CYBER

When Elon Musk posted a video of himself arriving at Twitter HQ carrying a white sink along with the message “let that sink in!” it marked the end of a dramatic takeover. Musk had gone from Twitter critic to “Chief Twit” in the space of just a few months but his arrival didn’t put an end to questions about his motives. Musk had earned a reputation as a business maverick. From PayPal to Tesla to SpaceX, his name was synonymous with big, earth-shattering ideas. So, what did he want with a social media platform? And was this all really in the name of free speech...or was this all in the name of Elon Musk?

From Wondery, the makers of WeCrashed and In God We Lust, comes the wild story of how the richest man alive took charge of the world’s “digital public square.”

Listen to Flipping The Bird: Wondery.fm/FTB_Cyber

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It looks like a bluetooth speaker or an old Nokia cellphone. But that’s a disguise. Inside these small devices is everything car thieves need to break into your vehicle. There are telegram channels now where, for a few thousand dollars, you can buy a device that will break into a car in seconds.

Motherboard reporter Joseph Cox is here on Cyber this week to walk us through it.

Stories discussed in this episode:

The Car Thieves Using Tech Disguised Inside Old Nokia Phones and Bluetooth Speakers

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch and YouTube. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show. 

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Automation is making everyone’s lives easier, including people who call in fake bomb threats on crowded public locations. We live in a world where pranksters and criminals can summon a massive police presence with the click of a few buttons. On this episode of Cyber, Motherboard staff writer Joseph Cox is here to tell us all about it.

Stories discussed in this episode:

A Computer Generated Swatting Service Is Causing Havoc Across America

Smart Garage Company Fixes Vulnerability by Breaking Customers' Devices

Hackers Can Remotely Open Smart Garage Doors Across the World

IRS Wants to Buy Internet Mass Monitoring Tool

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch and YouTube. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show. 

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Top Secret classified Pentagon documents leaked on a Minecraft Discord server. The pages of documents contain sensitive information about troop placements in Ukraine, rumors about allies, and—weirdly—a character sheet for a tabletop roleplaying game. 

On this episode of Cyber, host Matthew Gault takes a back seat and lets Motherboard editor-in-chief Jason Koebler interrogate him about what’s in these classified Pentagon documents.

Pentagon’s Ukraine War Plans Leaked on Minecraft Discord Before Telegram and Twitter

Leaked Pentagon Docs Share Wild Rumor: Kremlin Plans to ‘Throw’ Putin’s War While He’s Getting Chemo

Leaked Classified Documents Also Include Roleplaying Game Character Stats

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch and YouTube. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show. 

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A terrible April Fool’s day glitch screws over Uber drivers, tenants in California are striking back against landlords, and private banks: do we need them?

Today’s episode of Cyber is a cypher, that infrequent version of the show where we decipher some recent tech news. It’s a potpourri for the panopticon age. A grab bag of tech horrors, a not so gentle reminder that our work is not yet done.

Motherboard reporter Roshan Abraham is here to talk about it all.

'Screwed': Uber Claws Back Double Pay from Drivers After April Fools Glitch

Tenants of America's Biggest Landlord Form Union to Fight Evictions, Rent Hikes

Want to Curb City Crime? Evict Fewer Tenants, Study Says

Private Banks Are In Crisis. What If They Were Public Banks?

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch and YouTube. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show. 

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Facial recognition systems are here. They’ve been deployed extensively along America’s southern border and in its cities. Authoritarian regimes in Iran and Russia are using the technology to crack down on dissidents and what’s going on in Moscow right now paints a horrifying picture of how dangerous the tech has become.

On this episode of Cyber, Lena Masri is here to talk about it. She’s the author of a new report at Reuters about how Putin uses facial recognition to curb dissent.

Stories discussed in this episode:

Facial recognition is helping Putin curb dissent with the aid of U.S. tech

U.S. Hardware Is Fueling Russia's Facial Recognition Crackdown on Anti-War Dissidents

AI Use by Cops, Child Services In NYC Is a Mess: Report

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch and YouTube. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show. 

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Love it or hate it, you can’t escape artificial intelligence. People are using Midjourney to make viral photos of Donald Trump’s arrest and the Pop’s puffy coat. Redditors are creating entire fake historical events and backing it up with AI-generated photos. Silicon Valley seems to think this tech is the next big thing, with Google and Microsoft betting big on it and some people begging everyone to pause development for six months.

Is AI changing the world? With us here today to try to answer that question is Motherboard reporter Chloe Xiang.

Stories discussed in this episode:

People Are Creating Records of Fake Historical Events Using AI

ChatGPT Can Replace the Underpaid Workers Who Train AI, Researchers Say

The Open Letter to Stop 'Dangerous' AI Race Is a Huge Mess

'He Would Still Be Here': Man Dies by Suicide After Talking with AI Chatbot, Widow Says

AI Theorist Says Nuclear War Preferable to Developing Advanced AI

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch and YouTube. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show. 

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In America, no one can protect you from a transportation employee being paid off by the feds.

The Drug Enforcement Agency has a single remit: to prosecute America’s long-failed war on drugs. Joseph Cox is on today’s episode of Cyber to talk about one its shadier practices and the senators who want answers from the Department of Justice. It turns out that the DEA has been paying Amtrak and commercial package companies to act as informants and supply data on customers without having to get a warrant.

Stories discussed in this episode:

The DEA Bought Customer Data from Rogue Employees Instead of Getting a Warrant

The 'Insanely Broad' RESTRICT Act Could Ban Much More Than Just TikTok

Here is the FBI’s Contract to Buy Mass Internet Data

Cops Sue Afroman for 'Emotional Distress' After He Made Music Videos of Botched Raid

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch and YouTube. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show. 

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

America is thinking about banning the most popular social media app in the world. TikTok has exploded in the past few years and whether you love it or hate it, you can’t deny its huge influence.

Legislators in America are concerned about that influence, especially because of TikTok’s connections to China. On Thursday, TikTok’s CEO testified before the House’s Committee on Energy and Commerce and fielded questions about the app, its connection to China, and what it might be doing to America’s children.

It was a shitshow.

Motherboard’s Social Media Manager, Emily Lipstein, is on this episode of Cyber talking about.

Stories discussed in this episode:

Congress Shocked to Discover 10 Year Olds Check the ‘I’m Over 18’ Box Online

Banning TikTok Is Unconstitutional, Ludicrous, and a National Embarrassment

Follow Motherboard on TikTok to see the Congressional footage

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch and YouTube. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show. 

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s almost impossible to get retail priced tickets to The Cure’s newest live tour. Fans are, once again, turning to the secondary market despite the band’s insistence that Ticketmaster shut it down. 

This week on Cyber, Joseph Cox and Motherboard Motherboard editor-in-chief Jason Koebler take us into the world of the ticket scalper, where whole Ticketmaster accounts are being sold in bulk and a “verified fan” is just someone the algorithm approves of.

Stories discussed in this episode:

The Cure Tried to Stop Scalpers. Brokers Are Selling Entire Ticketmaster Accounts Instead

Ticketmaster Cancels Public Sale for Taylor Swift Tickets Because It Already Sold Them All

Blink-182 Tickets Are So Expensive Because Ticketmaster Is a Disastrous Monopoly and Now Everyone Pays Ticket Broker Prices

The Man Who Broke Ticketmaster

We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch and YouTube. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show. 

Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hosted on Acast. Seeacast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.