Malicious Life Podcast: Tay: A Teenage Bot Gone Rogue

Malicious Life Podcast: Tay: A Teenage Bot Gone Rogue

In March, 2016, Microsoft had something exciting to tell the world: the tech giant unveiled an AI chatbot with the personality of a teenager. Microsoft Tay, as it was nicknamed, could tweet, answer questions and even make its own memes. But within mere hours of going live, Tay began outputting ... Read More
Malicious Life Podcast: Wild West Hackin' Fest

Malicious Life Podcast: Wild West Hackin’ Fest

The Wild West Hackin’ Fest is a unique security conference - not only because it's held in South Dakota, and not only because of the Wild West visual vibe - but also because of the emphasis it puts on diversity and lowering the entry barriers for people who wish to ... Read More
Malicious Life Podcast: Inside Operation Flyhook Part 2

Malicious Life Podcast: Inside Operation Flyhook Part 2

To capture Alexey Ivanov and his business partner and bring them to justice, the FBI created an elaborate ruse: a fake company named Invita, complete with a fake website and a fake office building. Ray Pompon, a security professional, was brought in as an 'evil security consultant’ to convince Alexey ... Read More
Malicious Life Podcast: Inside IP/BGP Hijacking

Malicious Life Podcast: Inside IP/BGP Hijacking

In 2016, for six straight months, communications between Canadian and Korean government networks were hijacked by China Telecom and routed through China. In 2017, traffic from Sweden and Norway to a large American news organization in Japan was hijacked to China for about 6 weeks ... Read More
Malicious Life Podcast: Inside Operation Flyhook Part 1

Malicious Life Podcast: Inside Operation Flyhook Part 1

Alexey Ivanov was exactly the kind of person to benefit from the early-2000's dot-com boom: he was bright, talented and really knew his stuff. His only problem was the fact that he was born in Chelyabinsk, a sleepy Russian town in the middle of nowhere. When he sent his résumé ... Read More
Malicious Life Podcast: In Defense of the NSA

Malicious Life Podcast: In Defense of the NSA

The National Security Agency is one of the world's most formidable and powerful intelligence agencies. Some people fear that the NSA’s advanced capabilities could one day be directed inwards instead of outwards ... Read More
Malicious Life Podcast: Marcus Hutchins - A Controversial Hero

Malicious Life Podcast: Marcus Hutchins – A Controversial Hero

In May 2017, Marcus Hutchins - AKA MalwareTech - became a hero for stopping WannaCry, a particularly nasty ransomware that spread quickly all over the world. Yet his fame also brought to light his troubled past as the teenage Black Hat hacker who created KRONOS, a dangerous rootkit. Should a ... Read More
Malicious Life Podcast: Operation GhostShell - An Iranian Espionage Campaign

Malicious Life Podcast: Operation GhostShell – An Iranian Espionage Campaign

In July 2021, Nocturnus - the Cybereason Threat Research and Intelligence team - was called to investigate an espionage campaign targeting Aerospace and Telecommunications companies globally. Their investigation resulted in the discovery of a new threat actor dubbed MalKamak that has been operating since at least 2018, and a new ... Read More
Malicious Life Podcast: Smart TVs - a New Security Battlefield

Malicious Life Podcast: Smart TVs – a New Security Battlefield

Smart Homes are slowly but surely becoming a part of our everyday lives, and so far it seems that Smart TVs - equipped with microphones, cameras, and an internet connection - are the weakest link. What are the current and potential threats against smart TVs - and is a person's ... Read More
Malicious Life Podcast: Inside the MITRE ATT&CK Framework

Malicious Life Podcast: Inside the MITRE ATT&CK Framework

In some ways, cybersecurity is like art, but that’s not a good thing… The MITRE ATT&CK framework aims to make sense of the collective knowledge of the security community and share that knowledge so that cyber defense becomes less an art form and more about using the correct tools and ... Read More