Supply chain hacks like ME Docs and ASUS aren’t inevitable. In this Spotlight Podcast, sponsored by Trusted Computing Group, I speak with Dennis Mattoon, a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and the Chairman of the Trusted Computing Group’s DICE Architectures Working Group* about how strong device identities for IoT endpoints can stop supply chain compromises.
The compromise of device maker Asus Live Update Utility is just the latest evidence that sophisticated attackers have software supply chains in the crosshairs.
In this week’s podcast (#124): we speak with French security researcher Baptiste Robert about research on the social media accounts pushing the french “Yellow Vest” protests. Surprise, surprise: they’re not french. Also: Brian Fox of the firm Sonatype joins us to talk about the recent compromise of the Github event-stream project and why social engineering poses a real risk to the security of the software supply chain.
In this week’s episode (#115), noted hardware enthusiast and hacker Joe Grand (aka “Kingpin”) told reporters from Bloomberg that finding an in-the-wild supply chain hack implanting malicious hardware on motherboards was akin to witnessing “a unicorn jumping over a rainbow.” They went with their story about just such an attack anyway. Joe joins us in the Security Ledger studios to talk about whether Bloomberg got it right. Also, Adam Meyers of Crowdstrike comes into the studio to talk about the U.S. Department of Justice indictment of seven Russian nationals. Adam talks about the hacks behind the charges and what comes next.
A report by Bloomberg alleging a massive operation by China’s Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) to plant spy hardware on servers used by some of the U.S.’s most high profile corporations is being refuted by tech vendors Apple as well as Amazon, who contend that no such compromises took place. The report written by Jordon Robinson and Michael Riley and released Thursday says that PLA agents implanted tiny surveillance chips on server motherboards manufactured by Super Micro Computer. The devices, no larger than a pencil tip, could give Chinese agents access to and control over critical hardware used by Apple Computer, Amazon and other large, U.S. firms, including financial services firms and intelligence agencies, the report says. [You might also want to read: Massive Facebook Breach Affects 90 Million Accounts] If true, the incident would be one of the most serious uses of a so-called “supply chain” hack, in which sophisticated adversaries […]
