Defending from Cyberpunks | CyberAware Podcast Episode 5

In this episode of the CyberAware Podcast, our hosts, Raj and Sherwin, discuss with special guest Mubasser Kamal focused mainly on cyberpunks. Mubassir graduated from Minnesota State University, Mankato two years ago with a masters degree in IT and he has been currently working for a penetration testing company based in Minneapolis as a security consultant. The podcast is all about cyberpunks which simply put forward means individuals into cybertheft & other malicious criminal activities in the cyberworld.
The first major example of cyberpunk they discuss is phishing and how there has been an upsurge in SMS phishing and the number of victims during this COVID-19 timeline. They provide insights to cross-site request forgery and SQL injection which turn out to be some of the common exploits. They elaborate on penetration testing further and how institutions implement it effectively to test their cyber infrastructure like mobile and web applications to name some and to evade exploits like remote code execution attacks. They also talk about tools like ‘Netcat’ that they use for troubleshooting the exploits while they poke around different servers. They talk more about ‘mercenary’ hackers implemented and sponsored by Governments and corporations around the world to conduct cyber-attacks & espionage too. They explain how these hackers have high-end targets and many of the times bait people close to their target to hack into, essentially implementing these innocent people as passive cyberpunks. They then give some tips to stay cybersecure like always checking the links (URL), getting back to the institution involved directly to check the validity of the e-mail or SMS or call they received, securing home networks better using WPA passwords, performing regular firmware updates on devices like routers, etc. Finally they take you through a typical day in life of an Information security analyst and the tasks they perform on a daily basis.