On a monthly basis I will publish my reading recommendations which mainly focus on Information Security and Outdoor Sports – but you will also find other recommendations from time to time.

All InfoSec Reading Lists can be found here.

Best of Twitterverse

InfoSec

• Pnyetya: Yet Another Ransomware Outbreak – link
• If the focus of cybersecurity programs continues to be on designing better technologies to combat the growing menace of cyberattacks, we’ll continue to neglect the most important aspect of security — the person in the middle. – link
• Some interesting aspects of bringing a device into China the secure way – Travel (Linux) laptop setup – link
• The 5 Stages of Data Breach Grief – link
• A curated list of amazingly awesome OSINT – link
• The .io Error – Taking Control of All .io Domains With a Targeted Registration – hijacking (unregistered) nameservers for a TLD can end up very badly in case this is done by adversaries – automatic redirections to drive-by malware servers, phishing websites etc. would be possible. Additionally, it could have a privacy impact on people visiting .io domains. A mitigation could be to make sure that all nameservers in the delegation chain are properly registered – this could be checked automatically on a frequent basis – link
• Beyond public key encryption – link
• Rooting a Printer: From Security Bulletin to Remote Code Execution – link
• Google’s Elite Hacker SWAT Team vs. Everyone – link

Layer 7

• One Cloud-based Local File Inclusion = Many Companies affected – that’s the risk in case you use 3rd party software which source code you don’t own – link
• Red Team Insights on HTTPS Domain Fronting Google Hosts Using Cobalt Strike – link
• Hunting in the Dark – Blind XXE – link
• Lifting the clouds from cloud investigations – investigating an Office 365 environment based on logfiles – link

IoT (with S for “Security”)

• Victoria Police cancel hundreds of speeding fines after WannaCry virus attack – link
• Now your nightlight can notify you of retweets and emails – obviously we have reached that level already – link

Malware/Phishing

• NonPetya: no evidence it was a “smokescreen” – link
• LeakerLocker: Mobile Ransomware Acts Without Encryption – the interesting part of this malware is that it threatens to share private content with people in the contact list – we have to expect more malware/ransomware like this which threatens to publish private information in the future – link
• PayBreak – Generically recovering from ransomware including WannaCry/WannaCryptor – the weakness of these kind of approaches is the need to install yet another agent on the endpoints which should act as a preventative measure, similar to an AV – the solution can’t be to install an agent for whatever risk you face – link
• Can files locked by WannaCry be decrypted: A technical analysis – link

Mobile Related

• Two Ztorg Trojans Removed from Google Play Store Are Definitely Better – on the difficulty of finding malicious code updates of android apps – link
• Google Play is fighting an uphill battle against Android adware – link

Outdoors

• New Conquerors of The Useless — The Role Of Achieving Nothing in a World Obsessed with Doing Everything – link

MISC

• Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity – “We all understand the joys of our always-wired world – the connections, the validations, the laughs … the info. … But we are only beginning to get our minds around the costs.” – link
• Ten Steps to Better Public Speaking – link
• Documents expose how Hollywood promotes war on behalf of the Pentagon, CIA and NSA – link