Journey with us to Myanmar's shadowy scam factories, where trafficked workers are forced to run romance-baiting and fake tech support scams, and find out why a company's mandatory hold time for tech support could lead to innocent users having their computers compromised.

All this and more is discussed in the latest edition of the "Smashing Security" podcast by cybersecurity veterans Graham Cluley and Carole Theriault.

Plus - don't miss our featured interview with Acronis CISO Gerald Beuchelt!

Warning: This podcast may contain nuts, adult themes, and rude language.

Episode links:

• HP deliberately adds 15 minutes waiting time for telephone support calls - The Register.
• HP mandated 15-minute wait time for callers - why that was good news for criminals - Bob Sullivan.
• How vulnerable people are trafficked to fuel a global cyber scam industry - ABC News.
• Hundreds of foreigners freed from Myanmar's scam centres - BBC News.
• 'I need help': Freed from Myanmar's scam centres, thousands are now stranded - BBC News.
• Some foreigners pulled out of Myanmar scam centres face struggle to get home - Yahoo! News.
• 'Pig Butchering' Scam: How China's 'Broken Tooth' stole over $75 bn from global investors using crypto currencies - The Economic Times.
• Scunthorpe problem - Wikipedia.
• Scunthorpe Sans font.
• Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne - Goodreads.
• Smashing Security merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, stickers and stuff)

Sponsored by:

• Acronis - Integrated cybersecurity, data protection and endpoint management built for MSPs.
• Threat Vector - The podcast from Palo Alto Networks that gives you timely analysis of current security trends and challenges.
• Drata - The world’s most advanced Trust Management platform – making risk and compliance management accessible, continuous, and 10x more automated than ever before.

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THANKS:

Theme tune: "Vinyl Memories" by Mikael Manvelyan.

Assorted sound effects: AudioBlocks.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy