A heat dome in the Western part of the continent reached 117 degrees. A town in British Columbia burned to the ground, and temperatures in Europe are shattering records. Climate change is here and it’s killing us. But it’s not just the heat. It’s the humidity. That’s why scientists are studying “wet bulb conditions”— or temperatures at which humans spontaneously die. What, exactly, are “wet bulb” conditions and when do we need to start worrying about them? Can we do anything to stop them? Are pe...
Jul 15, 2021•37 min
More than 1,800 years ago, Marcus Aurelius wrote, “When you wake up in the morning, tell yourself: The people I deal with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly.” If you’ve ever thought the same before logging into social media, you aren’t alone. In addition to being Emperor of Rome, Aurelius is one of the founders of Stoicism—an ancient philosophy that’s recently become widely popular among the Silicon Valley elite. But what do ancient Roman philosophers hav...
Jul 08, 2021•35 min
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 01, 2021•23 min
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...
Jun 24, 2021•37 min
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 s...
Jun 17, 2021•28 min
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...
Jun 10, 2021•29 min
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...
Jun 03, 2021•50 min•Ep. 127
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 27, 2021•25 min•Ep. 126
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...
May 20, 2021•31 min•Ep. 125
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...
May 13, 2021•32 min•Ep. 124
An ‘avalanche of cardboard’ is completely overwhelming card grading companies as collectors try to cash in on Pokemon’s resurgent popularity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
May 06, 2021•38 min•Ep. 123
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy ...
Apr 29, 2021•33 min•Ep. 122
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-Bicchierai is on the show this week to tell us more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 22, 2021•33 min•Ep. 121
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. Ho...
Apr 15, 2021•34 min•Ep. 120
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. Hosted on Acast. See aca...
Apr 08, 2021•25 min•Ep. 119
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Apr 01, 2021•19 min•Ep. 118
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 ...
Mar 25, 2021•19 min
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. Hosted on Acast. See aca...
Mar 18, 2021•26 min•Ep. 117
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more in...
Mar 11, 2021•26 min•Ep. 116
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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 04, 2021•25 min•Ep. 115
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 f...
Feb 25, 2021•28 min•Ep. 114
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 . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 18, 2021•35 min•Ep. 113
Years before he became the world’s most well known MacOS hacker, Patrick Wardle was a high school nerd curious about hacking. His first hack was figuring out that he could program his fancy calculator and hide a backdoor in it that could help him with his calculus tests. His teacher never caught him, and he actually learned how to solve calculus equations by programming his calculator. “So I’m sure that in retrospect my calculus teacher would be stoked...or that’s what I tell myself,” Wardle sai...
Feb 11, 2021•30 min
It’s safe to say that video games are now an essential part of our culture. Globally it’s already dwarfing other classic industries. Even the U.S. military, by far the most powerful war-machine in human history, uses video games to recruit the generation soldier. On the show today is VICE News Correspondent Dexter Thomas who is hosting the new VICEtv series. RESET: The Unauthorized Guide to Video Games. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Feb 04, 2021•39 min•Ep. 111
It’s a mixture of Internet trolling, Reddit threads, the fall of capitalism as we know it, and that movie Big Short. If like me you have but a cursory understanding of the stock market and you continually see mention of this GameStop fiasco making headlines the world over. That’s right: A failing video game store has been turned into a multibillion dollar company, by day-trading cartels who live on the Internet. Motherboard EIC Jason Koebler, who knows something about stocks, is on the show to e...
Jan 28, 2021•39 min•Ep. 110
Well folks, whether you were #resistance or MAGA, he’s arrived. The 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden. What’s he going to do about Russian hackers? Big Tech? Disinformation? Facebook? The NSA, the CIA? All that and more on this week’s episode with Motherboard EIC Jason Keobler. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 21, 2021•36 min•Ep. 109
Parler. Gab. The President being suspended from almost every mainstream social media entity and finally prevented from engaging in his favorite addiction: Tweeting. Besides the horned Qanon shaman and the disgusting violence on Capitol Hill last week, it has been a hell of a week for social media. Motherboard EIC Jason Koebler and I break it all down for you on today’s episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 14, 2021•37 min•Ep. 108
As President Trump exits office in a hail of conspiracy and baseless allegations about a fraudulent election, the time has come for us to discuss the much vaunted QAnon, led by a shadowy online figure known as “Q.” The verifiably absurd, online conspiracy theory that has ruined lives and families, has seduced millions and even helped propel members of congress into seats. And it just inspired a violent occupation of our nation’s capitol hill. Marc-André Argentino, a PhD candidate at Concordia Un...
Jan 07, 2021•28 min•Ep. 107
Let’s be honest, I know history types keep saying that like the year 536 was way worse than 2020, but I do not care. 2020 was unadulterated trash by almost every metric available. In the cyber world it was also a year that helped advance insidious surveillance tools, the proliferation of disinformation, and more Russian hackers. Jason Koebler, Motherboard EIC, is on the show for the last time in 2020. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Dec 31, 2020•40 min•Ep. 106
This week we have a very special guest on the show: All-star sci-fi writer Cory Doctorow, a fellow Canadian, and someone who has written about the dystopian near future with stunning accuracy. His latest novel, Attack Surface, tells the tale of a counterterrorism agent and the terrifying power of the surveillance state. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 24, 2020•40 min•Ep. 105
