Kristin Strand: Be firm in your goals. [Consultant] [Career Notes]
Please enjoy this encore of Career Notes.
Cybersecurity Associate Consultant at BARR Advisory, Kristin Strand, shares her journey from the military to teaching and now to cybersecurity. Kristin shares how she'd wanted to be a teacher since she was young. She joined the Army to help pay for college and throughout her career has taken advantage of programs to help her move on to her next challenge. From teaching, Kristin decided to transition to IT and came to cybersecurity through a Department of Labor program. She's also currently training to be a drill sergeant. Kristin advises you stand firm to your goals and know what you want. It will come around. We thank Kristin for sharing her story with us.
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Smile for the malware. [Research Saturday]
Eclypsium researchers Jesse Michael and Mickey Shkatov to share their work on "BadCam - Now Weaponizing Linux Webcams." Eclypsium researchers disclosed “BadCam,” a set of vulnerabilities in certain Lenovo USB webcams that run Linux and do not validate firmware signatures, allowing attackers to reflash the devices and turn them into BadUSB-style tools.
An adversary who supplies a backdoored camera or who gains remote code execution on a host can weaponize the webcam to emulate human-interface devices, inject keystrokes, deliver payloads, and maintain persistence — even re-infecting systems after OS reinstalls. The findings were presented at DEF CON 2025, Lenovo issued updated firmware/tools in coordination with SigmaStar, and researchers warn the same vector could affect other Linux-based USB peripherals, underscoring the need for firmware signing and stronger device attestation.
The research can be found here:
BadCam: Now Weaponizing Linux Webcams
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