Cyber Casts

Andrew Tierney, better known online as Cybergibbons, earned his reputation hacking things like thermostats, home alarms, and other hardware like cryptocurrency wallets. So it makes a lot of sense that his first ever hack back in the 90s was to take control of his high school’s heating system from his bedroom. Here's the story of Andrew's first hack. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Imagine you’re at work, it’s a long day and you lean back in your chair only to hear a chime and a disembodied voice.The voice fills the room and it tells you to stop leaning and get back to work.There’s a sense that someone is always watching and ready to reprimand you for the slightest infraction.That’s the promise of Live Eye—a CCTV camera system which, for a monthly fee, will monitor a store's security cameras 24/7 and step in if there’s trouble. It sells itself as a safety feature, but as a new report from Motherboard's Todd Feathers’ shows …. It’s anything but safe. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Just as Amazon founder and richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, announced that he was going into space via his private rocket company and news broke that he pays shockingly little on his income taxes, New York state is set to pass a groundbreaking antitrust law that will challenge the labor practices of the tech giant. At the same time, Motherboard reporter Lauren Gurley broke the news of yet-more ill treatment of Amazon workers that will blow your mind. With more on that she’s on this week’s show to tell us more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It’s basically the FBI’s greatest fantasy come to life: Owning an operating an encrypted communications company exclusively used by some of the world’s most hardened and organized criminals.“Anom” the subscription based network operated by the feds, was used as the ultimate spy tool that gave an almost godlike view of organized crime to FBI agents who watched users discuss murder, drug deals, and millions of dollars worth of criminal activity. And it all came to a screeching halt this week when a coordinated law enforcement effort around the world took down its customer base.Motherboard reporter Joseph Cox is on the show to talk in more details about the latest takedown by the FBI. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Central Intelligence Agency. Since its inception during the Cold War days it’s taken on the mystique as the silent hand of the US government. It’s been entwined in controversies ranging from the Phoenix Program during the Vietnam War, to Watergate and most recently, it’s role in the universally condemned torture of detainees during the decadeslong War On Terror. But then in 2014, something happened that heralded a brand new era in the once ultra-secretive (and not very public) spy agency: It got a Twitter account. Since, the CIA has been undergoing some kind of public rebranding. But why does an intelligence agency that’s whole existence is based on how good at being secret it is, need a public presence? Motherboard reporter Edward Ongweso is on the show to talk spies and tweets with me. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Before he even knew he wanted to be a hacker, Haroon Meer figured out “on a whim” that he could mess with all the high school computers by just changing one single character in a configuration file. With this newly acquired power, Haroon pranked his best friend using a quote from a classic Jean-Claude Van Damme 1980s movie. He also made his clueless computer science teacher really mad. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The many Mexican cartels of the last few decades have developed into what the US government sees as a not only criminal but a geopolitical enemy, joining the ranks of the Taliban, ISIS, al-Qaeda, and Russian hackers. This means the full force of American surveillance has been aimed at groups like Los Zetas, or the Sinaloa Cartel once-led by the infamous El Chapo. But when it comes to hackers and cybersecurity, there isn’t a lot of talk on how the cartels view their own online safety, so today we’re talking to VICE News Reporter Keegan Hamilton who has intimately covered the cartels from inside Mexico.Trust me this man has a lot of guts and he’s on the show to chat with me this week. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

So another band of hackers struck again: a criminal gang known as ‘DarkSide’ unleashed a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline, which shut down an integral line that supplies the East Coast with oil and gas. While the cyberattack itself didn’t physically knock out the pipeline with a string of code, the resulting attack majorly disrupted a critical piece of US infrastructure: Fuel. While the Biden administration is scrambling to deal with the fallout, questions surrounding DarkSide and its motivations persist. To chat more on that, Motherboard reporter Lorenzo Francheschi-Bicchierai is on the show.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

An ‘avalanche of cardboard’ is completely overwhelming card grading companies as collectors try to cash in on Pokemon’s resurgent popularity. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For years, Apple has claimed its devices are the most secure in the world, poo-pooing PC and Android devices for being as clean as a public swimming pool. But just this week, Motherboard’s very own Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai reported on what is being described as one of the biggest security flaws of Apple products exploited by hackers ever, and it could have affected you. He’s on the latest episode to talk about this and the year so far in Mac exploits. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It’s easily one of the world’s most popular messaging apps, owned and operated by Mark Zuckerberg and his Facebook empire.But more recently WhatsApp has come under some serious scrutiny for some very specific privacy concerns by experts and journalists alike. Motherboard reporter Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchieraiis on the show this week to tell us more. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Since Capitol Hill everybody has become pretty intimately familiar with how radical and violent the far-right truly is. Online it exists in cesspools like the encrypted app Telegram, or Gab, a Twitter knockoff popular among extremists and Maga types alike.And one thing many forms of far-right have in common is their hatred porn and the name-brand of porn, PornHub. Our Motherboard reporter Sam Cole dug into the world of anti-porn Nazis so you don’t have to, and is on the show to talk about it. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What if we told you that your phone could be hacked 16$ and all of the texts that were meant for you, were rerouted to someone else with nefarious designs on your most personal exchanges? It’s a real thing and it happened to Motherboard reporter Joseph Cox who is on the show to explain how a simple hack, costing nothing at all, could happen to you.In fact, we were recording another interview and Joseph was being hacked in real-time. We start there on this week’s episode. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Katie Moussouris is now a recognizable name in the cybersecurity industry. She is one of the pioneers in the world of bug bounties after starting Microsoft’s program. But before she became a famous hacker, Moussouris started like many others: hacking video games. Here’s the story of her first hack. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is a re-run of an episode originally released on July 18th, 2019 A Silicon Valley company with a history of CIA funding, a suite of highly sought after intelligence software tools, and a gallivanting billionaire founder with connections to the Trump Administration is set to become one of the biggest IPOs in recent memory.Yet many outside of the infosec world don’t even know its name or that it even exists—a sharp difference Palantir doesn’t share with other similar-sized startups based out of the Silicon Valley.But Palantir’s surveillance software, which essentially siphons up monumental amounts of data on the public using state, police, and federal databases can map interpersonal relationships between people and provide that info to the fingertips of police and spies in a matter of seconds.Among the list of past and current Palantir clients are the NSA, CIA, Department of Homeland Security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement—which directly uses its technology to fuel its controversial raids on undo

He’s been a Hollywood superstar for what feels like, well, forever. Top Gun, Mission Impossible, hey even that weird Hitler assassination movie where he doesn’t speak German or even fake an accent. Tom Cruise is everywhere was in everything and most recently made headlines for being deep faked. And this was just any Deep Fake, this was the creepiest most realistic Deep Fake, probably ever. For more on what that means, Motherboard reporter Sam Cole is on the show to chat. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Wanna hear a story that involves automatic license plate reader technology, AI-powered cameras that detect the movements of cars across the United States, cops, and well, Burger King? Well today on the show we have Motherboard reporter of all-things-surveillance, Joseph Cox, on to tell us about Flock: a little-known company that’s hawking smart-surveillance cameras that are quietly creeping individual neighborhoods across the country for police. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It is arguably America’s favourite fast-food restaurant. Home of the Big-Mac, McNuggets and that creepy clown that used to haunt my dreams. McDonald’s is classic Americana that has spread all over the world. But lately, a Motherboard exclusive shows, Ronald’s house of burgers allegedly used private spies to surveil it’s workers. For the latest on this, we have our very own Lorenzo Francheschi-Bicchierai on to discuss. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Let’s be real: most people watch it and it’s about as fundamental to Internet culture as Google itself: Porn. And nowadays, that means Pornhub, the massive shadow YouTube for porn that accumulates millions of clicks daily. Recently, Pornhub made headlines when a New York Times expose showed the site hosts thousands of illegal videos, which forced the site to take down all unverified content and vastly change its content rules.The story caused waves and has begged questions surrounding what the future of porn will look like online. Motherboard reporter Sam Cole has been covering this beat for years and is on the show to explain the latest on one of the most popular sites on the Internet. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It’s one of my favorite cyber topics in the books: the cyber arms race and the increasing weaponization of the internet and how that plays into the world of geopolitics. Of course that means spies, hackers, dealers and journalists alike. That’s why today we have New York Times cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth to talk about her new book: This is How They Tell Me The World Ends. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.