Cyber Casts

Elon Musk’s attempts to buy Twitter have sent ripples through the social media platform. There is a story here about panic, the limited reach of social media, and the increasingly fuzzy nature of the private/ public space … but I think all that is a surface level analysis. For me, the more interesting story is the corporate what lies just underneath.You see, Musk is the richest man not because he invented anything wonderful and world changing. No, he’s rich because he’s good at making money. He’s a businessman first and foremost. Through that lens, the story of the Twitter acquisition becomes one of shitposts and SEC filings, a bizarre fight between tech titans, a rehashing of old corporate techniques like “poison pills” and “hostile takeovers.”On this episode of Cyber, we sit down with Motherboard features writer and editor Maxwell Strachan. He’s here to answer all your burning questions about Musk’s attempted Twitter takeover.Stories discussed in this episode:Twitter Loses Elon Musk the Board Member, Regain

Drones are here to stay. The U.S. Military may have pioneered the art of using drones in a war zone, but America’s cops are pushing the tech on the homefront. From the Boston Dynamics dogs taking temperatures in Hawaii to quadcopters patrolling the skies, the cops are very interested in drone tech.One of the big companies in the field is Skydio. It advertises itself directly to police officers and has cultivated relationships with departments across the country. This week on Cyber, host Matthew Gault and Motherboard Editor-in-Chief Jason Koebler discuss the close relationship between Skydio and America’s police.Stories discussed in this episode:When Police Do Marketing for Surveillance Tech CompaniesWorld’s Richest Man Gets What He Wanted (Elon Musk Becomes King Shit of Turd Mountain)Everything You Need to Know About Ring, Amazon’s Surveillance Camera CompanyWe’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and

Are you using two-factor authentication for all your accounts? Do you have Apple Pay or another service hooked up to a bank card? Well, so do criminals. It’s the growth of a scheme Cyber first reported on about six months ago. Thanks to bots that help criminals trick you into giving up your 2FA codes, they're now able to set up links between Apple Pay bank cards. It’s shockingly easy to do and, bizarrely, shockingly hard to stop.On this episode of Cyber, Motherboard Staff Writer Joseph Cox walks us through how criminals are circumventing 2FA and using Apple Pay to go on spending sprees.Stories discussed in this episode:Criminals Abuse Apple Pay in Spending SpreesThe Booming Underground Market for Bots That Steal Your 2FA CodesWe’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts. See acast.com/pr

Trains, trains, trains. You might not think of them very often but they make America run. Getting stuff from point A to Point B is more than a full time job. Our world runs on logistical supply chains that are supported, in large part, by freight trains.But what happens if the people doing those jobs don’t get much sleep? What happens when the company running the trains implements systems that deprive its already weary workforce of much needed Zs? This week on Cyber, Motherboard Senior Staff Writer Aaron Gordon is here to answer all those questions. Stories discussed in this episode:‘The Worst and Most Egregious Attendance Policy’ Is Pushing Railroad Workers to the BrinkAmtrak Is Streaming an Empty Railroad on Twitch to Beef With Freight Rail Companies‘What Choice Do I Have?’ Freight Train Conductors Are Forced to Work Tired, Sick, and StressedWe’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and

Every week we publish multiple incredible stories on Motherboard. This week there were so many that we couldn’t decide which one we wanted to focus on. So. We’re gonna do something a little different for this episode.That’s right, we’re going full Cipher. If you’re familiar with the show, Cipher is that infrequent segment we do where we decipher the week’s biggest tech stories. On this episode of Cyber we answer the questions: Is it illegal to run a private Club Penguin server? How is T-Mobile dealing with hackers? And why can’t I get on to the Raid Forums and what happens if you make an illegal trip to North Korea to spread the gospel of the Blockchain.Here to help sort through these headlines is the man who wrote many of them: Motherboard Staff Writer Joseph Cox.Stories discussed in this episode:Cops Arrest 3 People for Running ‘Club Penguin Rewritten’ Beloved by MillionsLaw Enforcement Seizes RaidForums, One of the Most Important Hacking SitesT-Mobile Secretly Bought Its Customer Data from Hackers to Stop

Police records reviewed by Motherboard show that, as security experts immediately predicted when the product launched, this technology has been used as a tool to stalk and harass women.Of the 150 total police reports mentioning AirTags, in 50 cases women called the police because they started getting notifications that their whereabouts were being tracked by an AirTag they didn’t own. Of those, 25 could identify a man in their lives—ex-partners, husbands, bosses—who they strongly suspected planted the AirTags on their cars in order to follow and harass them. Those women reported that current and former intimate partners—the most likely people to harm women overall—are using AirTags to stalk and harass them. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Close your eyes. Imagine it's 2010. You’ve just learned about something called Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency. You spend $50 and get 50 of the coins, thinking the whole thing is funny. Cut to 2022. What you spent around 50 bucks on in 2010 is now worth 2 million dollars.There’s just one problem. You need a password to access that 2 million and 2010 was a long time ago. It’s a problem plaguing the world of cryptocurrency: an epidemic of millionaires unable to access their cash. But there are options.To deal with the problem, a cottage industry of asset recovery specialists has emerged. One is Crypto Asset Recovery, a startup run by a father-son team in New Hampshire.They are Chris and Charlie Brooks and they are here with me today to talk about the business of breaking in.Chris and Charlie also appeared on an episode of Motherboard’s TV show Cryptoland, which you can stream at YouTube.com/motherboard.We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week.  Follow us there to get alerts when we go liv

For many, playing video games for a living is a dream come true. Whether you’re streaming on Twitch or doing speedruns for charity, there are viable ways to earn a living playing video games. But get NFTs and the blockchain in the mix and, well, you’ve got a whole different system.Today we’re gonna talk about Axie Infinity, the most popular of the so-called ‘play-to-earn’ games. The promise of Axie and others is that you can earn money simply by playing the game. But how much? Is Axie fun? How easy is it to cash out? And wait … this game has bosses and managers? What the hell is going on?This week on Cyber, Motherboard Staff Writer Edward Ongweso Jr. is here to help us untangle this hellishly complicated nightmare of “play-to-earn” gaming. His latest on the site is “The Metaverse Has Bosses Too. Meet the ‘Managers’ of Axie Infinity.”We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live during the week.  Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end

We’ve got a special presentation on the show for you today, an interview with Yuliana Shemetovets, the spokesperson for a group of ethical hackers going to war with Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. They’re called the Cyber Partisans and they’re responsible for hacks against the Lukashenko regime.Lukashenko is a die-hard Putin ally who has been in charge of Belarus since 1994. In that time, the country has become more unstable. Protestors have disappeared from the streets and Belarus has allowed Russian troops to move through the country to strike at Ukraine.The Cyber Partisans have worked behind the scenes to disrupt Lukashenko’s regime. They’ve hacked the Belarusian railway system, which still runs on Windows XP, and obtained phone calls between government officials.You’ll hear a little untranslated Belarussian in this episode. I only want to highlight one bit that I think is important. When Shemetovets is talking about acquiring phone calls, we’ll play the raw audio of Belarussian government offici

There are thousands of people still trapped in Ukraine and trying to flee. Millions are internally displaced and many are crossing the Polish border and finding refuge. But, for foreign students stuck in Ukraine, it can be much much more difficult to leave. A war zone is a terrible place to be no matter who you are, but these foreign students are facing unprecedented challenges. Thankfully, there are people trying to help.That’s the subject of the Motherboard story “Inside the OSINT Operation to Get Foreign Students Out of Ukraine.” It was written by Sebastian Skov Andersen and Gabriel Geiger. One of the OSINT organizers is Chris Kubecka. On Cyber this week, all three are here to discuss the operation and the ongoing struggles of foreign nationals trying to flee a war zone.We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live on Wednesdays at 4pm EST. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wh

Stories of the death of religion in America are overblown. If you’re in the right part of the country, there are vibrant Christian communities developing apps, working in Christian-startups, and spreading their faith on Instagram and YouTube. There is a whole community and culture just outside of the mainstream using tech in all sorts of wild and interesting ways.This week on Cyber, we explore the weird world of evangelical tech with Corrina Laughlin. She is a professor of media studies at Loyola Marymount University and author of the book Redeem All: How Digital Life is Changing Evangelical Culture.We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live on Wednesdays at 4pm EST. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It started with SIM swapping and escalated into hacks of Okta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and EA. They’re LAPSUS$, a hacking collective that’s been the boogeyman of big corporations for the past few years. People have wondered about their motivations and identities.Now, seven of them have been arrested. They’re mostly teenagers who used unsophisticated methods to get the better of some of the world’s most powerful companies.On today’s episode of Cyber, Motherboard staff writer Joseph Cox walks us through what happened. It’s the subject of his story “LAPSUS$: How a Sloppy Extortion Gang Became One of the Most Prolific Hacking Groups.”We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live on Wednesdays at 4pm EST. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We all type it. Some of us say it. Three little letters. L O L. Whether you’re laughing out loud or softening the blow of bad news, it’s so ubiquitous in the English speaking world that it’s almost become punctuation. But where did it come from and does it have a strict definition?If you know anything about linguistics, you may already know the answers to those questions. Motherboard senior staff writer Shayla Love knows. She’s here today to talk about the origins of the phrase that’s part of our online world. It’s the subject of her new piece: “Why We Use ‘lol’ So Much.”We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live on Wednesdays at 4pm EST. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The internet encourages the best and absolute worst of human behavior. Online led hate campaigns and conspiracy theories are often more than just frivolous distractions. They can ruin lives. In the U.S., I think the Gamergate movement from 2015 and 2016 opened a lot of people’s eyes to what was brewing under the surface of some of the darker places online. If Gamergate didn’t, then Qanon certainly did. But, across the Pacific Ocean, the people of Korea had a pretty good idea of how the internet can destroy lives long before it became a topic of think pieces in America.That is the subject of the excellent Podcast, Authentic, a new show from VICE that focuses on the life of the Korean rapper Tablo and how the internet turned it upside down. With us today is its host and producer, Dexter Thomas. Authentic is available on iTunes, Spotify, iHeart Radio and pretty much every other podcast platform.We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live on Wednesdays at 4pm EST. Follow us there to get alerts when we g

Jason Koebler and Jordan Pearson talk about CRYPTOLAND, Motherboard's brand new documentary series about all things cryptocurrency. Watch CRYPTOLAND now at www.youtube.com/motherboard (please!!!) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Amazon. The company none of us can seem to get away from. Whether you’re a Prime member or just surfing the web on sites hosted by AWS, the company is inescapable. But it’s worse when you work for them. Especially if you’re an independent contractor running delivery vans. It’s a job where crushing debt, sudden shifts in policy, and impossible demands are the norm. These Amazon Delivery Service Partners, or DSPs, are key to Amazon's dominant position, and the way many people are able to get what they order from the company so quickly, the next day or even within hours. But as Amazon gets unimaginably rich, some of these small companies are going bankrupt and leaving owners in crushing debt.EMBEDThis week on CYBER, Motherboard Senior Staff writer Lauren Kaori Gurley walks us through her piece ‘‘I Had Nothing to My Name’: Amazon Delivery Companies Are Being Crushed by Debt.We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live on Wednesdays at 4pm EST. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questi

Joseph Cox and Jason Koebler discuss various website defacements, leaks, and hacks associated with Russia's war in Ukraine. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There are a lot of companies out there willing to sell shady customers the tools they need to spy on just about anyone. All over the world software vendors like Hacking Team and NSO Group will help you break into a cellphone or read an email you’re not supposed to. But that might soon be changing.On this episode of Cyber, Motherboard senior staff writer Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai joins host Matthew Gault to talk about spyware vendors. It’s the subject of Lorenzo’s new piece, “The US Crackdown on Spyware Vendors Is Only Beginning.”After a brief break, Gault and Franceschi-Bicchierai discuss the war in Ukraine. It’s a wide ranging conversation about the digital battleground. As of this recording, Russian Government Websites are Down and the world is discussing whether it's feasible and effective to prevent Russia from updating its software. Gault also talks about how a college professor used Google Maps traffic data to figure out the war had started before news had even broken.We’re recording CYBER live on T

The internet has created an explosion in audio and video captured from the frontlines of war zones. As Russia escalates the conflict in Ukraine, it’s also pushing propaganda harder than ever. But there’s so much information available online, and so many people willing to call bullshit on propaganda, that it’s hard to make a believable video that justifies a war these days.That hasn’t stopped Russia from trying.On today’s episode of Cyber, Motherboard journalist Matthew Gault sits down with Motherboard editor-in-chief Jason Koebler to discuss the community of people online who are debunking Russian disinformation in real time. It’s a wide ranging conversation that goes from incredible memes to ethical considerations and a brief remembering of the Boston Marathon Bombing.We’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live on Wednesdays at 4pm EST. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherev

Cops love technology. From robot dogs to drones to Ring cameras to tasers to facial recognition software, America’s police are often early adopters of the world’s newest dystopian tech. How does it happen? Often the tech companies are actively pitching police departments on stuff they say will make the cops’ life easier. Every month, conferences across the country are stuffed with tech companies and officers breaking bread and cutting deals.What goes on at these conferences, exactly? This week on Cyber, Matthew sits down with Jack Poulson of Tech Inquiry to talk about a tech conference for cops he recently attended. It’s the subject of a new article on Motherboard—Please Delete Your Recordings: Inside a Police Conference.EMBEDWe’re recording CYBER live on Twitch. Watch live on Wednesdays at 4pm EST. Follow us there to get alerts when we go live. We take questions from the audience and yours might just end up on the show.Subscribe to CYBER on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts. See acast.co