The AI, Privacy, and Security Weekly Update

Episode 192 This week we go looking for help and discover something else entirely. We start by being turned away from a London hospital because of something spread by a sick corporate partner. Then we move onto background checks. Perhaps soon potential employers won’t need to run them, they’ll just look you up on the dark web. From there Google springs a leak. Honestly, whoever is handling their P...

Episode 191 This week we detonate a mix of updates starting south of the U.S. border, following a tremor into the roots of DNS and then colliding into the 5 precincts of New York City. We have the incendiary tale of the Mexican cartels and how a hack spilled light on who is arming them. Next, like our root DNS server, we explode with the 411 on just what another outage of that server could mean to...

Episode 190. This week we start with a tale that will bring happiness to every University Students’ mother. We follow with another that has one woman fuming while everyone involved claims it was a coincidence. There is an update on the tattletale car story and the short, sharp, slap that lawmakers gave automakers recently. We find out the name of the company whose employee was tricked into a $25 m...

Episode 189.  Ever feel like you are being followed? This week we have both Apple and Google making efforts to quell that effect.   We have leak updates from two sources that should be among the last to ever have to send out breach notices.  One a computer manufacturer and the other a US Government agency. From there, its on to the latest craze in extortion and what you can do to secure against it...

Episode 188 This week we blast off with a couple of stories that would make movies like Top Gun and Armageddon appear tame in comparison. This just might be where reality surpasses fiction. From there we move to a couple of US healthcare providers that are doing their utmost to help other nation states get familiar with your particulars. One was an actual breach but the other was just dumb. Then w...

Episode 187 Flames leap from the IT Privacy and Security news this week... from trick TVs to leaky telephones. We flare up with a story about US Senator Ron Wyden chasing a Google TV “quirk” that could grant access to your Gmail. Then from the embers we hear scraping noises. This time Discord is the target and you are the payload. From there it’s insecure Chinese keyboard apps. And the millions of...

Episode 186 Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane! It’s... your insurance company!?!? This week we have stats and stories that will leave you gasping, and that’s good because you’ll have a chance to catch your breath during our spring break over the next couple weeks. We start this update up there, in the sky, and the novel new way insurance companies are finding to lower risk and increas...

Episode 185  This week’s update starts out leaking like an old bucket, but gets patched up pretty good. We start with our friends at AT&T and yet more mobile phone subscriber detail launched out onto the dark web. Is it playing catch up with another mobile service provider? An almost shocking update from the Department of Homeland Security that they are halting the purchase of your location da...

Episode 184. It’s the last last episode this month, and if “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb” then we have the wild in these updates running backwards. We start with an absolutely stupid way to save five bucks. Cut coupons, buy off-brands but don’t try to save money with Telegram’s new money saving offer. Next we move onto a story about how the YouTube algorithm could get you ad...

Episode 183  In our sweetest update yet, we go from “Jam” to chocolate as we cover all subtle flavors and nuances of IT Privacy and Security. Then for our second story we have an EU member in trouble with GDPR with what some would call complete disregard for the regulation they helped create. In the third story of our update we explain the two things you should be aware of as you scroll through Ti...

Episode 182 This week we take you from credential stuffing to whistle-blowing by way of a bolted horse. We start with the compromise of your beloved Roku account and no more vivid a lesson on the value of unique passwords. From there it’s on to closing the barn doors after the horse has bolted with the US’ new report on controls for AI. Airbnb takes you off camera for your next rental while the EU...

For this episode we go searching for the needle in the haystack and it appears that someone or something in our fourth story found it! But we end Q1 with what we end every Q1 with in the US. Taxes. And relief that the already onerous tax prep process that so many have to have buy special software for just to complete, now asks you for permission to sell your data …. and how you can avoid it. Ameri...

Episode 180. The IT Privacy and Security Weekly Update Loses the Car for the week ending February 27th., 2024 This week one vendor announced we’d be getting post-Quant encryption for our messages, while another works feverishly to ensure we can find our car when we are done at the supermarket. We have a discovery at one vending machine that does its tracking while you are snacking. We shine some n...

 This week’s update is our most exciting yet: You get driving lessons that help you fix security. A new class of black hat AI that can hack websites on its own. A suggestion that you keep your thought crimes to a minimum if you want to keep your job New malware that will steal your face. The US Department of Justice (sorry U.S. only) logging into our routers and removing malware A John Deere tract...

It’s that time of year again when love is in the air and this week’s update will be as embracing as a hug from Taylor Swift after a big Super bowl win. We start with a great misstep story about a hypothetical bot infection of millions of toothbrushes that is sure to leave a glint in your eye and a grin on your face. - click the pic to hear the podcast - As we recover from all the betting ads being...

This week we start with your dear Gran.  When’s the last time you called her to see how she was doing? ​After our first update we hope that call will happen within the next day or two.  From there we move to a model corporate citizen in CloudFlare and discover further repercussion from last year’s Okta Breach and a remote desktop solution that could almost use their breech as a PR exercise. We are...

Episode 176 This week the update gets dialed in:  First via a new spy tool called Patternz then via a photo contest where we share who rates what in the race at the top. From there we have an update on the “Mother of all breaches”  a newly surfaced collection of over 26 Billion records for you to wonder if you are part of. It’s onto the the US’ efforts to thwart Chinese hacking within critical US...

Episode 175 As you were walking home from work did you ever feel like someone was watching you?  In this weeks’ update we tell you why. We have some disturbing news on a cyber attack where the data from 1 million cancer patients is stolen, and then used to threaten and spam them. Mandiant discovers a Zero-day attack that could have allowed many businesses like hospitals to be compromised for up to...

Episode 174 This week we are pumping, probing, questioning and querying on all fronts. We start with a couple of fan faves from the Consumer Electronics show, but wonder if we’ll get as much use out of them as the V-logging contingent.- click the pic to hear the podcast -From there we siphon out some subtle word-smithing that might mean we are not the only ones left quaking in our boots. Apple, th...

Episode 173 This week we need some space, man. We start with phones and cellphone towers in low Earth orbit, then we move on to one of the most intriguing iPhone compromises we’ve ever heard andwe have heard plenty. Who is behind this one? That’s for you to decide. From there we learn about a Mandiant account hijack (wait aren’t they one of the most elite security companies? Weren’t they the secon...

Episode 172 This week we focus on our amazing kids. From the effect the phone we send them off with “to keep them safe” has, to an amazing 13 year old crushing a 34 year old arcade game. We even end with advice from a Nobel prize winner about what you might not want to study. From, the kids, we turn to Apple and what is going on between them and the world’s biggest democracy. We then follow Apple...

If you missed getting that special someone that special gift, we have more solid ideas for you this week: A concept jet engine and the source code for Grand Theft Auto 5 as possible suggestions. We get some insight on why the compromise of your personally identifiable information is not something to take lightly as well as the world coming to realize that you can build a nuclear program on someone...

Episode 170​ Our first few stories present some unique gifting ideas. Who needs another Rolex when you can give “large”? We get new breach reporting requirements from the US’ SEC and China’s MIIT. Wait, what is this, a competition? In that same vein, we get something less than super from Mr. Cooper. After a court ruling that you cannot be forced to reveal your phone pin, there’s great news from Go...

Episode 169 This week we hang up the phone with a couple of definitive stories, the first coming from a huge US phone company and the last a Dutch phone company that is ripping the title of “The phone to be seen with” out of the hands of Apple, Google and Samsung. Second in our stories this week is a blatant example from the UK of an individual in the public sector courting the private sector. In...

Episode 168 It seemed excessive, but you agreed on the rent and even though it’s “way more” than you wanted to pay, you manage, until you read our first story. Facebook published their quarterly adversarial threat report, and they say that one country is firing up “way more” fake accounts to influence your opinion than just about anyone. asso Security says they discovered “way more” API tokens exp...