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10 Mar, 6 tweets, 3 min read
After a long, hard year in 2020, excited to learn today the @CyberScoopNews team has been selected as a finalist for 7 Azbee awards — including for website of the year, as well as for several investigative, analytical/technical & breaking news stories. asbpe.org/news/2021/03/1…
To follow along with our coverage, here are the highlights, brought to you by Azbee: my look into the U.S. military issuing an alert that a little-known, Chinese-linked hacking group is behind some suspicious activity aimed at U.S. defense contractors: cyberscoop.com/dcsa-cybersecu…
.@jeffstone500's interview with TikTok's security chief, Roland Cloutier, who says he still doesn’t understand why the U.S. government has labeled TikTok as a national security threat:
cyberscoop.com/tiktok-lawsuit…
.@snlyngaas broke a lot of news around Trump's firing of Chris Krebs from CISA last year, and what it meant about election security and integrity: cyberscoop.com/trump-chris-kr…
.@snlyngaas dove into how one security researcher used radio signals to hop an air gap:
cyberscoop.com/duo-labs-air-g…
And this profile from @jeffstone500, which is well worth your time, on Arkady Bukh, "the godfather of cybercriminal defense," who has worked with countless accused Russian cybercriminals:
cyberscoop.com/story/arkady-b…

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More from @shanvav

Shannon Vavra Profile picture
10 Mar
NEW: The FBI warns in a new alert issued today that the FBI assesses malicious actors will be using deepfakes to advance their foreign influence & cyber-operations in the coming weeks, & that they already use them in influence ops. Details @CyberScoopNews cyberscoop.com/fbi-foreign-ac…
The FBI alert notes: “Foreign actors are currently using synthetic content in their influence campaigns & the FBI anticipates it will be increasingly used by foreign & criminal cyber actors for spearphishing & social engineering in an evolution of cyber operational tradecraft."
Some examples FBI points out: A pro-Chinese gov influence op @Graphika_NYC tracks as “Spamouflage Dragon,” has used profile images generated with AI to lend authenticity to the campaign, via @jeffstone500: cyberscoop.com/graphika-spamo…
Read 8 tweets
Shannon Vavra Profile picture
21 Aug 20
A former Army Green Beret has been arrested for allegedly working w/ Russian intelligence and sharing info about his chemical and Special Forces units w/ the GRU, including team members so GRU could assess their interest in recruiting them, too, per DOJ. justice.gov/opa/press-rele…
The allegations against this man, Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, span decades: December 1996 to January 2011 he allegedly conspired with Russian intelligence, per DOJ.
He filled out his SF-86 form in 2008 for his security clearance, did not mention his Russian contacts, and received top secret/sci clearance in 2010, per court documents.
Read 4 tweets
Shannon Vavra Profile picture
18 Jun 20
DOJ is seeking temp restraining order/motion for preliminary injunction against Bolton's book publication and NSA Director Nakasone said in an affidavit publication some classified info in the manuscript “could result in the permanent loss of a valuable SIGINT source and..."
...cause irreparable damage to the U.S. SIGINT system." Nakasone adds, "exposure of this information could also cause considerable difficulties in U.S. and allied relations with specific nations...I have determined that the unauthorized disclosure of the classified info..."
...in the draft manuscript reasonably could be expected to result in exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States."

Nakasone says part of the manuscript has Top Secret/SCI information.
Read 8 tweets
Shannon Vavra Profile picture
9 Mar 20
NEW: Per internal DOD memo, Cybercom worried the 2010 WikiLeaks dump gave adversaries opportunity to retool/better hide their cyber-ops after learning USG was tracking them. Memo suggests DOD was tracking Operation Aurora actors (Chinese) @CyberScoopNews bit.ly/3cHa8Z3
The memo, shared by @NSArchive, suggests USG had been tracking the adversary in question for some time: “The [redacted] cables clearly state that [USG] entities have knowledge of specific adversary TTPs ... malware, toolsets, IP addresses, and domains used in intrusion activity"
(Operation Aurora, 1 of the first major industrial espionage campaigns, was first attributed to Chinese-based hackers by @Google, among the operation’s ~30 targets. WikiLeaks dump revealed the US Embassy in Beijing learned the operation was a Chinese gov-linked hacking group's)
Read 5 tweets
Shannon Vavra Profile picture
2 Mar 20
Three women deputies at @CIA - deputy science/tech director, deputy support director, and chief diversity/inclusion - are talking about leadership at @CSIS @Smartwomen #CSISLive for women’s history month. (And there are more that couldn’t make it!) More of this!
“@GenMhayden sponsored me when it wasn’t the cool thing to do,” Deputy Director of CIA for Science and Technology Dawn Meyerriecks says of sponsorship in the workplace.
Dir. Meyerriecks on AI: “Based on what we’re seeing there’s a lot of hype right now. There will always be a need for expert analytics...The 1st step is tagging all of your data...tag it + tag it right,” noting this will take a lot of work. Says AI use is in a “crawl” stage.
Read 5 tweets
Shannon Vavra Profile picture
21 Jan 20
New: Top Secret US gov documents show Cyber Command’s offensive cyber-operations against ISIS have struggled: issues w collecting data, the interagency, vetting targets, and, in at least one case, a close call with an adversary. Latest for @CyberScoopNews bit.ly/2G8I3e9
US officials, including NSA Dir. Nakasone who previously ran this counter ISIS mission, have said the operation provides a road map for other offensive cyber missions, including the taskforce to counter the IRA, the Russian troll farm that has sought to interfere in US elections
But the docs show that technical issues such as data storage, or the speed by which other agencies weighed in on the mission, hindered the counter-ISIS mission, Glowing Symphony, as it was being carried out, raising questions about the Pentagon expanding these missions at scale
Read 5 tweets

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