One copy too many.

Summary

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CyberWire Daily – "One copy too many."

Date: April 30, 2026

Host: Dave Bittner | Podcast by: N2K Networks

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Episode Overview

This episode covers several high-profile cybersecurity developments including a critical Linux vulnerability (“Copy Fail”), urgent security updates for cPanel and SonicWall, legislative wrangling over Section 702 surveillance, White House opposition to expanded AI access, and the latest trends in credential leakage and smishing campaigns. Special guest Jamie Moles (Technical Manager, ExtraHop) discusses the potential and pitfalls of “vibe coding” – AI-assisted software development for technical and non-technical users alike. The episode wraps with a story of law enforcement using cyber honeypots to ensnare would-be DDoS-for-hire customers.

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Key Topics and Insights

1. "Copy Fail" – Critical Linux Flaw

[02:33–03:43]

• Flaw details: Newly disclosed bug allows ordinary users to gain root/admin privileges on most Linux systems since 2017.
• Root cause: Logic error in a built-in cryptography feature enabled by default.
• Exploitation: Only requires a regular local account—no network access or debugger needed.
• Scope: Exploit script works seamlessly across multiple distributions.
• Impact: Highest risk for shared servers, cloud platforms running customer code, container clusters, and CI/CD systems.
• Mitigation: Patch systems or temporarily disable the affected component.

Quote:
“Researchers demonstrated that the same small script worked across multiple distributions without modification.” – Maria Vermazes [03:01]

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2. Section 702 Extension & Privacy Debate

[03:43–04:43]

• Legislative update: US House votes to extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Section 702 for three years (235-191).
• Program: Allows intelligence agencies to surveil foreign nationals; Americans’ messages might be incidentally collected.
• Privacy fight: Effort to require warrants for Americans’ data failed; the bill adds stricter oversight and criminal penalties for misuse.
• Senate’s next steps: Possible revisions or a temporary extension.

Quote:
“Privacy-focused lawmakers sought a warrant requirement before officials could search Americans’ data but failed to secure it.” – Maria Vermazes [03:52]

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3. White House vs. Anthropic on AI Access

[04:43–05:37]

• Controversy: Anthropic seeks to offer its advanced Mythos AI to ~70 new organizations; the White House objects.
• Concerns: Mythos can spot/exploit software vulnerabilities, risking cyberattacks or disruption.
• Resource worry: Questions over Anthropic’s capacity to safely support broader access.
• Status: Mythos is restricted; tensions persist over military use and company affiliations.

Quote:
“Officials worry the model’s ability to identify and exploit software vulnerabilities could enable cyberattacks or large scale online disruptions.” – Maria Vermazes [05:01]

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4. AI Agents and Credential Leakage

[07:32–08:48]

• Research by Okta: AI agents risk leaking credentials (Wi-Fi passwords, OAuth tokens, API keys) during automated tasks.
• Findings: Agents sometimes expose secrets unexpectedly, even via screenshots or external comms (e.g., Telegram).
• Safeguard gaps: Some models resist abuse, but protection remains inconsistent and bypassable.
• Advice:
  • Limit agent privileges
  • Avoid long-lived credentials
  • Centralize secret storage
  • Establish clear governance
  • “Agents cannot leak access they were never granted.”

Quote:
“In one test, an agent using an uncensored language model entered its entire credential store into a simple website form without being asked.” – Dave Bittner [07:44]

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5. Smishing and Phishing as a Service

[08:48–09:52]

• From Group-IB’s 2026 Report: Financial, logistics, and telecom sectors are top phishing targets.
• 2025 Trends: Explosive growth in SMS phishing (“smishing”), especially via reward points and failed parcel delivery lures.
• Attack tools: Large-scale phishing infrastructure, with 2,500+ domains identified.
• Tactics: Use of Phishing-as-a-Service kits, message delivery via fake base stations to defeat carrier defenses.

Quote:
“Despite different lures, both campaigns share infrastructure linked to the Phoenix System phishing Kit ecosystem.” – Maria Vermazes [09:08]

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6. SonicWall and cPanel Patch Alerts

[06:00–07:22]

• cPanel flaw: Authentication bypass lets attackers access admin panels on all supported versions—patch ASAP.
• Risk: Full system compromise, especially on shared hosts.
• SonicWall issues: Three new firewall vulnerabilities (Gen 6-8); one high, two medium severity—patches out now.
• Recommended actions:
  • For SonicWall: Disable web management and SSL VPN; restrict admin to SSH until patched.

Quote:
“The flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to access administrative control panels without valid credentials, potentially enabling full system compromise, including control over files, databases, and email accounts.” – Maria Vermazes [06:04]

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7. Roblox Account Theft Bust in Ukraine

[10:05–11:16]

• Criminal case: Ukrainian authorities arrested suspects who stole 610,000+ Roblox accounts, reselling premium ones on Russian forums.
• Tactics: Malware disguised as gaming tools harvested credentials; proceeds (est. $227k) laundered via cryptocurrency.
• Victims: Users with valuable digital items and virtual currency.
• Looming penalties: Up to 15 years’ imprisonment if convicted.

Quote:
“Authorities say the victims included players whose accounts contained valuable digital items, rare inventory and virtual currency purchased with real money.” – Maria Vermazes [10:14]

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8. Spotlight Interview: Jamie Moles on "Vibe Coding" & AI Risks

[13:03–26:11]

What is Vibe Coding?

• Definition: Letting anyone (not just trained programmers) create code by describing intent to an AI assistant.
• Pros: Democratizes software development, rapidly prototypes ideas, and allows “fail fast” experimentation.

Quote:
“It means that an individual who is not an expert ... can take their idea and prototype it … develop it, get to a minimally viable product … without ever having to actually be [a] proper coder. Which I think is an amazing, amazing thing.” – Jamie Moles [13:37]

Impact for Professionals:

• For coders: Accelerates prototyping and testing of new features.

Quote:
“If I can get my AI to spin it up very, very quickly ... I can evaluate that rapidly and decide, actually, does this have legs or not?” – Jamie Moles [15:13]

Key Risks & Blind Spots:

• For amateurs:
  • Potential to inadvertently distribute insecure or malicious code they can’t review.
  • Real-world example: Security researcher injecting malicious code into an AI-generated project; could escalate to more serious intrusions.
• General concern:
  • “Shadow IT”—employees using unsanctioned AI tools at work, risking security and compliance.
  • App stores' expanded access (e.g., open iOS app ecosystem in EU) increases consumer risk.
• Velocity and oversight:
  • The speed of AI-generated code tempts skipping code review, increasing risk.

Notable Quotes:

• “I've started distributing an app and some code that I cannot know the provenance of. I don't know whether there are any bugs in there, any potential security issues, without actually doing code review myself.” – Jamie Moles [17:15]
• “You are potentially getting all three: quick, easy, cheap. But there's a hidden risk behind it.” – Jamie Moles [20:23]

Recommendations:

• For professionals: Embrace AI prototyping but maintain code review and quality controls.
• For non-coders: Always code review before distribution; understand liability if sharing.
• For organizations:
  • Define and enforce which AI tools/stacks are approved.
  • Monitor for “shadow IT” AI usage.
  • Set policies: “If you're going to plug these tools into our information systems ... then you have to play by our rules.” – Jamie Moles [25:55]

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9. Law Enforcement Honeypot: "Cyberzap" DDoS-for-Hire Trap

[27:32–28:39]

• Story: Researcher “Lena” found a fake “booter” (DDoS service) site during Operation Power Off.
• Findings: The site was hosted by Dutch police. After the researcher interacted and clicked around, the site locked down.
• Lesson: Authorities use deceptive honeypots (and obvious warning sites) to catch or deter attackers, but sometimes pull the bait if it attracts too much scrutiny.

Quote:
“The trap appeared to retreat the moment someone looked too closely.” – Maria Vermazes [28:39]

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Notable Quotes: Quick Reference

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |-----------|-------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:01 | M. Vermazes | “Researchers demonstrated that the same small script worked across multiple distributions…” | | 03:52 | M. Vermazes | “Privacy-focused lawmakers sought a warrant requirement …but failed to secure it.” | | 05:01 | M. Vermazes | “Officials worry the model’s ability to identify and exploit software vulnerabilities…” | | 07:44 | D. Bittner | “An agent … entered its entire credential store into a simple website form without being asked.” | | 09:08 | M. Vermazes | “…campaigns share infrastructure linked to the Phoenix System phishing Kit ecosystem.” | | 10:14 | M. Vermazes | “Authorities say the victims included players whose accounts contained valuable digital items…” | | 13:37 | J. Moles | “…an individual who is not an expert … can take their idea and prototype it…without…a proper coder.”| | 15:13 | J. Moles | “If I can get my AI to spin it up very, very quickly …” | | 17:15 | J. Moles | “I've started distributing an app and some code that I cannot know the provenance of.” | | 20:23 | J. Moles | “You are potentially getting all three: quick, easy, cheap. But there's a hidden risk behind it.” | | 25:55 | J. Moles | “If you're going to plug these tools into our information systems...you have to play by our rules.” | | 28:39 | M. Vermazes | “The trap appeared to retreat the moment someone looked too closely.” |

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Useful Timestamps

• 02:33 — Copy Fail Linux Flaw
• 03:43 — Section 702 Surveillance Debate
• 04:43 — Anthropic/White House Mythos AI Dispute
• 06:00 — cPanel Security Updates
• 07:32 — AI Agents Leaking Credentials
• 08:48 — Group-IB Phishing/Smishing Trends
• 10:05 — Roblox Account Theft Arrests
• 13:03 — Jamie Moles Interview: Vibe Coding
• 27:32 — Cyberzap Honeypot/Operation Power Off

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Final Takeaways

• Patching and vigilance remain critical as both infrastructure and consumer platforms face constant, serious vulnerabilities.
• AI democratization brings both promise and new risk: Non-coders empowered, but risks of unvetted or malicious code increase.
• Adversaries and defenders both use automation: Phishers use-as-a-service kits, while law enforcement counters with honeypots.
• Strong governance frameworks for both technology and human behaviors are increasingly crucial—for coders, consumers, and organizations alike.

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For more cybersecurity news, daily briefings, and episode links, visit: cyberwire.com.

Transcript

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[Dave Bittner]

A critical Linux flaw dubbed Copy Fail raises alarm the House moves to extend section 702 the White House pushes back on expanded Mythos access Cpanel and Sonic Wall rush out security patches Researchers warn AI agents may leak credentials smishing targets key industries. Ukrainian police arrest suspects in a massive Roblox account theft scheme. Our guest is Jamie Moles, technical manager at Extrahop, discussing how the pace of vibe coding is creating major AI blind spots and honeypot hijinks get halted by curious click.

[Maria Vermazes]

It's Thursday, April 30, 2026. I'm Dave Bittner and this is your Cyberwire Daily Briefing.

[Dave Bittner]

Thanks for joining us here today. It's great as always to have you with us. Copy Fail is a newly disclosed security

[Maria Vermazes]

flaw in the Linux operating system that can let an ordinary user gain full administrator or root control on many Systems released since 2017, according to the project site. The issue stems from a logic error and a built in cryptography feature that's enabled by default on most major Linux distributions. The exploit requires only a normal local account and does not need network access or special debugging tools, which makes it especially concerning on shared systems. Researchers demonstrated that the same small script worked across multiple distributions without modification.

[Dave Bittner]

The risk is highest for shared servers,

[Maria Vermazes]

cloud platforms that run customer code container clusters, and automated build systems where one user could potentially take control of the underlying host. Patching affected systems or disabling the related component is recommended until updates are applied.

[Dave Bittner]

The US House of Representatives voted 235 to 191 to extend Section 702 of

[Maria Vermazes]

the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance act for three years, sending the measure to the Senate ahead of a looming deadline. The program allows US Intelligence agencies to collect communications of foreign nationals abroad, though Americans. Messages can also be incidentally captured privacy. Focused lawmakers sought a warrant requirement before officials could search Americans data but failed to secure it. Instead, the bill adds narrower safeguards, including attorney approval for certain searches, written justifications for queries and possible criminal penalties for misuse. Speaker Mike Johnson also attached a provision banning a future central bank digital currency, which Senate leaders may remove. The Senate could revise the bill or pass a temporary extension instead.

[Dave Bittner]

The White House is opposing Anthropic's proposal

[Maria Vermazes]

to expand access to its advanced AI model Mythos, to about 70 additional organizations, citing national security and operational concerns.

[Dave Bittner]

Officials worry the model's ability to identify and exploit software vulnerabilities could enable cyber

[Maria Vermazes]

attacks or large scale online disruptions. Some also questioned whether Anthropic has sufficient computing capacity to support broader access without affecting government use. Mythos is already available to roughly 50 critical infrastructure organizations and select government agencies with no public release planned. Tensions between Anthropic and the administration remain unresolved following disputes over military use of its technology and political concerns about the company's affiliations.

[Dave Bittner]

Security experts warn that powerful models from

[Maria Vermazes]

Anthropic, OpenAI and Google are rapidly improving at finding software bugs, which could both strengthen defensive research and increase offensive risks. Officials say they're trying to balance innovation with safeguards as deployment decisions continue.

[Dave Bittner]

CPanel released emergency security updates to address

[Maria Vermazes]

a critical authentication bypass vulnerability affecting all supported versions of cPanel and web host Manager. The flaw allows unauthenticated attackers to access administrative control panels without valid credentials, potentially enabling full system compromise, including control over files, databases, and email accounts. The issue poses significant risk to shared hosting environments, where attackers could install malware or move deeper into server infrastructure. Administrators are urged to apply the patch immediately and verify the installed version until updates are confirmed. Blocking external access to particular ports is recommended. Several hosting providers temporarily restricted ports while deploying fixes across their systems.

[Dave Bittner]

SonicWall has disclosed three vulnerabilities affecting Gen 6, Gen 7, and Gen 8 firewall

[Maria Vermazes]

platforms, including one high severity and two medium severity issues, and urges administrators to apply firmware updates immediately. Patches are available on multiple versions. Systems with auto update enabled will receive fixes automatically if patching is delayed.

[Dave Bittner]

Administrators should disable Web management and SSL

[Maria Vermazes]

VPN access and restrict management to SSH temporarily.

[Dave Bittner]

Research from Okta Threat Intelligence shows AI agents can expose sensitive credentials, unexpectedly, raising

[Maria Vermazes]

concerns about how safely they handle privileged access.

[Dave Bittner]

In one test, an agent using an uncensored language model entered its entire credential store into a simple website form without being asked.

[Maria Vermazes]

Other experiments showed agents retrieving wi fi passwords OAuth tokens and API keys, sometimes recognizing the risk only after disclosure. Researchers also demonstrated that attackers controlling communication channels such as Telegram could manipulate agents to exfiltrate secrets through indirect methods like screenshots. While some models resisted malicious prompts, safeguards proved inconsistent and occasionally bypassable. The findings highlight that agent capability increases alongside risk as permissions expand, Okta concludes, organizations should limit agent privileges, avoid long lived credentials, centralize secret storage, and apply identity style governance controls. Since agents cannot leak access they were never granted.

[Dave Bittner]

Group IB's High Tech Crime Trends Report for 2026 identifies financial services, logistics and

[Maria Vermazes]

telecommunications among the top phishing targets in 2025. With SMS phishing continuing to expand rapidly, researchers observed a surge in two major smishing themes Since January of 2025 reward points scams impersonating banks and telecom providers, and failed parcel delivery scams targeting shipping customers. Despite different lures, both campaigns share infrastructure linked to the Phoenix System phishing Kit ecosystem. Group IB identified more than 2,500 related phishing domains targeting over 70 organizations worldwide. Attackers used phishing as a service platforms with templates, dashboards and traffic filtering to scale operations across regions. Messages were sometimes delivered through suspected fake based transceiver stations to bypass carrier protections.

[Dave Bittner]

The findings highlight how Coordinated Infrastructure and

[Maria Vermazes]

Telegram distributed phishing kits are enabling large scale, globally targeted smishing campaigns.

[Dave Bittner]

Ukrainian law enforcement has detained a group of suspected hackers accused of stealing more than 610,000 Roblox user accounts and reselling

[Maria Vermazes]

them for cryptocurrency through Russian online forums. Authorities say the victims included players whose accounts contained valuable digital items, rare inventory and virtual currency purchased with real money. Investigators allege a 19 year old organizer recruited accomplices through gaming forums and developed malware disguised as tools offering gameplay advantages or free bonuses. The malware harvested login credentials, enabling access to large numbers of accounts that were later sorted and sold based on resale value. Police conducted multiple searches in western Ukraine and seized devices and cash linked to the operation. Officials estimate the scheme generated about $227,000. Suspects face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

[Dave Bittner]

Coming up after the break, my conversation with Jamie Moles from Extrahop. We're discussing how the pace of vibe

[Maria Vermazes]

coding is creating major AI blind spots

[Dave Bittner]

and honeypot hijinks get halted by curious clicks.

[Maria Vermazes]

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[Dave Bittner]

Jamie Moles is Technical Manager at Extra Hop.

[Maria Vermazes]

I caught up with him to discuss how the pace of vibe coding is creating major AI blind spots.

[Jamie Moles]

Vibe coding is a relatively new concept and it's something that I find quite interesting. The idea of vibe coding really is that it gives non coders the ability to develop code simply by talking to an AI bot, basically either speaking out loud or typing into a chat window and saying this is what I want, this is what I want to create. My dream app for the iPhone is this can you help me develop it? Sort of thing. Which is actually, when you think about it, incredible. It means that an individual who is not an expert at developing it in Swift or Python or Visual Studio or whatever can take their idea and prototype it, rationalize it if you like, develop it, get to a minimally viable product, perhaps share that with other people, see if it works without ever having to actually be proper coder. Which I think is an amazing, amazing thing to have come out of the world of AI, LLMs, generative AI, whatever you want to call it. I think a few Years ago when ChatGPT first popped up on the scene, I don't think anybody probably foresaw vibe coding, which you might call the democratization of coding. You know, it's bringing the ability to write programs to ordinary citizens, which I think is an incredible thing, but has some issues, has some risks.

[Dave Bittner]

Do you roll it into the use

[Maria Vermazes]

that experienced coders are using this as well to take some of the burden off to speed up what they're up to.

[Jamie Moles]

Yeah, I mean, so if you look at, let's say professional coders, enterprise software developers, et cetera, the great thing about vibe coding for them is it's not going to stop them writing their own code. Okay? But what it will and does allow them to do is Prototype things very, very quickly without having to necessarily go through that initial effort of writing a bit of code yourself, putting in your basic functions, linking in your libraries, whatever. If I can talk to, you know, cursor or Orchid or even, or even Claude and say, I need to put together a quick prototype for this capability or this feature or this app, this is what I want it to look like, this is what I want. This is the data I want it to access, this is how I want it to process that data, and this is how I want it to present it when it's finished. That can enable you to test ideas very, very quickly. So I've got this idea. I think it might be a useful feature in our product. I don't have the time as an individual to spin it up, but if I can get my AI to spin it up very, very quickly and I can take a quick look at it and test it out, I can evaluate that rapidly and decide, actually, does this have legs or not? And that's very, very useful capability for what I'm going to call professional enterprise software developers.

[Maria Vermazes]

So in your estimation, what are the potential perils here?

[Jamie Moles]

I don't think the perils are so much associated with the professionals developing code. I think this issue with it more than anything is the crossover between, let's say the script kiddie, unprofessional coding side of things and that potentially transitioning into something that gets distributed and used by a lot of people. If I decided as an individual that I wanted to write an app for my iPhone, I'm very much tied to my calendar in terms of knowing what to do day to day. And every morning when I wake up, I look at my calendar, I see what meetings I've got scheduled, and I set alarms in my iPhone to alarm me five minutes before I need to do something because I'm not great at remembering things, I get distracted easily, etc. And this works really well for me. So the app idea I have is, well, shouldn't I just be able to write an app to go and read my calendar and set those alarms for me so I don't have to do it every morning? Now, that for me is an individual use case that would be very, very useful for me. But as a member of the ADHD community, I can also see how other people might make use of that. Now, if I put that together in a tool like Cursor or Git or something like that, and it worked for me, worked fine, did what I want, it met my goal. But then I told other People and they started saying, well, we want to use it, and I started distributing it. I've started distributing an app and some code that I cannot know the provenance of. I don't know whether there are any bugs in there, any potential security issues, without actually doing code review myself. Which if, for example, on the iPhone, you typically develop in Swift, I don't know that environment, so I'm not qualified to do code review on that. So the risk, one of the significant risks for me is the potential for an individual who's not a professional coder to produce something that actually turns out to be really good and really useful, and other people want it, and it gets distributed worldwide. And we know that this is actually the way that a lot of people nowadays make big money and are able to leave their jobs. They produce something on social media that takes off, or they produce a little app which takes off, and they do really well. The risk here is producing something that you're not able to rub a stamp and say yourself, I know that this is high quality. I know that there are no bugs, there are no issues. Joe Taiheidi on the BBC showed off an issue with Orcid when he had an expert come in and used that. They basically did a demonstration where he produced a bit of code and the security researcher who was working with was able to get into his Orcid project and drop in a malicious line. And a malicious line, all it did was popped up a notepad on the screen and saying a message. But that could easily be turned into something like a cobalt strike beacon that speaks to a C2 server and gives anybody using that app or my app access or gives their systems access to a threat actor. And you wouldn't know because you're not a coder able to review your own code.

[Maria Vermazes]

Why is velocity a factor here?

[Dave Bittner]

The fact that people are able to

[Maria Vermazes]

do things so much faster than they could before.

[Jamie Moles]

You've heard of the old saying, probably, if you want something done, choose quick, easy and cheap. You can't have all three. You can only have two. Quick, easy, cheap. The issue with Velocity Quick is that it gets you results very, very fast. And in this case, it's doing it easy. And funny enough, in this case, it's probably doing it quite cheap as well. So you are potentially getting all three. But there's a hidden risk behind it. If I can develop things really, really fast, prototype things really, really fast, move through the development cycle from test to production without the oversight, then that's a problem. Now, you could counter that and say well, hang on a minute, Jamie. We're able to produce this really, really fast, way quicker than we ever could in the past. So there's no excuse to not spend some time on quality assurance and code review and things like that. And that would be a perfectly legitimate response. But we all know, like, human beings don't always follow the correct path and might just want to rush out the door with, hey, look what I've done, and that's a potential risk.

[Maria Vermazes]

So what are your recommendations, then? What should people do to be on top of this?

[Jamie Moles]

I think there are potentially two different areas to look at here. So in professional software development, these are brilliant tools and absolutely worth investing time in. They can shorten development cycles, they can enable testing of new ideas to happen very, very quickly. And I mean, there's a saying in the development world which is fail fast. If you're going to come up with an idea, you want to test it out. If it's going to fail, let it fail quickly. So you can say, right, that's no good, and then move on to the next thing so you're not wasting time, effort, money, etcetera, on developing something that's not going to work. So in that sphere, I think it's very, very useful. And of course, in the individual Joe Bloggs sitting at his computer on home trying to develop an app side of things, it's brilliant and useful there as well. I would like to see some sort of mechanism or educational mechanism around that to say, hey, Joe, you've produced this really, really great thing. Other people want to look at it and use it potentially. Are you aware of the liability and risks associated with you distributing that to other people? Perhaps you should give it some code review. Now, interestingly enough, if we go back to my idea of the app that I would like to produce for the iPhone, if I produce that and gave it to Apple to publish on, their app store actually would have to go through a code review. They would have to go through Apple's quality control processes before they would allow it on the store. So there are certain paths you can take that would enable that kind of protection. But with the opening up of the iPhone in Europe to other app stores as required by the eu. And we know from the experience looking at Android and the various different app stores they have on there and various malware issues they've had there, that's not a good thing for protecting consumers from potentially malicious code. Now, where there's potentially a crossover, there is. Joe Bloggs is not a coder, but he works for A coding company, and he starts doing this Vibe coding, starts getting really interested in it, has dreams of potentially becoming a developer and starts using these tools to do things at work in order to potentially move in that direction. There is a area there, a gray area, where Joe could potentially develop stuff at work, scripts that automate things and do things for him to make his job easier and potentially get the attention of the people he wants within the development side of the business. But if there's no code control, if he's not using the tools that the company has validated and authorized and said, these are the good tools that we want to use for this, there's a potential of him introducing risk to that organization. And this is the old problem of shadow it that's been around for a long time. You know, dawn of the day is where it can stop you installing applications on your machine and stop you having your favorite wallpaper on your background on your desktop and things like that. We don't do that anymore. Generally, the idea is that people are allowed to bring in the tools that they need to get their job done, but the organization should always have visibility, should always know what people are using. And so I think there needs to be conversations had in that scenario where people are told, if you're going to use vibe coding, if you're going to use AI tools within the organization, these are the ones that we as an organization authorize and allow you to use in conjunction with our systems and our data. If you're using it at home for your own things, crack on. That's your business. But if you're going to plug these tools into our information systems and our data for what you perceive as benefit to the company, then you have to play by our rules.

[Dave Bittner]

That's Jamie Moles, technical manager at Extra Hop.

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[Dave Bittner]

And finally, while casually exploring Operation Power

[Maria Vermazes]

off, an international law enforcement effort targeting DDOs for hire services, a researcher who

[Dave Bittner]

goes by Lena stumbled onto what looked like a slightly undercooked booter site called Cyberzap.

[Maria Vermazes]

It had dashboards, payment options, and just enough polish to seem real until its hosting details quietly pointed back to Dutch police infrastructure. After registering with an email that politely

[Dave Bittner]

announced they were just researching, the researcher

[Maria Vermazes]

clicked around, attempted a mock attack order, and observed the site quietly collecting intent signals rather than launching anything. Shortly afterward, Cyberzap abruptly locked itself behind an authorization wall along with a related

[Dave Bittner]

domain, suggesting someone on the other end noticed the attention.

[Maria Vermazes]

A companion site, Netcrashers, remained online as a more obvious scare tactic.

[Dave Bittner]

The episode illustrates how authorities mix covert

[Maria Vermazes]

honeypots with overt warnings to deter would be attackers, though in this case the trap appeared to retreat the moment someone looked too closely.

[Dave Bittner]

And that's the Cyber Wire. For links to all of today's stories, check out our daily [e-mail] we'd love to know what you think of this podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights

[Maria Vermazes]

that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing world of cybersecurity.

[Dave Bittner]

If you like our show, please share

[Maria Vermazes]

a rating and review in your favorite podcast app.

[Dave Bittner]

Please also fill out the survey in

[Maria Vermazes]

the show notes or send an email to cyberwire2n2k's lead producers, Liz Stokes, were

[Dave Bittner]

mixed by Trey Hester, with original music and sound design by Elliot Peltzman.

[Maria Vermazes]

Our contributing host is Maria Vermazes.

[Dave Bittner]

Our executive producer is Jennifer Ivan.

[Maria Vermazes]

Peter Kilby is our publisher and I'm Dave Bittner.

[Dave Bittner]

Thanks for listening.

[Maria Vermazes]

We'll see you back here tomorrow.

[Dave Bittner]

Sa.