Short Takes – 10-13-25

DDoS Botnet Aisuru Blankets US ISPs in Record DDoS. KrebsOnSecurity.com article. Pull quote: ““The crying need for effective and universal outbound DDoS attack suppression is something that is really being highlighted by these recent attacks,” Dobbins continued. “A lot of network operators are learning that lesson now, and there’s going to be a period ahead where there’s some scrambling and potential disruption going on.””

SpaceX prepares for next Starship test flight. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “The Super Heavy booster used for Flight 11 first launched on Flight 8 in March and includes 24 previously flown Raptor engines. SpaceX said it will use the booster to test different engine configurations for its return to Starbase, although the stage will intentionally splash down offshore on this flight.”

SpaceX launches giant Starship rocket for moon and Mars on 11th test flight. Space.com article. Pull quote: “And it was a pinpoint landing, occurring within view of a buoy-mounted camera that SpaceX set up beforehand. The dramatic imagery memorializes the successful sendoff for Starship V2, which now cedes the spotlight to its even bigger successors.”

Anatomy of a Hacktivist Attack: Russian-Aligned Group Targets OT/ICS. Forescout.com blog post. Pull quote: “This time, we observed something even more significant: an emerging pro-Russian hacktivist group targeted our “water treatment utility” honeypot and then falsely claimed responsibility for a real-world attack on their Telegram channel.”

Legacy Technology in Transport: More Than “Old Tech”. NCCGroup.com blog post. Pull quote: “In transport, legacy isn’t just about age or vendor support. It’s about embeddedness, certification, integration, and dependency. Many of the systems we rely on are long-lived by design. They operate inside cyber-physical environments and are bound by lifecycles that span decades, with safety and regulatory requirements to match. These systems depend on infrastructure and support tools that often predate today’s connectivity and cybersecurity assumptions. That doesn’t mean legacy risk doesn’t apply – it means we need to define it much more carefully for this sector.”

Here are the agencies affected by shutdown layoffs. TheHill.com article. Pull quote:  “Multiple agencies have confirmed their staff have received notices about reductions in force (RIFs).  In a Friday filing from the Department of Justice (DOJ), it stated that 4,100 federal employees had been laid off so far.”

Hundreds of DHS staff face reassignments to border security, immigration. NextGov.com article. Pull quote: “The MDRs [Management-Directed Reassignment] have notably targeted people in CISA’s Cybersecurity Division, including its Capacity Building subdivision that focuses on improving and centralizing the cybersecurity posture of federal agencies, one of the people said. The Stakeholder Engagement Division, which oversees the agency’s national and international partnership work, was also affected, the person added.”

You’re probably eating enough protein, but maybe not the right mix. ScienceNews.org article. Pull quote: “In that study, the team recruited 16 adults ages 65 to 85 and compared how their bodies responded to a vegan meal of chickpeas, quinoa, soybeans, broad beans and soy sauce versus a meal of lean ground beef, string beans, potatoes, applesauce and herb butter. Both meals contained complete amino acid profiles and similar quantities of protein. Participants who ate the nonvegan meal had higher levels of essential amino acids in their blood six hours after eating than those who ate the vegan meal, the team reported in the Journal of Nutrition in July 2024. Crucially, those eating the nonvegan meal showed 47 percent higher muscle protein synthesis rates than those eating a vegan meal.”