Transatlantic Cable Podcast

For the first time in what feels like a long time, the team are fully reunited to discuss this week’s topics. They kick things off with news that more and more hospitals are under attack from ransomware. From there, the team discuss a strange story about an MP in Australia who’s been handed a ‘lifetime ban’ on Facebook for letting her account get hacked.

After that, the team take a brief hiatus so that Elena Molchanova from our business development team can talk about Security Awareness training – a new offering from Kaspersky to help train staff in cybersecurity compliance.

Getting back on track, the team close out the podcast with two related stories about TikTok – the first around growing concerns in the West around the data harvesting that the app performs, and the second looks at a worrying story on how some parents are looking to leverage their children for likes and shares. 

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• Hacking of US hospitals highlights deadly risk of ransomware
• MP faces lifetime Facebook ban after hackers posted porn on page
• TikTok has been accused of ‘aggressive’ data harvesting
• TikTok moms are removing videos of their children

For a second-straight week, we have a short-handed booth for the Transatlantic Cable. With Ahmed and Dave off, Jag and I share the mic for the first time as a duo.

To kick things off, we discuss how the Lazarus group leveraged a fake job interview into a $600M hack into Axie Infinity. From there, we head into a partial code share from Vice on the Anom app. For those who may forget this was a “secure phone” system that was orchestrated by the FBI to draw in criminals doing illicit activities.

Our third story is quite the head-scratcher as a “CEO” has been arrested for selling counterfeit CISCO equipment to companies and government entities. The curious part was not just that it was fake equipment, but it was something that was sold on eBay and Amazon. We then head to India where a flood control system has been hit with ransomware. What makes this a bit worse is that the region is now under monsoon season. To close out the podcast, we head to San Francisco where Cruise has seen some issues with the autonomous cars stopping and causing traffic havoc.

If you liked what you heard, please consider subscribing and sharing with your friends. For more information on the stories we covered, see the links below:

• A Fake Job Offer Reportedly Led to Axie Infinity's $600M Hack
• This Is the Code the FBI Used to Wiretap the World
• CEO Arrested for Selling $1 Billion in Fake Cisco Hardware on Amazon, eBay
• Ransomware attack hits Goa’s flood monitoring system; demand crypto as payment
• Cruise’s Robot Car Outages Are Jamming Up San Francisco

Episode 258 of the Transatlantic Cable kicks off with discussions around the Lazarus group, more specifically the new attack being attributed to them.  From there, discussion moves to talk around some crypto-exchanges sharing “geo-tracking” public information with ICE (the United States Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency).  Moving to the penultimate story, which looks at an NFT-themed restaurant which (believe it or not) has stopped accepting crypto-payments due to the market crash. 

Finally, to wrap up the team discuss news coming out of China about a potential data breach which could possibly (if true) be one of the largest in the world (nearly 1 billion.)

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Episode 257 of the Transatlantic Cable kicks off with discussions about a concerning story of hacking airplanes and cargo ships – is it possible or just FUD?  From there the team discuss news about an office man in Japan (not much more is known about this mysterious gentleman) who went out for a drink after work and proceeded to lose a USB memory stick with data on over half a million city residents.  Talk about a hangover. 

From there, the team discuss a new age-verification method for Instagram involving selfies and concerns grow for Covid tracking apps that are pivoting away from tracking diseases to broader health related topics.

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Hackers can bring ships and planes to a grinding halt.

Japanese man loses USB stick with entire city's personal details

Instagram: Video selfies trial to verify age of teens

How Covid Tracking Apps Are Pivoting for Commercial Profit

Episode 256 of the Transatlantic Cable kicks off with discussions around NFTs, crypto currency and Bill Gates.  From there the team talk about news coming out of the United Kingdom around cookies – it seems that the U.K government is keen to make some changes to current cookie legislation, but will this be a win for businesses or consumers?  Following that there’s discussion around ‘BidenCash’ – an underground site making waves by trying to give away stolen credit card information.

In addition to this, Dave recently sat down with Boris Larin, from Kaspersky’s GReAT, to talk to him about his recent work modding Metal Gear Solid 2, allowing a true 3rd person perspective camera – something that wasn’t possible in the original game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGGNfOq8u3o

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• Bill Gates says crypto and NFTs are ’100% based on greater fool theory’
• Can crumbling cookies sweeten UK data-protection plans?
• New 'BidenCash' site sells your stolen credit card for just 15 cents

Episode 255 of the Transatlantic Cable kicks off with discussions around stalkerware, in particular a piece of software that’s been found leaking photos and other personal data on its website. From there, the team discuss a story around the US government tapping travel companies in order to track suspects.

As we move on, discussions get a tad more ethereal, shall we say. First up is talk around how it might be possible (in the next 10 years or so) to digitally replicate yourself online – as to why you’d want to do this is anybody’s guess. To wrap up, the team discuss a recent (potentially massive) story about a Google engineer who was recently put on paid leave from the company as he believes one of its AI programs has become sentient.  

If that’s whet your appetite for more stories like this, be sure to subscribe!

Android Stalkerware ‘TheTruthSpy’ Exposing Images of Children Online

U.S. Gov Ordered Travel Companies To Spy On Russian Hacker And Report His Whereabouts

Why you may have a thinking digital twin within a decade

Google engineer put on leave after saying AI chatbot has become sentient

Let’s face it. We all love Twitter, no matter how much we get mad with the platform or its direction. Well, it seems that the future owner of the platform, Elon Musk, has his own issues.

In the opening of this week’s episode of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast, Ahmed, Jag and I dive into Elon’s battle with Twitter over the bots, as well as his threats of walking out of the deal that he agreed upon to buy the platform.

From there, we jump over to CoinBase, where the company is using a technology for employees to evaluate other employees for their performance in everyday interactions and meetings. Yes, you read that right – what can possibly go wrong?

For the second-straight week, the Bored Ape Yacht Club is a point of discussion. Much like last week, we are chatting about a phishing scheme that saw NFTs stolen after a Discord server was compromised.

For our fourth story, we discuss an account from a reporter who saw his name used as part of a pump-and-dump crypto endeavor without his knowledge. To close things out, we look at how water companies are seeing an issue getting cyber insurance.

If you liked what you heard, please consider subscribing and sharing with your friends. For more information on the stories we covered, see the links below:

• Elon Musk threatens to walk away from Twitter deal
• Coinbase is reportedly testing out having employees rate each other in an app with a thumbs up or thumbs down after meetings and other interactions
• Bored Ape Yacht Club Discord compromised in $357,000 NFT phishing attack
• They used my identity to flog a doomed cryptocurrency – and then things got weird
• Water companies are increasingly uninsurable due to ransomware, industry execs say

To kick off the 253 edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast, Ahmed, Jag and I discuss our most recent whipping-boy topic – NFTs.

In particular, we discuss how Seth Green’s new project may be in jeopardy, because he clicked on a phishing link. This in turn saw the actor lose a number of the NFTs in his digital wallet to thieves and then were resold. From there, we discuss security issues related to app-enabled automobiles. There is some debate as to whether or not these apps are even needed.

We then sit down with a member of our product team to discuss the latest in cloud security. The third story on the docket discusses the latest with hackers claiming that they have stolen a database of Verizon employee numbers.

To close out the pod, we talk about the weird new ransomware group in India that is requiring people to conduct acts of kindness or goodwill to get their data unlocked. These actions range from paying medicine to buying kids food – yeah, as you can see, kinda a weird flex.

If you liked what you heard, please consider subscribing and sharing with your friends. For more information on the stories we covered, see the links below:

• Someone Stole Seth Green's Bored Ape, Which Was Supposed To Star In His New Show
• What’s wrong with automotive mobile apps?
• Hacker Steals Database of Hundreds of Verizon Employees
• Ransomware group forces victims to 'pick any 5 poor children' and buy them KFC

Welcome to episode 251 of the Transatlantic Cable. This week, the team look at some of the more ‘interesting’ stories in the cybersecurity world.

To kick things off, Dave and Ahmed look at a, seemingly, good news story – about the closing down of the ransomware gang, Conti.  However, things aren’t quite as they appear.  From there they move to a story that has to be read to be believed – it involves banks, ransomware and phalluses.  We will leave the link at the bottom if you want to read that one for yourselves.

From that bombshell, the team move to a more concerning story around farming equipment and hackers and how facial recognition and AI are slowly becoming more and more regulated – good news?  You decide.

If you liked what you heard, please do consider subscribing. 

• Conti ransomware shuts down operation, rebrands into smaller units
• National bank hit by ransomware trolls hackers with dick pics
• Global food supply chain at risk from malicious hackers
• Lawmakers Urge FTC to Investigate ID.me and its Facial Recognition Tech
• Clearview AI fined £7.5m for illegally using images of Brits scraped from online

Welcome to episode 251 of the Transatlantic Cable. This week, the team look at some of the more ‘interesting’ stories in the cybersecurity world.

To kick off this week’s episode, the team look at a recent story suggesting that San Francisco Police are looking at ways to leverage the ‘always recording’ feature of driverless cars to their advantage – including for investigation leads. From there, the team discuss a recent blog looking at modern warfare, in particular how most military devices today are connected to the internet – is that a risk?

Moving on, the trio dissect a recent story looking at how malware could be uploaded to an iPhone whilst it’s powered off – however, there’s a caveat with the story that takes a little of the sting out of it. To wrap up, they look at recent research from Kaspersky around the shape of ransomware and how it’s perceived by business executives.

If you like what you heard, please do consider subscribing. 

1. San Francisco Police Are Using Driverless Cars as Mobile Surveillance Cameras
2. Hacked drones and busted logistics are the cyber future of warfare
3. Researchers devise iPhone malware that runs even when device is turned off
4. Ransomware is much more than just a buzzword