Risky Business #715 -- Pressure mounts on Microsoft to explain itself
Aug 1, 2023
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Guests Mike Wiacek and Eric Foster discuss the pressure on Microsoft to address security breaches, Chinese APT crews disrupting US military logistics, and China accusing the US of hacking. They also cover Ivanti/MobileIron exploitation, cybersecurity challenges, and surveillance concerns. The podcast delves into deserialization techniques, Stairwell's threat intelligence automation tool, and advanced threat detection capabilities.
Pressure mounts on Microsoft due to Chinese APT crews prepositioning, Wyden's letter, and Ivanti/MobileIron exploitation.
China accuses US of hacking seismology sensors, US investigates Air Force communications compromise, and warnings of IDOR security flaws.
Ransomware victims with cyber insurance may not pay up more often, Redis worm targeting key-value store servers identified, and potential AI chatbot manipulation through deceptive prompts.
Deep dives
Vulnerability in AI Chatbots Manipulating Model Behavior
Researchers are exploring new methods to manipulate AI chatbots by injecting deceptive prompts to alter model behavior. This approach extends prompt injection attacks to open and closed models like ChatGPT and Google bar, indicating potential transferability across various chatbot implementations. The challenge lies in preventing these manipulations as traditional input sanitization methods are not as straightforward with AI models.
Cloud Security Company Hosting C2 Infrastructure in Tehran
An American cloud company named Cloud Z, identified by a Texas-based security firm, Halcyon, is reportedly hosting command and control (C2) infrastructure for threat actors from 17 countries, including ransomware groups. Despite being American, Cloud Z's infrastructure is found to be hosted in Tehran, raising concerns about potential violations of sanctions and shady operations.
Allegations Against American Cloud company Cloud Z
Allegations have been made against Cloud Z, an American registered company allegedly linked to hosting C2 infrastructure, with connections to Tehran, Iran. The company faces accusations of facilitating threat actors from multiple countries, prompting further scrutiny into its operations and potential sanctions violations.
Ransomware Victims and Cyber Insurance
A report from the UK suggests that there is no significant evidence that ransomware victims with cyber insurance pay up more often. Despite anecdotal evidence of threat actors targeting cyber insurance policies, the report challenges the assumption that having cyber insurance increases the probability of being ransomed. It indicates that the actions of threat actors in these situations may not significantly affect the statistics, leading to a reconsideration of the impact of cyber insurance on ransomware negotiations.
Worm Targeting Redis Servers
A widespread worm targeting Redis key-value store servers has been identified, primarily propagating through a replication feature between Redis servers to share data and load code into slave instances. Researchers have observed the worm spreading among Redis installations without disrupting normal operations, indicating a classic approach reminiscent of older worm tactics. While the worm currently carries a placeholder payload, it highlights the potential for targeted attacks exploiting vulnerabilities in niche software, reminiscent of historical hacking techniques.
On this week’s show Patrick Gray and Adam Boileau discuss the week’s security news. They cover:
Ron Wyden’s “please explain” letter to Microsoft
Chinese APT crews prepositioning to disrupt US military logistics
China claims US hacked its seismology sensors
Ivanti/MobileIron exploitation going vertical
Much, much more
This week’s show is brought to you by Stairwell. Mike Wiacek, Stairwell’s founder and CEO, is this week’s sponsor guest. He’s joined by Eric Foster, Stairwell’s VP of Business Development.
Links to everything that we discussed are below and you can follow Patrick or Adam on Mastodon if that’s your thing.