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Here’s a familiar scenario: A new threat is being whispered about. Maybe your office has someone with special access of some kind and they’re being a bit more secret squirrely than usual. The mailing lists you’re on are a buzz about a new piece of malware or vendor code name. You keep hearing about a paid only report that tells all. APT 46: EMPEROR PENGUIN is coming! When your boss asks about EMPEROR PENGUIN you have to say you don’t know much… but you’ve heard they’re very good, very advanced, well funded, with great opsec… obviously a serious threat aimed at hard targets (which your organization obviously is)....

A few weeks ago while teaching SANS FOR578 one of my students asked a great question by a student: What books or papers should a new cyber threat intelligence analyst read first? It’s a question I’d meant to answer before so instead of just sending back an email (I mean, I emailed back, HI MATT, but along with that) I figured I’d write up my list and have something to reference next time I get asked....

Source: Screenshot Go into a tech interview, especially one for operations or security, and you’re more than likely going to get an interview question like this: “What happens when you put a URL in the address bar of a browser and hit enter?” I’ve been on both ends of this question, asked it and answered it. I’d like to look at what the answer is (or at least one answer), why it’s good, why it’s bad, and what could be better....

Kremlin from the River. Source: Wikipedia. Here it is. After weeks of wondering if and how the United States Government might respond the United States White House, State Dept, Treasury, and US-CERT have released information on and sanctions against the Russian government’s efforts to influence the United States elections. I offer all this without too much analysis given I’ve just seen it myself and expect it will take a long time to digest....

ASIDE: This post gets political. People may agree or disagree based on their own experience or personal belief. I accept that. I’m attempting to use evidence and analytical rigor to reach my conclusions while averting my own bias. If you think I missed the mark on those aspects (evidence or rigor) feel free to reach out to me. If you just disagree with my conclusions then I’d love to see a blog post exploring your own evidence and process....