Cyber Defense Advisors

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Upcoming Speaking Engagements

This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I’m speaking at Boskone 62 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, which runs from February 14-16, 2025. My talk is at 4:00 PM ET on the 15th. I’m speaking at the Rossfest Symposium in Cambridge, UK, on March 25, 2025. The list is […]

Cyber News

AI and Civil Service Purges

Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s chaotic approach to reform is upending government operations. Critical functions have been halted, tens of thousands of federal staffers are being encouraged to resign, and congressional mandates are being disregarded. The next phase: The Department of Government Efficiency reportedly wants to use AI to cut costs. According to The Washington […]

Cyber News

AI-Powered Social Engineering: Ancillary Tools and Techniques

Social engineering is advancing fast, at the speed of generative AI. This is offering bad actors multiple new tools and techniques for researching, scoping, and exploiting organizations. In a recent communication, the FBI pointed out: ‘As technology continues to evolve, so do cybercriminals’ tactics.’ This article explores some of the impacts of this GenAI-fueled acceleration. […]

Cyber News

Microsoft: Russian-Linked Hackers Using ‘Device Code Phishing’ to Hijack Accounts

Microsoft is calling attention to an emerging threat cluster it calls Storm-2372 that has been attributed to a new set of cyber attacks aimed at a variety of sectors since August 2024. The attacks have targeted government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), information technology (IT) services and technology, defense, telecommunications, health, higher education, and energy/oil and gas […]

Cyber News

RansomHub Becomes 2024’s Top Ransomware Group, Hitting 600+ Organizations Globally

The threat actors behind the RansomHub ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) scheme have been observed leveraging now-patched security flaws in Microsoft Active Directory and the Netlogon protocol to escalate privileges and gain unauthorized access to a victim network’s domain controller as part of their post-compromise strategy. “RansomHub has targeted over 600 organizations globally, spanning sectors such as healthcare, […]

Cyber News

PostgreSQL Vulnerability Exploited Alongside BeyondTrust Zero-Day in Targeted Attacks

Threat actors who were behind the exploitation of a zero-day vulnerability in BeyondTrust Privileged Remote Access (PRA) and Remote Support (RS) products in December 2024 likely also exploited a previously unknown SQL injection flaw in PostgreSQL, according to findings from Rapid7. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-1094 (CVSS score: 8.1), affects the PostgreSQL interactive tool psql. […]

Cyber News

Nearly a Year Later, Mozilla is Still Promoting OneRep

In mid-March 2024, KrebsOnSecurity revealed that the founder of the personal data removal service Onerep also founded dozens of people-search companies. Shortly after that investigation was published, Mozilla said it would stop bundling Onerep with the Firefox browser and wind down its partnership with the company. But nearly a year later, Mozilla is still promoting it […]

Cyber News

Hackers Use CAPTCHA Trick on Webflow CDN PDFs to Bypass Security Scanners

A widespread phishing campaign has been observed leveraging bogus PDF documents hosted on the Webflow content delivery network (CDN) with an aim to steal credit card information and commit financial fraud. “The attacker targets victims searching for documents on search engines, resulting in access to malicious PDF that contains a CAPTCHA image embedded with a […]

Cyber News

North Korean APT43 Uses PowerShell and Dropbox in Targeted South Korea Cyberattacks

A nation-state threat actor with ties to North Korea has been linked to an ongoing campaign targeting South Korean business, government, and cryptocurrency sectors. The attack campaign, dubbed DEEP#DRIVE by Securonix, has been attributed to a hacking group known as Kimsuky, which is also tracked under the names APT43, Black Banshee, Emerald Sleet, Sparkling Pisces, […]

Cyber News