Hello friend 👋

I've spent the week down in sunny Wiltshire; working from the in-law's home. Trying to remain productive whilst out of my home office (the one you see in my YouTube videos) can be challenging. No super-wide display, no dedicated desk, no blazing-fast Internet connection. But, with enough organisation, you can achieve anything.

In the evenings I've been laying the groundwork for my new workshops and email crash courses, got a new website in the pipeline to showcase it all, and messaged a lot of you on LinkedIn. I love answering your questions and we should keep doing it whilst I have the capacity for 1-on-1 time.

This week's cyber news has been quite tasty. Here are some of the highlights you should read up on:

Hive leaks Tata's data

The Hive ransomware-as-a-service group claimed responsibility for the attack on India's largest power company, Tata Power. The threat actor leaked some of the stolen data, probably because Tata refused to pay the ransom and made efforts to recover without the help of the ransomware gang. Here's a screenshot of the index of the stolen data:

Fortunately, Tata's systems appear to be operational, which is good for the people that rely on Tata for energy within the country. Microsoft's intelligence team noted that the Hive ransomware was updated recently and rewritten from Go to Rust, making it faster and more stable during encryption. No matter what cyber security team you're on, knowing about ransomware and the impact it has on supply chains is crucial.

7th Google Chrome zero-day exploit this year

Chrome is a very popular web browser. I'm mostly a Safari user, but on occasion, I have to run Chrome. My LinkedIn analytics provider requires it to verify their plugin, for example. If you're a Chrome user, be careful what you're doing online, because the latest zero-day in Chrome is being actively exploited in the wild. You should be on version 107 to close the loop on this zero-day.

You can get in touch with me by simply hitting reply. I respond to every email that hits my inbox.

Until next week,

Gary ✌️

Fun Things This Week

📽 My New Video

1 Simple Way to Learn Hacking for FREE: I'm a huge fan of platforms like Hack The Box, but when you're starting out on the offensive security side, it's worth having a play with Metasploitable. It's an oldie but a goodie! And it works without the Internet or a subscription!

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🎙Podcasts

Johannes discussed the new critical OpenSSL (encryption) vulnerability in Thursday's SANS Internet Storm Centre podcast. Encryption is the ultimate security mechanism for the Internet, so this one is pretty important.

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📘 Books

I had to make a tough choice: a cyber book or a cooking book. My stomach won, so I ordered the Bob's Burgers Burger Book and I think I'll probably go full Bob for Halloween. Bless the man, he works hard. If you're a fan of the show and you like to cook, this book might be up your street!

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👾 Cool Tools

Mangle is a tool that helps malware loaders evade on-disk and in-memory scanners using a range of obfuscation techniques. If you'd like to test Mangle, you could install this open-source EDR first 👇

​Whids is an open-source Endpoint Detection and Response tool for Windows. I need to test this one out myself but it looks like a great little project for us all to tinker with.

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If you've written a tool and you'd like me to see it, just drop me an email!

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P.S. Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links and help support my content. Thank you for your support! ✌️

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