Research Saturday

23:11

Play to win, pay to lose.

Research Saturday ·

2026/10/03

Today we are joined by Jean-Pierre Mouton, Senior Threat Intelligence Consultant at GuidePoint Security, discussing their work on "How Play Achieves Encryption." Play ransomware, also known as PlayCrypt, continues to target organizations across multiple sectors using a consistent double-extortion playbook that combines data theft with widespread encryption. A recent investigation details how the group gained access through a SonicWall VPN, moved laterally using tools such as Mimikatz and PsExec,

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24:52

An apple a day, a phish away.

Research Saturday ·

2026/09/26

Today we are joined by Ensar Seker, VP of Research and CISO at SOCRadar, discussing their work on "Exposing AnonyMousKIT: AI-Powered PhaaS Supply Chain." An investigation into AnonyMousKIT reveals an AI-powered Phishing-as-a-Service platform designed to steal Apple credentials and disable Activation Lock on stolen devices. The platform uses email, SMS, WhatsApp, and AI-driven voice calls to impersonate Apple Support, with researchers uncovering a broader ecosystem spanning 506 domains, 168

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25:43

All about that proxy.

Research Saturday ·

2026/09/19

Today we are joined by Dr. Renée Burton, VP of Threat Intelligence at Infoblox, discussing their work on Lurking Lizard, "Fake Installers, Fake Reviews, Fake Services – Real Proxies, Real." The research uncovers Lurking Lizard, a threat actor that has operated since at least 2022 by using fake software installers, VPNs, and lookalike domains to secretly turn victims’ devices into residential proxy nodes. Researchers identified more than 230 related domains and connected seemingly separate

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23:02

A beast by any other name.

Research Saturday ·

2026/09/12

Today we are joined by Brigid O Gorman, Senior Intelligence Analyst on Symantec Threat Hunter team, discussing their work on “GodDamn Ransomware: Latest Beast Rebrand Uses Malicious Driver to Disable Defenses." GodDamn ransomware, the latest rebrand from the Hyadina group behind Monster and Beast, is using increasingly sophisticated techniques to evade defenses. In a recent attack, the threat actors used AnyDesk for remote access, a broad credential-harvesting toolkit, and the PoisonX malicious

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19:51

RMM-ber this ransomware.

Research Saturday ·

2026/09/05

Ismael Valenzuela, Vice President of Labs, Threat Research and Intelligence at Arctic Wolf, sits down with Dave to discuss their work tracking Anubis. Arctic Wolf Labs details a series of 2026 Anubis ransomware intrusions, revealing affiliates using stolen VPN credentials and exploiting CitrixBleed 2 to gain initial access. Attackers then blended into legitimate IT activity by deploying RMM tools, using RDP and PsExec for lateral movement, stealing credentials, and establishing tunnels and proxies

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23:10

Who let the AI hack?

Research Saturday ·

2026/08/29

Today we are joined by Crystal Morin, Senior Cybersecurity Strategist, and Michael Clark, Senior Director of Threat Research, at Sysdig, sharing their work on "LLMjacking evolved: Attackers are using stolen AI compute to build offensive agentic tools." The Sysdig Threat Research Team observed an attacker abusing an exposed, unauthenticated Ollama server as the “brain” for an automated offensive security tool. The AI-powered framework can fingerprint services, identify vulnerabilities, craft

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29:47

A RAT in the spreadsheet.

Research Saturday ·

2026/08/22

Today we are joined by Aaron Beardslee, Manager of Threat Research at Securonix, discussing "Analyzing SHEET#CREEP: SHEETCREEP is up again with different config obfuscation." Securonix researchers have identified an evolved version of the SHEETCREEP espionage campaign, using a diplomatic-themed ISO phishing lure to deliver a C# remote access trojan targeting Indian diplomatic interests. The malware abuses the Google Sheets API as a stealthy command-and-control channel, with researchers identifying

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27:13

The botnet that scouts before it strikes.

Research Saturday ·

2026/08/15

Today we are joined by Ian Goldin, Senior Lead Information Security Engineer, and Mike Horka, Principal Information Security Engineer, from Lumen's Black Lotus Labs, discussing their research entitled "Expanded JDY IoT and SOHO botnet enables rapid vulnerability exploitation." Black Lotus Labs has uncovered a major resurgence of the JDY botnet, a China-nexus reconnaissance network now comprising more than 1,500 compromised SOHO and IoT devices. The botnet uses these devices to conduct targeted

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19:48

A little help from your search engine.

Research Saturday ·

2026/08/08

Today we are joined by Brian Hussey, SVP of Howler Cell Threat Services at Cyderes, discussing their work on "Bad Ads, Worse Binaries: Fake Claude Code Installer Drops Infostealer." Howler Cell identified an SEO poisoning campaign targeting people searching for Claude Code installation guides, using a fake Anthropic page and a ClickFix lure to trick victims into running a malicious MSHTA command. The attack uses a six-stage, largely fileless chain that employs an MP3/HTA polyglot, PowerShell

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23:52

The driver's seat to ransomware.

Research Saturday ·

2026/08/01

This week, we are joined by Marcus Hutchins, Principal Threat Researcher at Expel, sharing their work on "Not very gentlemanly: Analyzing a zero-day exploit used by The Gentlemen ransomware to disable targets’ EDRs." Researchers examine how the Gentlemen ransomware group used a previously unknown zero-day vulnerability in a legacy Windows driver to disable endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools before deploying ransomware. The report details the group's advanced bring-your-own-vulnerable-driver

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17:03

Cold lures, hot targets.

Research Saturday ·

2026/07/25

This week, we are joined by Ondrej Kubovič, Security Awareness Specialist from ESET, discussing their work on "FrostyNeighbor: Fresh mischief and digital shenanigans." Ondrej walks us through ESET's latest research into FrostyNeighbor, a long-running Belarus-aligned cyberespionage group that has continued to target Ukrainian government organizations with increasingly sophisticated spearphishing campaigns. We discuss how the group uses malicious PDF lures, server-side victim validation, and an

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17:46

When trusted sites turn.

Research Saturday ·

2026/07/18

Lauren Fievisohn, Ph.D, Senior Threat Researcher from Silent Push, is sharing their work on "Meet DriveSurge: A New Threat Actor Using ClickFix and Fake Update Drive-By Attacks in Thousands of Compromised Sites." Silent Push researchers have identified a newly named threat actor, DriveSurge, which has compromised thousands of legitimate websites and uses ClickFix and fake browser update lures to distribute malware at scale through a pay-per-install operation. The group leverages a traffic

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29:24

Conti-versal opinions.

Research Saturday ·

2026/07/11

Today we are joined by Geoff White, host of Cyber Hack and BBC journalist, taking a deep dive into the Conti ransomware gang. Geoff explores an in-depth investigation into the notorious Conti ransomware gang, drawing from thousands of leaked internal messages to reveal how the group operated behind the scenes. The research uncovers surprising internal debates over targeting healthcare organizations, the fallout from accidentally exposing sensitive Saudi royal family data, and frantic efforts to

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24:25

Is your enterprise AI strategy delivering ROI yet?...

Research Saturday ·

2026/07/04

While we take a break this 4th of July weekend, please enjoy this encore of AI Security Brief. Your enterprise AI strategy isn’t as far along as you think. The reality for most organizations today is that AI is disrupting existing processes more than it’s delivering outcomes… so far. And according to Dr. Grace Trinidad, Research Director at IDC, that’s how it should be. In this episode, host Johnny Hand sits down with Dr. Grace to discuss how AI adoption follows the same pattern as almost every

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24:28

More bark than byte.

Research Saturday ·

2026/06/27

This week we are joined by Daniel Schwalbe, Chief Information Security Officer & Head of Investigations at DomainTools, discussing their work on "ZionSiphon OT Malware First Attempts? Psyops? Both?" Researchers at DomainTools take a closer look at ZionSiphon, a purported operational technology malware sample targeting the water sector, and find that despite its alarming appearance, it lacks many of the capabilities needed to function as a credible cyber-physical weapon. They break down the

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28:59

Peeling back Banana RAT.

Research Saturday ·

2026/06/20

This week, we are joined by Tom Kellermann, Trend Micro's VP of AI Security and Threat Research, discussing their work on "Inside SHADOW-WATER-063’s Banana RAT: From Build Server to Banking Fraud." Researchers from Trend Micro's MDR team uncovered the full operation behind Banana RAT, a sophisticated banking trojan they track as SHADOW-WATER-063, by analyzing both attacker infrastructure and infected victim systems. The malware uses fileless PowerShell execution, layered obfuscation, and

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22:48

This Sparrow doesn't migrate.

Research Saturday ·

2026/06/13

Martin Zugec, Technical Solutions Director at Bitdefender, discussing their work on "FamousSparrow APT Targets Azerbaijani Oil and Gas Industry." Bitdefender researchers uncovered a sustained cyber espionage campaign by the China-linked FamousSparrow group targeting an Azerbaijani oil and gas company, highlighting the growing focus on critical energy infrastructure in the South Caucasus. The attackers repeatedly exploited the same vulnerable Microsoft Exchange server over multiple months, deploying

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21:02

You've been muted...permanently.

Research Saturday ·

2026/06/06

Ismael Valenzuela, Arctic Wolf’s VP of Labs, Threat Research and Intelligence, discusses their work on "BlueNoroff Uses ClickFix, Fileless PowerShell, and AI-Generated Fake Zoom Meetings to Target Web3 Sector." Arctic Wolf researchers uncovered a sophisticated campaign by North Korean threat group Lazarus Group subgroup BlueNoroff that targets cryptocurrency and Web3 executives through fake Zoom and Microsoft Teams meetings, using typo-squatted links, ClickFix-style attacks, and AI-generated

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24:06

The skills pay the bills.

Research Saturday ·

2026/05/30

Today we are joined by Marco Giuliani, Vice President & Head of Research at ThreatDown, discussing their work on "GachiLoader adopts AI skill lure." Threat actors are now using fake AI agent “skills” as highly convincing social engineering lures, with a new campaign disguising the GachiLoader malware as a legitimate OpenClaw tool for automated Polymarket betting. Victims are tricked through fake installation guides and polished Electron apps into downloading malware that deploys the Rhadamanthys

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25:58

Ghosted by Grafana

Research Saturday ·

2026/05/23

Today we are joined by ⁠Sasi Levi⁠, Security Research Lead at ⁠Noma Security⁠, sharing their team's work on "GrafanaGhost: The Phantom Stealing Your Data." Researchers at Noma Security disclosed “GrafanaGhost,” a vulnerability that could allow attackers to silently exfiltrate sensitive business data from Grafana dashboards using indirect prompt injection techniques. The attack chains together multiple bypasses, including protocol-relative URLs and AI guardrail manipulation, to trick Grafana into

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