Cyber Defense Advisors

Month: June 2025

Hearing on the Federal Government and AI

On Thursday I testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform at a hearing titled “The Federal Government in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” The other speakers mostly talked about how cool AI was—and sometimes about how cool their own company was—but I was asked by the Democrats to specifically talk about DOGE […]

Cyber News

New Atomic macOS Stealer Campaign Exploits ClickFix to Target Apple Users

Cybersecurity researchers are alerting to a new malware campaign that employs the ClickFix social engineering tactic to trick users into downloading an information stealer malware known as Atomic macOS Stealer (AMOS) on Apple macOS systems. The campaign, according to CloudSEK, has been found to leverage typosquat domains mimicking U.S.-based telecom provider Spectrum. “macOS users are […]

Cyber News

Report on the Malicious Uses of AI

OpenAI just published its annual report on malicious uses of AI. By using AI as a force multiplier for our expert investigative teams, in the three months since our last report we’ve been able to detect, disrupt and expose abusive activity including social engineering, cyber espionage, deceptive employment schemes, covert influence operations and scams. These […]

Cyber News

Marks & Spencer’s ransomware nightmare – more details emerge

Over Easter, retail giant Marks & Spencer (M&S) discovered that it had suffered a highly damaging ransomware attack that left some shop shelves empty, shut down online ordering, some staff unable to clock in and out, and caused some of its major suppliers to resort to pen and paper. In a gloating abuse-filled email to […]

Cyber News

Empower Users and Protect Against GenAI Data Loss

When generative AI tools became widely available in late 2022, it wasn’t just technologists who paid attention. Employees across all industries immediately recognized the potential of generative AI to boost productivity, streamline communication and accelerate work. Like so many waves of consumer-first IT innovation before it—file sharing, cloud storage and collaboration platforms—AI landed in 

Cyber News

Microsoft Helps CBI Dismantle Indian Call Centers Behind Japanese Tech Support Scam

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has revealed that it has arrested six individuals and dismantled two illegal call centers that were found to be engaging in a sophisticated transnational tech support scam targeting Japanese citizens. The law enforcement agency said it conducted coordinated searches at 19 locations across Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh on […]

Cyber News

US offers $10 million reward for tips about state-linked RedLine hackers

How would you like to earn yourself millions of dollars? Well, it may just be possible – if you have information which could help expose the identities of cybercriminals involved with the notorious RedLine information-stealing malware. Read more in my article on the Tripwire State of Security blog. 

Cyber News

Inside the Mind of the Adversary: Why More Security Leaders Are Selecting AEV

Cybersecurity involves both playing the good guy and the bad guy. Diving deep into advanced technologies and yet also going rogue in the Dark Web. Defining technical policies and also profiling attacker behavior. Security teams cannot be focused on just ticking boxes, they need to inhabit the attacker’s mindset. This is where AEV comes in. […]

Cyber News

New PathWiper Data Wiper Malware Disrupts Ukrainian Critical Infrastructure in 2025 Attack

A critical infrastructure entity within Ukraine was targeted by a previously unseen data wiper malware named PathWiper, according to new findings from Cisco Talos. “The attack was instrumented via a legitimate endpoint administration framework, indicating that the attackers likely had access to the administrative console, that was then used to issue malicious commands and deploy […]

Cyber News