Author: HackWatchit

Cisco is proud to mark a major milestone in its AI journey. Our newly launched Foundation AI group—formed to bring world-class, domain-specific AI infrastructure to the cybersecurity space—is proud to introduce its first release: Llama-3.1-FoundationAI-SecurityLLM-base-8B (Foundation-sec-8b), an 8-billion parameter, open-weight Large Language Model (LLM) purpose-built for security. This model combines deep domain expertise with the flexibility and control needed for secure, real-world deployment. With Foundation-sec-8B, teams can build, fine-tune, and deploy AI-native workflows across the security lifecycle. This model is designed to help security teams think faster, act with precision, and scale operations without compromise. Cybersecurity Applications Require Purpose-Built, open,…

Raymond Felch // Preface: I began my exploration of reverse-engineering firmware a few weeks back (see “JTAG – Micro-Controller Debugging“), and although I made considerable progress finding and identifying the JTAG (Joint Test Action Group) pins on my target board (Samsung S3C4510 CPU) Linksys BEFSR41 router, there were complications. I ran into a number of issues while attempting to extract the firmware using OpenOCD and a few different JTAG adapters (including using a home-brew Raspberry Pi3 as a JTAG and SWD adaptor (see: https://movr0.com/2016/09/02/use-raspberry-pi-23-as-a-jtagswd-adapter), which worked well and got around the speed control limitations of the Bus Pirate. In some…

On 16 April 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of former Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) contractor Abouzar Rahmati, a naturalized U.S. citizen and resident of Great Falls, Virginia. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, from 2017 to 2024, Rahmati provided sensitive information to the Iranian government concerning the FAA, U.S. airports, airport air traffic control systems, and solar energy infrastructure. It was later discovered that Rahmati had previously served as an officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and was passing sensitive information to Iran through his brother.  Rahmati is a classic example…

to become a machine learning engineer again, this is the exact process I would follow. Let’s get into it! First become a data scientist or software engineer I’ve said it before, but a machine learning engineer is not exactly an entry-level position. This is because you need skills in so many areas: Statistics Maths Machine Learning Software Engineering DevOps Cloud Systems You certainly don’t need to be an expert in all of them, but you should have solid knowledge. Machine learning engineers are probably the highest-paid tech job nowadays. According to levelsfyi, the average salaries in the UK are: Machine learning…

Ongoing outages at British retail giant Marks & Spencer are caused by a ransomware attack believed to be conducted by a hacking collective known as “Scattered Spider” BleepingComputer has learned from multiple sources. Marks & Spencer (M&S) is a British multinational retailer that employs 64,000 employees and sells various products, including clothing, food, and home goods in over 1,400 stores worldwide. Last Tuesday, M&S confirmed it suffered a cyberattack that caused widespread disruption, including to its contactless payment system and online ordering. Today, Sky News reported that the disruption continues, with around 200 warehouse workers told to stay home as the company responds…

The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) has released the 2025 Space Threat Assessment, noting that the authors find it increasingly difficult to track the year-over-year number of cyberattacks targeting space systems. Though their numbers differ, some organizations try to keep tallies of cyberattacks by the type of entity and sector targeted, among other criteria.  According to the European Repository of Cyber Incidents (ERCI), a free database containing reports of worldwide cyberattacks, there were about 720 reported incidents across all sectors in 2024, with roughly 57 percent of incidents targeting critical infrastructure. Of that total number, the ERCI data…

We are witnessing a seismic shift in the way we work. The browser has evolved from a simple utility to the central workspace of modern organizations, where employees connect, collaborate and create. From using GenAI tools to accessing business-critical apps, the majority of work now happens in the browser. In fact, employees spend over 85% of their time working in the browser. This transformation demands a new approach to security, one that is as dynamic and adaptable as today’s workplace. At the same time, data has exploded in volume, variety, velocity and is hidden everywhere. It’s no longer confined to…

Click on the timecodes to jump to that part of the video (on YouTube) Slides for this webcast can be found here: https://www.blackhillsinfosec.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/SLIDES_WindowsLogginSysmonELK.pdf 4:36 Problem Statement and Executive Problem Statement 9:00 Short Sysmon review, introduction to ELK, what programs make up ELK, data type and its affect on elasticsearch, answering viewer questions 20:51 Touching on different types of logs, how logstash deals with and imports logs into elasticsearch, Kibana and its uses, notes on how to best use these programs 27:12 Demonstration of HELK 48:34 Touching base on Sigma, future plans for ELK, Q&A and closing thoughts This webcast was originally…

The Turmoil Following BreachForums Shutdown: Confusion, Risks, and a New Beginning Pierluigi Paganini April 28, 2025 BreachForums, a major data leak marketplace, shut down on April 15 after a MyBB 0-day exploit allowed law enforcement infiltration. On April 15, BreachForums, one of the top marketplaces for stolen data, abruptly shut down, fueling widespread speculation. Rumors ranged from FBI raids and the arrest of the administrator. In the aftermath, several alternative forums emerged, some demanded entry fees, fueling confusion and raising the risk of scams or government-run honeypots. BreachForums was an English-language cybercrime forum that emerged in March 2022 as a…