The Host Unknown Podcast

Episode 196 - The Nuclear Option Episode

Episode Summary

This week in InfoSec Reminisces about what we considered a silly password 37 years ago Rant of the Week is a tough move from an ISP Billy Big Balls is a perfectly executed double-dip Industry News is the latest and greatest news stories from around the world And Tweet of the Week briefly looks at why coups just ain’t what they used to be

Episode Notes

This Week in InfoSec (12:30)

With content liberated from the “today in infosec” twitter account and further afield

24th June 1987: The movie Spaceballs was released. With a budget of $23 million, it grossed $38 million at the box office in North America. Though 37 years have passed, the secret code scene remains a reminder of why security is hard.

Watch the secret code scene from Spaceballs and weep. Or laugh. Or both. Has much changed when it comes to password security since the movie was released 37 years ago today?

The 64 second scene: https:///youtu.be/a6iW-8xPw3k

https://x.com/todayininfosec/status/1805302016451002501  

 

27th June 2011: Anonymous released its first cache from Operation AntiSec, information from a US anti-cyberterrorism program.

https://x.com/todayininfosec/status/1806302186487345226

 

Rant of the Week (18:15)

Korean telco allegedly infected its P2P users with malware
A South Korean media outlet has alleged that local telco KT deliberately infected some customers with malware due to their excessive use of peer-to-peer (P2P) downloading tools.

The number of infected users of “web hard drives” – the South Korean term for the online storage services that allow uploading and sharing of content – has reportedly reached 600,000.

 

Billy Big Balls of the Week (26:33)

Crypto scammers circle back, pose as lawyers, steal an extra $10M in truly devious plan
The FBI says in just 12 months, scumbags stole circa $10 million from victims of crypto scams after posing as helpful lawyers offering to recover their lost tokens.

Between February 2023-2024, scammers were kicking US victims while they were already down, preying on their financial vulnerability to defraud them for a second time in what must be seen as a new low, even for that particular breed of dirtball.

It's the latest update from the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) on the ongoing issue which was first publicized in August last year. 

 

Industry News (34:24)

US Bans Kaspersky Over Alleged Kremlin Links

Sellafield Pleads Guilty to Historic Cybersecurity Offenses

Polish Prosecutors Step Up Probe into Pegasus Spyware Operation

Credential Stuffing Attack Hits 72,000 Levi’s Accounts

Google's Naptime Framework to Boost Vulnerability Research with AI

Fake Law Firms Con Victims of Crypto Scams, Warns FBI

IT Leaders Split on Using GenAI For Cybersecurity

Majority of Critical Open Source Projects Contain Memory Unsafe Code

CISOs Reveal Firms Prioritize Savings Over Long-Term Security

 

Tweet of the Week (43:08)

 

https://twitter.com/StuAlanBecker/status/1806137799248359443

Comments: https://twitter.com/derJamesJackson/status/1806307954586538205  

 

Alternate TotW: 

https://twitter.com/susisnyder/status/1806222280382406836