'Impersonation as a service' next big thing in cybercrime (The Register)

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Zero-day clickjacking flaws affect major password managers. The FBI warns that Russian state-backed hackers are exploiting a long-known Cisco flaw. Apple releases emergency patches for a zero-day flaw in the Image I/O framework. Home Depot faces a proposed class action lawsuit accusing it of secretly using facial recognition at self-checkout kiosks. A VPN browser extension has been exposed for secretly spying on users. Browser fingerprinting overtakes cookies as the dominant method of online tracking. Agentic AI browsers prove easily scammed. A Scattered Spider member earns 10 years in federal prison. Ron Zayas, CEO of Ironwall by Incogni, to discuss the massive data sharing and privacy risks in the leading Buy Now Pay Later apps. An Australian bank’s AI cutbacks are put on permanent hold.

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CyberWire Guest

Today we are joined by Ron Zayas, CEO of Ironwall by Incogni, to discuss the massive data sharing and privacy risks in the leading Buy Now Pay Later apps. Tune in to hear the full conversation on Caveat.

Selected Reading

Researcher Exposes Zero-Day Clickjacking Vulnerabilities in Major Password Managers (Socket)

FBI warns of Russian hackers exploiting 7-year-old Cisco flaw (Bleeping Computer)

Apple fixes new zero-day flaw exploited in targeted attacks (Bleeping Computer)

Home Depot Sued for 'Secretly' Using Facial Recognition Technology on Self-Checkout Cameras (PetaPixel)

SpyVPN: The Google-Featured VPN That Secretly Captures Your Screen (Koi Blog)

Beyond cookies: browser fingerprinting in 2025 (PITG Network)

"Scamlexity": When Agentic AI Browsers Get Scammed (Guardio)

SIM-Swapper, Scattered Spider Hacker Gets 10 Years (Krebs on Security)

Commonwealth Bank backtracks on AI job cuts, apologises for 'error' as call volumes rise (ABC News)

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Microsoft releases emergency out-of-band (OOB) Windows updates. Trump targets NSA’s leading AI and cyber expert in clearance revocations. A breach may have compromised the privacy of Ohio medical marijuana patients. Cybercriminals exploit an AI website builder to rapidly create phishing sites. Warlock ransomware operators target Microsoft’s SharePoint ToolShell vulnerability. Google and Mozilla patch Chrome and Firefox. European officials report two cyber incidents targeting water infrastructure. A federal appeals court has upheld fines against T-Mobile and Sprint for illegally selling customer location data. Authorities dismantle DDoS powerhouse Rapper Bot. On our Industry Voices segment, we are joined by Matt Radolec, VP - Incident Response, Cloud Operations, and Sales Engineering at Varonis, speaking about ShinyHunters and the problems with securing Salesforce. Microsoft Copilot gets creative with compliance. 

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CyberWire Guest

On our Industry Voices segment, we are joined by Matt Radolec, VP - Incident Response, Cloud Operations, and Sales Engineering at Varonis, who is speaking about ShinyHunters and the problems with securing Salesforce. You can hear more from Matt here.

Selected Reading

Microsoft releases emergency updates to fix Windows recovery (Bleeping Computer)

Trump Revokes Security Clearances of 37 Former and Current Officials (The New York Times)

Highly Sensitive Medical Cannabis Patient Data Exposed by Unsecured Database (WIRED)

AI Website Builder Lovable Abused for Phishing and Malware Scams (Hackread)

Warlock Ransomware Hitting Victims Globally Through SharePoint ToolShell Exploit (InfoSecurity Magazine)

High-Severity Vulnerabilities Patched in Chrome, Firefox (SecurityWeek)

Russia-linked European attacks renew concerns over water cybersecurity (CSO Online)

T-Mobile claimed selling location data without consent is legal, judges disagree (Ars Technica)

Officials gain control of Rapper Bot DDoS botnet, charge lead developer and administrator (CyberScoop)

Copilot Broke Your Audit Log, but Microsoft Won’t Tell You (Pistachio Blog)

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A researcher uncovers vulnerabilities across Intel’s internal websites that exposed sensitive employee and supplier data. The Kimsuky group (APT43) targets South Korean diplomatic missions. A new DDoS vulnerability bypasses the 2023 “Rapid Reset” fix. Drug development firm Inotiv reports a ransomware attack to the SEC. The UK drops their demand that Apple provide access to encrypted iCloud accounts. Hackers disguise the PipeMagic backdoor as a fake ChatGPT desktop app. The source code for a powerful Android banking trojan was leaked online. A Nebraska man is sentenced to prison for defrauding cloud providers to mine nearly $1 million in cryptocurrency. On this week’s Threat Vector, David Moulton speaks with Liz Pinder and Patrick Bayle for a no holds barred look at context switching in the SOC. A UK police force fails to call for backup.

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Threat Vector

Security analysts are drowning in tools, alerts, and tabs. On today's Threat Vector segment from Palo Alto Networks, we offer a snapshot from host⁠ David Moulton⁠'s conversation with⁠ Liz Pinder⁠ and⁠ Patrick Bayle⁠⁠. Together they take a no holds barred look at context switching in the SOC, what it costs, why it's getting worse, and how smarter design can fix it. You can listen to David, Patrick, and Liz's conversation⁠ here⁠. It’s a must-listen for anyone building or managing a modern SOC. New episodes of⁠ Threat Vector⁠ drop each Thursday on the N2K CyberWire network and in your favorite podcast app.

Selected Reading

Intel data breach: employee data could be accessed via API (Techzine Global)

North Korean Kimsuky Hackers Use GitHub to Target Foreign Embassies with XenoRAT Malware (GB Hackers)

Internet-wide Vulnerability Enables Giant DDoS Attacks (Dark Reading)

Drug development company Inotiv reports ransomware attack to SEC (The Record)

UK ‘agrees to drop’ demand over Apple iCloud encryption, US intelligence head claims (The Record)

Ransomware gang masking PipeMagic backdoor as ChatGPT desktop app: Microsoft (The Record)

ERMAC Android malware source code leak exposes banking trojan infrastructure (Bleeping Computer)

Nebraska man gets 1 year in prison for $3.5M cryptojacking scheme (Bleeping Computer)

South Yorkshire Police Deletes 96,000 Pieces of Digital Evidence  (Infosecurity Magazine)

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HR software giant Workday discloses a data breach. Researchers uncover a zero-day in Elastic’s EDR software. Ghost-tapping is an emerging fraud technique where cybercriminals use NFC relay attacks to exploit stolen payment card data. Germany may be on a path to ban ad blockers. A security researcher documents multiple serious flaws in McDonald’s systems. There’s a new open-source framework for testing 5G security flaws. New York’s Attorney General sues the banks behind Zelle over fraud allegations. The DOJ charges the alleged Zeppelin ransomware operator and seizes over $2.8 million in cryptocurrency. Tim Starks from CyberScoop discusses the overlooked changes that two Trump executive orders could bring to cybersecurity. Bots build their own echo chambers.

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CyberWire Guest

Today we have Tim Starks from CyberScoop discussing the overlooked changes that two Trump executive orders could bring to cybersecurity.

Selected Reading

HR giant Workday discloses data breach after Salesforce attack (Bleeping Computer)

Researchers report zero-day vulnerability in Elastic Endpoint Detection and Respons Driver that enables system compromise (Beyond Machines)

Ghost-Tapping and the Chinese Cybercriminal Retail Fraud Ecosystem (Recorded Future)

Is Germany on the Brink of Banning Ad Blockers? User Freedom, Privacy, and Security Is At Risk. (Open Policy & Advocacy)

How I Hacked McDonald's (Their Security Contact Was Harder to Find Than Their Secret Sauce Recipe) (bobdahacker)

Boffins say tool can sniff 5G traffic, launch 'attacks' without using rogue base stations (The Register)

New York claims Zelle’s shoddy security enabled a billion dollars in scams  (The Verge)

US Seizes $2.8 Million From Zeppelin Ransomware Operator (SecurityWeek)

Researchers Made a Social Media Platform Where Every User Was AI. The Bots Ended Up at War (Gizmodo)

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