In-brief: Russian hackers aren’t the biggest threat to the security and integrity of elections says Bev Harris of Black Box Voting. Instead, it’s a more common enemy: run of the mill political corruption, mostly at the local level. Also: Eric Hodge of CyberScout talks about the challenges of helping states secure their election systems. Problem number one: recalcitrant voting machine makers.
Conferences
Hero WannaCry Researcher Charged over Links to Kronos Trojan
In-brief: A British researcher who became a hero after he stopped the WannaCry ransomware from spreading globally has been apprehended in Nevada and charged with distributing the Kronos banking trojan in the U.S. between July 2014 and July 2015.
At BlackHat: Hell is Other People’s Machine Learning
In-brief: Machine learning is all the rage in the information security industry. But a study by Endgame and University of Virginia suggests that it may be vulnerable to manipulation by sophisticated AI-driven tools.
Podcast: Michael Daniel on Cyber Diplomacy in the Age of Trump
In-brief: In an interview with The Security Ledger, former Obama Cybersecurity Advisor Michael Daniel weighs in on the changing US-Israel relationship, promoting cyber security talent in the U.S. and the future of the intelligence community’s ‘vulnerability equities’ program.
Petya Malware is about wreaking Havoc, not collecting Ransom | The Register
In-brief: On Tuesday, a ransomware infection spread across Europe and even affected companies and systems as far away as the United States and Brazil. Iain Thomson at The Register breaks down the malware used in the attack, dubbed NotPetya because it disguises itself as the Petya ransomware, although in the end it seems it was designed to wreak havoc, not collect money.