On 30 January 2026, CERT.PL published findings concerning an electric sector attack on Poland in December 2025. This report, presumably the most complete on the incident covering multiple sources and coming from those directly responding to the total incident, arrived after earlier reporting from commercial organizations on elements of the Read more
Salt Typhoon first emerged in the public consciousness with media reporting in late 2024. The previously unknown (or overlooked) threat actor was quickly linked to widespread intrusions in major US-based telecommunications companies, and targeting of both specific systems used to enable lawful intercept operations as well as the communications of Read more
Background Almost a year ago as of this writing, the Russian state initiated a new and astoundingly brutal campaign against Ukraine. While Russia had effectively been at war with Ukraine since not long after the Revolution of Dignity, late February 2022 initiated a far wider, nastier, and inhumane phase of Read more
On 11 January 2023, the “Ghost Security Group” (commonly referred to as “GhostSec”) issued a bold claim (captured on Twitter, among other places) that they “encrypted the first RTU in history.” The claim rapidly came under scrutiny from several directions – for an excellent analysis of this specific case and Read more
Background On 12 April 2022, the Ukrainian CERT and ESET disclosed the existence of Industroyer2, a successor to the malware targeting Ukrainian electric distribution and transmission operations in 2016. Industroyer2 arrived after multiple disruptive cyber incidents of varying degrees of success surrounding Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, as presented in Read more
In the early hours of 24 February 2022, Russian forces initiated offensive, kinetic action against multiple targets across Ukraine. While shocking given the naked brutality of these strikes, this invasion represented the culmination of a months-long build-up, and arguably the final phase of a conflict that started in 2014. As Read more
Iranian security company Amnpardaz Soft published an intriguing report on 28 December 2021 concerning a firmware-level rootkit in HP Integrated Lights Out (iLO) products. While frustratingly containing no Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) – not so much for defensive purposes, but for validating research and independently analyzing artifacts – the report Read more
Questions concerning responsibility for the current epidemic of ransomware events are common, and seek to identify some concrete party to hold accountable for incidents. Yet the immediate perpetrators – largely (but not exclusively) criminal gangs operating in Eastern Europe and Russia – either represent too remote an entity for blame, Read more
The information security industry finds itself, as of this writing, in the midst of a ransomware pandemic. While Business Email Compromise (BEC) likely remains more financially successful overall, much of this success is due to far wider scope and selection of victims. Ransomware, while potentially less costly in a direct Read more
On 09 December 2020, details emerged concerning network infrastructure I’d previously identified as suspicious on 07 December: Further research and investigation showed that the domains in question – which were relocated from “.org” to “.us” infrastructure – were hosting “kill lists” comprising politicians, civil servants, and employees of Dominion Voting Read more