Hacking Humans - podcast cover

Hacking Humans

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

Episodes

Cyber Groundhog Day and romance scams. [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 Rick Howard to uncover the stories behind notable cyberattacks. Being a security researcher is a bit like being a detective:...

Feb 04, 202547 min

Despicable donation request scamming.

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. This week, Dave has the story from Ampyx Cyber that has a scam reporter on staff to do awareness videos and this latest one is about an amazing sale on fake leather bags. Joe has two stories this we...

Jan 30, 202545 minSeason 7Ep. 323

endpoint security [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore of Word Notes. The practice of securing a device that connects to a network in order to facilitate communication with other devices on the same or different networks.

Jan 28, 20259 minSeason 2Ep. 68

Back to the office, back to the threats.

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. This week Maria has the story on how the return to office life brings unique security challenges, highlighting the need for Red Team assessments to uncover and address physical and digital vulnerabi...

Jan 23, 202543 minSeason 7Ep. 322

Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore episode. President Biden's May, 2021 formal compliance mandate for federal civilian executive branch agencies, or FCEBs, to include specific shortterm and longterm deadlines designed to enhance the federal government's digital defense posture.

Jan 21, 20258 minSeason 2Ep. 67

Crypto chameleons and star fraud.

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. This week we jump right into stories, Maria shares Apple’s new AI feature and how it is unintentionally rewording scam messages to make them appear more legitimate and flagging them as priority noti...

Jan 16, 202542 minSeason 7Ep. 321

lateral movement (noun) [Word Notes]

Phase of a typical cyber adversary group's attack sequence, after the initial compromise and usually after the group has established a command and control channel, where the group moves through the victims network by compromising as many systems as it can, by looking for the data, it has come to steal or to destroy.

Jan 14, 20258 minSeason 2Ep. 66

Nice to meet you, I'm a scammer.

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 discuss and ponder whether or not diamonds are the original cryptocurrency, as well as diving further into Yubikeys for organizations. Maria shares the story of a 66-year-old woman who los...

Jan 09, 202553 minSeason 7Ep. 320

Malware metamorphosis: 2024 reflections and 2025 predictions. [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 Rick Howard to uncover the stories behind notable cyberattacks. Being a security researcher is a bit like being a detective:...

Jan 07, 202555 minSeason 1Ep. 8

The intersection of hackers, scammers, and false collaborations.

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. First off, our hosts share some follow up, Asher wrote in to discuss follow up on the AI granny. Maria's story covers a "new QR code scam" involving unsolicited packages and brushing tactics, where ...

Jan 02, 202542 minSeason 7Ep. 319

New tools, old problems.

Please enjoy this encore episode of Hacking Humans. This week we are joined by Maria Varmazis, host of the N2K daily space show, T-Minus. She discusses how AI is being used as a possible solution to one of the oldest scams in the book in Japan. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up, one from listener Alan and one from Clinton, who both write in about a recent episode and they share their thoughts on the story of Charlotte Cowles being scammed out of $50,000. Dave shares a story about calend...

Dec 26, 202449 minSeason 6Ep. 280

cybersecurity maturity model certification (CMMC) (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore episode of Word Notes. A supply chain cybersecurity accreditation standard designed for the protection of controlled unclassified information that the U.S. Department of Defense, or DoD, will require for all contract bids by October, 2025.

Dec 24, 20247 minSeason 1Ep. 63

Gold bars and bold lies.

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. First we start off with some follow up, our hosts share some more information on VIN swapping, and a clarification on bank participation in FinCEN. Maria shares a telling tale about a Bethesda coupl...

Dec 19, 202446 minSeason 7Ep. 318

incident response (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore episode of Word Notes. A collection of people, process, and technology that provides an organization the ability to detect and respond to cyber attacks.

Dec 17, 20248 minSeason 1Ep. 62

Silent push, loud consequences.

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. This week, Maria shares two stories this week, the first is from "PayPal" saying they are owed over $200. The second comes from LinkedIn where a gentleman shares the terrifying story of losing every...

Dec 12, 202445 minSeason 7Ep. 317

script kiddies (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore episode of Word Notes. Cybercriminals who lack the expertise to write their own programs use existing scripts, code, or tools authored by other more skilled hackers.

Dec 10, 20246 minSeason 1Ep. 61

Fraud's festive frenzy.

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. This week, our hosts dive into some follow up from listener Will. who writes in about the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. They also share after an anonymous listener writes in with a suggestio...

Dec 05, 202448 minSeason 7Ep. 316

A cyber carol. [Only Malware in the Building]

Welcome in! You’ve entered, Only Malware in the Building. Grab your eggnog and don your coziest holiday sweater as we sleuth our way through cyber mysteries with a festive twist! 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 Rick Howard to uncover the stories behind notable cyberattacks. Being a security researcher i...

Dec 03, 202451 minSeason 1Ep. 7

sandbox (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore episode of Word Notes. An isolated and controlled set of resources that mimics real world environments and used to safely execute suspicious code without infecting or causing damage to the host machine, operating system, or network.

Dec 03, 20246 minSeason 1Ep. 60

Scamming just isn't what it used to be.

Please enjoy this encore of Hacking Humans: This week, we are joined by host of N2K's T-Minus Space Daily podcast, Maria Varmazis, she sits down with Joe and Dave to discuss sextorion materials that were found on popular social media apps such as, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube. Joe and Dave share quite a bit of follow up, Joe starts with an anonymous listener writing in sharing their story on gift card scams. Dave shares another anonymous listeners comments, sharing about what they thi...

Nov 28, 202448 minSeason 6Ep. 276

security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) (noun) [Word Notes]

Please enjoy this encore episode of Word Notes. A stack of security software solutions and tools that allow organizations to orchestrate disparate internal and external tools which feed pre-built automation playbooks that respond to events or alert analysts if an event meets a certain threshold.

Nov 26, 20246 minSeason 1Ep. 59

Granny’s got a new trick.

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. This week, Joe shares a note from listener Michael before getting into stories, and Michael writes in to share that there are VIN cloning scams. Joe brings back the Iota discussion from last week. J...

Nov 21, 202436 minSeason 7Ep. 315

Final approach to scammer advent.

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. This week, the team shares follow up about FEMA and Hurricane Helene relief. Dave's story is about romance scams involving an impersonator of a WWE star scamming a grandfather out of their retiremen...

Nov 14, 202443 minSeason 7Ep. 314

secure access service edge (SASE) (noun) [Word Notes]

Enjoy this encore episode. A security architecture that incorporates the cloud shared responsibility model, a vendor provided security stack, an SD-WAN abstraction layer, and network peering with one or more of the big content providers and their associated fiber networks.

Nov 12, 20248 minSeason 1Ep. 57

Happy hour hacking.

Maria Varmazis, host of N2K's daily space show T-Minus, joins Dave and Joe to share the story of the five types of social engineers Deanne Lewis encountered while tending bar, revealing how each barroom personality reflects a common cybersecurity threat. Our hosts share some follow-up from a friend of the show, JJ, who reports a rise in tech support scams targeting non-tech-savvy users by locking their screens and persuading them to call scammers, often leading to credit card fraud and unauthori...

Nov 07, 202448 minSeason 7Ep. 313

Whispers in the wires: A closer look at the new age of intrusion. [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 Rick Howard to uncover the stories behind notable cyberattacks. Being a security researcher is a bit like being a detective:...

Nov 05, 202440 minSeason 1Ep. 6

red teaming (noun) [Word Notes]

Enjoy this encore episode. The practice of emulating known adversary behavior against an organization's actual defensive posture.

Nov 05, 20246 minSeason 1Ep. 56
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