• U.S. State Department blames Russia for cyberattacks that hit neighboring Georgia in October 2019

• By identifying Russia's digital assaults on neighbors, US hopes to raise awareness of ongoing GRU attacks on US

Wired security reporter Andy Greenberg's latest book is Sandworm (previously), a true-life technothriller that tells the stories of the cybersecurity experts who analyzed and attributed as series of ghastly cyberwar attacks that brought down parts of the Ukrainian power grid, and then escaped the attackers' control and spread all over the world.

For years, I've followed Andy Greenberg's excellent reporting on "Sandworm," a set of infrastructure-targeted cyberattacks against Ukraine widely presumed to be of Russian origin, some of which escaped their targeted zone and damaged systems around the world.

In this video, a dead fish is used to tease a Bobbit worm (Eunice aphroditois) into revealing its vicious skill as an ambush predator. Fortunately, it's all happening underwater, far away from me.

After some trial and error, Chris-Rachael Oseland has perfected a recipe for spice-filled sandworm bread, just in time for Kitchen Overlord's Dune Week.

Photo: kitchenoverlord.com

On Chris-Rachael Oseland's kitchenoverlord.com food blog, there are some wonderful geeky recipes. Two of the more recent posts are breads with science fiction themes, and both sound delicious/disgusting: A cinnamon-vanilla Sandworm bread, from a carb-y parallel version of Frank Herbert's Dune universe, and Alien Xenomorph Pretzel Bread Eggs. — Read the rest

Over the last few years, Abrams ComicArts has been serializing a graphic novel adaptation of the first DUNE book. I reviewed Part One when it came out in 2020, as well as Part Two, which followed in 2022, and now, Part Three has finally arrived, bringing the series to a solid ending. — Read the rest

Lego Ideas, where creators can submit their own creations for consideration to become a real Lego set, is running an "If We Could Turn Back Time" 80s contest. There are five iconic 80s sets to vote on.

First up is Gizmo from Gremlins, who comes with extra elements to build him Rambo-style, including a red bandana and bow and explosive arrow. — Read the rest

There were many things that immediately impressed me about Denis Villeneuve's Dune. One of these was the amazing music and sound design. In this 28-minute featurette, Denis and his sound team discuss their approach to the sound design of the film and how they came up with sounds for the sandworms, spice-tripping, ornithopters, the Bene Gesserit "voice," and the sound of Arrakis itself. — Read the rest

I greatly enjoyed Max Barry's 2013 novel Lexicon (Cory loved it, too — here's his review). Barry has a new novel that came out today from Putnam, called Providence, which I started reading. It's a space thriller about a four person crew on an AI controlled spaceship programmed to seek and destroy "salamanders" – creatures that kill by spitting mini-black holes. — Read the rest

Don't be boring! If you still have to go to work meetings via Zoom's video calls, switch up the background to something interesting. Using the "virtual background" feature (once you're logged into the meeting), you can insert ANY image you want behind you. — Read the rest

Wired has published another long excerpt from Sandworm, reporter Andy Greenberg's (previously) forthcoming book on the advanced Russian hacking team who took the US-Israeli Stuxnet program to the next level, attacking Ukrainian power infrastructure, literally blowing up key components of the country's power grid by attacking the embedded code in their microcontrollers.

Andy Greenberg (previously) is Wired's senior security reporter; he did amazing work covering Russian cyberwarfare in Ukraine, which he has expanded into a forthcoming book: Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers (I read it for a blurb and a review; it's excellent).

Ransomware has been around since the late 1980s, but it got a massive shot in the arm when leaked NSA cyberweapons were merged with existing strains of ransomware, with new payment mechanisms that used cryptocurrencies, leading to multiple ransomware epidemics that locked up businesses, hospitals, schools, and more (and then there are the state-level cyberattacks that pretend to be ransomware).

The Triton malware was first identified 16 months ago by researchers from Fireeye: it targets Triconex control systems from Schneider Electric, and was linked by Fireeye to the Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics in Moscow.

Security services firm FireEye says two hacker groups known to be sponsored by the Russian government of Vladimir Putin are waging cyber-attacks currently against European government systems.

Andy Greenberg (previously) is a veteran Wired security reporter who has chronicled the frightening and chaotic world of cyberwar since its earliest days; in a forthcoming book called "Sandworm," Greenberg tells the fascinating and terrible tale of Notpetya (previously), a Russian cyberweapon (built on leaked NSA cyberweapons!) — Read the rest

Hacker takeovers of power infrastructure have been seen in Ukraine (where they are reliably attributed to Russian state actors), but now the US power-grid has been compromised by hackers of unknown origin, who have "switch-flipping" control — that is, they can just turn it all off.

According to Kaspersky, the Petya ransomware that raced around the world this week wasn't ransomware at all, and there is no way to get back your files after it does its work (that's why it was so easy to shut down the email address the ransomware used to negotiate payments and decryption with victims whose computers had been taken over).

Ever since the Ukrainian "Maidan" revolution, the country has been subjected to waves of punishing cyberwar attacks, targeting its power grids, finance ministry, TV networks, election officials, and other critical systems.