John Z Black
Brunswick, ME • (207) 245-1010 • contact@johnzblack.com
Mostly security stuff...
Make sure you check out my main blog at https://gnerdsec.com/blog
Handala, Publicly Attributed: What the FBI Seizure Changes About Iran Cyber Signaling
The FBI seized Handala's sites and released a 40-page warrant formally linking the group to Iran's intelligence ministry. Attribution just moved from analyst opinion to federal court filing.
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Your Encrypted Chat Is Fine. Your Trust Model Isn't.
The FBI and CISA warn that Russian intelligence compromised thousands of Signal and WhatsApp accounts -- not by breaking encryption, but by tricking users into handing over access. Here's what that means and what to do.
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Security Below the OS: Why Device Integrity Is Becoming a Boardroom Topic
Eclypsium raised $25M for firmware security. A compromised security scanner and ongoing IoT campaigns add context. Enterprise security that stops at the OS is leaving a meaningful gap below it.
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Dark Web Infrastructure Is Getting Harder to Monetize
Operation Alice took down 373,000 dark web sites. European prosecutors indicted three for the UniCredit breach. The pattern: law enforcement is attacking the infrastructure layer, not just individual offenders.
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AI Fraud Hits the Charts: What the Streaming Bot Conviction Really Means
A North Carolina musician pleaded guilty to collecting millions in fraudulent streaming royalties using AI-generated music and bot accounts. The scam worked for years. That's the part worth understanding.
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Smuggled Silicon: The DOJ Case That Puts AI Export Controls in the Spotlight
Three men charged with smuggling US AI hardware to China represent the first major criminal test of export control law applied to high-performance compute. The era of treating AI export controls as background noise is over.
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