The Chad & Cheese Podcast Mercor Hacks & Findem Smacks
Apr 3, 2026
Raucous travel tales and a surprise tattoo kick off a mix of banter and current events. They dig into the Mercor supply-chain data breach and the fallout of stolen resumes and biometrics. A Senate probe into data brokers like Findem and LinkedIn’s shift away from spontaneous live streams spark debate. Big tech layoffs, AI risks to the middle class, and robots in classrooms round out the conversation.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Mercor Breach Exposed Resumes Biometric Videos
- Mercor suffered a supply-chain breach via the Light LLM open-source package that exposed resumes, source code, and video interviews.
- Chad reported ~4 TB stolen including 211 GB of resume data and ~3 TB of interview/video files with biometrics and passports, underlining the scale.
Require Breach Transparency And Security SLAs From HR Tech
- Treat recruiting tech as high-risk for identity exposure and enforce vendor security SLAs and breach transparency clauses.
- Chad warned HR tech historically underinvests in security and urged companies to require prompt disclosure and third-party forensics after incidents.
Spend Now To Secure HR Data And Personal Identities
- Start spending on cybersecurity and identity protection now to guard candidate and employee data used by recruiting tools.
- Chad recommended solutions like enterprise security vendors and personal identity monitoring (LifeLock) after noting HR tech's historical security weaknesses.