It’s been a month since I wrote Part 1 of “Bob and Alice in Kernel-land”. As expected, we saw minimal constructive feedback from vendors, with a few notable exceptions. Sophos provided the most detailed information about their drivers, while CrowdStrike offered valuable insights into their kernel architecture, including the use of Microsoft’s Winsock kernel file transfer. This feature, introduced in Windows Vista+, was designed to replace the outdated Transport Driver Interface (TDI). It’s reasonable to assume that the existence of this capability has significantly contributed to more operations being moved to kernel mode, as leveraging TDI posed considerable challenges without compromising stability.

Over the past decade, several cyber incidents have shed light on how SWIFT operates between institutions. In 2017, I covered the vulnerabilities with PASSFREELY and the JEEPLEA SIGINT operations revealed in TheShadowBrokers leaks. Additionally, the 2016 Bangladesh Central Bank Heist, orchestrated by North Korea, offered valuable insights into the workings of international inter-bank SWIFT messaging. Since then, financial messaging standards have undergone significant changes. Legacy standards like ISO 15022 and ISO 8583 are being phased out in favor of ISO 20022. At the same time, new competing standards have emerged, particularly from Russia’s SPFS, India’s Unified Payments Interface, and China’s CIPS. Additionally, Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) initiatives have been launched, and smart contract-based centralized stablecoins like USDC, USDT, and BUSD now include features like the ability to freeze transactions.

As the U.S. presidential elections draw closer, the topic of election security is gaining increasing attention. This issue took on added significance yesterday when the current U.S. Vice President and new Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, tweeted the following: Paper ballots are the smartest, safest way to ensure your vote is secure against attacks by foreign actors. Russia can’t hack a piece of paper like they can a computer. We introduced the Secure Elections Act to ensure our elections are safeguarded. We must be ready.