Transatlantic Cable Podcast

Episode 301 kicks off with Wired article exposes the China-backed Volt Typhoon Hack, a menacing cyberattack that poses a severe threat to critical infrastructure in the United States. With a specific focus on Guam's power grid control systems, this breach underscores the vulnerability and potential ramifications of such targeted attacks, Moving to New York county where they are still dealing with ransomware eight months after attack. Prepare for a fascinating journey down the Australian motorway as we explore an intriguing. We delve into an article from news.com.au that unravels an unusual phenomenon involving "passengers" like no other. Something extraordinary is afoot, and our curiosity is piqued as we seek answers to the perplexing question: What could possibly be amiss on this Aussie motorway?

Would you use ChatGPT to write your legal defense? Well one lawyer did, let’s see how it ended.

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·      China Hacks US Critical Networks in Guam, Raising Cyberwar Fears

·      New York county still dealing with ransomware eight months after attack

·      ‘This has never happened’: Something is odd about these Aussie motorway ‘passengers’

·      A lawyer used ChatGPT for legal filing. The chatbot cited nonexistent cases it just made up

Episode 300 kicks off with a bang, with discussion around Meta’s record breaking fine for sending EU citizens’ data to the United States. From there discussion moves to A.I and fake ChatGPT apps on mobile stores. The team also discuss news around Neeva’s closure, the search engine that asked for a donation instead of selling your search-history – is there really no room for innovation in the search market?  It seems not, sadly.

To wrap up the team sat down with Victor Sergeev, incident response team lead in SOC at Kaspersky to talk about his recent work with IOCs and ChatGPT. 

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·        Meta fined $1.3 billion & ordered to stop sending European user data to US

·        Generative AI that can change anyone’s race is probably not a great idea

·        ChatGPT Scams Are Infiltrating the App Store and Google Play

·        Neeva: Ad-free search engine shuts down

·        IoC detection experiments with ChatGPT

Episode 299 of the Transatlantic Cable Podcast kicks off with discussion around photo-manipulation apps (aka: filters) on social media. Should they be banned or regulated?  From there, discussion moves to news that a entrepreneurial 23 year old has created an AI version of herself which will be your girlfriend for $1 per minute.

Moving swiftly onwards, the team then look at a story from the United States, as Wendy’s looks to A.I to help them with drive-through orders.  Finally, to wrap up, the team look at a story from China and a man in the Gansu province was recently detained for allegedly using ChatGPT to generate a fake story about a train crash.

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·        Should social media face-altering filters be regulated?

·        A 23-year-old Snapchat influencer used OpenAI’s technology to create an A.I. version of herself that will be your girlfriend for $1 per minute

·        Wendy's Is Bringing a Google-Powered AI Chatbot to Its Drive-Thru

·        China reports first arrest over fake news generated by ChatGPT

Episode 298 of the Transatlantic Cable kicks off with news that ChatGPT recently suffered a data-breach, raising concerns about the amount of information we hand over to the AI chatbot. From there, the team discuss a recent story around QR scams in South Korea – be careful what you scan, is always good advice it seems.

Moving on from QR codes, the team spoke to Seongsu Park about the infamous Lazarus group’s recent activities.  To wrap up, the team looked at two final stories, one around hackers impersonating META and Google on Facebook and another story around how social media and dating apps have become a hotbed for scammers. 

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For the 297^th edition of the Transatlantic Cable Podcast, Ahmed and I discuss a lot of stories that center around the hottest topic on the social web – AI.

Our first story takes a look at how a company is now offering Deep Fakes for under $200… we opine about what could go wrong. From there, we jump over to recent news of Geoffrey Hinton quitting Google.

The move from Hinton is on the heels of him questioning the uninhibited growth and development of AI – without looking as to what could go wrong. While this adds fuel to the fire, we stop our cynicism of AI and look at some research from our colleagues at Kaspersky. In this research, our team takes a look at whether or not ChatGPT can successfully determine phishing links.

To close out the podcast, we discuss a FYI for folks in term of some zero days actively being used on major tech companies and why you need to patch now.

If you liked what you heard please do consider subscribing, below are the stories we discussed in case you would like to dive deeper.

·      Tencent Cloud announces Deepfakes-as-a-Service for $145

·      After Quitting Google, ‘Godfather of AI’ Is Now Warning of Its Dangers

·      What does ChatGPT know about phishing?

·      Apple issues Rapid Security Response update for iOS 16.4.1, macOS 13.3.1

Apple, Google, and Microsoft Just Fixed Zero-Day Security Flaws

Episode 296 kicks off with news that Oasis may be reforming – except not really. Turns out some boffins have figured out how to use A.I to create new Oasis music. Unsurprisingly, UMG (Universal Music Group) aren’t too happy. From A.I to A.I, the next story looks at the evolution of Google’s Bard bot and following that there’s discussion around the U.K government’s decision to build their own super-computer, with the purpose of, you guessed it, artificial intelligence. 

To wrap up, the team discuss a story about Twitter’s recent problems around verification status. 

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• Musicians threaten to make Oasis 'Live Forever' with AI
• Google Bard introduces new features for generating and debugging code
• UK.gov gathers up £100M for AI super-models
• Twitter gives fake Disney account verified status

Episode 295 of the Transatlantic Cable kicks off with discussions around LLM (Large Language Model) A.I regulations however, is it a case of too little, too late?  From there the team talk about a concerning case of attackers using deep fake audio to try to extort money out of a victim. 

Following that, there’s yet more discussion around A.I, including news that a fake photograph has won a prestigious photography award, and is the hacking of LLM A.I the start of something new in the cybersecurity world? 

Additionally, we also have an interview with Marc Rivero, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky to talk about his upcoming webinar entitled “Be aware of ransomware TTPs: applying MITRE to ransomware campaigns”.

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·        ‘We have to move fast’: US looks to establish rules for artificial intelligence

·        AI clones child’s voice in fake kidnapping scam

·        Sony World Photography Award 2023: Winner refuses award after revealing AI creation

·        The Hacking of ChatGPT Is Just Getting Started

Episode 294 of the Transatlantic Cable Podcast kicks off with news that some Samsung staff have shared sensitive technical information with ChatGPT. Following that a critical story around Tesla cars oversharing video feeds and are Twitter circles broken. 

To wrap up, the team discuss how A.I is now capable of breaking passwords faster than ever before and Apple’s announcement of two zero-days currently being targeted by attackers.

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·      Samsung Employees Leaked Confidential Data to ChatGPT

·      Tesla workers shared sensitive images recorded by customer cars

·      Twitter Circles Is Broken, Revealing Nudes Not Meant For The General Public

·      Study shows how fast AI can crack your passwords; here’s how to protect yourself

Apple warns of two zero-days under attack

For the 293^rd episode of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast, we are down to a two-man booth as both Dave and Jag are away on vacation. To kick things off, Ahmed and I take a look at a story that pulls the curtain back on one of the web’s most notorious websites – 4Chan. We were kind of shocked when we saw who was one of the benefactors and am pretty sure that you will be as well.

We then climb out of the cesspool before falling into a story on a scam targeting taxpayers. From there, in the third story we look at a positive case for AI – yes, you read that right, we are positive on AI for once on the podcast. In this story, a university student uses AI to help get her out of a ticket. 

The happy stories end there, as our next tale looks tragically at the use of airtags for vigilante justice in Texas. If you read the headline below, you know the story. To close things out, we talk about Elon Musk’s weird move of adding the Dodge Coin logo to Twitter, replacing the very familiar bird.

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·      Famed Japanese Toy Company Good Smile Has Reportedly Propped Up 4chan for Years

·      Emotet malware distributed as fake W-9 tax forms from the IRS

·      York student uses AI chatbot to get parking fine revoked

·      Texas man uses Apple AirTag to track down person who stole his truck, then kills him: Police

Twitter replaces logo with doge as Musk seeks Dogecoin lawsuit dismissal

Episode 292 of the Transatlantic Cable Podcast is here! This week, the team talk about aggressive AI and how the DEA have turned Apple AirTags into a surveillance tool against criminals.

Moving on, the team discuss recent news that Nvidia’s CTO thinks that crypto-currencies don’t “bring anything useful for society” – pretty bold words for a business that sold GPU cards to crypto-miners just a few years ago.  To wrap up, discussion moves onto how the US is looking to block the use and sale of commercial spyware – however, there’s a pretty big catch.  

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·        Microsoft's Bing AI Now Threatening Users Who Provoke It

·        The DEA Quietly Turned Apple’s AirTag Into A Surveillance Tool

·        Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip-maker Nvidia

·        President Biden kind of mostly bans commercial spyware from US govt

Episode 291 of the Transatlantic Cable Podcast kicks off with news around OpenAI’s recent decision to reduce the amount of information it’s sharing about how ChatGPT is trained, causing some to worry that it’s no longer as open as originally designed. 

From there discussion moves to a recent story around the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) in America and hackers looking to leverage DEA’s internal toolset.  Following that, news around hacked crypto ATMs and a new story from Securelist around  a newly discovered APT group, CommonMagic. 

This episode also includes a discussion with Susi O’Neil from Kaspersky’s Brand Activation Studio to talk about their upcoming audio mini-series called “Insight Story.” The series aims to help business leaders better understand digital tech such as AI, Metaverse and much more.  To listen to episode one, you can tune in here. 

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·        OpenAI co-founder on company’s past approach to openly sharing research: ‘We were wrong’

·        Inside the DEA Tool Hackers Allegedly Used to Extort Targets

·        General Bytes Bitcoin ATMs hacked using zero-day, $1.5M stolen

·        Bad magic: new APT found in the area of Russo-Ukrainian conflict

Please accept our apologies for the audio in places - we've done what we can to clean it up - back to normal scheduling next week! 

Welcome to the 290^th episode of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast. In this episode, we kick things off with a discussion on how ransomware gangs are taking new leaps to extort money. Spoiler alert - you aren’t going to like it one bit. From there, we jump into a discussion surrounding the booming black market in China for access to ChatGPT. 

We continue the discussion looking at how a fitness app led a researcher to discover the home and walkabouts of a former top aid to Joe Biden. To close out the episode, we look at how banks’ voice as a password is not secure. 

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·        Ransomware Attacks Have Entered a ‘Heinous’ New Phase

·        A booming illicit market for OpenAI’s chatbot shows the huge potential, and risks, for Chinese generative AI

·        AllTrails Data Exposes Precise Movements of Former Top Biden Official

·        How I Broke Into a Bank Account With an AI-Generated Voice

In episode 289 of the Transatlantic Cable, the team look at four new stories to tempt your earbuds.  This week kicks off with news that TikTok are implementing a 60-minute time limit for users under 18. 

Following that, discussion moves to further developments around FTX, this time about their missing $9 billion. To wrap up, we discuss news around Call of Duty players taking back Black Ops III from hackers and bots and more news around the recent LastPass data breach.

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• TikTok sets 60-minute daily screen time limit for under-18s
• FTX Confirms $9 Billion in Customer Funds Vanished
• Gamers are fixing a video game ‘taken over’ by hackers
• LastPass says employee’s home computer was hacked and corporate vault taken

The latest episode of the Transatlantic Cable sees the team starting out with news around Signal and their refusal to weaken encryption for the U.K government.  Following that, the team move onto discussions around Meta and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) campaign to help people with the spread of minors' intimate images online.

To wrap up, the team discuss SnapChat A.I chat bots and LockBit’s attack against the U.K’s Royal Mail service.

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·        Signal would 'walk' from UK if Online Safety Bill undermined encryption

·        LockBit leaks 44GB of Royal Mail's data and sets fresh £33 million ransom

·        Meta supports new platform preventing spread of minors' intimate images online

·        Snapchat is adding OpenAI chatbot capabilities for the new My AI feature

The latest episode of the Transatlantic Cable starts off with news that GoDaddy, one of the largest web hosting services was hacked back in 2020 and the attackers were able to gain access to the back end of millions of websites, helping them to push malware and steal credentials.

Moving from there the team look at news of the recent remove of SMS 2FA (two factor authentication) from Twitter, sparking a fierce debate in the infosec world. There’s also discussion around spam bots in Instagram and the (final) death of Internet Explorer 11.

The team was also lucky enough to chat to David Emm, principle security researcher at Kaspersky about new research around kids attitudes to fraud and security online. 

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• GoDaddy says a multi-year breach hijacked customer websites and accounts
• Twitter to charge users for text-message authentication
  
• Why Are ‘Porn Stars’ Liking Your Instagram Stories?
  
• RIP Internet Explorer: Microsoft Kills Off Legacy Browser

The latest episode of the Transatlantic Cable kicks off once again with a discussion around A.I – this time, looking at how it could soon be used by musicians to help them create music – but concerns grow that it could one day be used to create music (much like it can now be used to create art). From there the team discus how a pair of developers have created an A.I that generates lifelike police portraits sketches, and it’s got privacy and civil liberty experts worried. 

Moving away from A.I to something more concrete, the team talk about the recent proposal from the U.K government to ban the use and sale of encrypted phones – often used by criminals to circumnavigate prying eyes.

• David Guetta says the future of music is in AI
• Developers Created AI to Generate Police Sketches
• UK Proposes Making the Sale and Possession of Encrypted Phones Illegal
• Reddit Confirms It Was Hacked—Recommends Users Set Up 2FA

Episode 285 of the Transatlantic Cable kicks off with yet more news around A.I and the ever-interesting topic of ChatGPT.  However, this time, the discussion starts with regulation and the CTO of Open AI believes that it’s inevitable.  Moving from that to a more quirky story, still involving A.I however: a small team have used AI to create a never-ending Seinfield episode, streaming over on Twitch – sadly at the time of writing, it appears to have been shut down, but it still raises interesting questions around content creation, human creativity and what A.I will bring (or take away) from the table. 

Moving away from A.I to more cyber-security related news – the team discuss the closure of Exclu, an encrypted mobile phone company that enabled criminals to chat without fear of snooping, however the Dutch police were already inside the systems.

To wrap up, the team talk about a recent story around the FBI’s changing approach to ransomware, with the recent Hive takedown.

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·        The Creator of ChatGPT Thinks AI Should Be Regulated

·        Dutch Police Read Messages of Encrypted Messenger 'Exclu'

·        AI has been generating an endless Seinfeld episode

·        Hive takedown illustrates FBI’s evolution towards victim-recovery efforts

Episode 284 kicks off with a story that is going to surprise no one: over 50% of smart appliances are not connected to the internet, which is a surprise to only the manufacturers – it seems people aren’t really convinced by Wi-Fi enabled refrigerators or washing machines, it seems.

Moving on from that, the team discuss news that AI audio is becoming a problem, with AI company ElevenLabs saying that they’re going to start clamping down on troublesome audio recordings – but has Pandora’s box already been opened?  Staying with AI, the team also look at a story breaking from China, with Baidu set to launch their own version of ChatGPT.

To wrap up, the team discuss a rather odd story involving pet fish, Pokemon, PayPal and credit cards…. We’ll leave the rest up to your imagination.

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• Appliance makers sad that 50% of customers won’t connect smart appliances
• AI Voice Firm Clamps Down After 4chan Makes Celebrity Voices for Abuse
• China's biggest search engine is to set launch a ChatGPT rival in March

Pet fish playing Nintendo Switch run up bill on owner’s credit card

Episode 283 kicks off with the recent (good news) story that ransomware gangs earnings are down by quite a bit from last year – turns out that people are starting to treat backups properly and are refusing to pay – great news for 2023!  Following that, the team look at troubling news, this time from the crypto-currency world, with a story looking at the recent collapse of Genesis.

Moving from crypto to the world of fake news, a recent study has shown that the reason people share fake news is perhaps more complex than previously thought. To wrap up, the team discuss concerning news around ChatGPT and exams, with a professor running the AI through an exam for Medical Licenses and Business Degrees and it turns out it can pass them both.  Should teachers and professors be worried? Time will tell it seems.

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1. Cyber-crime gangs' earnings slide as victims refuse to pay
2. Crypto lender Genesis files for bankruptcy
3. Study reveals the key reason why fake news spreads on social media
4. ChatGPT Is Passing Tests Required for Medical Licenses & Business Degrees

Episode 282 kicks off with new research from Which? Showing that ‘smart’ technology might not be as smart as we’ve been led to believe – their research shows that most devices stop receiving updates from 2 years, even thought the device has a suggested life of 10 – it seems more work needs to be done.  From there the team look at two stories around A.I, the first on the media sensation, ChatGPT and how some people are looking to use it for malware creation, and the second looking at a chat A.I program that has become (and I’ll quote from the article here) “too horny”.

In the middle of all this, I sat down with Evgeny Goncharov, head of ICS CERT at Kaspersky to talk to him about upcoming ICS APT predictions for 2023.

Following that, the team discuss news that Norton LifeLocker password manager has been breached, those affected are being urged to update and change their passwords as quickly as possible. 

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• ICS cyberthreats in 2023 – what to expect
• ICS cyberthreats in 2023 – what to expect Securelist report
• Smart appliances could stop working after two years, says Which?
• Armed With ChatGPT, Cybercriminals Build Malware And Plot Fake Girl Bots
• Replika Users Say the Chatbot Has Gotten Way Too Horny
• NortonLifeLock warns that hackers breached Password Manager accounts