Security, Spoken

Latest Episodes:

Hack Brief: Russian Hackers Release Apparent IOC Emails in Wake of Olympics Ban Jan 11, 2018

Show notes

On Wednesday, in the wake of Russia's December ban from the 2018 Winter Olympics, a Russia-linked group calling itself "Fancy Bears" published a set of apparently stolen emails. They purportedly belong to officials from the International Olympic Committee, the United States Olympic Committee, and third-party groups associated with the organizations. It's not the first time Russia has lashed out at the IOC and the anti-doping agencies in the last few years.

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WhatsApp Security Flaws Could Allow Snoops to Slide Into Group Chats Jan 11, 2018

Show notes

When WhatsApp added end-to-end encryption to every conversation for its billion users two years ago, the mobile messaging giant significantly raised the bar for the privacy of digital communications worldwide. But one of the tricky elements of encryption—and even trickier in a group chat setting—has always been ensuring that a secure conversation reaches only the intended audience, rather than some impostor or infiltrator.

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How the Government Hides Secret Surveillance Programs Jan 10, 2018

Show notes

In 2013, 18-year-old Tadrae McKenzie robbed a marijuana dealer for $130 worth of pot at a local Taco Bell in Tallahassee, Florida. He and two friends had used BB guns to carry out the crime, which under Florida law constituted robbery with a deadly weapon. McKenzie braced himself to serve the minimum four years in prison.

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Meltdown and Spectre Fixes Arrive—But Don't Solve Everything Jan 10, 2018

Show notes

This week, a pair of vulnerabilities broke basic security for practically all computers. That's not an overstatement. Revelations about Meltdown and Spectre have wreaked digital havoc and left a critical mass of confusion in their wake. Not only are they terrifically complex vulnerabilities, the fixes that do exist have come in patchwork fashion. With most computing devices made in the last two decades at risk, it's worth taking stock of how the clean-up efforts are going.

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Pop-Up Mobile Ads Surge as Sites Scramble to Stop Them Jan 09, 2018

Show notes

Ads that automatically redirect you from your daily browsing to a flashy sweepstakes have long been an incredibly annoying facet of the internet. But the versions that have evolved on the mobile web are particularly vexing, because they can trap you with a pop-up "notification" and nowhere to go. And a recent surge in these mobile pop-ups, even on reputable sites, has left people more frustrated than ever.

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Triple Meltdown: How So Many Researchers Found a 20-Year-Old Chip Flaw At the Same Time Jan 09, 2018

Show notes

On a cold Sunday early last month in the small Austrian city of Graz, three young researchers sat down in front of the computers in their homes, and tried to break their most fundamental security protections.

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Security Roundup: White House Staffers Can't Use Personal Smartphones Anymore Jan 08, 2018

Show notes

It’s not every week that you have a once-in-a-generation security disaster. You know, definitionally. So let’s lead off with Meltdown and Spectre, a pair of attacks that impacts the processors inside most computers today. It’s quite a mess! While technically complicated, Meltdown and Spectre are best understood in terms of scale. Every Intel processor since 1995 is impacted, along with AMD and ARM-based chips.

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Pro-Russia Twitter Trolls Take Aim at Special Counsel Robert Mueller Jan 08, 2018

Show notes

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What Would Really Happen If Russia Attacked Undersea Internet Cables Jan 05, 2018

Show notes

It might seem like nightmare scenario. A terrorist organization or nefarious nation state decides to derail the global internet by faulting the undersea fiber optic cables that connect the world. These cables, which run along the ocean floor, carry almost all transoceanic digital communication, allowing you to send a Facebook message to a friend in Dubai, or receive an email from your cousin in Australia.

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A Dead-Simple Algorithm Reveals the True Toll of Voter ID Laws Jan 05, 2018

Show notes

Ever since the Supreme Court struck down a key part of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, laws requiring voters to show identification when they vote have speckled the nation, popping up in states from Rhode Island to Arizona. Almost as quickly, voting rights advocates have taken states like Texas and Alabama to court, arguing that these laws intentionally discriminate against minority voters.

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