CyberWire Daily

Please enjoy this encore of Career Notes.

Payal Chakravarty, Head of Product for Security and Risk from Coalition, sits down to share her story of working at several different organizations, including interning for IBM and Microsoft. After obtaining her master's degree, she worked with IBM a bit more closely and fell in love with one of the projects she was working on. Payal had a very interesting career path going from physical to virtual, virtual to cloud now, cloud to containers. She says that there is still some bias she has dealt with as a woman in her field, she says, "I think the way you handle it is you negotiate or you kind of calmly handle the situation, there's no ego involved." Payal shares that in working in this field you need to be in love with it, giving the advice that don't just choose a job because of the money or because it's cool, but because you feel connected to it as a profession. We thank Payal for sharing her story.
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In this special edition of CyberWire Daily’s 10th anniversary series, N2K CyberWire's Maria Varmazis and Dave Bittner discuss cybersecurity geopolitics and warfare that have been in the news over the past 10 years.

We begin our conversation around the supply chain malware from the destructive NotPetya campaign out of Russia, then Maria and Dave highlight: Olympic Destroyer disrupting the Pyeongchang Games, CozyBear's SolarWinds espionage campaign, the Colonial Pipeline ransomware disruption, Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine paired with Viasat hack, Iranian hackers attacking ICS devices at water treatment plants in Israel, and China's VoltTyphoon and SaltTyphoon intrusions in critical sectors.

Join us as we reflect on the escalation from election interference and disruption, to espionage and ransomware as national security crises, to integration in kinetic war,and now expansion into space, with AI-driven defenses and NATO codifying cyber as a collective defense domain.
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Mark Kelly, Staff Threat Researcher at Proofpoint, is discussing their work on "I’d come running back to EU again: TA416 resumes European government espionage campaigns." China-linked threat group TA416 has resumed large-scale phishing and malware campaigns targeting European governments, diplomatic missions tied to the EU and NATO, and more recently Middle Eastern entities following the outbreak of conflict in Iran.

The group has continually evolved its tactics between mid-2025 and early 2026, using techniques like fake Cloudflare verification pages, Microsoft OAuth redirect abuse, and malicious C# project files to deliver customized PlugX malware through spearphishing campaigns. Researchers say the renewed activity reflects shifting geopolitical priorities tied to EU-China tensions, the Russia-Ukraine war, and instability in the Middle East, while highlighting TA416’s ongoing focus on intelligence gathering against diplomatic networks.

The research and executive brief can be found here:


I’d come running back to EU again: TA416 resumes European government espionage campaigns

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CISA orders rapid patching of actively exploited Ivanti zero-day. Canvas gets hacked during finals week. Dirty Frag is a new Linux zero-day. Researchers document a serious Claude Chrome extension bug. Meta ends Instagram encryption. PCPJack malware clean house before moving in. A new report highlights quantum-era cryptographic threats. Cloudflare announces layoffs amidst AI deployment. Sri Lankan police shut down a scam center. Maria Varmazis joins me to look back at ten years of geopolitics in cyber. Vibe coding reveals valuable data. 

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CyberWire Guest

Today we’re previewing a special edition of CyberWire Daily’s 10th anniversary series, where N2K CyberWire’s Maria Varmazis and Dave Bittner revisit a decade of cyber geopolitics and warfare.

Selected Reading

CISA gives feds four days to patch Ivanti flaw exploited as zero-day (Bleeping Computer)

​​Hackers ate my homework: Educational SaaS Canvas down after cyberattack (The Register)

New Linux 'Dirty Frag' zero-day gives root on all major distros (Bleeping Computer)

Flaw in Claude’s Chrome extension allowed ‘any’ other plugin to hijack victims’ AI (CyberScoop)

Meta U-turns on encryption push for Instagram as DMs go plaintext (The Register)

‘PCPJack’ Worm Removes TeamPCP Infections, Steals Credentials (Security Week)

Quantum Risk Explained (Recorded Future)

Building for the future (Cloudflare)

Sri Lanka makes 37 arrests as it raids another scam centre (Bitdefender)

Thousands of Vibe-Coded Apps Expose Corporate and Personal Data on the Open Web (WIRED)

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CISA pushes critical infrastructure to prepare for offline operations during cyberattacks. Questions grow over a shared U.S.-China AI threat. A Russian university is accused of feeding talent into GRU cyber units. Researchers warn poisoned data could quietly corrupt enterprise AI. LinkedIn faces a GDPR fight over monetizing user data. Millions downloaded fake Android call-history apps before Google pulled them. Dragos reports AI-assisted targeting of OT systems. A California man is sentenced in a $250 million crypto theft ring. Our guest is Asdrúbal Pichardo, CEO of Squalify, who wonders if banks are ready for worst-case cyber disruptions. A bandwidth bandit brakes bullet trains.

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Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you’ll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn.

CyberWire Guest

Today we are joined by Asdrúbal Pichardo, CEO of Squalify, sharing insights on  “Are banks ready for worst-case cyber disruptions amidst geopolitical tensions?"

Selected Reading

New CISA initiative aims for critical infrastructure to operate offline during cyberattacks (The Record)

The U.S. and China Have a Common Foe. Hint: It’s Not the U.S.S.R. (New York Times)

Revealed: Russia’s top secret spy school teaching hacking and election meddling (The Guardian)

Poisoned truth: The quiet security threat inside enterprise AI (CSO Online)

Noyb cries foul on LinkedIn withholding profile visitor data (The Register)

Fake call logs, real payments: How CallPhantom tricks Android users (We Live Security)

AI in the Breach: How an Adversary Leveraged AI to Target a Water Utility’s OT (Dragos)

Polish intelligence warns hackers attacked water treatment control systems (The Record)

Crypto gang member gets 6.5 years for role in $230 million heist (Bleeping Computer)

Student hacked Taiwan high-speed rail to trigger emergency brakes (Bleeping Computer)

Share your feedback.

What do you think about CyberWire Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us continue to improve our show.

Want to hear your company in the show?

N2K CyberWire helps you reach the industry’s most influential leaders and operators, while building visibility, authority, and connectivity across the cybersecurity community. Learn more at sponsor.thecyberwire.com.

The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc.
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