CyberWire Daily

In this special Reporter’s Notebook, Maria Varmazis⁠⁠⁠⁠, host here at N2K CyberWire, takes listeners behind the scenes of our three-part series on Cyber Coalition 2025 in Tallinn, Estonia. After exploring real-time incident response, cross-border coordination, and the broader stakes of collective cyber defense, this episode offers a more personal, behind-the-scenes look at how the reporting came together.

Hosted by the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence, the exercise brought together allied military, government, and industry teams inside NATO’s secure cyber range. Here, Maria reflects on moments that didn’t make the final cut — the atmosphere inside the facilities, the pace of covering a live exercise, and the small, human details that added texture to the larger story.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to listen to all three episodes of the series to hear the full story from the ground at Cyber Coalition 2025.

Episode one can be found ⁠⁠here⁠⁠.

Episode two can be found ⁠here⁠. 

Episode three can be found ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. 
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Please enjoy this encore of Career Notes.

Anna Belak, Director of Thought Leadership at Sysdig, shares her story from physics to cyber. Anna explains how she went into college with the thinking of getting a physics degree and then for her PhD decided to switch to material science and engineering. Both were not something she enjoyed and ultimately decided to go into cyber. She shares some advice on how you should never limit yourself to your degree, as well as always learning new skills and honing in on skills you already have. She say's by doing these things it will make you into a unicorn, meaning if you are good at one thing and teach yourself to be good at something else, you will become that much more valuable. Anna hopes she makes an impact with the people she works with, she hopes they will want to work with her even long after she leaves a company. We thank Anna for sharing her story.
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This week we are joined by Marcelle Lee, cybersecurity consultant and researcher, discussing "CTI tradecraft: Investigating a mobile scareware campaign." She details how a routine click on a Google News story led to a mobile scareware pop-up—and a deeper investigation into a broader campaign.

Using free tools like Censys, URLScan, VirusTotal, and CyberChef, she pivoted from two domains to uncover more than 100 related domains, shared infrastructure, and links to questionable antivirus apps in the Google Play Store. The findings are mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, showing how freely available resources can power meaningful, actionable threat intelligence.

The research can be found here:


⁠CTI tradecraft: Investigating a mobile scareware campaign

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Iran’s MuddyWater breaches multiple U.S. organizations. The FBI probes a breach of wiretap management systems. A China-linked threat actor targets South American telecoms. Cisco patches critical firewall flaws. CISA flags actively exploited bugs in Hikvision cameras and Rockwell industrial systems. A House committee advances the controversial KIDS online safety bill. The FBI arrests a suspect accused of stealing millions in seized crypto from the U.S. Marshals Service. Ben Yelin and Ethan Cook unpack the dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon. Wikimedia worm wreaks widespread wiki woes. 

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CyberWire Guest

Today, we’re bringing you a featured conversation from our Caveat podcast, where Ben Yelin sits down with N2K Lead Analyst Ethan Cook to unpack the fallout between the Pentagon and Anthropic, what led to the deal unraveling, and what it means as the government pivots to a similar AI contracting agreement with OpenAI. You can listen to their full conversation here and catch new episodes of Caveat featuring Dave and Ben every Thursday with special appearances by Ethan.

Selected Reading

Iranian APT Hacked US Airport, Bank, Software Company (SecurityWeek)

Tech Giants, Washington Rally for Anthropic in Pentagon Feud (GovInfo Security)

FBI investigates breach of surveillance and wiretap systems (Bleeping Computer)

Chinese state hackers target telcos with new malware toolkit (Bleeping Computer)

Cisco Patches 48 Firewall Vulnerabilities with Two CVSS 10 Flaws (Hackread)

CISA Flags Hikvision Camera & Rockwell Logix Vulnerabilities as Actively Exploited (SOCRadar)

House panel marks up kids digital safety act amid Democrat backlash (The Record)

US contractor's son arrested over alleged $46M crypto theft (The Register)

Wikipedia hit by self-propagating JavaScript worm that vandalized pages (Bleeping Computer)

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The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc.
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Show Notes:

As the cybersecurity industry has grown, the field has struggled to answer the question: do certifications matter? In this episode of CISO Perspectives, host ⁠Kim Jones⁠ sits down with N2K's own, ⁠Simone Petrella, to answer this question and discuss why the value of certifications continue to be debated. Throughout the conversation, Simone and Kim will discuss the challenges associated with certifications, and how the industry can adjust the ways it sees and utilizes them.

Got cybersecurity, IT, or project management certification goals?

For the past 25 years, N2K's practice tests have helped more than half a million professionals reach certification success. Grow your career and reach your goals faster with N2K’s full exam prep of practice tests, labs, and training courses for Microsoft, CompTIA, PMI, Amazon, and more at n2k.com/certify.

Want more CISO Perspectives?

Check out a companion ⁠⁠blog post⁠⁠ by our very own Ethan Cook, where he breaks down key insights, shares behind-the-scenes context, and highlights research that complements this episode. It’s the perfect follow-up if you’re curious about the cyber talent crunch and how we can reshape the ecosystem for future professionals.
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