Hacking Humans

Jaeson Schultz, Technical Leader from Cisco Talos, is discussing "Spammers abuse Google Forms’ quiz to deliver scams." Dave's story discusses the disturbing new trick up a scammers sleeve to get you to fall for their schemes. Joe has two stories this week, the first a warning to those who pick up scammers phone calls and what that can lead to after gaining access to your voice. Joe's second story follows a band of organized thieves and how they have been targeting high-end homes across Metro Detroit. Our catch of the day comes from listener Van, who writes in to share a fun catch from a scammer who left a voicemail. Links to the stories: Spammers abuse Google Forms’ quiz to deliver scams Scammers are stealing people's faces for live video calls All it takes is one sentence for AI to clone your voice Expert says alleged recording of racist, antisemitic rant by Pikesville High principal could be fake Videos: Organized crews smash glass, use jammers to break into high-end Metro Detroit homes Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com.

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. 

Topics include a USPS phishing campaign using freemium dynamic DNS and SaaS providers, follow-ups on previous episodes, Walmart's relaxed security methods, scammers using Taylor Swift's face, and the hosts' analysis of a suspicious email. They also discuss avoiding scams on Facebook, Walmart's role in a money laundering scam, protecting from holiday phishing scams, and the importance of secure communication channels.

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. 

This week we are joined by the host of T-Minus, N2Ks very own Maria Varmazis brings her own story and discusses with Dave and Joe. We start off with Joe, and he brings in the story of Andy Cohen and how he fell victim to a credit card scam and shares what he had learned through the experience. Maria shares Arctic Wolf Labs' story and how they have investigated several cases of Royal and Akira ransomware victims being targeted in follow-on extortion attacks dating back to October of 2023. Lastly, Dave shares his story warning YouTube users about videos promoting cracked software that is distributing Lumma Stealer. Our catch of the day comes from listener Jon, he shares and email that had made it through his spam filter. You can hear more from the T-Minus space daily show here.Links to the stories: Exclusive: Andy Cohen fell victim to a credit card scam. Here's what he learned Follow-On Extortion Campaign Targeting Victims of Akira and Royal Ransomware Beware! YouTube Videos Promoting Cracked Software Distribute Lumma Stealer Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com.

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. 

Frank Riccardi sits down to discuss how cybercriminals exploit people’s fondness for reused passwords to launch credential stuffing attacks. Dave and Joe share a bit of follow up, one from a listener named Steve who shares some push back from the 23andMe story from last week, and the other from a listener named Michael who shares a story of unpaid toll scams. Joe shares the story of a Utah exchange student and how he fell victim to a cybersecurity kidnapping, and now authorities are trying to figure out how it happened. Dave shares a scam about tragic fake posts that lead to a "win now" website, that has been flooding his Facebook feed. Our catch of the day comes from Jon who writes in to share a suspicious email that made it through the spam filter in Google. Links to the stories:After Utah exchange student cyber kidnapping, we're looking at how the scam worksHave a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com.

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. 

Alethe Denis from Bishop Fox is talking with Dave and Joe with her take on the 23AndMe breach. Dave and Joe share some follow up from listener Michael, who writes in to share thoughts on our catch of the day from last episode, regarding the voice mail from Spectrum. Dave shares a story on email security, and how human factors have a heavy influence on it, especially with people's vulnerability to phishing and social engineering. Joe has two stories this week, his first story is a good wrap on the holiday's and gift card scams. Joe's second story is a jump on tax season quickly approaching, and how the IRS is helping taxpayers by providing penalty relief. Our catch of the day is a good example of what not to do when phishing/scamming people, luckily the receiver was smarter than the sender. Links to the stories: How Human Elements Impact Email Security "Vanilla Gift" card issuer faces lawsuit over card-draining scam risk IRS helps taxpayers by providing penalty relief on nearly 5 million 2020 and 2021 tax returns; restart of collection notices in 2024 marks end of pandemic-related pause News Insights: 23AndMe with Alethe Denis, Security Expert - Red Team Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com.

This podcast explores how cybercriminals can use AI conversations to decode personalities and launch targeted attacks. It also discusses holiday shopping scams, Zelle refunding scam victims, and new crypto-theft attacks. The hosts debate the proposal for cybersecurity labeling on smart devices and share a personal story about a gift card scam. They also highlight the risks of unauthorized access to chat GPT accounts and the importance of securing sensitive accounts and protecting privacy.