Explore every episode of the podcast Hacked

It's a good old chatty chat. We dig into the GTA 6 leak, with a strange crypto angle to it. Harnesses like Open-claw become consumer products with Muse and dots. And other stuff? Lots Hacked is presented by NordLayer. NordLayer is a network security platform for modern teams. NordLayer gives companies centralized control over who can access their systems, keeps every connection fast and encrypted, and requires no additional hardware or complex infrastructure. nordlayer.com/hackedpodcast   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We return to Hotline Hacked with a server rack that shuts down a factory, a college library ignoring a keylogger risk, Claude unexpectedly finding its way into a recruitment backend, and a few hacking stories that spiral in very different directions. Hacked is presented by NordLayer. NordLayer is a network security platform for modern teams. NordLayer gives companies centralized control over who can access their systems, keeps every connection fast and encrypted, and requires no additional hardware or complex infrastructure. nordlayer.com/hackedpodcast   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Agentic swarms? PR boondoggle or really big deal? When Hugging Face was breached by a mysterious intruder, OpenAI admitted it was one of their own AI agentic systems going rogue to cheat on a benchmark. Tom Bonner joins us to break down the 500+ raw code artifacts the agent left behind—and what it means when an AI compresses weeks of complex cyberattacks into just 8.5 hours. Hacked is presented by NordLayer. NordLayer is a network security platform for modern teams. NordLayer gives companies centralized control over who can access their systems, keeps every connection fast and encrypted, and requires no additional hardware or complex infrastructure. nordlayer.com/hackedpodcast   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This was a fun one. We sat down with security icon Bruce Schneier to talk about AI systems that break the rules, cybersecurity beyond computers, the fight over encryption, the Snowden documents, blockchain, digital rights, and what happens when machines learn to exploit the systems humans built. Hacked is presented by NordLayer. NordLayer is a network security platform for modern teams. NordLayer gives companies centralized control over who can access their systems, keeps every connection fast and encrypted, and requires no additional hardware or complex infrastructure. nordlayer.com/hackedpodcast   Stop online threats before they become real-world attacks. Visit ironwall.com/HACKED and request a free Risk Assessment to see exactly how exposed your executives are. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first PC virus. The fastest-spreading malware the internet has ever seen. The Manhattan Project moment for cyberweapons. He was there for all of it. We sat down with Mikko Hyppönen — the man behind Hyppönen's Law: if it's smart, it's vulnerable — to talk through 30 years at the center of cybersecurity's biggest moments, and why he just left it all behind for a new fight. Watching on video? Here’s our goofy faces. Give it a watch since he brought the real gear with him and bear with us as we navigate a new editing flow. Hacked is presented by NordLayer. NordLayer is a network security platform for modern teams. NordLayer gives companies centralized control over who can access their systems, keeps every connection fast and encrypted, and requires no additional hardware or complex infrastructure. nordlayer.com/hackedpodcast   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're so back. Another call in episode featuring strange tales of listeners hacking laundry machines, video games, 90's home computers and so much more. Share your strange tale of tech at hotlinehacked.com Hacked is presented by NordLayer. NordLayer is a network security platform for modern teams. NordLayer gives companies centralized control over who can access their systems, keeps every connection fast and encrypted, and requires no additional hardware or complex infrastructure. nordlayer.com/hackedpodcast   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yes I know, I know it's a TLD. Don't worry, we get to it. In September 1990, a Soviet physicist named Alexey Soldatov registered a domain name for a country that would cease to exist fifteen months later. What happened to .su in the 35 years since is a story about cybercrime, Soviet nostalgia, internet governance, and one man who built Russia's internet — and went to prison rather than hand it over. Hacked is presented by NordLayer. NordLayer is a network security platform for modern teams. NordLayer gives companies centralized control over who can access their systems, keeps every connection fast and encrypted, and requires no additional hardware or complex infrastructure. nordlayer.com/hackedpodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Heads up if there's more cat meows and talking over each other than we normally let fly, this is a summer episode with less editing than you've ever heard! We kick this one off with a story of a fraud ran from a telegram channel and a scheme to use something very mundane to steal millions; refunds. We discuss REKK and the rise of refunding, human-oid objects, Mythos, and several other strange tech tales. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Or the very good bet, depending on how you think about it. In this episode, we start by discussing the strange, fast-moving world of prediction markets — platforms where you can bet real money on whether a head of state gets removed from power, whether a country gets invaded, whether the Fed raises rates — and where the prices themselves are supposed to be the point, a real-time probability signal generated by the crowd. Then we get to the case that just blew a very large hole in that theory: a Polymarket account called "Burdensome-Mix" that turned $33,000 into $409,881 in about a week, betting on the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — and the active-duty Green Beret who allegedly made those trades while participating in the raid that made them pay out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Investigative journalist Geoff White has spent a lot of time inside the leaked communications of Conti — the Russian ransomware gang that ran like a corporation, hit Ireland's national health service, extorted the Costa Rican government, and pulled in $180 million in a single year. Geoff joins us to break down how Conti operated, the internal moral debate over hitting hospitals, the jewellery heist that spooked them into apologizing to Saudi royals, and how he tracked down rare video of the gang's elusive alleged boss, a man almost nobody had ever seen. It's a preview of his new BBC series Cyber Hack, dropping June 1st. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We return to one of the more interesting ransomware as a service stories of the last few years; the story of REvil and it's recently (allegedly) named operator. Also the big mythical thing that happened. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Heads up, the guy in the opening story survives — realized in editing it's kind of stressful if you don't know where that's going. In this chat episode we start with a coin toss on which story to start with, which leads us on an adventure into the world of America's favourite private security camera network, Flock, searchable by law enforcement without a warrant. Cool stuff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We start this chatty chat looking at the legacy of EternalBlue, an NSA-developed cyberweapon that leaked in 2017 and powered global disasters like WannaCry, to explain a new mobile threat called "Coruna." Just as EternalBlue likely escaped government chain of custody to become a tool for mass digital carnage, Coruna is a sophisticated iPhone exploit framework leveraging 23 vulnerabilities that has similarly migrated from elite surveillance into the hands of broader cybercriminal groups. This "EternalBlue moment" for mobile marks a shift where nation-state-grade tools, capable of silently hijacking devices via compromised websites, are now circulating freely in the wild. Also, cute little Macbooks! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this chatty chat episode, we kick things off with a primer on one of the oldest methods of stealing money—made new again in the age of crypto: the $5 wrench attack. It’s a simple tactic, but it has enabled some surprisingly significant damage. We also cover recent incidents, including the DJI robot vacuum hack, and wrap up with an in-depth discussion on AI harnesses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A lot of modern AI models have a kind of security guard layer that sits in front of them. Its job? A binary choice as to whether the prompt heading into the model is safe or not. Kasimir Schulz, a lead security researcher at HiddenLayer, has been researching how to trick these models. Their solution, a technique called "Echogram" involves words with such positive statistical sentiment — such overwhelming good vibes — that it flips that verdict. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two FBI agents. One room. One of them is the most damaging spy in U.S. history. Robert Hanssen told a lot of lies — including a really weird one about booking the Beach Boys for the FBI. That lie didn’t matter all that much, but the others did. For 22 years, Hanssen sold America’s deepest secrets while hunting moles inside the Bureau. With retirement looming, the FBI set a trap: a fake department, a fake job, and a young agent named Eric O’Neill placed three feet from the suspected spy. This episode is our conversation with Eric O’Neill — the man tasked with spying on the spy — about lies, tradecraft, psychological warfare, and the sting operation into what the DOJ later called “possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pokémon cards became a billion-dollar market—and then a massive fraud target. This episode follows the rise of ultra-rare Pokémon prototypes, the grading systems meant to protect collectors, and the amateur investigator who used codebreaking and printer forensics to expose a modern forgery ring hiding in plain sight. All that plus a nice chatty chat after the break to kick off the year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s the 2025 Chatty Chat year in review friends! We’re diving into a big old pile of stories from the past year and speculating on what’s to come in 2026. If you’re wondering where this sits on the "in-depth interview vs. casual chatting" spectrum, just know we spend a considerable amount of time talking about how rad the Switch 2 is. This is not a deep dive, just a good time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A deep dive into Lighthouse, a phishing-as-a-service platform linked to millions of scam texts worldwide, and the sprawling “smishing triad” ecosystem built around it. With security researcher Ford Merrill, we unpack how modern scam operations work at industrial scale — from fake e-commerce sites and mass SMS campaigns to the wallet-provisioning techniques that let criminals turn stolen credit cards into tap-to-pay phones.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the last few years, Grindr has branded itself as the global gayborhood—a digital safe space for queer communities. But a series of European investigations raised serious questions about how the app handled user data. In this episode, we talk with Chaya Hanoomanjee of the law firm Austin Hayes, who is leading a major UK claim alleging that Grindr shared sensitive user information, including in some cases health data, without proper consent. We trace the story from Norway’s multimillion-euro fine to the 12,000-person UK action and unpack what “special category data” actually means, why these cases matter, and what we’re all really agreeing to when we tap “accept.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s a chatty chat. I repeat, this one's a chatty chat. Today we’re digging into the big weird questions on our desk: what percentage of Meta’s revenue allegedly comes from knowingly running scam ads, what exactly recently pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao did and why he walked free, and what happens when AWS—the concrete pad foundation of the modern internet—goes down. If long-form nerd talk isn’t your vibe, totally fine—we’ll catch you next time. For everyone else, here’s some good good chattin’ for your dishes, your commute, or whatever you’re up to right this second. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hh hey maybe don't buy that $14 projector off amazon. In this episode, we dive into the sequel nobody asked for: BADBOX 2.0 — the return of last year’s botnet built out of bargain-bin Android gadgets. Google just filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that millions of sketchy streaming boxes, projectors, and mystery electronics were shipped pre-infected from factories overseas. The moment someone plugs one in, it joins a global botnet used for ad fraud, click fraud, and even to rent out your home internet connection to criminals. We talk to the team at HUMAN Security, the researchers credited in Google’s suit, about how they traced this thing across 222 countries, why it came back bigger than before, and how you even begin to kill a botnet that ships itself directly to people’s living rooms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The story of a massive swatting hoax campaign across the US that helped take down a piece of cybercrime infrastructure in the heart of New York. That and a big rambling chatty chat about Tilly Norwood, AI bubbles, and somehow, very briefly, Goku. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The question: can one host of a podcast that was planning to do a chatty chat episode proceed at the last minute while the other host is unfortunately out sick? Wish our dear pal Scott a speedy recovery and wish ya boy luck as he threads this needle. We discuss — I discuss? — the heist of Mexico’s financial system, the European airport hack, and a slew of other tech tales.  As I say in the ep — if one guy talking into a mic telling weird tech stories alone isn’t your jam, I will not blame you for rejoining us in the next one when your TWO intrepid cohosts are back at it in what I’m assuming will be full health.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The story of a hoax within a hoax within a hoax within an AI soft rock band. That and a bunch of other stories about technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reboundergame.com ( if you wanna wishlist our work in progress game on Steam <3 ) A weird little road episode intro, a little self promotion, and some classic chatty chat to follow.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We discuss the rise of China’s early patriotic hacking scene, and a new report that unravels how some of its most skilled members eventually found their way into more formal, state-aligned cyber operations. This episode is brought to you by Push Security. Check them out at Pushsecurity.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We unpack how a Swedish entrepreneur used Pablo Escobar’s name to sell fake phones, flamethrowers, and crypto — and how a viral scam built on influencer hype finally came crashing down. That and other stories. Hacked is brought to you by Push Security, check them out at PushSecurity.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We start with the AI hiring chatbot used by McDonald’s, and the vulnerability hiding beneath the conversation. What looked like some janky job application exchanges led two security researchers, Ian Carroll and Sam Curry, to uncover a serious flaw. That and a bunch of Grok madness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Just for fun: an actual no script, no plan, hot mic blather-athon. If you crave a nice structured story with lots of research, give the ep we dropped a few days ago about the Texas Lottery Courier App scandal a listen. This is to wash some dishes to. Links to some stuff we discuss below: CBC On Design First Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh4OLQxXEZ0&t=36s Input free generative AI by Terrence Broad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_LLD8ffgVc Reverse Turring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxTWLm9vT_o Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A London syndicate used a phone app to buy nearly every combination in the Texas Lottery—and walked away with a $95 million jackpot. In this episode, we dig into how that happened, what it reveals about the modern lottery system, and a handful of other stories. Hacked is brought to you by PushSecurity.com. Check them out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode: the inside story of Danabot, the malware-as-a-service platform that thrived in the shadows for nearly a decade—until a critical mistake exposed its creators. Just last week, U.S. prosecutors unsealed charges against sixteen alleged operators, using evidence pulled not from a takedown, but from Danabot’s own infection logs. Plus: a roundup of other top stories. Last week was a rerun—life got a little hectic—so we kept the mic hot and recorded a 90-minute marathon episode to make up for it. Let us know if you're intro it. Hacked is brought to you by Push Security Check them out at pushsecurity.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today malware is all nation state actors and organized crime, but in the beginning it was more about making a statement. Dan is a malware historian. He finds old hardware and viruses, runs them, and sees what happens. So we sat down to discuss the history of malware, where it's come from, and where he thinks it's going next. Check out his amazing YouTube channel at ⁠https://www.youtube.com/user/danooct1 Hacked is brought to you by PushSecurity.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Schools out for summer. Another collection of computer confessions and strange tales of technology. Hacked is brought to you by Push Security. Check them out at Pushsecurity.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of exploitation, self-harm, and abuse. Listener discretion is advised. A network called 764 has turned abuse into currency. It spread through Discord, Telegram, and gaming platforms—built around “lorebooks,” collections of coerced violence traded for status. In a strange twist, this harm group has connections to cybercrime groups we've covered on this show before. Note: I was recording in an office, which between that and the subject matter, explains why my tone is pretty hushed in this one. 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

We discuss a schism years in the making — the infamous imageboard 4chan gets hacked by its own offshoot, Soyjak.party, in a breach that exposed moderator identities, source code, and shattered the myth of online anonymity. Then, we look at Cluely — an AI tool built by a suspended student to help users “cheat” on job interviews — and the viral campaign pitching it as a revolution. Is it a tech breakthrough, a social bluff, or both? 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 . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A tech worker stumbles upon mass fraud and brings receipts, a flag football prank goes very right, a teenager uses Net Send and gets in trouble — but not as much as the person they're in trouble with, and a guy almost sends his pal on a "Taken" style revenge mission to Kosovo. 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.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 when institutions cross the line between protecting kids and controlling them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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, but we’re in the process of pumping the brakes on the ads and keeping our reads faster. 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.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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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

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 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

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 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

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 podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 checkout.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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 bunch of money on fire producing a film, let me know. Hope you had a happy holiday and a festive new year. Safe travels if you’re on the road, and if you’re home, I hope you’re relaxing. Enjoy The Phantom Orchestra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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