The CyberWire Daily

This week, Dave Bittner is joined by Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade (JAGS) from SentinelOne's SentinelLabs to discuss the work his team and Tinexta Cyber did on "Operation Digital Eye | Chinese APT Compromises Critical Digital Infrastructure via Visual Studio Code Tunnels."

Tinexta Cyber and SentinelLabs have been tracking threat activities targeting business-to-business IT service providers in Southern Europe. Based on the malware, infrastructure, techniques used, victimology, and the timing of the activities, we assess that it is highly likely these attacks were conducted by a China-nexus threat actor with cyberespionage motivations.

The relationships between European countries and China are complex, characterized by cooperation, competition, and underlying tensions in areas such as trade, investment, and technology. Suspected China-linked cyberespionage groups frequently target public and private organizations across Europe to gather strategic intelligence, gain competitive advantages, and advance geopolitical, economic, and technological interests.

• Operation Digital Eye | Chinese APT Compromises Critical Digital Infrastructure via Visual Studio Code Tunnels

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Authorities dismantle a Pakistan-based cybercrime network. Lawmakers question the feasibility of establishing a U.S. Cyber Force as a standalone military branch. The DOJ sues to block HPE’s acquisition of Juniper Networks. Tangerine Turkey deploys cryptomining malware. Major healthcare providers send breach notifications. Norwegian police seize a Russian-crewed ship suspected of damaging a communications cable. Researchers discover critical vulnerabilities in GitHub Copilot. D-Link patches a critical router vulnerability. CISA and the FDA have warned U.S. healthcare organizations of severe security vulnerabilities in Chinese-made patient monitors. Pauses in funding create confusion for federal cybersecurity vendors. We bid a fond farewell to a pair of N2K colleagues. The case of the disappearing government data. 

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Today’s guest segment is bittersweet as we offer our thanks and see you laters to two of our beloved colleagues N2K President Simone Petrella, who’s taking her leadership role to our advisory board, and Executive Editor Brandon Karpf, who will be taking up the mantle of protecting our national security starting his own company, Hedy Cyber. Join us in celebrating their incredible journeys, contributions to our successes, and letting them both know just how deeply they will be missed by all of us here at N2K.

US, Dutch Authorities Disrupt Pakistani Hacking Shop Network (SecurityWeek)

Lawmakers push for guardrails, deadline on cyber military study (The Record)

US Sues to Stop HPE $14 Billion Deal to Buy Juniper Networks (Bloomberg)

Tangerine Turkey mines cryptocurrency in global campaign (Red Canary)

US healthcare provider data breach impacts 1 million patients (Bleeping Computer)

NorthBay Health Data Breach Impacts 569,000 Individuals (SecurityWeek)

Norway seizes ship suspected of sabotage, says crew are Russian nationals (The Record)

GitHub Copilot Jailbreak Vulnerability Let Attackers Train Malicious Models (Cyber Security News)

D-Link Routers Vulnerability Let Attackers Gain Full Router Control Remotely (Cyber Security News)

CISA, FDA Warn of Dangerous Backdoor in Contec Patient Monitors (SecurityWeek)

Federal Cybersecurity Contractors Whiplashed By Uncertainty (GovInfo Security)

Archivists Work to Identify and Save the Thousands of Datasets Disappearing From Data.gov (404 Media)

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International law enforcement takes down a pair of notorious hacking forums. Wiz discovers an open DeepSeek database. Time Bandit jailbreaks ChatGPT. Ransomware hits one of the largest U.S. blood centers. A cyberattack takes the South African Weather Service offline. Researchers describe a new “browser syncjacking” attack. TeamViewer patches a high-severity privilege escalation flaw. Over three dozen industry groups urge Congress to pass a national data privacy law. CISA faces an uncertain future. N2K’s Brandon Karpf speaks with Ellen Chang, Vice President Ventures at BMNT and Head of BMNT Ventures. OpenAI Cries Foul After Getting a Taste of Its Own Medicine. 

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Today, N2K’s Brandon Karpf speaks with Ellen Chang, Vice President Ventures at BMNT and Head of BMNT Ventures, about the venture model, why it exists, how it works, and its impact.

Police seizes Cracked and Nulled hacking forum servers, arrests suspects (Bleeping Computer)

Wiz Research Uncovers Exposed DeepSeek Database Leaking Sensitive Information, Including Chat History (Wiz)

Time Bandit ChatGPT jailbreak bypasses safeguards on sensitive topics(Bleeping Computer)

US blood donation giant warns of disruption after ransomware attack (TechCrunch)

South Africa’s government-run weather service knocked offline by cyberattack (The Record)

Syncjacking Attack Enables Full Browser and Device Takeover (Infosecurity Magazine)

TeamViewer Patches High-Severity Vulnerability in Windows Applications (SecurityWeek)

Industry groups call on Congress to enact federal data privacy law (The Record)

US Cyber Agency’s Future Role in Elections Remains Murky Under the Trump Administration (SecurityWeek)

OpenAI Furious DeepSeek Might Have Stolen All the Data OpenAI Stole From Us (404 Media)

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Hackers linked to China and Iran are using AI to enhance cyberattacks. An AI-powered messaging tool for Slack and Discord is reportedly leaking user data. British engineering giant Smiths Group suffers a cyberattack. Rockwell Automation details critical and high-severity vulnerabilities. Researchers warn of new side-channel vulnerabilities in Apple CPUs. The Hellcat ransomware gang looks to humiliate its victims. SparkRAT targets macOS users and government entities. Flashpoint looks at FleshStealer malware. Cybercriminals leverage trust in government websites. Our guest is Ivan Novikov, CEO at Wallarm, sharing insights on the recent United States ruling that bars certain Chinese and Russian connected car tech from being imported into the US. QR code shenanigans. 

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Our guest is Ivan Novikov, CEO at Wallarm, sharing insights on the recent United States ruling that bars certain Chinese and Russian connected car tech from being imported into the US and its impact.

Chinese and Iranian Hackers Are Using U.S. AI Products to Bolster Cyberattacks (Wall Street Journal)

Update: Cybercriminals still not fully on board the AI train (yet) (Sophos)

Unprotected AI service streams private Slack messages for 30 bucks a month (Cybernews)

Engineering giant Smiths Group discloses security breach (Bleeping Computer)

Rockwell Patches Critical, High-Severity Vulnerabilities in Several Products (SecurityWeek)

New Apple CPU side-channel attacks steal data from browsers (Bleeping Computer)

SLAP (Predictors Fail)

Meow-ware gang: the cyber cats who humiliate their prey (Cybernews)

Hackers Attacking Windows, macOS, and Linux systems With SparkRAT (GB Hackers)

Unmasking FleshStealer: A New Infostealer Threat in 2025 (Flashpoint)

Threat Actors Exploit Government Websites for Phishing (Infosecurity Magazine)

Christian Walther: "@gvy_dvpont Got me thinking… c…"  (Mastodon)

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DeepSeek blames DDoS for recent outages. Hackers behind last year’s AT&T data breach targeted members of the Trump family, Kamala Harris, and Marco Rubio’s wife.The EU sanctions Russians for cyberattacks against Estonia. ENGlobal confirms personal information was taken in last year’s ransomware attack. CISA issues a critical warning about a SonicWall vulnerability actively exploited. A large-scale phishing campaign exploits users’ trust in PDF files and the USPS. Apple patches a zero-day affecting many of their products. A ransomware attack on an Ohio-based operator of skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities affects over 70,000. President Trump has a tumultuous first week back in office. Our guest is Bogdan Botezatu, Director, Threat Research and Reporting at Bitdefender, to discuss the dark market subculture and its parallels to holiday shopping. A nonprofit aims to clean up the AI industry’s mess. 

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We are joined by Bogdan Botezatu, Director, Threat Research and Reporting at Bitdefender, to discuss the dark market subculture and its parallels to holiday shopping. Check out Bitdefender’s research on the topic here.

DeepSeek Blames Disruption on Cyberattack as Vulnerabilities Emerge (SecurityWeek)

DeepSeek FAQ (Stratechery)

We tried out DeepSeek. It worked well, until we asked it about Tiananmen Square and Taiwan (The Guardian) 

Hackers Mined AT&T Breach for Data on Trump's Family, Kamala Harris (404 Media)

European Union Sanctions Russian Nationals for Hacking Estonia (SecurityWeek)

ENGlobal Says Personal Information Accessed in Ransomware Attack (SecurityWeek)

CISA Warns of SonicWall 0-day RCE Vulnerability Exploited in Wild (Cyber Security News)

Hackers Use Malicious PDFs, pose as USPS in Mobile Phishing Scam (Security Boulevard)

Amazon Prime Security Warning As Hackers Strike—What You Need To Know (Forbes) 

Apple plugs exploited security hole in iOS, updates macOS (The Register)

Nursing Home, Rehab Chain Says Hack Affects Nearly 70,000 (GovInfo Security)

A Tumultuous Week for Federal Cybersecurity Efforts (Krebs on Security)

Initiative Aims to Enable Ethical Coding LLMs (IEEE Spectrum)

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Chinese AI startup DeepSeek shakes up the market. Trump freezes cyber diplomacy funding and puts a vital U.S.-EU data-sharing agreement at risk. A trojanized RAT targets script kiddies. U.K. telecom giant TalkTalk investigates a data breach. Researchers uncover a critical flaw in Meta’s Llama Stack AI framework. Attackers leverage hidden text salting in emails. The “FlowerStorm” phishing framework targets multiple brands to steal customer credentials. A critical zero-day hits SonicWall VPN appliances. Swedish authorities seized a cargo ship suspected of damaging a key fiber optic cable. Freezing out crypto-kidnappers. Our guest is Jon Miller, CEO and Co-founder from Halcyon, sharing trends in ransomware and insights on Brain Cipher. The British Museum defends its artefacts from IT attacks.

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Our guest today is Jon Miller, CEO and Co-founder from Halcyon, sharing trends in ransomware along with some insights on Brain Cipher. For more detail, check out Halcyon’s Power Rankings: Ransomware Malicious Quartile Q4-2024. 

A shocking Chinese AI advancement called DeepSeek is sending US stocks plunging (CNN Business)

Politicization of intel oversight board could threaten key US-EU data transfer agreement (The Record)

Cyber diplomacy funding halted as US issues broad freeze on foreign aid (The Record)

Weaponised XWorm RAT builder Attacking script kiddies to Steal Sensitive Data (GB Hackers)

Change Healthcare Breach Almost Doubles in Size to 190 Million Victims (Infosecurity Magazine)

TalkTalk investigating data breach after hacker claims theft of customer data (TechCrunch)

Meta rushes to fix critical Llama Stack AI flaw (Cybernews)

Seasoning email threats with hidden text salting (Cisco Talos)

New Phishing Framework Attacking Multiple Brands To Steal Customer Logins (Cyber Security News)

More than 2,000 SonicWall devices vulnerable to critical zero-day (The Record)

Sweden seizes vessel after another undersea cable damaged (The Register)

Nicolas Bacca: "We have invented a unique organisational model for intervening in cryptocurrency ransom" (The Big Whale) 

British Museum hit by alleged IT attack by ex-worker (BBC News)

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Please enjoy this encore episode with VP of Information Security at Barracuda Dave Farrow, and how he shares how a teenage surfer fell in love with software development and made his way in the cybersecurity field. Dave chose to study electrical engineering in college because he wanted to learn something that didn't make sense to him. He says he's done things in his career that he said he'd never do: for example, he went into and fell in love with software development. Taking on leadership of a bug bounty program at Barracuda blossomed into the creation of an internal security team. Dave wants to be the guy who enables the business and not the one who prevented it. He hopes all will come to recognize that there are other threats besides cybersecurity threats to business. We thank Dave for sharing his story with us.

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This week, we are joined by Ismael Valenzuela, VP of Threat Research & Intelligence, and Jacob Faires, Principal Threat Researcher, from Blackberry discussing the team's work on "LightSpy: APT41 Deploys Advanced DeepData Framework In Targeted Southern Asia Espionage Campaign." In April 2024, BlackBerry uncovered a significant evolution of the LightSpy malware campaign, attributed to Chinese cyber-espionage group APT41.

The newly introduced DeepData framework, a modular Windows-based surveillance tool, expands data theft capabilities with 12 specialized plugins for tasks like communication surveillance, credential theft, and system intelligence gathering. The campaign targets a wide range of communication platforms, including WhatsApp, Signal, and WeChat, with advanced techniques for monitoring and stealing sensitive information from victims across the Asia-Pacific region.

The research can be found here:

• LightSpy: APT41 Deploys Advanced DeepData Framework In Targeted Southern Asia Espionage Campaign

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A federal court finds the FBI’s warrantless section 702 searches unconstitutional. The DOJ charges five in a fake IT worker scheme. The Texas Attorney General expands his investigation into automakers’ data sharing. CISA highlights vulnerabilities in the aircraft collision avoidance system. Estonia will host Europe's new space cybersecurity testing ground. Hackers use hardware breakpoints to evade EDR detection. Subaru’s Starlink connected vehicle service exposed sensitive customer and vehicle data. Asian nations claim progress against criminal cyber-scam camps. Our guest today is Dr. Chris Pierson, Founder and CEO of BlackCloak, with his outlook on 2025. Sticking AI crawlers in the tar pit. 

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Our guest today is Dr. Chris Pierson, Founder and CEO of BlackCloak, joining us to share trends he sees coming our way in 2025.

Court rules FBI’s warrantless searches violated Fourth Amendment (Ars Technica)

US Charges Five People Over North Korean IT Worker Scheme (SecurityWeek)

Texas probes four more car companies over how they collect and sell consumer data (The Record)

CISA Warns of Flaws in Aircraft Collision Avoidance Systems (BankInfo Security)

ESA - Estonia to host Europe's new space cybersecurity testing ground (European Space Agency)

Bypassing EDR Detection by Exploiting Hardware Breakpoints at CPU Level (Cyber Security News)

Subaru Starlink Vulnerability Exposed Cars to Remote Hacking (SecurityWeek)

China and friends say they're hurting cyber-slave scam camps (The Register)

Developer Creates Infinite Maze That Traps AI Training Bots (404 Media)  

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CISA and FBI detail exploit chains used by Chinese hackers to compromise Ivanti Cloud Service Appliances. Energy systems in Central Europe use unencrypted radio signals. A critical SonicWall vulnerability is under active exploitation. The Nnice ransomware strain isn’t. Cisco discloses a critical vulnerability in its Meeting Management tool. GhostGPT is a new malicious generative AI chatbot. ClamAV patches critical vulnerabilities in the open-source anti-virus engine. A new report questions the effectiveness of paying ransomware demands. DOGE piggybacks on the United States Digital Service. On our Industry Voices segment, we are joined by Joe Gillespie, Senior Vice President at Booz Allen, discussing Cyber AI. Jen Easterly leaves CISA a legacy of resilience and dedication. 

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Today on our Industry Voices segment, we are joined by Joe Gillespie, Senior Vice President at Booz Allen, discussing Cyber AI.

FBI/CISA Share Details on Ivanti Exploits Chains: What Network Defenders Need to Know (SecurityWeek)

Researchers say new attack could take down the European power grid (Ars Technica)

Critical SonicWall Vulnerability Exploited In Attacks Execute Arbitrary OS Commands (Cyber Security News)

Nnice Ransomware Attacking Windows Systems With Advanced Encryption Techniques (GB Hackers)

Cisco Fixes Critical Vulnerability in Meeting Management (Infosecurity Magazine)

New GhostGPT AI Chatbot Facilitates Malware Creation and Phishing (Infosecurity Magazine)

Open-Source ClamAV Releases Critical Security Patch Updates – What’s Inside! (Cyber Security News)

Companies who pay off ransomware attackers rarely get their data back, survey shows (Cybernews)

Elon Musk Plays DOGE Ball—and Hits America’s Geek Squad (WIRED)

Under Trump, US Cyberdefense Loses Its Head (WIRED) 

We want to ensure that you are getting the most out of the podcast. Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey as we continually work to improve the show. 

You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here’s our media kit. Contact us at [email protected] to request more info.

The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc.

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