We will interrupt our usual programming for the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast to take a look at a new documentary about the Kuril Islands.

The documentary From Kurils with Love, is a new project from Kaspersky’s Tomorrow Unlocked that takes a look at the Kuril Islands. 

For this podcast, I sit down with my coworkers Alejandro Arango and Povel Torudd who were on the expedition and were involved in the production of the documentary. During our 35+ minute conversation, we touch on everything from where the Kurils are and why they are important to living on a boat with strangers to what’s next for Kaspersky. For more information or to see the full documentary, please click on the links below.

Since it is 2020, and an election year in the US, Dave and I kick off this week’s Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast by looking at Russian troll farms.

On this story, the FBI laid a tip to Facebook, who in turn took down a number of accounts tied to the Internet Research Agency. It seems that this may have stopped the accounts before the disinformation spice could flow. From there, we stay in the land of fakeness, however we jump from news to fake Amazon reviews. This deep dive from the media exposed some interesting things about product reviews on the ecommerce giant in the UK at least.

Our third story stays on the topic of things that are fake. Unlike politics and reviews, this story takes a look at AI and Deep Fakes. Microsoft has developed a technology that will help fight Deep Fakes. To close out the podcast, we look at some new legislature in the UK that should help protect the data for kids using apps.

Dave and I kick off the 158th edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast, by looking at some malware that – gasp – is now on Macs.

In a new post, Patrick Wardle talks about how Shlayer malware was actually approved by Apple. So much for Macs get no viruses. From there, we head to a story that is almost made for a TV or Netflix movie. The tale looks at espionage and how the FBI and Tesla halted a cyberattack.

Our third story heads to the gaming sector and the illicit marketplace for Fortnite accounts. From there, we head into a vulnerability in Slack. To close things out, we look at an advisory from the FBI where older daters are being targeted in a scam.

For the 157th episode of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast, Dave and I jump to both sides of the Atlantic for some fun and interesting stories.

We start off looking into charges that the former CSO of Uber is facing. According to the allegations, there was hush money paid and also some lying to investigators and suppressing evidence. From there, we stay in the States and look at the University of Utah who paid cybercriminals after a ransomware attack.

The third story jumps across the pond to a bit of a Passw0rd1 problem for Home Office. You see, this agency had a bit of a snafu when their Passw0rd1 was displayed on a flip chart in one of their office windows for the world to see. We close out the podcast by looking into a new lawsuit against Zoom. The folks arguing that the marketing of the company, especially around the word encryption, was a bit misleading.

Dave and I kick off the 156th edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast, by talking about one of our favorite types of alcohol.

You see, while Dave likes his Jack Daniel’s, we are not talking mixed drinks. Rather, we discuss how the parent company of the US Bourbon, Brown-Forman, has suffered a ransomware attack. This attack continues the trend of big companies getting hit with ransomware. Our second story dives into the new to us industry of dropshipping. This business seems to have people making money off of people looking to buy products pushed by influencers or knock off sites. To us, sounds like a pyramid scheme where the consumer is the one who will suffer. From there, we jump to high tea at the Ritz in London. This case is an interesting scam that our affluent readers will want to keep an eye on.

For our fourth story, we take a look at the potential GDPR impact of an issue of data storage. To close out the podcast, we head to the land down under and a snafu involving credentials being shared on live TV.

For the 155th episode of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast, Jeff and I talk about the recent Canon ransomware attack & much more.

The first story we look at is how some US lawyers are asking the Californian DMV why (and how) they’re making $50M USD a year selling driving license data to third parties.  From there, we look at recent news that the U.S government is giving away $10M USD to information around election hacking.

Moving into the gaming world, the next story is a look at a “vigilante” in the gaming world who’s hacking the hackers (so to speak).  GamerDoc has made a name for himself exposing cheats and cheaters in the FPS shooter gaming world and it seems cheat developers are none too pleased.

Finally, we look at a story that should never have been: the alleged Twitter hacker was summoned to a virtual court summons, but things soon turned sour when zoom-bombers invaded, shouting and broadcasting pornography.  The session was quickly adjourned.

For the 154th episode of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast, Dave and I spend most of our time talking about ransomware and gaming.

The first story we look at is the latest with Garmin and their recent battle with Evil Corp and WastedLocker. While this story is still developing, there could be more to this in the coming weeks. From there, we stay on the topic of ransomware with a new report on LG and Xerox being hit as well. Both of these companies appear to have been hit by the Maze gang and have seen their data published by the gang online. The third story stays on the topic and looks at CWT’s recent bout with ransomware.

From there, we hop into the gaming world. We start off discussing the world record for speedrunning that was set using Kaspersky Internet Security on Doom Eternal. We then welcome back Maria Namestnikova of our GReAT team to discuss security and gaming. To close out the podcast, we discuss a refund that Google is giving out.

To start episode 153 of the Transatlantic Cable podcast, Dave and Jeff look back on four years of the NoMoreRansom initiative – Kaspersky, which is one of the four founding members has helped millions from paying ransomware fees.

From there, they look at how the recent Garmin ransomware hack has affected flying thanks to flyGarmin being knocked off-line during the attack. They also look at how the US government is trying (once again) to add back-doors into encrypted messages and traffic.

To wrap up, they look at recent news around the Twitter breach showing that around 1,000 people had access to ‘high-profile’ accounts.

To start the 152nd episode of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast, Dave and I talk about a new threat to fast charging devices.

The BadPower attack, sees firmware of fast charging devices altered in a manner that literally fries the devices using it. From there, we head into the legal end of the hacking of Ripoff Report. This also looks at the pending legal issues that the hacker faces in the States. The third story of the pod jumps into the cyber-world where China is proposing some changes for the Internet.

We then sit down with Maria Namestnikova of our Global Research and Analysis team (GReAT) to discuss parenting in Covid times and things that families can do to stay engaged with everything remote. To close out the podcast, we stick to the family theme by taking a look at a new guide from Lego on tips for kids to stay safe online.

Dave and I kick off this week’s edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast, we look into the conviction of the LinkedIn hacker.

While we talk a lot on this podcast on data breaches and hacking, but this story was a bit of nostalgia. From there, we hit on a pair of stories on TikTok. The first story is the one that will make you go hmmm. Recently both the Republican and Democratic national committees have warned their members to delete TikTok from their devices or and to avoid using it because of “security concerns,” or, if you read between the lines, that it is from China. We then stay on the TikTok topic and how Amazon sent out an internal email to remove the app from corporate devices.

After that, we hop into the real-life James Bond moment where we look into the work done by Mitre for the US government. To close out the podcast, we look at a robot being rolled out in Siberia to help Russian citizens.

For the 150th episode of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable Podcast, Dave and I start by looking at how EU authorities were able to crack into an encrypted communications platform used by criminals.

This joint operation by multiple law enforcement organizations, saw over 700 arrests tied to criminal activities. From there, we head to India and the geopolitical tension between the country and China. In this instance, the collateral damage of this are influencers, more specifically those who tie their living to TikTok which has been banned by the Indian government. For our third story, we keep in the influencer space where Ramon Olorunwa has been extradited from the United Arab Emirates to the United States. You see, his lavish influencer lifestyle was allegedly funded by cybercrime. To close things out, we look at how Evil Corp is now targeting American companies with remote workers.

For the 149th instalment of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast, Jeff and I look at how (and why) the Israeli government has saw fit to use fish to help fend off cyber-security attacks. We also tackle the thorny issue of TikTok privacy and how they were caught with their hand in the cookie-jar, again.

From there we move to more interesting news as it seems in the near future, Google will pay for you to read pay-walled news. Also on the podcast this week is a more serious look at why and how Facebook hacked into the secure operating system TAILS, and to no surprise – a lot of people aren’t happy.

To kick off the 148th edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast, Dave and I hop into a interesting topic. For those of you who have been on Instagram, Twitter or other social media sites, you have probably heard of OnlyFans.

For those who are unaware, this is a site where users can pay a content producer for exclusive or private videos. Often these images or videos are of the adult nature. However, as with many subscription services there is often an illicit market, this one is no different. From there, we jump deeper into the online world of Warcraft. This story looks at the bot mafias wreaking havoc in the community.

Yeah, I seriously types bot mafia – that is not lost on me. The third story of the week looks at some changes that Apple is making in Safari that could make privacy more up front. The PSA streak continues for the fourth tale of the week – Adobe is advising people to uninstall Flash before its end of life. To close out, we take a look at a story that was birthed after a protest in the recent weeks in the US. The story looks at how the FBI caught a person who lit a cop car on fire during one of the protests due to some digital sleuthing.

For the 147th installment of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast, Dave and I have a fairly strong law and order feel.

To kick things off, we look to the UK. Similar to our discussion on Singapore’s Covid-19 app, the NHS looks to have some working out to do on their app before rolling it out. We then hang onto another popular story of 2020 prior to the pandemic – US cities hit with ransomware. In this case, it was the city of Knoxville, Tennessee.

For the third story of the week, we take a look at facial recognition. This week, the controversy swings from the technology itself to what entities tech heavyweights will no longer sell to. Following that discussion, we head to the world of cryptocurrency. In this bizarre tale, we have everything from carwashes to money laundering to the courtroom. This is one you should really take a read into. Our final story stays in the realm of real crime drama. The article that we discuss talks about some cyber-stalking done on behalf of eBay executives to an online pub that was critical of the company.

On this week’s episode of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast, Dave and I jump across a wide array of stories and also end on a lighter note than usual.

For our first story, we jump across the world to Japan and into the world of automobiles. Now, we aren’t talking smart cars or car hacking, but rather, classic infosec. It appears that Honda is currently under attack from Snake ransomware. After this, we hop over to the UK where we look at the state of IoT appliances and also what the term “lifetime updates” really means.

We leave the kitchen and head into the claims that Google violated US wiretap laws with their “incognito Browsing.” Our fourth story takes us back to Asia, and the country of Singapore. This one also drives us back to Covid-19 and the country’s thoughts on rolling out a wearable tracker for the citizens of the country. To close things out, we go into the word of copyright and what could go wrongs in regard to Space Force between Netflix and the US Government.

Dave and I kick off this week’s edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast, we discuss disinformation in the US in the wake of current events.

With the focus on the news in the States, we highlight the need for those educating themselves to make sure that they are reading solid information from reputable sources. There is a lot of misinformation being produced and shared, so we kindly ask you to think before sharing. If something sounds a bit off, make sure that you are looking at reputable sources – don’t be a source of disinformation.

We stay on this topic with an alleged hacking of the Minneapolis Police Department. Despite the public reports, it seems that there is more than meets the eye according to Troy Hunt. From there, we head across the pond to discuss the NHS and some Corona-tracing. Unfortunately, while the thought is in the right place, it seems like the security is not where it needs to be. Following that story, we dive deeper into a computer and boy is it hot. This story looks at the victim side of crypto-mining and the side effects that can happen for a lapse in security. We close out the podcast with a look at a hacked Power Glove to make music.

https://youtu.be/G-NMeMsl3hU

A lot of hype has generated around the Chinese vision of social ratings. People on both sides of the aisle have chimed in. However one thing that is often left off the table is that social ratings are around all of us whether we like it or not.

For this edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast, Dave and I sit down with Marco Preuss to discuss some recent research from the company in regards to social ratings.

During our extensive conversation, we discuss the current state of travel, the potential new hurdles, the ethics of social ratings and more.

We close the podcast on a different note and looking at the use of people’s selfies in masks that are shared on social networks being used in the training of facial recognition technologies.

We kick off the 143rd edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast looking at a coronavirus driven scam to unemployment in the US.

The US Secret Service has issued an alert that warns states that there are states currently seeing an increase in fraudulent activity on unemployment insurance claims. There is also an interesting look at how the money is laundered from there. Following that story, we hop into the film industry. A new study highlights that there is an increase of illegal downloads of Hollywood hits.

For our third story, we hop over to the UK to look at a snafu with a Google Doc from the NHS. According to a report, a security snafu on the sharing link allowed people to see the future roadmap for the group’s Covid-19 app. Our final story of the week, we head back to the US in particular, Washington, D.C. In this story, the Senate voted to extend the powers of the FBI in terms of looking into citizens’ online activity.

Following the story, we discuss some hot items outside of the security space including the Wind of Change podcast, Pandemic and a mash-up between Star Wars and Top Gun.

Welcome to the 142nd edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast, Dave and I tackle a number of pressing stories and have a conversation with one of the company’s regional managing directors.

We start off the podcast by looking at a data breach at a dating site. Earlier in the week, the Shiny Hunters made over 70 million credentials available for sale on the Dark Web, including ones for dating site Zoosk. If you are a user of the site, be sure to change your password and if you have an account and don’t use it, you should consider closing the account.

Following that story, we head over to India where the country’s COVID-19 tracking app has come under scrutiny. Despite being downloaded 90 million times, it seems that if someone wanted to, they could focus into whom in their neighborhood was infected with the virus. We stay on the virus topic where we discuss the news of state-sponsored attacks on firms researching vaccines for the virus. After that, we take a moment to acknowledge the 15th birthday of the one and only Leroy Jenkins.

After that nostalgic moment, we take a break from the regularly scheduled programing to chat with Rob Cataldo, the managing director for Kaspersky in North America. During our chat, we look at the challenges for managing a team during the quarantine, threat intelligence and ransomware in the region. After talking with Cataldo, we wrap up looking at the latest on Zoom and how they are addressing privacy and security concerns.

We kick off our conversation with Mr. Jacoby by looking into what he has been up to since we last spoke with him on this podcast. After that, we dive into his adaptation to what he is calling a covidcation before jumping into his two presentations at SAS at Home (an online version of our traditional Security Analyst Summit). While discussing that, we look at what hackers have changed and how humans are still lazy.

For those regular listeners to the podcast, you may get some laughs out of David mocking my lack of physical fitness and also what things people can do to get through the quarantine and more.

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