Tom Uren
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tom.risky.biz
Tom Uren
@tom.risky.biz
3.6K followers 210 following 46 posts
Author of the Seriously Risky Business cyber security newsletter
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tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business:
- The PRC's freewheeling cyber espionage market
- Disruption kicks off
- How state cyber groups use AI

Thanks to Dakota Cary and Dr Huong Le Thu for their thoughts.

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February 22, 2024 at 4:19 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business:

- Spyware is an ecosystem
- Ukraine adopts US 'defend forward' strategy
- For China, evidence is optional

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February 15, 2024 at 6:57 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business

- Volt Typhoon: Keep Calm and Carry On
- VPNs Wounded in Cyber Knife Fight
- Hack-for-hire Streisand Effect

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February 8, 2024 at 4:42 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business:
- US data dumpster fire singes NSA
- The PRC's evolving election interference
- Microsoft's dark winter

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February 1, 2024 at 6:20 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business:

- Smile! You've Been Sanctioned
- Microsoft's Midnight Blizzard: Cold, Dark and Insecure
- When SEC Disclosure Is Too Much of a Good Thing

read and subscribe here:
open.substack.com/pub/srslyris...
January 25, 2024 at 5:01 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business:

- PRC: Not Stealthy, Just Annoying
- The FTC's Geolocation Privacy Win Built on Shaky Foundations
- When Takedowns Ain't Takedowns

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January 18, 2024 at 4:02 AM
tom.risky.biz
This first Seriously Risky Business of 2024:
- Russia's Cyber war gets smarter… And dumber
- Predatory Sparrow strikes again
- Russia hates Democrats, China loves China

listen:
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January 11, 2024 at 4:19 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business:
- Interference-Free Elections? How Quaint!
- Iran Attacks Our Precious Fluids
- ChatGPT is Just Asking Questions

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December 7, 2023 at 5:57 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business:
- Living off the Land Is the New Normal
- When Hacks affect Housing Markets

Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/s...

Or read here: open.substack.com/pub/srslyris...
November 30, 2023 at 6:45 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business is out:

- Ground zero of the hack-for-hire industry
- If theft doesn't work... troll
- Russia's search for hacking talent

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Or read: open.substack.com/pub/srslyris...
Show more
November 23, 2023 at 7:02 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business:
- LockBit's Disastrous Success
- Banks Pushed to Combat Fraud
- NSO Group Re-emerges
Listen here:
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Or read here: open.substack.com/pub/srslyris...
November 16, 2023 at 6:42 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Biz newsletter is out!

- Microsoft Should Look to the Past for Its Security Future
- EncroChat Interception Undone by Police Leaker

Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/s...

Or read: open.substack.com/pub/srslyris...
November 9, 2023 at 5:00 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business newsletter is out:
- When good cyber security results in violence
- The SEC's Halloween horror show
- Breaking open Triangulation

Listen here:
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O read:
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November 2, 2023 at 7:46 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business newsletter:
- Hacktivists strike at ransomware's soft underbelly
- Ukraine's security service in bed with hackers?
- AI phishing is faster but dumber

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October 26, 2023 at 5:20 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business newsletter:
- Mature Organisations Still a Security Horror Show
- Five Eyes to Watch Sticky Fingers
- iOS sandboxing: Two Steps Forward

listen here: podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/s...

or read here: open.substack.com/pub/srslyris...
October 19, 2023 at 3:39 AM
tom.risky.biz
SRB this week:

- Bringing humanitarian law to cyber war
- EU needs to grow a spine on spyware
- Chinese spies are in the mail

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October 12, 2023 at 5:01 AM
tom.risky.biz
My latest Seriously Risky Business newsletter:

- NSA Wants to Protect America's AI Edge
- Rich Pickings at the Network Edge
- From Timbuktu to Tokyo

Listen here:
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Read here:
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October 5, 2023 at 3:53 AM
tom.risky.biz
My latest Seriously Risky Business Newsletter is out:
- Lapsus$: From Flash in the Pan to Raging Fire
- Russia Drops Cyber Hammer For Sickle

plus much more.

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September 28, 2023 at 4:10 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business:

- Pig Butchering Is Even Worse Than You Think
- Telstra's Digicel Linked to Commercial Spy Operations
- The Truth About Age Verification

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September 7, 2023 at 5:12 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's SRB is out:

- UK snoopers charter won't stop security updates
- More on China's Barracuda Exploitation. A Lot More.

Listen here:
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Or read and subscribe here:
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August 31, 2023 at 4:55 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business is out:
- Why Russia's Cyber War Against Ukraine Failed
- Advanced Persistent Teenagers
- The latest open source hippies

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Vitiuk described Russian cyber operations against Ukraine as a "cyber war" with destructive campaigns against Ukraine starting in 2014, eight years before the full-scale invasion. Significant destructive cyber operations he cited included NotPetya, electricity network attacks in 2015 and 2016 and a less well-known attempt to cause a train collision by interfering with a railroad control system. Vitiuk said these incidents motivated Ukraine to improve its cyber security. "During that time, we improved our legislation, we adopted a new cybersecurity strategy," Vitiuk said. "We invented tools and techniques that are actually effective [in] countering these Russian aggressive potential cyber attacks." The number of cyber attacks the SBU dealt with that it believes comes from Russia have grown fivefold between 2020 and 2022. As a result, well before the physical invasion, the SBU had tremendous experience remediating and recovering from Russian attacks. Today, SBU deals with 10 to 15 "se
August 25, 2023 at 4:40 AM
tom.risky.biz
This Week's SRB:

- Why Russia's Plan to Hide Spy Data Will Fail
- Your Face Isn't Probable Cause
- With Friends like North Korea, Who Needs Enemies?

Listen here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/srslyriskybiz/p/why-russias-plan-to-hide-spy-data
While Russia views increasing control over data as a way of preventing its espionage operations being compromised, the reality is that editing personal information 'in situ' is a band aid rather than a cure. This may reduce the amount of information available to researchers in the future, but Bellingcat has been harvesting leaked data sources for years. And historical data is useful to future investigations: Bellingcat has acquired dozens of leaked databases over the past few years, giving us a large number of data points to cross-reference and verify any new data we acquire. If the birth date of an FSB officer in an explosive new dossier does not match that of a Moscow oblast vehicle registration database from 2013, then something is amiss — but we rarely run into such issues, and did not have any of these contradictions in this investigation.
August 10, 2023 at 3:02 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business is out:
- On Microsoft, Wyden's Bark May Have Some Bite
- Slamming the Back Door Shut at the FBI
- Amping Up Volt Typhoon

Read and subscribe: https://srslyriskybiz.substack.com/p/on-microsoft-wydens-bark-may-have?sd=pf
August 3, 2023 at 5:08 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business is out:
- WeChat's privacy policy is utterly pointless
- CSAM scanning: a signal emerges from the noise
Read and subscribe here:
https://srslyriskybiz.substack.com/p/wechats-privacy-policy-is-utterly?sd=pf
July 13, 2023 at 3:35 AM
tom.risky.biz
This week's Seriously Risky Business is out!
- Russia's extradition wars are not what you think
- Hacktivist operations bark louder, still don't Bite
- Aussie financial regulator stings Medibank
Read and subscribe here:
https://srslyriskybiz.substack.com/p/russias-extradition-wars-are-not?sd=pf
Risky Business News has more detail on Kislitsin's case, but also points out that this isn't the first time that Russians accused of cyber crime have been the subject of competing extradition processes. Cimpanu's article lists five previous examples dating back to as early as 2012: We've seen this before many times. Every time a big Russian hacker gets arrested outside Russia's borders, Russian authorities hocus-pocus some charges out of a hat and try to get him back home like the suspects are some sort of national treasure. Gavin Wilde, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Institute and expert on Russian cyber operations, told Seriously Risky Business he thinks Russia's actions are primarily motivated by its desire to be viewed as an equal to the US. Extradition efforts require a response because, historically, the law in Russia is used as "a tool to enable the powers that be, lending a veneer of credibility to crude authoritarianism". Given that world view, US indictments of Russian hacke
July 6, 2023 at 4:32 AM