Simply Cyber Newsletter #178

Start your work week off at full speed with expert analysis and actionable intel from top cybersecurity news stories. Share with your End Users, Peers, and Executives to support weekly security awareness with the Simply Cyber Newsletter!

FOR END USERS

A fake Ledger app on the Apple App Store drained $9.5 million in crypto. A fake version of a trusted app made it onto an official app store and was used to steal millions from users. Victims believed they were installing legitimate software, but the app was designed to capture sensitive information and transfer assets to attacker-controlled accounts.

What you need to know: Educate your end users that trust in “official” platforms is no longer enough to keep them safe. This attack did not rely on suspicious links or obvious scams. It worked because the app appeared in a trusted store, looked legitimate, and matched what the user was trying to do. That combination lowers skepticism and speeds up decisions. The same tactic can target banking apps, workplace tools, or file sharing platforms, turning a normal install into full account access.

Encourage users to pause before installing or logging into any app. Verify the developer name, check reviews critically, and confirm the app through the company’s official website instead of relying on search or listings alone. Treat urgency during setup as a warning sign, not a reason to move faster.


FOR PEERS

Our evaluation of Claude Mythos Preview’s cyber capabilities. Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview shows a major jump in offensive cyber capability, completing complex multi-step attack simulations and solving expert-level capture-the-flag challenges. The model successfully executed a full 32-step enterprise attack chain in testing and can autonomously discover and exploit vulnerabilities in weak environments.

What you need to know: Share this story with your peers and have conversations about how defensive assumptions are starting to break down. This is not about AI replacing attackers, it is about accelerating what already works. Tasks that previously required time, coordination, and skill can now be executed faster and more consistently when guided by an operator. The concern is not a single breakthrough, but the compounding effect of faster reconnaissance, quicker vulnerability chaining, and reduced effort to scale attacks across environments.

This is a moment to reassess where your defenses rely on time as a control. Detection, triage, and response workflows built around hours or days may no longer hold if attack paths can be explored in minutes. Focus discussions on reducing exposure before access is gained, strengthening identity and access controls, and ensuring logging and monitoring can support faster investigation and containment when activity begins.

FOR EXECUTIVES

Our evaluation of Claude Mythos Preview’s cyber capabilities. Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview shows a major jump in offensive cyber capability, completing complex multi-step attack simulations and solving expert-level capture-the-flag challenges. The model successfully executed a full 32-step enterprise attack chain in testing and can autonomously discover and exploit vulnerabilities in weak environments.

What you need to know: Share this story with your executives and frame it as a shift in how cyber risk scales. The key takeaway is not that AI is attacking organizations today at scale, but that the effort required to find and exploit weaknesses is decreasing. What once took skilled teams days of work can now be accelerated, making more organizations viable targets and reducing the time between exposure and impact.

This should prompt a discussion about whether current investments assume attackers are constrained by time and effort. As that constraint weakens, risk becomes less predictable and more frequent. Leadership should focus on reducing reliance on reactive controls and increasing confidence in preventative measures, identity governance, and visibility across critical systems. The question is not whether controls exist, but whether they can hold under faster, more persistent pressure.

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JOIN US EVERY WEEKDAY DAILY CYBER THREAT BRIEF

Gerald Auger, Ph.D. livestreams the Daily Cyber Threat Brief on Simply Cyber on weekdays at 8:00 AM EDT.

Join the party with cybersecurity enthusiasts and professionals alike who enjoy learning about the latest in cybersecurity news and staying connected.

Meet #TeamSC in live chat and join the community! https://simplycyber.io/streams 

NEW VIDEO: THE SECURITY GAP NOBODY TALKS ABOUT

10 Minute OSINT: How to Investigate Anyone Online Fast

If you only had 10 minutes to investigate someone online… where would you start?

In this video, Mishaal Khan walks through a fast, practical workflow for building a quick snapshot of a target using open-source intelligence techniques.

From smarter Google searching to social media pivoting, username tracking, and reverse image analysis, this walkthrough shows how to maximize limited time while still uncovering meaningful insights.

You’ll learn how to:

• Refine searches using advanced Google techniques and operators
• Pivot across social media platforms to uncover additional data points
• Leverage usernames to expand your investigation across hundreds of sites
• Use data broker platforms to correlate addresses, phone numbers, and relationships
• Conduct reverse image searches to identify where images appear online
• Build a fast, actionable OSINT profile in minutes

This is a practical guide for anyone looking to sharpen their OSINT skills, whether you're in cybersecurity, investigations, or just getting started with open-source intelligence.

If speed matters and you need results quickly, this workflow delivers.

Watch now on Simply Cyber Media Group: https://youtu.be/VWARgL3n3qY

SC MEDIA GROUP 2 CYBER CHICKS PODCAST

Authenticity, Neurospicy Leadership & Why Perception Is Reality in Life

Wednesday, April 22nd at 9:30 AM EDT

In this episode of 2 Cyber Chicks, Jax sits down with Virginia Case, a fractional C-level executive, serial entrepreneur, and go-to-market fixer known for blending psychology, marketing, AI, and no-BS execution.

Together, they unpack the tension between authenticity and awareness, why “just being yourself” can sometimes cross into tone-deaf leadership, and how perception truly becomes reality in business, careers, and cybersecurity.

Virginia shares her personal journey of publicly owning her ADHD/neurospicy brain, recognizing when she’s masking, and learning how to channel that energy into a renewable leadership advantage instead of burnout.

This conversation dives deep into:
- Why confidence without awareness can backfire
- How leaders and cyber professionals unintentionally sabotage their own narrative
- What it really means to “market your cyber self” without feeling fake
- The role of perception in hiring, leadership, and influence
- How neurodivergent leaders can design success on their own terms

If you’re navigating leadership, career growth, or visibility in cybersecurity and want to do it with integrity, self-awareness, and impact this episode is for you.

Join us this Wednesday after the Daily Cyber Threat Brief at 9:30 AM EDT: https://youtu.be/m7sKu_Z_GkM

Register to attend and get notification reminders! https://luma.com/fubvrzqv 

SIMPLY CYBER FIRESIDES: Closing the Security Gap in Modern Environments

Closing the Security Gap in Modern Environments

Thursday, April 23rd at 4:30 PM EDT

Modern applications do not look anything like they did when traditional firewalls were designed. Cloud environments, microservices, Kubernetes, and AI-driven workloads have changed how systems communicate and where attacks happen. The result is a growing visibility gap that many security teams are still trying to close.

In this episode of Simply Cyber Firesides, host Gerald Auger, Ph.D. is joined by Rick Miles, Vice President of Product Management for Cloud and Network Security at Cisco – Infrastructure and Security Group, to explore how security architecture is evolving to meet these challenges.

Rick leads a major portfolio of security solutions and brings experience from both military intelligence and enterprise security leadership. His perspective bridges strategy, operations, and real-world implementation at scale.

🎯 Insights from this Firesides chat include:
• Why traditional perimeter firewalls no longer provide enough visibility
• How modern environments create blind spots attackers can exploit
• The challenges organizations face with fragmented security controls
• Why encrypted traffic and AI-driven applications introduce new risks
• What the hybrid mesh firewall model is and how it addresses these gaps
• How organizations can evolve their security architecture without starting over

The discussion focuses on practical challenges security teams are facing today and how new approaches are helping close the gap between modern infrastructure and legacy defenses.

💬 This session also includes audience interaction and real-world insights designed to help security professionals better understand how to adapt their defenses in a changing environment.

Join us this Thursday in live chat - register to attend and get notified! https://luma.com/2jcgbamo

SC MEDIA GROUP WEEKLY EVENTS SCHEDULE

Join us for learning and networking every day of the work week at simplycyber.io/streams & meet the community at simplycyber.io/discord!

SIMPLY CYBER MONTHLY EVENTS LINEUP

Want to know what’s happening at Simply Cyber at any given time?

Head over to the SC Monthly Events Calendar to register for new and upcoming events for the month - don’t forget to subscribe! lu.ma/simplycyber 

SC ACADEMY THE PLACE FOR CYBER CAREERS

At Simply Cyber Academy, we specialize in making GRC and Cybersecurity Careers a reality. Empower your career by learning real in-demand skills from cyber experts and the theory behind those skills with Simply Cyber Academy.

The popular GRC Analyst Master Class is a must for kickstarting your GRC Cybersecurity career. In addition, we have new courses covering various areas of focus in cyber available to help you advance in your career.

Check out the NEW FREE courses available in the academy!

SIMPLY CYBER ACADEMY BLOG HIGHLIGHT

Check out the highlighted blog on Simply Cyber Academy: https://academy.simplycyber.io/p/Blog?p=how-to-submit-your-first-cfp-in-cybersecurity

LET’S CONNECT

Stay current on trending topics, tips, events and resources in cybersecurity, connect with Simply Cyber on socials for new content.

As always, please send me feedback. Which tip above is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know. Just send a DM on X with #actionableintel in the subject so I can find it.

Join us on the Daily Cyber Threat Brief happening every weekday morning at 8 AM Eastern on YouTube and LinkedIn.

Find more about what’s happening this week in the Simply Cyber community, below. Join us on the Daily Cyber Threat Brief happening every weekday morning at 8 AM Eastern on YouTube and LinkedIn.

Thank you and see you again next week, #TeamSC!

Gerry