

Hacking Humans
N2K Networks
Deception, influence, and social engineering in the world of cyber crime.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Sep 22, 2022 • 51min
The rise in fraudulent online content.
Guest Jane Lee, Trust and Safety Architect from Sift joins Dave to discuss the rise of fraudulent online content and fake crypto platforms. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up regarding the debate over "mum" versus "mom" and who speaks which pronunciation more. Dave has two stories this week, one story follows a Twitter thread about a man who shared his story about selling a desk on Facebook and the dangers that come with that. His second story is about how hackers are using a clever new phishing technique to create email threads with multiple responses to trick potential victims into thinking bogus messages are legitimate. Joe shares the story of hackers new way to get information positioning themselves in the middle of your browser between the server and your computer. Our catch of the day has a little bit of everything from Peter who writes in about an email he received pulling out all the stops to get him to give over his information.Links to stories:
Twitter thread
https://www.cyberscoop.com/phishing-scheme-targeting-mideast-researchers/
Serious Security: Browser-in-the-browser attacks – watch out for windows that aren’t!
Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.

Sep 20, 2022 • 7min
Sideloading (noun) [Word Notes]
The process of installing applications on a device without the use of official software distribution channels.CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/sideloading

Sep 18, 2022 • 31min
It pays to do your research. [Hacking Humans Goes to the Movies}
Thanks for joining us again for another episode of fun project brought to you by the team of Hacking Humans, the CyberWire's social engineering podcast. Co-hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan are joined by Rick Howard in this series where they view clips from their favorite movies with examples of the social engineering scams and schemes you hear about on Hacking Humans. In this episode, Dave and Joe are joined on this episode by guest Tracy Maleeff from Krebs Stamos Group – you may know her on Twitter as @Infosecsherpa. Dave,Joe and Tracy watch and discuss Tracy;s and Joe's clips on this episode. They watch each of the selected scenes, describe the on-screen action for you, and then the team deconstructs what they saw. Grab your bowl of popcorn and join us for some Hollywood scams and frauds.Links to this episode's clips if you'd like to watch along:
Tracy's clips from "Working Girl"
Elevator scene
Tess and Jack gatecrash a wedding scene
Joe's clip from "Oceans 8"

Sep 15, 2022 • 52min
Is inflation affecting the Dark Web?
Dov Lerner, a Security Research Lead from Cybersixgill, sits down with Dave to discuss how inflation hasn't affected the Dark Web, including how the cratering of cryptocurrency may have affected things. Joe and Dave share some follow up from listener Pelle, who writes in about their grandmother who was scammed over the phone for her PIN, among other information, allowing the scammers to get away with much more than money. This week, Joe's story comes from a listener named Kyle, who shared an article about protecting against AiTM (adversary-in-the-middle) phishing techniques that bypass multi-factor authentication. Dave's story is about a new video being released that shares the most common WhatsApp scams and how to avoid them. Our catch of the day comes from listener Vlad, who shares his story regarding an email he received stating he is owed 1 million dollars, and how he's not falling for the scammer’s latest attempt.Links to stories:
Protect against AiTM/ MFA phishing attacks using Microsoft technology
How to avoid the most common WhatsApp Scams 2022
WhatsApp Scams in 2022: What to Look out for
Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.

Sep 13, 2022 • 6min
Microsegmentation (noun) [Word Notes]
A zero trust security technique that isolates application workloads from each other, allowing each one to be protected individually.CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/microsegmentationAudio reference link: “Micro-Segmentation Masterpieces,” PJ Kirner, Illumio CTO and Co-Founder, Tech Field Day, YouTube, 13 December 2020.

Sep 8, 2022 • 41min
A travel surge and a host of different scams.
Greg Otto from Intel 471 joins Dave to discuss the findings of their work on "Cybercriminals preying on a travel surge with a host of different scams." Dave and Joe share some interesting listener follow up from Kevin, who writes in about the deepfakes episode and shares his comments on how scary the topic can be, especially with politicians. Dave shares a story about Charles Egunjobi, an auditor with the D.C. government, and how he fell victim to an online love scam costing elderly U.S. citizens $1.9 million. Joe touches on two stories, one being how a woman down in Texas is able to scam men out of some expensive items with a romance scam, and the other being a story that is warning Pennsylvania residents on a quick moving scam artist moving from state to state. Our catch of the day comes from Jon in California who writes in about about an email scam concerning a local job sent to him and how he needs to apply right away.Links to stories:
D.C. government auditor involved in romance scheme, prosecutors say
Texas woman cons men out of Rolex watches and fancy cars through ‘romance scam’
Pennsylvania State Troopers warn of ‘quick moving’ city-to-city scam artists
Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.

Sep 6, 2022 • 6min
Homograph phishing (noun) [Word Notes]
The use of similar-looking characters in a phishing URL to spoof a legitimate site.CyberWire Glossary link:Audio reference link: “Mission Impossible III 2006 Masking 01,” uploaded by DISGUISE MASK, 28 July 2018.

Sep 1, 2022 • 39min
Is there a growing number of public and private partnerships forming?
This week Carole Theriault interviews Chuck Everette from Deep Instinct on public and private partnerships. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up from Rodney who writes in about flexible spending cards and chips inside them as well as sharing technology that helps keep the scammers away. Joe's story follows the trend of fake invoicing, specifically through PayPal and the newest string of scammers getting people to call in about a pending charge. Dave shares a story where people are getting sent fake Microsoft products in hopes to steal information after they plug these products into their computers. Our catch of the day comes from listener William who writes in about getting an increasing amount of emails from fake accounts saying they have charged his card and there is a pending transaction. William shares how the scammers are trying to get him to call in to dispute the charges.Links to stories:
PayPal Phishing Scam Uses Invoices Sent Via PayPal
Criminals posting counterfeit Microsoft products to get access to victims' computers
Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.

Aug 30, 2022 • 6min
Policy Orchestration (noun) [Word Notes]
The deployment of rules to the security stack across all data islands, cloud, SaaS applications, data centers, and mobile devices designed to manifest an organization's cybersecurity first principle strategies of zero trust, intrusion kill chain prevention, resilience, and risk forecasting. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/policy-orchestrationAudio reference link: “The Value of Using Security Policy Orchestration and Automation,” by David Monahan, uploaded by EMAResearch, 3 April, 2018

Aug 25, 2022 • 44min
Encore: Sometimes, deepfake victims don't want to be convinced it is fake.
Guest Etay Maor of Cato Networks joins Dave Bittner to discuss the impact that deepfakes will have on our society, we share some fun feedback on the Lightning Rod story edit, Dave's story talks about how some of the most successful and lucrative online scams employ a “low-and-slow” approach, Joe's story is about 2 Arkansas farmer that scammed investors out of money for wind turbines, but used it for houses, cars and Disney World, and our Catch of the Day is from an unnamed listener with a supposed iPhone invoice.Links to stories:
Gift Card Gang Extracts Cash From 100k Inboxes Daily
Arkansas wind farmers claimed their technology was more efficient than turbines — then spent investors’ money on houses, cars and at Disney World
Have a Catch of the Day you'd like to share? Email it to us at hackinghumans@thecyberwire.com or hit us up on Twitter.


