Hacking Humans - podcast cover

Hacking Humans

N2K Networksthecyberwire.com
Deception, influence, and social engineering in the world of cyber crime.

Episodes

The RMM protocol: Remote, risky, and ready to strike. [OMITB]

Welcome in! You’ve entered, Only Malware in the Building. Join us each month to sip tea and solve mysteries about today’s most interesting threats. Your host is ⁠Selena Larson⁠, ⁠Proofpoint⁠ intelligence analyst and host of their podcast ⁠DISCARDED⁠. Inspired by the residents of a building in New York’s exclusive upper west side, Selena is joined by ⁠N2K Networks⁠ ⁠Dave Bittner⁠ and our newest co-host, Keith Mularski, former FBI cybercrime investigator and now Chief Global Ambassador at Quintel....

May 06, 202542 minSeason 1Ep. 12

OWASP broken access control (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore of Word Notes. Software users are allowed access to data or functionality contrary to the defined zero trust policy by bypassing or manipulating the installed security controls.

May 06, 20258 minSeason 2Ep. 82

The prince, the pretender, and the PSA.

As Maria is on vacation this week, our hosts ⁠Dave Bittner⁠ and ⁠Joe Carrigan⁠, are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. Joe and Dave are joined by guest Rob Allen from ThreatLocker who shares a story on how a spoofed call to the help desk unraveled into a full-blown cyber siege on MGM Resorts. Joe’s story is on a new FBI warning: scammers are impersonating the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), the very site where...

May 01, 202529 minSeason 7Ep. 336

OWASP security misconfiguration (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore of Word Notes. The state of a web application when it's vulnerable to attack due to an insecure configuration. CyberWire Glossary link: ⁠https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/owasp-security-misconfiguration⁠ Audio reference link: ⁠“What Is the Elvish Word for Friend?”⁠ Quora, 2021.

Apr 29, 20257 minSeason 2Ep. 81

When AI lies, hackers rise.

This week, our hosts Dave Bittner, Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of the T-Minus Space Daily show) are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. This week Joe's got some follow up about his chickens. Joe's story is on LLM-powered coding tools, and how they are increasingly hallucinating fake software package names, opening the door for attackers to upload malicious lookalike packages—a practice dubbed "slopsqua...

Apr 24, 202543 minSeason 7Ep. 335

OWASP insecure design (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore episode of Word Notes. A broad OWASP Top 10 software development category representing missing, ineffective, or unforeseen security measures. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/owasp-insecure-design Audio reference link: “Oceans Eleven Problem Constraints Assumptions.” by Steve Jones, YouTube, 4 November 2015.

Apr 22, 20258 minSeason 2Ep. 80

Phishing in the tariff storm.

This week, our hosts Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan, are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines, while our other host, Maria Varmazis is at a conference. We begin with some follow-up, as Joe reflects on the density of gold. Then, Dave shares some heartfelt and moving words about the recent passing of his father. Dave's story follows how confusion sparked by Trump's erratic tariff policies is fueling a global surge in cyber...

Apr 17, 202535 minSeason 7Ep. 334

OWASP injection (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore of Word Notes. A broad class of attack vectors, where an attacker supplies input to an applications command interpreter that results in unanticipated functionality. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/owasp-injection Audio reference link: “APPSEC Cali 2018 - Taking on the King: Killing Injection Vulnerabilities” YouTube Video. YouTube, March 19, 2018.

Apr 15, 20257 minSeason 2Ep. 79

You get a million dollars, and you get a million dollars!

This week, while Dave Bittner is out, Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of N2K's daily space podcast, T-Minus), are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. We start off with a lot of follow up on listener feedback this week! Justin shares a thought about how to track gold deliveries with a simple sting operation involving an AirTag. Xray Specs offers a fun response to a theory about scanning plates and running P...

Apr 10, 202537 minSeason 7Ep. 333

OWASP cryptographic failures (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore of Word Notes. Code that fails to protect sensitive information. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/owasp-cryptographic-failure Audio reference link: Vandana Verma. “OWASP Spotlight - Project 10 - Top10.” YouTube Video. YouTube, January 4, 2021.

Apr 08, 20257 minSeason 2Ep. 78

Not-so-real deals.

This week our hosts, Dave Bittner, Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of N2K's daily space podcast, T-Minus), are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. First, we start off with some more follow-up on EZ passes, along with the newest iteration, as Kailey Cornick shares that scammers target phone numbers rather than actual toll users, sending her SUN pass scam texts tied to her old Florida number. Dave shares the...

Apr 03, 202546 minSeason 7Ep. 332

Hello? Is it malware you’re looking for? [OMITB]

Welcome in! You’ve entered, Only Malware in the Building. Join us each month to sip tea and solve mysteries about today’s most interesting threats. Your host is Selena Larson, Proofpoint intelligence analyst and host of their podcast DISCARDED. Inspired by the residents of a building in New York’s exclusive upper west side, Selena is joined by N2K Networks Dave Bittner —and our newest totally unbiased co-host, Archy, a highly sophisticated AI robot who swears they have no ulterior motives (but w...

Apr 01, 202538 minSeason 1Ep. 11

account takeover prevention (noun) [Word Notes]

Enjoy this encore of Word Notes. The prevention of the first part of an intrusion kill chain model exploitation technique, where the hacker steals valid logging credentials from a targeted victim. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/account-takeover-prevention

Apr 01, 20256 minSeason 2Ep. 77

Smells like scam season is upon us.

This week our hosts, Dave Bittner, Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of N2K's daily space podcast, T-Minus), are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. We start with some follow-up on E-ZPass scams—a listener suggests that scammers may be exploiting exposed license plate reader data, as demonstrated by YouTuber Mike Brown, to link plate numbers with breached phone records and send scam texts in real time. Dave'...

Mar 27, 202549 minSeason 7Ep. 331

threat hunting (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore of Word Notes. The process of proactively searching through networks to detect and isolate security threats, rather than relying on security solutions or services to detect those threats. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/threat-hunting Audio reference link: “My ‘Aha!" Moment - Methods, Tips, & Lessons Learned in Threat Hunting - sans Thir Summit 2019.” YouTube, YouTube, 25 Feb. 2020.

Mar 25, 20257 minSeason 2Ep. 76

E-ZPass or easy scam?

On Hacking Humans, this week Dave Bittner is back with Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of N2K's daily space podcast, T-Minus), and they are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. Joe shares a bit of follow up on scam victims sharing their experiences of losing money to various frauds, including investment schemes, romance scams, business email compromises, online shopping fraud, unusual payment requests, tax ...

Mar 20, 202536 minSeason 7Ep. 330

vulnerability management (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore of Word Notes. The continuous practice of identifying classifying, prioritizing, remediating, and mitigating software vulnerabilities within this. CyberWire Glossary link: https://thecyberwire.com/glossary/vulnerability-management Audio reference link: “Vulnerability Scanning - Comptia Security+ sy0-501 - 1.5.” YouTube, YouTube, 11 Nov. 2017,

Mar 18, 20258 minSeason 2Ep. 75

Catch me if you scam.

On Hacking Humans, this week Dave Bittner is on vacation so our two hosts Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of N2K's daily space podcast, T-Minus), are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. Our hosts start out with some follow up on chicken talk from last week. Maria shares the story of scammers impersonating police officers in England to steal cryptocurrency by exploiting leaked personal data, creating fake f...

Mar 13, 202542 minSeason 7Ep. 329

Scams in the henhouse.

On Hacking Humans, this week Dave Bittner is on vacation so our two hosts Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of N2K's daily space podcast, T-Minus), are sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines. We start off the show with some follow-up from a long-time listener who shared how switching to Publii and Cloudflare Pages saved his wife's psychiatric nurse practice over $120/year in hosting costs after discovering stati...

Mar 06, 202535 minSeason 7Ep. 328

zero trust (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore of Word Notes. A security philosophy that assumes adversaries have already penetrated the digital environment and tries to reduce the potential impact by limiting access by people, devices, and software to only the resources essential to perform their function and nothing more.

Mar 04, 20259 minSeason 2Ep. 73

The new malware on the block. [Only Malware in the Building]

Welcome in! You’ve entered, Only Malware in the Building. Join us each month to sip tea and solve mysteries about today’s most interesting threats. Your host is Selena Larson, Proofpoint intelligence analyst and host of their podcast DISCARDED. Inspired by the residents of a building in New York’s exclusive upper west side, Selena is joined by N2K Networks Dave Bittner —and our newest totally unbiased co-host, Archy, a highly sophisticated AI robot who swears they have no ulterior motives (but w...

Mar 04, 202535 minSeason 1Ep. 10

Live from Orlando, it's Hacking Humans!

In this special live episode of Hacking Humans, recorded at ThreatLocker’s Zero Trust World 2025 conference in Orlando, Florida, Dave Bittner is joined by T-Minus host Maria Varmazis. Together, they explore the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and cybercriminal exploits making headlines. Their guest, Seamus Lennon, ThreatLocker’s VP of Operations for EMEA, shares insights on Zero Trust security and the evolving threat landscape. Maria's story this week follows the IRS warnin...

Feb 27, 202531 minSeason 7Ep. 327

OT security (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore episode of Word Notes. Hardware and software designed to detect and prevent cyber adversary campaigns that target industrial operations.

Feb 25, 20258 minSeason 2Ep. 72

I'm a scammer and need support.

On Hacking Humans, Dave Bittner, Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of N2K's daily space podcast, T-Minus), are once again sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines to help our audience become aware of what is out there. We start off with some follow up from listener Dave who writes in with a call for help after a good friend of his, who fell victim to a dream job scam. They also have a discussion after the Washingt...

Feb 20, 202545 minSeason 7Ep. 326

cybersecurity skills gap (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore episode of Word Notes. The difference between organizational employee job requirements and the available skillsets in the potential employee pool.

Feb 18, 20258 minSeason 2Ep. 71

The “t” that tricked.

On Hacking Humans, Dave Bittner, Joe Carrigan, and Maria Varmazis (also host of N2K's daily space podcast, T-Minus), are once again sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines to help our audience become aware of what is out there. Our hosts start off with some follow up from listener Robert who writes in from the Great White North, who shares how he thinks the U.S. might be stuck in the past with payment tech. Joe's got two s...

Feb 13, 202545 minSeason 7Ep. 325

digital transformation (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore episode of Word Notes. The use of technology to radically improve the performance or reach of the business.

Feb 11, 20257 minSeason 2Ep. 70

Old school scams updated.

On this episode of Hacking Humans, we are going old school with Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan sans T-Minus host Maria Varmazis (as she was hanging out with astronauts at the SpaceCom event). Not to worry, Dave and Joe have it covered sharing the latest in social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines to help our audience become aware of what is out there. This week, we have some follow up including a conversation Joe had with ChatGPT, some discussion...

Feb 06, 202535 minSeason 7Ep. 324

bulletproof hosting (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore episode of Word Notes. Cloud services intended for cyber criminals and other bad actors designed to obstruct law enforcement and other kinds of government investigations, and to provide some protection against competitors.

Feb 04, 20257 minSeason 2Ep. 69
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