Risky Bulletin

A ransomware group used a supply chain compromise to hack around 40 shipping companies, the Pentagon assembles a technology sabotage unit, PHP2Shell exploitation gets underway and GoDaddy revokes 400,000 certs.

Tom Uren and Amberleigh Jack talk about the weird bugging incident at OpenAI. It doesn’t look at all like it was normal state-backed espionage, but there are still good reasons the frontier labs should ensure that their crown jewels are safe. They also discuss how cybercriminals are rapidly evolving their use of AI. The technology and harnesses available are getting better and the criminals are also discovering business models where they can sit back while AI automates most of the work. This episode is also available on YouTube.

A hacker hijacks more than 10% of Tor’s exit nodes, a second ransomware negotiator has been linked to ShinyHunters, a Chinese crime ring hacked Staples, and a hacker leaks emails from German far-right party AfD.

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq discuss whether the rise of AI coding will result in more or less bugs and whether it will ultimately make software more secure. This episode is also available on YouTube.

A serious vulnerability lets attackers escape Kernel-based virtual machines, OpenCode users become collateral damage in a distillation attack, supply chain incidents hit AOMEI and ConnectWise and Intel will discontinue SGX.

In this Risky Business sponsored interview James Wilson chats with Sondera co-founder and CEO, Josh Devon, about how AI agents are highly capable, but they’re not the best rule followers or decision makers. The pair find themselves in the philosophical weeds about why agents lack the ability to determine, or care about, right from wrong before getting into how Sondera’s autoformalisation, that gives specific behaviour guardrails to agents, can help.

Three DataSuckers hacking group suspects arrested in Russia, Al Jazeera employees targeted with Candiru spyware, the US disrupts 40 North Korean laptop farms, and an OpenAI employee was arrested for planting a spy device.

Tom Uren and Amberleigh Jack talk about Russian targeting of Ukrainian data centres. That’s not good, but it looks like Russia is very poorly prepared for Ukraine’s retaliatory strikes. Karma! They also discuss how open-weight models are getting good at cyber tasks while safeguards are easily bypassed. There is no chance of international regulation that will rein in these models, so it is time to loosen cyber safety restrictions on American frontier models. This episode is also available on YouTube

Spyware chips found inside Ledger crypto-wallets, a cyberattack defrosts supermarket freezers across France, Dutch-owned supermarkets go offline in multiple countries following a cyberattack, and the EU wants smart glasses to beep loudly when they’re recording.

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq examine how ShinyHunters and the FBI both deceived themselves into believing they were immune to cyber threats. This episode is also available on YouTube.

Two ShinyHunters suspects arrested in Jordan and the US, hackers breach TLD registrars to get valid Google certs, Japanese authorities arrest a Qilin ransomware member and Google suspends its open-source bug bounty program after a flood of AI bug reports.

In this Risky Business sponsored interview James Wilson chats with Prowler’s founder and CEO Toni de la Fuente about how AI now allows pretty much anyone to vibe-code “killer apps”. These custom apps are often internal for organisations and hosted on the cloud. The pair discuss why developers need to focus on security on top of app functionality and how Prowler can work in parallel with apps and agents to help secure, and continuously assess, cloud infrastructure.

Authorities dismantle the KillSec hacking group, South Africa thwarts a ransomware attack against air traffic control systems, the US sanctions Venezuelan ATM hackers and a Chinese APT targets AI experts.

Amberleigh Jack and James Wilson chat about OpenAI agents’ recent escapades into Australian government websites. OpenAI has promised to “rebuild trust with Australians” but we’re likely getting a glimpse into the new normal, here. They also discuss how the ShinyHunters hacking group has found itself on law enforcement’s target list after breaching FBI systems. The group played some stupid games and they appear to be in the “stupid prizes” stage. This episode is also available on YouTube

A ShinyHunters suspect has been arrested in the Netherlands, Apple fixes an iOS zero-day found by Meta, recent Citrix zero-days see mass exploitation within hours and NVIDIA launches an AI sandboxing platform.

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq talk about the rise of fully automated LLM-driven hacking campaigns among criminals and even state hacking groups. For those with the right risk appetite, a move fast and break things hacking approach using AI can pay off. This episode is also available on YouTube.

Intel removes cash rewards from its bug bounty program, OpenAI agents probed dozens of organizations, Fraudsters scam €95 million from an Italian bank and Bitget is hacked for $350 million.

In this Risky Business sponsored interview James Wilson chats to Kieron Hughes and Andrzej Matykiewicz from PortSwigger about the company’s latest AI pen-testing product, Burp AT. The model has different levels of autonomy modes and is natively integrated with Burp Suite so once it finds vulnerabilities it can spin up intruder attacks, configure everything and brute-force the code. The three also chat about the experiences of beta trial users, including one that found a vulnerability that disclosed reports from the company’s anonymous whistle blower platform.

A major vulnerability has been found in the ancient TACACS+ networking protocol, Australia’s Prime Minister claims an OpenAI agent hacked the country’s Medicare website, OpenAI gives Ukraine access to its Daybreak cyber-defense program and the UK will establish an anti-disinformation center.

Tom Uren and Patrick Gray talk about US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ruling out liability exemptions for AI companies. Its a good move. Leaving the companies on the hook keeps the pressure on them to do better with their cyber security and testing controls. They also discuss a Russian AI-powered cyberespionage campaign run by a group known as Midnight Blizzard. It used AI workflows to run the entire campaign so they got a lot more hacking done and accepted AI mistakes. This makes sense given that they want more intelligence from Ukrainian targets and don’t care at all about getting caught. This episode is also available on YouTube.

A network of 10,000 AI servers is masking malicious Chinese AI activity, Ukrainian hackers leak Russia’s naval secrets, ShinyHunters hacks the FBI, and the EvilTokens phishing service is disrupted by tech companies.

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq talk about whether there is such a thing as real-time cyber defence. Will agentic AI save us from hacking AI? This episode is also available on YouTube.

Google’s Gemini hacked three companies, hackers claim a breach of Russia’s election commission, OpenAI was behind RubyGems’ May incident, and the Coast Guard and FBI board two ships to investigate cyberattacks.

In this Risky Business sponsored interview, Catalin Cimpanu talks with Justin Kohler, Chief Product Officer at SpecterOps. Justin explains how Entra Agent ID can introduce new identity relationships and potential attack paths.

Anthropic agents went hacking again, South Korea increases its data breach fines, Apple notifies three Turkish ministers of mercenary spyware attacks, and CISA is ready to hire 250 staff.

Tom Uren and James Wilson talk about how Chinese intelligence services will take advantage of a massive breach of 150 million American drivers licences. They also discuss the steps the US military is taking to counter adtech device tracking. It’s too slow and not enough. Finally, they talk about how often cryptocurrency hackers claim to be white hat hackers. Its ludicrous, but suprisingly often it is a successful strategy. This episode is also available on YouTube

Ukraine’s top prosecutor resigns amid a scam call center scandal, the US accuses Chinese AI companies of industrial-scale distillation, a cyberattack hits medical practices in Luxembourg, and the Liquid Network attacker returns some stolen Bitcoin, but keeps a $50 million bounty.

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq talk about whether AI will help cyber defence in critical infrastructure and organisations that are below the cyber poverty line. This episode is also available on YouTube.

Hackers steal €35 million euros from French notaries, OpenAI agents hacked a German wiki, a new bill will allow the Pentagon to use cyber contractors, and the Five Eyes members tell hacked companies to drop PR spin.

In this Risky Business sponsored interview, James Wilson chats with Authentik Security CEO Fletcher Heisler about how AI is driving a need for privileged access management to adapt. Fletcher explains Authentik’s approach: each agent has its own identity, begins with no permissions and is tied to a human. They also discuss transferring ownership when employees leave, mitigating risks of agents creating identities for each other, and whether task-based access could eventually be a better fit than clock-controlled access.

Russia tells data centers to deploy drone defenses, Dropbox discloses a security breach, a new spyware wave hits Serbia, and CISA scraps six free cybersecurity assessment programs.

Tom Uren and James Wilson talk about China’s long-term shift to getting private companies to build botnets for cyberespionage. A disruption effort from the US this week is good news, but China has been using these networks for a surprisingly long time and will rebuild. They also discuss a hack at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). It looks like the Qilin ransomware group might have stolen data from the ATF’s CALEA, or lawful intercept system. That’s a big deal! Finally, they discuss efforts to fix US water sector security. Sprinkling free tools on the problem will have limited impact. This episode is also available on YouTube

A BGP hijack delivered malicious Virtualizor updates, the White House launches Project Watershed 250, Indian authorities take down a Telegram doxing bot, and Composer packages deliver iOS badness.

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq talk about how AI is the perfect hacker, but what makes it perfect for states is the opposite of what makes it perfect for criminals. This episode is also available on YouTube.

Dutch intelligence services will get new powers, a security expert has been arrested in Israel for hacking, the BTS hacker gets a 20 year sentence in South Korea, and an AfD politician in Germany has been linked to a Russian cybercrime hosting service.

In this Risky Business sponsored interview, James Wilson chats with Dropzone AI’s founder and CEO Edward Wu to debunk the adage, “an attacker only has to be right once”. Modern intruders need to be successful across multiple steps before actually reaching an organisation’s “crown jewels”. The pair chat about where AI helps attackers, why autonomous post-compromise agents aren’t quite here yet, and how AI can bolster the capacity of security teams when investigating alerts and reducing response times.

Two members of TeamPCP arrested in Australia, Qilin hits the US firearms agency, America seizes two more Chinese botnets, CISA says most cyber activity is opportunistic.

Tom Uren and James Wilson talk about evidence that Chinese APT groups are using AI in a really sensible way, to beef up their malware arsenal. This will make it harder for threat intel firms to cluster activity for attribution. They also discuss the US disrupting Iranian hackers by revealing that some of them are hacking the country’s own firms. That’s a new tactic, but making that information public in a Treasury Department sanctions package doesn’t really make sense. This episode is also available on YouTube

Russia begins blocking the DoH and DoT protocols, Russian hacktivists leak Spanish police and military personnel data, China and South Korea detain a vishing gang, and AI malware is not that common.

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq talk about whether the increasing use of AI will make it harder for forensics teams to determine who is responsible for a hack. This episode is also available on YouTube.

Expired credit cards can be used for malicious transactions, Iranian hackers shut down a UK power plant, the Lazarus Group hacks South Korea’s Presidential Office, and an Android malware strain is infecting smart cars.

In this Risky Business sponsored interview, James Wilson chats with Luke Jennings, Push Security’s VP of Research, about how stronger authentication is pushing attackers towards the authorisation layer. Device code phishing is on the rise. Luke explains how these attacks can survive passkeys and phishing-resistant MFA and, importantly, how defenders can check if their controls against these attacks actually work.

The US warns of AI-aided attacks against Siemens PLCs, hackers breach Latvia’s road traffic agency, a new hacking tool enrolls an attacker’s passkey to your account, and academics find source code overlaps between Geedge devices and China’s Great Firewall

Tom Uren and James Wilson talk about President Donald Trump’s memo enlisting the US private sector to tackle cybercriminals. The initiative gets the big idea right: traditional law enforcement approaches have not worked against cybercriminals so the government has turned to disruption operations, but there simply isn’t enough government capacity. So it is time to bring in the private sector. They also discuss Ukraine’s combined cyber and kinetic strikes against Wildberries, the logistics company that is called the Amazon of Russia. These cyber operations didn’t amplify the effects of kinetic strikes, but it is great propaganda to say that they did. This episode is also available on YouTube

Slovakia finds Russian backdoors on its speed cameras, French police used a public exploit to hack EncroChat, Microsoft delays Exchange updates due to a deluge of AI bugs, and a ransomware-affiliate poses as a data recovery firm.

In this edition of Between Two Nerds Tom Uren and The Grugq discuss The Offense Death Cycle, a paper looking at how to take advantage of a defender’s ability to control a network to discover intruders. This episode is also available on YouTube.

The EU publishes its upcoming cybersecurity standards, hackers breach France’s tax agency, threat actors exploit a GeoServer zero-day hours after disclosure, and an exploit unlocks old AMD CPUs with one instruction.

In this Risky Business sponsored interview, Casey Ellis chats with Socket founder Feross Aboukhadijeh about npm 12’s move to disable install scripts by default. Attackers are already shifting payloads into package source code, and Feross explains why teams need to understand what third-party code actually does before allowing it into their environments.

The White House will let private companies carry out offensive cyber ops, an AI hacking campaign breached Taiwan’s government, a macOS bug was exploited over the internet to drop cryptominers, and Kenya orders internet cafes to store logs.

Tom Uren and James Wilson talk about the cybercrime ecosystem shifting towards data theft extortion, stealing sensitive data and extracting ransoms from victims by threatening to leak it. For organisations whose reputation is very important to them, data leaks are a bigger threat than having their files locked up. They also discuss how the rise of AI makes it worth reinvigorating CISA’s Secure by Design initiative.