Dealing illicit goods on encrypted chat apps. [Research Saturday]

CyberWire Daily

N2K Networks, Inc.

News, Tech News, Daily News, Technology

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2021

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Guest Daniel Kats, Senior Principal Research Engineer at NortonLifeLock, joins Dave to discuss his team's work, "Encrypted Chat Apps Doubling as Illegal Marketplaces." Encrypted chat apps are gaining popularity worldwide due to their central premise of not sending user data to tech giants. Some popular examples include WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal. These apps have also been adopted by businesses to securely communicate directly to their users. Additionally, these apps have been instrumental to subverting authoritarian regimes. However, NortonLifeLock found that encrypted chat apps are also being used by criminals to sell illegal goods. Because content moderation is, by design, nearly impossible on these apps, they allow for an easy vector for dealers of illicit goods to communicate directly to customers without fear of law enforcement involvement. The research can be found here: Encrypted Chat Apps Doubling as Illegal Marketplaces Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to the CyberWire Network, powered by N2K.
0:07.0	Today's episode is sponsored by SRM, your first call for cybersecurity and
0:18.1	investigations. Threats today are evolving faster than ever before and since 2005 SRM has pioneered
0:25.3	tailored security solutions for global corporations and their executives.
0:29.5	Whether it's defending against cyber attacks with their award-winning team of ethical hackers and incident response specialists,
0:36.4	or navigating the murky waters of compliance and ESG challenges,
0:40.9	SRMs, Insight and Straight straightforward advice will help you navigate complex risks
0:46.4	and emerge more resilient.
0:48.4	Their secret, a culture that nurtures the sharpest minds, giving them access to the newest technologies and the freedom
0:55.3	to solve problems in new ways, enabling them to craft simple effective solutions for your
1:01.4	unique cyber challenges.
1:03.7	Search your first call to discover how SRM can help your business. Hello everyone and welcome to the CyberWire's research Saturday.
1:27.0	I'm Dave Bitner and this is our weekly conversation with researchers and analysts tracking
1:31.7	down threats and vulnerabilities, solving some of the hard problems of protecting
1:36.1	ourselves in a rapidly evolving cyberspace.
1:39.4	Thanks for joining us.
1:47.0	Originally we were just looking at telegram like everyone else. Originally we were just looking at telegram like everyone else.
1:51.0	We were bored and looking through it and we started seeing a lot of channels crop up that were focused on selling replicas of high-end luxury goods.
2:04.2	And this gave us the question of what other stuff is out there.
2:09.1	That's Daniel Katz.
2:10.7	He's a senior principal research engineer at Norton Lifelock.
2:14.0	The research we're discussing today is titled
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from N2K Networks, Inc., and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of N2K Networks, Inc. and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.