Three Buddy Problem - Episode 70: Dave Aitel from OpenAI's technical staff joins the buddies to discuss the just-launched Aardvark, OpenAI’s agentic “security researcher” that claims to read code, finds bugs, validates exploits, and ships patches. We press him on where LLMs beat fuzzers, privacy boundaries, human-in-the-loop realities, SDLC budgets, pen-test cadence, and the zero-day economy.
Plus, L3 Harris/Trenchant exec pleads guilty to selling exploits to Russian brokers, Kaspersky catches the return of HackingTeam using Chrome zero-day exploit chain, and news of a proposed law in Russia to force researchers to report vulnerabilities first to goverment agencies.
Cast: Dave Aitel (Technical Staff, OpenAI), Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 69: We dig into news that Apple's iOS 26 has quietly killed the shutdown.log forensic artifact used to spot signs of infections and what it means for threat hunters. Plus, whispers of a million-dollar WhatsApp zero-click exploit that never materialized at Pwn2Own, a surreal court case linking a Trenchant exploit developer to Russian buyers, and Chinese threat intel reports pointing fingers at the NSA.
We also discuss calls for the US government to build a structured, lawful ecosystem for private-sector offensive operations to address existing chaos and market gaps.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem (Episode 68): The buddies are trapped in timezone hell with cross-country travel this week.
In this special episode, we present Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade's LABScon 2025 keynote-day presentation on the state of cybersecurity and why this phase of our collective project has failed, and how to build something smarter, more sustainable, and deeply interconnected in its place.
Juanito traces the field’s evolution from chaos to consolidation, weaving in cybernetics, standardization, and the dawning coexistence of human and artificial evaluative power. The result is part philosophical sermon, part rallying cry, an invitation to reject the industry’s slave morality, rethink our tools, and steer the next era of defense with intention.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 67: We discuss the rise of automated red-teaming, Apple’s $2 million exploit chain bounties aimed at outbidding spyware brokers and the iPhone maker's focus on wireless proximity attacks and “tactical suitcase” Wi-Fi exploits. We also hit the news of Paragon spyware targeting European executives and the bizarre story of NSO Group’s supposed US investor buyout.
Plus, an update on Oracle’s zero-day ransomware fiasco, Ivanti’s endless patch delays, the ethics of journalists enabling ransomware operations on leak sites, Europe’s latest failed push for Chat Control, and VirusTotal’s new pricing tiers.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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This week on Security Conversations, Ryan sits down with Chris Eng, former Chief Research Officer at Veracode, to talk about life after nearly two decades at one company and the lessons learned along the way. They dig into a career start at the NSA, the early days of @Stake and the Symantec acquisition, and the birth and ambitions of Veracode.
Plus, thoughts on how helping startups shape product strategy, what it takes to translate technical expertise into business impact, and how security culture has evolved since the early “hacker-to-enterprise” days. The conversation touches on defining your career beyond titles, how the perception of “cybersecurity” has changed over the years, and why the industry still has plenty of room for curiosity, reinvention, and good storytelling.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 66: We discuss drone sightings that shut down airports across Europe and what they reveal about hybrid warfare and the changing nature of conflict; Oracle ransomware/extortion campaign tied to unpatched E-Business Suite vulnerabilities and the company’s muted response.
Plus, the TikTok–Oracle deal and the strange role Oracle now plays in U.S. national security; OpenAI’s Sora 2 launch and its implications for social media and human expression; Palo Alto’s “Phantom Taurus” APT report, a follow-up on Cisco’s ArcaneDoor disclosures, and the impact of the U.S. government shutdown on CISA.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 65: We zero in on one of the biggest security stories of the year: the discovery of a persistent multi-stage bootkit implanting malware on Cisco ASA firewalls. Details on a new campaign, tied to the same threat actors behind ArcaneDoor, exploiting zero-days in Cisco’s 5500-X series appliances, devices that sit at the heart of government and enterprise networks worldwide.
Plus, Cisco’s controversial handling of these disclosures, CISA's emergency deadlines for patching, the absence of IOCs and samples, and China’s long-term positioning. Plus, thoughts on the Secret Service SIM farm discovery in New York and evidence of Russians APTs Turla and Gamaredon collaborating to hit Ukraine targets.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 64: SpyCloud Labs researchers Aurora Johnson and Trevor Hilligoss discuss the world of “internet toilets," the toxic online communities in China where harassment, stalking, and sextortion thrive. We explore how these groups operate, from doxing ex-lovers and enemies to running coordinated campaigns of cyberbullying that often spill into real-world harm. (Recorded at LABScon 2025).
Cast: Aurora Johnson, Trevor Hilligoss, Ryan Naraine and Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 63: Co-founder of the Vertex Project Visi Stark joins the buddies to reminisce about his work writing Mandiant's famous APT1 report, the China-nexus threat landscape, the value of cyber threat intelligence, APT-naming schemes, and more... (Recorded at LABScon 2025)
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Visi Stark.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 62: Lindsay Freeman, Director of the Technology, Law & Policy program at the Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law, joins the show to discuss her team's meticulous work to document the Wagner Group's chain of command, military operations in parts of Africa, and the broadcasting of war crimes on social media platforms like Telegram. (Recorded at LABScon 2025)
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Lindsay Freeman.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 61: We cover a pair of software supply chain breaches (Salesforce Salesloft Drift and NPM/GitHub) that raises big questions about SaaS integrations and the ripple effects across major security vendors.
Plus, Apple’s new Memory Integrity Enforcement in iPhone 17 and discussion on commercial spyware infections and the value of Apple notifications; concerns around Chinese hardware and surveillance equipment in US infrastructure; Silicon Valley profiting from China’s surveillance ecosystem; and controversy around a Huntress disclosure of an attacker’s operations after an EDR agent was mistakenly installed.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 60: We dissect a fresh multi-agency Salt Typhoon advisory (with IOCs and YARA rules!), why it landed late, why the wall of logos matters (and doesn’t), and what’s actually usable for defenders: new YARA, tool hashes, naming ambiguity across reports, the mention of Chinese vendors, and a Dutch note that smaller ISPs were hit.
Plus, Costin details his hunting stack and philosophy (historic IOC/malware hoarding, fast pivots, and AI as analyst “wingman”) and a new Chinese APT report that may intersect with LightBasin and the murky PSOA world.
We also debate Google’s proposed “cyber disruption unit” versus Microsoft’s DCU (legal vs. “ethical” takedowns, PR, and business models); react to Anthropic’s report on real attacker use of Claude; note Amazon’s APT29 watering-hole disruption; and close on a fresh WhatsApp-to-ImageIO zero-click chain and practical phone OPSEC.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 59: Apple drops another emergency iOS patch and we unpack what that “may have been exploited” language really means: zero-click chains, why notifications help but forensics don’t, and the uncomfortable truth that Lockdown Mode is increasingly the default for high-risk users. We connect the dots from ImageIO bugs to geopolitics, discuss who’s likely using these exploits, why Apple’s guidance stops short, and the practical playbook (ADP on, reboot often, reduce attack surface) that actually works.
Plus, we debate Microsoft throttling MAPP access for Chinese vendors, the idea of “letters of marque” for cyber (outsourced offense: smart deterrent or Pandora’s box?), and dissect two case studies that blur APT and crimeware: PipeMagic’s CLFS zero-day and Russia-linked “Static Tundra” riding seven-year-old Cisco bugs.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 58: The buddies react to the Brandon Dixon episode, digging into what it’s really like to scale products inside a tech giant, navigate politics, and bring features to millions of machines. Plus, an exploration of the AI cybersecurity gold rush, the promise and hype, and the gamble for startups versus the slow-moving advantage of incumbents.
We revisit the Chinese "cyber militia" discussion and the looming AI “dot-com bubble,” the value of owning infrastructure, Nvidia and export controls, China’s manufacturing edge, and the geopolitics of supply chains.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 57: Brandon Dixon (PassiveTotal/RiskIQ, Microsoft) leads a deep-dive into the collision of AI and cybersecurity. We tackle Google’s “Big Sleep” project, XBOW’s HackerOne automation hype, the long-running tension between big tech ownership of critical security tools and the community’s need for open access.
Plus, the future of SOC automation to AI-assisted pen testing, how agentic AI could transform the cyber talent bottlenecks and operational inefficiencies, geopolitical debates over backdoors in GPUs and the strategic implications of China’s AI model development.
Cast: Brandon Dixon, Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, and Ryan Naraine.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 56: China-focused researcher Dakota Cary joins the buddies to dig into China’s sprawling cyber ecosystem, from the HAFNIUM indictments and MSS tasking pipelines to the murky world of APT contractors and the ransomware hustle. We break down China’s “entrepreneurial” model of intelligence collection, why public visibility into these threat actors is so hard to get right, and how companies like Microsoft get caught in the geopolitical crossfire.
Plus: a deep dive on suspected MAPP leaks and Sharepoint zero-days, Singapore targeted by extremely sophisticated China-nexus hacking group, soft censorship in corporate threat-intel, and whether the U.S. should rethink how it fills its intelligence gaps.
Cast: Dakota Cary, Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 55: A SharePoint zero-day exploit chain from Pwn2Own Berlin becomes a full-blown security crisis with Chinese nation-state actors exploiting vulnerabilities that Microsoft struggled to patch properly, leading to trivial bypasses and a cascade of new CVEs. The timeline is messy, the patches are faulty, and ransomware groups are lining up to join the party.
We also revisit the ProPublica bombshell about Microsoft's "digital escorts" and U.S. government data exposure to Chinese adversaries and the company's "oops, we will stop" response. Plus, trusting Google's Big Sleep AI claims and a cautionary tale about AI agents gone rogue that wiped out a production database.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 54: Europol busted pro‑Russian hacktivist crew NoName 057(16), the Brits announce sanctions on Russia’s GRU cyber units, Wagner‑linked “war influencers” streamed atrocities from Africa, and fresh tech worries ranged from a $500 RF flaw that can hijack U.S. train brakes.
Plus, ProPublica on Microsoft’s China‑based “digital escorts,” Google’s headline‑grabbing AI‑found SQLite zero‑day, and OpenAI’s new task‑running agents. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s hackers wiped a Russian drone maker, ransomware crippled a major vodka producer, and another Chrome zero‑day quietly underscored how routine critical exploits have become.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 53: We dig into news of the first-ever arrest of a Chinese intelligence-linked hacker in Italy, unpack the mystery behind HAFNIUM and how they somehow got their hands on the same Microsoft Exchange zero-days that researcher Orange Tsai discovered - was it coincidence, inside access, or something more sinister?
Plus, China's massive cyber capabilities pipeline, ‘theCom’ teenagers arrested in the UK after ransomware binge, and spyware attacks against Russian organizations.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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Three Buddy Problem - Episode 52: Fresh intelligence reports out of Europe and China: France’s ANSSI documents a string of Ivanti VPN zero-days ('Houken'), and Quanxin frames a stealth Microsoft Exchange-zero-day chain linked to a North American 'Night Eagle' threat actor. We dissect the technical bread-crumbs, questions the attribution math, and connects Houken to SentinelOne’s “Purple Haze” research.
Plus, the FBI’s claim that China’s “Salt Typhoon” has been “contained,” Iran’s Nobitex crypto-exchange breach (Predatory Sparrow torches $90 million and leaks the source code), Iranian cyber capabilities and sanctions avoidance.
Cast: Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu.
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