CyberWire Daily

Venezuela’s state oil company blames a cyberattack on the U.S. An Iranian hacker group offers cash bounties for doxing Israelis. Germany’s lower house of parliament suffers a major email outage. South Korea’s e-commerce breach exposes personal information of nearly all of that nation’s adults. Researchers report active exploitation of two critical Fortinet authentication bypass vulnerabilities, and three critical vulnerabilities in the FreePBX VoIP platform. An auto-industry credit reporting agency suffers a data breach. Google is shutting down its dark web reporting service. European law enforcement dismantles a Ukrainian fraud network. Our guest is Christiaan Beek, Senior Director Threat Intelligence & Analytics from Rapid7, discussing how attackers are accelerating exploitation, refining ransomware, and expanding nation-state operations. A Pornhub breach proves the internet never forgets.  Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. 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 On today’s Industry Voices segment, guest Christiaan Beek, Senior Director Threat Intelligence & Analytics from Rapid7, discusses how attackers are accelerating exploitation, refining ransomware, and expanding nation-state operations. Dive into the details in Rapid7’s report. Tune into Christiaan's full conversation here. Selected Reading Venezuela Says Oil Export System Down After Weekend Cyberattack (Bloomberg) Iran-linked hackers dox Israelis, offer cash bounties (The Jerusalem Post) German Parliament Allegedly Hit by Email Outage During US-Ukraine Talks Amid Cyberattack Suspicions (TechNadu) Breach at South Korea’s Equivalent of Amazon Exposed Data of Almost Every Adult (Wall Street Journal) Arctic Wolf Observes Malicious SSO Logins on FortiGate Devices Following Disclosure of CVE-2025-59718 and CVE-2025-59719 (Arctic Wolf) Critical authentication bypass and multiple flaws discovered in FreePBX VoIP platform (Beyond Machines) Millions Affected by Massive 700Credit Data Breach (Tech.co) Google Is Shutting Down Its Dark Web Monitoring Tool (Technology.org)  European authorities dismantle call center fraud ring in Ukraine (Bleeping Computer) Porn User Data Stolen—Pornhub ‘Search, Watch And Download’ Activity (Forbes) 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, host Kim Jones tacks a topic that is rapidly moving from theoretical to operational reality: quantum computing. While classical computing will remain the backbone of our systems for years to come, quantum technologies are advancing fast enough that CISOs must begin preparing today. Kim explores what quantum computing really means, why it matters for cybersecurity, and how leaders should begin planning for its inevitable impact. To help demystify the subject, Kim is joined by longtime colleague and cybersecurity practitioner Michael Sottile—now the CSO of a quantum computing firm—who brings decades of hands-on experience across industries and a front-row seat to quantum's evolution. Want more CISO Perspectives? Check out a companion ⁠⁠blog post⁠⁠ by our very own Ethan Cook, where he breaks down key insights, shares behind-the-scenes context, and highlights research that complements this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apple and Google issue emergency updates to patch zero-days.  Google links five additional Chinese state-backed hacking groups to “React2Shell.” France’s Ministry of the Interior was hit by a cyberattack. Atlassian patches roughly 30 third-party vulnerabilities. Microsoft says its December 2025 Patch Tuesday updates are breaking Message Queuing. Researchers uncovered a massive exposed database with nearly 4.3 billion professional records openly accessible online. Britain’s new MI6 chief warns of an “aggressive, expansionist, and revisionist” Russia. Monday Business Brief. On today’s Threat Vector, ⁠Michael Heller⁠ from Unit 42 chats with security leaders ⁠Greg Conti⁠ and ⁠Tom Cross⁠ to unpack the hacker mindset and the idea of “dark capabilities”. A cyber holiday gift guide for the rest of us.  Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. 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. Threat Vector Segment In this segment of Threat Vector, host ⁠Michael Heller⁠, Managing Editor for Cortex and Unit 42 and Executive Producer of the podcast, sits down with long-time security leaders ⁠Greg Conti⁠ and ⁠Tom Cross⁠ to unpack the hacker mindset and the idea of “dark capabilities” inside modern technology companies. You can listen to their full discussion here. Be sure to catch new episodes of Threat Vector by Palo Alto Networks every Thursday on your favorite podcast app. Selected Reading Apple, Google forced to issue emergency 0-day patches (The Register) Google links more Chinese hacking groups to React2Shell attacks (Bleeping Computer) French Interior Ministry confirms cyberattack on email servers (Bleeping Computer) Atlassian Patches Critical Apache Tika Flaw (SecurityWeek) Microsoft: December security updates cause Message Queuing failures (Bleeping Computer) 16TB of MongoDB Database Exposes 4.3 Billion Lead Gen Records (Hackread) MI6 chief warns 'front line is everywhere' and signals intent to pressure Putin (The Record) Saviynt raises $700 million in Series B growth equity financing. (The CyberWire Business Brief) Last-minute cybersecurity and privacy gifts your friends and family won't hate (This Week In Security) 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please enjoy this encore of Career Notes. Chief security officer and chief information officer at Relativity, Amanda Fennell shares her story from archeology to cybersecurity. She shares the path that lead her towards becoming an archeologist and how it turned out not being exactly what she expected. She then shares how she got into the cyber business and how her past has impacted what she's doing now. She describes how she would like to be remembered in the cyber world, she says "I do hope that I left things better than I found them, not just the security of a product or a company, but I believe strongly that every person has a little cyber warrior inside of them." We thank Amanda for sharing her story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Schwalbe, DomainTools Head of Investigations and CISO, is sharing their work on "Inside the Great Firewall." This two-part research project analyzes an extraordinary 500–600GB leak that exposes the internal architecture, tooling, and human ecosystem behind China’s Great Firewall. Across both parts, you break down thousands of leaked documents, source code repositories, diagrams, packet captures, and telemetry that reveal how systems like the Traffic Secure Gateway, MAAT, Redis-based analytics, and modular DPI engines work together to censor, surveil, and fingerprint users at scale. Taken together, the research shows how the Great Firewall functions not just as a technical system, but as a living censorship-industrial complex that adapts, learns, and coordinates across government, telecoms, and security vendors. The research can be found here: Inside the Great Firewall Part 1: The Dump Inside the Great Firewall Part 2: Technical Infrastructure Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices