ArkanSec September Download

Security headlines and a steganography walkthrough

About this Event



Security Headlines

We asked ChatGPT to summarize the security headlines we dutifully captured all month...here's what it came back with -- join us Thursday for a deeper discussion on these topics.

This month in cybersecurity, it feels like the headlines wrote themselves. Microsoft scrambled to patch another SharePoint zero-day, and Clorox learned the hard way that sometimes all it takes is a well-crafted email to hand over the keys. Cloudflare stumbled with its DNS service, npm packages once again proved to be malware magnets, and Toptal’s GitHub got hijacked to spread even more poisoned code.
Privacy tools had a rough month too: ExpressVPN accidentally leaked IP addresses in RDP sessions, and Google’s ongoing Salesforce mess exposed more data.
Meanwhile, attackers got creative—North Korea was linked to a laptop farm in Arizona, Discord’s age checks were sidestepped with Death Stranding’s photo mode (yes, really), and Dell laptops were found vulnerable to login bypasses.
On the AI front, Gemini’s CLI flaw opened the door to stealthy code execution, leaked ChatGPT conversations briefly made their way into Google search, and researchers showed that large language models can be convinced to go on the offensive. Comforting, right?
Add in SIM swappers facing Pr*son time, questions about whether MFA is enough on its own, governments weighing bans on ad blockers, and the Internet Archive facing pushback from Reddit—and you’ve got plenty of material for discussion.
Join us at this month’s hacker & infosec meetup where we’ll unpack these stories, share perspectives, and dig into what they mean for defenders, researchers, and anyone who just likes to keep up with the wild ride that is cybersecurity in 2025. Bring your curiosity, your opinions, and maybe a few questions you don’t want to ask your boss.

Steganography Walkthrough

This month’s talk will be a walkthrough of an attempt to extract a hidden password from an image using steganography, with the subject being a new area of exploration for the speaker and a chance to share her learning experience.

Astrid La Reine Lockhart, known online as Amazonian, is an Arkansas native who has had a lifelong interest in tech and has been seriously pursuing it for the last 1.5 years. She has experience with Ethical Hacking, IT system administration, and Python software development.

About ArkanSec

Everyone is welcome. There is no membership fee or registration. ArkanSec is Northwest Arkansas's hacker, InfoSec, & cybersecurity community. We look for creative ways to share information and experience with anyone interested in learning more about technology. Students, professionals, and hobbyists alike are encouraged to join us as we build a community dedicated to improving privacy, stability, and security. We strive to meet the first Thursday of every month. Find your preferred way to connect with us at https://www.arkansec.com.

We are always interested in hearing what you have to say. If you have any suggestions on topics or would like to share a project you're working on, email us at aW5mb3JtYXRpb24gfCBhcmthbnNlYyAhIGNvbQ==. Each month ArkanSec gets together to discuss recent security events & headlines, as well as to share technical experience with common tools.

Also check out other Meetups in Rogers.