Hacking Humans: Recent Episodes

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Deception, influence, and social engineering in the world of cyber crime.

An electro-mechanical device used to break Enigma-enciphered messages about enemy military operations during the Second World War. The first bombe–named Victory and designed by Alan Turning and Gordon Welchman– started code-breaking at Bletchley Park on 14 March 1940, a year after WWII began. By the end of the war, five years later, almost 2000, mostly women, sailors and airmen operated 211 bombe machines in the effort. The allies essentially knew what the German forces were going to do before the German commanders in the field knew. Historians speculate that the effort at Bletchley Park shortened the war by years and estimate the number of lives saved to be between 14 and 21 million.

Oren Koren, CPO and Co-Founder of Veriti, is discussing the need for vigilance and caution when navigating the online shopping landscape. Dave and Joe share quite a bit of listener follow up, one listener writes in for some clarification on the "AI versus AI" episode regarding Google giving their source code so they can do business in China, when in fact it was 2 other companies. Listener Miguel brings our next bit of follow up, he writes in to discuss financial crimes and shares a story based on a story shared on the show. Our last piece of follow up is from listener Will, who shares a way to expand your website links the best way that works for him. Dave's got the story on an Amazon ad in Google search that looks so real, it's been scamming people redirecting visitors to a Microsoft Defender tech support scam that locks up their browser, the one that Dave had to help his father with a couple weeks back. Joe's story follows a Cambridge shed builder who thought he was getting an award, when in fact all he got was a scam. Our catch of the day comes from the European union agency for cybersecurity that received a suspicious looking email from Ebay. Links to stories:

Sneaky Amazon Google ad leads to Microsoft support scam

Cambridge shed builder thought he was getting an award, but it was a vanity scam

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.

From the intrusion kill chain model, a malicious code delivery technique that allows hackers to send code of their choosing to their victim’s browser. XSS takes advantage of the fact that roughly 90% of web developers use the JavaScript scripting language to create dynamic content on their websites. Through various methods, hackers store their own malicious javascript code on unprotected websites. When the victim browses the site, the web server delivers that malicious code to the victim’s computer and the victim’s browser runs the code.

Selena Larson and Tim Utzig discussing "Twitter Scammers Stole $1,000 From My Friend—So I Hunted Them Down." Joe and Dave share a bit of follow up this week, they discuss Hawaii fire scams, and listener Steve writes in regarding some comments about the recent scammer quiz Joe and Dave took, lastly listener John writes in and shares his thoughts on a discussion a couple weeks ago regarding Google Maps. Joe has two stories this week, one is regarding how Joe was close to being scammed by a fake website, the second story is from listener George who wrote in this week sharing about the Bank of Ireland and the latest banking scam causing a technical issue tricking people into thinking they had money, when they really didn't. Dave's story is from the FBI, on a new scam where people are being tricked through mobile beta-testing applications. Our catch of the day comes from listener Richard, who writes in with a "a new tip on Crypto." Links to stories:

Bank of Ireland glitch let customers withdraw money they didn’t have

Cyber Criminals Targeting Victims through Mobile Beta-Testing Applications

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.

Blair Cohen from AuthenticID joins Dave to discuss how generative AI and authentication go hand in hand. Joe and Dave share some follow up from listener Robert who discusses an ad for a device that uses ChatGPT to record phone calls on your device. Dave helps his dad out with his computer and shares the tale. Dave also shares a story this week on the FBI warning against scammers who are posing as NFT devs to try and steal your crypto. Joe's and Dave test their scammer catching skills while taking a test to see if they are smarter than the average scammer. Our catch of the day comes from listener Steve who writes in to share a receipt he received that looked quite suspicious. Links to stories:

FBI warns of scammers posing as NFT devs to steal your crypto

Are you smarter than a scammer? Play this game.

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.

An authentication process that requires two different factors before granting access. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/two-factor-authentication

Dave Baggett from INKY joins Dave to dive into the latest phishing trends and discuss a broader view of how AI is being used by both the good guys and the bad guys. Joe's story this week dives into the APT with an entirely too cool name, Midnight Blizzard, that has been conducting targeted social engineering towards the popular Microsoft Teams. Dave's story this week follows a Facebook Market user who dodged one scam, just to fall right back into another one. Our catch of the day comes from listener Mauricio who writes in an shares a funny voicemail regarding a "potential W-2 refund." Links to stories:

Midnight Blizzard conducts targeted social engineering over Microsoft Teams

Seller dodges Facebook Marketplace scam only to fall into another trap

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.

From the intrusion kill chain model, the delivery of a “lure” to a potential victim by pretending to be some trustworthy person or organization in order to trick the victim into revealing sensitive information. According to Knowbe4, the word “phishing” first appeared in a Usenet newsgroup called AOHell in 1996 and some of the very first phishing attacks used AOL Instant Messenger to deliver fake messages purportedly from AOL employees in the early 2000s. The word is part of l33tspeak that started in the early days of the internet (1980s) as a shorthand to let readers know the author was part of the hacker community. In this case, the letters “ph” replace the letter “f” in the word fishing, as in “I fish, with an ‘f,’ for bass in the lake.” In hacking, “I Phish, with a ‘ph,’ for login credentials from key employees at my target’s organization.

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: HEARTBREAKERS

Rick's clip from the movie: Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

Dave's Second clip: Russian Restaurant

Dave's Third clip: Funny scene 3

Raj Ananthanpillai from Trua joins Dave to discuss privacy concerns and what you shouldn't share with ChatGPT. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up from Clayton who shares some comments on a previous episode where Dave discusses bomb threats to retail stores for ransom. Dave's story follows Google rapidly trying to correct bogus airline phone numbers that were discovered this week. Joe's story is on an Android app called "Spyhide" which is a phone surveillance app, that has been collecting private phone data from tens of thousands of Android devices around the world. Our catch of the day is from listener Isak who writes in to share a comedic spam email he received. Links to stories:

Called a bogus airline customer support number? Google is hustling to fix that

Spyhide stalkerware is spying on tens of thousands of phones

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.

A cloud based sensitive information management system that allows users access across multiple devices. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/icloud-keychain Audio reference link: Ellen’s Tips For iOS, 2022. How To Master iCloud Keychain to Keep Your Passwords Safe and Secure [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl3E29iUvgE

Perry Carpenter joins Dave to discuss his book "The Security Culture Playbook: An Executive Guide To Reducing Risk and Developing Your Human Defense Layer." Joe and Dave share some listener follow up on messing with scammers, and how dangerous that actually can be. Joe's story follows hackers trying to steal your secrets using infected USB drives. Dave's story is on a tech executive and how they fell victim to a dating site scam, where the perpetrator was able to gain $450,000 from someone who just thought they found their soulmate. Our catch of the day this week comes from listener Ryan, who writes in sharing a renew license scam from New Zealand, with a carefully crafted email, made to look like the real thing. Links to stories:

Tech Executive Falls Victim to $450K Scam on Dating Site: The Cruel 'Pig-Butchering' Scheme Going Around

The Spies Who Loved You: Infected USB Drives to Steal Secrets

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.

Mallory Sofastaii, consumer investigative reporter from WMAR TV, is discussing animal rescue organizations on Facebook pages being taken over by hackers. Listener George writes in to share how his bank is not doing enough to protect against fraud going on. Dave's story follows scammers using new tricks, across the nation, to receive bitcoin and gift cards after threatening stores with bomb scares. Joe has the story on Chinese hackers that have targeted the Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and other State and Commerce Department officials. Our catch of the day comes from listener Steve who shares a fishy looking email stating that he is going to be the beneficiary to "Thirty Nine Nine million, eight hundred thousand dollars." Links to stories:

Scammers Target Stores With Bomb Threats, Seeking Bitcoin and Gift Cards

Chinese Hackers Targeted Commerce Secretary and Other U.S. Officials

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.

A wireless access point installed by employees in an office or data center environment as a convenience to connectivity without the consent or the knowledge of the network manager. 2. A wireless access point, sometimes called an Evil Twin, installed by a cyber adversary in or near an office or data center environment designed to bypass security controls, gain access, and/or surveil the network traffic of the victim’s network. Both kinds, the employee installed and the adversary installed rogue access points, increase the attack surface of the organization. The employee installed device, because of its electronic footprint range, might make it easier for hackers and mischief makers outside of the organization’s network to bypass the corporate security controls and gain access without permission. The adversary installed device is designed specifically to bypass the security controls of the target network.

Guest Jane Lee, Trust and Safety Architect from Sift joins Dave to discuss the rise of fraudulent online content and fake crypto platforms. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up regarding the debate over "mum" versus "mom" and who speaks which pronunciation more. Dave has two stories this week, one story follows a Twitter thread about a man who shared his story about selling a desk on Facebook and the dangers that come with that. His second story is about how hackers are using a clever new phishing technique to create email threads with multiple responses to trick potential victims into thinking bogus messages are legitimate. Joe shares the story of hackers new way to get information positioning themselves in the middle of your browser between the server and your computer. Our catch of the day has a little bit of everything from Peter who writes in about an email he received pulling out all the stops to get him to give over his information. Links to stories:

Twitter thread

https://www.cyberscoop.com/phishing-scheme-targeting-mideast-researchers/

Serious Security: Browser-in-the-browser attacks – watch out for windows that aren’t!

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.

A network mapping tool that pings IP addresses looking for a response and can discover host names, open communications ports, operating system names and versions. Written and maintained by Gordon Lyon, a.k.a. Fyodor, it is a free and open source software application used by both system admins and hackers alike and has been a staple in the security community for well over two decades. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/nmap

Our UK correspondent Carole Theriault is talking with London insurance market CISO Thom Langford about insider threats. Joe and Dave share some listener follow up from Waldo who writes in to share a video explaining how bad guys are able to hack users. Joe shares a report from Verizon, one of the industries leading phone companies, about social engineering. Dave's story follows a gentleman who was able to steal one million dollars from at least 700 DoorDash drivers, and now police are warning against this sophisticated phishing scam. Our catch of the day comes from listener Ami who writes in to share her victory in catching a scammer after receiving a weird voicemail from a so called police officer. Links to stories:

2023 Data Breach Investigations Report

A Stamford man allegedly stole $1M from 700 DoorDash drivers. Police say his victims are hard to ID.

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.

A cyber threat intelligence analysis model that defines relationship pairs between four core components in the shape of a diamond of adversary playbook activity across the intrusion kill chain: the adversary, their capability, the infrastructure used or attacked, and the victim. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/diamond-model Audio reference link: “Diamond Presentation v2 0: Diamond Model for Intrusion Analysis – Applied to Star Wars’ Battles,” Andy Pendergrast and Wade Baker, ThreatConnect, YouTube, 4 February 2020.

Guest Sean Gallagher, Principal Researcher with Sophos Xops team, joins us to discuss "'FleeceGPT' mobile apps target AI-curious to rake in cash. Joe shares some listener feedback from Jon about "No Stupid Questions" podcast. Dave's story is from Reddit about a free piano scam. Joe's got a story on a woman pleading with her bank to stop a fake wire transfer, but they were too busy. Our Catch of the Day comes from Rob about a fake student loan help ticket. Links to stories:

“FleeceGPT” mobile apps target AI-curious to rake in cash

Just ran into the most sophisticated "free piano" scam I've ever seen

Wells Fargo bankers tell East Bay customer they're too busy to stop wire scam

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.

Unsolicited, unwanted, and sometimes malicious electronic messages indiscriminately transmitted to a large number of people. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/spam Audio reference link: zumpzump, 2007. Monty Python - Spam [Video]. YouTube. URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE.

Toby Pischl, Head of Information & Email Security at Broadcom, sits down with Dave to discuss how Slack and Microsoft Teams phishing is an open door into businesses. Joe and Dave share some follow up regarding a case of a woman claiming to have cancer to receive over $37,000 from donors on GoFundMe. Joe has the terrible story out of Michigan where a high schooler committed suicide after a sextortion scam. Dave has a story on job seekers around the country and how likely they are to fall for a job scam. Our catch of the day comes from listener Albert, who writes in regarding the German phishing emails he keeps receiving. Links to stories:

Madison Russo pleads guilty to theft in cancer scheme

High school football player Jordan DeMay driven to suicide after Nigerian sextortion scam, anguished family reveals

Michigan family sounds alarm on son's 'sextortion' suicide after arrests of 3 Nigerian men

Three Nigerian Men Awaiting Extradition For Committing Sexual Extortion

1 in 3 Recent Job Seekers Have Been Tricked Into Applying for a Fake Job Scam

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.

A US Department of Homeland Security agency tasked with supporting cyber and physical security for US critical infrastructure. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/cybersecurity-and-infrastructure-security-agency Audio reference link: CISA, 2021. CISA Director Jen Easterly’s Keynote at Black Hat USA 2021 [Video]. YouTube. URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7bu-L-m4K4.

This week, Jeremy Fuchs from Avanan joins Dave to discuss how hackers are using replier attacks. Replier attacks are attacks in which hackers change the reply-to address to send emails from what appears to be a reputable company, when in reality it's a spoofed account. Joe and Dave share some follow up from listeners Wayne who writes in with some comments on episode 245, and listener Michael, who writes about his first ChatGPT experience. Dave's story follows the alarming new trend happening, where sextortionists are making AI nudes from people's social media images. Joe's story uncovers the social engineering trick hackers use from their personal scammers handbook. Our catch of the day comes from listener Tim, who shares a message from a "dear friend." Links to stories:

Sextortionists are making AI nudes from your social media images

Offbeat Social Engineering Tricks in a Scammer’s Handbook

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.

The act of searching through an organization's trash for discarded sensitive material. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/dumpster-diving Audio reference link: “Better Call Saul jimmy digs in the Sandpiper trash scene,” uploaded by Robert Bowersock, 18 September 2022.

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: Ocean's 8

Rick's clip from the movie: Avengers Endgame

This week, our CyberWire UK Correspondent Carole Theriault is talking with Paul Ducklin from Sophos about where ChatGPT could be going in the future. Joe and Dave share quite a bit of follow up from listeners, discussing several people writing in about dating apps and the men who use them, along with a question from listener Bryan who asks about an email scheme an intern working for his company received. Joe's story hones in on AI, discussing in particular how artificial intelligence is changing the social engineering game forever. Dave has the story on how hackers hide malicious links within pictures to redirect users to phishing sites. Our catch of the day comes from listener Cyrus, who shares an email they received about benefits with a hilarious twist. Links to stories:

How AI Is Changing Social Engineering Forever

The Picture in Picture Attack

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.

This week, Carole Theriault is interviewing DEFCON Black Badge holder Chris Kirsch from RunZero on the recent DEFCON 30 vishing competition. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up from 3 different listeners, who share stories on disposable email addresses, as well as a little insight on a Best Buy scam mentioned in a previous episode. Joe's story is on gaming companies and whether or not they have to stoop down to stemming growth in cheats, hacks, and other types of fraud to keep customers coming back. Dave's story comes from his father, he has two stories, one involving a gift card scam and an email compromise of a family member’s account. The other involves a fake invoice for tech support services. Our catch of the day comes from listener Felipe, who writes in asking Joe and Dave to make sense of the email he received saying that his refund was recalled from someone claiming to be the "Secretary for International Finance of United States Treasury Department."Links to stories:For Gaming Companies, Cybersecurity Has Become a Major Value PropositionScam call center videoJim Browning scammers videoHave a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.

A layer seven firewall designed to block threats at the application layer of the open system interconnection model, the OSI model. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/web-application-firewall Audio reference link: “VCF East 9.1 - Ches' Computer Security Adventures - Bill Cheswick.” YouTube, 29 Dec. 2015, https://youtu.be/trR1cuBtcPs.

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 Queenpins.

Rick's clip from the movie Confidence.

An IT governance framework developed by ISACA. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/cobit Audio reference link: isacappc. “How Do You Explain Cobit to Your Dad – or Your CEO?” YouTube, YouTube, 24 Aug. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYATVkddIyw.

Brett Johnson, Chief Criminal Officer at Arkose Labs, sits down with Dave to discuss his history & ways to make fraud efforts less lucrative for bad actors. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up from Graham about one way that helps him stay safe against fake URLs. Dave's story is about bomb email attacks, in which someones email is spammed with hundreds to thousands of emails in hopes of hiding important information contained in one of the thousands of emails, perhaps from a financial institute. Joe's story is on how the FBI is warning the public to beware of tech support scammers and how they are targeting financial accounts using remote desktop software. Our catch of the day comes from listener Norman, who shares a story about how his Steam account got hijacked and how a hacker impersonating a Steam employee was trying to help him. Links to stories:

New Registration Bomb Email Attack Distracts Victims of Financial Fraud

FBI Warns Public to Beware of Tech Support Scammers Targeting Financial Accounts Using Remote Desktop Software

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.

A security architecture that incorporates the cloud shared responsibility model, a vendor provided security stack, and network peering with one or more of the big content providers and their associated fiber networks. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/security-service-edge Audio reference link: Netskope (2022). What is Security Service Edge (SSE). YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9H84nvgBqw [Accessed 21 Oct. 2022].

Kurtis Minder, CEO of GroupSense joins Dave to discuss how ransomware new laws leave small business behind. Dave and Joe share some follow up on Elon Musk after his big purchase and the changes that now follow. Joe's story follows Kalamazoo County residents and a new scam that is popping up, where they are being targeted by scammers through Facebook messenger video calls. Dave shares a story that hits home for him about an email that his father received from Best Buy claiming that he will be charged $500 for Geek Squad services. Our catch of the day comes from an anonymous listener who writes in to share an email they received from a Mrs. Phong Dung, who wants to send 1 million to the person who received the email. The receiver knows this email is a fake and writes into the show to ask Joe and Dave if these emails ever actually work on anyone. Links to stories: Kalamazoo County residents targeted in Facebook messenger video call scam

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.

A social engineering tactic in which hackers build a malicious domain to mimic a legitimate one. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/domain-spoofing Audio reference link: “Mission Impossible Fallout - Hospital Scene.” YouTube, YouTube, 8 Oct. 2018,

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Jameeka Green Aaron, CISO, Customer Identity at Okta, sits down with Dave to speak about their State of Secure Identity report. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up from Richard, who writes in to share his thoughts on the discussion of the phishing kit targeting WordPress sites in a previous episode, and also writes in about last episode’s discussion on how companies were turning on employees who are overworked with two remote jobs and shares how Equifax was one of these companies. Dave's story follows typosquatting, which is when a scammer registers a website that is very similar to the real one, but will have a typo in it (ex: amozon, homdepot, gougle) and how a large typosquatting campaign is delivering tech support scams. Joe's story follows a South Bay man who had the misfortune of accepting hundreds of open house offers, but the houses weren't for sale. Our catch of the day comes from listener Chris who writes in that he's never gotten a phishing email on his work email or personal email, but that he received his first phish from PayPal, which seemed to me a notification at first glance rather than a message telling him there is fraudulent activity happening in his account. Links to stories:

Large typosquatting campaign delivers tech support scams

A South Bay man accepted hundreds of offers from open houses. But the homes weren’t for sale

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.

A layer seven firewall that sits in line at the boundary between the internet and an organization's network perimeter that allows security policy enforcement and can perform certain prevention and detection tasks. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/secure-web-gateway Audio reference link: ‌Vintage Computer Federation (2015). VCF East 9.1 - Ches’ Computer Security Adventures - Bill Cheswick. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trR1cuBtcPs.

Enjoy this CyberWire classic. They did the Mash...the did the Malware Mash...

Kim Allman from NortonLifeLock, and Carrie Neill from the National PTA, sit down with Dave to discuss the Smart Talk 2.0 tool. Joe and Dave share some follow up on an exciting new position Joe has accepted as the Director of Cyber Science at a company called Harbor Labs. This week, Joe's story comes from listener Beau, who writes in about an ATM scam he fell victim to, sharing how the scammers were spamming his phone with texts, emails, and calls before he figured out what was going on. Dave's story follows the growing new trend of overworking, or having two remote jobs at once and working at both. One company's CEO calls it a form of theft and deception. Our catch of the day comes from listener Rodney who writes in, sharing about his son's girlfriend who is looking for work and received an email pointing her in the direction of a new prospect. Sadly, Rodney had to share the news that the email seemed to be a scam. Links to stories: Tech CEO calls overemployment trend a 'new form of theft and deception' after firing 2 engineers secretly working multiple full-time jobs at once

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.

Digital evidence that a system or network has been breached. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/indicator-of-compromise Audio reference link: ‌”Suicide or Murder? | The Blind Banker | Sherlock,” uploaded by Sherlock, 18 October 2015

Martin Rehak CEO & Founder from Resistant AI sits down with Dave to discuss how organizations should be worried about shallow fakes vs. deep fakes. Listener Joe writes in with some follow up on Joe's statement about not using legacy OSes, and how it is unfortunately not an option for many. Both Joe and Dave share two stories this week. Dave's first story follows how the Maryland Attorney General, Brian Frosh, is warning residents about purchasing flood-damaged cars. Dave's second story is about how a Japanese woman was fooled by an astronaut imposter who wooed her into buying a "return ticket to earth." Joe's first story is about a potential scam brewing in Springfield, as people are collecting money on the side of the street for a teenagers funeral, police are warning residents stating they have heard of this scam in neighboring cities. Joe's second story follows a new horrifying scam after a woman fell victim to a phone scam where the scammer claimed to have the victims daughter and they would kill her if she did not do what they asked. Our catch of the day comes from listener Richard who writes in sharing his experience with an email that may or may not be a phish. Links to stories:

Consumer Alert: Attorney General Frosh Warns Consumers about Purchasing Flood-Damaged Cars

An Imposter Claiming to Be an Astronaut Wooed a Japanese Woman Into Paying for a 'Return Ticket to Earth'

Springfield police warns drivers of “potential” funeral scam

Greenfield Police warns about "terrifying" kidnapping scam

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.

A system that monitors for malicious or unwanted activity, and either raises alerts when such activity is detected or blocks the traffic from passing to the target. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/intrusion-detection-system Audio reference link: “Network Intrusion Detection and Prevention - CompTIA Security+ SY0-501 - 2.1,” Professor Messer, uploaded 16 November, 2017

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:

Rick's clip from Hustle: S1 Ep1 The Con is On

Dave's clip from Cheers: S6 Harry the Hat

Larry Cashdollar from Akamai sits down with Dave to discuss their research, "The Kit That Wants It All: Scam Mimics PayPal’s Known Security Measures." Joe shares an incredible story regarding impersonation and man sharing his first hand experience with impostors impersonating him to get a job, luckily a good samaritan shared this information before the damage could be done. Dave's story follows raids happening in Cambodia with connection to alleged cyberscam compounds. We have two catches of the day this week, one is from listener Eric who sends in a romance scam email asking for love from one desperate scammer. The next one comes from Uberfacts on Twitter and is an instagram DM from someone pretending to be Queen Elizabeth II. Links to stories:

Someone is pretending to be me.

Authorities Raid Alleged Cyberscam Compounds in Cambodia

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.

Hackers bypass, multifactor authentication schemes by sending a blizzard of spamming login attempts until the accounts owner accepts the MFA prompt out of desperation to make the spamming stop. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/mfa-prompt-bombing Audio reference link: movieclips. “Sneakers (2/9) Movie Clip - Defeating the Keypad (1992) HD.” YouTube, YouTube, 29 May 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG5vsPJ5Tos.

Pete Ford from QuSecure sits down with Dave to discuss what exactly cyber quantum computing is, what it means for the country, and how other countries are using quantum. Dave and Joe share follow up on 2 stories, one Bleeping Computer reports, discussing the teen that hacked Uber and Rockstar Games has been arrested. Second, we share some listener follow up from last episode about medical documents being shared and how easy it would be to falsify your identity to obtain children's documents. Dustin, a Registered Health Information Management Technician, shares his thoughts on the matter. Dave's story follows the FCC’s new plan to require phone companies to block spam texts from bogus numbers. Joe has the story on how two Abbotsford residents lose approximately forty six thousand dollars in a bank scam. Our catch of the day comes from listener Joseph who shares a strange email he received from a scammer claiming to be PayPal, which could have seemed real if it weren't for a few mistakes Joseph found to be peculiar. Links to stories:

FCC advances plan to require blocking of spam texts from bogus numbers

Two Abbotsford residents lose $46K in bank scam

UK Police arrests teen believed to be behind Uber, Rockstar hacks

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.

An optional security mode for macOS and iOS that reduces the attack surface of the operating system by disabling certain commonly attacked features. Audio reference link: “How NSO Group’s Pegasus Spyware Was Found on Jamal Khashoggi’s Fiancée’s Phone,” FRONTLINE, YouTube, 18 July 2021.

This week Carole Theriault sits down to interview author Jamie Bartlett on his book, "The Missing Cryptoqueen - The Billion Dollar Cryptocurrency Con and the Woman Who Got Away with It." Dave and Joe share some follow up from listener Dustin who shares an interesting experience he had involving his child's medical documents and how easy it was to obtain them, making scams even easier. Joe's story follows a young teen hacker and how they allegedly were able to hack Uber and Rockstar Games. Dave has got the story on Queen Elizabeth II and how giving condolences could lead you right into a scam. Our catch of the day comes from us here at the CyberWire. We received an email from one Vladomir Petrova, a citizen of Ukraine, which gets more suspicious the longer the email reads. Links to stories:

Social Engineering: How A Teen Hacker Allegedly Managed To Breach Both Uber And Rockstar Games

PHISHING ALERT: GIVING YOUR CONDOLENCES FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH II CAN LEAVE YOUR DATA IN THE HANDS OF CYBERCRIMINALS

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.

This week Carole Theriault sits down to interview author Jamie Bartlett on his book, "The Missing Cryptoqueen - The Billion Dollar Cryptocurrency Con and the Woman Who Got Away with It." Dave and Joe share some follow up from listener Dustin who shares an interesting experience he had involving his child's medical documents and how easy it was to obtain them, making scams even easier. Joe's story follows a young teen hacker and how they allegedly were able to hack Uber and Rockstar Games. Dave has got the story on Queen Elizabeth II and how giving condolences could lead you right into a scam. Our catch of the day comes from us here at the CyberWire. We received an email from one Vladomir Petrova, a citizen of Ukraine, which gets more suspicious the longer the email reads. Links to stories:

Social Engineering: How A Teen Hacker Allegedly Managed To Breach Both Uber And Rockstar Games

PHISHING ALERT: GIVING YOUR CONDOLENCES FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH II CAN LEAVE YOUR DATA IN THE HANDS OF CYBERCRIMINALS

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.

A security awareness training technique in which authorized, but fake phishing emails are sent to employees in order to measure and improve their resistance to real phishing attacks. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/simulated-phishing Audio reference link: “Blackhat (2014) - Hacking the NSA Scene (4/10) | Movieclips.” YouTube, YouTube, 19 Apr. 2017.

A security awareness training technique in which authorized, but fake phishing emails are sent to employees in order to measure and improve their resistance to real phishing attacks. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/simulated-phishing Audio reference link: “Blackhat (2014) - Hacking the NSA Scene (4/10) | Movieclips.” YouTube, YouTube, 19 Apr. 2017.

Guest Jane Lee, Trust and Safety Architect from Sift joins Dave to discuss the rise of fraudulent online content and fake crypto platforms. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up regarding the debate over "mum" versus "mom" and who speaks which pronunciation more. Dave has two stories this week, one story follows a Twitter thread about a man who shared his story about selling a desk on Facebook and the dangers that come with that. His second story is about how hackers are using a clever new phishing technique to create email threads with multiple responses to trick potential victims into thinking bogus messages are legitimate. Joe shares the story of hackers new way to get information positioning themselves in the middle of your browser between the server and your computer. Our catch of the day has a little bit of everything from Peter who writes in about an email he received pulling out all the stops to get him to give over his information. Links to stories:

Twitter thread

https://www.cyberscoop.com/phishing-scheme-targeting-mideast-researchers/

Serious Security: Browser-in-the-browser attacks – watch out for windows that aren’t!

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.

Guest Jane Lee, Trust and Safety Architect from Sift joins Dave to discuss the rise of fraudulent online content and fake crypto platforms. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up regarding the debate over "mum" versus "mom" and who speaks which pronunciation more. Dave has two stories this week, one story follows a Twitter thread about a man who shared his story about selling a desk on Facebook and the dangers that come with that. His second story is about how hackers are using a clever new phishing technique to create email threads with multiple responses to trick potential victims into thinking bogus messages are legitimate. Joe shares the story of hackers new way to get information positioning themselves in the middle of your browser between the server and your computer. Our catch of the day has a little bit of everything from Peter who writes in about an email he received pulling out all the stops to get him to give over his information. Links to stories:

Twitter thread

https://www.cyberscoop.com/phishing-scheme-targeting-mideast-researchers/

Serious Security: Browser-in-the-browser attacks – watch out for windows that aren’t!

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.

The process of installing applications on a device without the use of official software distribution channels. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/sideloading

The process of installing applications on a device without the use of official software distribution channels. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/sideloading

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. Co-hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan are joined by Rick Howard in this series where they view clips from their favorite movies with examples of the social engineering scams and schemes you hear about on Hacking Humans. In this episode, Dave and Joe are joined on this episode by guest Tracy Maleeff from Krebs Stamos Group – you may know her on Twitter as @Infosecsherpa. Dave,Joe and Tracy watch and discuss Tracy;s and Joe's clips on this episode. They watch each of the selected scenes, describe the on-screen action for you, and then the team deconstructs what they saw. Grab your bowl of popcorn and join us for some Hollywood scams and frauds. Links to this episode's clips if you'd like to watch along:

Tracy's clips from "Working Girl"

Elevator scene

Tess and Jack gatecrash a wedding scene

Joe's clip from "Oceans 8"

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. Co-hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan are joined by Rick Howard in this series where they view clips from their favorite movies with examples of the social engineering scams and schemes you hear about on Hacking Humans. In this episode, Dave and Joe are joined on this episode by guest Tracy Maleeff from Krebs Stamos Group – you may know her on Twitter as @Infosecsherpa. Dave,Joe and Tracy watch and discuss Tracy;s and Joe's clips on this episode. They watch each of the selected scenes, describe the on-screen action for you, and then the team deconstructs what they saw. Grab your bowl of popcorn and join us for some Hollywood scams and frauds. Links to this episode's clips if you'd like to watch along:

Tracy's clips from "Working Girl"

Elevator scene

Tess and Jack gatecrash a wedding scene

Joe's clip from "Oceans 8"

Dov Lerner, a Security Research Lead from Cybersixgill, sits down with Dave to discuss how inflation hasn't affected the Dark Web, including how the cratering of cryptocurrency may have affected things. Joe and Dave share some follow up from listener Pelle, who writes in about their grandmother who was scammed over the phone for her PIN, among other information, allowing the scammers to get away with much more than money. This week, Joe's story comes from a listener named Kyle, who shared an article about protecting against AiTM (adversary-in-the-middle) phishing techniques that bypass multi-factor authentication. Dave's story is about a new video being released that shares the most common WhatsApp scams and how to avoid them. Our catch of the day comes from listener Vlad, who shares his story regarding an email he received stating he is owed 1 million dollars, and how he's not falling for the scammer’s latest attempt. Links to stories:

Protect against AiTM/ MFA phishing attacks using Microsoft technology

How to avoid the most common WhatsApp Scams 2022

WhatsApp Scams in 2022: What to Look out for

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.

Dov Lerner, a Security Research Lead from Cybersixgill, sits down with Dave to discuss how inflation hasn't affected the Dark Web, including how the cratering of cryptocurrency may have affected things. Joe and Dave share some follow up from listener Pelle, who writes in about their grandmother who was scammed over the phone for her PIN, among other information, allowing the scammers to get away with much more than money. This week, Joe's story comes from a listener named Kyle, who shared an article about protecting against AiTM (adversary-in-the-middle) phishing techniques that bypass multi-factor authentication. Dave's story is about a new video being released that shares the most common WhatsApp scams and how to avoid them. Our catch of the day comes from listener Vlad, who shares his story regarding an email he received stating he is owed 1 million dollars, and how he's not falling for the scammer’s latest attempt. Links to stories:

Protect against AiTM/ MFA phishing attacks using Microsoft technology

How to avoid the most common WhatsApp Scams 2022

WhatsApp Scams in 2022: What to Look out for

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.

A zero trust security technique that isolates application workloads from each other, allowing each one to be protected individually. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/microsegmentation Audio reference link: “Micro-Segmentation Masterpieces,” PJ Kirner, Illumio CTO and Co-Founder, Tech Field Day, YouTube, 13 December 2020.

A zero trust security technique that isolates application workloads from each other, allowing each one to be protected individually. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/microsegmentation Audio reference link: “Micro-Segmentation Masterpieces,” PJ Kirner, Illumio CTO and Co-Founder, Tech Field Day, YouTube, 13 December 2020.

Greg Otto from Intel 471 joins Dave to discuss the findings of their work on "Cybercriminals preying on a travel surge with a host of different scams." Dave and Joe share some interesting listener follow up from Kevin, who writes in about the deepfakes episode and shares his comments on how scary the topic can be, especially with politicians. Dave shares a story about Charles Egunjobi, an auditor with the D.C. government, and how he fell victim to an online love scam costing elderly U.S. citizens $1.9 million. Joe touches on two stories, one being how a woman down in Texas is able to scam men out of some expensive items with a romance scam, and the other being a story that is warning Pennsylvania residents on a quick moving scam artist moving from state to state. Our catch of the day comes from Jon in California who writes in about about an email scam concerning a local job sent to him and how he needs to apply right away. Links to stories:

D.C. government auditor involved in romance scheme, prosecutors say

Texas woman cons men out of Rolex watches and fancy cars through ‘romance scam’

Pennsylvania State Troopers warn of ‘quick moving’ city-to-city scam artists

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.

Greg Otto from Intel 471 joins Dave to discuss the findings of their work on "Cybercriminals preying on a travel surge with a host of different scams." Dave and Joe share some interesting listener follow up from Kevin, who writes in about the deepfakes episode and shares his comments on how scary the topic can be, especially with politicians. Dave shares a story about Charles Egunjobi, an auditor with the D.C. government, and how he fell victim to an online love scam costing elderly U.S. citizens $1.9 million. Joe touches on two stories, one being how a woman down in Texas is able to scam men out of some expensive items with a romance scam, and the other being a story that is warning Pennsylvania residents on a quick moving scam artist moving from state to state. Our catch of the day comes from Jon in California who writes in about about an email scam concerning a local job sent to him and how he needs to apply right away. Links to stories:

D.C. government auditor involved in romance scheme, prosecutors say

Texas woman cons men out of Rolex watches and fancy cars through ‘romance scam’

Pennsylvania State Troopers warn of ‘quick moving’ city-to-city scam artists

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.

The use of similar-looking characters in a phishing URL to spoof a legitimate site. CyberWire Glossary link: Audio reference link: “Mission Impossible III 2006 Masking 01,” uploaded by DISGUISE MASK, 28 July 2018.

The use of similar-looking characters in a phishing URL to spoof a legitimate site. CyberWire Glossary link: Audio reference link: “Mission Impossible III 2006 Masking 01,” uploaded by DISGUISE MASK, 28 July 2018.

This week Carole Theriault interviews Chuck Everette from Deep Instinct on public and private partnerships. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up from Rodney who writes in about flexible spending cards and chips inside them as well as sharing technology that helps keep the scammers away. Joe's story follows the trend of fake invoicing, specifically through PayPal and the newest string of scammers getting people to call in about a pending charge. Dave shares a story where people are getting sent fake Microsoft products in hopes to steal information after they plug these products into their computers. Our catch of the day comes from listener William who writes in about getting an increasing amount of emails from fake accounts saying they have charged his card and there is a pending transaction. William shares how the scammers are trying to get him to call in to dispute the charges. Links to stories:

PayPal Phishing Scam Uses Invoices Sent Via PayPal

Criminals posting counterfeit Microsoft products to get access to victims' computers

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.

The deployment of rules to the security stack across all data islands, cloud, SaaS applications, data centers, and mobile devices designed to manifest an organization's cybersecurity first principle strategies of zero trust, intrusion kill chain prevention, resilience, and risk forecasting. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/policy-orchestration Audio reference link: “The Value of Using Security Policy Orchestration and Automation,” by David Monahan, uploaded by EMAResearch, 3 April, 2018

Guest Etay Maor of Cato Networks joins Dave Bittner to discuss the impact that deepfakes will have on our society, we share some fun feedback on the Lightning Rod story edit, Dave's story talks about how some of the most successful and lucrative online scams employ a “low-and-slow” approach, Joe's story is about 2 Arkansas farmer that scammed investors out of money for wind turbines, but used it for houses, cars and Disney World, and our Catch of the Day is from an unnamed listener with a supposed iPhone invoice. Links to stories:

Gift Card Gang Extracts Cash From 100k Inboxes Daily

Arkansas wind farmers claimed their technology was more efficient than turbines — then spent investors’ money on houses, cars and at Disney World

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.

Software designed to prevent cheating in video games. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/anti-cheat-software Audio reference link: “The BIG Problem with Anti-Cheat,” by Techquickie, YouTube, 5 June 2020

Mallory Sofastaii from Baltimore's WMAR 2 News sits down with Joe to talk about some recent stories on scams she's covered on Matter for Mallory. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up from Robert who writes in about the technical means to protect phones from robocalls. He shares some insight on how carriers up in the north are able to protect phones. Dave shares a twitter thread from Brian Jay Jones, who is an author of biographies of Jim Henson, George Lucas and Dr. Seuss, who shares how he would have almost had his Twitter account hijacked if it weren't for 2-step verification. Joe's story is on a gentleman pleading guilty in PAC scams, raising almost 3.5 million by making false and misleading representations in the 2016 election. This week we have a string of catch of the days from different listeners sharing different SMS scams. Links to stories:

Associate of scam PAC operator pleads guilty

Twitter thread of Brian Jay Jones

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

Malware, in the guise of ransomware, that destroys data rather than encrypts. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/pseudoransomware Audio reference link: “Some Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn | the Dark Knight,” by YouTube, 2 November 2019.

Ari Parker, Lead Advisor from Chapter, discussing "Tips for Avoiding Medicare Scams." Joe and Dave share some follow up from several listeners, who write in about various scams they have encountered. Joe's story is on Facebook messenger and how more and more victims are being claimed to scams and cons through the popular social media app. Dave's story shares disturbing information regarding LinkedIn scams, explaining how North Koreans are stealing resumes off the job site in a new crypto job search scam. Our catch of the day comes from listener Jon who writes in about him receiving $10,500,000.00 and how he needs to claim this offer before the end of 2021. Sadly he missed the deadline and wanted to share. Links to stories:

Facebook Messenger scam snags 10 million victims, more conned every day

North Koreans Steal LinkedIn Resumes in Crypto Job Search Scam

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

A browser configuration control that prevents accessing resources within a private network. CyberWire Glossary link: Audio reference link: “TPM (Trusted Platform Module) - Computerphile,” Computerphile, 23 July 2021

Raj Sarkar, CMO from 1Password and Julien Benichou, Senior Director of Partnership, Strategy, and Execution from Gen.G, join Dave to discuss making the online world a safer place and talk about helping reduce the risk of gamers being the target of hackers. Joe and Dave share some followup from listener Ryan who writes in about the catch of the day from last week's episode, and what struck him most with the scam. Dave's story is on how the government was able to seize millions in stolen cryptocurrency. Joe's story is on a scam involving diamonds and how one scammer was caught, now sentenced to 12 years in prison. Our catch of the day comes from listener Jeremy who writes in about a suspicious email he received from one of his mothers friends. She wrote him asking if he could buy her gift cards and she would pay him back. He shares how he dealt with the scammer and informed his mom, one of her friends emails may have been compromised. Links to stories:

How governments seize millions in stolen cryptocurrency

Jeweler who sold Trump-Maples ring sentenced to 12 years in multimillion-dollar ‘Yellow Rose’ diamond scam

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

A browser configuration control that prevents accessing resources within a private network. CyberWire Glossary link: Audio reference link: “Chrome Limits Access to Private Networks,” by Daniel Lowrie, ITProTV, YouTube, 19 January 2022.

Romain Basset, Director of Customer Service, at Vade joins Dave to discuss the threat of initial contact spearphishing emails now that many employees are returning to the office. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up from listener Will who writes in about a troubling debate over if it should be "Joe and Dave" or "Dave and Joe." Will shares a website about ablaut reduplication, sharing his thoughts on the matter. Joe shares some good news following a story of a homeless man being robbed of $400,000 after a GoFundMe scam. Joe's story is on a woman who loses almost $150,000 over the phone with someone claiming to be a DEA agent. Dave's story is on a woman who gets scam calls up to 20 times a day. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2021, and can't afford to miss any calls from potential doctors or possible nurses trying to schedule appointments. Our catch of the day comes from listener Alex who writes in sharing how his Apple ID was hacked and locked, although the scammers got one crucial detail wrong, his email. Links to stories:

Lincoln woman loses $149,000 in DEA phone scam

GoFundMe scam: Kate McClure sentenced to 1 year in federal prison

The nonstop scam economy is costing us more than just money

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

This week, Carole Theriault sits down to talk with Paul Ducklin from Sophos on extortion scams targeting LGBTQ+ communities. Joe and Dave share multiple pieces of listener follow up, the first from Matt and Kevin, who write in to share a Wikipedia link regarding N.B. (Nota Bene, or note well) and an ad from 1801. The second one is a write in from someone who is referred to as "P," who shares more information on the Facebook link shortener discussion. Finally, Joe and Dave get a great piece of listener feedback from listener and friend of the show Jonathan, who writes in about resist fingerprinting and how Firefox doesn't block fingerprinting. Dave's story is on trafficking victims being forced to scam people. Joe's story is on a credit union being targeted for phone scams. Our catch of the day comes from listener Ian, who shares how his son was trying to get college housing accommodations and went through Facebook, only to find out that not everyone is as trustworthy as they seem. Links to stories:

From Industrial-Scale Scam Centers, Trafficking Victims Are Being Forced to Steal Billions

Don’t fall for a scam targeting Ent Credit Union customers

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

The potential next evolution of the worldwide web that decentralizes interaction between users and content away from the big silicon valley social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, and towards peer-to-peer interaction using blockchain as the underlying technology. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/web-30 Audio reference link: “What Elon Musk Just Said about Metaverse, Web3 and Neuralink,” By Clayton Morris, Crypto News Daily, YouTube. 2 December 2021.

Kelly Shortridge, a Senior Principal from Fastly, joins Dave to discuss her talk at RSAC on why behavioral science and behavioral economics matters for InfoSec. Joe's story shares an old scam with a new twist, it's about packages being delivered to you that you never ordered. Dave's story is on how a large scale phishing campaign compromised one million Facebook credentials. Our catch of the day comes from listener Will who was reached out to by someone claiming to be the "Head IMF/EUROPEAN UNION coordinator," who claimed to want to give Will one million dollars in compensation. Links to stories:

Package scam delivers unordered items, victims billed hundreds of dollars

One Million Facebook Credentials Compromised in Four Months by Ongoing Phishing Campaign

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

A set of solutions for ensuring that the right users can only access the appropriate resources. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/identity-and-access-management Audio reference link: “The Wrath of Khan (1982) ‘Kirk’s Response,’” by Russell, YouTube, 16 May 2017.

Josh Yavor, CISO at Tessian, joins Dave to discuss a new report they released on cyber mistakes and why employees make them. Joe and Dave share a listener follow-up from Jon, who writes in about mental illness, a serious epidemic taking over the nation. Jon shares interesting tidbits on social media linking to mental illness and the impact it's creating. Dave's story is on hackers trying an old trick with new mechanics: impersonating well known companies. This time, hackers are posing as Quickbooks. Joe's story describes how LinkedIn users are being targeted yet again. These fraudsters are now creating significant threats to users, according to the FBI. Finally, our catch of the day comes from listener Jennifer, who writes in and shares her story of a scammer using SMS to tell her that her Venmo account was hacked, even though she does not have one. Links to stories:

Sending Phishing Emails from QuickBooks

FBI says fraud on LinkedIn a ‘significant threat’ to platform and consumers

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

A process of hiding the complexity of a system by providing an interface that eases its manipulation. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/abstraction-layer Audio reference link: “What Is Abstraction in Computer Science,” by CodeExpanse, YouTube, 29 October 2018.

Omer Dembinsky, a Data Research Manager from Check Point Research, joins Dave to discuss their Brand Phishing Report for Q1 2022 and how DHL, Maersk, and AliExpress were all in the top 10 list. Joe and Dave have some listener follow up from the 200th episode discussing how many redirects are too many. Joe has two stories this week, the first on how Instagram (Meta Platforms) was hit with multiple lawsuits from the Beasley Allen Law Firm over exploiting young people for money. The second story is about social media addiction, and how companies are making the platforms deliberately addictive. Dave's story is on your internet fingerprint that you leave behind, and how easy it is for websites to know everything about you and your computer settings. Our catch of the day comes from listener Pablo, who shares about a scammer contacting him through text trying to receive money for coronavirus insurance. Links to stories:

Meta, Instagram hit with 8 lawsuits for ‘exploiting young people for profit’

Social media apps are 'deliberately' addictive to users

The Fingerprint You Leave

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

A set of services for managing identity and access management, or IAM across all of an organization's data islands. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/identity-fabric Audio reference link: “Leadership Compass Identity Fabrics - Analyst Chat 126,” by KuppingerCole, YouTube, 30 May 2022.

Carole Theriault interviews author and journalist Geoff White on his upcoming book, "The Lazarus Heist: From Hollywood to High Finance: Inside North Korea's Global Cyber War." Joe and Dave share some listener follow up from listener John, regarding a T-mobile breach and how he was notified through a third-party monitoring service and not T-Mobile. Joe's story shares how hackers are also keeping an eye on the upcoming holidays and describes how a Father's Day beer contest from Heineken was a scam. Dave's story is on police warning against a rise in voice phishing as they have made 2000 arrests since the crackdown on social engineering and business email scams started. Our catch of the day comes all the way from the Netherlands, listener Joram shares a scam he discovered in his spam folder. The sender notified him that she is frail and will be dying soon, to which her millions of dollars will be lost since she has no next of kin. The sender goes on to tell him that he is receiving this money just out of the goodness of her heart. Links to stories:

Heineken says Father's Day beer contest is a scam

2,000 arrests in crackdown on social engineering and business email scams

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

A cybersecurity first principle strategy focused on disrupting known adversary activity at one of several phases of an attack sequence. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/intrusion-kill-chain Audio reference link: "Cybersecurity Days: A Network Defender's Future," by Rick Howard, Integrated Cyber Conference, Integrated Adaptive Cyber Defense (IACD), YouTube, 26 October 2018.

Abhik Mitra, Head of Portfolio Strategy at Code42, shares the findings on Code 42's 2022 Data Exposure Report (DER). Joe breaks down a story that follows a couple in Westlake, where the woman was called about a supposed warrant out for her arrest, and how she was told that she needs to provide thousands of dollars in order for the police to not come and arrest her. The story describes how her fast-thinking husband was able to figure out the scam and get in touch with real authorities. Dave's story delves into Facebook and a phishing scam that ended in a threat actor stealing 1M credentials in 4 months. Our catch of the day comes from listener William who received an email about a new laptop that he supposedly bought through PayPal. He shares why he knew it was a scheme right away, and hopes to make this information known so others know what to look out for. Links to stories:

Westlake doctor and lawyer avoid telephone scam; police warn residents to be alert

Phishing tactics: how a threat actor stole 1M credentials in 4 months

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

A subset of security orchestration, the management of identities across an organization's set of digital islands. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/identity-orchestration

Andrew Morris, founder and CEO of GreyNoise Intelligence, joins Dave to discuss the explosive increase in opportunistic scan-and-exploit cyber attacks, and what security analysts can do to combat it. Joe and Dave share some follow up from listener Mark, whose son got scammed out of 150 million dollars in a game he plays. Dave's story is on ChromeLoader, which is a pervasive and persistent browser hijacker that modifies your settings and redirects you to more advertisement websites. Joe has two stories: one on a family of con artists found to be scamming gas station patrons that attacked an individual after being confronted, and the second is on fake Facebook ads and how shoppers are being scammed. Our catch of the day comes from listener Jon, who was contacted via email being requested to pay customs fees of $750 for packages in his name. Links to stories:

ChromeLoader: a pushy malvertiser

Michigan State Police Looking For Con Artists in Emmet County Gas Station Scam

Shoppers scammed by fake ads on Facebook Marketplace

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.

A cyber threat intelligence analysis model that defines relationship pairs between four core components in the shape of a diamond of adversary playbook activity across the intrusion kill chain: the adversary, their capability, the infrastructure used or attacked, and the victim. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/diamond-model Audio reference link: “Diamond Presentation v2 0: Diamond Model for Intrusion Analysis – Applied to Star Wars’ Battles,” Andy Pendergrast and Wade Baker, ThreatConnect, YouTube, 4 February 2020.

Ryan Kovar, distinguished security strategist at Splunk and leader of SERGe, discusses the speed of ransomware, as well as the first-of-its-kind research the SERGe team is releasing on how quickly the top ransomware families can encrypt 100,000 files. Joe and Dave share some listener follow up from listener Josh. Joe's story follows the baby food shortage and warns about the dangers of sellers scamming people through online purchases of formula. Dave's story is on how IT members can identify the three most dangerous types of internal users and what businesses need to look out for. Our catch of the day comes from listener Josh, who shares about a friend of his who possibly got hacked and the check the scammers claimed was real. Links to stories:

Kansas City-area experts warn of online baby formula scams

The three most dangerous types of internal users to be aware of

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.

A knowledge base of adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures established and maintained by the MITRE Corporation. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/mitre-attck Audio reference link: “Attack Frameworks - SY0-601 CompTIA Security+ : 4.2,” Professor Messer, YouTube, 29 April 2021.

Ann Johnson, Security Executive at Microsoft and host of the afternoon cyber tea podcast, joins Dave to discuss social engineering and ways to help prevent it, as well as the different types of social engineering she's seen from her experience, Dave and Joe share some listener follow up about macros in Office documents, Joe has two stories this week, one is on how Seth Green lost over 300K in NFTs, and the other is on a new scam with Chatbots on phishing emails, Dave's story is on how a California man was arrested for siphoning money, our catch of the day comes from listener Sadik who shares a suspicious looking email telling him, that his Norton service is about to expire. Links to stories:

Amazing mind reader reveals his 'gift'

Seth Green Loses $200K Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT in Phishing Scam

Phishing Scam Nets $23.5 Million From DoD, California Man Arrested Siphoning Money From Contractor

Phishing websites now use chatbots to steal your credentials

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.

The set of people, process, technology, and cultural norms that integrates software development and IT operations into a system-of-systems. CyberWire Glossary link: Audio reference link: "10+ Deploys Per Day: Dev and Ops Cooperation at Flickr," by John Allspaw and Paul Hammond, Velocity 09, 25 July 2009.

Mark Horne, Chief Marketing Officer at Pindrop, joins Dave to discuss voice authentication, Dave and Joe have some follow up about business phishing (BECs) from listeners Nick and Michael, Joe's story has a romance scam where criminals pretend to be celebrities, and Dave's story is about the increase in phishing downloads due to cyber criminals using SEO to leverage their lures, and we've got 2 catches of the day for you from listener Peter on free Dyson vacuums and one from Joe with a plea from Vladimir Putin asking for money. Links to stories:

‘Keanu Reeves … I know it’s not you’: Fraudsters pretend to be celebrities in scam attempts

Malware Mayhem: Netskope Research Finds Sharp Increase in Phishing Downloads, as Cybercriminals Leverage SEO to Lure Victims

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.

Matthew Connor, Founder of Conscious Security, discusses a study he conducted while working with F-Secure, the study targeted 82,402 individuals with one of four phishing emails, he goes into the findings of the study and certain insight this study has brought, Joe's story is on the popular app Zelle and how users are loosing thousands of dollars due to scams, and Dave's story is on three big tech giants announcing plans to expand support for a common passwordless sign-in standard created by the FIDO Alliance, our catch of the day comes from listener Areus on text messages exchanged between two strangers and where the conversation leads. Links to stories:

Criminals Are Scamming Zelle Users. Here's How to Keep Your Money Safe

Apple, Google and Microsoft Commit to Expanded Support for FIDO Standard to Accelerate Availability of Passwordless Sign-Ins

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.

A software development model that relies on a series of sequential steps that flow into each other, like a series of waterfalls. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/waterfall-software-development Audio reference link: “Creating Video Games - Agile Software Development,” by Sara Verrilli, MIT OpenCourseWare, YouTube, 10 December 2015

A knowledge base of adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures established and maintained by the MITRE Corporation. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/mitre-attck Audio reference link: “Attack Frameworks - SY0-601 CompTIA Security+ : 4.2,” Professor Messer, YouTube, 29 April 2021.

Guest Andrew Rubin, CEO and co-founder of Illumio, joins Dave to discuss Zero Trust, Dave and Joe share some follow-up from several listeners including one with a variation on prison pen pals we discussed some time ago and some advice on Dave's Google Authenticator issue he mentioned last week, Dave's story is about non-delivery scams, Joe's got a story on Imperial Kitten doing some catphishing, and our Catch of the Day comes from listener Timothy about with a sextortion campaign. Links to stories:

5 reasons non-delivery scams work

I Knew You Were Trouble: TA456 Targets Defense Contractor with Alluring Social Media Persona

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.

A software development philosophy that emphasizes incremental delivery, team collaboration, continual planning, and continual learning Audio reference link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/agile-software-development "Velocity 09: John Allspaw and Paul Hammond, "10+ Deploys Pe" John Allspaw and Paul Hammond, 2009 Velocity Conference, YouTube, 25 June 2009.

John Wilson, Senior Fellow Threat Research at Agari by HelpSystems, discusses business email compromise attacks, Joe shares three stories on different types of scams, the first being a mystery shopper scam, where the scammer tries to get you to buy gift cards at a grocery store, the second one is on, scammers posing as DTE Energy representatives, seeking bill payments, and the final one is about someone showing up to a victims door and demanding money to collect “Money owed” for a family member, Dave's story is on criminals who are using apple pay to scam their way into going on spending sprees, our catch of the day comes from listener Jon, who shares how two men claimed to be owed money after Jon's death, when in fact, John was very alive. Links to stories:

Mystery shopper scam: How it works and how to avoid it

Phone scam alert: Metro Detroiters receiving phony DTE Energy calls

Police: Man scammed elderly person out of $10K

Criminals Abuse Apple Pay in Spending Sprees

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.

The flagship product of the controversial Israeli spyware vendor, the NSO Group, use for remotely hacking mobile devices, most notably iPhones, via zero-click exploits. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/pegasus Audio reference link: “Cybersecurity beyond the Headlines: A Conversation with Journalist Nicole Perlroth,” Kristen Eichensehr, and Nicole Perlroth, University of Virginia School of Law, YouTube, 14 February 2022

Thanks for joining us for the latest episode of our fun project brought to you by the team of Hacking Humans, the CyberWire's social engineering podcast. Co-hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan are joined by Rick Howard in this series where they view clips from their favorite movies with examples of the social engineering scams and schemes you hear about on Hacking Humans. In this episode, Dave and Joe are joined on this episode by Perry Carpenter, host of 8th Layer Insights podcast and chief evangelist at KnowBe4. Dave,Joe and Perry watch and discuss Dave's and Perry's clips on this episode. They watch each of the selected scenes, describe the on-screen action for you, and then the team deconstructs what they saw. Grab your bowl of popcorn and join us for some Hollywood scams and frauds. A heads-up for our listeners: there is a bit of spicy language in today’s clips, so use your discretion if you are tuning in with your kids. Links to this episode's clips if you'd like to watch along:

Dave's scene from "Focus"

Perrys clip from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"

Pete Barker, director of Fraud and Identity at SpyCloud offers critical insights on the alarming evolution of fraud and how consumers and enterprises can protect themselves, Joe and Dave share some listener follow up from listener Micah on a catch of the day from last week, Joe's story is on a woman who was scammed out of $15,000 and shares her experience on how the hackers were able to gather so much info and money from her, Dave's story is on an android malware scheme that allows cybercriminals to intercept customer calls to their banks, our catch of the day comes from listener John, who shares a scam from people claiming to be Amazon, saying that the users secret phrase has been incapacitated. Links to stories:

76-year-old Fargo woman loses $15,000 in computer scam

Android banking malware intercepts calls to customer support

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.

An open source email authentication protocol designed to prevent emails, spoofing in phishing, business email compromise or BEC, and other email-based attacks.

Brian Brushwood a former magician, joins Perry Carpenter, host of 8th Layer Insights, to talk about his new podcast, The Worlds Greatest Con, and how magic led him to discussing cons and scams on a podcast, Dave shares a personal story on login frustration, Joe's story is on a Cash App breach being confirmed after an employee was able to access a US customers data, and Dave's story is on inauthentic LinkedIn profiles and how fake accounts are requesting to connect when in fact the accounts are fake, our catch of the day comes from listener Richard who shares a scam he got sent through the mail to exploit his political views. Links to stories:

Block confirms Cash App breach after former employee accessed US customer data

That smiling LinkedIn profile face might be a computer-generated fake

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.

A condition announced by the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to draw attention to a temporary period of high alert, associated with expectation of a connected wave of cyberattacks prompted by either a widespread vulnerability or an unusually active and capable threat actor.

Laura Hoffner from Concentric, joins Dave to discuss online dangers and how they can very easily turn into real world dangers, Laura explains about the popular social media platform TikTok and how users are being stalked and shares one story in particular, Joe and Dave share some listener follow up, Joe's story is centered around cryptocurrency scams and how they are on the rise, and Dave's story is on the malware BABYSHARK and the internal process of investigation as well as lessons learned, our catch of the day comes to us from listener Andre, who shares a scam from a Commanding officer of the U.S Central Command and how they need Andre to keep his money safe. Links to stories:

Targeted APT Activity: BABYSHARK Is Out for Blood

BBB Study: Cryptocurrency is ripe for fraud and financial loss

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.

A prescriptive open source software security maturity model designed to guide strategies tailored to an organization’s specific risks.

Alex Quilici, Robocall Scam Expert of YouMail, discusses how unwanted robocalls are becoming more targeted and the psychology behind some of the worst calls, Joe and Dave share some listener follow up, Joe's story comes from listener Derek who shares how his aunt avoided a scam which wasn't very obvious at first, and Dave's story is about how the FBI released its annual Internet Crime Complaint Center Internet Crime Report for 2021, our catch of the day comes from listener John who shares how he got a new interesting Instagram follower. Links to stories: FBI Releases the Internet Crime Complaint Center 2021 Internet Crime Report

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.

An open standard for hardware authentication tokens that use the universal serial bus, or USB, near-field communications, or NFCs, or Bluetooth to communicate one factor in a two-factor authentication exchange.

Thanks for joining us for the latest episode of our fun project brought to you by the team of Hacking Humans, the CyberWire's social engineering podcast. Co-hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan are joined by Rick Howard in this series where they view clips from their favorite movies with examples of the social engineering scams and schemes you hear about on Hacking Humans. In this episode, Dave, Joe and Rick are watching Joe's and Rick's scene picks. They watch each of the selected scenes, describe the on-screen action for you, and then the team deconstructs what they saw. Grab a bowl of popcorn and join us for some Hollywood scams and frauds. Links to this episode's clips if you'd like to watch along:

Joe's clip from "House of Games" (the Western Union scene)

Rick's clip from "The Brothers Bloom"

Jim Ducharme, COO of Outseer joins Dave to discuss buy now pay later scams, Joe and Dave share some listener follow up, Joe has an interesting story about an Unchained Capital partner and how they were hit with a social engineering attack, and Dave's story is on the FIDO alliance, our catch of the day comes from listener Matt, who shares how he won 20.5 million and why he wasn't falling for it. Links to stories:

A Big Bet to Kill the Password for Good

Unchained Capital partner hit with social engineering attack

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.

A cyber threat intelligence best practice of assigning arbitrary labels to collections of hacker activity across the intrusion kill chain.

UK Correspondent Carole Theriault returns talking with guest David Ruiz from Malwarebytes about parents spying on their kids, Joe and Dave share some listener follow up, Joe's shares a story about the top 5 strangest social engineering tactics, Dave's got a story from one of our listeners, Ricky, about best gift card sales practices at retail chains, and our Catch of the Day comes from listener Michael with a well-crafted email full of red flags when you read into it. Links to stories: Rounding up the Past Year's Strangest Social Engineering Tactics

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.

A descriptive model that provides a baseline of observed software security initiatives and activities from a collection of volunteer software development shops.

Guest Justin Reilly, the CEO of Impero, stops by to talk with Dave Bittner about the mental health of kids in the digital age, Dave's got a story about large-scale phishing campaigns targeting the Indian Electric Vehicle consumers and businesses, Joe's story is from Vade sharing the top 20 most impersonated brands in phishing, and our Catch of the Day comes from Bob, a friend and former coworker of Joe's who received a smishing attempt via text from a "friend" and how he expertly turned the tables on the scammer. Links to stories:

Unearthing the Million Dollar Scams Targeting the Indian Electric Vehicle Industry

Vade Releases 2021 Phishers’ Favorites Report

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.

Software libraries, frameworks, packages, and other components, and their dependencies (third-party code that each component uses) that have inherent security weaknesses, either through newly discovered vulnerabilities or because newer versions have superseded the deployed version.

Guest Jeff Nathan, the Director of Threat research at Norton Labs, joins Dave to discuss their most recent Consumer Cyber Safety Pulse Report, Joe and Dave share some follow up from listeners Daniel and Neville who helped the guys with a phrase from a recent Catch of the Day, Joe shares a story about getting around MFA using remote access software, Dave's story is about a jobfishing scam from a fake design firm, and our Catch of the Day is from listener Randy about an unsubscribe email he received. Links to stories:

Devious phishing method bypasses MFA using remote access software

Jobfished: the con that tricked dozens into working for a fake design agency

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.

Code and data repositories that don't protect against unauthorized changes.

Guest Joshua Neil, the Chief Data Scientist for SecurOnix, joins Dave to talk about evasive techniques and identifying nation-state kill chains, Joe shares an update on his identity theft experience, the guys share some follow up from listener Benji who shares experiences of scammers changing the name on gmail accounts at the synagogue where he works saying they are the rabbi and emailing congregants asking for gift cards, Dave's story is about Apple's AirTags and how they led to the discovery of a German intelligence agency, Joe's got a story about the City of Baltimore falling victim to a phishing scam, and our Catch of the Day is from listener G about a compressed file attachment he received, but did not open. Links to stories:

Apple's AirTag uncovers a secret German intelligence agency

Inspector General: Baltimore victimized in 376,213 phishing scam last year

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.

An attack technique that leverages an unprotected web server as a proxy for attackers to send commands through to other computers.

Thanks for joining us for the latest episode of our fun project brought to you by the team of Hacking Humans, the CyberWire's social engineering podcast. Co-hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan are joined by Rick Howard in this series where they view clips from their favorite movies with examples of the social engineering scams and schemes you hear about on Hacking Humans. In this episode, Dave, Joe and Rick are watching Joe's and Dave's scene picks. They watch each of the selected scenes, describe the on-screen action for you, and then the team deconstructs what they saw. Grab a bowl of popcorn and join us for some Hollywood scams and frauds. Links to this episode's clips if you'd like to watch along:

Joe's scene from "The Hustle"

Dave's clip from "True Lies"

Guest Deral Heiland from Rapid7 talks with our UK Correspondent Carole Theriault about the state of IOT, Joe shares a personal story about bank checks and a debit card received at his home that were in his name but not from his bank, Dave's got a story from an email he received from the PR department at TikTok about romance scams, and our Catch of the Day is from listener John about a friend who was harassed on Facebook to click a link and how John addressed it. Links to stories:

BeCyberSmart: Tips to protect your heart and wallet

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.

The absence of telemetry that could help network defenders detect and respond to hostile attempts to compromise a system.

Guest Nick Shevelyov, Chief Security Officer for Silicon Valley Bank. joins Dave sharing some personal history around security, and discussing his book "Cyber War… and Peace," Dave and Joe have some follow up from an anonymous listener about mobile device management issue at their work, Dave has a story where a woman was scammed out of thousands while someone contacted her to "help" with a problem with their bank, Joe's got a few stories about Facebook and ad scams, and our Catch of the Day is from listener Jonathan with a Geek Squad subscription scam. Links to stories:

They Were ‘Calling to Help.’ Then They Stole Thousands

Facebook blames Apple after a historically bad quarter, saying iPhone privacy changes will cost it $10 billion

Scam ads: why an Australian billionaire is launching legal action against Facebook

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.

Ineffectual confirmation of a user's identity or authentication in session management.

Thanks for joining us for the latest episode of our fun project brought to you by the team of Hacking Humans, the CyberWire's social engineering podcast. Co-hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan are joined by Rick Howard in this series where they view clips from their favorite movies with examples of the social engineering scams and schemes you hear about on Hacking Humans. In this episode, Dave, Joe and Rick are watching Dave's and Rick's scene picks. They watch each of the selected scenes, describe the on-screen action for you, and then the team deconstructs what they saw. Grab a bowl of popcorn and join us for some Hollywood scams and frauds. Links to this episode's clips if you'd like to watch along:

Dave's clip from the television show "Key & Peele"

Rick's pick from "Sneakers"

Guest Allan Liska from Recorded Future joins Dave to discuss the evolution of ransomware and his new book "Ransomware: Understand. Prevent. Recover," Joe shares a question from listener Joan about an email her father received from "MasterCard Fraud Department" asking photo/video and the last 4 of his Social Security Number, Joe has a story about scams to watch out for during tax time in the US, Dave's story is about ransomware operators trying to recruit company insiders, and our Catch of the Day is from listener Michael who had some acquaintances fall for a scam. Links to stories:

Latest IRS Scams: How to Spot Them and Fight Back

The Rising Insider Threat: Hackers Have Approached 65% of Executives or Their Employees To Assist in Ransomware Attacks

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.

Software users are allowed access to data or functionality contrary to the defined zero trust policy by bypassing or manipulating the installed security controls.

Guest Roger Grimes, Data Driven Defense Evangelist at KnowBe4, joins Dave to discuss his new book "Ransomware Protection Playbook," Dave has a story about a Meta (Facebook) group with a cryptocurrency scam that promises "a new way to wealth," Joe's story has tales of account takeover attacks of high-profile gamers, and our Catch of the Day is from listener Jesse about a text they received from "Facebook" about a $600,000 windfall. Links to stories:

We Infiltrated a Crypto Scam Network That’s Hosted by Meta

EA Confirms Account Takeover Attacks Compromising High-Profile Gamers via Phishing and Social Engineering Attacks

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.

The state of a web application when it's vulnerable to attack due to an insecure configuration.

Guest Jane Lee, Trust and Safety Architect at Sift, joins Dave to talk about the Digital Trust and Safety Index, Joe and Dave share some follow up from a listener, Ben, with a suggestion as an alternative to prevent clicking on those bonus phishing scams, Joe's story is about fake ticket scams for the Kansas City Chiefs NFL playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dave's got a story about scams on Apple's App Store, and our Catch of the Day is from an anonymous listener about an email they received from their "IT department" requesting credentials (including password) when getting a new laptop. (Note: This is our first COTD that is not a scam, rather a bad policy.) Links to stories:

Kansas City police warn Chiefs fans about ticket scams

APPLE’S $64 BILLION-A-YEAR APP STORE ISN’T CATCHING THE MOST EGREGIOUS SCAMS

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.

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

Guest Tom Tovar, CEO and Co-Creator of AppDome, joins Dave and Joe to discuss the results of a recent consumer survey, Dave's story is based on a tweet where the user's child's middle school had some unintended consequences of a phishing scam training, Joe has two stories: one on QR code scammers on parking kiosks, and one about a book publishing phishing scam, and our Catch of the Day is a message that purports to come from the USPS sent in by listener William about a missed package delivery. Links to stories:

Tweet about phishing simulation gone wrong.

QR code scammers hitting on-street parking in Texas cities -- including Houston, officials say; This is what you need to know

FBI Arrests Suspect in Unpublished Book Manuscript Phishing Scam

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.

An open source Java-based software tool available from the Apache Software Foundation designed to log security and performance information.

Guest Adam Flatley, Director of Threat Intelligence at Redacted, talks with Dave about "the only way to truly disrupt the ransomware problem is to target the actors themselves," Joe shares some statistics that will help you stay up-to-date on recent cybersecurity trends, Dave's story is about criminal indictments in a case of a Maryland company buying lead paint victims’ settlements for a fraction of their value, and our Catch of the Day comes from listener Brady about a slick mail campaign they received from "Amazon." Links to stories:

22 cybersecurity statistics to know for 2022

Criminal indictments filed against Maryland company that targeted Baltimore lead paint victims’ settlements

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.

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

Thanks for joining us for Episode 5 of our fun project brought to you by the team of Hacking Humans, the CyberWire's social engineering podcast. Co-hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan are joined by Rick Howard in this series where they view clips from their favorite movies with examples of the social engineering scams and schemes you hear about on Hacking Humans. In this episode, Dave, Joe and Rick are watching Joe's and Dave's scene picks. They watch each of the selected scenes, describe the on-screen action for you, and then the team deconstructs what they saw. Grab your popcorn and join us for a trip to the movies. Links to this episode's clips if you'd like to watch along:

Joe's clip from "Identity Thief"

Rick's pick from "The Flim-Flam Man"

A security philosophy that assumes adversaries have already penetrated the digital environment and tries to reduce the potential impact by limiting access by people, devices, and software to only the resources essential to perform their function and nothing more.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the CyberWire and our friends! Enjoy our rendition of the 12 Days of Malware created by Dave Bittner and performed by Dave and friends: Rachel Tobac, Jayson Street, Ron Eddings & Chris Cochran, Ray [Redacted], Dinah Davis, Camille Stewart, Rick Howard, Michelle Dennedy, Jack Rhysider, Johannes Ullrich, and Charity Wright. Ba dum bum bum. Sing along if you are game! Check out our video for the full effect!

The 12 Days of Malware lyrics On the first day of Christmas, my malware gave to me: A keylogger logging my keys.

On the second day of Christmas, my malware gave to me: 2 Trojan Apps... And a keylogger logging my keys.

On the third day of Christmas, my malware gave to me: 3 Web shells... 2 Trojan Apps... And a keylogger logging my keys.

On the fourth day of Christmas, my malware gave to me: 4 Crypto scams... 3 Web shells... 2 Trojan Apps... And a keylogger logging my keys.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my malware gave to me: 5 Zero Days! 4 Crypto scams... 3 Web shells... 2 Trojan Apps... And a keylogger logging my keys.

On the sixth day of Christmas, my malware gave to me: 6 Passwords spraying... 5 Zero Days! 4 Crypto scams... 3 Web shells... 2 Trojan Apps... And a keylogger logging my keys.

On the seventh day of Christmas, my malware gave to me: 7 Scripts a scraping... 6 Passwords spraying... 5 Zero Days! 4 Crypto scams... 3 Web shells... 2 Trojan Apps... And a keylogger logging my keys.

On the eighth day of Christmas, my malware gave to me: 8 Worms a wiping... 7 Scripts a scraping... 6 Passwords spraying... 5 Zero Days! 4 Crypto scams... 3 Web shells... 2 Trojan Apps... And a keylogger logging my keys.

On the ninth day of Christmas, my malware gave to me: 9 Rootkits rooting... 8 Worms a wiping... 7 Scripts a scraping... 6 Passwords spraying... 5 Zero Days! 4 Crypto scams... 3 Web shells... 2 Trojan Apps... And a keylogger logging my keys.

On the tenth day of Christmas, my malware gave to me: 10 Darknet markets... 9 Rootkits rooting... 8 Worms a wiping... 7 Scripts a scraping... 6 Passwords spraying... 5 Zero Days! (Bah-dum-dum-dum!) 4 Crypto scams... 3 Web shells... 2 Trojan Apps... And a keylogger logging my keys.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my malware gave to me: 11 Phishers phishing... 10 Darknet markets... 9 Rootkits rooting... 8 Worms a wiping... 7 Scripts a scraping... 6 Passwords spraying... 5 Zero Days! (Bah-dum-dum-dum!) 4 Crypto scams... 3 Web shells... 2 Trojan Apps... And a keylogger logging my keys.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my malware gave to me: 12 Hackers hacking... 11 Phishers phishing... 10 Darknet markets... 9 Rootkits rooting... 8 Worms a wiping... 7 Scripts a scraping... 6 Passwords spraying... 5 Zero Days! 4 Crypto scams... 3 Web shells... 2 Trojan Apps... And a keylogger logging my keys.

Thanks for joining us for Episode 4 of our fun project brought to you by the team of Hacking Humans, the CyberWire's social engineering podcast. Co-hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan are joined by Rick Howard in this series where they view clips from their favorite movies with examples of the social engineering scams and schemes you hear about on Hacking Humans. In this episode, Dave, Joe and Rick are watching Joe's and Rick's scene picks. They watch each of the selected scenes, describe the on-screen action for you, and then the team deconstructs what they saw. Grab your popcorn and join us for a trip to the movies. Links to this episode's clips if you'd like to watch along:

Joe's clip from "The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air: Pool Hall Hustle" scene

Rick's pick from "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"

Guest Amaya Hadnagy, Media Support for the Social-Engineer, LLC, joins Dave to share information about charity scams, Dave shares a personal story about some safety triggers he recently put into place to help protect his elderly parents financial accounts from scams, Joe's story comes from a listener Alice about someone scamming female Indian news anchors about jobs in Harvard University's journalism department, and our Catch of the Day comes from an imposter of Navy Federal Credit Union via listener Chris. Links to stories: The Harvard Job Offer No One at Harvard Ever Heard Of

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.

Thanks for joining us for our fun project brought to you by the team of Hacking Humans, the CyberWire's social engineering podcast. Co-hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan are joined by Rick Howard in this series where they view clips from their favorite movies with examples of the social engineering scams and schemes you hear about on Hacking Humans. In this episode, Dave, Joe and Rick are watching Dave's and Rick's scene picks. They watch each of the selected scenes, describe the on-screen action for you, and then the team deconstructs what they saw. Grab your popcorn and head to the movies with us. Links to this episode's clips if you'd like to watch along:

Dave's clip from "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels"

Rick's pick from "The Sting"

Code that fails to protect sensitive information.

Guest Adam Levin, security expert and podcast host of "What the Hack with Adam Levin," joins Dave to share advice and discuss some experiences shared on his podcast, Dave and Joe have some listener follow up from David with clarification on 2FA, Joe's story is about a job scam for positions at a video game company, Dave's got a story about how tools like Google and smartphones affect our memories and how we judge our own abilities, our Catch of the Day is from a listener named Chris with a fake email from Amazon about a TV his father "purchased," and how Chris had to intervene. Links to stories:

They thought they got their dream job at Riot Games — but it was a scam

Indeed's Guidelines for Safe Job Search

The internet is tricking our brains

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.

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.

Guest Dave Senci of Mastercard's NuData Security talks about the security issues with remote access and coaching frauds, Dave's got a story about receiving a "Best Buy gift card" and USB mailing, Joe's story is from the Better Business Bureau about their "12 Scams of Christmas," and our Catch of the Day is from our listener Henry who received an email that appeals to one's faith. Links to stories:

PSA: If You Get a 'Best Buy Gift Card' on a USB Drive in the Mail, Don't Plug It Into Your PC

The Naughty List: BBB's 12 Scams of Christmas

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.

The process of proactively searching through networks to detect and isolate security threats, rather than relying on security solutions or services to detect those threats.

Guest Jay Radcliffe from Thermo Fisher Scientific shares his advice and security concerns with smart devices since the holiday gifting season is around the corner, Joe and Dave have some listener follow up about 2FA, Joe's got a story about the Robinhood breach, Dave's story is about numerous LinkedIn requests from HR specialists with GAN images (Generated Adversarial Network), and our Catch of the Day is from listener Michael who was just trying to sell his car and then he got a text message. Links to stories:

Data Breach of Robinhood Trading Platform Blamed on Social Engineering, Similar to 2020 Twitter Breach

LinkedIn Fakes: A Wolf in Business Casual Clothing

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.

The continuous practice of identifying classifying, prioritizing, remediating, and mitigating software vulnerabilities within this.

Thanks for joining us for our fun project brought to you by the team of Hacking Humans, the CyberWire's social engineering podcast. Co-hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan are joined by Rick Howard in this series where they view clips from their favorite movies with examples of the social engineering scams and schemes you hear about on Hacking Humans. In this episode, Dave, Joe and Rick are watching Joe's and Rick's scene picks. They watch each of the selected scenes, describe the on-screen action for you, and then the team deconstructs what they saw. Grab your popcorn and join us for a trip to the movies. Links to this episode's clips if you'd like to watch along:

Joe's clip from "The Simpsons: Father and Son Grifting" episode

Rick's pick from "Paper Moon"

A formal record containing the details and supply chain relationships of various components used in building software.

Guest Blake Hall, CEO and founder of a company called ID.me, discusses protecting your identity online, Dave and Joe have some follow up from listener Rafa on 2FA he uses, Dave has a story about bots that take advantage of 2FA to break into your payment accounts, Joe's story is about scams carried out through QR codes, and our COTD comes from listener Wyatt about an award-winning email from Warren Buffett. Links to stories:

The Booming Underground Market for Bots That Steal Your 2FA Codes

Fake “Sugar Daddies” are cheating on Instagram

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.

A security philosophy that assumes adversaries have already penetrated the digital environment and tries to reduce the potential impact by limiting access by people, devices, and software to only the resources essential to perform their function and nothing more.

Welcome to a fun new project by the team who brings you Hacking Humans, the CyberWire's social engineering podcast. Co-hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan are joined by Rick Howard in this series. They view clips from their favorite movies with examples of the social engineering scams and schemes you hear about on Hacking Humans. In this first episode, Dave, Joe and Rick are watching Dave's and Joe's picks. They watch each of the selected scenes, describe the on-screen action for you, and then the team deconstructs what they saw. Grab your popcorn and join us for a trip to the movies. Links to movie clips if you'd like to watch along:

Dave's pick from "The Grifters"

Joe's clip from "Matchstick Men"

Hardware and software designed to detect and prevent cyber adversary campaigns that target industrial operations.

Guest Dr. Jessica Barker from Cygenta talks with UK correspondent Carole Theriault about how every month should be cyber awareness month, Joe has a story about password spraying (kind of like a credential stuffing attack), Dave's story is about scams carried out through QR codes, and our COTD comes from listener Wyatt about an award-winning email from Warren Buffett. Links to stories:

Microsoft warns over uptick in password spraying attacks

Scammers are emailing waves of unsolicited QR codes, aiming to steal Microsoft users' passwords

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.

The difference between organizational employee job requirements and the available skillsets in the potential employee pool.

Guest Brandon Hoffman from Intel 471 is back sharing some research on business email compromise, Dave's got a story on buying collectable sneakers and how bots make that really hard to do, Joe has two stories with different spins on romance scams: one notes they are the most prevalent scams targeting older adults; and the second is about a group of Nigerian men preying on women through money scams, and our Catch of the Day comes from reddit user steev p (Steve P) about a benefit scam from an impersonated Facebook friend. Links to stories:

Bots have made it nearly impossible to buy hyped up shoes. What if they could be stopped?

FTC warns of increase in romance scams, especially targeting older adults

Nigerian romance scam suspects targeted 100 women - FBI

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.

The use of technology to radically improve the performance or reach of the business.

UK Correspondent Carole Theriault returns with an interview with Paul, a spam analyst, Dave and Joe have some follow-up, Joe revisits NFTs with rug pull scams, Dave's story is about phishers using a symbol in place of the Verizon logo, and our Catch of the Day comes from listener Rafael in Spain about a Steam account takeover scam attempt his son experienced on Discord. Links to stories: Phishers Get Clever, Use Math Symbols for Verizon Logo

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.

Cloud services intended for cyber criminals and other bad actors designed to obstruct law enforcement and other kinds of government investigations, and to provide some protection against competitors.

Guest Marina Ciavatta CEO at Hekate talks with Dave about some of her social engineering and pen testing experiences, Dave's got a story is about getting your family to use a password manager, Joe's story is about NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and scams that have arisen around them, and our Catch of the Day is from listener William and it turns out Dave is in trouble with the IRS again on this one. Links to stories:

How to Get Your Family to Actually Use a Password Manager

THE NFT SCAMMERS ARE HERE

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.

The practice of securing a device that connects to a network in order to facilitate communication with other devices on the same or different networks.

Guest Zach Schuler of NINJIO joins Dave to discuss measuring the effectiveness of awareness training, Joe's got a story about a school nurse who was scammed with a "Bank of America" Zelle transaction, Dave's story is about a phone scam a therapist received from a local "Sheriff's office," and our Catch of the Day is from Hacking Humans Senior producer Jennifer Eiben about some pricey potatoes and chocolate chip cookies she "ordered." Links to stories:

School nurse falls victim to scam targeting Bank of America and Zelle customers

'He held me hostage with no gun but with his words': The phone scam gaslighting therapists

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.

President Biden's May, 2021 formal compliance mandate for federal civilian executive branch agencies, or FCEBs, to include specific shortterm and longterm deadlines designed to enhance the federal government's digital defense posture.

Guest Chris Kirsch, DefCon 25 Social Engineering Capture The Flag winner and Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Rumble, talks with our UK Correspondent Carole Theriault about his experience at the event, Dave's story is about scammers bypassing social engineering and going directly to pitch employees to install ransomware, Joe's got a story about travel scams he came across while planning a recent trip, our Catch of the Day comes from Reddit about some text messages which cause emotions to flare. Links to stories:

Nigerian Threat Actors Skip Social Engineering, Make Direct Pitches to Employees To Install Ransomware on Company Networks

15 Common Travel Scams (And How To Avoid Them)

Catch of the Day links:

Guess I made the scammer angry?

He blocked me before I could really mess with him, unfortunately

Did I win?

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.

Phase of a typical cyber adversary group's attack sequence, after the initial compromise and usually after the group has established a command and control channel, where the group moves through the victims network by compromising as many systems as it can, by looking for the data, it has come to steal or to destroy.

Guest Alex Hinchliffe, Threat Intelligence Analyst from Unit 42 at Palo Alto Networks joins Dave to talk about some of his team's ransomware research, Joe's story is about a new jury duty scam that is out there (hint, they will not call you on the phone), Dave's got a story about Microsoft rolling out passwordless login options, our Catch of the Day comes from a listener named Lucio who shared several social engineering ploys with us. Links to stories:

Brand New Jury Duty Scam

You Can Now Ditch the Password on Your Microsoft Account

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.

A public list sponsored by the US government and designed to uniquely identify, without the need to manually cross- reference, all the known software vulnerabilities in the world.

Guest Etay Maor of Cato Networks joins Dave Bittner to discuss the impact that deepfakes will have on our society, we share some fun feedback on the Lightning Rod story edit, Dave's story talks about how some of the most successful and lucrative online scams employ a “low-and-slow” approach, Joe's story is about 2 Arkansas farmer that scammed investors out of money for wind turbines, but used it for houses, cars and Disney World, and our Catch of the Day is from an unnamed listener with a supposed iPhone invoice. Links to stories:

Gift Card Gang Extracts Cash From 100k Inboxes Daily

Arkansas wind farmers claimed their technology was more efficient than turbines — then spent investors’ money on houses, cars and at Disney World

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.

A forensic technique where practitioners capture an entire image of a system and analyze the contents offline.

Guest Gil Friedrich from Avanan joins Dave to discuss how collaboration platforms, like Microsoft Teams, Slack and others, opened up a new gateway to ransomware attacks, Joe's story comes from listener Matt shared as a COTD candidate that's a phishing scam, Dave's got a story about China and Russia trying to turn your employees into spies, and our Catch of the Day comes from a listener named Iain with a timely story "from" Afghanistan. Links to stories:

Guarding Against the Chinese Domain Name Email Scam

The FBI’s warning to Silicon Valley: China and Russia are trying to turn your employees into spies

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. Note: Microsoft is a sponsor of the CyberWire, however, we cover them as we would any other company.

A supply chain cybersecurity accreditation standard designed for the protection of controlled unclassified information that the U.S. Department of Defense, or DoD, will require for all contract bids by October, 2025.

Guest Javvad Malik from KnowBe4 shares his thoughts on bad security training with the CyberWire's UK correspondent Carole Theriault, Dave's story is about deepfake technology being used for business cases, Joe's gives a synopsis of Proofpoint's most recent State of the Phish report, our very first Catch of the Day about Discord comes from a listener named Henning. Links to stories:

Deepfakes Are Now Making Business Pitches

Proofpoint's 2021 State of the Phish Report

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.

A collection of people, process, and technology that provides an organization the ability to detect and respond to cyber attacks.

Guest Brandon Hoffman from Intel 471 joins Dave to talk about how cybercriminals are going after large retail and hospitality companies, Joe shares some advice for college students to avoid scams and ID theft, Dave got an edit to the tale of the lightning rod, our Catch of the Day comes from listener Shannon who received a beneficiary scam email. Links to stories:

BBB Scam Alert: 6 Scams for College Students to Avoid

BBB Tip: 9 Tips for college students to avoid ID theft

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.

Cybercriminals who lack the expertise to write their own programs use existing scripts, code, or tools authored by other more skilled hackers.

Guest Jann Yogman, entertainment industry veteran and writer of Mimecast Awareness Training, joins Dave to share his thoughts on the ransomware epidemic and the cybersecurity awareness training problem, Joe's got a story about scams targeting families eligible for the IRS' child tax credit, Dave's story is about scams and fraud experienced by US military veterans, personnel, and their families, our Catch of the Day comes from listener Sawyer Dicky on Reddit who insists he's not the right guy. Links to stories:

IRS warns of child tax credit scams

US military personnel lost over $822 million to scams since 2017

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.

An isolated and controlled set of resources that mimics real world environments and used to safely execute suspicious code without infecting or causing damage to the host machine, operating system, or network.

Guest Andrew Rubin, CEO and co-founder of Illumio, joins Dave to discuss Zero Trust, Dave and Joe share some follow-up from several listeners including one with a variation on prison pen pals we discussed some time ago and some advice on Dave's Google Authenticator issue he mentioned last week, Dave's story is about non-delivery scams, Joe's got a story on Imperial Kitten doing some catphishing, and our Catch of the Day comes from listener Timothy about with a sextortion campaign. Links to stories:

5 reasons non-delivery scams work

I Knew You Were Trouble: TA456 Targets Defense Contractor with Alluring Social Media Persona

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.

A stack of security software solutions and tools that allow organizations to orchestrate disparate internal and external tools which feed pre-built automation playbooks that respond to events or alert analysts if an event meets a certain threshold.

Guest Darren Shou, Chief Technology Officer of NortonLifeLock, shares insight on some of the scams he and his colleagues have been tracking, Joe and Dave share some follow up from listener Robert about free learning resources, Joe's story comes from listener Sedric who is new to real estate Investing and was looking for a hard money loan, rather than a story, Dave continues the conversation on passwords and multi-factor authentication with comments from listener Coinsigliere, and our Catch of the Day, well "catches" of the day since we have two, include one from Pryce on a smishing scam and the second from Ronald with a subscription email scam.. 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.

A term of legal art that defines the types of data and circumstances that permits a third party to directly or indirectly identify an individual with collected data.

Guest Dr. Charles Chaffin, author of the book "Numb: How the Information Age Dulls Our Senses and How We Can Get them Back," joins Dave this week, we have some listener follow up from John with a tip on ATM security, Dave's got a two-fer this week including a useful site called www.shouldiclick.org and a Twitter report on multi-factor authentication thanks Rachel Tobac for calling our attention to it, Joe's story is from Microsoft on trends in tech support scams, and our Catch of the Day is from a listener on Twitter called @DoNoEvilMan about a payout from the Federal Reserve via the FBI. Links to stories:

Should I click or not?

Twitter Account Security report

Tech support scams adapt and persist in 2021, per new Microsoft research

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.

A security architecture that incorporates the cloud shared responsibility model, a vendor provided security stack, an SD-WAN abstraction layer, and network peering with one or more of the big content providers and their associated fiber networks.

Guest Gil Friedrich from Avanan joins Dave to talk about how bad actors are infiltrating organizations using collaboration apps, we have two pieces of listener follow up from Michael and Tobias, Joe has a story about fake information, Dave's story is about message spam on LinkedIn, and our Catch of the Day is from a listener named Lucio with a questionable Reddit communication. Links to stories:

Propaganda as a Social Engineering Tool

Annoying LinkedIn Networkers Actually Russian Hackers Spreading Zero-Days, Google Says

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.

The practice of emulating known adversary behavior against an organization's actual defensive posture.

Guest Kurtis Minder from GroupSense joins Dave to discuss divergent ransomware trends, the guys have a listener reminder about it being CompTIA, Joe, Dave has a story about a coupon scam in the Houston area, Joe's story is about a real estate rental scam and a scammer who likes to talk about his work, and our Catch of the Day is from a listener named Craig with an email about an unprofessional colleague and a questionable attachment. Links to stories:

A ‘dark-side coupon group’ scammed stores out of millions, police say. ‘They were just going through the ink.’

Housing scams abundant in Jackson. This scammer is proud of it

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.

A layer seven security orchestration platform deployed at the boundary between internal workloads slash data storage and untrusted sources that blocks incoming and outgoing network traffic with rules that tie applications to the authenticated user and provides most of the traditional security stack functions in one device or software application.

Have you ever noticed how fundamental deception is to the human condition? Deception and forms of social engineering have been with us since the beginning of recorded history. And yet, it seems like we are just as vulnerable to it as ever. But now the stakes are higher because technology allows social engineers to deceive at scale. This episode explores the psychology of deception, provides a foundation for understanding social engineering, offers a few mental models for exploration and exploitation, and discusses how we can prepare our mental defenses. Guests:

Rachael Tobac: (LinkedIn), CEO of SocialProof Security

Chris Hadnagy: (LinkedIn); CEO of Social Engineer, LLC; Founder of Innocent Lives Foundation; Founder of Social-Engineer.org

Lisa Forte: (LinkedIn); Partner at Red Goat Cyber Security; Co-Founder Cyber Volunteers 19

George Finney: (LinkedIn); Chief Security Officer at Southern Methodist University; Founder of Well Aware Security

Notes & Resources:

CSO Online article on Social Engineering

OODA Loop

Understanding Framing Effects

More examples of Framing Effects

Harvard Business Review article on the Principles of Persuasion

A blog series I did on Deception (Part 1), (Part 2).

PsychologyToday article on Social Engineering

Recommended Books (Amazon affiliate links):

The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security by Kevin Mitnick

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin Mitnick

Human Hacking: Win Friends, Influence People, and Leave Them Better Off for Having Met You by Chris Hadnagy

Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert Cialdini

Practical Social Engineering: A Primer for the Ethical Hacker by Joe Gray

Social Engineering: The Science of Human Hacking by Chris Hadnagy

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

Transformational Security Awareness: What Neuroscientists, Storytellers, and Marketers Can Teach Us About Driving Secure Behaviors by Perry Carpenter

Well Aware: Master the Nine Cybersecurity Habits to Protect Your Future by George Finney

Music and Sound Effects by Blue Dot Sessions & Storyblocks. Artwork by Chris Machowski.

Well Aware: Master the Nine Cybersecurity Habits to Protect Your Future

Transformational Security Awareness: What Neuroscientists, Storytellers, and Marketers Can Teach Us About Driving Secure Behaviors

Human Hacking: Win Friends, Influence People, and Leave Them Better Off for Having Met You

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Social Engineering: The Science of Human Hacking

The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security

Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade

Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker

Practical Social Engineering: A Primer for the Ethical Hacker

Guest Joe Payne of Code 42 joins Dave to discuss insider risks Joe has a story about Frank Abagnale who's conned everyone one way or another, Dave's story is about a real estate scam conning a single mother of her life savings, and our Catch of the Day is from listener Michael with an "Extremely Urgent Attention Required" email. Links to stories:

Confessions of a Famous Fraudster: How and Why Social Engineering Scams Work

Real estate scam robs Florida mom of $63K in life savings

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.

A network designed to obfuscate the location of a cyber adversary's command and control server by manipulating the domain name system, or DNS, in a way that rotates the associated IP address among large numbers of compromised hosts in a botnet.

The CyberWire's UK correspondent Carole Theriault returns to share an interview with Geoff White, reporter from the BBC and co-host of the Lazarus Heist podcast, Joe has some listener follow-up from Mike looking for advice on certifications for getting into cybersecurity, Dave's story is from Brian Krebs about catching an ATM shimmer gang, Joe's got a piece from MalwareBytes Labs about phishing for Bitcoin recovery codes, and our Catch of the Day is from listener Rohit with a pretty genuine-looking snail mail scam. Links to stories:

How Cyber Sleuths Cracked an ATM Shimmer Gang

Bitcoin scammers phish for wallet recovery codes on Twitter

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.

The process of converting plain text into an unrecognizable form or secret code to hide its true meaning.

Guest Matthew Gracey-McMinn joins us from Netacea to speak with Dave about security issues with streaming services, Joe shares some follow-up from listener Jason about a bracelet sale mentioned a few episodes ago, Joe's story is from UMBC about AI-generated fake news reports, Dave's got a story about a replacement scam for a hardware wallet used for storing cryptocurrency, and our Catch of the Day comes from a listener called R about a vishing scam for DirectTV. Links to stories:

Study shows AI-generated fake reports fool experts

Criminals are mailing altered Ledger devices to steal cryptocurrency

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.

Software or hardware that records the computer keys pressed by a user.

Guest Mantas Sasnauskas from CyberNews joins Dave to talk about how he and his colleagues applied for a job with a ransomware gang, Joe and Dave reply to a listener named Christopher about certifications, Dave's story is about credential stuffing with payroll companies for $800,000,Joe shares a story about lewd phishing lures sent to people's email accounts, and our Catch of the Day is from from a listener named Stof who says, he “received this call just now, never heard one this convincing, nearly got me too!" Links to stories:

How to hack into 5500 accounts… just using “credential stuffing”

Lewd Phishing Lures Aimed at Business Explode

Million-dollar deposits and friends in high places: how we applied for a job with a ransomware gang

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.

Digital assets that are cryptographically protected on a blockchain and contain unique identification codes and metadata that makes them one of a kind.

Guest Robert Capps of NuData Security joins Dave to discuss what businesses can do to bolster their protection against tax fraud, Joe and Dave have some follow-up from 2 episodes ago when they discussed a BazarLoader scam: Wired has a recent article with a twist about a totally fake streaming site called BravoMovies, Joe shares a story from a listener Jason about a friend of his who was targeted by a scammer on Facebook Marketplace, Dave's story is about scammers demanding ransom from families who report missing persons on social media, and our Catch of the Day is from Reddit on a Tron cryptocurrency scam. Links to stories:

The Bizarro Streaming Site That Hackers Built From Scratch

Scammers Target Families Who Post Missing Persons on Social Media

COTD post on Reddit: Crypto scammer doesn't understand compound interest and gives me a rate that would give me all of the crypto after 9 hours.

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.

The use of two or more verification methods to gain access to an account.

Guests Jan Kallberg and Col Stephen Hamilton of Army Cyber Institute at West Point join Dave to talk about cognitive force protection, Joe and Dave have some follow-up from a listener named Obada about Apple only allowing 2FA through SMS, Dave shares a story about Google's plan to require MFA for all users, Joe's story is about a couple who had their Fidelity retirement account defrauded to the tune of $40,000, and our Catch of the Day is from a listener named Doal about becoming named the beneficiary of a similarly-named deceased person. Links to stories:

Google to make multi-factor authentication its default mode

‘Sleeping Giant:' Thieves Target Retirement Accounts

How to protect troops from an assault in the cognitive domain

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.

A programming technique where the developer doesn't specify each step of the algorithm in code, but instead teaches the algorithm to learn from the experience.

Guest Tim Sadler from Tessian on how oversharing on social media and in OOO messages can open the door for hackers, Joe shares a story about vishing emails from "Amazon" that had spam confidence levels of 1, Dave's story is about an elaborate BazarLoader campaign counting on a lot of human interaction, and our Catch of the Day is from a listener named Scott about a phishing fax, that's right, we said fax. Links to stories:

Hello, Is It Me You’re Phishing For: Amazon Vishing Attacks

BazarCall Method: Call Centers Help Spread BazarLoader Malware

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.

The process of turning raw information into intelligence products that leaders use to make decisions with.

Guest Kev Breen from Immersive Labs joins Dave to talk about how to address whaling attacks, Dave shares a discussion he had with. a colleague about password managers and elderly parents and Joe weighs in, Dave's story is about a smishing Trojan impersonating a Chrome app, Joe has a story about URL redirection making more effective phishing attacks, and our Catch of the Day is from a listener named Vaughn about a snail mail fraud scheme that references a website. Links to stories:

Beware of this smishing trojan impersonating the Chrome app

Exploiting common URL redirection methods to create effective phishing attacks

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.

Coming May 25, 2021. Get ready for a deep dive into what cybersecurity professionals often refer to as the "8th Layer" of security: HUMANS. This podcast is a multidisciplinary exploration into how the complexities of human nature affect security, risk, and life. Author, security researcher, and behavior science enthusiast Perry Carpenter taps experts for their insights and illumination. Topics include cybersecurity, psychology, behavior science, communication, leadership, and more.

A cloud-based software distribution method where app infrastructure, performance, and security are maintained by a service provider and accessible to users, typically via subscription, from any device connected to the internet.

Guest Helen Lee Bouygues of the Reboot Foundation joins Dave to talk about social media’s effect within the misinformation ecosystem and how users can best fight fake news, Dave and Joe share some follow-up from listener Jonathan on two-factor authentication, Joe's story is about an employee in Scotland sued for making payments based on phishing emails, Dave has a story about fake order confirmation phishing messages prompting us to call rather than click, our Catch of the Day comes from a listener named Wyatt who received a phishing email from some fellow jackpot winners. Links to stories:

Why You Should Use a Physical Key to Sign Into Your Accounts

Publishing company defrauded of over £193,000 fail to appeal decision that ex-employee was not liable for damages

Company sues worker who fell for email scam

BazarBackdoor phishing campaign eschews links and files to avoid raising red flags

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.

A process of converting encrypted data into something that a human or computer can understand.

Our UK correspondent Carole Theriault returns to share her interview with Julie Smith from the Security Alliance and Kelvin Coleman from National Cyber Security Alliance about Identity Management Day, Dave's story is about how Pixar uses colors to hack our moods and minds to see colors we've never seen before, Joe has a story about ways malicious actors can break into accounts with multi-factor authentication enabled, our Catch of the Day comes from a listener named Brett who works in a PC repair shop and "HackerDont'comebacker" software. Links to stories:

How Pixar Uses Hyper-Colors to Hack Your Brain

How Social Engineering Tactics Can Crack Multi-factor Authentication

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.

A cryptographic hack that relies on guessing all possible letter combinations of a targeted password until the correct codeword is discovered.

Guest Stacey Nash, Head of Fraud and Central Operations at USAA, joins Dave to discuss romance or sweetheart scams, Joe and Dave share some listener follow-up, Joe's got a story about emails sent to British awards organizers asking them to transfer prize money to a PayPal account, Dave's story is about a Rolling Stones tribute band targeted in a bogus check racket, and our Catch of the Day comes from a listener named Konstantin about a fake tax refund. Links to stories:

$40,000 Swindle Puts Spotlight on Literary Prize Scams

Scammers can’t get no satisfaction

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.

A cyber attack designed to impair or eliminate access to online services or data.

Guest Margaret Cunningham from Forcepoint talks with Dave about cognitive biases that lead to reasoning errors in cybersecurity, Joe shares some follow-up from a listener named Alex about the Alexa phone call Joe mentioned a few episodes back, Dave shares a note from listener Brandon about finding similar DNS names (check out https://dnstwister.report/), Dave's story is about dark patterns to get you to do something on a website, Joe shares a story phishing emails and defenses against them, and our Catch of the Day comes from a listener named Big Mike about an old time radio podcast he heard recently with great examples of social engineering. Links to stories:

Dark patterns, the tricks websites use to make you say yes, explained

Why do phishing attacks work? Blame the humans, not the technology

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.

A type of side channel attack in which an attacker with physical access to a computer performs a memory dump of a computer’s Random Access Memory or RAM during the reboot process in order to steal sensitive data.

Guest Herb Stapleton, the FBI’s cyber division sector chief, joins Dave to talk about the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) annual report and its findings, Joe's story is about an ongoing IRS impersonation scam targeting educational organizations, Dave shares a story from the BBC about people using their pets names as passwords (tell us that hasn't crossed your mind or your keyboard before), and our Catch of the Day comes from the Land Down Under via Gareth and Kingsley. COTD note: Just to be clear their jurisdiction is a single party consent jurisdiction. Links to stories:

IRS warns university students and staff of impersonation email scam

Pets' names used as passwords by millions, study finds

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On-demand pay-as-you-go Internet delivered compute, storage, infrastructure, and security services that are partially managed by the cloud provider and partially managed by the customer.

Guest Peter Warmka, founder of the Counterintelligence Institute, joins Dave to talk about how insider targets are chosen and assessed, Joe shares a weird phone call he received, Dave's story from a Twitter use named Jake on flower shop scams, Joe has a story about student loan forgiveness scams, and our Catch of the Day comes from a listener named Andrew about a pricey software subscription renewal scam. Links to stories:

Twitter thread with flower shop scams from Australia

3 Ways to Spot Student Loan Scams

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An acronym for Advanced Persistent Threat to describe hacker groups or campaigns normally, but not always, associated with nation state cyber espionage and continuous low-level cyber conflict operations.

Guest Fleming Shi of Barracuda joins Dave to talk about about travel-related phishing attacks now that vaccines are more readily available, Dave and Joe share listener advice about preventative email blocking, Joe shares a story about romance scams by someone that includes fake W2s and other documents in the process, Dave's got a story about a phone scammer posing as McDonald's CEO, and our Catch of the Day is from a listener named Tarik with an email about his reported death. Tarik awards this email the Unlikely Phishing Hook of the Year Award presented by the Institute of Questionable Intentions. Links to stories:

Irvine man accused of $1 million romance scam

Phone scammer pretending to be McDonald's CEO nearly cons Pennsylvania restaurant out of thousands: report

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An undocumented or publicly unknown method to access a computer system undetected or to break a cypher used to encode messages.

Guest Ming Yang of Orchard joins Dave to talk about ways to help your parents with technology (aka providing tech support for our parents). Dave shares the FBI's advisory warning of an expected increase in the use of deepfakes for social engineering attacks, Joe's got a story about phantom debts, and our Catch of the Day is from a listener named Anthony about an email from federalcrimeofinvestigation@gmail.com. Hmmm...seems legit. Links to stories:

Malicious Actors Almost Certainly Will Leverage Synthetic Content for Cyber and Foreign Influence Operations

Beware Scammers Trying to Collect Phantom Debts

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From the intrusion kill chain model, a technique where the hacker compromises sites commonly visited by members of a targeted community in order to deliver a malicious payload to the intended victim.

Guest professional magician Brandon Williams talks with Joe about the art of deception. we have some follow-up on a watering hole attack we discussed a few episodes back, Joe's story is about the Attorney General of Vermont's top scams of 2020 report (no surprise #1 was SSN phishing), Dave's got a story about the level of sophistication of cybercriminals (hint: not all are that sophisticated), and our Catch of the Day is from a listener named Jo about a well-written request for donation. Links to stories:

Top 10 scams of 2020 released by attorney general

Not all cybercriminals are sophisticated

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Network observation systems designed to monitor globally unreachable but unused Internet address space or the Deep Web in order to study a wide range of interesting Internet phenomena.

Guest Inon Shkedy, security researcher at Traceable and API project leader at OWASP Foundation, talks with Dave about the risks various types of insider threats pose to APIs, we have some follow-up from a listener closing on their home, Dave's story is about a new wave of scams saying they are from the Social Security Administration, Joe's got Deepfakes of Tom Cruise (thanks to Rachel Tobac for this one), and our Catch of the Day is from a listener named John's son and a job interview scam he experienced. Links to stories:

US government warns of Social Security scams using fake federal IDs

Here’s How Worried You Should Be About Those Tom Cruise Deepfakes

Deepfake videos of Tom Cruise show the technology's threat to society is very real

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A best practice for framing cyber intelligence critical information requirements that recommends collecting and consolidating data from three specific sources: endpoint, network and log.

Guest Brittany Allen of Sift joins Dave to talk about a new fraud ring on Telegram where bad actors leverage the app to steal from on-demand food delivery services, Joe's story involves two of the five parts of URLs in phishing attacks, Dave's got a story about a malvertising group called "ScamClub," and our Catch of the Day is from a listener named John about a letter he received in the mail from "TD Trust Bank" about an inheritance opportunity. Links to stories:

New Phishing Attack Identified: Malformed URL Prefixes

“ScamClub” gang outed for exploiting iPhone browser bug to spew ads

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.

Also known as a third-party attack or a value-chain attack, advisory groups gain access to a targeted victims network by first infiltrating a business partner's network that has access to the victim's systems or data.

Guest Professor Lior Fink from Ben Gurion University shares insights from their study on "How We Can Be Manipulated Into Sharing Private Information Online," Dave's story is some good news about a Nigerian man sentenced for phishing the US heavy equipment company Caterpillar, Joe has a story with bad news about a sextortion email scam with a fake Zoom zero day component, and our Catch of the Day is a compelling phishing email a listener named Michael recently received. Links to stories:

Nigerian man sentenced 10 years for $11 million phishing scam

Watch out for sextortion email scams

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The process of software engineers checking the flow of user input in application code to determine if unanticipated input can affect program execution in malicious ways.

Guest Sara Teare who is known as 1Password's Minister of Magic talks with Dave about things that people don't consider like custody of the digital keys to your stuff online, Dave and Joe share some listener feedback from Jonathan about replacing outdated equipment (aka an old phone), Joe's story is about ongoing campaign targeting security researchers working on vulnerability research and development at different companies and organizations, Dave's story has a holiday theme: emails pretending to confirm orders from lingerie and flower shops that are actually spreading malware, and our Catch of the Day is from a listener named Kristian and it's a "legitimate deal" from Colonel Gaddafi's daughter. Links to stories:

New campaign targeting security researchers

Pre-Valentine’s Day Malware Attack Mimics Flower, Lingerie Stores

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The process of stealing ATM customer credentials by means of physically and covertly installing one or more devices onto a public ATM machine.

Carole Theriault returns with a discussion on disinformation with guest, BBC host, podcaster and author Tim Harford, Dave's got a story about Covid vaccine phishing campaigns, Joe's story talks about data breaches that have increased 50% year over year since 2018, and our Catch of the Day is from a listener named John his wife saw on Facebook who translated it from Lithuanian. Links to stories:

Count Yourself in For a Vaccine Phish

Deep Analysis of More than 60,000 Breach Reports Over Three Years

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A nation-state hacking group’s practice of funding its town activities through cybercrime or cyber mercenary work.

Guest Nico Popp of Forcepoint joins Dave to discuss why understanding human behavior is a major key to security, Dave & Joe discuss some listener follow-up about a Craigslist posting, Joe's story is about a scam website that is promising refunds to consumers all over the world, Dave shares a story about scam calls coming from call centers in India, and our Catch of the Day is from a listener about an email from former first lady Melania Trump. Links to stories:

FTC warns of scam website that promises refund for victims of online scams

Scam “US Trading Commission” website is not the FTC

Who's Making All Those Scam Calls?

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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.

Guest Eric Solis of MOVO Cash talks with Dave about the increase of fraud attacks on consumers and businesses by not having a body of regulations for digital payments, Dave's story is about his recent pillow purchase prompting him to do online reviews for an extra bonus, Joe shares some details from Verizon's Cyber-Espionage report, and our Catch of the Day is a letter from a listener named Jim who had a bad eBay transaction. Links to stories:

Amazon is trying to crack down on fraudulent reviews. They’re thriving in Facebook groups.

Breach of Trust: How Cyber-Espionage Thrives On Human Nature

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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.

Guest Arjun Sambamoorthy of Armorblox talks with Dave about five targeted phishing campaigns that weaponize various Google services during their attack flow, Joe's story is about the MegaMillions jackpot that is approaching epic proportions and attracting the attention of scammers, Dave's story comes from a listener over on the Grumpy Old Geeks podcast about a Venmo incident, and our Catch of the Day comes from Joe's son who received an email from the FBI. Links to stories:

Advisory: Beware of Scams as Jackpot Grows

Lottery Scams: Some scammers falsely use Mega Millions name

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

Guest Umesh Sachdev of Uniphore talks with Dave about how call centers are becoming the new fraud vector, Dave's story involves an email that has a Trump scandal .jar file attached that's really a RAT, Joe has a story about hackers spoofing a victim's phone number making emergency calls where the police respond to the victim's home with force, he also talks about credential stuffing for swatting a video doorbell, and our Catch of the Day comes from a listener Christian who received an email with a lazy trunk box scam. Links to stories:

Hackers Using Fake Trump's Scandal Video to Spread QNode Malware

FBI Warn Hackers are Using Hijacked Home Security Devices for ‘Swatting’

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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.

Dave switches gears and shares a story from the National Law Review with a social engineering spin to it about a theft exclusion in a title company's errors and omissions policy, Joe shares a story from Facebook taking action against hacking groups, The Catch of the Day comes Joe himself with a connection request he received on LinkedIn, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Carey O’Connor Kolaja from AU10TIX on fraud in the financial services and payment industry, and how organizations are using emerging technical solutions to help combat it. Links to stories:

Engineering Coverage for Social Engineering Schemes in Light of New Jersey Federal Court Opinion Finding No Errors and Omissions Coverage for Email Scam

Taking Action Against Hackers in Bangladesh and Vietnam

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

A family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original Unix system built by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie in the 1960s.

Dave has a story of an investment scam featuring celebrities, Joe warns of scams surrounding the Coronavirus, the Catch of the Day features Joe's son-in-law's adventure with thousands of bot infiltrations, and later in the show, Dave's extended interview with magicians and entertainers Penn and Teller at RSAC 2020 in San Francisco. Links to stories: Revealed: fake 'traders' allegedly prey on victims in global investment scam Coronavirus: Scammers follow the headlines 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.

A network monitoring and filtering technique that examines both the header information and the payload of every packet traversing a network access point.

Dave shares a story of airport penetration testing with high degree of yuck-factor. Joe explores research on protecting passwords from social engineering. The catch-of-the-day comes courtesy of Graham Cluley's email spam box. Dave interviews Wired's Security Staff Writer Lily Hay Newman on her article tracking Nigerian email scammers. 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.

A set of behaviors that precisely describes a cyber adversary attack campaign.

A clandestine set of applications designed to give hackers access and control over a target device.

Joe talks about phishing lures with holiday packages, current events, and things he expects to see in your inbox soon, Dave's shares a blog post on how to troll a Nigerian prince, The Catch of the Day comes from a listener named Christian who received an email from an ill churchgoer that tests US knowledge of geography, and later in the show, Carole Theriault returns with a conversation with Rebecca McKeown, an independent Chartered Psychologist, with experience researching and evaluating learning and development across the Ministry of Defence. She is studying the psychology of cyber response. Links to stories: How to Troll a Nigerian Prince

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.

In this case Identity is the set of credentials, usually electronic that vouch for who you are and theft is to steal. The theft of a person's identity for purposes of fraud.

Joe provides some listener feedback on allowing site notifications, Dave shares good news in his story about taking down money mules, Joe's got not as good news about a phishing campaign targeting the COVID-19 vaccine cold chain, The Catch of the Day comes from a listener named Virginia who received a phishing email impersonating a bank, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Neal Dennis from Cyware on the cybersecurity concerns and pitfalls customers need to look out for and why ecommerce has become a goldmine for hackers. Links to stories:

U.S. Law Enforcement Takes Action Against Approximately 2,300 Money Mules In Global Crackdown On Money Laundering

IBM Uncovers Global Phishing Campaign Targeting the COVID-19 Vaccine Cold Chain

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A software, hardware or hybrid encryption layer between two devices on the network that makes the traffic between the sites opaque to the other devices on the same network.

Information used by leadership to make decisions regarding the cybersecurity posture of their organization.

Joe has a story about fake websites with advanced profiling tools and malicious software by OceanLotus, Dave's story is about sites that ask if it's ok to send you notifications, The Catch of the Day comes from a listener named William who received a phishing email from the boss, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Mike Slaugh from USAA on his predictions for 2021 and best practices for organizations to protect themselves and consumers, including creating better means of identity verification. Links to stories:

OceanLotus: Extending Cyber Espionage Operations Through Fake Websites

Be Very Sparing in Allowing Site Notifications

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From the intrusion kill-chain model, the delivery of a “lure” via a text message to a potential victim by pretending to be some trustworthy person or organization in order to trick the victim into revealing sensitive information. Smishing is a portmanteau word made of two other words, the acronym “SMS” and the cyber coinage “Phishing“. It’s a text-message-centric variation of the email-based phishing scams that have been around since the 1990s. The term “Smishing” arose in the late 2000s.

A reflection or amplification distributed denial-of-service attack in which hackers query Internet network time protocol servers, NTP servers for short, for the correct time, but spoof the destination address of their target victims.

Joe shares his Classic Cons Part 3, Dave has an Apple device scam story, The Catch of the Day is your assassination heads-up, and later in the show our interview with Jonna Mendez, retired CIA intelligence officer and former Chief of Disguise. Link to story: Twitter 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.

A network switch configuration setting that forwards a copy of each incoming and outgoing packet to a third switch port. Also known as SPAN or Switched Port Analyzer, RAP or Roving Analysis Port, and TAP or Test Access Point. When network managers and security investigators want to capture packets for analysis, they need some sort of generic TAP or Test Access Point. You can buy specialized equipment for this operation but most modern switches have this capability built in.

Dave has a story about the security risks of your outbound email, Joe's story is about a fake company, Ecapitalloans, using fake BBB affiliation, The Catch of the Day comes from a listener named Max with a new work phone with curious activity from previous number owner, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Bill Coletti, crisis communications and reputation management expert at Kith, and author of the book Critical Moments: A New Mindset for Reputation Management. Links to stories:

The 2020 Outbound Email Data Breach Report Finds growing email volumes and stressed employees are causing rising breach risk

BBB Warning: Ecapitalloans steals personal information and money from loan applicants

Ecapitalloans.co

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Technology, software and hardware deployed without explicit organizational approval. In the early days of the computer era from the 1980s through the 2000s security and information system practitioners considered shadow IT as completely negative. Those unauthorized systems were nothing more than a hindrance that created more technical debt in organizations that were already swimming in it with the known and authorized systems.

NDR tools provide anomaly detection and potential attack prevention by collecting telemetry across the entire intrusion kill chain on transactions across the network, between servers, hosts, and cloud-workloads, and running machine learning algorithms against this compiled and very large data set. NDR is an extension of the EDR, or endpoint detection and response idea that emerged in 2013.

Joe has a story about how Emotet is being used in phishing emails through thread hijacking, Dave's story is a two-fer: one is about bad guys using image manipulation and the other has Elon Musk giving away Bitcoin again taking advantage of the US election, The Catch of the Day is from a listener named John about an email-based vishing attack, and later in the show, we welcome back Kurtis Minder of GroupSense on the burgeoning ransomware negotiation industry. Links to stories:

Spike in Emotet activity could mean big payday for ransomware gangs

Sneaky Office 365 phishing inverts images to evade detection

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From the intrusion kill chain model, a program that provides command and control services for an attack campaign. While the first ever deployed RAT is unknown, one early example is Back Orifice made famous by the notorious hacktivist group called “The Cult of the Dead Cow,” or cDc, Back Orifice was written by the hacker, Sir Dystic AKA Josh Bookbinder and released to the public at DEFCON in 1998.

Dave has a story about a fake Facebook copyright violation scam trying to trick you out of your TFA to get into your account, Joe story about the largest elder fraud scam in US history, The Catch of the Day is about a scam using a Google code for verification and includes Hacking Humans in the response, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Mallory Sofastaii from WMAR Baltimore returns with her reporting on a fake website luring victims through social media ads. . Links to stories and Catch of the Day:

Facebook “copyright violation” tries to get past 2FA – don’t fall for it!

Feds Bust Massive Magazine-Subscription Scam Targeting Older Consumers

Feds in Minnesota charge 60 in $335M magazine fraud that defrauded seniors nationwide

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A social engineering scam where fraudsters spoof an email message from a trusted company officer that directs a staff member to transfer funds to an account controlled by the criminal.

On this Special Edition, our extended conversation with author and New York Times national security correspondent David E. Sanger. The Perfect Weapon explores the rise of cyber conflict as the primary way nations now compete with and sabotage one another. ‌

Joe has a story about a woman who called a fake customer service number and got scammed, Dave's story talks about how phishing kits are not that. hard to find, just check YouTube, The Catch of the Day is an opportunity for a listener remove their name from the BLACKLIST, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with John Pescatore from SANS on Thinking Through the Unthinkable: Should You Pay Off a Ransomware Demand. Links to stories and Catch of the Day:

Local Doctor Scammed After Calling Fake Customer Service Number

Phishing kits as far as the eye can see

Sawyer Dickey: " Your name is in the US.BLACKLIST which makes it impossible for you to send money"

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A word, phrase, or sentence formed from another by rearranging its letters. For example, cracking a columnar transposition cipher by hand involves looking for anagrams.

Dave's story is about some cybercriminal gangs that have stolen $22 million from users of the Electrum wallet app, Joe's story talks about a business email compromise scam cost a US company $15 million, The Catch of the Day is a gift card scam that includes references to National Treasure movie, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Bill Harrod, Federal CTO of MobileIron on election disinformation campaigns. Links to stories and Catch of the Day:

Bitcoin wallet update trick has netted criminals more than $22 million

The anatomy of a $15 million cyber heist on a US company

Uno reverses, 50000 credits worth of nitrous oxide,

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A wireless access point installed by employees in an office or data center environment as a convenience to connectivity without the consent or the knowledge of the network manager. 2. A wireless access point, sometimes called an Evil Twin, installed by a cyber adversary in or near an office or data center environment designed to bypass security controls, gain access, and/or surveil the network traffic of the victim’s network. Both kinds, the employee installed and the adversary installed rogue access points, increase the attack surface of the organization. The employee installed device, because of its electronic footprint range, might make it easier for hackers and mischief makers outside of the organization’s network to bypass the corporate security controls and gain access without permission. The adversary installed device is designed specifically to bypass the security controls of the target network.

Starting with some listener follow-up on password managers, Joe's story has an angel investor bilking people out of due diligence fees, Dave's story comes from Graham Cluley on a malware campaign talking about details on Donald Trump's COVID-19 status, The Catch of the Day is an animal vaccine phishing scam, and later in the show, we’ve got a special treat for you: David Spark from the The CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Series podcast joins us to play the Best Worst Idea game. Links to stories:

Promising Infusions of Cash, Fake Investor John Bernard Walked Away With $30M

Hackers disguise malware attack as new details on Donald Trump’s COVID-19 illness

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A subset of the internet where communications between two parties or client-server transactions are obscured from search engines and surveillance systems by layers of encryption. The U.S. Navy designed the original Darknet by developing The Onion Router network, or TOR, back in the 1990s. Roger Dingledine and Nick Mathewson deployed the first alpha implementation in 2002 with some initial funding by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF.) The TOR Project became a non-profit in 2006 and is funded by the U.S, Sweden, different NGOs, and individual sponsors.

Dave's story is about how some adware took a turn for the worse (and how his dad has fallen adware in the past), Joe's story talks about how someone is trying to phish AT&T employees and others, The Catch of the Day is an OfferUp scam on an rtx 3080 (you gamers know what that is), and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Caleb Barlow from Cynergistek reacting to the recent story of the tragic death of a woman due to hospital ransomware. Links to stories:

Linkury adware caught distributing full-blown malware

Phishing Page Targets AT&T’s Employee Multi-Factor Authentication

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From the intrusion kill chain model, the delivery of a “lure” to a potential victim by pretending to be some trustworthy person or organization in order to trick the victim into revealing sensitive information. According to Knowbe4, the word “phishing” first appeared in a Usenet newsgroup called AOHell in 1996 and some of the very first phishing attacks used AOL Instant Messenger to deliver fake messages purportedly from AOL employees in the early 2000s. The word is part of l33tspeak that started in the early days of the internet (1980s) as a shorthand to let readers know the author was part of the hacker community. In this case, the letters “ph” replace the letter “f” in the word fishing, as in “I fish, with an ‘f,’ for bass in the lake.” In hacking, “I Phish, with a ‘ph,’ for login credentials from key employees at my target’s organization.

In addition to his regular story Dave shares a situation where his mom almost took the bait, Dave's story is about an SMS phishing (smishing) Apple scam in UK (ps, there's never a free iPhone & Joe is still not an Apple fan), Joe's story talks about why you don't trust anything political on a social network, The Catch of the Day is from a Reddit user invited to join the Illuminati game, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Alex Mosher from MobileIron on MobileIron's Phishing with Cookies Campaign. Links to stories and Catch of the Day:

SMS phishing scam pretends to be Apple “chatbot” – don’t fall for it!

Chinese propaganda network on Facebook used AI-generated faces

Catch of the Day on Reddit

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.

From the intrusion kill chain model, the first part of an exploitation technique where the hacker tricks their victims into revealing their login credentials. In the second part of the technique, hackers legitimately log into the targeted system and gain access to the underlying network with the same permissions as the victim. Hackers use this method 80% of the time compared to other ways to gain access to a system like developing zero day exploits for known software packages. The most common way hackers steal credentials is with some version of a phishing attack.

Dave and Joe have some follow-up from a listener on OG accounts, Joe's story talks about a new phishing campaign inspired by Twitter from earlier this summer, Dave shares a story about using security awareness training as phishing lures, The Catch of the Day is a SunTrust phishing scam, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Tim Sadler from Tessian on the Psychology of Human Error report. Links to stories and Catch of the Day:

New Twitter phishing scam inspired from Twitter’s latest security response

This security awareness training email is actually a phishing scam

Catch of the Day on Twitter

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An electro-mechanical device used to break Enigma-enciphered messages about enemy military operations during the Second World War. The first bombe–named Victory and designed by Alan Turning and Gordon Welchman– started code-breaking at Bletchley Park on 14 March 1940, a year after WWII began. By the end of the war, five years later, almost 2000, mostly women, sailors and airmen operated 211 bombe machines in the effort. The allies essentially knew what the German forces were going to do before the German commanders in the field knew. Historians speculate that the effort at Bletchley Park shortened the war by years and estimate the number of lives saved to be between 14 and 21 million.

Dave and Joe have some follow-up on mobile banking apps, Dave talks about the website bitcoinabuse.com, Joe's story Brian Krebs did on old Gmail emails and people using them either errantly or maliciously to create accounts, The Catch of the Day is about a Netflix-themed campaign that's currently running, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Shai Cohen from TransUnion on identity fraud at center of many digital COVID-19 scams. Links to stories:

Bitcoin Abuse Database

The Joys of Owning an ‘OG’ Email Account

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From the intrusion kill chain model, a malicious code delivery technique that allows hackers to send code of their choosing to their victim’s browser. XSS takes advantage of the fact that roughly 90% of web developers use the JavaScript scripting language to create dynamic content on their websites. Through various methods, hackers store their own malicious javascript code on unprotected websites. When the victim browses the site, the web server delivers that malicious code to the victim’s computer and the victim’s browser runs the code.

Joe shares a story on the ability to make a scam work through storytelling skills, Dave's story is about a guy duping a convenience store clerk into taking over her shift and later robbing the place, The Catch of the Day is about an email from a fake landlord, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Mallory Sofastaii a reporter and anchor at WMAR2 on Impostor uses Maryland man's identity to steal unemployment insurance benefits.

Links to stories and Catch of the Day:

The Age-Old Secrets of Modern Scams

Twitter: @findmyscammer

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The process of evaluating the security of a system or network by simulating an attack on it. Sometimes called "ethical hacking" or white hat hacking. The phrase started to appear in U.S. military circles in the mid 1960s as time sharing computers became more necessary for daily operations. Computer security experts from Rand Corporation began describing computer compromises as “penetrations.” By the early 1970s, government leaders formed tiger teams of penetration testers to probe for weaknesses in various government systems.

Dave & Joe have a tip as some follow-up on cloning social media accounts, Dave's story is about turning the tables on hackers in the UK, Joe talks about Kaspersky's Spam and phishing report, The Catch of the Day is is from a listener, Bob, who received an email from Eddy looking for the love of a woman (but, Bob is not a woman), and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Max Heinemeyer from Darktrace on threats that he and his team have tracked throughout the onset and spread of COVID. Links to stories:

Boomer outsmarts hackers: “Kiss your cash goodbye”

Spam and phishing in Q2 2020

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.

The art of convincing a person or persons to take an action that may or may not be in their best interests. Social engineering in some form or the other has been around since the beginning of time. The biblical story of Esau and Jacob might be considered one of the earliest written social engineering stories. As applied to cybersecurity, it usually involves hackers obtaining information illegitimately by deceiving or manipulating people who have legitimate access to that information. Common tactics involve phishing attacks and watering hole attacks.

Joe's story is about the effectiveness of social media account cloning, Dave talks about toll fraud, The Catch of the Day is a Bitcoin scam with some scam baiting on the side, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Ben Rothke from Tapad on Medium piece: A conversation with an iTunes card scammer. Links to stories:

Attack of the Instagram clones

A Game of Phones: Fighting Phone Phreaks in the 21st Century

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.

A physical security access control device consisting of an enclosed hallway with interlocking doors on each end where both doors can’t be open at the same time. A person presents credentials to the entry doorway. If authorized, the entry door opens and the person walks into the mantrap. The man trap exit door will not open until the entry door closes. The person presents credentials to the exit door. If authorized, the exit door will open. If not, the person is captured in the man trap until security arrives to handle the situation. Physical security leadership installs man traps to separate unrestricted areas from restricted areas, to prevent tailgating by uncleared personnel, and to impede access by unauthorized persons.

Dave's story is about robocalls to a telephony honeypot, Joe talks about postcards impersonating HIPAA communications (you have one? please let Joe know), The Catch of the Day is an email that our editor, Tom, received from the FBI about his COVID-19 death,, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Rachel Tobac from SocialProof with her insights on the Twitter hack. Links to stories:

A simple telephony honeypot received 1.5 million robocalls across 11 months

Fraudulent HIPAA Communications: An Alert from the Office for Civil Rights

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.

A class of software-security-weakness-issues where independent researchers discover a software flaw before the owners of the code discover it. Zero-day, or 0-day in hacker slang, refers to the moment the race starts, on day zero, between network defenders who are trying to fix the flaw before hackers leverage it to cause damage. It is a race because on day zero, there is no known fix to the issue.

Dave's story is about a forgotten scam, Joe talks about the recent Twitter hack, The Catch of the Day is a pretty standard phishing email for you to be on the lookout for, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Carolyn Crandall from Attivo Networks on why human-controlled ransomware, Ransomware 2.0, is so threatening to today’s remote businesses.

Links to stories:

Question Quiz - The Forgotten Scam

The Teenager Allegedly Behind the Twitter Hack and How He Did It

Catch of the Day:

Fake email notice for business owners on Bluehost.

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.

A network mapping tool that pings IP addresses looking for a response and can discover host names, open communications ports, operating system names and versions. Written and maintained by Gordon Lyon, a.k.a. Fyodor, it is a free and open source software application used by both system admins and hackers alike and has been a staple in the security community for well over two decades.

Dave shares an horrific cyberstalking story from the local area, Joe's story is about a phishing campaign impersonating voicemail alerts, The Catch of the Day is an HR front for a check floating scam, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Johnathan Hunt of GitLab on his perspective of dealing with bad actors: ignore them. Links to stories:

Anne Arundel man sentenced for ‘cyberstalking’ ex-girlfriend by hacking her accounts and getting her arrested

New Voicemail-Themed Phishing Attacks Use Evasion Techniques and Steal Credentials

Catch of the Day: I was just super bored. But now I have something to do.

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.

Dave talks about a deepfake recording impersonating a CEO, Joe's story is about a new phishing campaign, The Catch of the Day is a very persistent cash app scammer, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Bruce Esposito from One Identity on digital identities and what they could mean for privacy. Links to stories:

Listen to This Deepfake Audio Impersonating a CEO in Brazen Fraud Attempt

New phishing campaign abuses a trio of enterprise cloud services

Catch of the Day: Monica played dumb with a cash app scammer for 3 days.

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.

Dave talks about gift card scams associated with YouTube live streams, Joe's story is about a scam impersonating Canadian hospital staff, The Catch of the Day is phish impersonating a small game developer going after podcasters, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Richard Torres from Syntax on phishing attacks increasing 350% during COVID-19. Links to stories:

PSN / XBOX / STEAM CODES GIVEAWAY | V BUCKS GIVEAWAY

Scam impersonating hospital staff, phishing for personal information: VCH

Catch of the Day: Cellar Door Games impersonation

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.

We have some listener follow-up sharing dnstwister.report site, Dave has a story of consent phishing, Joe talks about calendar invite phishing, The Catch of the Day is a lazy money multiplying scam, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Don MacLennan from Barracuda Networks on brand impersonation. Links to stories:

Microsoft warns of Office 365 phishing via malicious OAuth apps

Abnormal Attack Stories: Calendar Invite Phishing

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.

We have some follow-up, and this time, Joe was not right, Dave's story is about poison-selling scam, Joe about an impersonation site, The Catch of the Day claims to be notice of a United Nations payment, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Satnam Narang from Tenable on the increase of scams on Venmo, PayPal and Cash App on giveaways due to the opportunity provided by the economic fallout of COVID-19. Links to stories:

How to Passcode-Lock Any App on Your Phone

Privnotes.com Is Phishing Bitcoin from Users of Private Messaging Service Privnote.com

Catch of the Day: 7 Spam Email Examples that Will Make You LOL

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.

Dave's story shows Macs are not immune, Joe talks about a dark place in his soul (aka survey scams), some listener follow-up saying Joe was right!, The Catch of the Day an advanced fee scam from the US government, and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Aviv Grafi from Votiro on a multistage attack using a zero day exploit to deliver a trojan relating to COVID-19 Stay at Home orders.

Links to stories:

New Shlayer Mac malware spreads via poisoned search engine results

Anatomy of a survey scam – how innocent questions can rip you off

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.

Joe shares a different spin on ransom attacks, Dave has a story on phone number reuse, The Catch of the Day is a notice from British Gas (accent included), and later in the show, Dave's conversation with Stan Holland from Atlantic Bay Mortgage on their experience adapting to COVID-19. Links to stories:

Extortionists threaten to destroy sites in fake ransom attacks

How I Accidentally Hijacked Someone's WhatsApp

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.

Dave shares a story of an attempt on his father's Verizon account, Joe has the story of an Amazon gift card phishing attempt, The Catch of the Day is a funny phishing email, and later in the show, Joe checks in with Kurtis Minder from GroupSense. They dig a little deeper into some of the topics Kurtis discussed in his previous appearance on our show. Link to story: Multifactor Authentication Hacking is Getting Real 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.

Joe talks about HROs (High Reliability Organizations), Dave has a scam on Upwork gigs, The Catch of the Day talks about giving a scammer the runaround, and later in the show our interview with Sanjay Gupta from Mitek on how cybercriminals are capitalizing on the recently-deceased and creating synthetic identities. Link to stories: The Unaddressed Gap in Cybersecurity: Human Performance People who turned to Upwork to find freelance gigs say they've lost thousands of dollars to scams Catch of the Day: Person Tests Scammer’s Patience By Pretending To Be Not The Sharpest Tool In The Shed 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.

Dave has a ransomware story from inside a virtual machine, Joe talks phishing with Google firebase storage URLs, some listener follow-up, The Catch of the Day comes from Joe's daughter and "Apple", and later in the show our interview with Paige Schaffer from Generali Global Assistance on the digital habits of seniors and millennials and the latest scams. Link to stories: The ransomware that attacks you from inside a virtual machine Phishing in a Bucket: Utilizing Google Firebase Storage 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.

Joe shares his Classic Cons Part 3, Dave has an Apple device scam story, The Catch of the Day is your assassination heads-up, and later in the show our interview with Jonna Mendez, retired CIA intelligence officer and former Chief of Disguise. Link to story: Twitter 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.

We'd like to thank you, our dear listeners, for sticking with us and our podcast through thick and thin, bad accents and even worse ones, with this - a collection of some of our favorite Catch of the Day segments. From Australia to Brazil, Italy to the Oval Office, they're all here. Here's to another 100 episodes. 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.

Dave has a story on a possible Disney-styled phishing email, Joe has the skinny on a circular pyramid scheme, some listener follow-up, The Catch of the Day is a YouTube verification badge for you, and later in the show our interview with Neill Feather from SiteLock. He joins us to explain how scammers fill the gap when popular retail items are sold out. Link to story: New phishing/scam email attempt 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.

Dave and Joe have a follow up for a listener, Joe has two stories on different levels of effort of phishing schemes, The Catch of the Day is looking for a sugar baby, and later in the show our interview with Marcus Carey, enterprise architect at ReliaQuest. He’s the author of the book Tribe of Hackers, and he wonders if we are living in a cybersecurity groundhog day. Links to stories: Anatomy of a Well-Crafted UPS, FedEX, and DHL Phishing Email During COVID-19 Phishers target investment brokers, aim for Office, SharePoint login credentials 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.

Dave has the story of PR firms selling lies online, Joe has the story of a sophisticated Business Email Compromise attack, The Catch of the Day advises you to update your account information IMMEDIATELY, and later in the show our interview with Dave Baggett, CEO and Founder of INKY. This will be a discussion of fake stimulus payment phishing scam recently found by INKY. Links to stories: Disinformation For Hire: How A New Breed Of PR Firms Is Selling Lies Online IR Case: The Florentine Banker Group 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.

Joe takes a look at a massive sextortion spam scheme, Dave has some advice for all of us, the Catch of the Day comes from down under, and later in the show our conversation with Andrew Shikiar, Executive Director and Chief Marketing Officer at FIDO Alliance on why phishing and passwords remain such a huge security problem and options for doing away with passwords. Links to stories: Following the money in a massive “sextortion” spam scheme When in Doubt: Hang Up, Look Up, & Call Back The Catch of the Day 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.

Dave warns of fake QR code websites stealing Bitcoin, Joe has the return of classic cons, the Catch of the Day forgets one crucial element, and later in the show, our interview with Kurtis Minder. He’s with a company called Groupsense and they’ve been commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Dark Web. Links to stories: Network of fake QR code generators will steal your Bitcoin Paris Gold Ring Scam The Simpsons - Wallet Inspector 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.

Joe has the story of a cold-calling conman, Dave has a story of vindication for seniors who lost money in phone scams, the Catch of the Day has Joe doing his research, and later in the show my conversation with Dustin Warren from SpyCloud. His team has been monitoring criminal forums during the COVID-19 pandemic, and he’s here to share what they’ve been seeing. Links to stories: Coronavirus conman barges in on 83-year-old woman Western Union Paying $153M In Compensation To Seniors Who Lost Money In Phone Scams 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.

Dave has the story of a Walking Dead actress raising money for a scammer, Joe has an article warning of Government websites giving bad security advice, the Catch of the Day tries to put the fear of God in it's victim, and later in the show Carole Theriault returns with an interview with a couple of researchers from a firm called Lookout, who analyzed a phishing scam with over four thousand victims. Links to stories: Lehigh Valley cancer scammer ensnares ‘Walking Dead’ actress US Government Sites Give Bad Security Advice It’s Way Too Easy to Get a .gov Domain Name The Catch of the Day: https://twitter.com/thedave2006/status/1223736469568851969 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.

Joe has the story of a very exposing scam, Dave has the scoop on a rare BadUSB attack, The Catch of the Day is a 'lame scammer who needs to get a life' and later in the show our conversation with Tom Miller from ClearForce on continuous discovery in the workplace, and the human side of protecting your business. Links to stories: ‘What kind of breast check-up would need my face?’: Woman falls victim to Facebook Messenger scam Rare BadUSB attack detected in the wild against US hospitality provider 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.

Dave shares an example of modern-day snake oil, Joe brings us his favorite old-time scams, the Catch of the Day is straight from Dr. Dochterman - you really can't make this stuff up - and later in the show Joe speaks with Scott Knauss - a security consultant who was targeted by scammers. Links to stories: Coronavirus Scam Alert: Beware Fake Fox News Articles Promising A CBD Oil Cure Slowing the Scammers 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.

Dave shares the story of a malicious website posing as a Coronavirus map supposedly from Johns Hopkins University, Joe has the story of an elderly woman who lost a lot of money to two men claiming her grandson was in a car accident, the Catch of the Day's dying wish is to give you money to build an orphanage, and later in the show Carole Theriault returns and speaks with Samuel C. Woolley from University of Texas at Austin on disinformation campaigns. Links to stories: the Botometer The Catch of the Day: Been going back and forth with these a-holes for a few weeks now. More pictures in comments. 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.

Joe shares the story of a phishing website posing as the Singapore Police site, Dave shares a harmful, simple little message, the Catch of the Day drags her scammer through the mud and asks if he wants his casserole dish back. Later in the show our conversation with Gretel Egan from Proofpoint on their 2020 State of the Phish report. Links to stories: SPF warns of phishing website posing as police site Nemty Ransomware Actively Distributed via 'Love Letter' Spam 2020 State of the Phish Report The Catch of the Day: “My Wife Spent Three Days Trolling A Scammer” 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.

Dave has a story of an investment scam featuring celebrities, Joe warns of scams surrounding the Coronavirus, the Catch of the Day features Joe's son-in-law's adventure with thousands of bot infiltrations, and later in the show, Dave's extended interview with magicians and entertainers Penn and Teller at RSAC 2020 in San Francisco. Links to stories: Revealed: fake 'traders' allegedly prey on victims in global investment scam Coronavirus: Scammers follow the headlines 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.

Joe shares some insights into the art of cheating travelers, Dave has a story of a woman facing drug charges trying to kidnap another woman's baby, an update on last week's bizarre phone scam, The Catch of the Day features otters, sexy ham, frustrated scammers and... you're just going to need to listen. Later in the show, our interview with Tim Sadler from Tessian on human element of cybersecurity and phishing schemes. Links to stories: The art of cheating travelers at dhabas Woman who posed as baby photographer charged after drugging a mother and planning to steal her child, prosecutors say The Catch of the Day Inside a scam call center 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.

Dave shares the most bizarrely honest phone scam of all time, Joe has a pretend PayPal phishing scam, the Catch of the Day finally lets Dave show us his best Blanche Devereaux, and later in the show Christopher Hadnagy from Social Engineer LLC returns with an update on the trends he’s been tracking.

Links to stories: Active PayPal Phishing Scam Targets SSNs, Passport Photos Current PayPal phishing campaign or "give me all your personal information" 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.

Joe shares a collection of romance scams from the great plains, Dave has a report which uncovered a root system of fake news, the catch of the day comes straight from... Warren Buffett? Later in the show Carole Theriault speaks with Lisa Forte from Red Goat on how her experiences working with the police have informed her perspective on the human factors in cyber security. Links to stories: Don't Get CatPhished This Valentine's Day By a Scammer These Fake Local News Sites Have Confused People For Years. We Found Out Who Created Them. Researchers propose detecting deepfakes with surprising new tool: Mice 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.

Dave finally has good news. Joe shares a fake website created by the US Trading Commission... which doesn't exist. The catch of the day threatens FULL DATA LOSS! Later in the show, Anna Collard is the founder of security content publisher of Popcorn Training – a South African company that promotes Cyber Security awareness by using story-based techniques. Our conversation centers on the state of cyber security in Africa. Links to stories: DOJ sues US telecom providers for connecting Indian robocall scammers The aforementioned DOJ complaint Uncle Sam compensates you for data leaks (yeah, right) 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.

Dave shares a particularly exposing sextortion scam. Joe has a story of a million-dollar scam that targeted college students in Miami just trying to pay their tuition. The catch of the day comes straight from The U.S. President. Later in the show, part two of Carole Theriault's interview with Jamie Bartlett, the brains and host behind The Missing Cryptoqueen, an amazing BBC podcast about trying to get to the bottom of the OneCoin scam. Links to stories: Fresh New Nest Video Extortion Scam Plays Out Like a Spy Game WeChat and stolen credit cards: How scammers victimized Miami Chinese college students 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.

Dave's phone is blowing up with smishing attempts. Joe shares a story about fake license renewal attempts from The New Zealand Transportation Agency. The catch of the day flips the script on their attacker. Later in the show Carole Theriault speaks with Jamie Bartlett, the brains and host behind The Missing Cryptoqueen, an amazing BBC podcast about trying to get to the bottom of the OneCoin scam. Links to stories: Fresh Apple #Phishing found The catch of the day 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.

Dave has an account from a man who was almost scammed by an impersonation of his own close friend. Joe has the story of a sophisticated phishing scheme involving Microsoft Office 365. The catch of the day goes all the way back to the age of pirates. Carole Theriault interviews Andrew Brandt from Sophos regarding their 2020 threat report. Links to stories: Tricky Phish Angles for Persistence, Not Passwords SophosLabs 2020 Threat Report 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.

Dave has a master list of cyberbadness. Joe has some handy red flags this tax season straight from our beloved IRS. The catch of the day features an alluring proposition from someone who is probably not "Sofia". Our guest is Devon Kerr with Elastic Security Intelligence and Analytics who shares his insights about Ransomware. Links to stories: 7 types of virus – a short glossary of contemporary cyberbadness 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.

Dave has a warning from a galaxy far, far away. Joe has a report of a scam attempt on a listener who fancies fancy pens. The catch of the day features a Tinder dating app bot scam. Our guest is Dennis Dillman from Barracuda Networks, sharing his thoughts on employee training. Links to stories: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fake-star-wars-streaming-sites-steal-fans-credit-cards/ 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.

Today's episode is a re-broadcast of an episode from August 2018. Dave looks at Hollywood script pitch event scams. Joe describes a romance scam murder scheme. Spontaneously combusting ATM cards. Guest Jayson E. Street from SphereNY describes his security awareness engagements. Links to stories mentioned in this week's show: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-are-wannabe-screenwriters-getting-scammed-1130919 https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2018/08/17/romance-scam-victim-allegedly-plotted-to-kill-her-mother-for-cash/ 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.

Joe's wife has been getting suspicious shipping notices. Dave describes a phone scam where crooks intercept phone calls. The catch of the day turns the tables on a would-be scammer. Carole Theriault speaks with Peter Draper from Gurucul about their 2020 Insider Threat Report. Links to stories: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/police-warn-of-new-phone-scam-where-criminals-intercept-your-calls-1.4706758 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.

Dave describes a gas-pump hidden camera scam. Joe shares the story of a fraudulent Microsoft Windows Update notice. The catch of the day involves a scammer making use of an online celebrity's profile picture. Our guest is Karl Sigler from Trustwave with tips for staying safe online through the holidays. Links to stories: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/11/hidden-cam-above-bluetooth-pump-skimmer/ https://www.trustwave.com/en-us/resources/blogs/spiderlabs-blog/fake-windows-update-spam-leads-to-cyborg-ransomware-and-its-builder/ 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.

Joe shares the story of a woman losing her life savings to a scammer claiming to be from the FBI. Dave describes the $139 shed scam. The catch of the day is another threat of revealing compromising photos. Carole Theriault speaks with Chris Bush from ObserveIT about security threats from employee burnout. Links to stories: https://www.wsj.com/articles/robocall-scams-exist-because-they-workone-womans-story-shows-how-11574351204 https://youtu.be/zFQUCCbodHc 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.

Dave wonders about Juice Jacking warnings. Joe shares findings from Agari's latest email fraud and identity deception report. The catch of the day promises romance in exchange for airline tickets. Our guests are David Spark and Allan Alford, cohosts of the Defense in Depth podcast. Links to stories: https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/travel/story/travelers-beware-juice-jacking-public-charging-stations-safely-67004765 https://www.agari.com/cyber-intelligence-research/e-books/q4-2019-report.pdf https://cisoseries.com/introducing-defense-in-depth-podcast/ 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.

Joe shares stories of typo-squatting. Dave reminds warns us against responding to malicious email, even just for fun. The catch of the day is from a listener, leading on a romance scammer. Carole Theriault returns with an interview with Chris Olson from The Media Trust on how targeted advertising can enable election interference. Links from this week's stories: https://www.securityweek.com/err-human-squat-criminal https://info.phishlabs.com/blog/dont-respond-suspicious-emails 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.

Joe shares a report on who's more susceptible for scams. Dave shares a story from a listener who what hit by a scam attempt while staying at a hotel. Our catch of the day involves an attempt to scam someone selling a motorcycle. Our guest is Maria Konnikova, an award-winning author, journalist, and international champion poker player. Her latest book is The Biggest Bluff. Links to stories: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/10/28/this-might-surprise-you-seniors-are-not-more-susceptible-scams-younger-adults-are/ https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/protecting-older-consumers-2018-2019-report-federal-trade-commission/p144401_protecting_older_consumers_2019_1.pdf https://twentytwowords.com/man-gets-revenge-on-craigslist-scammer-in-the-most-satisfying-way-imaginable/ 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.

Happy Halloween from Joe, Dave, and everyone at the CyberWire!

Dave describes a credential gathering scam targeting users of the Stripe online payment system. Joe responds to an email message from his boss, and learns a valuable lesson. Our catch of the day follows someone as they string along a text messaging scammer. Carole Theriault returns with an interview with J Bennett of Signifyd, an AI firm fighting romance scams. Links to stories: https://cofense.com/credential-phish-masks-scam-page-url-thwart-vigilant-users/ 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.

Joe has the story of a convincing scammer who makes an innocent woman doubt herself. Dave describes an online utility that helps users delete unwanted user accounts and also rates the difficulty of doing so. The catch of the day requests help in an investment scam (but lacks punctuation). Our guest is Henry Ajder from Deeptrace Labs on their research on Deep Fakes. Links to stories: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/swansea-mum-scammed-out-1000-17065476 https://backgroundchecks.org/justdeleteme/ 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.

Dave describes a ponzi scheme that bought up legitimate investment firms. Joe shares research into deep fakes. The catch of the day includes an invitation to join the illuminati. Ray [REDACTED] returns with followup from his prior visit, along with new information to share. Links to stories: https://13wham.com/news/local/feds-in-rochester-to-detail-multi-million-dollar-ponzi-scheme https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/10/09/deepfakes-have-doubled-overwhelmingly-targeting-women/ 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.

Joe describes online redirect scams, URL encoding and the clever combination of the two. Dave shares delightful satire about Russian brides and Nigerian princes, together at last. The catch of the day involves a student getting the best of scammers, getting them to send him money. Our guest is Fabian Wosar from Emsisoft, well-known for decrypting ransomware. Links from today's stories - https://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2019/09/25/hot-woman-in-your-area-marries-nigerian-prince-whos-email-you-ignored/ https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/10052181/student-limerick-online-scammer-charity/ 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.

Joe reviews highlights from a Proofpoint report on the human aspects of cyber attacks. Dave describes the FTC's cases against online dating site Match.com. The catch of the day comes straight from Her Majesty the Queen. Carole Theriault returns with an interview with Corin Imai, Senior Security advisor at DomainTools, about phishing attacks they’ve been tracking in the UK. Links to stories: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2019/09/10/cyberattacks-human-interaction/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/26/dating-app-maker-match-sued-by-ftc-for-fraud/ 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.

Joe outlines online threats from social media. Dave shares a story of scammers try to scare a community into purchasing security products. The catch of the day features a promise of riches from Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. Our guest is Yaser Masoudnia from LastPass who addresses listener questions about Single Sign On. Links to stories: https://info.phishlabs.com/blog/how-social-media-is-abused-for-phishing-attacks http://www.pressandguide.com/news/police_fire/email-scam-trying-to-convince-dearborn-residents-crime-is-up/article_249b1f2c-cb34-11e9-a5b0-cf725769167a.html 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.

Special guest host Graham Cluley joins Dave while Joe takes a short break. Dave shares the success of the FBI's reWired campaign which has apprehended alleged scammers around the world. Graham describes a website hoping to spare users the hardship of multifactor authentication. The catch of the day involves a generous soccer star. Our guest is Matt Price from ZeroFOX with insights on Deep Fake technology. Links to today's stories: https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/operation-rewired-bec-takedown-091019 https://dontduo.com/ https://www.smashingsecurity.com/ 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.

A listener updates us on "notice of arrest" policies. Dave notes increased instances of Google Calendar spam. Joe shares a claim that AI voice mimicry was used to dupe a company out of nearly a quarter million dollars. (Dave is skeptical.) The catch of the day accuses the target of naughty behavior. Carole Theriault interviews ethical hacker Zoe Rose. Links to stories: https://www.popsci.com/google-calendar-spam-what-to-do/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/fraudsters-use-ai-to-mimic-ceos-voice-in-unusual-cybercrime-case-11567157402 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.

Follow-up from down under. Joe shares the story of a Mom scammed out of Gaelic Football League tickets. Dave describes a bounty hunter hoaxing suicide threats to get location information from mobile providers. The catch of the day requires a response from the grave. Our guest is Ben Yelin, senior law and policy analyst from the University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security. He digs in to a particular Facebook scam that refuses to die. Links to stories: https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/news/im-just-broken-up-mother-devastated-as-shes-scammed-out-of-money-while-trying-to-buy-allireland-final-tickets-38446401.html https://www.thedailybeast.com/feds-say-bounty-hunter-matthew-marre-used-suicide-hoax-to-con-verizon-t-mobile-out-of-customer-data 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.

Dave shares a story of digital voice assistants being channeled toward scammers. Joe tracks scammers taking advantage of social tools on the Steam gaming platform. The catch of the day involves South African kickbacks. Our guest is researcher/technologist Ray [REDACTED], who shares his expertise on scammers targeting SMS. Links to stories: https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/08/20/scammers-use-bogus-search-results-to-fool-voice-assistants/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/steam-accounts-being-stolen-through-elaborate-free-game-scam/ 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.

Joe describes a primitive (but effective) phishing scheme being tracked by Bleeping Computer. Dave shares news from a Black Hat presentation on phishing stats from Google. The catch of the day is a friendly invitation from Hawaii. Our guest is Michael Gillespie from Emsisoft describing the ID Ransomware project. Links from today's stories: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/beware-of-emails-asking-you-to-confirm-your-unsubscribe-request/ https://www.fastcompany.com/90387855/we-keep-falling-for-phishing-emails-and-google-just-revealed-why https://id-ransomware.malwarehunterteam.com/ 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.

Dave shares the story of a small community hospital dealing with a ransomware attack. Joe reviews the different types of extortion emails. The catch of the day is an inheritance scam from Canada. Carole Theriault interviews Craig Silverman from Buzzfeed about online reputation management companies. Links to stories: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2019/07/30/how-4-technicians-saved-arizona-hospital-hacker-ransomware-wickenburg-community-hospital/1842572001/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/extortion-emails-on-the-rise-a-look-at-the-different-types/ 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.

Joe shares a cautionary Facebook tale from his own life. Dave has the story of an Australian IT company put out of business by scammers. The catch of the day tracks the response writer and comedian Dave Holmes had to scammers pretending to be from the IRS. Rachel Tobac from Social Proof Security returns with voting security information and the latest scams she's been tracking. Links to today's stories: https://www.crn.com.au/news/it-suppliers-forced-to-close-after-procurement-scam-528609 https://cheezburger.com/719877/troll-comedian-gets-a-scam-call-and-decides-to-play-along https://www.vampirecaveman.com/ 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.

Dave outlines a church donation scam. Joe shares reporting from Ars Technica on romance scams coming out of Africa. The catch of the day is courtesy of London comedian James Veitch Our guest is Garry Berman from Cyberman Security who's developed a cyber security comic book series to help raise awareness. Links to this week's stories: https://www.churchlawandtax.com/blog/2018/june/what-to-know-about-new-donation-scam.html https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/07/im-not-100-with-anybody-ars-dissects-a-nigerian-twitter-catfish-scam/ https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-phishing-scam-emails-dot-con-james-veitch/ https://www.cyberheroescomics.com/ 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.

Joe shares a story on the market economy of phishing. Dave explains how gamers are being taken advantage of on popular chat app Discord. The catch of the day included a little bit of showbiz razzle-dazzle. Our anonymous guest this week shares his efforts to keep his father from falling for online scams. Links to stories: https://blogs.akamai.com/sitr/2019/06/phishing-factories-and-economies.html https://twitter.com/Splatter_Shah/status/1143556723266994176 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.

Dave shares a listener story of scammers calling drug stores to try to gather customer rewards points. Joe describes federal contractors being scammed out of over $10 million of hardware, some of it classified communications equipment. The catch of the day starts with a bank email scam and ends with a Rick roll. Carole Theriault speaks with Michael Madon, head of security at Mimecast about the cyber security skills gap. Links to stories - https://qz.com/1661537/us-defense-contractor-falls-for-3-million-email-scam/ https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2018/01/man-sets-up-rick-astley-hotline-to-rescue-people-from-annoying-salespeople.html 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.

Joe shares the heartbreaking tale of a catphishing case that leads to murder. Dave describes a shoe company using an unusual method to trick engagement with an online ad. The catch of the day engages a Nigerian scammer promising a fortune in precious minerals. Dave interview Michael Coates, head of Altitude Networks and former CISO at Twitter. Links to this week's stories - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/after-alaska-teen-s-murder-cybersecurity-experts-warn-catfishing-predators-n1019536 https://medium.com/shanghaiist/chinese-shoe-company-tricks-people-into-swiping-instagram-ad-with-fake-strand-of-hair-54d8a2d8ec1d https://www.419eater.com/html/user_subs/godfather/godfather.htm https://altitudenetworks.com/ 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.

We're taking a break for the Independence Day holiday in the US, so enjoy this episode from the early days of our show. Dave shares a story of airport penetration testing with high degree of yuck-factor. Joe explores research on protecting passwords from social engineering. The catch-of-the-day comes courtesy of Graham Cluley's email spam box. Dave interviews Wired's Security Staff Writer Lily Hay Newman on her article tracking Nigerian email scammers. Thanks to our show sponsor KnowBe4.

Dave shares the story of one Katie Jones, the fake online persona used to gain the confidence of high-status individuals. Joe describes the tragic case of Christine Lu, a Harvard Medical professor who was scammed out of her life savings. The Catch of the Day warns recipients not to trust the FBI. Carole Theriault interviews Akamai's Larry Cashdollar about scammers using Google Translate to obfuscate web sites.

Links to this week's stories: https://www.apnews.com/bc2f19097a4c4fffaa00de6770b8a60d https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/ https://www.nbcboston.com/on-air/as-seen-on/Woman-Scammed-Into-Giving-Away-Life-Savings_NECN-511108952.html 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.

Joe shares the story of an elaborate check fraud scam involving HR impersonators. Dave reads an email from a listener who got phished by his own company, and has questions about authorization app vs. hardware keys. Our catch of the day involves an orphan looking to share her inheritance. Dave interviews author Perry Carpenter, who's new book is Transformational Security Awareness: What Neuroscientists, Storytellers, and Marketers Can Teach Us about Driving Secure Behaviors. Links to stories: https://twitter.com/sigalow/status/1138918411394781185?s=12 https://www.yubico.com/2019/01/yubico-launches-the-security-key-nfc-and-a-private-preview-of-the-yubikey-for-lightning-at-ces-2019/ 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.

Dave describes researchers spotting scammers on dating sites using AI. Joe shares a phishing scheme that asks users to manage undelivered mail. The catch of the day involves cute puppies and Mogwai meat. Dave interview Avi Solomon, director of information technology for Rumberger, Kirk and Caldwell, an Orlando, Florida litigation firm. Links to today's stories: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48472811 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.12593.pdf https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-phishing-scam-asks-you-to-manage-your-undelivered-email/ https://www.419eater.com/html/tommy_mark.htm 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.

Joe describes one of history's great con artists, Victor Lustig, who sold the Eiffel Tower. Twice. Dave shares a story from a listener involving a UPS tracking number scam. The catch of the day involves am attempted romance scam on the XBOX platform. Dave interviews Sherri Davidoff, CEO of LMG Security and is the hacker named "Alien" in Jeremy Smith's book, "Breaking and Entering." She has her own book coming out this summer, "Data Breaches: Crisis and Opportunity." Links to this week's stories: http://mentalfloss.com/article/12809/smooth-operator-how-victor-lustig-sold-eiffel-tower https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archive-Shipping-Returns/Seller-Scam-UPS-Tracking-Shows-Delivered/td-p/26206551 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.

Data Breaches: Crisis and Opportunity

Dave reviews Google's recent security report on basic account hygiene. Joe describes passive social engineering, including USB charging stations at airports. The catch of the day exposes a trunk box scam involving ill-gotten war profits. Carole Theriault speaks with the head of a group that call themselves Scam Survivors. Links to stories: https://security.googleblog.com/2019/05/new-research-how-effective-is-basic.html https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2019/05/21/why-you-should-never-use-airport-usb-charging-stations/#4116498a5955 https://scamsurvivors.com/ 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.

A listener writes in with the results of his phishing attempt on his wife. Joe describes research from F-Secure on the most dangerous email attachment types. Dave shares the story of scammers impersonating local hospitals to scare a response from their victims. Our catch of the day involves a LinkedIn scam impersonating a fighter pilot. Joe interviews Elissa Redmiles, an incoming assistant professor of computer science at Princeton University. She studies behavioral modeling to understand why people behave the way they do online. Links to stories from today's show: https://labsblog.f-secure.com/2019/05/08/spam-trends-top-attachments-and-campaigns/ https://www.nbc15.com/content/news/Text-message-scam-impersonates-local-hospitals-509615981.html 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.

It's a special edition of the Hacking Humans show recorded live at the KB4CON conference in Orlando, FL. Join Joe, Dave and their special guests Stu Sjouwerman, KnowBe4's CEO, and Kevin Mitnick, world-famous hacker and KnowBe4's chief hacking officer, as they discuss malicious scams making the rounds and how to protect yourself and your organization against them. Dave describes a late-night phone call scam, Joe explains a Social Security scheme, Stu shares deadly catch of the day, and Kevin shares stories from his own hacking experience, and takes questions from the audience. 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.

Joe describes a church scammed out of millions of dollars. Dave shares good news about a group of scammers being apprehended and arrested. The catch of the day involves a Vietnamese investment offer that's almost too good to pass up on. Dave speaks with Dr. Richard Ford from Forcepoint about the models of trust. Links to stories in today's show: https://www.grahamcluley.com/hackers-steal-1-75-million-from-catholic-church-in-ohio/ https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/nine-defendants-arrested-new-york-florida-and-texas-multimillion-dollar-wire-fraud 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.

Followup from listeners on Google search result scams. Dave describes the city of Ottawa sending $100K to a fraudster. Joe shares results from the FBI's Internet Crime Report. The catch of the day involves a dating site and an offer to be someone's "sugar daddy." Our guest is Andy Patel from F-Secure, describing how Twitter bots are amplifying divisive messages. Links to storys: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/city-treasurer-sent-100k-to-fraudster-1.5088744 https://threatpost.com/fbi-bec-scam-losses-double/144038/ https://www.ic3.gov/media/annualreport/2018_IC3Report.pdf https://labsblog.f-secure.com/2019/04/03/discovering-hidden-twitter-amplification/ 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.

Dave and Joe answer a listener question about a mysterious Netflix account. Dave describes a service for Airbnb scammers. Joe explains a particularly "nasty" Instagram scam. Carole Theriault interviews cyber insurance expert Martin Overton from OMG Cyber. Links to stories: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/the-nasty-list-phishing-scam-is-sweeping-through-instagram/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/04/land-lordz-service-powers-airbnb-scams/ 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.

Followup from an Australian listener. Dave shares a Paypal scam leveraging Google ads. Joe describes TechCrunch reporting on a spam service that was left out in the open. The catch of the day promises a lifetime supply of gold. Dave interviews Asaf Cidon from Barracuda Networks https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/02/inside-a-spam-operation/ https://www.barracuda.com/spear-phishing-report 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.

Joe describes a study of people's perceptions when presented with a magic trick. Dave shares the story of fake boyfriend app. Our catch of the day involves the promise of millions from a bank in Africa. Dave interviews Chris Parker from WhatIsMyIPaddress.com. Links to stories: http://nautil.us/issue/70/variables/a-magician-explains-why-we-see-whats-not-there https://youtu.be/vJG698U2Mvo https://www.pedestrian.tv/tech/fake-boyfriend-app/ https://whatismyipaddress.com/ 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.

Dave describes a survey of call center security methods. Joe explains a spam campaign raising the specter of a flu pandemic to scare people into enabling macros in an Office document. The catch of the day highlights a Facebook scammer promising a prize-winning windfall. Carole Theriault returns with a story about special badges Girls Scouts can earn for cyber security. Links to stories:

https://marketing.trustid.com/acton/attachment/32513/f-0039/1/-/-/-/-/TRUSTID_2018_State_of_Call_Center_Authentication_Survey.pdf https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fake-cdc-emails-warning-of-flu-pandemic-push-ransomware/ http://blog.girlscouts.org/2018/07/girl-scouts-introduces-30-new-badges-to.html 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.

Followup on remotely previewing websites. Joe has the story of scammer bilking Facebook and Google out of millions. Dave reviews best practices for deleting data on devices you dispose of. The catch of the day is an offer of criminal partnering with the CIA. Our guest is Jeremy N. Smith, author of the book Breaking and Entering - the extraordinary story of a hacker called Alien. Links from today's stories: https://urlscan.io/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/03/21/facebook_google_scam/ https://blog.rapid7.com/2019/03/19/buy-one-device-get-data-free-private-information-remains-on-donated-devices/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0789KP775 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.

Breaking And Entering: The Extraordinary Story of a Hacker Called "Alien"

A listener recommends an online tool for safely previewing web sites. Dave shares research on what time of the work week is best for scams. Joe explains credential stuffing. Our guest is Frances Dewing, the CEO and co-founder of Rubica. They recently published a report on how crooks are accessing parents’ mobile devices via apps their kids load. Links to stories mentioned in today's show: https://screenshot.guru/ https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2019/phone-scams-peak-time.html https://www.digitalnewsasia.com/insights/how-lose-money-credential-stocking-stuffers https://rubica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Rubica-Report-Cyber-Crime-Privacy-Risks-in-Free-Mobile-Kids-Apps.pdf 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.

Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator

Joe tracks the surprising number of malicious links hosted on legit websites and why it's dangerous. Dave describes an extortion scheme targeting podcasters. Our catch of the day involves a lonely Russian woman promoting a dating site. Dave interviews Gary Noesner, author of Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator. Links to stories mentioned in today's show: https://www-cdn.webroot.com/9315/5113/6179/2019_Webroot_Threat_Report_US_Online.pdf https://rebelbasemedia.io/podcast-review-extortion/ https://www.amazon.com/Stalling-Time-Life-Hostage-Negotiator/dp/1400067251 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.

Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator

Followup on last week's TLD discussion. Dave shares a sextortion scam with a tragic ending. Joe highlights conveyance scams that rely on certain days of the week. Our catch of the day features a wealthy Londoner hoping to pass on her fortune. Guest Dale Zabriskie from Proofpoint has results from their State of the Phish report.

Links to stories: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6744421/Army-veteran-PTSD-committed-suicide-targeted-prison-inmates-sextortion-scam.html https://www.todaysconveyancer.co.uk/main-news/law-firms-wising-up-conveyancing-scams/ https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/research.google.com/en//pubs/archive/45597.pdf 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.

Joe describes fraudsters taking advantage of top-level domain name confusion. Dave explains how a Google Nest security system shipped with an undocumented microphones. Our catch of the day involves a postcard missed package campaign. Our guest is Matt Devost from OODA LLC describing their work protecting high-net-worth individuals. Links to today's stories: https://rebootcamp.militarytimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/02/13/watch-out-for-fake-dod-websites-like-this/ https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2019/02/21/sorry-we-didnt-mean-to-keep-that-secret-microphone-a-secret-says-google/ 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.

We've got followup from a listener on cognitive dissonance and behavioral science. Dave shares a listener story about a University Dean's List scam. Joe shares statistics from a government agency phishing test. Our catch of the day involves funds from the FBI, the IMF, and yes, Nigeria. Dave interviews Crane Hassold from Agari with phishing trends they've been tracking, plus his experiences as a former FBI agent. Links to stories in today's show: https://fcw.com/articles/2019/02/11/cyber-phishing-oig-fhfa.aspx 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.

On this Valentines Day edition of Hacking Humans, Joe and Dave examine romance scams, including the sad tale of woman bilked out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. There's a silly, non-murdering catch of the day, and Dave interviews Max Kilger from UTSA on the six motivations of bad actors. Links to today's stories: https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/17057-online-romance-scams-a-bbb-study-on-how-scammers-use-impersonation-blackmail-and-trickery-to-steal-from-unsuspecting-daters https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2015/online-dating-scam.html 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.

Dave shares a bank spoofing scam with a reminder to mind those links, especially on mobile devices. Joe describes a case of someone turning the tables on a Twitter scammer. Our catch of the day involves a clumsy claim of physical harm. Dave interviews author Dave Levitan about his book Not a Scientist: How politicians mistake, misrepresent and utterly mangle science. 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.

We've got followup on bank scams and ransomware. Joe describes a highly sophisticated multinational business scam. Dave shares a story about private school parents falling for a Bitcoin discount scam. Our guest is Jordan Harbinger, host of The Jordan Harbinger Show, with insights on influence and social engineering. Links to this week's stories: https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/cyber-fraud-by-chinese-hackers-makes-headlines-in-india/ https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-46920810 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.

Dave reviews tips on protecting yourself from ransomware. Joe describes a clever way to trick people into enabling macros. An attempt at celebrity friendship is our catch of the day. Carole Theriault returns and speaks with Dr. Jessica Barker from Cygenta about effective training techniques.

Links to stories mentioned: https://www.csoonline.com/article/3331981/ransomware/how-to-protect-backups-from-ransomware.html https://myonlinesecurity.co.uk/agent-tesla-reborn-via-fake-order/ 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.

Joe shares the tale of a prisoner running a variety of romance scams from the inside. Dave outlines direct deposit scams. The catch of the day is a clever variation from (where else?) Nigeria. Our guest is Sam Small from ZeroFox. Links to stories: https://hubpages.com/politics/The-Games-That-Inmates-Play https://ogletree.com/shared-content/content/blog/2018/january/diverting-employees-payroll-direct-deposits-the-latest-wave-of-phishing-scams https://www.kansas.com/news/local/crime/article223873805.html 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.

Dave warns of scammers gaining access to homes by pretending to be workers from the local utility company. Joe shares a story of a sophisticated bank transfer scam in the UK. Our catch of the day outlines an attempted email scam targeting an architectural firm. Carole Theriault is back with the second part of her interview with the pen tester who goes by the name freaky clown. Links to today's stories: https://www.wxyz.com/news/michigan-energy-company-warns-of-increase-in-imposters-trying-to-enter-homes https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/money/lost-19960-life-savings-phone-scam-natwest 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.

Joe describes a reply-all scenario gone wrong. Dave explains the criminal use of steganography in memes as a command and control technique. Our catch-of-the-day features alluring photos texted to an unimpressed listener. Carole Theriault interviews physical pen tester Freaky Clown. Links to stories mentioned in this week's show: https://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/cybercriminals-use-malicious-memes-that-communicate-with-malware/ https://www.cygenta.co.uk/ 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

We follow up on critical feedback of last week's show. Dave describes how online extortionists have pivoted from sex to explosives. We've got an auto-responding catch of the day from one of Joe's colleagues. Guest is Sean Brooks, Director of the Citizen Clinic and a Research Fellow at the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity at UC Berkeley. He shares their research into online attacks of politically vulnerable organizations. From our EV certs follow-up: https://www.troyhunt.com/extended-validation-certificates-are-dead/ https://casecurity.org/2018/12/06/ca-security-council-casc-2019-predictions-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ Bomb threat catch of the day: https://www.zdnet.com/article/extortion-emails-carrying-bomb-threats-cause-panic-across-the-us/ Sean Brooks interview: Report: http://cltc.berkeley.edu/defendingpvos/ Clinic: http://cltc.berkeley.edu/citizen-clinic/ 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.

Joe describes a Nigerian gang called London Blue that focuses on business email compromise. Dave shares surprising Cyber Monday phishing statistics. Guest Chris Bailey from Entrust Datacard teaches us how to detect lookalike sites online and better protect ourselves from fraud. Links to today's stories: https://www.agari.com/insights/whitepapers/london-blue-report/ https://www.zscaler.com/blogs/research/cyber-monday-biggest-day-cyberattacks-not-long-shot 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.

Listener follow-up on a URL issue. Dave describes an elderly couple scammed out of savings. Joe wonders if it's wise to unsubscribe. Guest Andre McGregor from TLDR Capital describes his work as a former FBI agent, and his experience consulting on Mr. Robot. Bank account transfer scam: https://abc11.com/troubleshooter-durham-couple-loses-$8900-in-computer-virus-scam/4782799/ 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.

Joe explains URLs and DNS. Dave has tips to prevent holiday skimming. A bogus bank barrister is the catch of the day. Writer Ben Yagoda explains cognitive biases. Links: Wikipedia page on URLs - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL Tips to prevent skimming - https://www.social-engineer.org/newsletter/social-engineer-newsletter-vol-07-issue-96/ Ben Yagoda's article from the Atlantic - https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/cognitive-bias/565775/ 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.

Listener feedback on the "Can you hear me?" scam. Dave shares an ongoing Elon Musk Bitcoin giveaway scam. Joe describes the malicious use of a compromised DHL email address. This week's catch of the day comes from down under. (Apologies to the fine citizens of Australia.) Carole Theriault returns with an interview with MimeCast's Matthew Gardiner. 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.

Joe gathers open source information online. Dave wonders if a tow truck driver got the better of him. A listener shares a possible custom app scam. Former FBI agent Dennis Franks shares his experience developing human intelligence sources.

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.

We get listener followup on the church pastor scam. Dave explores a phony investment web site. Joe explains phishing, spear phishing and whaling. Fake federal agents are featured in our catch of the day. Carole Theriault interviews Max Bruce from Action Fraud UK.

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.

We get followup feedback on gift cards. Joe describes a banking payment scam on a Canadian university. Dave reveals some sneaky apps. A reader shares a story worth its weight in gold. Jenny Radcliffe from Human Factor Security shares her insights on social engineering. Links to stories in this episode: https://www.thestar.com/edmonton/2018/10/09/how-a-fraudster-got-12-million-out-of-a-canadian-university-they-just-asked-for-it.html https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2018/10/04/app-scams-cheap-utility-apps-are-stealing-260-2500-or-even-4700-each-year-per-user/#9de2b67162ac

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.

Dave reveals a stealthy trademark scam. Joe describes the invocation of a judge's name to lure a victim. A listener shares a business scam from India. Joe interviews "Shannon," a listener who enjoys wasting phone scammer's time.

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.

Joe ponders how a phone number is obtained. Dave's friend avoids a Google gift card scam. Christopher Hadnagy returns with an update to his book, The Science of Social Engineering.

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.

Dave dodges a local theater scam. Joe shares survey results from Black Hat attendees. A listener's calendar pops up alluring invitations. Carole Theriault interviews Sophos Naked Security writer Mark Stockley about password shortcomings.

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.

Joe shares a kidnapping scam targeting foreign students. Dave describes social engineering involving robots. Our guest is Robert Anderson from the Chertoff Group, discussing Deep Fake technology and how it erodes trust. Links to stories mentioned in this week's show: https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/252448458/Robot-social-engineering-works-because-people-personify-robots 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.

Dave warns of scammers taking advantage of hurricane Florence, both on the phone and in person. Joe shares a scheme targeting the kindness of local churchgoers. A cosmic variation on the Nigerian email scam. Joe interviews his Johns Hopkins University colleague Chris Venghaus, who leads a tech support scammer on a wild goose chase. Links to stories mentioned in this week's show: https://www.13newsnow.com/video/weather/hurricanes/hurricane-florence/hurricane-scammers-target-hampton-roads/291-8250736 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.

Joe describes a law firm impersonating a rival to funnel business away from them. Dave has a story of pontiff impersonation. Our guest is Joe Gray from Advanced Persistent Security. Links to stories mentioned in this week's show: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/27/lawyers_impersonating_rivals/ https://www.ccn.com/pope-francis-latest-target-of-twitter-crypto-scam/ 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.

Dave gets scammed on an exit ramp. Joe describes real estate transaction scams. Is LinkedIn moonlighting in Himalayan tourism? Guest Asaf Cidon from Barracuda Networks shares social engineering trends his team is tracking. Links to stories mentioned in this week's show: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ramp-scam-20161018-story.html https://www.cyberradio.com/2018/08/threat-actors-targeting-homebuyers-with-phishing-attacks/ 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.

Joe describes an Office 365 phishing campaign. Dave warns of dangerous USB cables. A listener shares a fax from the UK. Joe interviews security consultant and pen tester Justin White. Links to stories mentioned in this week's show: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2018/08/15/office-365-phishing-sharepoint/ https://srlabs.de/bites/usb-peripherals-turn/ https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/usbharpoon-is-a-badusb-attack-with-a-twist/ 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.

Dave looks at Hollywood script pitch event scams. Joe describes a romance scam murder scheme. Spontaneously combusting ATM cards. Guest Jayson E. Street from SphereNY describes his security awareness engagements. Links to stories mentioned in this week's show: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-are-wannabe-screenwriters-getting-scammed-1130919 https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2018/08/17/romance-scam-victim-allegedly-plotted-to-kill-her-mother-for-cash/ 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.

Joe shares the story of a retiree scammed by a clever scheme. Dave describes a tech-support scam with a Russian twist. Our Catch of the Day features an adorable puppy. Guest Michael Murray from Lookout explains mobile device vulnerabilities. Links to stories mentioned in this week's show: https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/get-help/real-life-stories/investment-scam-how-steve-lost-200-000-to-an-investment-scam https://www.grahamcluley.com/phone-scam-exploits-russian-hacking-fears/ 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.

Dave describes a phishing attempt to infiltrate U.S. election systems. Joe shares a story of government agencies receiving malicious CDs in the mail. University employees are lured by greed. And David Baggett from Inky joins us to describe phishing techniques they are seeing and offers ways to best protect yourself and your organization. Links to stories mentioned in this week's show: https://theintercept.com/2018/06/01/election-hacking-voting-systems-email/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/07/state-govts-warned-of-malware-laden-cd-sent-via-snail-mail-from-china/ http://hci2018.bcs.org/prelim_proceedings/papers/Work-in-Progress%20Track/BHCI-2018_paper_95.pdf

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.

Joe describes clever gift card scams. Dave follows up on last week's proposal to waste phone scammer's time. A more plausible phishing scheme comes through. Guest David Shear from Flashpoint describes methods scammers use to lure people into being money mules. Links: https://securelist.com/giftcard-generators/86522/ https://jollyrogertelephone.com/ 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.

Dave shares a story of deception right out of Hollywood. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/hunting-con-queen-hollywood-1125932 Joe proposes changing the financial incentives for scammers. A porn-shaming catch of the day courtesy of Johannes Ulrich. An interview with atomic physicist and close-up magician Adam West.

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.

Joe describes a con law enforcement agencies use to lure crooks. Dave shares a tech support scan spreading in chat forums. A listener from Dublin has a fake email from Apple. We welcome Rachel Tobac, CEO of SocialProof Security.

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.

Dave recounts the news that US President Trump likely fell for a prank phone call. Joe outlines the sad story of a woman robbed of her retirement savings. Twitter account recovery scams. Charles Arthur, author of Cyber Wars - Hacks that Shocked the Business World, joins us for an interview.

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.

Joe warns of a harrowing phone scam technique, Dave reveals an alternate persona, a listener tries to sell a truck, and Carole Theriault from the Smashing Security Podcast interviews Sophos' Paul Ducklin.

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.

Dave shares a story of airport penetration testing with high degree of yuck-factor. Joe explores research on protecting passwords from social engineering. The catch-of-the-day comes courtesy of Graham Cluley's email spam box. Dave interviews Wired's Security Staff Writer Lily Hay Newman on her article tracking Nigerian email scammers. 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.

Joe explains the Ben Franklin effect. Dave describes job applicants tricked unto money laundering. A listener tells a tale of being fooled by an appeal to greed. Joe interviews Stacey Cameron from DirectDefense about her physical penetration testing work.

Joe warns of scammers taking advantage of natural disasters, Dave explores romance scams, and gets a strange voice mail. Stephen Frank from the National Hockey League Players Association joins us to share how professional athletes protect themselves from online scams.

In this episode, Joe examines the anatomy of a phishing attack, Dave explores pretexting, and a scammer targets real estate agents. Professor Stephen Lewandowsky from the University of Bristol joins us to share his research on misinformation, fake news, and inoculating people against them.

In this premier episode of the Hacking Humans podcast, cohosts Dave Bittner from the CyberWire and Joe Carrigan from the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute discuss noteworthy social engineering schemes and ways to detect them. Author Christopher Hadnagy discusses his book The Art of Human Hacking.