Hacking Humans

Latest Episodes:

When AI lies, hackers rise. Apr 24, 2025

Show notes

This week, our hosts Dave Bittner, Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of the T-Minus Space Daily show) are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. This week Joe's got some follow up about his chickens. Joe's story is on LLM-powered coding tools, and how they are increasingly hallucinating fake software package names, opening the door for attackers to upload malicious lookalike packages—a practice dubbed "slopsquatting"—that can compromise software supply chains when developers unwittingly install them. Dave’s story is on Cisco Talos uncovering a widespread toll road smishing campaign across multiple U.S. states, where financially motivated threat actors—using a smishing kit developed by “Wang Duo Yu”—impersonate toll services to steal victims' personal and payment information through spoofed domains and phishing sites. Maria's got the story of how scammers are using fake banking apps to fool sellers with phony payment screens—and walking away with thousands in goods. Our catch of the day comes from listener John who writes in to share a suspicious text message he received.

Resources and links to stories:

Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@n2k.com.

OWASP insecure design (noun) [Word Notes] Apr 22, 2025

Show notes

Please enjoy this encore episode of Word Notes.

A broad OWASP Top 10 software development category representing missing, ineffective, or unforeseen security measures.

CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/owasp-insecure-design

Audio reference link: “Oceans Eleven Problem Constraints Assumptions.” by Steve Jones, YouTube, 4 November 2015.

Phishing in the tariff storm. Apr 17, 2025

Show notes

This week, our hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan, are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines, while our other host, Maria Varmazis is at a conference. We begin with some follow-up, as Joe reflects on the density of gold. Then, Dave shares some heartfelt and moving words about the recent passing of his father. Dave's story follows how confusion sparked by Trump's erratic tariff policies is fueling a global surge in cyber scams, phishing sites, and crypto cons, as threat actors exploit the chaos to mislead, defraud, and manipulate online users. Joe has two stories this week, the first is about the "blessing scam," a con that targets older Chinese women with promises of spiritual cleansing that ends in financial ruin. The second covers a new FTC rule requiring companies to make subscription cancellations as easy as sign-ups, cracking down on deceptive practices. Our catch of the day this week comes from MontClair University, as they are warning of a phishing scam offering a “free 2014 Airstream Sport 16′ Travel Trailer.”

Resources and links to stories:

Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@n2k.com.

OWASP injection (noun) [Word Notes] Apr 15, 2025

Show notes

Please enjoy this encore of Word Notes.

A broad class of attack vectors, where an attacker supplies input to an applications command interpreter that results in unanticipated functionality.

CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/owasp-injection

Audio reference link: “APPSEC Cali 2018 - Taking on the King: Killing Injection Vulnerabilities” YouTube Video. YouTube, March 19, 2018.

You get a million dollars, and you get a million dollars! Apr 10, 2025

Show notes

This week, while Dave Bittner is out, Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of N2K's daily space podcast, T-Minus), are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. We start off with a lot of follow up on listener feedback this week! Justin shares a thought about how to track gold deliveries with a simple sting operation involving an AirTag. Xray Specs offers a fun response to a theory about scanning plates and running Python scripts, stating they receive similar emails despite not owning a car. Jim Gilchrist recounts his experience with E-ZPass and unpaid tolls, explaining how a failed transponder led to a replacement and noting the prevalence of scam toll messages. Joe shares two gripping stories this week, one being on how the FBI is seizing $8.2 million from a massive romance scam involving cryptocurrency, and second is on a Maryland woman losing millions in a growing "pig butchering" scheme, with the FBI warning that many more victims are at risk. Maria's story is on an East Hartford woman caught up in a federal sweepstakes scam targeting the elderly. The suspects, including one local resident, allegedly stole millions. What did they do, and how did they get caught? Our catch of the day comes from a user on Reddit who shares a message they got from billionaire, and owner of Tesla, Elon Musk.

Resources and links to stories:

Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@n2k.com.

OWASP cryptographic failures (noun) [Word Notes] Apr 08, 2025

Show notes

Please enjoy this encore of Word Notes.

Code that fails to protect sensitive information.

CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/owasp-cryptographic-failure

Audio reference link: Vandana Verma. “OWASP Spotlight - Project 10 - Top10.” YouTube Video. YouTube, January 4, 2021.

Not-so-real deals. Apr 03, 2025

Show notes

This week our hosts, Dave Bittner, Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of N2K's daily space podcast, T-Minus), are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. First, we start off with some more follow-up on EZ passes, along with the newest iteration, as Kailey Cornick shares that scammers target phone numbers rather than actual toll users, sending her SUN pass scam texts tied to her old Florida number. Dave shares the story of Palo Alto's Unit 42 researchers uncovering a massive campaign distributing thousands of fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platforms via websites and mobile apps, using brand impersonation, Ponzi-like schemes, and domain fronting to deceive victims, primarily in East Africa and Asia. Maria follows the story of a Queens man arraigned for allegedly scamming a 72-year-old Newton woman out of over $480,000 by posing as a DEA agent and coercing her into transferring her assets under the threat of arrest. Joe came across a Facebook video featuring an AI-generated ad falsely claiming Kelly Clarkson endorsed a weight loss product. These deceptive ads use AI to create convincing deepfakes, making it appear as if celebrities are promoting products they’ve never actually supported. Our catch of the day comes from listener Connor, who flagged a phishing email pretending to be from the Social Security Administration. The email urges the recipient to click a link to view an "important update," but the repetition of the message and a suspicious logo placeholder suggest it's a phishing attempt designed to steal personal info.

Resources and links to stories:

Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@n2k.com.

Hello? Is it malware you’re looking for? [OMITB] Apr 01, 2025

Show notes

Welcome in! You’ve entered, Only Malware in the Building. Join us each month to sip tea and solve mysteries about today’s most interesting threats. Your host is Selena Larson, Proofpoint intelligence analyst and host of their podcast DISCARDED. Inspired by the residents of a building in New York’s exclusive upper west side, Selena is joined by N2K Networks Dave Bittner —and our newest totally unbiased co-host, Archy, a highly sophisticated AI robot who swears they have no ulterior motives (but we’re keeping an eye on them just in case).

Being a security researcher is a bit like being a detective: you gather clues, analyze the evidence, and consult the experts to solve the cyber puzzle. On this episode, our hosts discuss Telephone-Oriented Attack Delivery (TOAD), also known as callback phishing. In this type of attack, an attacker sends a seemingly benign email, often containing an invoice or payment notification, along with a phone number. When the victim calls, they speak with the attacker, who convinces them to install remote access tools, leading to malware installation, phishing, and financial theft. Tune in as we explore how this deceptive tactic works and ways to protect yourself from falling victim to it.

account takeover prevention (noun) [Word Notes] Apr 01, 2025

Show notes

Enjoy this encore of Word Notes.

The prevention of the first part of an intrusion kill chain model exploitation technique, where the hacker steals valid logging credentials from a targeted victim.

CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/account-takeover-prevention

Smells like scam season is upon us. Mar 27, 2025

Show notes

This week our hosts, Dave Bittner, Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of N2K's daily space podcast, T-Minus), are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. We start with some follow-up on E-ZPass scams—a listener suggests that scammers may be exploiting exposed license plate reader data, as demonstrated by YouTuber Mike Brown, to link plate numbers with breached phone records and send scam texts in real time. Dave's story is on how scammers may use conditioning techniques in romance scams—Ben Tasker observed that refusing to provide a phone number led to fewer photos being sent early on, suggesting scammers use rewards like photos to encourage compliance. Joe's got the story of Google's lawsuit against scammers who created and sold thousands of fake business listings on Google Maps, exploiting urgent services like locksmiths and towing to deceive customers and charge inflated fees. Maria's got the story of the FTC suing Click Profit for allegedly scamming consumers out of millions with a fake “passive income” scheme, falsely promising high returns through AI-driven e-commerce stores on Amazon, Walmart, and TikTok while most investors ended up losing money. Our catch of the day comes from Reddit after a user posted a conversation with a scammer after messing with them about a potential job opportunity.

Resources and links to stories:

Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@n2k.com.

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