The CyberWire Daily

Hackers target Russia’s court information system. Patch Tuesday rundown. GoldenJackal targets government and diplomatic entities in Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia.Cybercriminals are exploiting Florida’s disaster relief efforts. Australia introduced its first standalone cybersecurity law. CISA and the FBI issue guidance against Iranian threat actors. Mamba 2FA targets Microsoft 365 accounts. Casio reports a data breach. On our Solution Spotlight, Simone Petrella speaks with Andy Woolnough from ISC2's about their 2024 Cybersecurity Workforce Study.  Keeping the AI slop off Wikipedia. 

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On our Solution Spotlight today, our guest is Andy Woolnough, ISC2's Executive Vice President Corporate Affairs Executive Vice President Corporate Affairs. Andy shares a first look at ISC2's 2024 Cybersecurity Workforce Study with N2K's Simone Petrella. You can catch Simone and Andy’s full conversation on Monday, October 14th in our CyberWire Daily feed. That is also the day the ISC2 Security Congress 2024 kicks off. You can find out more about the event that has a virtual option here.  

For a second day, Ukrainian hackers hit Russian institutions (Washington Post)

Microsoft October 2024 Patch Tuesday fixes 5 zero-days, 118 flaws (Bleeping Computer)

GoldenJackal APT Group Breached Air-Gapped European Government Systems (The Cyber Express)

Scammers Hit Florida Hurricane Victims with Fake FEMA Claims, Malware Files (Hackread)

Australia Introduces First Standalone Cybersecurity Law (Infosecurity Magazine)

CISA Issues Guidance to Counter Iran's Election Interference (BankInfo Security)

New Mamba 2FA bypass service targets Microsoft 365 accounts (Bleeping Computer)

Casio says recent cyberattack 'caused system failure' (The Record)

The Editors Protecting Wikipedia from AI Hoaxes (404 Media)

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In preparation for the US 2024 Presidential Election, Rick Howard, N2K CyberWire’s Chief Analyst and Senior Fellow, discusses recent international propaganda efforts in the form of nation state interference and influence operations as well as domestic campaigns designed to split the target country into opposing camps. Guests include Nina Jankowicz, Co-Founder and CEO of the The American Sunlight Project and Scott Small, Director of Cyber Threat Intelligence at Tidal Cyber.

Make sure to check out Election Propaganda Part 1: How Does Election Propaganda Work? In this episode, Rick Howard, N2K CyberWire’s Chief Analyst and Senior Fellow, discusses personal defensive measures that every citizen can take—regardless of political philosophy—to resist the influence of propaganda. This foundational episode is essential for understanding how to navigate the complex landscape of election messaging.

Scott Small, 2024. Election Cyber Interference Threats & Defenses: A Data-Driven Study [White Paper]. Tidal Cyber.

Renee DiResta, 2024. Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality [Book]. Goodreads.

Nina Jankowicz, 2020. How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News and the Future of Conflict [Book]. Goodreads.

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Western authorities I.D. a key member of Evil Corp. A major U.S. water utility suffers a cyberattack. ODNI warns of influence campaigns targeting presidential and congressional races. A California deepfakes law gets blocked. Europol leads a global effort against human trafficking. Trinity ransomware targets the healthcare industry. Qualcomm patches a critical zero-day in its DSP service. ADT discloses a breach of encrypted employee data. North Korean hackers use stealthy Powershell exploits. On our Threat Vector segment, David Moulton and his guests tackle the pressing challenges of securing Operational Technology (OT) environments.  Machine Learning pioneers win the Nobel Prize. 

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In this segment of Threat Vector, David Moulton, Director of Thought Leadership at Palo Alto Networks, hosts cybersecurity experts Qiang Huang Chung hwang, Palo Alto Networks VP of Product Management for Cloud Delivered Security Services, and Michela Menting, Senior Research Director in Digital Security at ABI Research, discuss the pressing challenges of securing Operational Technology (OT) environments. 

Join us each Thursday for a new episode of Threat Vector on the N2K CyberWire network. To hear David, Michela and Qiang’s full discussion, check it out here. 

Police unmask Aleksandr Ryzhenkov as Evil Corp member and LockBit affiliate (The Record)

American Water, the largest water utility in US, is targeted by a cyberattack (Associated Press)

US Warns of Foreign Interference in Congressional Races (Infosecurity Magazine)

US Judge Blocks California's Law Curbing Election Deepfakes (BankInfo Security)

Global Police Track Human Traffickers in Online Crackdown (Infosecurity Magazine)

Recently spotted Trinity ransomware spurs federal warning to healthcare industry (The Record)

Qualcomm patches high-severity zero-day exploited in attacks (Bleeping Computer)

ADT says hacker stole encrypted internal employee data after compromising business partner (The Record)

North Korean Hackers Employ PowerShell-Based Malware With Serious Evasion Techniques (Cyber Security News)

‘Godfather of AI’ shares Nobel Prize in physics for work on machine learning (CNN)

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Chinese hackers breach U.S. telecom wiretap systems. A third-party debt collection provider exposes sensitive information of Comcast customers. Homeland Security’s cybercrime division chronicles their success. Google removes Kaspersky antivirus from the Play store. Ukrainian hackers take down Russian TV and Radio channels. A crypto-thief pleads guilty to wire fraud and money laundering. A pig-butchering victim gets his money back. On our Industry Voices segment, Jeff Reed, Chief Product Officer at Vectra AI, joins us to talk about how modern attackers don't hack in, they log in. AI knows - the truth is out there. 

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On our Industry Voices segment, Jeff Reed, Chief Product Officer at Vectra AI, joins us to talk about how modern attackers don't hack in, they log in.

Chinese hackers breached US court wiretap systems, WSJ reports (Reuters)

Comcast says customer data stolen in ransomware attack on debt collection agency (TechCrunch)

Cyber Cops Stopped 500 Ransomware Hacks Since 2021, DHS Says (Bloomberg)

Google removes Kaspersky's antivirus software from Play Store (Bleeping Computer)

Ukraine Claims Cyberattack Blocked Russian State TV Online on Putin’s Birthday (Bloomberg)

Crypto Hacker Pleads Guilty for Stealing Over $37 Million in Cryptocurrency (Cyber Security News)

A victim of a crypto ‘pig butchering’ scam just got his $140,000 back (NPR)

How chatbots can win over crackpots (Fast Company)

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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Rick Howard, N2K CyberWire’s Chief Analyst and Senior Fellow, has a free-wheeling conversation with Merritt Baer, Reco AI’s CISO, about how infosec professionals should think about AI, Machine Learning, and Large Language Models (LLMs).

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Enjoy this encore episode where we are joined by Co-founder and socio-technical lead at Cygenta, Dr. Jessica Barker, as she shares her story from childhood career aspirations of becoming a farmer to her accidental pivot to working in cybersecurity. With a PhD in civic design, Jessica looked at the creation of social and civic places until she was approached by a cybersecurity consultancy interested in the human side of cybersecurity. She jumped in and the rest is history. Having experienced some negativity as a woman in cybersecurity, Jessica is a strong proponent of diversity in the field. She suggests that newcomers to the industry follow what interests them and jump in. And, we thank Jessica for sharing her story with us.

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Joshua Miller from Proofpoint is discussing their work on "Best Laid Plans: TA453 Targets Religious Figure with Fake Podcast Invite Delivering New BlackSmith Malware Toolset." Proofpoint identified Iranian threat actor TA453 targeting a prominent Jewish figure with a fake podcast interview invitation, using a benign email to build trust before sending a malicious link.

The attack attempted to deliver new malware called BlackSmith, containing a PowerShell trojan dubbed AnvilEcho, designed for intelligence gathering and exfiltration. This malware consolidates all of TA453's known capabilities into a single script rather than the previously used modular approach.

The research can be found here:

• Best Laid Plans: TA453 Targets Religious Figure with Fake Podcast Invite Delivering New BlackSmith Malware Toolset

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Interpol arrests eight in an international cybercrime crackdown. A MedusaLocker variant targets financial organizations. Cloudflare mitigates a record DDoS attempt. Insights from the Counter Ransomware Initiative summit. Fin7 uses deepnudes as a lure for malware. Researchers discovered critical vulnerabilities in DrayTek routers. CISA issues urgent alerts for products from Synacor and Ivanti. A former election official gets nine years in prison for a voting system data breach. Microsoft and the DOJ seize domains used by Russia’s ColdRiver hacking group. On our Industry Voices segment, we are joined by Eric Olden, Founder and CEO of Strata Identity. to learn how the modern enterprise can orchestrate the 7 A's of identity security to achieve zero trust. Harvard students demonstrate glasses that can see through your privacy. 

Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app.

Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you’ll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn.

On our Industry Voices segment, we are joined by Eric Olden, Founder and CEO of Strata Identity. Eric talks about how the modern enterprise can orchestrate the 7 A's of identity security to achieve zero trust. You can check out Strata’s blog on “Understanding the 7 A’s of IAM” and their book on “Identity Orchestration for Dummies”. 

International police dismantle cybercrime group in West Africa (The Record)

New MedusaLocker Ransomware Variant Deployed by Threat Actor (Infosecurity Magazine)

Cloudflare Mitigates Record Breaking 3.8 Tbps DDoS Attack (Hackread)

Recently patched CUPS flaw can be used to amplify DDoS attacks (Bleeping Computer)

More frequent disruption operations needed to dent ransomware gangs, officials say (CyberScoop)

FIN7 hackers launch deepfake nude “generator” sites to spread malware (Bleeping Computer)

14 New DrayTek routers' flaws impacts over 700,000 devices in 168 countries (Security Affairs)

CISA Warns Active Exploitation of Zimbra & Ivanti Endpoint Manager Vulnerability (Cyber Security News)

Former Mesa County clerk sentenced to 9 years for 2020 voting system breach (CyberScoop)

Microsoft and DOJ disrupt Russian FSB hackers' attack infrastructure (Bleeping Computer)

Someone Put Facial Recognition Tech onto Meta's Smart Glasses to Instantly Dox Strangers (404 Media)

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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In this episode, Dmitri Alperovitch discusses his book World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century with host Ben Yelin. Alperovitch highlights the rising tensions between the U.S. and China, focusing on Taiwan as a critical flashpoint that could ignite a new Cold War. He shares insights on the strategies America must adopt to maintain its status as the world’s leading superpower while addressing the challenges posed by China. By examining both strengths and weaknesses, as well as providing a timely blueprint for navigating the complexities of global relations in the 21st century.

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Rick Howard, N2K CyberWire’s Chief Analyst and Senior Fellow, discusses personal defensive measures that an average citizen, regardless of political philosophy, can take in order to not succumb to propaganda.

David Ehl, 2024. Why Meta is now banning Russian propaganda [News]. Deutsche Welle.

Jeff Berman, Renée DiResta, 2023. Disinformation & How To Combat It [Interview]. Youtube.

Niha Masih, 2024. Meta bans Russian state media outlet RT for acts of ‘foreign interference’ [News]. The Washington Post.

Quentin Hardy, Renée DiResta, 2024. The Invisible Rulers Turning Lies Into Reality [Interview]. YouTube.

Rob Tracinski, Renée DiResta, 2024.  The Internet Rumor Mill [Interview]. YouTube.

Robin Stern, Marc Brackett, 2024. 5 Ways to Recognize and Avoid Political Gaslighting [Explainer]. The Washington Post.

Sarah Ellison, Amy Gardner, Clara Ence Morse, 2024. Elon Musk’s misleading election claims reach millions and alarm election officials [News]. The Washington Post.

Scott Small, 2024. Election Cyber Interference Threats & Defenses: A Data-Driven Study [White Paper]. Tidal Cyber.

Staff, 2021. Foreign Threats to the 2020 US Federal Elections [Intelligence Community Assessment]. DNI.

Staff, 2024. Election Cyber Interference Threats & Defenses: A Data-Driven Study [White Paper]. Tidal.

Stuart A. Thompson, Tiffany Hsu, 2024. Left-Wing Misinformation Is Having a Moment [Analysis. The New York Times.

Stuart A. Thompson, 2024. Elon Musk’s Week on X: Deepfakes, Falsehoods and Lots of Memes [News]. The New York Times.

Will Oremus, 2024. Zuckerberg expresses regrets over covid misinformation crackdown [News]. The Washington Post.

Yascha Mounk, Renée DiResta, 2022. How (Not) to Fix Social Media [Interview]. YouTube.

Renee DiResta, 2024. Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality [Book]. Goodreads.

Nina Jankowicz, 2020. How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News and the Future of Conflict [Book]. Goodreads.

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