Cyberattacks have played a significant role in the war in Ukraine. Officials in Washington and Kyiv have blamed Russian hackers for targeting satellite systems and using digital assaults to execute disinformation and psychological warfare campaigns. Victor Zhora, the deputy chairman of the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine, is actively involved in defending against those attacks and talks to Safe Mode about the evolution of cyberwar in Ukraine. CyberScoop reporter AJ Vicens also joins the show to talk about his reporting on the cybercrime underworld and hacker forums such as BreachForums.

Victor Zhora on the frontlines of digital war between Ukraine and Russia

Greg Otto talks with Andrew Carney, project manager at DARPA, about the AIxCC competition. With the finals set to be held in August during DEF CON, they discuss how these autonomous systems fared in detecting and remediating vulnerabilities, as well as the key lessons learned from live exercises and the semifinals. The conversation highlights DARPA's vision to merge formal software engineering with large language models to dramatically reduce software vulnerabilities and explains the scientific and engineering advances still needed to achieve this goal at scale. We also examine the challenges of safeguarding critical infrastructure, particularly when so much depends on open-source projects maintained by volunteers, and consider the impact of AI on patch deployment, code verification, and sustainable defense.

In the reporter chat, Greg talks with Matt Kapko about a story debunking the 16 billion password hack. 

DARPA’s Andrew Carney on AIxCC’s quest for truly autonomous AI

Safe Mode Podcast

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