When you think you have seen it all, the Internet comes back and proves you wrong. That is also the case when it comes to this week’s episode of the Transatlantic Cable.

To start off the podcast, Ahmed, Dave and I discuss a new problem that Roblox is facing. Now, we aren’t talking bugs or trivial threats, but rather some adult conversations and content happening on the platform for kids. While the company notes that there are problems that they are going to address, it still begs to the question as to <b>HOW</b> and <b>WHY</b> this is happening. From there, we stay on the question of <b>WHY</b> as another platform has some seedy happenings. In this case, we discuss a sexual assault on the Metaverse.

https://youtu.be/-H_zeJ2c3Eg

From there, we revisit the topic of Apple’s Air Tags that we discussed two episodes back. It seems they are adding more safety measures in place for users to protect themselves from unauthorized tracking. Our final story of the episode looks into the hackers who are helping users who’ve forgotten their digital wallet passwords access their “missing” cryptocurrency.

If you liked what you heard, please consider subscribing and sharing with your friends. For more information on the stories we covered, see the links below:

• Roblox: The children's game with a sex problem
• Woman recalls 'gang rape' in metaverse; concerns grow over making VR platforms safe from sexual predators
• Apple moves to stop AirTag tracking misuse
• ‘Hackers helped me find my lost Bitcoin fortune’

For the 238th episode of the Transatlantic Cable, Dave, Jeff and Ahmed peruse some of the more interesting cyber-related stories of the week. They start by looking at a light-hearted story around Facebook’s metaverse, weddings and Covid.

From there, they focus on two cryptocurrency stories. The first one looks at a notorious influencer who allegedly scammed his followers out of $500,000 via a rug-pull, and now won’t return the funds. The second story is perhaps a little more light-hearted as it looks at recent research that suggests having ‘crypto’ or ‘NFT’ in your dating profile gives you the edge in the dating scene – call me sceptical on this one.

The last two stories look at North Korea. The first is an interview with an alleged hacker who says they took down North Korea’s internet (all of it); and the second, from the BBC, looks at a UN report suggesting the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is using stolen crypto to fund their nuclear missile program.

Read all the stories below 👇

➡️ My big fat digital wedding: Couple plan India's 'first metaverse marriage'

➡️ Notorious YouTube Streamer Stole $500,000 From Fans In Crypto Scheme

➡️ Owning cryptocurrency may make you more desirable on the dating scene

➡️ One American Hacker Suddenly Took Down North Korea’s Internet

➡️ North Korea: Missile programme funded through stolen crypto

For the 237th episode of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast, Ahmed and I ask Dave to dive back into the NFT sea for a pair of stories, both of which center around OpenSea.

The first story comes to us from Vice where Joseph Cox looks into an issue where NFTs may be running third party code without the user’s awareness – in some instances obtaining a IP address for people viewing an NFT. The second story discusses a bug in OpenSea where hackers are able to buy NFTs for previous prices and then flip them for more – all without the current owner’s knowledge.

We then shift focus to Apple to discuss the company’s new response to Air Tags being used for stalking purposes. The question is though, why wasn’t this safety guide already around?

https://youtu.be/jjt9Qx9MBPk

We then jump into the metaverse and debate whether or not this is something that the world really needs to happen. To close out the podcast, we discuss Signal’s new move to incorporate anonymous payments into their future products. 

If you liked what you heard, please consider subscribing and sharing with your friends. For more information on the stories we covered, see the links below:

• This NFT on OpenSea Will Steal Your IP Address
• OpenSea Bug Opens Platform To Hack
• Apple unveils AirTag safety guide amid stalker fears
• Big Tech Needs to Stop Trying to Make Their Metaverse Happen
• How Signal is playing with fire

To kick off the latest edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast, Ahmed and I ask Dave the status of his Covid-19 NFT. Unfortunately, he was too busy recovering from the actual virus to create his own NFT.

However, we stay on the topic of NFTs for a pair of articles. The first is with our friends on Twitter and how users can now have their profile picture be of an NFT that they have purchased. If that wasn’t enough, we then head to Britain where Julian Lennon is selling off some Beatles historical relics, well at least a digital version of them. While we debate the merits of the auction, we head into another story that is not really up for debate. Instead, we discuss a move from the Russian Federation to ban cryptocurrencies.

From Russia, we head back to the UK where lawmakers are taking the battle to weaken encryption to a new level. In a new campaign, those attacking encryption are using the guise of weakening encryption to protect the children. To close out the podcast, we discuss a report of rising fear within the ransomware community following the REvil arrests.

To start off this week’s episode of the Transatlantic Cable podcast, Ahmed, Dave, and I talk cryptocurrency. Unlike most of our chats on the digital currency, we focus on the criminal aspect of it.

More accurately, our conversation centers on a new report of the nearly $400 million North Korea is alleged to have stolen in the past year. We have some fun going through the report, but we also discuss its implications.

Staying in the world of cybercrime, we then discuss the further-ranging implications of an FBI honeypot operation that involved rather more “anonymous” phones than initially reported.

Our third story heads over to Eastern Europe, where Russia’s FSB has arrested members of the REvil gang after getting good intel from the FBI. This story has been a long-time coming but is also somehow surprising.

We then head to a weird story that might as well have come from The Quibbler. A lawsuit claims that Facebook, being free, is a monopoly. Of all the things to sue Facebook over! Ahmed and I have a bit of fun at David’s expense with this story. We close out the podcast with a pair of stories discussing some more bad news for the world of NFTs.

With the New Year firmly behind us, Dave, Jeff and Ahmed start to look at some of the more quirky stories of the last few days in the latest episode of the Transatlantic Cable.

To kick things off, we look at the roller-coaster that is the price of bitcoin (and to a larger extent, crypto prices in general) and wonder how much further things can slide, from there we discuss the recent news that SEGA isn’t going to pursue NFTs (for now) due to the negative feedback from gamers. Following that, we look at a story that beggar’s belief: it involves passing wind, NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) and thousands of dollars – no, I’m not making this up – go check it out yourself with the link below.

From there we look at a story that hackers are trying to penetrate U.S government institutions by posting USBs loaded with malware in the hopes that employees will insert them into computers to find out what’s inside.

Also on this week’s episode is an exclusive interview with Fabio Assolini and Santiago Pontiroli from Kaspersky GReAT to talk about financial predictions in 2022.

Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter @Kaspersky! 

Happy New Year and welcome to the first Transatlantic Cable podcast of 2022. With Dave still out, Ahmed and I take on this episode as a two-man show.

To kick things off, we reflect on the Christmas holiday and this year’s “it” toy, the Chatter Bluetooth Telephone from Fisher-Price. This toy is pretty cool, and it lets users actually talk with it over Bluetooth. Unfortunately, the connection is not as secure as one would hope.

From there, we head to the world of mobile chat apps for a story about a malicious downloader tied to Telegram and people downloading from unofficial sources.

The third story we talk about has to do with Spiderman No Way Home — no spoilers here, just the predictable malware, this time of the crypto-mining variety.

To close out the podcast, we discuss a new vulnerability affecting some people who connect to Apple HomeKit.

This week on the Transatlantic Cable podcast, our good friend Ahmed is a bit under the weather, so we return temporarily to our original podcast line-up.

We jump right in with the story everyone’s been talking about: Log4J. We start out with an overview of what is going on there and then hop into a second story about botnets leveraging the vulnerability. After that, we discuss a case of fat fingers causing an NFT to be sold for $3,000 — sounds like no big deal, but it was valued at $300,000. Once that cheap sales went through, the item was flipped for a whole lot more money. Talk about a whoopsie.

From there, our discussion shifts to Instagram. Prior to its grilling by the US Congress, the social network announced some changes to the platform. The changes aim to improve users’ experiences and avoid some of the associated harms such as bullying, damage to self-image, and more. Dave and I debate a bit whether it’s just a PR stunt or something that will really benefit society.

Our fourth story has us diving into a lawsuit Google filed against some hackers. The problem is that it appears largely symbolic.

For our final story, we head to China, where a man stole more than $20,000 from an ex-girlfriend by unlocking her phone and bank account while she was sleeping — creepy! And to close out the podcast for the year, we offer some tips for anyone who gets new electronics over the holidays.

After a brief hiatus in old Constantinople, Ahmed and I rejoin David just in time for the 131st edition of the Transatlantic Cable podcast.

To kick things off, we dive into The Sandbox metaverse and a sale of land to be the neighbor of Snoop Dogg – yes the dogfather. Believe it or not, one of the NFTs purchased for this digital version sold for a whopping $450K – so yes, you read that right, the cost of a home in many US markets for a plot in the Snoopverse; what a time to be alive.

From there, we head into a look into Facebook’s removal of their self-imposed ban on cryptocurrency ads on their platforms. After a brief quiz break, we jump into a pair of stories that discuss disinformation and what the platforms of Facebook and Twitter are doing to battle it. Spoiler – not enough.

To close out the podcast, we head to the UK, where scammers are using the Omicron variant of Covid-19 to lure people into a phishing scheme.

Welcome to the 230th episode of the Transatlantic Cable podcast. Due to travel commitments, Ahmed and Jeff are unable to attend this week’s episode. Filling in is the ever dependable Jag.

To start, we look at an interesting story look at the Australian government’s impending policy, which will force social media companies to ‘unmask’ online trolls. From there, we look at a story around facial recognition for goats in China (yes, really.)

After that, rather unique story, David sits down with David Emm to talk about the recent Kaspersky GReAT APT review. After that, we look at two stories from the BBC, the first around a crypto currency called JRR Token (no relation to JRR Tolkien, according to the creators) and the final story around a proposed government legislation in the U.K which will ban default passwords on smart devices. Smart thinking.