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- [00:02]
Announcer
You're listening to the Cyberwire Network powered by N2K.
- [00:13]
Host
Looking to understand the cybersecurity risks emerging beyond Earth's atmosphere?
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
In the weekly Signals in Space newsletter,
- [00:21]
Host
T Minus host Maria Vermazes and producer Ethan Cook connect the dots between terrestrial infrastructure and the growing attack surface in space. Each week you'll get the latest space
- [00:31]
Co-host (Dave Bittner)
cyber headlines, direct access to the week's
- [00:34]
Host
T Minus podcast conversation, plus expert insights and resources to help security professionals better
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
understand this rapidly evolving domain.
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Host
Space systems are becoming critical. Infrastructure Signals in Space helps you stay
- [00:49]
Co-host (Dave Bittner)
ahead of the threats shaping the next frontier.
- [00:52]
Host
Subscribe now to the Signals in Space newsletter.
- [01:04]
Announcer
When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit@ Indeed.com podcast. That's Indeed.com podcast terms and conditions App Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.
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Host
Emergency talks Fail to free anthropics Fable 5 Trump moves to strengthen national security systems Microsoft patches a critical copilot flaw Shiny hunters weaponizes a PeopleSoft zero day Dragon Force hides in Microsoft Teams for months plus Amostealer targets Max Cisa is issues a three day patch deadline Delta avoids penalties and researchers show just how easy it is to manipulate AI search.
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
Our guest is Mike Fay, co founder
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Host
and CEO at Island, discussing the architectural differences between network and modern SASE and consulting meets Confabulation. It's Tuesday, june 16, 2026.
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
I'm dave bittner and this is your cyberwire intel briefing.
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Host
Thanks for joining us here today.
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
It's great as always to have you with us.
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Host
The Trump administration has decided to keep
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
export controls in place on Anthropic's most advanced AI models following emergency talks over concerns that users can bypass safety restrictions built into the company's systems. At the center of the dispute is Claude Fable 5, a public facing model that Anthropic says includes safeguards designed to limit access to advanced cybersecurity biology and chemistry capabilities. Administration officials, however, remain concerned that those guardrails can be circumvented, effectively giving users access to the more powerful capabilities of Anthropic's Mythos model. The issue surfaced last week after Amazon reportedly alerted administration officials to potential vulnerabilities. The concerns were serious enough that the National Security Agency was asked to review the findings, according to people familiar with the process. The NSA concluded that it was possible to remove or bypass some of Fable 5's protections, helping drive the decision to impose export restrictions. Anthropic strongly disagrees with that assessment. Company executives and security researchers traveled to Washington for meetings with the Commerce Department, arguing that the administration has overstated the risks. The company says Fable 5 safeguards remain effective and that the restrictions are unjustified.
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Host
The debate has spilled into the cybersecurity community.
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
More than 100 security experts signed an open letter urging the government to reverse the controls. They argue that anthropics models are valuable defensive tools but are not uniquely capable compared to other leading AI systems. The dispute is now being watched closely
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Host
across the AI industry.
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
Beyond Anthropic, the episode signals that the US Government may be willing to intervene directly when it believes advanced AI models present national security risks. AI companies are increasingly expected to provide early visibility into major model releases and to maintain close communication with federal officials before deploying frontier systems.
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Host
President Trump has signed national security Presidential
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
Memorandum 12, aimed at strengthening cybersecurity protections for the nation's most sensitive government networks. The directive covers national security systems used for classified information, military operations and intelligence missions. The memorandum re establishes and modernizes the Committee on National Security Systems, giving it authority to set baseline security requirements, coordinate cybersecurity efforts across agencies, and issue emergency directives. It also designates the National Security Agency as the national manager for these systems. Agencies must maintain and regularly update inventories of their national security systems while the committee is tasked with reviewing and updating cybersecurity policies over the next 90 days.
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Host
Microsoft has patched a critical vulnerability in Microsoft 365 copilot enterprise that could allow
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
attackers to steal sensitive organizational data through a single malicious link dubbed Search Leak. The flaw combined prompt injection, browser rendering behavior and a Bing server side request mechanism to exfiltrate information from emails, files and other corporate data sources accessible to a victim. Researchers describe it as an example of an AI native attack that weaponizes existing web security weaknesses. Microsoft applied the fix to its cloud infrastructure earlier this month, so customers do not need to take action. Those security teams are advised to monitor for suspicious copilot search URLs and educate users about clicking complex links.
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Host
The cybercriminal group Shiny Hunters has been
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
linked to an active extortion campaign exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability in Oracle PeopleSoft, according to researchers at Mandiant and Google Threat Intelligence Group. The attackers targeted more than 100 organizations worldwide between late May and early June with universities and colleges, accounting for nearly 70% of those affected.
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Host
The campaign abused a critical remote code
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
execution flaw that allowed attackers to compromise vulnerable PeopleSoft systems without authentication. Once inside, Shiny Hunters deployed disguised remote management tools, mapped victim environments, and stole sensitive data for use in extortion attempts. Several organizations successfully blocked the attacks, but others saw stolen information published on the group's leak site. Researchers are urging organizations running Oracle PeopleSoft to immediately secure exposed systems review logs for suspicious activity and search for signs of unauthorized access.
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Host
Researchers at Symantec and Carbon Black say
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
the Dragon Force ransomware group maintained covert access to a major U.S. services firm for as long as two months before launching its attack. The attackers used a custom Go based remote access Trojan called Backdoor Turn that hid command and control traffic inside legitimate Microsoft Teams communications by abusing Teams Relay infrastructure. This made malicious traffic appear as normal connections to Microsoft servers. The group also used a vulnerability in a Huawei driver and made multiple system changes to maintain persistence, including creating accounts, modifying firewall rules, and weakening security settings. Researchers believe the initial intrusion likely came through a vulnerable SQL or Microsoft SQL Server. The attackers ultimately exfiltrated data and deployed Dragon Force ransomware, highlighting what researchers describe as exceptionally sophisticated tradecraft and stealth capabilities.
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Host
Amostealer continues to be a highly active
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
macOS focused information stealer, reflecting a broader trend of threat actors increasingly targeting Apple environments. In a recent campaign, researchers at Cyberproof observed the malware using a malicious curl command to silently download and execute payloads that launch AppleScript based data collection. The malware harvests browser credentials, cookies, autofill data, cryptocurrency related information, and the macOS keychain database. It also targets developer and configuration files such as SSH keys and kubernetes credentials. Collected data is staged, compressed into an archive, and exfiltrated to attacker controlled infrastructure in 10 megabyte chunks using HTTP requests designed to blend in to normal traffic. Researchers say AmoStealer deploys validation checks, retry mechanisms, and cleanup routines to improve reliability and evade detection, underscoring the growing need for behavioral monitoring and endpoint hardening on macOS systems.
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Host
CISA has ordered US Federal agencies to secure systems affected by an actively exploited
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
LiteSpeed cPanel plugin vulnerability within three days. The flaw affects multiple versions and can allow attackers with FTP or Web shell access to escalate privileges to root on vulnerable Cloud, Linux and CAGE FS servers. LiteSpeed disclosed active exploitation earlier this month and released Security Updates. CISA has now added the vulnerability to its known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, warning that flaws like this are frequently targeted by threat actors and pose significant risks to government networks.
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Host
The Trump administration has closed a federal
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
investigation into Delta Air Lines response to the July 2024 CrowdStrike related outage without imposing penalties. The disruption affected roughly 1.3 million customers and cost Delta an estimated $500 million. The probe, launched under the Biden administration, examined why Delta's recovery lagged behind other major airlines. Delta the Transportation Department concluded that affected passengers received prompt refunds, baggage assistance and support for travelers with disabilities. Delta welcomed the decision, citing the extensive customer assistance it provided during the unprecedented industry wide outage. New research from Cornell University suggests that AI powered search and deep research agents can be manipulated with surprisingly little effort. Researchers found that as few as 13 words of user generated content on sites like Reddit, Quora or Wikipedia can influence the responses produced by tools such as ChatGPT and Google's AI search. The study examined how AI systems rely on content retrieved from user generated platforms, which account for nearly a quarter of cited sources. In some queries, researchers demonstrated that short promotional phrases inserted into otherwise ordinary posts could cause AI systems to recommend fake products, services or businesses. In their answers, the findings highlight growing concerns around AI Engine Optimization, or aeo, an emerging industry focused on influencing AI search results by seeding online communities with targeted content. Researchers warn that because these attacks can be subtle and blend into normal discussions, moderators may struggle to detect them, placing increasing pressure on AI companies to develop stronger defenses against manipulated source material.
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Host
Coming up after the break, my conversation with Mike Fish Fay, co founder and CEO at Island. We're discussing the architectural differences between network
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
and modern SASE and consulting meets Confabulation. Stick around.
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Host
What's the one thing in business that's spreading as fast as AI?
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
AI risk Every new tool your team signs up for. Every vendor that turns on AI features, every new integration each one creates another opportunity for something to go wrong. And most security programs just weren't built for AI's pace of growth. Enter Vanta.
- [14:33]
Host
Vanta is the number one agentic trust
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
platform used by more than 16,000 fast moving companies like Ramp, Cursor and Harvey to help ensure they're always audit ready. And now Vanta is helping companies watch
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Host
for the risks that show up between
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
audits across vendors, AI tools and their entire environment. The Vanta agent works like a 24.7grc engineer in the background, finding issues, drafting fixes and cutting vendor assessment time by up to 50%. Whether you're a fast growing startup or a global enterprise, Vanta is here to
- [15:10]
Host
help you automate your security and compliance
- [15:13]
Co-host (Dave Bittner)
and earn and prove trust. Get started today@vanta.com cyber that's V A N T A dot com cyber.
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Sponsor Voice
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Host
Mike Fay is co founder and CEO
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
at Island and in today's sponsored Industry
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Host
Voices conversation we discuss the architectural differences
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
between network and modern sase.
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Mike Fay
The architecture that SASE replaced was a heavy on prem hardware centric architecture. And SASE allowed organizations to find a better cost structure, a more nimble approach to secure networking, and one that in would allow us to start to reach across our user base to where they were at. Right. We started to embrace people outside the office a little bit. We started to embrace SaaS properties, you know, ServiceNow, Salesforce type things. And so it was the first rev of the recognition that the network was changing.
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Host
And so over the past few years, what has changed that's made folks start questioning whether those initial assumptions still hold?
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Mike Fay
Yeah, so when we thought of the SASE environment and we built ours back at blue code and Zscaler showed up on the scene and then there were other competitors that showed up after that. The thought process was a very Data center centric one. You had a small amount of SaaS properties people were going to, but the data center was still a very important part of the thought process. As we've grown, as we've evolved, as the world has changed. Now if you think about a normal end user, you have entire groups of large worker populations that just interact with cloud based applications. Right. Office 365 Salesforce Workday. You know, my entire Salesforce touches nothing but cloud applications for instance. And that's where the challenge starts to come in. Then you overlay that with increased encryption requirements, the cert pinning, organizations not supporting you if you have a man in the middle. And now you have an additional challenge which is we can't see inside the traffic like we used to. So what's evolved is this weird state that says SASE was the answer, but now it's blind to a big chunk of the traffic. It's not architecturally where you need it to be to provide value. And it's becoming a Very cost prohibitive and almost as importantly, a source of outages because of the complexity that is being a man in the middle with a haulback traveling approach to the traffic.
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Host
Well, I know you've made the case
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
that traditional SASE is solving the wrong problem. I'm curious, if a security strategy depends on seeing and inspecting traffic, what happens when that visibility starts to disappear?
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Mike Fay
Yeah, the traditional SASE environments see about 30% of the real world traffic. Now they're blind to 70%. They're blind to things like office Slack, Claude. You know, things that matter. When you lose that visibility, you can't enforce security's will. So they have to put more stuff on the endpoint. You end up with additional tooling, additional, you know, approaches to do that. And the loss of visibility has given rise to complexity and cost, pushed to the endpoint to try to shore up these blind spots. And it's not working anymore. And we need to evolve to something that sees all the traffic. And the way to do that is to breed pre and post encryption. You don't want to be a man in the middle enforcing your will anymore. That is not a viable path. Nor is backhauling traffic to locations not required. You know, when we built this concept of that backhaul, the networks aren't what they are today. The best networks in the world now are the hyperscalers, right? It's, you know, gcp, it's Azure, it's Amazon, and the list goes on. Those are the networks you want to get to as fast as possible, and they're right outside your door. So backhauling to a point of presence that can't break the encryption, that can't see inside of it. It's an archaic way to do things that breaks yet more with things like AI agents and quantum encryption and the like. So I really do believe the days of the traditional SASE approach are numbered. And they're coming at us much faster than we expected.
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
Well, I want to dig into to all of these things here. Let's start with AI. What is fundamentally different about these AI driven workflows?
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Mike Fay
Yeah, so if you look at one AI agent, not much thinking about it like another end user just running in a different location is a valid conceptual way to think about what it's doing. Right. It's instead of a physical user, a human user, it's a artificial user. Great. The difference is the size, scale and connectivity requirements. So we can have one person, could have hundreds, thousands of agents working for them. They don't take a break, they're constantly communicating, they're constantly running, they're constantly engaged, and they're communicating often over an encrypted or cert pin path that you can't see inside of. So when you think about pulling all that traffic back to some scrubbing station, you start to realize one, that's financially not viable. Two, it doesn't hold up and it doesn't add value and it puts in latency and outages we don't need. So that's really the idea. Those networks were built at employee scale. AI scale is many times, if not hundreds or thousands of times bigger, but way more streamlined if you let it be. And that's the rubber. The size and scale and persistent nature of an agent is very different than a typical end user.
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Host
Yeah, I think it's fair to say
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
that AI has certainly been reshaping security. But quantum computing is another major technological shift that's on the horizon here. How do you see these two trends intersecting?
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Mike Fay
Yeah, let's start with quantum. I think quantum is a big game changer for network security because now your level of encrypt has to go up so dramatically. And we used to think this was out in 2036 or some very far off time, and now experts are saying it's 2029, and it will not shock me if that moves forward again. And what I'm talking about is the time where quantum compute is available to an attacker to unencrypt your traffic. So today I could sit and listen to your traffic, and in that traffic might be very important data, but I can't unencrypt it. So it's as if I never heard it. But if I can record that traffic today and then take it to a quantum computer tomorrow, I will see everything inside of it that terrifies banks, Department of Defenses, you know, anyone doing something strategic will be operating in the clear, will be operating in open text, basically. So we have to up our level of encryption so that that's not possible. Well, to do that, think of encryption changing from a password like you use today. 12 characters, you know, caps, special cases or special exclamation marks or whatever it is you use to all of Webster's Dictionary arranged in a unique order for each of us. And now you want to set up the traditional security of break and inspect at that level of encryption. Even if you could do it, you couldn't afford the hardware. The access to the GPUs required, the latency that would incur. So knowing that's out there, there is a shelf life on this Old approach of break and inspect. And that shelf life is very clear and we're seeing customers start to embrace it. And the complexity to try to elongate this shelf life is causing outages and expense. So we're headed to a serious rethinking of our network infrastructure.
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Host
So if I'm a CISO evaluating my
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
security strategy today, what sort of things should be on my short term planning?
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Mike Fay
Yeah, I think you want to think about the future of the network and an endpoint centric network because you'll be pre and post encryption. You want user traffic to go directly to where it needs to. We don't need to reroute it, we don't need to backhaul it. Those are antiquated concepts and we need to think at agent scale. How does all this work when my user population isn't my employee count, it's my employee count plus the manifestations of their agents. Right. So a company that's 50,000 users might have to support an environment that feels like half a million. There are very few companies on this planet set up to do that. And that's where the cyber security experts have to start focusing, which is this shift to true cloud based compute at AI scale. What is the network of the future in cybersecurity? The future look like? And all roads point back to pre and post encryption enforcement. And if you do it right, it should save you significant money. It should be way better security, but it'll set you up for the next run of what we see now on the horizon between AI and quantum.
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Host
You know, Mike, I think you've been
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
at this long enough that you've witnessed multiple major technology transitions in cybersecurity. I'm curious, how does this moment compare to the previous shifts that you've witnessed?
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Mike Fay
You know, it is so different, but I would say 90% of cybersecurity is treating it as the same. So what do I mean by that? The bulk of cyber right now is talking about the bad guy, how AI is going to make the bad guy more capable. When we were moving to the cloud, it was all about how the bad guy would have access to the cloud. When we moved to sas, it was all about how the bad guy, the mobile, it was all about what the bad guy's going to do. And we're doing that again. And then the new technology, it's all about how to secure it. Right. How do we protect ourselves from bad things Claude might do? How do we make sure that, you know, we have control over it and we can govern it? And all that good stuff. And there's nothing wrong with that logic. But I believe the difference here, what makes this so special, it's not a new set of tech, it's not a new platform, it's not a new way of running. It is a new capacity of thought and execution. AI can fundamentally make the first giant systemic change in cybersecurity. AI is the answer, not the problem. I look at AI as the fundamental thing that could make cybersecurity finally deliver a massive level of protection, that a breach is a rarity instead of a common event. And I think that's what this moment represents. And like true fundamental changing moments, not everybody sees it because change is hard. We know a playbook that works, but you gotta throw that out. We can fundamentally change cybersecurity forever and now's the moment we get to do that. And I think most of cyber still running the old way, but there's some of us focused on that new path. And I think we will see in the next couple years we will see cybersecurity start to become a problem that is actually solved for some companies where they really are truly secure. And it'll take good tech, it'll take great usage of AI. It won't be cheap to do at first, but it will be outrageously powerful. And this is the moment where cybersecurity can change forever. This isn't a step function change. This is monumental. And it's the most exciting time ever in cybersecurity.
- [28:16]
Host
That's Mike Fay, co founder and CEO at Island.
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Sponsor Voice
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- [29:34]
Co-host (Dave Bittner)
And finally, KPMG has quietly withdrawn a report on the promise of agentic AI after several organizations featured in the document said the examples attributed to them were inaccurate. The report titled Redefining Excellence in the age of agentic AI drew scrutiny after researchers at GPT0 identified what they described as AI generated inaccuracies, suggesting the report may have fallen victim to one of the very technologies it was discussing. Among those disputing the report's claims were UBS, the UK's National Health Service, Swiss Federal Railways, and Transport for London, all of which told the Financial Times that descriptions of their AI use were either misleading or simply untrue. KPMG says it has removed the report while conducting an internal review and reiterated that employees are expected to verify AI generated content through human oversight. The episode follows a similar incident last month when EY withdrew a report that reportedly contained fabricated citations, adding another chapter to the growing challenge of using AI to write about AI without becoming part of the cautionary tale.
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Host
And that's the Cyberwire.
- [31:11]
Co-host (Dave Bittner)
For links to all of today's stories,
- [31:13]
Host
check out our daily briefing@thecyberwire.com we'd love to know what you think of this podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights
- [31:22]
Co-host (Dave Bittner)
that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing world of cybersecurity.
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Host
If you like our show, please share
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Co-host (Dave Bittner)
a rating and review in your favorite podcast.
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Host
Please also fill out the survey in the show notes or send an email
- [31:34]
Co-host (Dave Bittner)
to cyberwire2k.com N2K's lead producers, Liz Stokes, were mixed by Trey Hester with original music and sound design by Elliot Peltzman. Our contributing host is Maria Vermazes.
- [31:48]
Host
Our executive producer is Jennifer Ibin.
- [31:51]
Co-host (Dave Bittner)
Peter Kilpe is our publisher and I'm Dave Bittner. Thanks for listening. We'll see you back here tomorrow.
- [32:13]
Announcer
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