Displaying Episode 11 - 20 of 49 in total of Three Buddy Problem with the tag “nation-state”.
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Russia hacks Ukraine war supply lines, Signal blocks Windows screenshots, BadSuccessor vuln disclosure debate
May 23rd, 2025 | 2 hrs 30 mins
apt research, china, microsoft, nation-state, russia, zero-day
Three Buddy Problem - Episode 47: We unpack a multi-agency report on Russia’s APT28/Fancy Bear hacking and spying on Ukraine war supply lines, CISA’s sloppy YARA rules riddled with false positives, the ethics of full-disclosure after Akamai dropped Windows Server “BadSuccessor” exploit details, and Sekoia’s discovery of thousands of hijacked edge devices repurposed as honeypots.
The back half veers into Microsoft’s resurrected Windows Recall, Signal’s new screenshot-blocking countermeasure, Japan’s fresh legal mandate for pre-emptive cyber strikes, and why appliance vendors like Ivanti keep landing in the headlines.
Along the way you get hot takes on techno-feudalism, Johnny Ive’s rumored AI gadget, and a lively debate over whether publishing exploit code ever helps defenders.
Cast: Costin Raiu, Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade and Ryan Naraine.
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A Coinbase breach with bribes, rogue contractors and a $20M ransom demand
May 16th, 2025 | 2 hrs 23 mins
apt research, cryptocurrency, nation-state, zero-day
Three Buddy Problem - Episode 46: We dig into a Coinbase breach headlined by bribes, rogue contractors and a $20 million ransom demands. Plus, (another!) batch of Ivanti and Microsoft zero-days being exploited in the wild, a new 'Intrusion Logging' feature coming to Android, Apple's iOS 18.5 patches, and the EU announcing its own vulnerability database and software vendor secure-coding pledge.
Cast: Costin Raiu, Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade and Ryan Naraine.
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JAGS keynote: The intricacies of wartime cyber threat intelligence
May 9th, 2025 | 31 mins 7 secs
apt research, cti, nation-state, threat-intel, zero-day
Three Buddy Problem - Episode 45: (The buddies are trapped in timezone hell with cross-continent travel this week).
In the meantime, absorb this keynote presented by Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade (JAG-S) at CounterThreats 2023. It's a frank discussion on the role of cyber threat intelligence (CTI) during wartime and its importance in bridging information gaps between adversaries. Includes talk on the ethical challenges in CTI, questioning the impact of intelligence-sharing and how cyber operations affect real-world conflicts. He pointed to Ukraine and Israel as examples where CTI plays a critical, yet complicated, role. His message: cybersecurity pros need to be aware of the real-world consequences of their work and the ethical responsibility that comes with it.
Acknowledgment: Credit for the audio goes to CyberThreat 2023, SANS Institute, NCSC, and SentinelOne.
Cast: Costin Raiu, Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade and Ryan Naraine.
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Signalgate redux, OpenAI's Aardvark, normalizing cyber offense
May 3rd, 2025 | 2 hrs 38 mins
apt research, nation-state, zero-day
Three Buddy Problem - Episode 44: We unpack news that US government officials are using an obscure app to archive Signal messages, OpenAI’s new “Aardvark” code-evaluation and reasoning model and leapfrog implications, NSC cyber lead Alexei Bulazel on normalizing US offensive operations, and JP Morgan Chase CISO’s warning to software vendors.
Plus, fresh SentinelOne threat-intel notes, France’s attribution of GRU activity and a head-scratching $330 million Bitcoin heist.Cast: Costin Raiu, Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade and Ryan Naraine.
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Thomas Rid joins the show: AI consciousness, TP-Link's China connection, trust in hardware security
April 25th, 2025 | 1 hr 33 mins
apt research, china, nation-state, north korea, spyware, surveillance, zero-day
Three Buddy Problem - Episode 43: Director of the Alperovitch Institute for Cybersecurity Studies Thomas Rid joins the show for a deep-dive into the philosophical and ethical considerations surrounding AI consciousness and anthropomorphism. We dig into the multifaceted implications of AI technology, particularly focusing on data privacy, national security, and the philosophical questions surrounding AI consciousness and rights.
Plus, TP-Link under US government investigation and the broader issues of consumer trust in hardware security, the need for regulation and inspectability of technology, and the struggles with patching network devices.
Cast: Thomas Rid, Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade and Ryan Naraine.
- Costin Raiu is away this week.
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China doxxes NSA, CVE's funding crisis, Apple's zero-day troubles
April 17th, 2025 | 1 hr 39 mins
apt research, nation-state, surveillance, zero-day
Three Buddy Problem - Episode 42: We dig into news that China secretly fessed up to the Volt Typhoon hacks and followed up with claims that named NSA agents launched advanced cyberattacks against the Asian Winter Games. Plus, the MITRE CVE funding crisis, new Apple 0days in the wild includes PAC bypass exploit, Microsoft Patch Tuesday zero-days.
Plus, the effectiveness of Lockdown Mode, the rising costs of mobile exploits, Chris Krebs' exit from SentinelOne after a presidential executive order, and the value and effectiveness of security clearances.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Costin Raiu and Ryan Naraine.
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NSA director fired, Ivanti's 0day screw-up, backdoor in robot dogs
April 4th, 2025 | 1 hr 36 mins
apt research, nation-state, zero-day
Three Buddy Problem - Episode 41: Costin and Juanito join the show from Black Hat Asia in Singapore. We discuss Bunnie Huang's keynote on hardware supply chains and a classification system to establish a grounded perspective on trust in hardware, Ivanti's misdiagnosis of a critical VPN applicance flaw and Mandiant reporting on a Chinese APT exploiting Ivanti devices. Plus, breaking news on the sudden firing of NSA director and head of Cyber Command Tim Haugh.
We also discuss Microsoft touting AI's value in finding open-source bootloader bugs, Silent Push report on a RUssian APT impersonating the CIA, a backdoor in a popular Chinese robot dog, and Chinese dominance of the robotics market.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Costin Raiu and Ryan Naraine.
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Signalgate and ID management hiccups, PuzzleMaker and Chrome 0days, Lab Dookhtegan returns
March 28th, 2025 | 1 hr 52 mins
apt research, nation-state, zero-day
Three Buddy Problem - Episode 40: On the show this week, we look at the technical deficiencies and opsec concerns around the use of Signal for ultra-sensitive communications. Plus, some speculation on who's behind Kaspersky’s ‘Operation Forum Troll’ report, Chinese discussion on NSA/CIA mobile networks exploitation, and the return of ‘Lab Dookhtegan’ hack-and-leak exposures.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Costin Raiu and Ryan Naraine.
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China exposing Taiwan hacks, Paragon spyware and WhatsApp exploits, CISA budget cuts
March 21st, 2025 | 1 hr 56 mins
apt research, nation-state, zero-day
Three Buddy Problem - Episode 39: Luta Security CEO Katie Moussouris joins the buddies to parse news around a coordinated Chinese exposure of Taiwan APT actors, CitizenLab's report on Paragon spyware and WhatsApp exploits, an “official” Russian government exploit-buying operation shopping for Telegram exploits, the fragmentation of exploit markets and the future of CISA in the face of budget cuts and layoffs.
Cast: Katie Moussouris (Luta Security), Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Costin Raiu and Ryan Naraine.
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A half-dozen Microsoft zero-days, Juniper router backdoors, advanced bootkit hunting
March 14th, 2025 | 2 hrs 5 mins
apt research, nation-state, zero-day
Three Buddy Problem - Episode 38: On the show this week, we look at a hefty batch of Microsoft zero-days exploited in the wild, iOS 18.3.2 fixing an exploited WebKit bug, a mysterious Unpatched.ai being credited with Microsoft Access RCE flaws, and OpenAI lobbying for the US to ban China's DeepSeek.
Plus, discussion on a Binarly technical paper with new approach to finding UEFI bootkits, Mandiant flagging custom backdoors on Juniper routers, and MEV 'sandwich attacks' front-running cryptocurrency transactions.
Cast: Ryan Naraine, Costin Raiu and Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade.