Security, Spoken

Latest Episodes:

Nest Cams Hijacked in the Name of PewDiePie and North Korea Pranks Jan 24, 2019

Show notes

Dozens of Nest camera owners this week heard a disembodied voice insist that they subscribe to PewDiePie's YouTube channel. On Sunday, a voice emanating from a Nest security camera told a family of three that North Korean missiles were en route to Ohio, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In December, a couple was startled out of bed when they heard sexual expletives coming from their baby's room over a monitor.

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Trump's Missile Defense Plan Creates More Problems Than It Solves Jan 23, 2019

Show notes

The threat of a nuclear missile strike on United States soil has felt more tangible over the past few years, thanks to North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile testing and oscillating relationships between the two countries. Against that backdrop, President Donald Trump announced plans on Thursday for the next generation of missile defense on land, sea—and in space.

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As the Government Shutdown Drags on, Security Risks Intensify Jan 23, 2019

Show notes

The current federal government shutdown, the longest in United States history, is in its fourth week, with no clear path to resolution. With 800,000 federal employees on full or partial leave as a result, cybersecurity experts raised an early alarm about how the shutdown would impact US cybersecurity. Those early concerns have since compounded, and evolved into a mounting crisis.

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Jargon Watch: The Rising Danger of Stochastic Terrorism Jan 22, 2019

Show notes

Stochastic Terrorism n. Acts of violence by random extremists, triggered by political demagoguery. When President Trump tweeted a video of himself body-slamming the CNN logo in 2017, most people took it as a stupid joke. For Cesar Sayoc, it may have been a call to arms: Last October the avowed Trump fan allegedly mailed a pipe bomb to CNN headquarters. No one told Sayoc to do it, but the fact that it happened was really no surprise.

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Security News This Week: Did Russia Take Another Shot at Hacking the DNC? Jan 22, 2019

Show notes

Late Thursday night, Buzzfeed published a report that President Donald Trump instructed his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress. If true, it means impeachment can’t be far off. In fact, Trump’s behavior has been so broadly suspect, Garrett Graff argues, that he’s either a Russian agent or the biggest “useful idiot” in history. Or both. In other government news, we took a look at the major toll the government shutdown has taken on US cybersecurity.

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How to Find Your Netflix Freeloaders—and Kick Them Out Jan 21, 2019

Show notes

With Netflix's recent price hike announcement, you may be taking stock of all the streaming accounts you pay for every month. It's no secret that the easiest way to cut down without sacrificing Blue Planet is to share logins with friends, family, or your neighbor's cousin's coworker. The Greatest Generation had party lines, and millennials have communal cord-cutting. No judgment here if you're voluntarily sharing your Hulu or Netflix or Spotify account.

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If Trump Told Cohen to Lie, Impeachment Is Coming Jan 21, 2019

Show notes

As the government shutdown neared the one-month mark, the political landscape shifted under Washington’s feet Thursday night, dramatically and perhaps permanently altering the path of our nation’s politics. BuzzFeed’s duo of Russia probe reporters posted a blockbuster report that President Trump directed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about the Trump Tower Moscow Project.

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Be Careful Using Bots on Telegram Jan 18, 2019

Show notes

The secure messaging app Telegram is significant for two very different reasons. One is that the app is a go-to encrypted communication tool for hundreds of millions of users around the world, particularly those looking to duck government surveillance and censorship in countries like Russia and Iran. The other is that many cryptography experts have cast doubt on the integrity of Telegram's encryption scheme.

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How the Feds Failed to Track Thousands of Separated Children Jan 18, 2019

Show notes

They kept the kids in cages. And Excel spreadsheets. And more than 60 other government files and databases that made it nearly impossible to track the thousands of children who have been separated from their parents by the Trump administration while trying to enter the United States.

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Hack Brief: An Astonishing 773 Million Records Exposed in Monster Breach Jan 17, 2019

Show notes

There are breaches, and there are megabreaches, and there’s Equifax. But a newly revealed trove of leaked data tops them all for sheer volume: 772,904,991 million unique email addresses, over 21 million unique passwords, all recently posted to a hacking forum. The data set was first reported by security researcher Troy Hunt, who maintains Have I Been Pwned, a way to search whether your own email or password has been compromised by a breach at any point. (Trick question: It has.

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