Please enjoy our newest podcast, the weekly Security Sprint, on Spotify, Apple, as well as other locations accessible via the Spotify for Podcasters link or almost anywhere you listen to your favorite podcasts.
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In this week’s Security Sprint, Dave and Andy covered the following topics:
- CISA: Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month 2024. “Resilience means doing the work up front to prepare for a disruption, anticipating that it will in fact happen, and exercising not just for response but with a deliberate focus on continuity and recovery, improving the ability to operate in a degraded state, and significantly reducing downtime when an incident occurs.”
Main Topics:
Election Week
- Joint ODNI, FBI, and CISA Statement.
- Russia is the most active threat. Influence actors linked to Russia in particular are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences, judging from information available to the IC. These efforts risk inciting violence, including against election officials. We anticipate Russian actors will release additional manufactured content with these themes through election day and in the days and weeks after polls close.
- The IC assesses that Russian influence actors recently posted and amplified an article falsely claiming that U.S. officials across swing states plan to orchestrate election fraud using a range of tactics, such as ballot stuffing and cyberattacks.
- Russian influence actors also manufactured and amplified a recent video that falsely depicted an interview with an individual claiming election fraud in Arizona, which involved creating fake overseas ballots and changing voter rolls to favor Vice President Kamala Harris. The Arizona Secretary of State has already refuted the video’s claim as false.
- Iran also remains a significant foreign influence threat to U.S. elections. As noted in a prior update, we have assessed that Iran has conducted malicious cyber activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign. Iranian influence actors may also seek to create fake media content intended to suppress voting or stoke violence, as they have done in past election cycles. We previously reported that Iran also remains determined to seek revenge against select former US officials whom it views as culpable for the death of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) Commander Soleimani in January 2020. It has repeatedly highlighted former President Donald Trump among its priority targets for retribution.
- US cybersecurity chief says disinformation surge hasn’t impacted election
- CISA: Election Security Rumor vs. Reality
- Georgia Poll Worker Arrested for Making Bomb Threat to Election Workers
- FBI PSA: Scammers Exploit 2024 US General Election to Perpetrate Multiple Fraud Schemes
- Colorado accidentally put voting system passwords online, but officials say election is secure
- Joint ODNI, FBI, and CISA Statement on Russian Election Influence Efforts (01 Nov).
Liability:
- Attorney General James Secures $2.25 Million from Capital Region Health Care Provider to Protect Patient Data
- HHS Office for Civil Rights Settles Ransomware Cybersecurity Investigation for $500,000
- HHS Office for Civil Rights Settles HIPAA Ransomware Cybersecurity Investigation for $90,000
Insider Threats! Fired Employee Allegedly Hacked Disney World’s Menu System to Alter Peanut Allergy Information
Quick Hits:
- Wiz CEO says company was targeted with deepfake attack that used his voice
- Ripple effect: the devastating impact of data breaches
- Canadian Centre for Cyber Security – Cyber Security Readiness
- Defendants with Ties to White Supremacy Sentenced in Connection with Plot to Destroy Energy Facilities
- United States Welcomes the United Kingdom’s Actions Against Known Purveyors of Kremlin Disinformation
- Hybrid Russian Espionage and Influence Campaign Aims to Compromise Ukrainian Military Recruits and Deliver Anti-Mobilization Narratives
- Army of bots promotes petrostate hosting global climate talks
- Reset Tech Investigation – Clickbait Cures: How Meta and Google Tolerate a Dubious Meds Market in the EU
- Fitness app Strava gives away location of Biden, Trump and other leaders, French newspaper says
- Meet Interlock — The new ransomware targeting FreeBSD servers
- Chinese threat actor Storm-0940 uses credentials from password spray attacks from a covert network
- Spain floods disaster: death toll rises to 205 as extra troops mobilised
- Biden Administration Announces Additional Security Assistance for Ukraine
- Iran Tells Region ‘Strong and Complex’ Attack Coming on Israel
- Cybersecurity Advisory – Threats Posed by Remote Technology Workers with Ties to Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
- Foreign Threat Actor Conducting Large-Scale Spear-Phishing Campaign with RDP Attachments
- New Tradecraft of Iranian Cyber Group Aria Sepehr Ayandehsazan aka Emennet Pasargad
- Cybercriminals Are Stealing Cookies to Bypass Multifactor Authentication
- Canadian Centre for Cyber Security – National Cyber Threat Assessment 2025-2026
- Pacific Rim: Inside the Counter-Offensive—The TTPs Used to Neutralize China-Based Threats
- Massive PSAUX ransomware attack targets 22,000 CyberPanel instances
- Midnight Blizzard conducts large-scale spear-phishing campaign using RDP files
Read more about Gate 15’s full podcast menu at our Podcast page. You can subscribe and enjoy all the Gate 15 Podcasts on Spotify for Podcasters, Apple, Spotify, as well as other locations accessible from the Spotify for Podcasters 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 Security Sprint is our weekly rundown of the week’s notable all-hazards security news, risks and threats and some of the key focus areas for organizations to consider behind the headlines. Gate 15 team members discuss physical security, cybersecurity, natural hazards, health threats and other issues across our environment.
- 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.
- The Cybersecurity Evangelist, with Jennifer Lyn Walker, is a cybersecurity-focused discussion with Jen and invited guests. This is presently a Gate 15 special podcast and occasionally is updated on our Gate 15 podcast channel.
- Venue Security, The IAVM Podcast Series was a 2024 limited series podcast as Gate 15’s founder and Managing Director, Andy Jabbour hosted a series of short interviews with venue safety and security experts from the International Association of Venue Managers’ (IAVM) Venue Safety and Security Committee (VSSC) and other special guests from the IAVM community.
- The Risk Roundtable, was a monthly discussion among our team and occasional guests exploring the all-hazards threats and risks impacting the United States and internationally. This was suspended in September 2023.
We hope you’ll subscribe, listen and share your ideas and other feedback! Reach out to us on Threads, LinkedIn, via email at [email protected].