Beers with Talos

Threats, beers and no silver bullets

Listen to Talos security experts as they bring their hot takes on current security topics and Talos research to the table. Along the way Hazel, Mitch, Matt and a rotating chair of special guests will talk about anything (and we mean anything) that's on their minds, from the latest YouTube trends to Olympic curling etiquette. New episodes every other Thursday.

  • Beers with Talos
    August 12, 2022

    Beers with Talos Ep. #111: Saying farewell to Craig and his killer robots

    [Re-uploaded to fix an audio gap.] Yes, we’ve been sitting on this one for a while. But it’s worth it, we promise! We wanted to wait until we had more news to share, so it’s finally time to announce that Craig has left us. We will absolutely miss Craig, but look forward to the next act of Beers with Talos now that 2/5ths of the original crew is gone. We take the time to reminisce with Craig about his time at Talos and talk about this new trend of “bandwidth-sharing” applications. Stay tuned to BWT Ep. #112 where we’ll debut with a new host!

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    Run Time: 00:47:10
  • Beers with Talos
    August 12, 2022

    Beers with Talos, Ep. #110: The 10 most-exploited vulnerabilities this year (You won't believe No. 6!)

    We mainly spend this episode doing some catching up because it’s been a while since we recorded. But on the actual, helpful, front, we discuss a recently released list of the vulnerabilities that are most often exploited in the wild, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

    It’s particularly interesting to compare the lists from 2020 and 2021 to see how threat actors have changed up their tactics and parse through all the information to tell you what you need to know. It’s also important to question these types of reports and how helpful they are to defenders.

    This is also a great episode for any Snort fans out there who are interested in the old days of writing rules for some Y2K-era malware.

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    Run Time: 00:54:36
  • Beers with Talos
    August 12, 2022

    Kaseya it ain't so

    Summer hacking, happened so fast….
    We’ve been trying to enjoy our summer, but supply chain attacks just had to go and ruin the fun. So Mitch got back from fishing and decided to pull the guys together to discuss the Kaseya supply chain attack. We cover this major event BWT-style, and talk phony patches, mitigation strategies, and unsolicited advice for Kaseya’s CISO. For more, you can also watch our recent live stream with Nick Biasini covering everything you need to know about this attack.
    Also, if you want more Beers with Talos (and you’re listening to this the day it’s released) join us over on the Cisco Twitter account on Thursday, Aug. 5 for a #TalosTakeover. We can’t believe they’re letting us do this, either.

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    Run Time: 00:52:39
  • Beers with Talos
    August 12, 2022

    Beers with Talos Ep. #109: We have not secured our society — Or, working out a conference talk in realtime

    Most of the Beers with Talos folks are refreshed after a summer vacation. But don’t assume that means they actually prepared for this episode. This is more of a free-flowing episode, where we discuss cyber conflict between nations — one of the many things that keep Matt up at night. They go back and forth discussing what a “cyber war” could actually look like, and what crosses the line into conflict versus traditional “hacktivism.”

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    Run Time: 00:53:59
  • Beers with Talos
    August 12, 2022

    Beers with Talos Ep. #121: The ghost of conferences past

    We wanted to prep for the RSA/Cisco Live stretch of June by looking back on security conferences past. Mitch, Matt and Liz got together to talk about their best and worst conference memories. Plus, Mitch has an overview of everything Talos is doing at RSA and Cisco Live, including a LIVE episode of Beers with Talos next week at RSA. There is a little security talk at least, as we also cover the latest goings on between the Conti ransomware group and Costa Rica’s government.

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    Run Time: 00:29:10
  • Beers with Talos
    August 12, 2022

    Beers with Talos Ep. #124: There's no such thing as "I have nothing to hide"

    We’ve all heard that popular refrain by now: “Well I have nothing to hide so I don’t care if the government sees my data.” This week, we tell these people they are completely wrong. Ashlee Benge joins the show to discuss her upcoming BlackHat talk on the types of data and personal information health apps track. This has taken on special importance in the overturning of Roe vs. Wade in the U.S, making many forms of abortion illegal in many states. Ashlee talks about how women’s health apps may be compelled to cooperate with law enforcement agencies now after the Supreme Court ruling. We also have a complete rundown of all things Talos happening at BlackHat next week.
    Also, this is unfortunately Liz’s last episode with Beers with Talos. Please bear with us as we figure out the next chapter of the show. Don’t worry though, we’re not going anywhere!

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    Run Time: 00:38:40
  • Beers with Talos
    August 12, 2022

    Beers with Talos Ep. #123 (FIXED!): Hunting for ransomware actors on *whispers* the dark web

    Re-uploaded on July 22, 2022 to fix audio issues —

    We’re back from RSA, Cisco Live and COVID breaks (yes, those things are all absolutely related). Paul Eubanks joins the show to talk about his recent blog post on unmasking ransomware actors on the dark web. He’ll go over several different tactics he and his team use to remove actors’ anonymity that’s so important when actors are working on these websites. Liz provides her take on this from an Incident Response perspective, and Matt semi-pays attention as he ponders how much he hates The Carpenters.

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    Run Time: 00:35:35
  • Beers with Talos
    August 12, 2022

    Beers with Talos Ep. #116: Let's talk about the Olympics (but not in the way you were expecting)

    Most people would expect us to approach the Winter Olympics from a security perspective. Why are athletes using burner phones? Are we worried about any state-sponsored attacks? Not this year, folks! Instead, we rank each country’s curling uniforms, discuss the origins of ski jumping and debate which events would be the most difficult to compete in.

    On the actual cybersecurity front, we did carve out some time to discuss two state-sponsored threat actors Talos has written about recently: AridViper and MuddyWater. We look at the maldocs involved in these campaigns and their targets. Matt also expounds on his multiple Twitter threads around the current situation in Ukraine.

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    Run Time: 00:45:22
  • Beers with Talos
    May 24, 2021

    [CROSS-BROADCAST]Security Stories Ep. 27: Dealing with stress, burnout and mental health in the threat intelligence industry

    This is a very different episode in that it isn’t really a BWT episode at all. Hazel Burton from the Security Stories podcast invited Matt and Mitch to come on with the leader of Talos, Matt Watchinski. The idea was to chat with Hazel and her co-hosts Ben and Sana about burnout from three levels of a security research team. What followed as we all started talking was real and unfiltered conversation from many very different points of view. We talked about what has worked, what hasn’t, and our own struggles with self-care while trying to take care of our respective teams, families, and friends – hopefully some of our collective experience is useful to you.

    Original broadcast - Security Stories podcast, ep 27

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    Run Time: 00:58:48
  • Beers with Talos
    May 18, 2021

    Supply Chain has Matt Hopping Mad Like a Kangaroo

    Recorded March 30, 2021 – What better way to discuss supply chain attacks than to have Matt demonstrate how easily you can blend your payload into normal operations via Twitter shenanigans? We’re talking about (surprise!) supply chain attacks and how their rise to prevalence is notable, albeit expected. Supply chain gets linked in with privacy concerns as we round out the ep discussing the Signal/Cellebrite situation. Listen to the episode before you read Matt’s tweet (linkedin the full show notes) and see if you can pick the words that were part of his little reindeer game. Your prize is the achievement of a job well done. See the full show notes on the Talos blog

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    Run Time: 00:43:50
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