Risky Business News Podcast

A ransomware operation shuts down and releases free decryption keys, the FBI investigates a ransomware negotiator for taking kickbacks, Spain arrests two over government hacks, and hackers steal $185 million from Brazilian financial institutions.

Tom Uren and Patrick Gray discuss warnings about Iranian cyber attacks on US critical infrastructure. Despite many many warnings, there have been no actual attacks and they discuss the reasons why Iran would want to avoid escalatory cyber attacks.

They also talk about how the FBI is struggling to deal with the democratisation of surveillance and data analysis, what the agency calls Ubiquitous Technical Surveillance (UTS). A Department of Justice audit of the FBI’s response finds the threat from UTS is real and that sources have been murdered. But it seems that the FBI just doesn’t care.

This episode is also available on Youtube.

The US sanctions another Russian bulletproof hosting provider, the International Criminal Court discloses a security breach, the US dismantles 29 North Korean laptop farms, and a Chinese student gets jailed in the UK for SMS blasting.

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq talk about how Microsoft has embraced digital sovereignty and is bending over backwards to satisfy European tech supply chain concerns.

This episode is also available on Youtube.

The Scattered Spider group targets the aviation sector, Russia throttles traffic from Cloudflare, a Mexican cartel hired hackers to track an FBI official, and Canada tells Hikvision to cease operations.

In this Risky Bulletin sponsor interview Craig Rowland, CEO of Sandfly Security, talks to Tom Uren about the disconnect between how important Linux systems are and how much security attention they get. The pair discuss the variety of reasons that security teams underinvest in protecting Linux.

A phishing group abuses a forgotten Exchange Online feature, a patient’s death is linked to the Synnovis ransomware attack, France arrests the BreachForums leadership, and Microsoft offers free Windows 10 Extended Security Updates … with a catch.

Tom Uren and Patrick Gray talk about a new report that compares Chinese and American 0day pipelines. The US is narrowly focussed on acquiring exquisitely stealthy and reliable exploits, while China casts a far broader net. That was fine in the past, but as 0days get harder and harder to find, the report argues that the US needs to change the way it goes about getting them.

The pair also talk about Cyber Command supporting the US bomb strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. We like to believe in magic cyber capabilities, but we suspect the truth was far more mundane in this case.

This episode is also available on Youtube.

Hackers fully open a valve at a Norwegian dam, the US house bans WhatsApp on staff devices, Russia wants to build a national IMEI database, and four REvil members are released after time served.

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq dive into the motivations and actions of Predatory Sparrow, a purported hacktivist group that has been attacking Iran for the last five years and has leapt into the Iran-Israel war.

This episode is also available on Youtube.