GitHub gets got

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Happy Wednesday, folks.

In case you don’t own any green, might want to go ahead and get on that. No pinching around this community this St. Patty’s Day 🍀 

GitHub's Malicious Repos & WhatsApp's Pegasus Access

Cyber attacks aren’t newsworthy at this point, but this past week featured two that were important enough to delve into deeper.

First, GitHub warned users that it has seen an influx of malicious repos with millions of lines of data-stealin’ code.

Honestly, it’s a bit surprising that the company hasn’t dealt with this issue in the past, but (surprise) AI has made it easier than ever to produce this harmful code.

The rise of open-source is also making it easier for keyboard witches to work their voodoo. AI has made cooperation with strangers on the internet cool again, and while this allows for speed and new ideas, it also makes it easier than ever to prey on some innocent, naive lil SWE that wants to code for the greater good.

We’re certain to see upgraded security features, but it remains to be seen whether this introduces a bit of hesitancy to open-source projects, which would now be a good thing.

Also in cybersecurity, WhatsApp was granted access to the Pegasus spyware that was used to spy on more than 1000 users a couple of years ago.

The controversial spyware offers nosy organizations world-class surveillance on mobile device activity, from reading messages to even recording phone calls. Scary stuff.

The Israeli company behind the tech is sanctioned by the US, but that hasn’t stopped them from selling to governments like Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Meta won’t have access to all of Pegasus’ systems, but they will have greater access than ever before to better understand the systems that the spyware is using to locate, access, and harvest user data, something which could provide immediate benefits across the industry for cybersecurity.

Unfortunately, cyber will always be a game of cat and mouse, and hackers are always gonna hack.

But very few of them have as sophisticated of systems as Pegasus, so this might be the biggest leg up that Tom has had on Jerry in a long, long time. Long cybersecurity.

GitHub is facing a surge in malicious repositories fueled by AI, raising concerns over open-source security. Meanwhile, WhatsApp gains unprecedented access to the Pegasus spyware, potentially enhancing industry-wide cybersecurity measures.

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Cheers to another day,

Trey