Please enjoy this episode of The Gate 15 Interview podcast on Anchor, Spotify, Apple, Google, as well as other locations accessible via the Anchor link or almost anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts.
In this episode of The Gate 15 Interview, Andy Jabbour speaks with Gary Warner, Director of Research in Computer Forensics’ for the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the Director of Threat Intelligence for DarkTower. From his LinkedIn bio, “Gary is the ‘Director of Research in Computer Forensics’ for the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). In this role, which brings together the Computer Science and Criminal Justice departments, he is concentrating on research that will help law enforcement and other security professionals to identify, apprehend, prosecute and convict those who are committing cybercrime, and spread information to victims and potential victims about cybercrime issues. 90 analysts and programmers work in the UAB Computer Forensics Lab building tools and providing intelligence for a variety of clients around Cybercrime, Fraud, and Terrorism, as well as the Social Media aspects of more traditional crimes, including Gang Activity and Transnational Drug Networks. In addition to his duties at UAB, Warner serves as the Director of Threat Intelligence for DarkTower, a subsidiary of Queen Associates in Charlotte, North Carolina. Gary Warner was the founding president of the Birmingham InfraGard chapter, and has served as secretary and member of the board of the InfraGard National Members Alliance, among other roles. Read more on LinkedIn. Gary on Twitter: @GarWarner. Gary’s blog: CyberCrime & Doing Time; A Blog about Cyber Crime and related Justice issues.
“Malware analysis is a team sport”
Gary Warner, on information sharing, during our podcast recording
In the discussion we address:
- Gary’s backstory and the work he’s doing today
- Information sharing and the value of plugging into information sharing communities
- The great work being done by the FBI and CISA
- The importance of knowing your competition, China, Russia, and ongoing threats
- Some of Gary’s go-to resources
- Gary talks about haikus, Talking Heads, GarBot, birdwatching, and more!
“CISA, it’s a new era of info sharing in the government”
Gary Warner, before giving some shout outs to CISA’s first Director, Chris Krebs, and current Director, Jen Easterly
A few references mentioned in or relevant to our discussion include:
- CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog (KEVC), something Gate 15’s Jen Walker raves about often, including in our recent Risk Roundtable: The Risk Roundtable EP 27: Don’t let bias guide your preparedness (07 Mar 22)
- Gary discussed this event: Justice Department Announces Court-Authorized Effort to Disrupt Exploitation of Microsoft Exchange Server Vulnerabilities (13 Apr 21)
- BITNET
- FBI SENTINEL System
- Intellipedia
- Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute Blog: Domain Blacklist Ecosystem – A Case Study (18 Jun 2015) and PDF: Blacklist Ecosystem Analysis; Spanning Jan 2012 to Jun 2014
- Gary’s four CISA “must watch” sites from the CISA cyber landing page:
- Current activity: https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ncas/current-activity
- Bulletins: https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ncas/bulletins
- Gary strongly encouraged listeners to check CISA Director Jen Easterly’s “about” section in her LinkedIn profile to understand why she is so excellently qualified to be the woman leading CISA today (something Chris Krebs, her predecessor at CISA, agrees with)
- We referenced a few of the many people and organizations we value including:
- Cofense (formerly PhishMe)
- Unit 42 (Palo Alto Networks)
- Check out Gary’s awesome collection of Twitter lists here. And here are some of the ones he mentioned in our discussion:
- And if you need to disconnect, join Gary out in nature (and maybe get on eBird)!
“I’ve been a Chinese hacker”
Gary Warner
Please enjoy this episode of The Gate 15 Interview podcast onAnchor, Spotify, Apple, Google, as well as other locations accessible via the Anchor link or almost anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts.
The Gate 15 Interview is a monthly interview between Gate 15’s founder and Managing Director, Andy Jabbour and guests from throughout the homeland security risk management community addressing a wide range of all-hazards topics and issues. Read more about Gate 15’s full podcast menu at our Podcast page. You can subscribe and enjoy all the Gate 15 Podcasts on Anchor, Apple, Spotify, Google, as well as other locations accessible from the Anchor link. Week-to-week, you can hear and learn more about our all-hazards threats, risks, mitigation and other issues impacting homeland security risk management from our team as well as our regular and special guests. The full podcast menu includes:
- The Risk Roundtable, is a recurring monthly discussion among our team and occasional guests as we explore the all-hazards threats and risks impacting the United States and internationally.
- The Cybersecurity Evangelist, with Jennifer Lyn Walker, is a cybersecurity-focused discussion with Jen and invited guests.
- Nerd Out! Security Panel Discussion, moderated by Dave Pounder, focuses on physical security topics including terrorism, extremism, hostile events, and other pertinent topics.
- The Gate 15 Interview, is a monthly interview between Gate 15’s founder and Managing Director, Andy Jabbour and guests from throughout the homeland security risk management community addressing a wide range of all-hazards topics and issues.
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