Adam Marré, CISO at Arctic Wolf, is diving deep into geopolitical tension with China including APT31, iSoon and TikTok with Dave this week. They also discuss some of the history behind China cyber operations.
Adam shares information on how different APT groups are able to create spear phishing campaigns, and provides info on how to combat these groups.

Geopolitical tensions rise with China. [Research Saturday]

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On this Special Edition podcast, Dave Bittner speaks with guest Dave Hickton, Founding Director, Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security at the University of Pittsburgh, and former US Attorney, on this 10th Anniversary of the first indictment of Chinese PLA actors. Hear directly from Mr. Hickton what lead to the indictment, the emotions that went along with this unprecedented action, and the legacy of the event. 
On May 19, 2014, a grand jury in the Western District of Pennsylvania (WDPA) indicted five Chinese military hackers for computer hacking, economic espionage and other offenses directed at six American victims in the U.S. nuclear power, metals and solar products industries. 
The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired to hack into American entities, to maintain unauthorized access to their computers and to steal information from those entities that would be useful to their competitors in China, including state-owned enterprises (SOEs). In some cases, it alleges, the conspirators stole trade secrets that would have been particularly beneficial to Chinese companies at the time they were stolen. In other cases, it alleges, the conspirators also stole sensitive, internal communications that would provide a competitor, or an adversary in litigation, with insight into the strategy and vulnerabilities of the American entity.
US Attorney Dave Hickton represented the Western District of Pennsylvania and was the signatory on the indictment. His team worked with the FBI Cyber Team in Pittsburgh, PA to bring about this historic action. 
Resources: 

Press Release: U.S. Charges Five Chinese Military Hackers for Cyber Espionage Against U.S. Corporations and a Labor Organization for Commercial Advantage 

Indictment

10 years on: The 10th anniversary of the first indictment of Chinese PLA actors. [Special Edition]

Cyber Initiative and Special Projects Fellow at the Hewlett Foundation Monica Ruiz shares her career development from aspirations of being a weather woman to her current role as a grantmaker and connector in cybersecurity. Monica discusses how her international study experience changed her outlook and brought her to the field of security. She shares the difficulties she faced as a woman of color when when not that many people look like you, and how she used that as her reason to move forward and better the cybersecurity field through her work. Our thanks to Monica for sharing her story with us.

Encore: Monica Ruiz: Moving ahead when not many look like you. [Policy] [Career Notes]

This week, we are joined by Hosein Yavarzadeh from the University of California San Diego, as he is discussing his work on "Pathfinder: High-Resolution Control-Flow Attacks Exploiting the Conditional Branch Predictor" This paper introduces new methods that let attackers read from and write to specific parts of high-performance CPUs, such as the path history register (PHR) and prediction history tables (PHTs). 
These methods allow two main types of attacks. One can reveal a program's control flow history, as shown by recovering a secret image through the libjpeg routines. The other enables detailed transient attacks, demonstrated by extracting an AES encryption key, highlighting significant security risks for these systems.
The research can be found here:
Graph: Growing number of threats leveraging Microsoft API

From secret images to encryption keys. [Research Saturday]

Australia warns of a large-scale ransomware data breach. The justice department charges five with helping North Korean IT workers evade sanctions. The FCC wants to beef up BGP. Antidot is a new Android banking trojan. The SEC enhances disclosure obligations. Researchers uncover vulnerabilities in GE ultrasound devices. A Baltimore neo-nazi pleads guilty to conspiring to take down an electrical grid. On our Solution Spotlight: N2K’s Simone Petrella speaks with Alicja Cade, Director in Google Cloud's Office of the CISO, about the CISO role, board communication, and cyber workforce development. “Tanks” for the warm water, but you can keep the vulnerabilities.
Our 2024 N2K CyberWire Audience Survey is underway, make your voice heard and get in the running for a $100 Amazon gift card. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app.
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CyberWire Guest
On our Solution Spotlight: N2K’s Simone Petrella speaks with Alicja Cade, Director in Google Cloud's Office of the CISO, about the CISO role, board communication, and cyber workforce development. Simone and Alicja spoke at the 2024 RSA Conference. 

Selected Reading
Australian government warns of 'large-scale ransomware data breach' (The Record)
US exposes scheme enabling North Korean IT workers to bypass sanctions (Help Net Security)
FCC proposes BGP security measures (Network World)
BGP: What is border gateway protocol, and how does it work? (Network World)
New 'Antidot' Android Trojan Allows Cybercriminals to Hack Devices, Steal Data (SecurityWeek)
SEC beefs up data privacy rules (Investment Executive)
GE Ultrasound Gear Riddled With Bugs, Open to Ransomware & Data Theft (DarkReading)
Baltimore County woman pleads guilty to conspiring with neo-Nazi leader to attack energy grid (The Baltimore banner)
How I upgraded my water heater and discovered how bad smart home security can be (Ars Technica)

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

MediSecure data breach hits Aussie healthcare.

The FBI seizes BreachForums. NCSC rolls out a 'Share and Defend' initiative. ESports gaming gets a level up in their security. The spammer becomes the scammer. Bitdefender is sounding the alarm. The city of Wichita gets a wake-up call. In our Threat Vector segment, host David Moulton discusses the challenges and opportunities of AI adoption with guest Mike Spisak, the Managing Director of Proactive Security at Unit 42. And no one likes a cyber budgeting blunder.
Our 2024 N2K CyberWire Audience Survey is underway, make your voice heard and get in the running for a $100 Amazon gift card. 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.

CyberWire Guest
In our Threat Vector segment, David Moulton, Director of Thought Leadership at Unit 42, discusses the challenges and opportunities of AI adoption with guest Mike Spisak, Managing Director of Proactive Security at Unit 42. They emphasize the importance of early security involvement in the AI development lifecycle and the crucial role of inventorying AI usage to tailor protection measures. You can listen to the full episode here. 

Selected Reading
FBI seize BreachForums hacking forum used to leak stolen data (Bleeping Computer) 
New UK system will see ISPs benefit from same protections as government networks (The Record)
Riot Games, Cisco to Connect and Protect League of Legends Esports Through Expanded Global Partnership (Cisco) 
To the Moon and back(doors): Lunar landing in diplomatic missions (WeLiveSecurity)
New Black Basta Social Engineering Scheme (ReliaQuest)
IoT Cameras Exposed by Chainable Exploits, Millions Affected (HackRead)
Kimsuky APT Using Newly Discovered Gomir Linux Backdoor (Decipher)
Law enforcement data stolen in Wichita ransomware attack (The Record) 
Nigeria Halts Cybersecurity Tax After Public Outrage (Dark Reading) 

Share your feedback.
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. 

Want to hear your company in the show?
You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here’s our media kit. Contact us at cyberwire@n2k.com to request more info.
The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc.

Geopolitical tensions rise with China. [Research Saturday]

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