Talos Takes
Every two weeks, host Amy Ciminnisi brings on a new guest from Talos or the broader Cisco Security world to break down a complicated security topic. We cover everything from breaking news to attacker trends and emerging threats.
Episodes
243 episodes
What we know so far about the MOVEit zero-day making the rounds
Aliza Johnson from Talos Threat Intelligence and Interdiction team joins Jon Munshaw this week for a Talos Takes episode on the MOVEit zero-day vulnerability (that'...
The hidden threat to the software supply chain you may not be thinking about
Cisco Talos Incident Response recently discovered an uptick in malicious actors compromising vendor and third-party accounts to sneak into targeted networks. Many enterprises have vendor and contractor accounts that need to access their network...
Horabot is here to do "horable" things to your email inbox
We're joined this week by Chetan Raghuprasad to discuss a new botnet he recently discovered and researched. Horabot can completely hijack a target's Outlook mailbox ...
The Predator spyware and more "mercenary" groups
Despite governments' best efforts, spyware is still running rampant on the threat landscape. These types of tracking malware are used to target high-profile individuals like politicians, activists, journalists and more — and even sometimes for ...
How to adapt to the constant change that comes with cybersecurity
Hazel Burton is our special guest host this week of Talos Takes, featuring a very special guest: Talos Vice President Matt Watchinski! Matt and Hazel have a conversation for Mental Health Awareness Month, especially as it relates to the cyberse...
RA Group is just the latest example of the ransomware landscape splintering
Talos researchers recently discovered a new ransomware group called "RA Group." This week, Nick Biasni joins Jon to discuss this new threat actor and the modified Babuk ranso...
What makes the new Greatness phishing-as-a-service tool so great?
Tiago Pereira from Talos Outreach joins the show this week to talk about his recent discovery of a new phishing-as-a-service tool ca...
XL Edition: Talos Incident Response livestream on top trends from the past quarter
This week's episode is longer than usual, but we wanted to bring you the Cisco Talos Incident Response On Air livestream from last week for anyone who missed it. For anyone who prefers a video version, you can watch the recording
Analyzing the recent takedown of popular dark web forums
On the heels of law enforcement agencies from across the globe working together to disrupt two popular cybercrime forums — Genesis Market and BreachForums — Azim Khodjibaev from Talos' Threat Intelligence & Interdiction team joins Jon to ta...
What does the future of MFA look like?
Nowadays it seems like every major tech company has their own multi-factor authentication solution, whether that be a unique app, one-time passcode generation or the "classic" SMS two-factor code. Thorsten Rosendahl, the newest addition to the ...
How to best prepare for, and respond to, supply chain attacks
With another major supply chain attack recently making headlines, we felt like it was a good time to refresh our advice on how to prepare for these types of cyber attacks. Adversaries are increasingly relying on users' inherent trust of the sof...
The defensive and offensive implications of ChatGPT and AI
Everyone is talking about tools like ChatGPT and other AI tools that are dominating headlines and threatening to upend every industry possible. But where do these things stand in cybersecurity? In this week's episode, Jon talks to two women who...
Talos Takes Ep. #132: Reflecting on one year of Talos' work in Ukraine
It's been just over a year since Talos formed our Ukraine-focused task force. After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, many of our teammates sprung into action to protect critical infrastructure and networks there — not to mention the Talos employee...
Why does the Prometei botnet keep growing?
Vanja Svajcer and Andrew Windsor join the show this week to talk about their recent research into the Prometei botnet. This malware continues to evade detection and inva...
There's not actually more spam during Tax Season — it's just different spam
Public perception is such that it's assumed we just get more spam in the U.S. during two major times of the year — Tax Season and Black Friday. But over the past few years, this trend has become a thing of the past. With Tax Day approaching for...
The benefits of taking an active approach to threat defense
Nick Biasini is back as host again to talk to Vitor Ventura about the benefits of taking an active approach to threat defense. Many organizations may just sit back and wait for something bad to happen. But as he outlined in
Year in Review - Ransomware and Commodity Loaders
We're back with the final year in review focused episode. This time the focus is on the ever broadening ransomware landscape and the commodity malware loaders that often support it. I'll be joined by one of the researchers from the year in revi...
Following the LNK metadata trail
In this episode of Talos Takes I am joined by security researcher Guilherme Venere to discuss their recent research on LNK files. The usage of these files by malicious actors has exploded over the last six months as actors look to move away fro...
Year in Review - Threat Landscape Edition
We're back with another year in review focused episode. This time the focus will be the threat landscape generally and I'll be joined by threat researcher Caitlin Huey. In this episode we'll discuss what we found in the last year, with a focus ...
XLLing and the post macro era
In this episode of Talos Takes we are joined by Vanja Svjacer to discuss his recent blog on XLL abuse. This year Microsoft finally removed support for macros from their office suite creating a vacuum in the threat landscape. Macros had been the...
Year in Review: APT Summary Edition
In this episode of Talos Takes we are joined by Jacob Finn to discuss the APT summary section of the larger year in review report. These state sponsored actors tend to conduct more sophisticated, targeted campaigns typically related to espionag...
Truebot and the Silence group
In this episode of Talos Takes we are joined by Tiago Periera to discuss his recent blog on truebot activity. Truebot and the silence group have been active for a number of years operating primarily financially motivated cybercrime. In this epi...
Year in Review & Ukraine Activities
In this episode of Talos Takes we are joined by Kendall McKay to discuss the recently released year in review report and dig deep on our activities in Ukraine. The year in review covers a vast amount of data and intel sources to identify some o...
Update on LodaRAT and its many variants
LodaRAT is an AutoIT based RAT that has been distributed for the last several years. Initially tied to the Kasablanka group its distribution has grown over the years. In this episode we'll be talking with the researcher, Chris Neal, to discuss ...
The basics of InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) and how its being abused
InterPlanetary File System or IPFS has increased in prominence as a file hosting technology associated with Web 3.0. It's probably most well known for hosting NFTs, but this blockchain related technology is also being abused by bad actors. In t...