CrowdStrike-Ukraine Explained
Trump's conversation with the President of Ukraine mentions "CrowdStrike". I thought I'd explain this.What was said?This is the text from the conversation covered in this“I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine,...
Thread on the OSI model is a lie
I had a Twitter thread on the OSI model. Below it's compiled into one blogpostYea, I've got 3 hours to kill here in this airport lounge waiting for the next leg of my flight, so let's discuss the "OSI...
Thread on network input parsers
This blogpost contains a long Twitter thread on input parsers. I thought I'd copy the thread here as a blogpost.I am spending far too long on this chapter on "parsers". It's this huge gaping hole in Computer Science where...
Hacker Jeopardy, Wrong Answers Only Edition
Among the evening entertainment at DEF CON is "Hacker Jeopardy", like the TV show Jeopardy, but with hacking tech/culture questions. In today's blog post, we are going to play the "Wrong Answers Only" version, in which I die upon...
Securing devices for DEFCON
There's been much debate whether you should get burner devices for hacking conventions like DEF CON (phones or laptops). A better discussion would be to list those things you should do to secure yourself before going, just in case.These...
Why we fight for crypto
This last week, the Attorney General William Barr called for crypto backdoors. His speech is a fair summary of law-enforcement's side of the argument. In this post, I'm going to address many of his arguments.The tl;dr version of this blog...
Censorship vs. the memes
The most annoying thing in any conversation is when people drop a meme bomb, some simple concept they've heard elsewhere in a nice package that they really haven't thought through, which takes time and nuance to rebut. These memes...
Some Raspberry Pi compatible computers
I noticed this spreadsheet over at r/raspberry_pi reddit. I thought I'd write up some additional notes.https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jWMaK-26EEAKMhmp6SLhjScWW2WKH4eKD-93hjpmm_s/edit#gid=0Consider the Upboard, an x86 computer in the Raspberry Pi form factor for $99. When you include storage, power supplies, heatsinks, cases, and so...
Your threat model is wrong
Several subjects have come up with the past week that all come down to the same thing: your threat model is wrong. Instead of addressing the the threat that exists, you've morphed the threat into something else that you'd...
Almost One Million Vulnerable to BlueKeep Vuln (CVE-2019-0708)
Microsoft announced a vulnerability in it's "Remote Desktop" product that can lead to robust, wormable exploits. I scanned the Internet to assess the danger. I find nearly 1-million devices on the public Internet that are vulnerable to the bug....
A lesson in journalism vs. cybersecurity
A recent NYTimes article blaming the NSA for a ransomware attack on Baltimore is typical bad journalism. It's an op-ed masquerading as a news article. It cites many to support the conclusion the NSA is to be blamed, but...
Programming languages infosec professionals should learn
Code is an essential skill of the infosec professional, but there are so many languages to choose from. What language should you learn? As a heavy coder, I thought I'd answer that question, or at least give some perspective.The...
Was it a Chinese spy or confused tourist?
Politico has an article from a former spy analyzing whether the "spy" they caught at Mar-a-lago (Trump's Florida vacation spot) was actually a "spy". I thought I'd add to it from a technical perspective about her malware, USB drives,...
Assange indicted for breaking a password
In today's news, after 9 years holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy, Julian Assange has finally been arrested. The US DoJ accuses Assange for trying to break a password. I thought I'd write up a technical explainer what this...
Some notes on the Raspberry Pi
I keep seeing this article in my timeline today about the Raspberry Pi. I thought I'd write up some notes about it.The Raspberry Pi costs $35 for the board, but to achieve a fully functional system, you'll need to...
Pensacola confirms ransomware attack
Pensacola
officials confirmed that an ongoing
cyberattack that began early Saturday morning is a ransomware attack.
While the city did not release any additional details, the Pensacola News Journal said city spokeswoman Kaycee Lagarde confirmed the attack included a ransom, something that...
Trickbot Operators Now Selling Attack Tools to APT Actors
North Korea's Lazarus Group - of Sony breach and WannaCry fame - is among the first customers.
The Great $50M African IP Address Heist
A top executive at the nonprofit entity responsible for doling out chunks of Internet addresses to businesses and other organizations in Africa has resigned his post following accusations that he secretly operated several companies which sold tens of millions...
Intel Issues Fix for ‘Plundervolt’ SGX Flaw
Researchers were able to extract AES encryption key using SGX's voltage-tuning function.
How to stop spam calls right now
Spam calls drive us all crazy. Here are four ways to stop robocalls and other unsolicited phone calls.
