Episodes
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Tom Uren and Adam Boileau talk about how scam compound criminal syndicates are responding to strong government action by moving operations overseas. It’s good they are being affected, but they are shifting into new countries that don’t have the ability to counter industrial-scale transnational organised crime.
They also discuss CISA’s Secure by Design initiative and that key people behind the program have left the organisation. Given prospective job cuts at CISA it is hard to see the initiative getting a lot of love, but international cyber security authorities should pick up the slack.
This episode is also available on Youtube.
Show notes Cyberfraud in the Mekong reaches inflection point, UNODC reveals -
Russian military personnel targeted with Android spyware, Trump defends Hegseth after second Signalgate scandal, CISA’s Secure by Design leaders depart the agency, and forced-labour cyber scam compounds expand globally.
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In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq discuss whether cyber operations can be ‘strategic’, that is, can they affect the fate of nations.
This episode is also available on Youtube.
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Zoom has a remote control feature so of course crypto thieves are abusing it, hackers make $700 million in unauthorised stock trades, a Chinese APT leaks its exploits and Euro MPs traveling to Hungary are offered anti-spying pouches for their phones.
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In this Risky Bulletin sponsor interview Shane Harding, CEO of Devicie, talks to Tom Uren about trends in the enterprise software and security market that he thinks will have huge impacts. Software is becoming smarter and aims to solve problems rather than simply provide capabilities and Microsoft has embarked on a big push into the SME security market.
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Chris Krebs resigns from SentinelOne and vows to fight, the Thai army and police doxed pro-democracy dissidents, CISA extends MITRE’s CVE contract, and Apple patches two iOS zero-days.
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Tom Uren and Patrick Gray discuss Trump’s order singling out Chris Krebs, former head of CISA, that requires investigations into Krebs and also punishes his employer. It is a move deliberately designed to chill dissent and they look at what the cyber security industry will likely do in response, which is probably not much.
The pair also discuss what is being interpreted as an admission that Chinese senior leadership is behind the Volt Typhoon hacking of US critical infrastructure.
This episode is also available on Youtube.
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MITRE corporation says funding cuts will impact the CVE database, China accuses NSA employees of an Asian Winter Games hack, a ransomware attack disrupts dialysis clinics, the CA/Browser Forum will limit TLS certificate lifetime to 47 days, and 4chan gets hacked.
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In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq look at the idea of global critical infrastructure. One common example is submarine cables, which are globally important but are vulnerable because they are hard to defend. But what about services from tech giants? Are they global critical infrastructure?
This episode is also available on Youtube.
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China privately admits to hacking American critical infrastructure, the US Treasury was compromised by password spraying, America will sign a global spyware agreement after all, and a Chinese APT is abusing the Windows Sandbox to hide its malware.
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In this Risky Bulletin sponsor interview David Cottingham and Peter Baussman, Airlock Digital’s CEO and CTO, talk to Tom Uren about a new Australian Cyber Security Centre guidance about building defensible networks. The pair cover what they like about the document and where it could be improved.
Show notes Foundations for modern defensible architecture -
Trump orders investigation into former CISA director Chris Krebs, the US DOJ disbands its crypto crime team, NSO hires a new lobby team, and researchers raise the alarm on something called “slopsquatting”.
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Tom Uren and Patrick Gray discuss Trump’s recent firing of General Timothy Haugh, the head of NSA and Cyber Command. Tom dives into the implications and thinks why this is not good news for the agencies.
They also discuss Europe losing faith in the US intelligence commitments that underpin transatlantic data flows. That would be bad news for US tech companies.
This episode is also available on Youtube.
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Hackers leak data from a major Russian bulletproof hosting provider, Australia deregisters 95 companies linked to cyber scams, the US Treasury gets hacked again, and Meta expands “teen accounts” to Facebook and Facebook Messenger.
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In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq look at the idea of ‘false scarcities’ in cyber security. Are bugs and talent rare? Or is our thinking blinkered?
This episode is also available on Youtube.
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Trump fires NSA and CyberCom leadership, CISA looks likely to be halved in size, hackers hit Australian pension funds, and NIST gives up on old CVEs in its backlog.
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Android looks set to get its own Lockdown Mode, China overhauls cybersecurity and privacy laws, a crypto platform gets hacked for $70 million dollars, and Greece’s intel agency is set to hire more hackers.
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Tom Uren and Patrick Gray discuss how North Korean IT worker scam is shifting towards Europe and employing tactics that make it more dangerous.
They also discuss why Signalgate was a massive security failure. We learnt this week that US cabinet members were in multiple Signal groups discussing different topics. Phone hacking is not uncommon, an adversary states will be able to take advantage of the intelligence in these conversations.
This episode is also available on Youtube.
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A North Korean IT worker scheme pivots to Europe after a US crackdown, 24,000 IPs are looking for Palo Alto Networks VPNs, Gmail rolls out end-to-end encrypted emails for enterprise users, and hackers steal over $100 million via Coinbase phishing.
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In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq look at all the strands of evidence that make people think NSA is a top-tier cyber actor.
This episode is also available on Youtube
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