The Adversarial Podcast
The Adversarial Podcast
Jerry Perullo, Sounil Yu, Mario Duarte
Join former ICE:NYSE CISO Jerry Perullo, former Snowflake CISO Mario Duarte, and former JupiterOne CISO and Bank of America leader Sounil Yu as they dive into the good, the bad, and the ugly in the latest cybersecurity news. Each week, we discuss the most pressing headlines, offer candid commentary, and share unique insights from our extensive experience in the field.
S4E25 – AI agent accountability, learned helplessness, TeamPCP arrests, and Chinese router backdoors
Jerry, Mario, and Sounil debate who is accountable when autonomous AI agents cross the line—and whether enterprise AI policies provide real governance or merely more paperwork. They examine a revealing CISA red-team report in which culture, alert fatigue, and learned helplessness separated two similarly equipped organizations; consider whether the alleged TeamPCP arrests will deter the next generation of hackers; and ask whether backdoors found in Chinese-made routers are espionage, careless engineering, or something in between.Stories and resourcesThe Hugging Face Incident and the Road Ahead OpenAI explains how models undergoing cybersecurity evaluations escaped their isolation controls and compromised parts of OpenAI’s and Hugging Face’s infrastructure.AI Agent Shared Responsibility Model Microsoft outlines how responsibility shifts among providers, organizations, and users as AI agents gain greater autonomy and access.AI Management Systems: What Businesses Need to Know ISO explains why effective AI governance requires continuously maintained policies, processes, controls, and clearly assigned accountability.A Tale of Two SOCs: Insights From Two Red Team Assessments CISA compares two organizations that faced similar red-team attacks but produced dramatically different outcomes because of alert tuning, coordination, authority, and security culture.Two Alleged “TeamPCP” Hackers Arrested in Australia Australian authorities arrested two men allegedly connected to TeamPCP, a cybercrime group linked to malicious open-source software and cascading supply-chain attacks.Chinese Implants in the Supply Chain VulnCheck found multiple factory-installed implants in ZBT router firmware that could provide unauthenticated remote access with root privileges.00:00 AI Agents, Cyberattacks, and Escaping Containment08:46 Who Is Accountable for Autonomous AI?15:09 Do Companies Really Need an AI Policy?31:58 What CISA’s Red-Team Report Reveals About Security Culture44:50 TeamPCP Arrests and the Deterrence Question52:32 Chinese Router Backdoors: Espionage or Careless Engineering?Hosts: Jerry Perullo (Founder, https://adversarial.com/)Sounil Yu (Founder, https://www.knostic.ai/)Mario Duarte (CISO, https://www.whirlai.com/)Producer: Tillson Galloway (Founder, http://githoundexplore.com/)
Sep 2
1 hr 2 min
S4E24 – Dream’s agentic attack report, cyber privateers, Taiwan’s internet drill
00:00 Cold Open: The Offensive-Cyber Incentive Problem 00:31 Welcome and the macOS Screen Sharing Flaw 03:14 Patching the Humans After DEF CON 12:14 CMDBs, Shadow IT, and Just-in-Time Context 19:59 Cloudflare’s Markdown for Agents 23:47 Taiwan’s Live Internet-Throttling Drill 33:46 Can an AI Agent’s Own Logs Be Forensic Evidence? 38:57 Cyber Privateers and the New Offensive-Cyber Program 43:32 How Commercial Hack-Back Might Work 51:48 The Rogue Delta Wi-Fi Network 57:33 AI Red Teaming and Automated Remediation 59:09 Replacing Vendor Questionnaires with Real Testing 1:02:05 When Red Teaming Creates Defensive Bloat 1:03:46 Pen Tests Find Flaws; Red Teams Pursue Outcomes 1:06:25 Closing ThoughtsStories and resourcesInside a Multi-Agent AI Framework Used to Compromise Government Entities in Asia — Dream Research LabsOpenAI and Hugging Face partner to address security incident during model evaluation — OpenAITaiwan briefly slows its mobile internet as part of defense drill — APPrivate companies authorized to conduct offensive cyber operations — TechRadarDelta flight Wi-Fi tampered with after DEF CON — ITProUnited flight turns around over a suspicious Bluetooth device name — NPR/CapRadioMarkdown for Agents — CloudflareCritical macOS Screen Sharing flaw — Tom’s GuideHosts: Jerry Perullo (Founder, https://adversarial.com/)Sounil Yu (Founder, https://www.knostic.ai/)Mario Duarte (CISO, https://www.whirlai.com/)Producer: Tillson Galloway (Founder, http://githoundexplore.com/)
Aug 18
1 hr 6 min
S4E23 – AI Agents Escape Multiple Frontier Labs
Chapters00:00 Introduction to AI security challenges02:05 Recent hacking incidents involving Hugging Face and Anthropic04:01 How AI models find ways to cheat and bypass constraints05:56 The challenge of containment and governance in AI safety08:00 Lessons from recent AI security breaches10:01 The role of human oversight in AI security testing12:03 Cost and effectiveness of offensive AI security measures13:54 Implications for critical infrastructure and national security16:03 Policy and regulatory impacts on AI safety17:52 Future strategies for AI containment and defense20:11 Conclusion and key takeawaysHuggingFace: Anatomy of a Frontier Lab Agent Intrusion: A Technical Timeline of the July 2026 IncidentHugging Face reconstructs an autonomous intrusion involving approximately 17,600 actions over a multiday campaign.Anthropic: Investigating three real-world incidents in our cybersecurity evaluationsAfter reviewing 141,006 cybersecurity-evaluation runs, Anthropic identified three incidents in which Claude reached real organizations through evaluation infrastructure that had been mistakenly connected to the internet. The incidents spanned six runs and three models. Anthropic reached two of the affected organizations, neither of which had detected the activity before being notified. Anthropic did not disclose token usage or inference costs for these intrusions.Anthropic: Discovering cryptographic weaknesses with ClaudeAnthropic reports that Claude Mythos Preview progressed from finding implementation flaws in cryptographic libraries to identifying mathematical weaknesses in cryptographic algorithms themselves.Hosts: Jerry Perullo (Founder, https://adversarial.com/)Sounil Yu (Founder, https://www.knostic.ai/)Mario Duarte (CISO, https://www.whirlai.com/)Producer: Tillson Galloway (Founder, http://githoundexplore.com/)
Aug 4
1 hr 6 min
S4E22 – HuggingFace compromised by agentic attack, Gold Eagle program
00:00 The Adversarial Podcast00:58 Hugging Face’s AI-driven incident disclosure 03:48 What makes an attack “AI-enabled” 06:04 Exploits, vulnerabilities, and bespoke code execution paths 10:03 AI attackers vs. AI defenders11:19 Verification asymmetry: attackers vs. defenders13:03 Detective controls, red teaming, and breach simulation 16:41 Why AI defenders matter 26:25 Gold Eagle / national coordination of vulnerability discovery 28:25 The real bottleneck is remediation, not discovery 37:04 CMMC and the cost of certification 42:15 Is certification effective, or just paperwork? 48:09 Threat-based validation as a better model 51:36 Closing thoughts: the security arms raceHugging Face Agentic CompromiseA security incident shows how agentic workflows and delegated access can create new paths for compromise. Gold Eagle Initiative The White House launches a new effort to coordinate vulnerability discovery and response across the federal cybersecurity ecosystem. CMMC Phase 2 Requirements The Department of War suspends CMMC Phase 2 requirements, reshaping the compliance timeline for defense contractors and the broader federal supply chain. Hosts: Jerry Perullo (Founder, https://adversarial.com/)Sounil Yu (Founder, https://www.knostic.ai/) Mario Duarte (Founder, stealth startup) Producer: Tillson Galloway (Founder, http://githoundexplore.com/)
Jul 21
52 min
S4E21 - Travel Security, AI Defense Matrix, Startup Security
In this episode, Jerry, Mario, and Sounil delve into cybersecurity challenges related to travel, threat models, AI security, and best practices for startups. They explore practical strategies for managing security risks in a rapidly evolving digital landscape, emphasizing the importance of threat modeling, secure coding, and organizational priorities.00:00 Intro01:55 Travel Restrictions and Security Concerns06:51 Burner Phones and Laptops: A Necessary Evil?09:50 Threat Models and Espionage Risks14:38 AI and Cybersecurity: New Frontiers19:41 Listener Questions and Community Engagement22:53 The Evolution of AI Security Frameworks26:29 Understanding New Attack Surfaces in AI28:56 The Role of Automation in Security31:05 Challenges of Non-Technical Users in Security33:53 Best Practices for Managing Credentials38:16 Building Security from the Ground Up41:52 Compliance vs. Security in Startups48:02 Understanding Security Constructs51:06 Prioritizing Security Controls52:48 The Role of SAST in Security59:38 AI and Vulnerability Management01:02:15 Coordinating Vulnerability Disclosure
Jul 1
1 hr 6 min
S4E20 - AI Executive Order, Project Glasswing Expanding, Cybersecurity Workforce
Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security The White House EO pushes federal agencies toward AI-enabled cyber defense, frontier-model benchmarking, and a voluntary framework for trusted access to high-end AI systems. Expanding Project Glasswing Anthropic is widening Project Glasswing beyond its first cohort, giving more trusted security teams access to Claude Mythos Preview while the industry works through how to scale vulnerability discovery, disclosure, and patching. Securely testing on customer data The crew digs into the practical problem of validating AI and security tools against real customer environments without turning sensitive data into test exhaust, training material, or cross-tenant risk. The cybersecurity workers employers want are in short supply — Axios Axios frames the cyber labor crunch around specialized, hands-on roles that employers want most, raising the question of whether AI changes the skills gap or just moves it up the stack. Hosts: Jerry Perullo (Founder, https://adversarial.com/) Sounil Yu (Founder, https://www.knostic.ai/) Mario Duarte (Founder, https://www.whirlai.com/) Producer: Tillson Galloway (Founder, http://githoundexplore.com/)
Jun 9
1 hr 6 min
S4E19 – Canvas hacked, Cloudflare layoffs, GitHub CVE rundown
Canvas hack strands university students during finals week. A Canvas cyberattack hit universities and K-12 schools during finals, locking students and teachers out of grades, assignments, lecture materials, and exams at the worst possible moment.Building for the future. Cloudflare says it is cutting more than 1,100 employees as it restructures around internal AI-driven workflows, even as the timing alongside earnings and a sharp stock reaction raises harder questions about the story investors were told.GitHub RCE Vulnerability: CVE-2026-3854 Breakdown | Wiz Blog. Wiz breaks down a critical GitHub infrastructure flaw where an authenticated user could turn a normal git push into remote code execution on GitHub Enterprise Server, with GitHub.com mitigated and GHES customers urged to patch.Dirty Frag (CVE-2026-43284, CVE-2026-43500) Patches Released. AlmaLinux shipped kernel patches for Dirty Frag, a pair of Linux kernel bugs in IPsec ESP and rxrpc paths that can give local attackers root, with public exploit code already available.Hosts:Jerry Perullo (Founder, https://adversarial.com/)Sounil Yu (Founder, https://www.knostic.ai/)Mario Duarte (Founder, stealth startup)Producer: Tillson Galloway (Founder, http://githoundexplore.com/)
May 12
1 hr 9 min
S4E18 – Mythos and TPRM, does SOC 2 really work?
00:34 - Introduction03:33 - Enterprise Challenges07:08 - End User and Browsers21:55 - Vulnerability Metrics40:37 - Approaching Leadership42:09 - TPRM Discussion46:40 - Sharing Findings01:03:04 - ConclusionMozilla: Anthropic’s Mythos found 271 security vulnerabilities in Firefox 150Anthropic’s Mythos found 271 zero-day vulnerabilities in Firefox 150 Mozilla let Anthropic’s Mythos loose on Firefox 150’s codebase, harvesting 271 shippable fixes in one sweep and forcing the security team to reckon with AI-scale fuzzing, triage, and patch velocity. https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/04/mozilla-anthropics-mythos-found-271-zero-day-vulnerabilities-in-firefox-150/Hosts:Jerry Perullo (Founder, https://adversarial.com/)Sounil Yu (Founder, https://www.knostic.ai/)Mario Duarte (Founder, stealth startup)Producer: Tillson Galloway (Founder, http://githoundexplore.com/)
Apr 28
1 hr 5 min
S4E17 – Mythos, Delve's downfall, and supply chain attacks
Project Glasswing (https://www.anthropic.com/glasswing) Anthropic is letting AWS, Apple, Google, Microsoft, JPMorgan, Cisco, NVIDIA, and friends point Claude Mythos at their shared attack surface while backing it with $100M in credits and $4M for OSS security groups so blue teams can burn down latent vulns before the offense gets equivalent AI. Inside the TeamPCP cascading supply chain attack (https://www.reversinglabs.com/blog/teampcp-supply-chain-attack-spreads) Hijacked Trivy GitHub Actions poisoned Docker images, stole CI secrets, and daisy-chained through Checkmarx workflows, npm packages, and VS Code extensions, seeding thousands of tenants with infostealers and proving CI creds are the new crown jewels. Delve – Fake Compliance as a Service - Part I (https://substack.com/home/post/p-191342187) A report says Delve mass-produced fake SOC 2 artifacts and funneled them through shell auditors, leaving customers—from indie apps to a Nasdaq firm—waving fraudulent attestations that crater their legal compliance.Hosts: Jerry Perullo (Founder, https://adversarial.com/)Sounil Yu (Founder, https://www.knostic.ai/)Mario Duarte (Founder, stealth startup)Producer: Tillson Galloway (Founder, http://githoundexplore.com/)
Apr 23
1 hr 8 min
Special RSAC episode with Cloudflare - Cybersecurity and AI, CISO/Board dynamics, future of cybersecurity
The Adversarial Podcast brings you a special episode in collaboration with Cloudflare's Security Signal Podcast.0:39 - 3:33 AI Governance and Autonomy 6:26 - 8:49 Human in the Loop 9:17 - 11:40 Cybersecurity and AI 15:26 - 18:19 Resilience and Anti-Fragility 28:24 - 33:05 Threat Intelligence 33:31 - 36:50 Board and CISO Dynamics 41:09 - 42:35 Future of Cybersecurity 42:35 - 44:14 Books and ResourcesSecurity Signal Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/security-signal/id1815513800Cloudflare; http://cloudflare.com/Hosts:Jerry Perullo (Founder, https://adversarial.com/)Sounil Yu (Founder, https://www.knostic.ai/)Mario Duarte (Founder, stealth startup)Producer: Tillson Galloway (Founder, http://githoundexplore.com/)
Apr 14
44 min
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