Wired Security Spoken Edition

For decades, the security industry has warned that the cybercriminal economy has been developing its own highly specialized, professional supply chain. But only when law enforcement tears the lid off a well-honed hacker operation—as they did today with the global Goznym malware crew—does the full picture of every interlinked step in that globalized crime network come into focus. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

As part of its expanded anti-phishing and account security measures, Google offers extensive support for physical authentication tokens. In a surprising setback, though, the company announced today that it has discovered a vulnerability in the Bluetooth version of its own Titan Security Key—which pairs to devices through the wireless Bluetooth Low Energy protocol, rather than through NFC or physical insertion into a port. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The Tandberg video-teleconference monitor is sleeker than the average desktop computer but not much bigger. Developed by a Norwegian concern now owned by Cisco Systems, the desktop units—which look like knock-off iMacs, with a handset for dialing—support seamless and, when enabled, classified video-teleconferencing. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Despite high-profile arrests and protocols with clever names, the robocall scourge remains indomitable. Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai teased a new proposal to put a serious dent in the problem. Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. On the face of it, Pai’s proposal sounds appealing. It would allow carriers to block robocalls by default, rather than on an opt-in basis. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week, Microsoft issued patches for 79 flaws across its platforms and products. One of them merits particular attention: a bug so bad that Microsoft released a fix for it on Windows XP, an operating system it officially abandoned five years ago. There’s maybe no better sign of a vulnerability’s severity; the last time Microsoft bothered to make a Windows XP fix publicly available was a little over two years ago, in the months before the WannaCry ransomware attack swept the globe. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Hackers got into pretty much everything, and Amazon is paying employees to quit. Here's the news you need to know, in two minutes or less. Today's Headlines A phone call broke Whatsapp The messaging platform WhatsApp is well known for its end-to-end encryption, but recent news calls its security into question. The NSO Group, an Israeli spy firm, injected malware onto targeted phones in order to steal data by simply placing a phone call. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

You've heard the advice a million times. Don't click links in suspicious emails or texts. Don't download shady apps. But a new Financial Times report alleges that the notorious Israeli spy firm NSO Group developed a WhatsApp exploit that could inject malware onto targeted phones—and steal data from them—simply by calling them. The targets didn't need to pick up to be infected, and the calls often left no trace on the phone's log. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Your Cisco routers aren't safe, the Supreme Court voted against Apple, and the nostalgic Tomagotchi has returned. Here's the tech news you need to know, in two minutes or less. Today's Headlines Hackers found a way into Cisco devices. Millions of them Everyone uses Cisco routers, including institutions that deal with hypersensitive information. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The hack of health insurance giant Anthem Inc. has loomed large in the public consciousness since it first came to light in 2015—not just as one of the biggest breaches of all time, but also as a potential example of the Chinese government's longstanding cyber espionage campaign. Hackers stole names, birth dates, addresses, Social Security numbers, and employment details from 78 million Anthem customers. And for years China was reported to be behind it. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It was a week of notable firsts, although not always welcome ones. Israel responded to a Hamas cyberattack by blowing up the building that apparently housed the responsible hacking group, a new escalation in cyberwar doctrine. Google for the first time lets you limit how long it keeps your data—so go do that. And the CIA became the first intelligence agency to establish an official presence on the Tor anonymous network. For some reason. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Thanks to advances in machine learning, computers have gotten really good at identifying what’s in photographs. They started beating humans at the task years ago, and can now even generate fake images that look eerily real. While the technology has come a long way, it’s still not entirely foolproof. In particular, researchers have found that image detection algorithms remain susceptible to a class of problems called adversarial examples. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On the dark web drug market Empire this week, business proceeds as usual. "Satisfied customer, will be back," writes one user on the product page of a meth dealer with the handle shardyshardface. "Excellent," reads a plaudit posted by a buyer of the opiate oxycodone. "Bravo," says another for a five-dollar sample of fentanyl, one of 18 reviews posted on the product's profile page in the last week. In all, Empire lists over 18,000-plus narcotic offerings, including hundreds for oxycodone alone. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Binance is one of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges. As of Tuesday, it’s now also the scene of a major cryptocurrency theft. In what the company calls a “large scale security breach,” hackers stole not only 7,000 bitcoin—equivalent to over $40 million—but also some user two-factor authentication codes and API tokens. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The First Amendment and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act collided last month when the UK arrested Wikileaks founder Julian Assange on, among other things, a US extradition request for computer crime. He has since been sentenced to 50 weeks in a British prison. For roughly seven years before his arrest, he’d been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, but on April 11, the Ecuadorian government withdrew his asylum. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The anonymity service Tor has grown in popularity around the world over the last few years, but it has also long been a tool for intelligence agencies and clandestine communications—not to mention endless cat-and-mouse games between law enforcement and criminals. But now, the CIA is staking out a more public presence there. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This weekend, violence between Israel and Gaza escalated to a degree not seen since 2014, with 25 Palestinians and four Israelis killed in the fighting. Decades into the entrenched tensions of the region, the incident overall was tragically unsurprising. But for cybersecurity professionals, one aspect particularly stood out: The Israeli Defense Force claimed that it bombed and partially destroyed one building in Gaza because it was allegedly the base of an active Hamas hacking group. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The week began with dragon’s breath. After a major breach in its firewall, a scrappy security team in the north engaged in an epic battle to rid its system of an infected payload that kept growing bigger and bigger, spewing frozen ice flames across all critical infrastructure. Yes, I’m talking about Game of Thrones, folks, and yes, we asked an officer in the Army National Guard to do a tactical analysis of the battle of Winterfell, and yes, it’s wonderful and you should read it. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Hackers are hacking, Portland is leading the charge for open internet, and Paris is pondering what to do with what's left of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Here's the news you need to know, in two minutes or less. A hacker group is on a hijacking spree Over the past three years, insidious supply chain attacks on at least six different companies have now all been tied to a single group of hackers. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

A software supply chain attack represents one of the most insidious forms of hacking. By breaking into a developer's network and hiding malicious code within apps and software updates that users trust, supply chain hijackers can smuggle their malware onto hundreds of thousands—or millions—of computers in a single operation, without the slightest sign of foul play. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In the United States, the public discourse has lately centered around nation state disinformation campaigns much more than hacktivism. But internationally, dramatic or destructive digital acts that call attention to particular issues continue to simmer—and boiled over in the lead-up to the ouster of longtime Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir. The #OpSudan effort did not directly lead to al-Bashir's arrest. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices