Hacking Humans

Dr. Robert Blumofe, CTO at Akamai, sits down to talk about the AI doomsday versus a "very bad day" scenario. Dave shares a story from The Knowledge Project Podcast, where the host talks to Adam Robinson, a multifaceted individual known for his work as an author, educator, entrepreneur, and hedge fund advisor, and he talks about what is all incorporated into the term "stupidity." Dave goes on to share that while most people may feel stupid when falling for a scam, this research suggests otherwise, and you should never feel that way for falling for any scam. Joe's story comes from Hayley Compton at BBC, and is on a Facebook scam sneaking it's way into a family's home after a couple just had their first child. Our catch of the day comes from listener Michael, who shares an email he received that caught him off guard at first.

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Links to the stories:

• How Not to Be Stupid
• 'Facebook scammer tricked his way into our home'

Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at [email protected].

This week we are joined by Maria Varmazis, host of the N2K daily space show, T-Minus. Maria shares an interesting story about Apple users reporting that they are being targeted in elaborate phishing attacks that involve's a bug in Apple’s password reset feature. Joe and Dave share some listener follow up from Leo who shares some thoughts on episode 282 and the recruiter scam that was discussed. Dave shares a story from Mexico on one of the most violent criminal groups and drug cartels, Jalisco New Generation. They have been running call centers that offer to buy retirees’ vacation properties and then empty the victims’ bank accounts. Joe has the story of Facebook spying on users' Snapchats in a secret project. Our catch of the day comes from listener Van, who writes in to share a voicemail they received related to a tax scam.

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Links to the stories:

• Recent ‘MFA Bombing’ Attacks Targeting Apple Users
• A Mexican Drug Cartel’s New Target? Seniors and Their Timeshares
• Facebook snooped on users’ Snapchat traffic in secret project, documents reveal

You can hear more from the T-Minus space daily show here.

Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at [email protected].

Trevin Edgeworth, Red Team Practice Director at Bishop Fox, is discussing how change, like M&A, staff, tech, lack of clarity or even self-promotion within and around security environments presents windows of opportunity for attackers. Joe and Dave share some listener follow up, the first one comes from Erin, who writes in from Northern Ireland, shares an interesting new find about scammers now keeping up with the news. The second one comes from listener Johnathan who shared thoughts on reconsidering his view on defining Apple's non-rate-limited MFA notifications as a "vulnerability." Lastly, we have follow up from listener Anders who shares an article on AI. Joe shares a story from Amazon sellers, and how they are being plagued in scam returns. Dave brings us the story of how to save yourself and your loved ones from AI robocalls.

Please take a moment to fill out an audience survey! Let us know how we are doing!

Links to the stories:

• Theory Is All You Need: AI, Human Cognition, and Decision Making
• Amazon Sellers Plagued by Surge in Scam Returns
• How to Protect Yourself (and Your Loved Ones) From AI Scam Calls
• News Insights: Does X Mark a Target? with Trevin Edgeworth, Director of Red Team

Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at [email protected].

Ann Johnson, Security Executive at Microsoft and host of the afternoon cyber tea podcast, joins Dave to discuss social engineering and ways to help prevent it, as well as the different types of social engineering she's seen from her experience, Dave and Joe share some listener follow up about macros in Office documents, Joe has two stories this week, one is on how Seth Green lost over 300K in NFTs, and the other is on a new scam with Chatbots on phishing emails, Dave's story is on how a California man was arrested for siphoning money, our catch of the day comes from listener Sadik who shares a suspicious looking email telling him, that his Norton service is about to expire.

Links to stories:

• Amazing mind reader reveals his 'gift'
• Seth Green Loses $200K Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT in Phishing Scam
• Phishing Scam Nets $23.5 Million From DoD, California Man Arrested Siphoning Money From Contractor
• Phishing websites now use chatbots to steal your credentials

Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at [email protected] or hit us up on Twitter.

The absence of telemetry that could help network defenders detect and respond to hostile attempts to compromise a system.