Israel-Iran cyberwar: Predatory Sparrow, vanishing crypto, destructive bank hacks
Three Buddy Problem - Episode 51: Former Immunity/Trail of Bits researcher Hamid Kashfi joins the buddies for a fast-moving tour of cyber activities in the Israel-Iran war. The crew unpacks who 'Predatory Sparrow' is, why Sepah Bank and the Nobitex crypto exchange were hit, and what a $90 million cryptocurrency burn really means. Plus, radar-blinding cyberattacks that paved the way for Israel’s air raid, the human cost of sudden ATM outages and unpaid salaries, and the puzzling “Code Breakers” data leak that preceded it all.
Hamid shares on-the-ground context, the buddies debate whether cyber operations can sway a shooting war, and everyone tries to gauge Iran’s true offensive muscle under sanctions.
Cast: Hamid Kashfi (https://twitter.com/hkashfi), Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade (https://twitter.com/juanandres_gs), Ryan Naraine (https://twitter.com/ryanaraine) and Costin Raiu (https://twitter.com/craiu).
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3:07:13
Cyber flashpoints in Israel-Iran war, the 'magnet of threats', Mossad drone swarms
Three Buddy Problem - Episode 50: This week, we dissect cyber flashpoints in the Iran-Israel war, revisit the “magnet of threats” server in Iran that attracted APTs from multiple nation-states, and react to Israel's Mossad sneaking explosive drone swarms deep into Iran to support airstrikes.
Plus, Stealth Falcon’s new WebDAV zero-day, SentinelOne’s brush with Chinese APTs, Citizen Lab’s forensic takedown of Paragon’s iPhone spyware, and the sneaky Meta/Yandex trick that links Android web browsing to app IDs.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade (https://twitter.com/juanandres_gs), Ryan Naraine (https://twitter.com/ryanaraine) and Costin Raiu (https://twitter.com/craiu).
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1:51:48
Mikko Hypponen talks drone warfare, APT naming schemes
Three Buddy Problem - Episode 49: Cybersecurity veteran Mikko Hypponen joins the show to discuss the fast-changing life and times on NATO’s newest frontline, how Ukraine’s long-range “Spiderweb” drone swarms punched holes in Russian air bases, the cyber connections to the escalating drone warfare, and the coming wave of autonomous “killer robots”.
Plus, news on Ukraine’s hack of bomber-maker Tupolev, the industry’s never-ending APT naming mess, iVerify’s newly disclosed iMessage zero-click bug, fresh Qualcomm GPU exploits still unpatched on Android devices, and Cellebrite’s purchase of Corellium.
Cast: Ryan Naraine (https://twitter.com/ryanaraine), Costin Raiu (https://twitter.com/craiu) and Mikko Hypponen (https://x.com/mikko)
Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade is out this week at Sleuthcon.
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1:29:04
The dark hole of 'friendlies' and Western APTs
Three Buddy Problem - Episode 48: We unpack a Dutch intelligence agencies report on ‘Laundry Bear’ and Microsoft’s parallel ‘Void Blizzard’ write-up, finding major gaps and bemoaning the absence of IOCs. Plus, discussion on why threat-intel naming is so messy, how initial-access brokers are powering even nation-state break-ins, and whether customers (or vendors) are to blame for the confusion.
Plus, thoughts on an academic paper on the vanishing art of Western companies exposing Western (friendly) APT operations, debate whether stealth or self-censorship is to blame, and the long-tail effects on cyber paleontology.
We also dig into Sean Heelan’s proof that OpenAI’s new reasoning model can spot a Linux kernel 0-day and the implications for humans in the bug-hunting chain.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade (https://twitter.com/juanandres_gs), Ryan Naraine (https://twitter.com/ryanaraine) and Costin Raiu (https://twitter.com/craiu).
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2:11:19
Russia hacks Ukraine war supply lines, Signal blocks Windows screenshots, BadSuccessor vuln disclosure debate
Three Buddy Problem - Episode 47: We unpack a multi-agency report on Russia’s APT28/Fancy Bear hacking and spying on Ukraine war supply lines, CISA’s sloppy YARA rules riddled with false positives, the ethics of full-disclosure after Akamai dropped Windows Server “BadSuccessor” exploit details, and Sekoia’s discovery of thousands of hijacked edge devices repurposed as honeypots.
The back half veers into Microsoft’s resurrected Windows Recall, Signal’s new screenshot-blocking countermeasure, Japan’s fresh legal mandate for pre-emptive cyber strikes, and why appliance vendors like Ivanti keep landing in the headlines.
Along the way you get hot takes on techno-feudalism, Johnny Ive’s rumored AI gadget, and a lively debate over whether publishing exploit code ever helps defenders.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade (https://twitter.com/juanandres_gs), Ryan Naraine (https://twitter.com/ryanaraine) and Costin Raiu (https://twitter.com/craiu).
The Three Buddy Problem is a popular Security Conversations podcast that goes beyond industry talking points to discuss what others won’t -- nation-state malware, attribution, cyberwar, ethics, privacy, and the messy realities of securing computers and corporate networks.
Hosted by three veteran security pros -- journalist Ryan Naraine and malware paleontologists Costin Raiu and Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade -- the weekly show attracts a highly engaged audience of security researchers, corporate defenders, CISOs, and policymakers.
Connect with Ryan on Twitter (Open DMs).
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