Hacking Humans

Latest Episodes:

Lazarus Group: Breaking down the evolution. Apr 20, 2023

Show notes

This week, our guests are Jean Lee and Geoff White from BBC and the Lazarus Heist talking about what is coming up in Season 2 of their show and how the Lazarus Group is evolving. Joe briefly discusses Generative AI before going into his stories for this week. Joe's first story comes from Lauren Jackson from WBRC who writes in with a disturbing tire scam causing businesses to lose thousands. Joe's second story is from David Sentendrey from KDFW, who shares a story about a woman who fell victim to a romance scam loosing $75,000. Daves story follows a casino scam in Colorado, which was the largest heist in the states history. Our catch of the day comes from listener Morten who received a confusing message regarding an inheritance payment fund.

Links to stories:

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

Hunt forward operations (noun) [Word Notes] Apr 18, 2023

Show notes

Defensive cyber operations carried out by U.S. Cyber Command's Cyber National Mission Force, CNMF at the request of allied nations.

CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/hunt-forward-operation

Audio reference link: Paul Nakasone, G., 2022. Vanderbilt Summit Keynote [Video]. YouTube. URL www.youtube.com/watch?v=Axg4s9l9wi0.

Inside the history of a child hacker. Apr 13, 2023

Show notes

Paul Dant, Illumio's Senior Director for Cybersecurity Strategy and Research, is sharing how his history as a child hacker informed his thinking today. Joe and Dave share some listener follow up from Anthony, who writes in about a scam from the app Nextdoor, regarding scammers trying to upgrade Xfinity customers using their computers rather than the usual method, which throws up red flags. Dave's story this week follows a principal from a Florida science and technology charter school who mistakenly wrote a check for $100,000 to an Elon Musk impersonator. Joe's story is on email compromise, and the increase we have seen in the last several months, including an "increase in ‘novel social engineering attacks’ across thousands of active Darktrace/Email customers from January to February 2023." Our catch of the day comes from listener JP, who writes in regarding a suspicious looking email they received from "Norton" saying they will increase the price of their service being used.

Links to stories:

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

Cyber gravity (noun) [Word Notes] Apr 11, 2023

Show notes

The invisible force that governs the movement of data across networks.

Audio reference link: “Things to Come 1936 - HG Wells.” YouTube, YouTube, 28 Sept. 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atwfWEKz00U.

As a scammer, sometimes you need to fake it till you make it. [Hacking Humans Goes to the Movies] Apr 09, 2023

Show notes

Thanks for joining us again for another episode of fun project brought to you by the team of Hacking Humans, the CyberWire's social engineering podcast. Hacking Humans co-host Dave Bittner is joined by Rick Howard in this series where they view clips from their favorite movies and television shows with examples of the social engineering scams and schemes you hear Dave and co-host Joe Carrigan talk about on Hacking Humans. In this episode, Dave and Rick watch each of the selected scenes, describe the on-screen action for you, and then they deconstruct what they saw. Grab your bowl of popcorn and join us for some fantastic scams and frauds.

Links to this episode's clips if you'd like to watch along:

Dave's clip from the movie The Princess Bride
Rick's clip from the movie Now You See Me 2

Protecting against financial cybercrimes. Apr 06, 2023

Show notes

Keith Houston, Chief prosecutor in financial cybercrimes at Harris County District Attorney's Office in Houston, TX, shares some scams that have come through his office and advice on how to protect yourself. Dave and Joe share some follow up from listener Nevile, who writes in about a news story he came across regarding pendrive bombs, wondering what do you do if you're a reporter and someone sends you a scoop in a pendrive? Joe has two stories regarding AI, and how scammers were able to use AI software to clone voices the victims would recognize and then con them out of thousands of dollars. Dave's story is on a new report stating that the most common combosquatting keyword is support. Our catch of the day comes from listener Shawn who writes in sharing an email they received from their companies HR team warning them of a suspicious package that has been circulating around the office.

Links to stories:

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

Artificial Intelligence (AI) (noun) [Word Notes] Apr 04, 2023

Show notes

The ability of computers to execute tasks typically associated with human intelligence, including natural language processing, problem solving, and pattern recognition.

CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/ai

Audio reference link: Staff, 2016. Alan Turing - The Imitation Game - Can Machines Think? [YouTube Video]. Learn Understand Create. URL www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs7Lo5MKIws.

Seeking employment fraud? Mar 30, 2023

Show notes

Kathleen Smith, CMO from ClearedJobs.Net sits down with Dave to talk about how job seekers are susceptible to employment fraud. Joe and Dave share some listener follow up from Steve, who writes in to share a scary and frustrating story as hackers were able to scam their way into his and his wife’s Verizon Wireless account. Dave's story follows giveaway scams, which are scams that impersonate celebrities and brands, most notably Elon Musk and the companies he is associate with, to try and get victims to believe they have won a large sum of cryptocurrency. Joe's story is on a scary development in the AI world, regarding family emergency scams. Scammers are now using AI to enhance the believability. Our catch of the day comes from a listener named Jim who writes in about a scam he came across in his spam folder from a "Sgt. Nolla E. Donald" who wants to give him millions of dollars to keep safe while she fights over in Iraq.

Links to stories:

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

Certification (noun) [Word Notes] Mar 28, 2023

Show notes

A credential demonstrating an individual's knowledge in the field of cybersecurity, usually obtained by passing an exam or series of exams.

CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/certification

Audio reference link: Bombal, D., 2022. Are certifications important in Cybersecurity? [Video]. YouTube. URL www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdgf_Wr82rs.

Fingerprinting fights off fraud? [Hacking Humans Goes to the Movies} Mar 26, 2023

Show notes

Links to this episode's clips if you'd like to watch along:

Dave's clip from the movie I dream of Jeannie
Rick's clip from the movie Ant Man

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