Vercel Supply-Chain Breach via AI Tool, Meta Sued Over Scam Ads, and Ransomware Surges with "The Gentleman"

David Shipley covers new details on the Vercel breach, which began when an employee used the third-party AI tool Context AI; after Context AI was breached, attackers leveraged Google OAuth access to pivot into Vercel systems and enumerate unencrypted "non-sensitive" environment variables that contained usable secrets, with a hacker claiming Vercel data and source code and demanding $2M, while Vercel says Next.js and other open-source projects are safe and shares Google OAuth indicators of compromise. The episode also discusses a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging Meta misled users about scam ads and profited from them, noting Meta's claim it removed 159M scam ads and shut down nearly 11M criminal accounts. Finally, it cites ZeroFox data showing ransomware incidents holding steady at 2,059 in Q1 2026 and highlights Check Point research indicating "The Gentleman" has a much larger victim footprint and uses tactics like disabling Defender, re-enabling SMB1, abusing GPO, and targeting VMware environments.

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00:00 Headlines and Sponsor 00:46 Vercel AI Supply Chain Breach 02:50 Meta Sued Over Scam Ads 04:55 Ransomware Numbers Q1 2026 06:46 Gentlemen Crew Exposed 08:56 Wrap Up and Thanks 09:42 Sponsor Message Meter