Hacking Humans

Latest Episodes:

Awareness, behavior, & beyond. May 23, 2024

Show notes

This week, we are joined by host of 8th Layer Insights, Perry Carpenter from KnowBe4 and Dr. Jessica Barker from Cygenta to discuss human risk: awareness, behavior and beyond. Joe and Dave share some listener follow up, the first being from Richard, who writes in to share some tips and tricks regarding relationship scams mentioned in a previous show. The second is from Michael, who writes in with some thoughts on social engineering to compromise open source projects from episode 288. Dave shares a story on researchers observing millions of daily emails from "Jenny Green," facilitated by the Phorpiex botnet, distributing LockBit 3.0 ransomware that has affected millions of people. Joe share's Paul Raffile's story, a gentleman who got fired from Facebook before he even started. Our catch of the day comes from listener Gordy who shared an email with us regarding his "McAfee security."

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Links to the stories:

Security Experts Issue Jenny Green Email Warning For Millions
LinkedIn Paul Raffile (Part 1)
LinkedIn Paul Raffile (Part 2)

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

Encore: endpoint (noun) [Word Notes] May 21, 2024

Show notes

A device connected to a network that accepts communications from other endpoints like laptops, mobile devices, IoT equipment, routers, switches, and any tool on the security stack.

Psychology and scams. May 16, 2024

Show notes

This week we are joined by Maria Varmazis, host of the N2K daily space show, T-Minus. Maria shares an interesting story about how ransomware infections are beginning to change to form a more psychological attack against victims' organizations, as criminals are using personal and aggressive tactics to force them to pay. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up, from Bob, who writes in to share how he shares stories with his family members, and mentions one specifically on a Best Buy Geek Squad scam. Dave share's a story on bank scams, and how scammers are using genuine push notifications to trick their victims. Joe shares a story regarding email security loopholes, and how these loopholes are the latest path for North Korean social engineering attacks. Our catch of the day is from our follow up listener Bob, as he shares the story of trying to figure out the difference between a real email from the U.S social security department and a fake one.

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

Links to the stories:

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 hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com.

Encore: unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI) (noun) [Word Notes] May 14, 2024

Show notes

An extension of the traditional Basic Input/Output System or BIOS that, during the boot process, facilitates the communication between the computer’s firmware and the computer’s operating system.

The illusion of influence. May 09, 2024

Show notes

Bogdan Botezatu from Bitdefender is discussing research on "Audio deepfakes: Celebrity-endorsed giveaway scams and fraudulent investment opportunities flood social media platforms." Dave and Joe shares some follow up from listener Lara, who writes in to discuss a few topics regarding a previous episode. Joe's story is sharing a game changer in the social engineering world. Dave shares the story of a listener's grandmother who had fallen victim to a pig butchering scam. Our catch of the day comes from listener Kenneth who shares an email he received from a "Cardiologist" on some puppies.

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

Links to the stories:

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

Encore: Daemon (noun) [Word Notes] May 07, 2024

Show notes

An operating system program running in the background designed to perform a specific task when certain conditions or events occur.

From support to scam. May 02, 2024

Show notes

This week we are joined by Maria Varmazis, host of the N2K daily space show, T-Minus. Maria shares an interesting story from Canada on a gentleman who thought he was calling Best Buy's Geek Squad, but instead ended up getting scammed out of $25,000. Dave and Joe share quite a bit of listener follow up, the first one is from Raul who shares how they saw an infamous Facebook scam. The second one is from listener Alec who shares some thoughts on episode 286's catch of the day. Lastly, Paula shares some thoughts on a recent discussion on why people are on the phone when a flight gets cancelled. Joe brings back answers to an old scam featured on an episode back in January on toll scams, as well as sharing about how the OpenSSF and OpenJS Foundations have issued an alert for social engineering takeovers of open source projects. Dave shares updates from the ex-athletic director accused of framing principal with AI and how he was arrested at the airport with a gun. Our catch of the day comes from listener Kenneth who shares an email from a "doctor" who has puppies for sale.

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

Links to the stories:

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 hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com.

Encore: greyware (noun) [Word Notes] Apr 30, 2024

Show notes

Also known as spyware and adware, it is a software category where developers design the application neither to cause explicit harm nor to accomplish some conventional legitimate purpose, but when run, usually annoys the user and often performs actions that the developer did not disclose, and that the user regards as undesirable.

Fighting off phishing. Apr 25, 2024

Show notes

Roger Grimes, a Data Driven Defense Evangelist from KnowBe4 and author is discussing his new book, "Fighting Phishing: Everything You Can Do to Fight Social Engineering and Phishing." Dave and Joe share some listener follow up, the first being from listener Tim, who shares a story of him almost falling for a scam involving some of his investment assets. Lastly, Dave and Joe share a story from an anonymous listener who wrote in to share about a LinkedIn imposter nightmare. Dave's story focuses on a how the LabHost PhaaS platform was disrupted by a year-long global law enforcement operation, resulting in the arrest of 37 suspects, including the original developer. Joe shares the story of an 81 year old Ohio man, who was arrested after shooting a woman after both of them got wrapped up in a phone call scam. Our catch of the day comes from Robert, who writes in with what he believes is a email scam from a Chinese company called "Infoonity."

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

Links to the stories:

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

Encore: fuzzing (noun) [Word Notes] Apr 23, 2024

Show notes

An automatic software bug and vulnerability discovery technique that inputs invalid, unexpected and/or random data or fuzz into a program and then monitors the program's reaction to it.

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