COVID fraud warnings, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre's suspicious email reporting service,  Dubai’s police deal with COVID fraud, Microsoft tracks ransomware groups, a fake FBI special agent starts dating, porn blackmail, counter-drone tech, and the Metropolitan Police force’s virtual police academy highlight our law enforcement round-up followed by a conversation with retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Scott Augenbaum the author of The Secret to Cybersecurity: A Simple Plan to Protect Your Family and Business from Cybercrime.  As a generous nod to our listeners, Scott wi ..read more

It’s that fun time of the year when we all have or will be voting.  Families, counties, and the country stand divided and under the influence of foreign intelligence services and criminal enterprise.  Our panel discusses many of these topics, including coverage on deep fakes, censorship issues, disinformation campaigns, and the real threat of foreign influence and election intervention.  How can we verify what we think we know?  How can we better discern what’s out in the environment?  In the news summary, Matt reviews the Federal Election Assistance Commission, the Go ..read more

Overview  Fraud warnings, rapid DNA tests for arrestees, electronic facial identification, London cold case, serial child porn conviction, Russian hacking e-commerce platform takedown, and Chinese espionage highlight our law enforcement round-up followed by a conversation on the NIST Cybersecurity Framework with Salvador Ortega. Salvador and I walk through the NIST Cybersecurity Framework’s significant functions and categories and discuss our operational perspectives emerging under each function, category, and sub-category.  “The Framework is voluntary guidance, based on existing sta ..read more

Chinese hackers face US justice; the US Secret Service forms a permanent Cyber Crime task force; the UK’s National Crime Agency’s Operation Venetic yields 746 arrests; Fresno county identity theft arrest and a flamboyant, FBI most wanted Russian hacker’s 5 million dollar bounty rounds out the law enforcement update.  Our interview with John Virden follows the roundup. John Virden, Assistant Vice President for Security, Compliance, and Risk Management and CISO at Miami University, and I discuss the 2020 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report 2020.  Threat Actors Top Patterns Data ..read more

My friend and former colleague at Microsoft’s public sector practice, Bryan Hunt,  provides a great overview of our present threat landscape and a series of reminders with which to start the year.  Ransomware, criminal enterprise, and re-visitation of fundamental practices round out the show.  How can you spend the money necessary to get in front of the breach or assault?  What’s happening with the spike in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies?  What’s driving that?  And what about the cost of the breach or a ransomware recovery?  Do you pay?  Do you preven ..read more

It's national insider threat awareness month -- yeah, I didn't know either, but now you do too!  We take a brief survey of the Chinese perspectives on national security, including EC-8 surveillance sorties along the South China Sea, an assertion by the Chinese government that they do not interfere with US internal affairs, and the US response to alleged Chinese espionage emerging from the Houston Embassy.  A couple of arrest reports for an ex-US Army Special forces officer and a Chinese national throwing a hard drive in a dumpster complement our coverage of North Korean bank heists a ..read more

AWS denial of service, on-going investigations $4.7million business email compromise scam, a student-led missing person cyber investigation initiative, NZ’s seizure of $90 million in assets of alleged Russian criminal enterprise, DDOS service for hire sentencing, and mapping out the deep fake landscape rounds out the law enforcement update.  Our interview with Giovanni Vigna follows the roundup. Professor and security entrepreneur Giovanni Vigna (UCSB Sec Lab and Founder of Lastline TDI) and I discuss contemporary issues related to his research and experience regarding the current cyberse ..read more

My friend and former colleague at Microsoft’s public sector practice, Bryan Hunt,  provides a great overview of our present threat landscape and a series of reminders with which to start the year.  Ransomware, criminal enterprise, and re-visitation of fundamental practices round out the show.  How can you spend the money necessary to get in front of the breach or assault?  What’s happening with the spike in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies?  What’s driving that?  And what about the cost of the breach or a ransomware recovery?  Do you pay?  Do you preven ..read more

It’s that fun time of the year when we all have or will be voting.  Families, counties, and the country stand divided and under the influence of foreign intelligence services and criminal enterprise.  Our panel discusses many of these topics, including coverage on deep fakes, censorship issues, disinformation campaigns, and the real threat of foreign influence and election intervention.  How can we verify what we think we know?  How can we better discern what’s out in the environment?  In the news summary, Matt reviews the Federal Election Assistance Commission, the Go ..read more

It's national insider threat awareness month -- yeah, I didn't know either, but now you do too!  We take a brief survey of the Chinese perspectives on national security, including EC-8 surveillance sorties along the South China Sea, an assertion by the Chinese government that they do not interfere with US internal affairs, and the US response to alleged Chinese espionage emerging from the Houston Embassy.  A couple of arrest reports for an ex-US Army Special forces officer and a Chinese national throwing a hard drive in a dumpster complement our coverage of North Korean bank heists a ..read more