On July 23, 2024, KnowBe4 announced that a North Korean hacker attempted to infiltrate its systems. According to the statement, the hacker constructed a believable identity by leveraging a valid yet stolen identity based in the United States and using an AI-enhanced image. After interviews were conducted, the hacker passed background checks and reference checks and received the job.

According to recent reports, nearly 10 billion stolen passwords were leaked onto a hacker forum. The unique, plaintext passwords were uploaded to the forum on July 4, 2024. It is believed that this compilation is building off of an earlier database of credentials, adding around 1.5 billion new passwords into the database.

In episode 24 of the Cybersecurity & Geopolitical Discussion, our trio of hosts discuss paradoxes surrounding money laundering and the reasons it’s so popular, particularly among well-establish organized criminal gangs.

On July 19, CrowdStrike, one of the largest endpoint security providers, issued an update to Windows servers globally that caused them to enter a “crash loop,” resulting in the infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). CrowdStrike explained the issue was caused by a “defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts.” The downstream impact of this bug resulted in one of the largest and broadest outages in history.