Privacy Files

One of the goals of this podcast is to help people better understand their risk exposure when it comes to their digital footprint.

Back in January of this year, JPMorgan Asset & Wealth Management CEO Mary Erdoes took the stage at Davos and revealed that JPMorgan Chase & Co. is subjected to 45 billion hacking attempts every single day. And perhaps more disturbing is that number is double what it was in 2023.

In this episode of Privacy Files, we talk to Purandar Das, the CEO and Founder of Sotero, a company on a mission to help organizations protect their most valuable asset--their data.

Purandar has a unique story. He used to help companies collect, monetize and manage massive volumes of personal data. We're talking billions of records every year.

Having served as CTO for two of the largest marketing services companies in the world, Purandar witnessed firsthand the extent of security vulnerabilities that exist when it comes to managing customer data.

He decided something needed to be done.

Now Purandar is dedicating his career to helping companies detect and stop attacks that exfiltrate data in real time. For as Purandar says, "Security is all about the data."

To learn more about Sotero:

https://www.soterosoft.com/

To learn more about Purandar Das:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/purandardas/

Links Referenced:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jpmorgan-faces-45-billion-hacking-163909860.html

OUR SPONSORS:

Anonyome Labs - Makers of MySudo and Sudo Platform. Take back control of your personal data. www.anonyome.com

MySudo - The world's only all-in-one privacy app. Communicate and transact securely and privately. Talk, text, email, browse, shop and pay, all from one app. Stay private. www.mysudo.com

MySudo VPN - No personal information required to sign up. You don't even need a username and password. Finally, a VPN that is actually private. https://mysudo.com/mysudo-vpn/

Sudo Platform - The cloud-based platform companies turn to for seamlessly integrating privacy solutions into their software. Easy-to-use SDKs and APIs for building out your own branded customer apps like password managers, virtual cards, private browsing, identity wallets (decentralized identity), and secure, encrypted communications (e.g., encrypted voice, video, email and messaging). www.sudoplatform.com

Reclaim - Whether you're just beginning your privacy journey, or have been working at it for some time, Reclaim is the perfect tool for assessing the size of your digital footprint and then taking action to reduce it. It's an also an excellent way to see if your personal information was exposed in a data breach. https://mysudo.com/reclaim/

Probably to no one's surprise, there are lots of people out there who want to steal others' money--yours, mine and that of companies.

What's helpful is understanding what to look out for to avoid becoming the victim and what you can do to make yourself a less likely target.

In this episode of Privacy Files, we talk to Greg Taylor, a certified fraud examiner and author of the book People Want to Steal Your Money.

Greg is the Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Corporate Audit Partners.

In this interview, Greg shares a few of the lessons he's learned from his 20-plus-year career as a forensic accountant.

He tells a few stories and discusses why fraud is so prevalent in the corporate world.

Greg also reveals a surprise or two along the way.

It's a reminder that bad actors always have a motive and are always looking for opportunities. Don't make it easy for them by failing to protect your personal data.

To learn more about Greg Taylor:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregtaylorcfe/

To purchase Greg's book:

https://www.amazon.com/PEOPLE-WANT-STEAL-YOUR-MONEY/dp/B0CN2M1SGK

OUR SPONSORS:

Anonyome Labs - Makers of MySudo and Sudo Platform. Take back control of your personal data. www.anonyome.com

MySudo - The world's only all-in-one privacy app. Communicate and transact securely and privately. Talk, text, email, browse, shop and pay, all from one app. Stay private. www.mysudo.com

MySudo VPN - No personal information required to sign up. You don't even need a username and password. Finally, a VPN that is actually private. https://mysudo.com/mysudo-vpn/

Sudo Platform - The cloud-based platform companies turn to for seamlessly integrating privacy solutions into their software. Easy-to-use SDKs and APIs for building out your own branded customer apps like password managers, virtual cards, private browsing, identity wallets (decentralized identity), and secure, encrypted communications (e.g., encrypted voice, video, email and messaging). www.sudoplatform.com

Reclaim - Whether you're just beginning your privacy journey, or have been working at it for some time, Reclaim is the perfect tool for assessing the size of your digital footprint and then taking action to reduce it. It's an also an excellent way to see if your personal information was exposed in a data breach. https://mysudo.com/reclaim/

Fraud is big business. We're talking well over $10 billion annually in the United States alone.

And the role that online fraud is playing is growing rapidly.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Internet Crime Complaint Center, Americans have lost $1.6 billion from January to May of 2024. That's nearly $300 million more than from this same period of time in 2023.

For businesses to excel in the digital space, they must implement robust fraud prevention measures that build consumer trust.

And given the prevalence of high-profile data breaches these days, consumer trust is a difficult thing to earn. In fact, according to CFO Magazine, half of all companies not only don’t know how many times they’ve been targeted by payment fraud attempts, but they also don’t know how much money that fraud has cost them.

But the good news is, companies understand how imperative it is to address fraud. In a recent survey of 2,000 small-to-medium size businesses conducted by KeyBank, payment fraud was the top concern.

In this episode of Privacy Files, we talk to Dorota Wróbel, the Chief R&D Officer at G2A, the world’s largest digital entertainment marketplace. It's a marketplace where consumers can buy and sell games, and virtually any type of digital product.

Dorota talks about how G2A is leading the way in preventing payment fraud, with revenue lost coming in at ten times lower than the industry average.

Overall, Dorota attributes G2A's success to making trust and security top priorities.

This episode is also a reminder that even though companies are improving their fraud prevention programs, fighting scammers is not just the purview of businesses. Consumers must be proactive as well to mitigate their fraud exposure risk.

Defeating bad actors is s team effort.

To learn more about G2A:

https://www.g2a.com/

Links Referenced:

https://www.cfo.com/news/many-companies-clueless-about-payment-fraud-report-claims-AI-deepfakes-tech/723625/

https://apnews.com/article/small-business-fraud-payments-transactions-transfers-ff4f397e4be076216a28f1a75affab7a

https://www.govtech.com/blogs/lohrmann-on-cybersecurity/fbi-says-stopping-online-fraud-and-scams-requires-new-focus

OUR SPONSORS:

Anonyome Labs - Makers of MySudo and Sudo Platform. Take back control of your personal data. www.anonyome.com

MySudo - The world's only all-in-one privacy app. Communicate and transact securely and privately. Talk, text, email, browse, shop and pay, all from one app. Stay private. www.mysudo.com

MySudo VPN - No personal information required to sign up. You don't even need a username and password. Finally, a VPN that is actually private. https://mysudo.com/mysudo-vpn/

Sudo Platform - The cloud-based platform companies turn to for seamlessly integrating privacy solutions into their software. Easy-to-use SDKs and APIs for building out your own branded customer apps like password managers, virtual cards, private browsing, identity wallets (decentralized identity), and secure, encrypted communications (e.g., encrypted voice, video, email and messaging). www.sudoplatform.com

Reclaim - Whether you're just beginning your privacy journey, or have been working at it for some time, Reclaim is the perfect tool for assessing the size of your digital footprint and then taking action to reduce it. It's an also an excellent way to see if your personal information was exposed in a data breach. https://mysudo.com/reclaim/

Today, there are more mobile phones in existence than people on earth. That's billions and billions of personal electronic devices of which virtually all likely include at least one camera.

Thirty years ago, taking pictures was an involved process that included dropping off film at a processing lab, where you could pick up the developed photos a few days later.

Nowadays, snapping a picture doesn't cost anything and the reward is instantaneous.

However, this modern convenience comes with a little-known tradeoff: Exchangeable Image File Format data, or EXIF data.

In this episode of Privacy Files, we sit down with Colin, a member of Anonyome Labs' Security and Compliance team, to flesh out the details on EXIF data.

EXIF data is fairly straightforward to remove if you know where to look.

We talk about the most common metadata found in photos and alert you to perhaps the most sensitive EXIF information: location data.

In addition to providing tips for managing EXIF data, we also address the growing problem of bad actors using unique features in photos or videos to find out where people live or where they have recently been.

Hopefully, this discussion will bring attention to a seldom-discussed topic, thus arming you with the knowledge needed to live a little more privately and safely.

Links Referenced:

https://photographylife.com/what-is-exif-data

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exif

https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics-computers/privacy/what-can-you-tell-from-photo-exif-data-a2386546443/?srsltid=AfmBOoqGzhW2MoCLU0Fo79guFbmG9WPcc5pp5ipYnE5dALSeqAWpBxSI

https://www.photographymad.com/pages/view/exif-data-explained

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/04/charted-there-are-more-phones-than-people-in-the-world/

OUR SPONSORS:

Anonyome Labs - Makers of MySudo and Sudo Platform. Take back control of your personal data. www.anonyome.com

MySudo - The world's only all-in-one privacy app. Communicate and transact securely and privately. Talk, text, email, browse, shop and pay, all from one app. Stay private. www.mysudo.com

MySudo VPN - No personal information required to sign up. You don't even need a username and password. Finally, a VPN that is actually private. https://mysudo.com/mysudo-vpn/

Sudo Platform - The cloud-based platform companies turn to for seamlessly integrating privacy solutions into their software. Easy-to-use SDKs and APIs for building out your own branded customer apps like password managers, virtual cards, private browsing, identity wallets (decentralized identity), and secure, encrypted communications (e.g., encrypted voice, video, email and messaging). www.sudoplatform.com

Reclaim - Whether you're just beginning your privacy journey, or have been working at it for some time, Reclaim is the perfect tool for assessing the size of your digital footprint and then taking action to reduce it. It's an also an excellent way to see if your personal information was exposed in a data breach. https://mysudo.com/reclaim/

Every so often it's helpful to get back to the basics when it comes to protecting individual privacy.

In light of the recent major data breach, potentially exposing the social security numbers of every American, we're revisiting the core elements of the "privacy problem."

In this episode of Privacy Files, we speak with entrepreneur and software developer Bert Hubert. Bert has a decorated 30-plus-year career working in a variety of industries including: cybersecurity, telecommunications, intelligence and security services, DNA research, and global navigation satellite systems.

Bert has even dabbled in a bit of hacking.

But after spending three decades working in technology, the one issue that's always on the top of Bert's mind is privacy...or the absence of it.

Bert discusses the prevalent surveillance that occurs online, especially by Google. In fact, Bert mentions that even Google employees complain about not being able to escape it.

We also talk about how we arrived at this point where engaging in the most basic activities leads to extensive data sharing. And most of the time it occurs without our knowledge.

Bert talks about who really runs the internet and why, despite promises to the contrary, we always seem to end up with a centralized model of data collection and management.

In the end, Bert cautions us not to focus on how widespread the data privacy problem has become, but to spend more time understanding the downstream consequences of our day-to-day actions.

To learn more about Bert Hubert:

https://berthub.eu/

OUR SPONSORS:

Anonyome Labs - Makers of MySudo and Sudo Platform. Take back control of your personal data. www.anonyome.com

MySudo - The world's only all-in-one privacy app. Communicate and transact securely and privately. Talk, text, email, browse, shop and pay, all from one app. Stay private. www.mysudo.com

MySudo VPN - No personal information required to sign up. You don't even need a username and password. Finally, a VPN that is actually private. https://mysudo.com/mysudo-vpn/

Sudo Platform - The cloud-based platform companies turn to for seamlessly integrating privacy solutions into their software. Easy-to-use SDKs and APIs for building out your own branded customer apps like password managers, virtual cards, private browsing, identity wallets (decentralized identity), and secure, encrypted communications (e.g., encrypted voice, video, email and messaging). www.sudoplatform.com

Reclaim - Whether you're just beginning your privacy journey, or have been working at it for some time, Reclaim is the perfect tool for assessing the size of your digital footprint and then taking action to reduce it. It's an also an excellent way to see if your personal information was exposed in a data breach. https://mysudo.com/reclaim/

Since launching this podcast, we've covered a wide variety of privacy issues. But one topic we haven't addressed is the concept of "mental privacy."

In this episode of Privacy Files, we talk to Dr. Nita Farahany about how advancements in neurotechnology are threatening to infringe on cognitive liberty.

Dr. Farahany is a professor of law and philosophy at Duke University and the author of the book The Battle for your Brain: Defending the Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology.

With the rise of consumer wearables like watches, headphones and smart rings, and the desire to include in these wearables, sensors that record and decipher brain activity, we are quickly reaching a time where even our thoughts won't be private.

Dr. Farahany calls mental privacy humanity's "last bastion of freedom."

In this enlightening conversation, we discuss some disturbing scenarios for how neurotechnology can be used. From the micromanagement of employees by companies, to government surveillance, this is an episode that will make you reconsider adopting wearable technology.

And as concerning as reading your thoughts might be, keep in mind that it's conceivable this technology could also be used to even alter human consciousness and thus manipulate individual behavior.

A very scary topic indeed.

To learn more about Dr. Farahany:

https://www.nitafarahany.com/

Links Referenced:

https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/23/snap-buys-mind-controlled-headband-maker-nextmind/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wearable-brain-devices-will-challenge-our-mental-privacy/

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-on-books/author-talks-can-you-use-your-brainpower-to-defend-cognitive-liberty

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-03-19/work-employment-jobs-tech-ai-brain

https://www.patentlyapple.com/2022/03/apple-has-won-a-patent-for-an-all-new-airpods-related-eye-mask-device-that-promotes-rest-and-jammed-with-biometric-sensors.html

https://www.nitafarahany.com/the-battle-for-your-brain

OUR SPONSORS:

Anonyome Labs - Makers of MySudo and Sudo Platform. Take back control of your personal data. www.anonyome.com

MySudo - The world's only all-in-one privacy app. Communicate and transact securely and privately. Talk, text, email, browse, shop and pay, all from one app. Stay private. www.mysudo.com

MySudo VPN - No personal information required to sign up. You don't even need a username and password. Finally, a VPN that is actually private. https://mysudo.com/mysudo-vpn/

Sudo Platform - The cloud-based platform companies turn to for seamlessly integrating privacy solutions into their software. Easy-to-use SDKs and APIs for building out your own branded customer apps like password managers, virtual cards, private browsing, identity wallets (decentralized identity), and secure, encrypted communications (e.g., encrypted voice, video, email and messaging). www.sudoplatform.com

Reclaim - Whether you're just beginning your privacy journey, or have been working at it for some time, Reclaim is the perfect tool for assessing the size of your digital footprint and then taking action to reduce it. It's an also an excellent way to see if your personal information was exposed in a data breach. https://mysudo.com/reclaim/

In this episode of Privacy Files we explore a cybersecurity topic that is so obscure that according to our guest, 9 out of every 10 security professionals don't even know they're supposed to be managing it.

If you've never heard about "secrets", you're not alone. We hope this interview sheds light on an extremely critical aspect of cybersecurity that can mean the difference between keeping your personal data safe and losing it to another breach.

Brian Vallelunga is the CEO and Founder of Doppler, a company on a mission to protect consumers' sensitive personal information by securing the world's secrets. In short, Doppler helps companies securely manage, orchestrate and govern secrets at scale using a developer-first, cloud-hosted platform.

Every digital product you come into contact with employs secrets to unlock permissions-based access to a company's databases and services.

Secrets are the keys to a business' digital kingdom. They literally can unlock all the doors. And while they help organizations manage access to sensitive parts of a company's digital assets, poor secrets management can lead to a catastrophic data breach.

While this interview is designed to provide you with a greater appreciation for the work that goes into protecting your data, this conversation might also make you reevaluate how much personal information you share in the future.

To learn more about Brian:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vallelungabrian/

To learn more about Doppler:

https://www.doppler.com/

OUR SPONSORS:

Anonyome Labs - Makers of MySudo and Sudo Platform. Take back control of your personal data. www.anonyome.com

MySudo - The world's only all-in-one privacy app. Communicate and transact securely and privately. Talk, text, email, browse, shop and pay, all from one app. Stay private. www.mysudo.com

MySudo VPN - No personal information required to sign up. You don't even need a username and password. Finally, a VPN that is actually private. https://mysudo.com/mysudo-vpn/

Sudo Platform - The cloud-based platform companies turn to for seamlessly integrating privacy solutions into their software. Easy-to-use SDKs and APIs for building out your own branded customer apps like password managers, virtual cards, private browsing, identity wallets (decentralized identity), and secure, encrypted communications (e.g., encrypted voice, video, email and messaging). www.sudoplatform.com

The first step in someone's privacy journey is simply understanding the problem in the first place.

Every time you share your personal information with companies, whether online or offline, that data often times ends up in the hands of third parties.

In this episode we sit down with Jo, a member of Anonyome Labs' product team, to discuss Reclaim, Anonyome's newest product.

Reclaim helps you identify companies that have your personal data, including those that have been breached. Then it empowers you to delete your personal information, thus reducing your digital exhaust.

This conversation is a great primer for understanding the gist of the privacy and data protection problem.

It's the first place to start for anyone beginning their privacy journey.

To learn more about Reclaim:

https://mysudo.com/reclaim/

OUR SPONSORS:

Anonyome Labs - Makers of MySudo and Sudo Platform. Take back control of your personal data. www.anonyome.com

MySudo - The world's only all-in-one privacy app. Communicate and transact securely and privately. Talk, text, email, browse, shop and pay, all from one app. Stay private. www.mysudo.com

MySudo VPN - No personal information required to sign up. You don't even need a username and password. Finally, a VPN that is actually private. https://mysudo.com/mysudo-vpn/

Sudo Platform - The cloud-based platform companies turn to for seamlessly integrating privacy solutions into their software. Easy-to-use SDKs and APIs for building out your own branded customer apps like password managers, virtual cards, private browsing, identity wallets (decentralized identity), and secure, encrypted communications (e.g., encrypted voice, video, email and messaging). www.sudoplatform.com

There are approximately two million nonprofit organizations operating in the United States alone, accounting for one out of every ten private-sector workers.

It's an industry that's literally measured in the trillions of dollars.

Yet when it comes to business operations, due to shoestring budgets, many nonprofits run their entire operations using software like Google Workspace or similar low-cost (or free) tools. And they typically don't employ any IT staff. This leaves nonprofits extremely vulnerable to cyberattacks.

In fact, according to Microsoft's 2021 Digital Defense Report, nonprofit organizations have become the second most-targeted sector by cyber criminals, accounting for 31% of all notifications of nation-state attacks against organizational domains (as detected by Microsoft).

In this episode of Privacy Files, we speak to Kim Collier, Owner and Principal Consultant at COMO Solutions. Kim helps nonprofits grow funding and improve their cyber defenses.

In our conversation, we cover a few examples of cyberattacks on nonprofits, including one food bank that lost one million dollars, and a hospital that was shuttered due to multiple attacks.

We also address the top seven reasons why nonprofits must make cybersecurity a top priority.

To close out the interview, we offer some tips on what nonprofits can do to better protect themselves against threat actors.

To contact Kim at COMO Solutions:

[email protected]

Links Referenced:

https://thenonprofittimes.com/legal/blackbaud-settles-with-sec-for-3m-on-donor-data-breach/

https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2024/01/ftc-says-blackbauds-lax-security-allowed-hacker-steal-sensitive-data-thats-just-beginning-story

https://www.statista.com/topics/1390/nonprofit-organizations-in-the-us/#topicOverview

https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-nonprofits-are-there-in-the-us/

OUR SPONSORS:

Anonyome Labs - Makers of MySudo and Sudo Platform. Take back control of your personal data. www.anonyome.com

MySudo - The world's only all-in-one privacy app. Communicate and transact securely and privately. Talk, text, email, browse, shop and pay, all from one app. Stay private. www.mysudo.com

MySudo VPN - No personal information required to sign up. You don't even need a username and password. Finally, a VPN that is actually private. https://mysudo.com/mysudo-vpn/

Sudo Platform - The cloud-based platform companies turn to for seamlessly integrating privacy solutions into their software. Easy-to-use SDKs and APIs for building out your own branded customer apps like password managers, virtual cards, private browsing, identity wallets (decentralized identity), and secure, encrypted communications (e.g., encrypted voice, video, email and messaging). www.sudoplatform.com

Cryptocurrency has made many people very wealthy. There are more than 88,000 millionaires who got rich through crypto investing. In fact, there are even 17 "crypto billionaires."

But for every person who makes it big in the world of cryptocurrency, there are many times more who either never grow their investment or who lose money.

In this episode of Privacy Files, Brian Tillman returns to the studio to help Rich make sense of the extremely complex environment of cryptocurrency.

Brian runs through some examples of cryptocurrency scams with the goal of pinpointing the red flags to watch out for.

Rich takes a more holistic view by examining the common question of whether or not cryptocurrency is actually a decentralized Ponzi scheme.

This is an episode that covers many angles. On the fraud side, we look at a variety of frauds, from pig butchering scams to phishing attacks. Globally, we break down how cryptocurrency actually works to better understand what it actually is.

Is cryptocurrency really a currency? Is it an unregistered security? Or, is cryptocurrency just a decentralized Ponzi scheme?

Links Referenced:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhyatt/2024/04/02/the-richest-crypto-and-bitcoin-billionaires-in-the-world-2024/?sh=1e04cfab726b

https://dfpi.ca.gov/crypto-scams/

https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORdWE_ffirg

OUR SPONSORS:

Anonyome Labs - Makers of MySudo and Sudo Platform. Take back control of your personal data. www.anonyome.com

MySudo - The world's only all-in-one privacy app. Communicate and transact securely and privately. Talk, text, email, browse, shop and pay, all from one app. Stay private. www.mysudo.com

MySudo VPN - No personal information required to sign up. You don't even need a username and password. Finally, a VPN that is actually private. https://mysudo.com/mysudo-vpn/

Sudo Platform - The cloud-based platform companies turn to for seamlessly integrating privacy solutions into their software. Easy-to-use SDKs and APIs for building out your own branded customer apps like password managers, virtual cards, private browsing, identity wallets (decentralized identity), and secure, encrypted communications (e.g., encrypted voice, video, email and messaging). www.sudoplatform.com