In 2009, a Pennsylvania high school accused sophomore Blake Robbins of dealing drugs—based on a photo secretly taken through his school-issued laptop. The image, captured without his knowledge in his own bedroom, turned out to show candy. But the real story wasn’t about what was in his hand—it was about how the school got the photo in the first place. In this episode, we speak with filmmaker Jody McVeigh-Schultz, creator of SPY HIGH, and Blake himself, about surveillance, bias, and what happens ...
Apr 16, 2025•58 min
A former developer at Eaton Corp, Davis Lu, is convicted of deploying a kill switch script that disrupted thousands of users worldwide—he’s now facing up to 10 years in prison. A major AI image generator, GenNomis, accidentally exposed 95,000 image prompts online, raising serious privacy and security concerns. And finally, researchers discover debug commands in the popular ESP32 Bluetooth chip, sparking worries about potential exploitation. Note: We mention and explain this in the last episode, ...
Apr 02, 2025•54 min
Hacked Discord accounts, zombie emergency alerts on TV, and a crime spree in Diablo 3—just another day. As always, thanks for sharing your calls with us—we had a blast listening. Note: We mention and explain this in the episode, but we’ve pumped the brakes on the ads. Things got overstuffed—that’s on us. Thanks for the honest feedback. Got a strange tale of technology, security, or hacking? Share it at HotlineHacked.com. Hacked is brought to you by Push Security. Check them out at PushSecurity.c...
Mar 28, 2025•56 min
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mar 16, 2025•1 hr 6 min
Double Digits! Featuring caller stories of sarcastic keyboard pranks, failed SEO birthday gifts, vending machine hijinks and more. Hacked is brought to you by Push Security—helping companies stop identity attacks before they happen. Phishing, credential stuffing, session hijacking—Push tackles it right where it starts: in the browser. Smart, seamless, and built for how people actually work. Check them out at pushsecurity.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mar 02, 2025•51 min
Adam used to break into companies for a living—legally. As a red teamer, he watched the attack surface shift from networks to endpoints to something new: identity. The Snowflake breach proved it—attackers aren’t breaking in anymore, they’re logging in. Adam saw it coming, founded Push Security to stop it, and now he’s here to break it all down. They’re our new sponsor, so if that’s not your thing, no worries—catch you in the next one. But his story? Fascinating. Hacked is brought to you by Push ...
Feb 21, 2025•1 hr 5 min
We dive into the story of Silk Road—the infamous darknet marketplace that changed the internet. We revisit its rise under Ross Ulbricht, aka "Dread Pirate Roberts," and how law enforcement finally brought it down. With Ulbricht’s recent presidential pardon in 2025, his release reignites debates on digital privacy, cybercrime, and government overreach. Plus, we’ve got a lot to catch up on—DeepSeek, the latest in AI, and much more. Hacked is brought to you by Push Security—helping companies stop i...
Feb 16, 2025•1 hr 6 min
Quantum computing raises big questions—about security, power, and who benefits as the technology advances. To kick off 2025, the International Year of Quantum, I sat down with Joan Etude Arrow—Founder and CEO of the Quantum Ethics Project and a Womanium Quantum Solutions Launchpad Fellow—to talk about what’s real, what’s next, and why it matters. This is our chat with Joan Etude Arrow, here on Hacked. 🔗 More from Joan: quantumjustice.bsky.social Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastch...
Feb 04, 2025•1 hr 5 min
A bunch of great stories, including a prank between brothers with video evidence, a DOS frat war, and a person who tried to buy a building with a credit card. Want to share your story? Check out hotlinehacked.com. Hotline Hacked is brought to you by DeleteMe. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Now at a special discount for our listeners: Today get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.com/HACKED and use promo code HACKED at c...
Jan 29, 2025•58 min
We have a bunch of stories to get to, but before you listen, check out our new Youtube page we'll be putting a lot of love into in 2025: https://www.youtube.com/@hackedpodcast and this very useful site a listener made based on our last episode about an extremely expensive pizza delivery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jan 16, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Happy holidays, everyone. We’re bringing you a hacked classic to tide you over while Scott and I take a break to relax and gear up for the new year to hit us like a ton of bricks. This is one of my favorites from a couple of years ago, back in the halcyon days of June 2022—an interview with music professor Meryl Goldberg that I still think about. It’s got Cold War intrigue, hidden codes, and Klezmer music. Honestly, I want to make a movie about it, so if your 2025 wishlist includes setting a bun...
Jan 01, 2025•43 min
Let's get festive with it. Calls concerning grocery point systems, Australian internet providers, and so much more. Want to share your story? Check out hotlinehacked.com. Hotline Hacked is brought to you by DeleteMe. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Now at a special discount for our listeners: Today get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.com/HACKED and use promo code HACKED at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. ...
Dec 23, 2024•1 hr 1 min
It's been a wacky one. In this very loose year in review, we discuss adversarial agents being gamified for fun an profit, DNA companies changing ownership and what it means for your data, and take a tour through some of the biggest tech, hacking, AI, and security stories of the year. And yes, I'm aware we never actually revisit the intro story during the ep. We apparently had too many broken bones to discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 16, 2024•1 hr 14 min
Can you trick the AI model running locally on a security camera into thinking you're a bird (and not a burglar)? We sat down Kasimir Schulz, principle security researcher at HiddenLayer, to discuss Edge AI, and to learn about how AI running on your device (at the "edge" of the network) can be compromised with something like a QR code. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Dec 02, 2024•43 min
A collection of calls, including an extremely wholesome story about a hacked internet contest and an electric guitar that changed a caller's life. Hotline Hacked is brought to you by DeleteMe. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Now at a special discount for our listeners: Today get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.com/HACKED and use promo code HACKED at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com...
Nov 28, 2024•1 hr 6 min
A chatty chat in which we discuss the Infinite Backrooms and the extremely profitable shock-meme-cult it spurred, a big update in the McDonald's ice cream machine right to repair story, Apple Bug Bounties, Canadian hackers and so much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nov 15, 2024•1 hr 8 min
We wanted to know: How was USDoD, the hacker behind major data breaches, unmasked? On this episode, we trace his journey from infiltrating FBI-linked networks to leaking sensitive data, and hear from OSINT specialist and Predicta Lab CEO Baptiste Robert, who used open-source intelligence to follow USDoD’s digital trail, revealing what law enforcement missed along the way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nov 02, 2024•45 min
The whole second half of this one is one long call but trust us it's worth it. A call in show with tales of hackers getting hacked back, spoofed emails, and operating system vulnerabilities. Hotline Hacked is brought to you by DeleteMe. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Now at a special discount for our listeners: Today get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.com/HACKED and use promo code HACKED at checkout. Learn more abo...
Oct 30, 2024•1 hr 5 min
A chatty chat episode where we discuss a Harvard research project turning Meta Ray-Bans into facial recognition hardware, an Irish court case resolution on a password breach, a live-action roleplaying game solved basically while we were talking, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Oct 16, 2024•52 min
We think Zeke Faux’s Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall is one of the best modern books about crypto. It’s a globetrotting adventure and a great piece of reporting. To celebrate the paperback release, we sat down with Bloomberg investigative reporter and author Zeke Faux to dig into his experience writing it, what he learned, and what he thinks happens next. Number Go Up is now available in paperback wherever you get your books. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit po...
Oct 01, 2024•1 hr 29 min
It's a five-alarm fire in the fifth instalment of our call in show. We hear from a caller who accidentally won a naval war-game by unplugging a radio, a person whose company hired someone who clearly lied about their technical background, a very wholesome story about Counterstrike, and a person who decided to do a scavenger hunt by scavenging online instead of the real world. Hotline Hacked is brought to you by DeleteMe. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up ...
Sep 25, 2024•43 min
In which we discuss alleged Spotify streaming ad fraud that brought in millions, extremely poor voter outreach and an extended tangent on AI. Correction: we failed to make the "Ramen Empire" joke. Our apologies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sep 17, 2024•1 hr
Fourth times a charm. Share your strange tale of technology, true hack, or computer confession at hotlinehacked.com. We discuss stealing login credentials with microphones, hacking courses for cybersecurity classes for instant grades, and parking pits. Hotline Hacked is brought to you by DeleteMe. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Now at a special discount for our listeners: Today get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.co...
Sep 08, 2024•46 min
You can do lot of damage by changing someone's bike gear at the wrong time. A collection of stories including a DIY laser mad science project that aims to replicate a $150,000 piece of equipment, and one of the largest leaks of US Social Security Numbers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Aug 24, 2024•52 min
DEFCON: The Biggest Hacking Event in the World Every year DEFCON, the world’s biggest hacking conference, descends on Las Vegas for a weekend of digital mad science, security, and community building. We braved the desert heat to go find out what it’s all about and to see how many people would talk into a microphone at privacy-centric event. Check out the Capture the Flag replays here: https://www.youtube.com/@livectf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Aug 16, 2024•1 hr
We all just watched one of the largest IT events in years unfold in real time with the CrowdStrike incident. We wanted to understand it better, so we called up security researcher and educator John Hammond to get to the bottom of it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Aug 02, 2024•41 min
We got a lot of messages about the Ticketmaster hack that went down since our last episode. We dive into all the weird angles of that evolving story, a strange real time news update about the AT&T hack, and spend a surprising amount of time hyping a Canadian movie about Blackberry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jul 16, 2024•57 min
Few things impact the shape of the internet more than Google Search, yet its inner workings are mostly a mystery. In May, Rand Fishkin received alleged leaked documents that peal back the curtain as to how it works. We speak with Rand Fishkin about his involvement in the Google API leaks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jul 02, 2024•46 min
We discuss a bunch of stories, including the bizarre tale of how an anonymous business registration company let a massive IT scam unfold in the US, a TikTok zero day, Microsoft recall and Apple Private Cloud Compute, and a home-brew cell tower hack in the UK. NOTE: I (JB) misspeak at about 18 minutes in. I say "US" when we're talking about the UK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jun 16, 2024•1 hr
It's our third call in episode and we're cooking now. Share your strange tale of technology, true hack, or computer confession at hotlinehacked.com. We discuss accidentally causing internet outages, creating a botnet pandoras box, and the proud tradition of hacking into stuff to play great songs the man does't want you to. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jun 02, 2024•53 min
