Beers with Talos (BWT) Podcast episode No. 116 is now available. Download this episode and subscribe to Beers with Talos:

Recorded Feb. 4, 2022.

If iTunes and Google Play aren't your thing, click here.

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.

The timeline:

  • 00:38 — Roundtable: Is this a test to see if you're on acid or MFA?
  • 08:43 — MuddyWater threat actor using very specifically themed maldocs
  • 18:15 — How does Arid Viper compare to MuddyWater?
  • 29:55 — The latest on the situation in Ukraine
  • 39:35 — Parting shots, closing thoughts: Taking mental health breaks in a hotel room

Arid Viper APT targets Palestine with new wave of politically themed phishing attacks, malware

Iranian APT MuddyWater targets Turkish users via malicious PDFs, executables

Who was the real Granny Smith?


Featuring: Liz Waddell (@vlsin) and Matt Olney (@kpyke).
Hosted by Mitch Neff (@MitchNeff).

Subscribe via iTunes (and leave a review!)

Check out the Talos Threat Research Blog

Subscribe to the Threat Source newsletter

Follow Talos on Twitter and Instagram

Give us your feedback and suggestions for topics: beerswithtalos@cisco.com