The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast

In this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast, we discuss some cutting-edge intel coming out of LimaCharlie's community.The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has confirmed that emails belonging to its executives and staff were compromised in a cyber incident first detected in February.A critical zero-day vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-30406, has been actively exploited since March in CentreStack, a file-sharing platform developed by Gladinet and widely used by managed services providers (MSPs).UNC5174, a state-backed Chinese threat actor, has been observed using stealthy tactics and open source tooling in recent campaigns targeting Western and Asia-Pacific organizations.Oracle is facing sustained criticism over its handling of a recent cybersecurity incident in which a hacker claimed to have breached its systems and obtained records linked to over 140,000 tenants.

On today’s episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast we are going to be speaking with a couple of team members from MORI Associates, a leading firm with over 25 years of experience in delivering comprehensive solutions across technology, communication, and space mission support. Specializing in scalable, high-impact technologies, the company addresses current challenges while anticipating future needs, contributing to a more connected, efficient, and secure future. MORI Associates has played pivotal roles in supporting missions to Earth orbit, the moon, and beyond, contributing to groundbreaking projects that advance both terrestrial applications and interstellar explorations.Our first guest is Gabe Garrett, Senior Vice President of Space and Defense at MORI Associates. With nearly two decades of experience in the aerospace and defense industries, Gabe leads strategy, growth, and operations across key civil and defense accounts. Before joining MORI Associates, he served as Account Vice President at SAIC, overseeing the Human Space Exploration and Operations Solutions division. Gabe's extensive background includes leadership roles at Engility Corporation and engineering experience with spacecraft, launch vehicles, and mission systems at ARES Corporation.Our other guest is Blake Hershey, Chief Growth Officer at MORI Associates. Blake is a visionary entrepreneur known for his passion for creating products that enhance lives and drive positive behavioral changes.With a track record of transforming concepts into successful multi-million-dollar ventures, he brings extensive expertise in business development, including finance, operations, marketing, product innovation, and strategic planning. His leadership has been instrumental in driving significant revenue growth at MORI Associates over the past several years. Blake has also been recognized by Forbes' Next 1000 for his entrepreneurial achievements.

In this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast, we discuss some cutting-edge intel coming out of LimaCharlie's community.Japanese law enforcement has publicly linked a Chinese state-sponsored threat group known as MirrorFace to a series of cyberattacks that have targeted Japan over the past five years.Researchers at Cyfirma have detailed a new campaign where attackers are using a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) dubbed Neptune to hijack Windows systems.Researchers have discovered new variants of a previously identified Linux backdoor known as SparrowDoor, believed to be the work of a North Korean state-sponsored group known as Kimsuky.CISA has added a recently disclosed vulnerability in CrushFTP (tracked as CVE-2024-4040) to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.

Eoin Wickens, Director of Threat Intelligence at HiddenLayer, is a leading expert in AI security and threat research. In this insightful discussion, Eoin tackles the evolution of AI vulnerabilities, emphasizing the risks of shadow AI and model poisoning. He sheds light on the rising threat of deep fakes in communications, raising alarm bells over trust and authenticity. The importance of structured testing frameworks for securing AI is highlighted, alongside the ethical concerns surrounding adversarial machine learning and the need for new security paradigms in the rapidly changing AI landscape.

In this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast, we discuss some cutting-edge intel coming out of LimaCharlie's community.On March 24, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported a significant OPSEC failure involving U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who allegedly sent him detailed U.S. military plans over Signal—an encrypted messaging app—on March 15.A newly discovered supply chain attack on the npm ecosystem is targeting developers by backdooring local packages through a process known as “manifest confusion.” Unit 42 researchers at Palo Alto Networks have uncovered an ongoing software supply chain attack targeting GitHub repositories via malicious GitHub Actions workflows.

Explore Google's eye-popping $32 billion acquisition of Wiz, transforming the cybersecurity landscape. Dive into a newly discovered zero-day vulnerability in Windows that could give attackers full control. Discover the escalating threat of the SocGholish malware framework and its role in ransomware distribution. Uncover alarming techniques that disable Endpoint Detection and Response solutions, leaving systems vulnerable. Plus, learn about undocumented commands in Bluetooth chips risking over a billion devices!

On today's episode of the Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast, we speak with Jen VanAntwerp, the Founder of Sober in Cyber.Jen is a cybersecurity marketing professional and the founder of Sober in Cyber, a nonprofit on a mission to provide alcohol-free events and community-building opportunities for sober and sober-curious individuals working in infosec. Jen is passionate about breaking the stigma of addiction recovery and is profoundly driven to increase the number of professional networking events that don’t revolve around alcohol. She is also the founder of JVAN Consulting, where she provides marketing consultation services to cybersecurity startups.Sober in Cyber Discord can be found here.

In this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast, we discuss some cutting-edge intel coming out of the LimaCharlie community.The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is facing significant operational challenges as budget constraints force it to scale back key cybersecurity programs.Scammers are taking a new approach to extortion by mailing physical ransom letters to victims, claiming to be the operators of the BianLian ransomware group.A newly identified advanced persistent threat (APT) group, dubbed "Crafty Camel," has been targeting aviation operational technology (OT) systems using a sophisticated technique involving polyglot files. A new malvertising campaign is leveraging deceptive online ads to distribute information-stealing malware hosted on GitHub, highlighting an ongoing evolution in cybercriminal tactics.Security researchers have disclosed details of multiple vulnerabilities in Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems that could be exploited to facilitate attacks on industrial environments.

On this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast we speak with Andrew Cook, CTO of Recon InfoSec, about lessons learned scaling Managed Security Operations.

On this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast we speak with Philippe Humeau, CEO of CrowdSec, about Multimodal Offensive Artificial Intelligence (MOAI).Philippe is a cybersecurity expert and seasoned entrepreneur with a deep passion for enhancing global internet security. He is the founder and CEO of CrowdSec, an innovative open-source platform that harnesses the power of community-driven threat intelligence to protect systems worldwide. Philippe's work focuses on collaborative approaches to cybersecurity, ensuring that organizations can stay ahead of evolving threats by pooling collective knowledge and resources. With years of experience building solutions that address complex security challenges, Philippe has made a significant impact on the field.Before founding CrowdSec, Philippe successfully launched and led several companies within the cybersecurity space, further cementing his reputation as a thought leader and innovator. His journey reflects a commitment to addressing the most pressing challenges in the digital age, from fostering safer internet ecosystems to empowering businesses with the tools they need to defend against cyberattacks. Philippe is also an advocate for open-source technology and community-driven solutions, underscoring his belief that collaboration is key to combating global threats.