The Host Unknown Podcast - Episode 208 - The Dedicated to Cesar Romero Episode

Episode Date: November 11, 2024

This week in InfoSec (13:28)With content liberated from the “today in infosec” twitter account and further afield5th November 1993: Bugtraq was created by Scott Chasin as a full disclosure vulnerability reporting mailing list at the dawn of the World Wide Web. Bugtraq had an enormous influence on how orgs responded to vuln disclosure and paved the way for a shift which led to bug bounty programs.https://twitter.com/todayininfosec/status/1853799779626578186   5th November 2007: Google introduces the Android platform, its mobile operating system for cell phones based on a modified version of the Linux operating system. The first Android-based phone would ship in September of 2008.https://thisdayintechhistory.com/11/05/android-introduced/ Rant of the Week (18:54)  Voted in America? This Site Doxed YouIf you voted in the U.S. presidential election yesterday in which Donald Trump won comfortably, or a previous election, a website powered by a right-wing group is probably doxing you. VoteRef makes it trivial for anyone to search the name, physical address, age, party affiliation, and whether someone voted that year for people living in most states instantly and for free. This can include ordinary citizens, celebrities, domestic abuse survivors, and many other people.Voting rolls are public records, and ways to more readily access them are not new. But during a time of intense division, political violence, or even the broader threat of data being used to dox or harass anyone, sites like VoteRef turn a vital part of the democratic process—simply voting—into a security and privacy threat. Billy Big Balls of the Week (27:09)Schneider Electric ransomware crew demands $125k paid in baguetteshttps://www.theregister.com/2024/11/05/schneider_electric_cybersecurity_incident/Schneider Electric confirmed that it is investigating a breach as a ransomware group Hellcat claims to have stolen more than 40 GB of compressed data — and demanded the French multinational energy management company pay $125,000 in baguettes or else see its sensitive customer and operational information leaked.And yes, you read that right: payment in baguettes. As in bread.Schneider Electric declined to answer The Register's specific questions about the intrusion, including if the attackers really want $125,000 in baguettes or if they would settle for cryptocurrency. A spokesperson, however, emailed us the following statement:"Schneider Electric is investigating a cybersecurity incident involving unauthorised access to one of our internal project execution tracking platforms which is hosted within an isolated environment. Our Global Incident Response team has been immediately mobilised to respond to the incident. Schneider Electric's products and services remain unaffected." Industry News (33:18)Google Cloud to Mandate Multifactor Authentication by 2025IRISSCON: Organizations Still Falling Victim to Predictable Cyber-AttacksDefenders Outpace Attackers in AI AdoptionUK Cybersecurity Wages Soar Above Inflation as Stress Levels RiseNCSC Publishes Tips to Tackle Malvertising ThreatCanada Orders Shutdown of Local TikTok Branch Over Security ConcernsUK Regulator Urges Stronger Data Protection in AI Recruitment ToolsInterlock Ransomware Targets US Healthcare, IT and Government SectorsMajor Oilfield Supplier Hit by Ransomware Attack Tweet of the Week (41:01)https://twitter.com/fesshole/status/1854832499714576399 Come on! Like and bloody well subscribe!

Hello. Hello. So quite a tumultuous week really, wasn't it? It's been one. It's certainly been one. Wednesday was an interesting day, but positive of it is that we've actually got a host unknown exclusive statement from the brand new President-elect of the United States of America Looking forward to this it's gonna be insightful it is in Springfield. They're eating the dogs Hello, hello, hello, good morning, good afternoon, good evening from wherever you are joining us and welcome, welcome one and all to episode... hold on, hold on. 212 of the Host Unknown podcast slick slick there's never let it be said we're not smooth on the on the jingles on here although can i say can i say i was going to deduct two to try and erase the monstrosities that have been published over the last two weeks.

Like, there's complete jab. I wish that whatever AI crap you used, I wish you'd actually used AI to write the script for the show rather than trying to wing it and then just get AI to talk through. I thought Jab was just doing impressions. The Batman edition last week, Jesus. How did you not land on Christian Bale being the best Batman of all time? Oh, come on. It is just insane what you guys wrote. Christian Bale's very, very good. The utter crap that you were telling us. He's very good.

Because he's the best. He's not the best. It's not even up for debate. Do you read the comics? It was the best movies. It was the best movies. No. Yeah.

There you go. Because Christian Bale's not in the comics. No, Batman is. Christian Bale had the best movies. No, because Christian Bale's not in the comics. No, Batman is. Christian Bale had the best movies. They were the best movies. Christian Bale himself was not the best Batman. There's a subtle difference there. Yeah, yeah. Christian Bale's up there, you know, because of the movies, but Ben Affleck is the well by popular definition of one of the most popular Batman stories out there is probably the best Batman. Ben Affleck is number five. If we look at the Dark Knight for instance. No, not number five. Michael Keaton is better than Ben Affleck. Robert Pattinson is better than Ben Affleck. Adam West is better than Ben Affleck.

Robert Pattinson is better than Ben Affleck. And then Christian Bale is number one. No. So the top three for me. Ben Affleck, Adam West, Christian, Michael Keaton. I'll actually put Halle Berry ahead of Ben Affleck. Well Catwoman Halle Berry. Exactly.

Where does George Clooney sit in the list then? Yeah, what about Val Kilmer? George Clooney is probably six behind Ben Affleck. Val Kilmer's Batman will get drive through apparently. Worst quote of all the films altogether. But anyway, yes. Well welcome everybody. You're just seeing the breakup of Host Unknown here You know, I think Jav and I are gonna be ousting this pretender who thinks he knows more about Batman

Kick you clowns off my podcast No, you missed an opportunity there Kick you jokers off my podcast. Come on. And this is why your opinion on Batman doesn't count. Yeah, next he's gonna say, next Andy's gonna say like Heath Ledger was the best, fourth best joker there was. Yeah, exactly. I had no issue with Heath Ledger. Oh really? So who's the best joker then?

Besides you two. Oh finally! Blimey like 30 seconds later. No Heath Ledger is good. He just pips Jack Nicholson. Heath Ledger was good? You know, I really also... Heath Ledger was really good, but I also do have a soft spot for... Was it Oscar Romeo? Yes, Oscar Romero. Romero, who was in the Adam West series. Yeah, the original. The original. Yeah, the original. The original.

Yeah. Okay, well, shall we move on? Because if you just joined us, this is not the Host Unknown Batman episode. Again. Jav, how have you been, sir? How's your week been, despite, you know, the news on Wednesday? Well, it's been good, otherwise. And why would you assume that I'm not happy with the news on Wednesday. Well it's been good otherwise and why would you

assume that I am not happy with the news on Wednesday? I mean not everyone's like a liberal lefty extremist like you. Well I guess you're already out of the country so they can't kick you out any further can they? Yes. But it's been a busy week. I was at one event on Tuesday, that was in London. It was hosted at the Financial Conduct Authority's office, which is in Stratford. So got a bit of shopping done that day. I was just about to say, did you get some shopping done? I mean, why wouldn't you? Just across the park in Westfield's shopping centre, which has got free parking for motorbikes. I was just about to say, did you get some shopping done? I mean, why wouldn't you? Yeah, just across, we've parked in Westfield's shopping center,

which has got free parking for motorbikes. Very good, covered. They've also got lockers there next to the bikes. So like you can put your jacket and helmet in there and lock it up with your own padlock. Good to know. Wow. This is, if you just joined us,

this is the Host Unknown AA podcast for all motorists out there yes yes and then Wednesday I was in Dublin for Iriscon. I'm so jealous so jealous. It's always a great event and you know what at least three people came up to me on the day saying I'm one of your two listeners. So either the stats are wrong. Or is it just all white people look the same to you? Yeah that's right. And she was the same person three times. Or I'm tempted to tell them this isn't Netflix. You don't need to share accounts. It's free. You can just download it yourself. Yeah that's right. Help us out with the stats. So it was very, very good.

And you were missed there, Tom, because you've been a regular feature there for the last few years. Yeah, I'm like a boil that just doesn't get lanced off. Well, no, they were a lot more nice. They said about how you help out at the reception, you take photographs, you offer massages later in the evening. I do. They were very, they were very. I do, but only if they take me to dinner first.

Okay. Anything for a free meal. Oh my God, you know me. You know me. Oh, what was funny, what someone was saying, they've got all these ads over there for Heineken, is it Heineken? Heineken Zero? Heineken Zero, yeah. So it was at the Aviva scene, they had all these posters and everything and someone went to the bar in the evening and said, can I get Heineken

Zero? And he goes, oh, we don't have any. And he said, what about those stands out there? So he goes, yeah, there's none of them sold over here in this whole venue. Why are you advertising it so like crazy everywhere and it's not anywhere so it's fun Any friends of the show you met out there Like I said at least three But also well they're listeners, but there was Dave Lewis was there Brian Hogan obviously was there. Yeah Dan Ray Lewis was there Brian Hogan obviously was there. Yeah, Dan Raywood was there. Yeah. Rick Ferguson. Eleanor Dalloway. Eleanor is a friend of the show definitely she listens

doesn't apparently. She does she does apparently every now and then. Maybe she just into the one episode and just tells me snippets every time. Yeah, that's right. I really love that part where you do this. I really love this one. Who else? James Coker, he's my friend. So he's a journalist at Info Security Magazine. I think he's Deputy Editor there now. Oh, okay, yep. So...

James, if you're listening, I think you could probably run an article on Host Unknown I think within the magazine. I think that would be good. Do they still Unknown. I think, you know, within the magazine. I think that would be good. Do they still do a print magazine? I'm sure they do. I don't think so. Well, they still need to run an article on us.

I mean, come on. Yeah. We need... And they were at lunch, everyone was saying like the podcast, Eleanor and Dan, everyone, they were just saying, yeah, it's Jav Tom and the other guy. Were you having the normal lunch or did you have the exclusive speaker's lunch? The exclusive speaker's lunch, of course.

Absolutely. That's what we like to hear. Were you speaking? I was speaking, yes. Oh, right. Okay. I wasn't sure if you were or not, but yeah. They do a good lunch there.

It's like what I said, sometimes my family asks, like, oh you went to that event where you're speaking. I'm like, why else would I go there? If I wasn't speaking I just don't show up. And talking of going to the opening of an envelope, Andy, how are you? Hey, not too bad. I've had a week off. Oh really? You've been off this week? I mean, I know, not this week. Oh no, actually it was the week before. No, this week I've just been catching up on everything I missed last

week. Oh yes, because you weren't with us last week because you were in a hot tub. When you were tanking my podcast, I was relaxing and all those bubbles were actually my blood boiling after listening to that previous episode that you had published. When you sent the message saying it's the best episode ever, I thought, God, I'm going to have to wait six days until you publish it so I can hear it. And you weren't far wrong in fairness. I wasn't. It didn't go up until Tuesday and I had to do it in a rush on the train into London.

And you mislabelled it. And you see even you are getting the numbers wrong. No, no, I deny that. If you look, you'll see that the numbers are absolutely correct. And anything else is just, you know, just false news. Just... Oh, just rewriting history. Fake news. rewriting history History as they were basically somebody photoshopped it We're going there now we're going there hey, this is the world This is the world we now live in okay. I think this is clear from Wednesday. This is the world we now live in

You can't prove otherwise and if you think you have proof it's fake yeah well I don't I mean talking about seeing our old man in a power trip Tom how was that one I enjoyed that one yes very good actually in London for a couple of days, which is really nice. I saw some of the old crowd. You didn't even message to say so. Well, I know, but you know, I thought you were still on holiday and also I was busy, you know. So I was in seeing the old crowd. I went to my old workplace, which is obviously my current workplace, same people as it were, but the old team and stuff and was out for dinner and stayed at my mum's,

did a bit of computer work with her and did a bit of, oh, I did a breakfast briefing on Wednesday morning in a posh hotel, that was nice. And then what? Oh what I am back here and it's half term for my daughter so she's back my son's back it was really nice seeing them both so we had lunch today that was nice after they'd argued on the walk down from home so wouldn't be siblings if no exactly that's that's what I was trying to explain but yes but talking

of contentious material shall we see what we've got coming up for you this week. This week in InfoSec is a creepy crawly story of bugs as old as time. Rant of the week is evidence of party games darker side. Billy Big Balls is pumping and dumping. Industry News is the latest and greatest security news story from around the world and Tweets of the week is shocking evidence that UK adverts are actually not the best. So let's move swiftly on shall we to our favorite part of the show. It's the part of the show that we like to call... This week in Infosec... It is that part of the show where we take a trip down InfoSec memory lane with content liberated from the TodayInInfoSec Twitter account and further afield.

Something we have been saying for nearly 10 years and Jav still couldn't remember what to say last week. So our first story takes us back a mere 31 years when Bugtrack was created by Scott Chasing as a full disclosure vulnerability reporting mailing list at the dawn of the World Wide Web. Bugtrack had an enormous influence on how organizations reported vulnerability disclosures and it actually paved the way for the shift which eventually led to bug bounty programs. Now you guys may remember this in your early days when you were receiving, you'd literally subscribed to it and vulnerabilities came via email because everyone pretty much used the same tech, you had your Cisco PIX firewalls, you had your Cisco routers and you had your

gateway hardware and pretty much you just waited for the... A bit of wire shock and listening out and what's going on. Exactly, everyone got the same vulnerabilities, everyone heard the same stuff. But yeah, back in the day, email was how we got those vulnerabilities. None of this like, you know, you got to subscribe to the manufacturer of every product

and hope that they push notifications to you and all, you know, it's just so much simpler back then. Just came in your emails along with dancing baby AVI files. Dancing baby! I love that. Live the old days we do here. Yeah yeah yeah but alas our second story takes us back a mere 17 years to the 5th of November 2007 when Google introduced the Android platform which is mobile operating system for mobile phones based on a modified version of the Linux operating system and it's been that long and the first Android based phone would ship in September of 2008 nearly a year later. It's what caused the fallout between Steve Jobs and who's your man

from Google who's also on the board of Apple. Sergey? No, no, no it was one of the proper business people they bought in. Scott? I don't know, is it a true story or is it a rumor? No, it's a true story. It's a true story because this guy was on the board of Apple, so Steve took him into confidence and showed him the iPhone prototype, and then this fellow went straight back to Google and said, we've got to build a phone

interesting which they didn't actually do for a number of years more because they just piggybacked off Samsung's yeah well yeah yeah but they built the operating system and you know all that sort of stuff which looked remarkably like the um uh the the ios so and the whole concept of the App Store and all that sort of stuff Where they messed up was a naming convention when they went down that whole KitKat. Oh my god Yeah, just completely lost track of what's what jelly bean KitKat. Yeah, stick to numbers man Just make jelly bean was doing that and then KitKat because it was then sponsored by Nestle wasn't it or Nestle had some kind of financial input into it like really it's so crass Didn't know that we would never sell out for anything like that

But never sell out for anything less than 48 KitKats per person per month. Yes. Sold. Four finger KitKats by the way. Four fingers. Nestle, if you're listening. Four finger chunky KitKats please.

Oh my. Do you know why do they not make those? Why do they not make chunky KitKats that, like, it would be like this big? Because there's no visionaries at Nestlé. No visionaries, yeah absolutely right. So who owns Toblerone? Because the people there, they know how to make big. What I said, they will make a 5 kilo Toblerone.

That's Mondeley I think isn't it? It is Mondeley. And they're now no longer allowed to put that Swiss mountain on it? No, because it's property of Switzerland. Because it's not made in Switzerland anymore. It's made in the Czech Republic or something like that? Blimey. Look at this Batman, bloody chocolate. We are all over this. This is what the people want. We know this. Anyway, Andy, thank you. That was this week's.

This week in InfoSight. You're listening to the double award winning host unknown podcast. Unknown Podcast. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha So as we know, there has been an election in the US, we are talking about the Cheeto Munger of the US. And there's been a lot of shenanigans as we know, ballot boxes being burnt down, people standing in line with machetes threatening to kill people if they don't vote for Trump and all that sort of stuff. It's a very divisive and very emotionally charged situation at the moment. So the idea is that one of the topics that came up was that did seem to appall Republicans was that husbands and wives may not tell each other or disclose who they actually voted for. Which sounds to me quite reasonable. I mean, a vote is a very personal thing and it's entirely up to you to decide what to do. They found that very, like it was anathema to them. But it isn't very widely known. Actually, although your vote is

technically private, there is information available if you dig deep enough to find out how people voted. Not particularly accessible, vast volumes of data, etc. So there is, however, a new website that has come about powered by a right-wing group that is actually able to dox you. The website VoteRef makes it trivial for anyone to search the name, physical address, age, party affiliation and whether someone voted that year for people living in almost all states instantly and for free. This can include ordinary citizens, celebrities who are also ordinary citizens, domestic abuse survivors and many, many other people. Now whilst voting roles are public records and ways to more readily access them are not new per se,

but the challenge now is that during this time of intense division, political violence or even the broader threat of data being used to dox or harass anyone, sites like this Vote Ref just turn a vital part of the democratic process which is supposed to be open, free and fair etc. simply voting into a security and privacy nightmare. And I think there's a quote here from Justin Sherman is a Duke professor, Duke being a university I assume, rather than a professor who happens to be a Duke, who studies data brokers. And the quote was digitizing and aggregating data

meaningfully changes the privacy context and the risks to people. Your municipal government storing your marriage certificate and voter information in some basement office filing cabinet is not even remotely the same as a private company digitising all the data, labelling it, piling it all together and making it searchable. And this is exactly it. It's not so much that it's being done, it's the context in which it's being done and how it's being marketed to the people. So I just, you know, this may not be illegal, this may not even be, you know, pushing into a legal gray area, but what it is, is entirely unethical, immoral, and just, really, these people just need to get a better hobby.

I, it's just a point. This is, this reminds me of 192.com, but with voting data. Yes. That's the only difference. This stuff was done. We've done this. We've been there. We've done, we had this information in the past once branded as Britain's most invasive

website but yeah I think the problem is it's a lot more weaponized in the US that people are a lot more it's a lot more polarized with the voting out there it's either you're a lefty liberal wanting to convert prisoners into trans. In those days, even if it did have voting data, it wouldn't have made a huge amount of difference. It was kind of clear who was voting for who and there was no sort of threat of violence based upon who you might vote for. Now you also did have the right to remove your data as well, as is everyone's God-given right in view.

Yes, that is very true. That is very true. But yeah, the context in which this is in, it's, you know, it's, yeah, I think it's outrageous, outrageous. And I'm seeing Jav building up to something and I'm not quite sure what.

No, I'm just smiling at how like you find how little it takes to outrage you. Oh, I'm an old man. I've been angry since like, I don't know, 1994. When he turned 90. Yeah. 1994. When he turned 90. Yeah. I get what you're saying and I think the context and the weaponization is absolutely the issue because no one's aggregating this data for any good reason. It's not like, oh here advertisers if you want to target some goods this way then here's a list of people which even in of itself is not great

It's not great, but that's what but it's not starts from darkly, you know intrusive and horrible Yep, yep, but then again If you go to America nearly everyone's got a bumper sticker telling everyone who they voted for anyway Or they got like it on their front lawn. They've got those little posters and what have you They're not as private as we are over here or they just have six fingers and that also is a yeah That's probably an indicator. Yeah. Yeah, or they wear red hats gold shoes. Yeah diapers and a little cotton swab on their ear. Wow okay. Just saying I

mean that's what they do right? I've seen the photos I'm pretty sure they weren't AI. You know you know what part of me is like I don't live in America I've got no plans of living there their policies are their policies and their policies are their policies. Apart from Florida, we've ascertained that you want to live in Florida. I do, yes. But then it's also fun that when the US sticks its nose everywhere in the world and says this country needs democracy, this one needs freedom, this one needs this, this one needs

the topple, it's dictator. I think it's only fair that the whole world turns around and examines them as well. Yeah, absolutely. On which note? Rant of the Week. 30% nostalgic, 30% ranty, 30% ballsy and 30% terrible at maths. You're listening to the award-winning Post Unknown Podcast. Alright, now I don't know how, you can't see this obviously at home, but Jav and Andy are swapping WhatsApp messages like crazy at the moment. How can they do this? How can they multitask like this when we're supposed to

be concentrating on the stories and the things that matter? Are you dear listener? I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Maybe if you were more entertaining or engaging in your so called rant of the week we'd be paying more attention to you. Oh dear. That's you, Jav, by the way. Yes. Okay. Dear God! I was distracted by...

You know what? Because Andy sent me a message and I was thinking of a retort. And like... So... Dear listeners, this is how much Jav and Andy respect you as listeners. So those people who went up to Jav at the IrisCon and told him how he was their favorite and all that, this is the disdain he pours on you on a regular basis. And for Andy, who'd just rather sit in a hot tub

than actually come on a damn show, well, I think that just speaks volumes. Joe, to this day, I still have more appearances on this podcast than either of you two. No you don't. Yes I do. I disagree. Oh my god. I disagree.

Pull the numbers. Pull the numbers. Now get Jav to pull the numbers. Let's get an independent party to pull the numbers. Because he did that thing with smashing security, didn't he? He did that thing with smashing. He ran the numbers on smashing for something. Yeah, that's because it's very easy. They got it all listed and it's very convenient to pull the numbers on that.

What do you mean? We can't even agree on the numbering of the show now, we can't agree who's on what episode. There's going to be a four episode variance on the numbers. Well, like any good survey. Tom's going to be like, the vote was stolen, the vote was stolen, let's go break the post-a-mone offices. Shall we get on? Let's do it.

Ransomware is a big problem everywhere in the world. And French firm Schneider Electric was breached recently by a ransomware group which, well, claiming the, Hellcat, the ransomware group, is claiming responsibility. They said they took 40 gigabytes of compressed data and then demanded the ransom, which was $125,000 in baguettes.

And this feels like, this feels like this ransomware group lost a bet to another ransomware. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're like, you have to ask for the most ridiculous thing ever. But you know, also, there's a second part of this story, which I thought was a ballsy move, is when Schneider Electric were asked about this.

Like, are they being serious or whatever? And they released a canned statement. The canned statement was like, we're investigating a security incident involving unauthorized access to one of our internal project execution platforms. And then they said- Speak a bit slower on that statement.

It is hosted within an isolated environment. It's not really isolated then if someone from outside could get in and exfiltrate data from there, is it? So I think the shared balls on the PR or the legal person, whoever spun that statement up, it makes this a double ballsy story. But do you know what I like about the first part? Yeah. Is that it's sort of a throwback to the good old days when hackers did stuff for fun. double ballsy story. But do you know what I like about the first part? Yeah. Is that it's sort of a throwback to the good old days

when hackers did stuff for fun. Yes. Yeah. I mean, much as you're aligning here with the criminals again, Jav, I have to say this is quite a funny story. It is. I do like what they've done here.

So if you were to, could ask for a ridiculous ransom, what it would be other than four finger chunky Kit Kats? That's not a ridiculous ransom. That's a very sensible, serious, and I think a valid investment into the world's production of cocoa derivative food stuffs. And fats. Yeah.

Yeah, palm oil. Yeah, all the good stuff. All the good stuff. I also think big pharma should be supporting this initiative because they get to sell more metformin and insulin. Well, big pharmas are in this because someone has to grow the cocoa. Yes, right next to the cocaine. That was it.

Oh, OK. We derailed another one. That was this week's. Billy Big Ball balls of the week so you have to qualify what derailed means because Americans they only know that there's two forms of transport cars or airplanes trains that run on rails and when it goes off topic they get derailed. For most part, I mean they do understand trains but in a different concept. Ask your doctor if the host unknown podcast is right for you You can tell we haven't had the three of us around the table for a long time because we are

Really drawing this out and getting rather sidetracked to say the least And at this rate, we really are gonna run out of time. And talking of time, what time is it Andy? It is that time of the show where we head over to our new sources over at the InfoSec PA Newswire who have been very busy bringing us the latest and greatest curious news from around the globe. Industry News Google Cloud to mandate multi-factor authentication by 2025 Industry News Iriscon, organisations still falling victim to predictable cyber attacks

Industry News Defenders outpace attackers in AI adoption INDUSTRIE News UK cyber security wages soar above inflation as stress levels rise INDUSTRIE News NCSE publishes tips to tackle malvertising threat INDUSTRIE News Canada orders shutdown of local TikTok branch over security concerns UK regulator urges stronger data protection in AI recruitment tools

Interlock ransomware targets US healthcare, IT and government sectors Major oil field supplier hit by ransomware attack. Industry News. And that was this week's Industry News. Huge if true. Huge if true. So I think all day all those speakers and all they got out of virus con was organizations are still falling victim to predictable cyber attacks yeah so this is written by james coca you see so he wrote this after the first two talks were done so he was there and then in the first coffee break he sat down and wrote this and then just logged off and that was it him for the day. I don't know, I think the Guinness started to hit. Yeah, he just hit the beers, yeah. He hit the Guinness at that point, right.

Yeah. I mean, well, okay. James, please come on the show and defend yourself. If you go on LinkedIn or you go on Twitter or you go on TikTok or YouTube Shorts, you'll see that I post with a far more detailed video account off the day like share and subscribe fix

So what is up with Canada Yeah, well so this is disgraceful news obviously the government of Canada has required tick tock To shut down its Canadian subsidiary, TikTok Technology Canada Inc. So they have to shut down their offices in Toronto and Vancouver. They're literally just out of nowhere, just got an order to shut down. But the Canadian government will not share details. They're basically saying it's national security concern, but they will not publish details. And they're hiding behind some act that prevents them from disclosing details because it's about national security. I mean, TikTok has said that they will appear, you know, they're going to fight this and they've just put a load of Canadians out of jobs.

Yeah. But absolutely zero. They're not, so Canada are not banning the app, they're just shutting down the office for national security. Which is what the US are looking to do, isn't it? All we're proposing was banning the app as well, weren't they? Yeah. So it says... It's just a sphinx to high heaven. Oh, they said, while Canada continues to welcome foreign direct investment. The government will act decisively when investments threaten our national security. What?

Yeah. But it's just a trust us bro. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's very- Like the US did. Very weird. I see and Canada is run by Justin Trudeau. He's a PM at the moment.

Yeah. He's left wing PM at the moment. Yeah. He's left-wing, he's liberal. Yeah. And yet he's acting more like a dictator than Trump ever has. And yet the outrage... Errr... more like a dictator than Trump ever has? Yeah. Wow.

When did Trump just suddenly shut down offices of fairly operating companies? Well he's not been in a business, he's not been a president for the last four years. I think it's probably those migrants that he detained with their families and separated the children. Yes, there is that exactly. Oh yeah, because Biden really reversed that, isn't it? And Obama never done anything like that. What I'm talking about, Bay, Bay is a leisure camp isn't it? But also... The one that Obama said he's going to shut down as soon as he came into power

I'm going to shut it down. That is a failure of his. That is a failure of his. But also, at least they know who's in Guantanamo Bay. When they separate the kids from their families, they deliberately destroyed the records and there are still children who have still not been reunited with their families because they don't know where they are. Were the coyotes, the coyotes should not have separated them and just sent masses of kids

in across the border so that they could smuggle drugs in from the other side. That took a turn. Maybe we can share a bit more light on this story about how defenders are outpacing attackers in AI adoption. Nicely done, Andy. Nicely done. I'm not trying to draw too much attention to it and move swiftly on. This is another talk at IrisCon. I actually didn't see this talk. So nothing to add. I can read the headlines from it, but yeah, I actually didn't see this talk. So nothing to add. Other than I can read the headlines from it, but yeah, unfortunately I didn't.

Well, that's an interesting one. The fact that defenders outpace attackers, it's almost always the other way around. Yeah, well they're saying that cyber criminals are really using AI to improve their coding or build AI into criminal software, like templates for phishing emails. Jailbreakers are service and deep fakes

uh, whereas the um, I won't say the good guys because how do we really know who's good who's bad, right? Um, oh how very meta of you no Metaphysical not meta. That's another thing in time Yeah, it's like the attitude era of wrestling. It's all shades of gray Yeah, exactly. Who's heel, who's face. You never really know. But yeah defenders apparently use them as like digital assistants to you know sort of helping generate reports, log analysis, you know forensic analysis. Good. Saving a lot of time. That's how it should be. That's how

it should be. Excellent. Well, let's leave it there, shall we, before we get stuck onto another little rabbit hole that we can't get ourselves out of, or until Andy skillfully comes in. That was this week's industry news. For someone that's controlling the soundboard and speaking you do a great job of cutting yourself off You're listening to the double award-winning host unknown podcast We fix it in post we fix it in post it's all good. I thought that was one that said how do you like them apples? What this one that said how do you like them apples? What this one? That sound. In 2021 you voted us the most entertaining cyber security content amongst our peers.

In 2022 you crowned us the best cyber security podcast in Europe. What were you speaking? You are listening to the double award winning host unknown podcast. How'd you like them apples? That's the one. I just got confused. We got we got to go for the triple at some point. We've got to go for the triple. Right, Andy, why don't you take us home with this week's tweet of the week. And we always play that one twice. Tweet of the week. And this week's tweet of the week and we always play that one twice tweet of the week and this week's tweet of the week comes from Feshole and the poster says I pay annually for a VPN I do nothing dodgy but I love seeing the adverts you get on YouTube from all over the world

UK adverts seriously have nothing on Algeria. I just love the zero context here. I'm so curious as to what the adverts in Algeria are like now. I've got to go on YouTube, Algerian adverts. I mean as a British man, I am unseemingly proud of the level of advertising, you know, the quality of the adverts we get on our TV, you know, when we compare it to other countries. There are some genuinely great adverts out there. But I am intrigued about what we get from Algeria. See, I don't think I watch anything with adverts anymore. That's true. That's true. I mean, some of the ones like the, the channel, the, the, the catch up, um, you

know, channel four and ITVX very occasionally. Oh, and Amazon prime now, of course. They're annoying. Yes, they are very annoying. Very annoying. But it's strange because I think it also shows how media has changed. And this is something they were speaking about the Trump presidency about. He went on podcasts and he wasn't going for celebrity endorsements, but he was going for

influencer endorsements more than that. He wasn't going to traditional media as much. And you know what? It just shows the world's power dynamic has shifted. And if you're still relying on old adverts you're not going to get anywhere. But if you sponsor the hosts on own podcast the return on investment knows no limit. Indeed this is the new order of things right. This is how we move the dial in the right direction hopefully in the direction of our bank accounts but move the dial nonetheless exactly excellent thank you

right we've done it we've got the three of us together we think we may have made it through it Right, we've done it. We've got the three of us together. We think we may have made it through it. I guess we'll see how, you know, when I eventually get it loaded up in a couple of weeks time, we'll see where we are. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year.

We should probably start thinking about when we're gonna be off over Christmas and just give everybody a lot of notice because they'll be so used to not having an episode on a regular basis that they won't know. It's going to be very very weird. Anyway, Jav, thank you so much for joining us today. It was fun. I enjoyed it. I even enjoyed your rant. No, your Billy Big Balls. I kind of like regretting joining today. I think I've said a lot of things I shouldn't have today. Joy? Be kind to me in the edit. A sense of warmth and well-being, of being in the presence of such devilishly handsome, charismatic and charming bald men.

Yes, a magnificent pair of tits you are. Yes, a magnificent pair of tits you are. Pair of tits, yeah. And Andy, thank you, sir. Stay secure, my friend. Stay secure. You've been listening to the Host Unknown Podcast. If you enjoyed what you heard, comment and subscribe. If you hated it, please leave your best insults

on our Reddit channel. Worst episode ever. R slash smashing security. And we are. We are? Yeah. Let's kill it. This is the part where we normally say something funny right well see Jeff's just stuffed his face with something and he didn't bring enough for

everyone but you why don't you share it now what's so so we were doing industry news and I was like rapidly going on mute and off mute because my daughter bought me this platter yeah yeah it's like an iftar crap that's like a full platter. Yeah yeah. What is that? It's like an iftar. He's got like a full feast going on there. This is like a chicken wrap sort of thing. Right. And then I think my daughter made these, I don't know what they're called, they're like sweet things. They're like she bakes the the bread first then she powders it with sugar. she bakes the bread first and then she powders it with sugar. And, uh,

Oh, so they're the ones that are going to, um, raise your blood sugar to, to, I was going to say, how's the diabetes? Cup of tea. Yeah. Um, no, I'm only going to have one of those. She did kindly bring me two, but I'm only going to have one of those. Right. She doesn't put any of the syrup on it for me. So it's just a little bit of powdered sugar.

Ah, are they a little bit like gulab jamun? No, no, no. This is like an English thing or something. That's why I don't know it. Is it? I've never seen anything like that. So we call them brownies. Yeah. It's a bit like a churro, but not quite.

Yeah, that very well-known English Mexican dish. That well-known English thing, yeah. Oh, you know what, I'm... Everything's English now. If a curry is the national dish of England, then a churro can be an English thing. Yeah, churro is technically English street food, right? You only have to go down Oxford Circus to know that. If Rishi can be a strong English name, Prime Minister of the country, then anything goes.