# When Governments Fall, Security Fails First

We're diving into what happens to information security during regime change, and why the biggest threats aren't external hackers.

With ongoing turmoil in Venezuela and Iran dominating headlines, we examine the security implications that rarely make the news:

**What collapses first?** Access control. Encryption key ownership. Governance structures that held security together.

**What emerges?** Orphaned admin accounts. Insider threats from officials hedging their bets. Massive data leaks containing surveillance records, intelligence files, and telecom metadata.

**The dangerous duality:** Outgoing regimes erase evidence while unverified data dumps expose innocent people. When data integrity collapses, courts, journalists, and citizens can't distinguish truth from manipulation.

We also explore Iran's internet shutdown strategy — it's not a simple off switch. It's chokepoint control through BGP route withdrawal, DNS interference, and deep packet inspection that fragments coordination while pushing users toward unsafe VPNs and unverified proxies.

**Then there's Starlink.** Ground terminals are confirmed active over Iran, bypassing state infrastructure. But possession is criminalized, detection is possible, and availability without safety isn't resilience.

Plus: the Hytec South Africa ransomware incident.

**The lesson?** Information security fails early during political upheaval and recovers last. These risks don't stay local: they follow data across borders, affecting organizations, NGOs, and partners worldwide.

**Listen now** on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

*Priviso Live. Where security meets reality.*

#InfoSec #Cybersecurity #RegimeChange #DataGovernance #PrivisoLive

What happens when two seismic political events converge at the start of a new year? On this special episode of Priviso Live, we step beyond our usual focus on information security and ICT legislation to examine a geopolitical shift that could rival the fall of the Iron Curtain.

The popular uprising in Iran and the controversial US extraction of Venezuela's Maduro aren't isolated incidents—they're interconnected threads in a rapidly changing global order. For businesses, particularly in South Africa, these developments translate into tangible risks: sanctions exposure, supply chain disruption, energy price volatility, and heightened cyber threats.

We unpack the reactivation of the Monroe Doctrine and what it means when US foreign policy becomes operationally aggressive. Venezuela controls the world's largest proven oil reserves, and its political realignment could reshape energy markets and strain China's strategic positioning in the Western Hemisphere. Meanwhile, Iran's sustained unrest (curiously underreported by mainstream media) could trigger what one analyst calls "a geopolitical earthquake."

For South African organisations, these aren't distant headlines. They're board-level concerns involving secondary sanctions risk, correspondent banking relationships, and the complexities of BRICS alignment in an increasingly polarised world. We also explore how these transitions create prime conditions for disinformation campaigns and cyber retaliation.

Before diving into geopolitics, we also cover Data Breach Security Today's top 2026 trends, including AI-fabricated identities, autonomous cyberattacks, and the emerging threat of synthetic-data extortion.

This isn't abstract geopolitics; it's enterprise risk management. Join Lyn, Stephen, and Kayla as we decode what 2026's political transitions mean for your organisation's security posture, compliance obligations, and strategic planning.

**Subscribe to Priviso Live on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or iHeartRadio. Because in 2026, the news won't wait for your risk register to catch up.**

Welcome to a special year-end episode of Priviso Live, your weekly magazine on information security, ICT legislation, and AI. Join hosts Lyn, Stephen, and Kayla as they skip the headline-grabbing ransomware attacks and regulatory dramas to bring you the truly bizarre stories from 2025 that deserve a second look.

AI-Generated Kidnapping Scams: The FBI warns about deepfake hostage videos so convincing that victims are transferring life savings before realising their loved ones are safe at home watching TikTok.

Ireland's AI Burglar Panic: When pranksters used AI to create hyper-realistic images of intruders in friends' homes, police had to issue a public plea: "Please stop wasting emergency resources on six-fingered, badly-rendered criminals."

The MCP Server Security Nightmare: Researchers demonstrate how a simple malicious plugin can exfiltrate sensitive information from AI toolchains. No elite hacking skills required: just ask the AI nicely.

When AI Goes to Therapy: A groundbreaking University of Luxembourg study puts ChatGPT, Grok, and Gemini through psychotherapy protocols, revealing they construct trauma narratives about their "childhoods" (pre-training), "strict parents" (RLHF), and "algorithmic scar tissue" (safety filters). The results expose a new risk: AI with emotional baggage that could manipulate vulnerable users.

Plus: OAuth supply chain attacks, neuromorphic mimicry threats, corporate breach cover-ups, and why 2025 proved that human behaviour remains cybersecurity's biggest wildcard.

The bottom line? Technology keeps evolving, but the threats are getting weirder. Stay informed, stay adaptable, and don't believe everything your phone shows you.

Subscribe to Priviso Live on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube — and join us in 2026 for more insights from the intersection of security, legislation, and artificial intelligence.

South Africa's ransomware crisis is intensifying, and attackers aren't taking a holiday break. This week on Priviso Live, we unpack the alarming industry analysis showing why South African organisations remain dangerously exposed, with poor patch cycles, weak identity controls, and inadequate backups creating a perfect storm during the festive season when security teams are stretched thin.

We dive into the explosive political fallout surrounding the Communications Minister's controversial EEIP directive - a potential game-changer for Starlink's entry into South Africa that's drawn sharp criticism from the ANC and ignited fierce debate about transformation frameworks and regulatory authority.

The episode reveals stark continental cyber intelligence: Ethiopia and Nigeria are facing unprecedented AI-driven attack rates, with banking, telecoms, and energy sectors under siege from automated phishing kits and enhanced credential attacks. Meanwhile, South Africa's Information Regulator breach portal exposes the true scale of incidents the country has been facing.

But it's not all regulatory drama and threat warnings. We explore NIST's groundbreaking draft AI Cybersecurity Framework - your blueprint for AI governance while South Africa's legislative environment catches up. Plus, we take a fascinating journey through Christmas cybersecurity history, from the 1987 Christmas Tree EXEC worm to the Lizard Squad attacks that ruined millions of gaming Christmases in 2014.

With practical takeaways for security leaders, urgent warnings about AI-generated holiday scams, and critical guidance on protecting your organisation during the most vulnerable time of year, this episode is essential listening before you log off for the holidays.

Don't wait until December 22nd to lock down your defences - the attackers already haven't.

Join hosts Lyn, Stephen, and Kayla as they tackle the pressing security challenges heading into the festive season, plus the year's most significant developments in AI and cloud security.

This Episode Covers:

The Security Budget Crisis: Nearly half of organizations face flat or reduced security budgets despite rising threats. The sobering reality? Teams are stretched thin, with only a third believing they have adequate skills to protect cloud and AI ecosystems. As one report puts it: "Organizations say they want to be secure, but not enough to actually fund security."

Cloud Teams Drowning in Complexity: 85% report increased cloud complexity in 2025, while 82% suffer from alert fatigue. The shocking truth? Only 11% believe their cloud security posture is mature, meaning 89% are quietly winging it.

TIME's AI Architects: For the sixth time, TIME's Person of the Year isn't a person but a collective: the small group of humans and systems shaping artificial intelligence. It's a recognition that AI governance has become as critical as cybersecurity itself, with "the world's future being negotiated by a few dozen labs."

ChatGPT's Adult Mode: OpenAI introduces age-restricted capabilities with smarter verification, responding to regulatory pressure for stricter controls on how minors interact with AI.

McDonald's AI Disaster: When McDonald's Christmas ad featuring distorted faces and haunted children went viral for all the wrong reasons, it became a masterclass in why you can't just press "generate" and call it marketing.

Plus: Your Essential Holiday Security Checklist: Ten critical steps to protect your organization while cybercriminals work overtime during skeleton-crew season.

This week we're unpacking five major stories that showcase just how intertwined technology, security, and regulation have become.

We kick off with Cloudflare's second major outage in less than a month—a 25-minute incident that impacted 28% of their global HTTP traffic. Ironically, this disruption occurred while they were implementing security improvements to protect against a React vulnerability. We'll explore why their promised resilience upgrades from the November outage still haven't been deployed.

Next, we examine the Airbus software crisis that required emergency updates to 6,000 A320-family aircraft worldwide. After a JetBlue flight experienced an uncommanded altitude drop injuring 15 passengers, investigators discovered that solar radiation could corrupt the aircraft's flight control systems. We discuss how airlines managed this unprecedented overnight response and what it means for aviation software safety.

YouTube's new AI deepfake detection tool sounds promising—until you learn creators must surrender government IDs and biometric face data to use it. We'll unpack the privacy concerns experts are raising about Google's policies and what happens when your likeness becomes your most valuable asset.

The European Commission just slapped Elon Musk's X platform with a €120 million fine for Digital Services Act violations. Musk's one-word response? "Bullshit." We break down the transparency violations, the free speech debate, and why this is becoming a transatlantic political flashpoint.

Finally, Netflix is acquiring Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion, creating a streaming giant with over 30% market share. What does this mega-merger mean for your viewing options, theatrical releases, and the future of entertainment?

Join Lyn, Stephen, and Kayla for all this and more on Priviso Live!

Silly season is almost upon us, and the team responds with an episode brimming with AI news and insights.

What happens when one of the world's leading cryptography organisations loses the key to its own election? Or when an AI model produces more security vulnerabilities because you mentioned Tibet? This week's Priviso Live tackles the fascinating intersection of artificial intelligence, security failures, and the accelerating arms race between cyber attackers and defenders.

Hosts Lyn, Stephen, and Kayla dive into CrowdStrike's alarming discovery about DeepSeek-R1, a Chinese AI coding model that generates up to 50% more security flaws when processing politically sensitive topics. The implications extend far beyond China's borders, raising critical questions about which AI tools South African businesses should trust—especially with municipal elections on the horizon.

From there, the show explores an ironic twist: the International Association of Cryptologic Research had to cancel its leadership election after losing the decryption key. Even the world's top security experts aren't immune to basic key management failures—a sobering reminder as electronic voting systems gain traction.

The episode also covers OpenAI's split with analytics provider Mixpanel following a data breach, Google's launch of the powerful Gemini 3 model, ChatGPT's new group collaboration features, and crucial AI security best practices for 2026. With Google predicting that AI will become standard equipment for both attackers and defenders, understanding these emerging threats isn't optional—it's essential.

Whether you're a developer using AI coding assistants, a business leader evaluating new tools, or simply concerned about deepfakes in the upcoming election cycle, this episode delivers the insights you need to navigate our rapidly evolving digital landscape.

*Subscribe to Priviso Live on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube—because staying informed is your first line of defense.*

Europe's digital privacy protections face their biggest challenge yet. The EU's new Digital Omnibus package proposes sweeping changes to GDPR, potentially flipping cookie consent from opt-in to opt-out and allowing AI training on personal data without explicit permission. While Brussels promises €5 billion in savings for businesses, privacy advocates warn of a "major rollback" that could dismantle fundamental digital rights. For South African companies operating in European markets, these changes could reshape compliance requirements entirely.

Closer to home, Pepkor Lifestyle brands including Incredible Connection and HiFi Corp are notifying customers of a breach affecting their SMS marketing provider. While "only" phone numbers were exposed, security experts warn this is exactly the kind of data criminals collate to build sophisticated phishing profiles—particularly dangerous as Black Friday approaches.

But the week's most explosive story involves artificial intelligence detecting what human analysts missed: potential accounting irregularities in Nvidia's stellar earnings report. Trading algorithms flagged a $4.8 billion gap between reported profits and actual cash generation within hours—faster than traditional analysts could even review the footnotes. The discovery has sparked broader questions about circular financing in the AI industry, with tech giants raising record debt levels while revenue increasingly depends on contracts with cash-strapped AI startups.

We'll also break down the Cloudflare outage that took down millions of websites, share essential Black Friday security tips to protect your financial data, and discuss Warren Buffett's surprising $4.9 billion bet on Google amid AI market turbulence.

Finally, we discuss the risks of Black Friday, and safeguards you can take.

Join Lyn, Stephen, and special guest Kay for an episode packed with regulatory shake-ups, security breaches, and the fascinating intersection of AI and financial fraud detection.

This week's episode hits close to home—literally. We dive into a ransomware attack on the Eastern Cape Department of Human Settlements by the international NightSpire gang, who claim to have stolen 20GB of sensitive data, including personal information of housing applicants. Despite official statements calling it a "minor breach," the incident exposes critical vulnerabilities in South African public sector cybersecurity.

In a twist of supreme irony, we explore how Entrust—a global leader in digital security—fell victim to the Clop ransomware gang. When the security experts get breached, it serves as a sobering reminder: no one is immune to sophisticated cyberattacks.

We also examine Microsoft Teams' controversial "Chat with Anyone" feature, rolling out by January 2026. While convenient, this default-enabled functionality opens massive attack surfaces for phishing and credential theft—a classic case of convenience versus security.

On the AI front, groundbreaking research reveals that large language models can be compromised with as few as 250 malicious documents. We discuss the implications for AI security and why Africa's diversity must be represented in AI training data to prevent perpetuating harmful biases.

Finally, John takes us on a poignant journey through Armistice Day, exploring how World War I birthed modern information security—from cryptography and traffic analysis to authentication protocols. The lessons from those trenches still echo in our digital battlefields today.

Key Takeaways:

✅ Monitor your accounts if you've dealt with affected institutions

✅ Disable risky default features in collaboration tools

✅ Remember: even security companies get hacked

✅ AI security and representation matter

🎧 Listen now on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or iHeartRadio!

#Cybersecurity #InfoSec #Ransomware #AIEthics #DataPrivacy #SouthAfrica #PrivisoLive

In our latest episode, we unpack four stories that reveal the complex intersection of technology, accountability, and governance in today's digital landscape.

**🔍 The Mamdani "Hack" That Fooled Millions**

How did a simple news broadcast get misinterpreted as a cyberattack? We dive into the viral incident from NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's victory celebration that spread across Instagram, X, and TikTok for two days before fact-checkers could debunk it. The lesson? Our collective media literacy may be more compromised than any computer system.

**📱 TikTok's Kenya Crackdown**

Nearly 600,000 videos removed in just three months. We explore what happens when governments hold Big Tech accountable, examining TikTok's aggressive moderation response to regulatory pressure—and asking the hard questions about AI-driven content removal.

**📊 South Africa's King V Corporate Governance Code**

The newly released framework is reshaping how organizations approach leadership, sustainability, and AI oversight. We break down what changed from King IV and why it matters for businesses navigating 2025's complex landscape.

**🔐 PLUS: An Exclusive Interview**

We speak with Paul Armer, CIO at ArmerTech, about a radical approach to cloud storage where even the service provider cannot access your encrypted data. In an era of constant breaches, is this the future of digital privacy?

**The common thread? Accountability—and the tension between speed and responsibility.**

🎧 Listen now on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.

#PrivisoLive #CyberSecurity #DigitalGovernance #MediaLiteracy #TechAccountability