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

In recent weeks, a series of troubling operations targeting open source software libraries have been uncovered in which bad actors — likely tied to nation states — have attempted to use social engineering to be designated as maintainers of security critical libraries. Operations such as these have the potential to insert backdoors in widely used software libraries that provide the building blocks of modern computing. As the general manager of the Open Source Software Security Foundation, Omkhar Arasaratnam is on the frontlines of protecting the open source software ecosystem, and on this episode of Safe Mode, he sits down with host Elias Groll to discuss what’s needed to improve the security of some of the world’s most widely used software. DefenseScoop reporter Mikayla Easley also joins the show to discuss her reporting about how the Air Force is experimenting with putting AI behind the controls of American fighter jets.

Omkhar Arasaratnam on open source security; AI dogfighting

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