On 15 November, something long-awaited (and presumably expected) came to pass in the information security community – CozyBear/APT29/CozyDuke/”The Dukes”/”Office Monkeys” were (or seemed to be) back. Subsequent reporting defined the scope of the event: a large phishing campaign on 14 November targeting multiple organizations spanning “military agencies, law enforcement, defense Read more…
Recently I engaged in conversation with Dale Peterson dealing with the gas explosion events in Massachusetts. For background, following the event in question there were multiple unfounded claims of a “cyber” cause behind these events followed by significant pushback from various ICS security experts. Where Dale and I enter the Read more…
Recently I was part of a Twitter conversation that started with excellent points on profiling and managing threats that led to some good comments on the value of “who-based” attribution. If you’ve followed this blog and my related works, you will know that I already have strong feelings on the Read more…
YARA – or “yet another regex alternative” – is a pattern matching tool with multiple uses but extensive application in malware analysis and alerting. The framework itself is simple, relatively easy to understand (especially on basic string matching), and incredibly flexible. Yet in application and advertised use, YARA is often Read more…
I had the pleasure to engage some really smart people on the subject of threat attribution and naming conventions via Twitter recently. I think the linked thread is useful as an example not only of some of the issues the cyber security community still has around terminology and definitions, but Read more…
Nate Beach-Westmoreland wrote a Tweet recently that piqued my interest, as it aligned very closely to one of my major concerns in a former IR position: how does one ensure that sensitive data isn’t manipulated? Typically, cyber defense focuses on two key impacts: the loss or theft of sensitive (or Read more…
The term “sources and methods” brings passionate, sometimes pained reactions within the information security community. On the one hand, there are those engaged in traditional intelligence operations for whom “sources and methods” are vital resources, to be maintained and preserved at almost any cost to ensure continuous collection. Contrary to Read more…
I find it uncontroversial to claim that content creators – whether in writing, music, or other – at some level must be aware of the needs and capabilities of their audience. While certain types of expression, such as the truly artistic, provide greater leeway in moving against (while trying to Read more…