The Bare Metal Cyber — Friday Edition is your end-of-week cybersecurity intelligence wrap, turning five days of breaking threats into one fast, actionable update. For the week ending October 17th, 2025, we unpack everything from nation-state intrusions and zero-day exploits to record-setting DDoS attacks, policy moves, and vendor fallout — all explained in plain English for business leaders, defenders, and technology teams alike.

This week’s episode dives into F5’s confirmed breach where attackers stole BIG-IP source code and vulnerability data, the UK’s £14-million fine against Capita for poor breach response, and the discovery of a six-billion-record data leak from an unsecured Elasticsearch cluster. You’ll also hear how phishing campaigns spoofed LastPass and Bitwarden to install remote-control tools, why the massive “ClickFix” campaign tricked users into running malicious commands, and how Microsoft’s October patch cycle delivered 172 fixes — including six exploited zero-days — just as Windows 10 reached its support deadline.

We’ll explain how Chinese threat groups turned ArcGIS servers into backdoors, why VPNs and backup configurations became attacker blueprints, and how North Korea seeded npm with malicious packages to target developers. Plus, researchers exposed satellite traffic leaking unencrypted calls and telemetry, Apple doubled its bug bounty to $2 million, and the Aisuru botnet reached nearly thirty terabits per second in record-breaking denial-of-service floods.

Each story includes three things: what happened, why it matters, and one clear action you can take now. Whether you manage risk, run IT, or lead a security program, you’ll walk away knowing exactly where to focus your attention next week.

For more cybersecurity insights, visit BareMetalCyber.com for the full written wrap, or subscribe to the daily newsletter and podcast at DailyCyber.news — news you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.

In this episode, we dive into the unsettling paradox of Schrödinger’s Firewall—where your data is both safe and already compromised in the looming quantum era. Listeners will learn why today’s trusted encryption methods like RSA and ECC may soon resemble digital Swiss cheese, how Q-Day could arrive faster than expected, and what industries—from finance to healthcare to defense—stand to lose the most. We also unpack the race to post-quantum cryptography, exploring emerging algorithms, hybrid models, and the global urgency to prepare before attackers unlock decades of encrypted information.

Beyond awareness, this episode sharpens critical cybersecurity skills. You’ll gain practical insight into crypto agility, strategies for testing and adopting quantum-safe algorithms, and approaches to educating leadership teams about long-term risks. You’ll also learn how to identify vulnerable systems, evaluate vendors, and build resilience into your security architecture. By the end, you’ll be equipped not only to understand the quantum threat but to act on it with clarity and foresight. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com.

This week’s wrap cuts through the noise. We break down North Korea’s multi-billion-dollar crypto theft problem, the Salesforce-adjacent extortion wave targeting customer exports, and active exploitation against Oracle E-Business Suite. We also cover a critical Redis flaw with app-wide blast radius, Cisco edge firewall abuse with public exploit code, Zimbra’s KEV-listed email bug, GoAnywhere MFT ransomware activity, mass scanning of Palo Alto VPN portals, and a UnityVSA bug that threatens backups.

In plain English, you’ll hear why these stories matter for the business, who’s most exposed, the single action to take next, and what to watch next week. Perfect for leaders who need decisions, and defenders who need a checklist.

Subscribe for the daily brief and share this episode with your incident lead before Monday’s stand-up.

In this episode, we take on the fatigue that often comes with Zero Trust—those endless logins, rigid rules, and culture-draining compliance routines. Listeners will discover how to simplify security without weakening defenses, turn routine practices into engaging challenges, and humanize policies with humor and empathy. Through vivid examples and practical strategies, the episode shows how Zero Trust can shift from being seen as a burden to becoming a shared, sustainable approach that builds trust and enthusiasm across teams.

You’ll come away with skills that improve both leadership and everyday practice: designing policies that people actually follow, creating security habits that last, and using gamification and communication to increase engagement. We also cover strategies to prevent burnout, foster psychological safety, and build a positive culture where vigilance thrives. These are actionable takeaways for anyone leading security programs or participating on the front lines.

Produced by BareMetalCyber.com.

This is the Friday Rollup for September 29th through October 3rd, 2025. It was a week of edge-device pressure, identity weak spots, and evolving email tradecraft. We cover Red Hat’s internal GitLab intrusion, Outlook’s move to block inline SVG lures, and a critical DrayTek router RCE. We track Allianz Life’s SSN breach and CERT-UA’s CABINETRAT via Excel XLLs, plus a broader pivot from Office macros to ZIP-packed LNK files. You’ll hear why a federal shutdown slowed CISA’s KEV cadence, how OpenShift AI, OpenSSL, and OneLogin issues landed, and where Windows 10’s October 14th end-of-life raises stakes. From DNS hijacks and Exchange espionage to Cisco exposure and a long-running VMware zero-day, the signals were clear.

Ransomware is no longer just about malicious code—it’s about business models, negotiation tactics, and the psychology of fear. In this episode, we break down how ransomware gangs operate like startups, with affiliates, commissions, customer service desks, and even loyalty programs. You’ll learn how they choose victims, manipulate negotiations with countdown clocks and empathy language, and sustain their criminal economy through double extortion and crypto laundering.

By listening, you’ll sharpen your ability to recognize the psychological games attackers play, improve your response strategies under pressure, and strengthen your team’s readiness to disrupt the ransomware cycle. You’ll gain insight into building resilience through backups, playbooks, and cultural readiness while learning how to turn ransomware defense from panic-driven reaction into disciplined preparation.

Produced by BareMetalCyber.com.

In this episode, we expose the illusion of security created by SMS-based multi-factor authentication. Listeners will learn why text-message codes fail to deliver true two-factor protection, how attackers exploit SIM swaps, phishing kits, and MFA fatigue, and why compliance checkboxes don’t equal resilience. The episode unpacks the vulnerabilities in telecom infrastructure, the psychology attackers weaponize, and the step-by-step path toward phishing-resistant authentication that organizations can trust.

Beyond awareness, this episode sharpens critical security skills. Listeners will come away better equipped to evaluate MFA options, spot weak fallback mechanisms, and design identity systems that prioritize phishing resistance over convenience. Leaders and practitioners alike will gain practical insights on segmenting users, strengthening recovery processes, and guiding organizations up the maturity ladder from SMS toward cryptographic passkeys. It’s not just a story about what’s broken—it’s a roadmap to building authentication that actually holds. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com.