CybrR3sBlog

 This is a slightly concerning tool that has been made pubic by Lookout and reported on by the Hacker News. The tool Massistant, developed by Chinese company Meiya Pico allows for law enforcement (or anyone who gets their hands on it) to extract photos, sms messages, and GPS data from mobile devices. The assumption is that the tool will be primarily used at border crossings, allowing LE to compromised the device and extract data with out the knowledge of the mobile owner. Maybe most suprising is that Meiya Pico claims Massistant has the ability to collect data from E2E (end to end) encryption apps like Telegram and Signal. References: https://thehackernews.com/2025/07/chinas-massistant-tool-secretly.html

Eighteen browser extensions for Google's Chrome and Microsoft's Edge have been identified as malicious trojan horse  type viruses harming an estimated 2.3 million users. For reference, a trojan virus takes its name from the Greek myth involving the trojan war in which a large wooden horse was presented as a gift to the city of Troy. When the Trojans accepted the gift past their large walls, enemy soldiers jumped out. In our case today a trojan virus is a piece of software which presents as something beneficial to the user but later reviles itself to be malicious. Specifically the extension Colour Picker Tool--Geco was verified by Google and had over 800 rating in the store with an average rating of 4.2 (an impressive piece of malware). Researcher of the malware stated, "[t]his is a carefully crafted Trojan horse that delivers exactly what is promises...while simultaneously hijacking your browser , tracking every website you visit, and maintaining a persistent command and c...

 The Hacker News reported, in February, that Google's cloud service Key Management Systems  would begin using quantum encryption for its digital signature. This is the future of a technological process we have been studying this week, digital encryption. A long standing problem in not just cyber work but communication in general. It is often pointed to Roman times that encryption first came about. A code called the "Caesar Cypher" was nothing more than a means of shifting the alphabet--the exact shift would be called the key . Today we use modern standard of encryption for most of our digital communication such as AES-256 and RSA. These methods utilize large prime number multiplication and remainder math to create a key which is virtually impossible to crack with a classic computer. However, the advancement of mathematical equations (specifically Shor's algorithm) and quantum computing have lead to the research of "post quantum encryption" PQE. This is what ...

Yesterday, June 25th, a 25 year old British man named Kai West was arrested in a years long investigation that cumulated in a sting operation to discover the identity of the infamous "Intel Broker". He  had for years posted and sold compromised data on the website Breached Forums . The investigation came to its conclusion when an undercover agent posed as a buyer for stolen data. The payment was sent to Intel Broker's BTC (bitcoin address) which was allegedly tied to his Coinbase account.  This strikes me as pretty odd and even a little funny. I am sure we will learn more as the story develops but as one of the most wanted hackers in Europe your opsec was bad enough to use Coinbase when selling top secret data. Something about the store seems a little weird. Most Black Hat hackers use money laundering schemes like Monero at the very minimum to "clean" their money. I don't know anything though so if someone wants to explain it to me please do.  Resources:  ht...

I am taking mostly historical information here on the various laws enacted between the 1970's and 2000's which have governed the use of Private Identifiable Information by the federal government and private companies in the US. Most of these laws: like HIPAA and the GLBA are incredibly relevant today to safeguarding our most personal data from people who would do use harm. For a long time this meant keep our data out of the hands of hackers and thieves and while that is still relevant today, there is seemingly a large gap between the US's privacy laws concerning private companies, and those of Europe.  The stark difference is in the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California's Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which were adopted in 2018 and 2020 respectively. The GDPR has a government oversight board by which all private companies must abide by. This creates an active participation in holding private companies responsible for consumer data. It is the jo...

 This pdf from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has a lot of easy to read, step by step information on conducting risk analysis. For each of the six steps the pdf offers external sources and education. While our main book is very knowledgeable I find these guides to be a bit easier on the eyes when it come to taking in a large amount of information. References: https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/2024-09/24_0828_safecom_guide_getting_started_cybersecurity_assessment_2022_final_508C.pdf