Three Buddy Problem

The 'Three Buddy Problem' Podcast Episode 2: Ryan Naraine, Costin Raiu and Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade go all-in on the discussion around Google Project Zero disrupting counter-terrorism malware operations. A deep dive on disruption vs exposure, the effects of US government sanctions on private mercenary hacking companies, hypocricy and the tricky relationship between malware researchers are the intelligence community, and the lack of 'success stories' from so-called benevolent malware. We also discuss the implications of the TeamViewer breach by a skilled Russian APT, new Microsoft notifications to Midnight Blizzard victims and share thoughts on the Polyfill.io supply chain compromise.

Welcome to Episode 1 of a brand new cybersecurity podcast discussing the biggest news stories of the week. Ryan Naraine hosts a fast-moving conversation with Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade (LABScon) and Costin Raiu (Art of Noh) on the Microsoft Recall debacle, the dark patterns emerging as big-tech embraces AI, Brad Smith's testimony and the lingering effects of the CSRB report, Apple's new Private Cloud Compute (PCC) infrastructure and Cupertino's long game. Oh, we also talk about the KL ban.

Episode sponsors: Binarly, the supply chain security experts (https://binarly.io) XZ.fail backdoor detector (https://xz.fail) Cris Neckar is a veteran security researcher now working as a partner at Two Bear Capital. In this episode, he reminisces on the early days of hacking at Neohapsis, his time on the Google Chrome security team, shenanigans at Pwn2Own/Pwnium, and the cat-and-mouse battle for browser exploit chains. We also discuss the zero-day exploit marketplace, the hype and promise of AI, and his mission to help highly technical founders bring products to market.

Episode sponsors: Binarly, the supply chain security experts (https://binarly.io) XZ.fail backdoor detector (https://xz.fail) Malware paleontologist Costin Raiu returns for an emergency episode on the XZ Utils software supply chain backdoor. We dig into the timeline of the attack, the characteristics of the backdoor, affected Linux distributions, and the reasons why 'Tia Jan' is the handiwork of a cunning nation-state. Based on all the clues available, Costin pinpoints three main suspects -- North Korea's Lazarus, China's APT41 or Russia's APT29 -- and warns that there are more of these backdoors lurking in modern software supply chains.

Episode sponsors: Binarly, the supply chain security experts (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Katie Moussouris founded Luta Security in 2016 and bootstrapped it into a profitable business with a culture of equity and healthy boundaries. She is a pioneer in the world of bug bounties and vulnerability disclosure and serves in multiple advisory roles for the U.S. government, including the new CISA Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB). In this episode, Moussouris discusses Luta Security's new Workforce Platform profit-sharing initiative, the changing face of the job market, criticisms of the CSRB's lack of enforcement authority, and looming regulations around zero-day vulnerability data.

Episode sponsors: Binarly, the supply chain security experts (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Costin Raiu has spent a lifetime in anti-malware research, working on some of the biggest nation-state APT cases in history, including Stuxnet, Duqu, Equation Group, Red October, Turla and Lazarus. In this exit interview, Costin digs into why he left the GReAT team after 13 years at the helm, ethical questions on exposing certain APT operations, changes in the nation-state malware attribution game, technically impressive APT attacks, and the 'dark spots' where future-thinking APTs are living.

Episode sponsors: Binarly, the supply chain security experts (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Danny Adamitis is a principal information security engineer at Black Lotus Labs, the threat research division within Lumen Technologies. On this episode of the show, we discuss his team's recent discovery of an impossible-to-kill botnet packed with end-of-life SOHO routers serving as a covert data transfer network for Volt Typhoon, a Chinese government-backed hacking group previously caught targeting US critical infrastructure. Danny digs into the inner workings of the botnet, the global problem end-of-life devices becoming useful tools for malicious actors, and the things network defenders can do today to mitigate threats at this layer.

Episode sponsors: Binarly, the supply chain security experts (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Allison Miller is founder and CEO of Cartomancy Labs and former CISO and VP of Trust at Reddit. She has spent the past 20 years scaling teams and technology at Bank of America, Google, Electronic Arts, PayPal/eBay, and Visa International. In this conversation, we discuss the convergence of security with fraud prevention and anti-abuse, the challenges and complexities in IAM implementations, the post-pandemic labor market, the evolving role of CISOs and new realities around CISO exposure to personal liability, thoughts on the 'build vs buy' debate and the nuance and dilemma of paying ransomware demands.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Rob Ragan, principal architect and security strategist at Bishop Fox, joins the show to share insights on scaling pen testing, the emergence of bug bounty programs, the value of attack surface management, and the role of AI in cybersecurity. We dig into the importance of proactive defense, the challenges of consolidating security tools, and the potential of AI in augmenting human intelligence. The conversation explores the potential of AI models and their impact on various aspects of technology and society and digs into the importance of improving model interaction by allowing more thoughtful and refined responses. We also discuss how AI can be a superpower, enabling rapid prototyping and idea generation. The discussion concludes with considerations for safeguarding AI models, including transparency, explainability, and potential regulations. Takeaways: Scaling pen testing can be challenging, and maintaining quality becomes difficult as the team grows. Bug bounty programs have been a net positive for businesses, providing valuable insights and incentivizing innovative research. Attack surface management plays a crucial role in identifying vulnerabilities and continuously monitoring an organization's security posture. Social engineering attacks, such as SIM swapping and phishing, require a multi-faceted defense strategy that includes technical controls, policies, and user education. AI has the potential to augment human intelligence and improve efficiency and effectiveness in cybersecurity. Improving model interaction by allowing more thoughtful and refined responses can enhance the user experience. Algorithms can be used to delegate tasks and improve performance, leading to better results in complex tasks. AI is an inflection point in technology, comparable to the internet and the industrial revolution. Can be game-changing to automate time-consuming tasks, freeing up human resources for more strategic work. Autocomplete and code generation tools like Copilot can significantly speed up coding and reduce errors. AI can be a superpower, enabling rapid prototyping, idea generation, and creative tasks. Safeguarding AI models requires transparency, explainability, and consideration of potential biases. Regulations may be necessary to ensure responsible use of AI, but they should not stifle innovation. Global adoption of AI should be encouraged to prevent technological disparities between countries.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Seth Spergel is managing partner at Merlin Ventures, where he is responsible for identifying cutting-edge companies for Merlin to partner with and invest in. In this episode, Seth talks about helping startups target US federal markets, the current state of deal sizes and valuations, and the red-hot sectors in cybersecurity ripe for venture investment.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Dan Lorenc is CEO and co-founder of Chainguard, a company that raised $116 million in less than two years to tackle open source supply chain security problems. In this episode, Dan joins Ryan to chat about the demands of building a "growth mode" startup, massive funding rounds and VC expectations, fixing the "crappy" CVE and CVSS ecosystems, managing expectations around SBOMs, and how politicians and lobbyists are framing cybersecurity issues in strange ways.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Nick Biasini has been working in information security for nearly two decades. In his current role as head of outreach for Cisco Talos Intelligence Group, he leads a team of threat researchers tasked with tracking nation-state APTs, mercenary hacker groups and ransomware cybercriminals. In this episode, Biasini talks about the cryptic world of threat actor attribution, the rise of PSOAs (private sector offensive actors) and why network edge devices are a happy hunting ground for attackers.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Allison Nixon is Chief Researcher at Unit 221B and a trailblazer in the world of cybercrime research. In this episode, we deep-drive into the shadowy dynamics of underground criminal communities, high-profile ransomware attacks, teenage hacking groups breaking into big companies, and the challenges of attribution and law enforcement. Allison sheds light on why companies continue to be vulnerable targets and what they're often missing in their cybersecurity strategies.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Dakota Cary is a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, conducting research on China’s efforts to develop its hacking capabilities, artificial-intelligence and cybersecurity research at Chinese universities, the People’s Liberation Army’s efforts to automate software vulnerability discovery, and new policies to improve China’s cybersecurity-talent pipeline. In this episode, Cary expands on a new report -- 'Sleight of Hand' -- that delves into the changing legal landscape for vulnerability disclosure in China, the PRC's weaponization of software vulnerabilities, advanced threat actors in China and that infamous Bloomberg 'rice grain' spy chip story.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Abhishek Arya is director of engineering at Google, overseeing open source and supply chain security efforts that include OSS-Fuzz, SLSA, GUAC and OSV DB. In this episode, Arya talks about some early success experimenting with AI and LLMs on fuzzing and vulnerability management, the industry's over-pivoting on SBOMs, regulations and liability for software vendors, and the long road ahead for securing software supply chains.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Dr Sergey Bratus is a Research Associate Professor of Computer Science at Dartmouth College and a program manager at DARPA. In this episode, he discusses his pioneering work on securing parsers and patching long-forgotten devices. He also puts the AI hype into context and showers praise on the labor-of-love "citizen science" of hacking all the things.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) DARPA program manager Perri Adams joins the conversation to chat about her love for CTF hacking competitions, the hunt for leapfrog security technologies in DARPA’s Information Innovation Office (I2O), and the goal of the new AI Cyber Challenge (AIxCC) offering $20 million in prizes to teams competing to develop AI-driven systems to automatically secure critical code.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Peculiar Ventures chief executive Ryan Hurst joins the show to talk about a career that spanned 20 years at Microsoft and Google, his work building the plumbing for encryption on the web, unsolved problems in BGP security, the hype and promise of AI, and Microsoft's ongoing cloud security hiccups.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Bessemer Venture Partner's Jason Chan returns to the show for a frank discussion on the state of cyber, including thoughts on Microsoft's prominent security failures, the meaning of layoffs hitting security teams, the excitement around AI, and the long road ahead. The former Netflix security chief also talks about merging of the IT and security functions and the importance of cybersecurity proving its value to the business.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) GitHub security chief Mike Hanley joins the show to discuss merging the CSO and SVP/Engineering roles, securing data and code in an organization under constant attack, the thrilling promise of AI to the future of secure code, the dangers of equating SBOMs to supply chain security, and new SEC reporting rules for CISOs.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Cenlar FSB security chief Jason Shockey joins the show to discuss the task of securing a financial institution, pivoting from a career in the military to the private sector, the current state of the job market, managing risk from APTs, and the mission of his My Cyberpath project.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Faraday chief executive Federico 'Fede' Kirschbaum joins the show to talk about building a startup in the vulnerability management space, the intricacies of the Argentinian hacking culture, stories of exploit writers and mercenary hackers, and the overwhelming U.S.-centric view of the cybersecurity industry.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Product security executive Kymberlee Price joins the show to gab about life in the trenches at the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), the challenges of maintaining healthy hacker/vendor relationships, the harsh realities of bug-bounty programs, and thoughts on the cybersecurity job market.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) New General Manager of the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) Omkhar Arasaratnam joins Ryan for a candid conversation on the challenges surrounding open-source software security, lessons from the Log4j crisis, the value of SBOMs, and the U.S. government efforts at securing America's software supply chains.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Rishi Bhargava and the team of entrepreneurs behind Demisto’s $560 million exit are back at it with a new startup building technology in the customer identity market. The new company, called Descope, raised an abnormally large $53 million seed-stage funding round with ambitious plans to take on rivals big and small in the customer identity and authentication space. On this episode of the podcast, Bhargava joins Ryan to talk about the VC funding landscape, the confusing 'identity' category, the responsibilities of vendors in the identity ecosystem, the emergence of Microsoft and Google as big security players, and some thoughts on the Israeli startup scene.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Symmetry Systems executive Claude Mandy joins the show to discuss a career in the security trenches, life as a CISO during the WannaCry crisis, and first principles around data security. We dig into the emerging Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) category and how it extends the Zero Trust philosophy to hybrid cloud data stores.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Munich Re Ventures investment principal Sidra Ahmed Lefort joins Ryan Naraine for a frank discussion on the state of VC funding in cybersecurity, the rise (and coming correction) in the land of security 'unicorns', the massive early-stage funding rounds and what they mean, layoffs and contractions, and the places in security still ripe for innovation.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) SecuRepairs.org co-founder Paul Roberts joins the show to discuss his passion for the right to repair consumer electronic devices, the big-ticket lobbyists working to undermine the movement, and how changing consumer spending patterns are helping to rack up regulatory wins.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Luta Security founder and chief executive Katie Moussouris joins the show to dish on the bug-bounty ecosystem, the abuse of hacker labor, and the common mistakes made by even the most mature security programs. A security industry pioneer, Moussouris argues for better use of bug bounty metrics to drive decisions and a heavy focus on reducing duplicate vulnerability submissions.

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Caleb Sima is a cybersecurity lifer now responsible for security at Robinhood, a mobile stock trading platform. Caleb joins Ryan on the show to discuss the early hacking scene in Atlanta, building SPI Dynamics in a webapp security powerhouse, the evolution of attack surfaces, the CISO's changing priorities, and more...

Episode sponsors: Binarly (https://binarly.io) FwHunt (https://fwhunt.run) Famed hacker Charlie Miller joins Ryan on the podcast to discuss a career in vulnerability research and software exploitation. Charlie talks about hacking iPhones and Macbooks at Pwn2Own, the 'No More Free Bugs' campaign, the Jeep hack that led to a recall and his current work securing Cruise's self-driving fleet. Plus, an interesting take on iOS Lockdown Mode.

Episode sponsors: Binarly and FwHunt - Protecting devices from emerging firmware and hardware threats using modern artificial intelligence. SentinelLabs malware hunter Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade (JAG-S) returns to the show to discuss how big-game attribution has changed over the years, the nation-state APT landscape, Mudge and the nightmares facing CISOs, and a mysterious actor named Metador.

Episode sponsors: Binarly and FwHunt - Protecting devices from emerging firmware and hardware threats using modern artificial intelligence. Dan Lorenc and a team or ex-Googlers raised $55 million in early-stage funding to build technology to secure software supply chains. On this episode of the show, Dan joins Ryan to talk about the different faces of the supply chain problem, the security gaps that will never go away, the decision to raise an unusually large early-stage funding round, and how the U.S. government's efforts will speed up technology innovation.

A conversation with Bishop Fox chief executive Vinnie Liu on the origins and evolution of the pentest services business, the emerging continuous attack surface management space, raising $75m as a 'growth mode' investment, cybersecurity's people problem, and much more...

Network security pioneer Marty Roesch takes listeners on a trip down memory lane, sharing stories from the creation of Snort back in the 1990s, the startup journey of building Sourcefire into an IDS/IPS powerhouse and selling the company for $2 billion, the U.S. government killing a Check Point acquisition, and his newest adventure as chief executive at Netography.

Serial entrepreneur Subbu Rama joins the show to talk about building a cybersecurity business, addressing the problem of entitlement sprawl and raising seed funding for intelligent access governance technology.

Maddie Stone is a security researcher in Google's Project Zero team. Over the last few years, she has publicly tracked the discovery and disclosure of zero-day malware attacks seen in the wild. On this episode, Maddie joins Ryan to chat about three years of zero-day exploitation data, the nuances around 0day disclosures, the never-ending struggle to mitigate memory corruption attacks and the need for transparency among affected vendors.

Symmetry Systems co-founder Mohit Tiwari has been studying data security and control flow access for more than a decade. On this episode of the podcast, he discusses his transition from academia to data security entrepreneurship, first principles around the data security and privacy, the exploding DSPM (data security posture management) space, and the mission to solve one of cybersecurity's biggest problems.

Director at Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) Shane Huntley joins the show and talks about lessons from the 2009 Aurora attacks, the surge in zero-day discoveries, the usefulness of IOCs, North Korean APT operations, private sector mercenary hackers, the expanding nation-state threat actor map, and much more...

Netskope security chief Lamont Orange joins the show to chat about the changing role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), managing security as a business enabler, the cybersecurity skills shortage, and his own unique approach to security leadership.

Thinkst founder and CEO Haroon Meer joins Ryan Naraine on the show to talk about building a successful cybersecurity company without venture capital investment, fast-moving attack surfaces and the never-ending battle to mitigate memory corruption issues.

Chief executive officer at Egress Tony Pepper joins the show to talk about entrepreneurship in the fast-paced age of modern computing, the state of e-mail security, and his company's bet on securing the future of messaging in the enterprise.

Justin Campbell leads Microsoft’s Offensive Research and Security Engineering (MORSE) team. He joins the show to talk about his team's discovery of a SolarWinds in-the-wild zero-day, the never-ending stream of memory safety vulnerabilities, the evolving 'shift-left' mindset and Redmond's ongoing work to reduce attack surfaces.

Global director of Kaspersky's GReAT research team Costin Raiu returns to the show for an indepth discussion on the mobile surveillance business, the technically impressive FORCEDENTRY iOS exploit, the ethical questions facing exploit developers and the role of venture capitalists in the mobile malware ecosystem.

Corellium co-founder and chief executive Amanda Gorton joins the show to talk about raising $25 million in Series A funding, the market fit for device modeling and software virtualization products, the trials and tribulations of startup life, and the nuances of operating in the world of offensive security research.

Venky Venkateswaran works on client security and roadmap planning at Intel Corp. On this episode of the podcast, Venky joins Ryan to talk about a reported surge in firmware attacks, Intel's ongoing investments in cybersecurity, the importance of transparency and open documentation, and the company's push to fight ransomware with its flagship TDT (Threat Detection Technology).

Episode sponsored by SecurityWeek.com JupiterOne CISO Sounil Yu joins the show to sift through the noise and explain the value of SBOMs (software bill of materials), the U.S. government's response to software supply chain security gaps, and what every buyer and seller should be doing to prepare for major changes in the ecosystem.

Episode sponsored by MongoDB.com. Algirde Pipikaite, the project lead of the Governance and Policy team at the Center for Cybersecurity at the World Economic Forum, joins the podcast to discuss her work to bridge the gap between cybersecurity experts and decision makers. We chat about communicating risk to different audiences, cybersecurity as a business enabler, and the need for more global private-public collaboration.

Josh Schwartz, aka FuzzyNop, oversees offensive security, product engineering, and security engagement functions at Verizon Media (soon to be Yahoo). He shares insights on red-teaming, overcoming the adversarial relationship between red/blue teams. chasing the "feeling" of being secure, and why there's a need for more empathy in cybersecurity. (Episode sponsored by Eclypsium)

Netflix threat detection and response practitioner Michael Laventure joins the show to talk about a simple goal to "do security better." We discuss a transition from .gov security work to the fast pace of Silicon Valley, the culture clashes that can make life difficult, the value of threat-intelligence to a modern security program, and why we should all be optimistic about the future of cybersecurity.