How Hacks Happen

Why is Andrew Tate so popular with young men? With his sports cars and his obvious wealth, Tate has built a significant following out of his admittedly silly 'alpha male' rants. But behind the flashy lifestyle lies a web of controversy, including serious criminal charges. From promising young men financial independence and all the women they can handle, to the humiliations of a pro-trans hack and getting slapped down by a teenage girl on Twitter, the wild world of Andrew Tate is about as crazy as it gets. 

Resources

• The Guardian: Inside the violent, misogynistic world of TikTok’s new star, Andrew Tate
• Daily Dot: Hackers breach Andrew Tate’s online university—obtain chat logs and leak data on 800,000 users
• Pro-trans rights hackers target Andrew Tate’s The Real World website
• Andrew Tate’s University Hacked: Chat Logs and Leaked Data of 800,000 Users
• Forbes: Andrew Tate’s Online University Hacked—800,000 Users Exposed
• Rolling Stone Magazine: Greta Thunberg Doesn’t Care About Andrew Tate’s Cars — But Has an Idea of What They’re Overcompensating For
• Andrew Tate / Greta Thunberg Tweet War Part 1
• Andrew Tate / Greta Thunberg Tweet War Part 2
• BBC News: 'Boys formed Andrew Tate club in school' - teacher
• New York Times: ‘Brainwashing a Generation’: British Schools Combat Andrew Tate’s Views

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Instagram star Hushpuppi had over 2 million followers. With his amazing lifestyle filled with Ferraris and Rolls Royces and private jets, dressed head-to-toe in Gucci and Versace and Fendi, Hushpuppi seemed to have it all. But Hushpuppi's lifestyle was built on a massive pile of fraud, $2 billion dollar's worth, that eventually landed him in prison.

Resources

• Video: Dubai Police take down "Hushpuppi" , "Woodberry", ten international cyber criminals

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A Blackberry phone as a hacking tool?! For our April Fool's Day episode, we bring you an exclusive interview with hacking genius Dave the Barber, who leveraged a freak accident with a Blackberry into a hack that can compromise any device until the end of time.

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Want to hang out with supermodels on the beach? That's the dream that Billy McFarland sold in 2017 when he advertised Fyre Festival, an outdoor music concert in the Bahamas. Attendees were promised beautiful beaches, live music, comfy villas, gourmet meals, and supermodels around every corner. Instead, they got a gravel parking lot, soggy tents, cheese sandwiches, and no music. And no supermodels, either.

What went wrong with Fyre Festival? In this episode, we look at Billy McFarland's delusion through the lens of social media, and how it played a leading role in the misleading people into the fraud that was Fyre Festival.

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When a scam caller knows everything about you--your address, social security number, bank account--how do they know? There isn't some super powerful hacker ring with its own call center. Your data is actually stolen at one end of the internet, goes on a trip through hacker forums and dark web stashes, and reappears in a neat spreadsheet for a call center. The more you know about how your data is breached, sold, and aggregated, the better you'll be prepared for your next well-informed call from a scammer. 

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Let's explore the technology behind audio and music AI, and how it makes use of some cool math concepts to bring us convincing and realistic voices and music. Hear some actual AI-generated tunes, and find out how "latent space" changed the way AI generates sounds and music.

Resources

• Ghostwriter, the Mastermind Behind the Viral Drake AI Song, Speaks For the First Time
• Spotify will not ban AI-made music, says boss
• Jellybean Benitez Remembers NYC Clubs of Yesteryear

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Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht after he served 12 years of his life sentence. In light of this news, we decided to replay our 2023 episode on the Silk Road website, which sold recreational drugs and other illegal items from 2011 to 2013. Was Trump's pardon the right move? We'll let you form your own opinion. 

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AI makes our lives more convenient in so many ways, but it also gives scammers the same conveniences. Host Michele Bousquet explains how scammers use AI audio, video, and text to better fool their victims.

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The AI model Deepseek was all over the news in January 2025. Deepseek's developers claimed its costs to develop and run were a fraction of the costs for large popular AI models, which caused a big disruption in the stock market. But how true are these claims? In the first of a three-part series on AI, host Michele Bousquet dives in and give Deepseek a spin, and debunks some of the hype around this new export from China.

Resources:

• DeepSeek-V3 Technical Report
• The Extreme Cost Of Training AI Models
• How Much Did It Cost to Train GPT-4? Let’s Break It Down
• OpenAI says it has proof DeepSeek used its technology to develop its AI model
• NASDAQ:NVDA Stock Falls on DeepSeek Fears – Is Wall Street Missing a 71% Upside?

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With so many social security breaches, we return to the original scene of the crime: the Equifax Breach of 2017. Enjoy this replay of one of our most popular episodes, where you'll learn about common hacking techniques, how routers work and why they're so important, and the most basic of cybersecurity measures like patch plans. 

Resources for this episode:

• Website where you can check if your identity was compromised in the Equifax breach
• Business Insider: Literally everyone should be thinking about suing Equifax. September 2017.
• U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform: The Equifax Data Breach. December 2018.
• CHINESE PLA MEMBERS, 54th RESEARCH INSTITUTE - The fellas charged with the Equifax breach, now on the FBI's wanted list.
• United States Government Accountability Office Report to Congressional Requesters

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