Bad bots, cheeky ransoms, and good deepfakes

Ransom acts of kindness are top of our mind, as we also explore how bad bots are hogging more and more of the internet's activity, and look at how deepfakes could be a good thing after all.

All this and much much more is discussed in the latest edition of the "Smashing Security" podcast by computer security veterans Graham Cluley and Carole Theriault, joined this week by Ray [REDACTED].

Visit https://www.smashingsecurity.com/277 to check out this episode’s show notes and episode links.

Follow the show on Twitter at @SmashinSecurity, or on the Smashing Security subreddit, or visit our website for more episodes.

Remember: Follow us on Apple Podcasts, or your favourite podcast app, to catch all of the episodes as they go live. Thanks for listening!

Warning: This podcast may contain nuts, adult themes, and rude language.

Theme tune: "Vinyl Memories" by Mikael Manvelyan.

Assorted sound effects: AudioBlocks.

Special Guest: Ray [REDACTED].

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Links:

• Popcorn Time ransomware invites you to get ‘nasty’ to recover your files — Graham Cluley.
• Rensenware — Wikipedia.
• GoodWill ransomware forces victims to donate to the poor and provides financial assistance to patients in need — CloudSEK.
• Bad Bot Report — Imperva.
• Bad Bot Traffic Report: Almost Half of All 2021 Internet Traffic Was Not Human — CPO Magazine.
• Automated Threats - web applications — OWASP.
• Home Stallone [Deepfake] — YouTube.
• The Emergence of Deepfake Technology: A Review — ResearchGate.
• Positive Use Cases of Synthetic Media (aka Deepfakes) — Towards Data Science.
• Deepfake pornography could become an 'epidemic', expert warns — BBC News.
• Europol report finds deepfake technology could become staple tool for organised crime — Europol.
• Google quietly bans deepfake training projects on Colab — Bleeping Computer.
• Japanese man spends £12,500 on ultra-realistic dog costume so he can live like an animal — Daily Mail.
• Google Colab FAQ.
• Talky.
• The Relationship Between Valence and Chills in Music: A Corpus Analysis.
• Frisson: This playlist is scientifically verified to give you chills — Big Think.
• A Spotify playlist with 715 songs known to give people chills — Quartz.
• Songs to give you chills — Spotify playlist.
• Zen Motoring — BBC iPlayer.
• Ogmios School of Zen Motoring Ep 1 — YouTube.
• Zen School of Motoring: TV that will cleanse your spirit like meditation — The Guardian.
• Smashing Security merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, stickers and stuff)