Cybersecurity Today

CISA Orders Emergency Patch for Actively Exploited Dell Flaw; Texas Sues TP-Link; Massive ID Verification Data Leak; SSA Database Leak Allegations
Host Jim Love covers four cybersecurity stories: 
Cybersecurity Today  would like to thank Meter for their support in bringing you this podcast. Meter delivers a complete networking stack, wired, wireless and cellular in one integrated solution that's built for performance and scale.  You can find them at Meter.com/cst
CISA ordered federal civilian agencies to patch an actively exploited critical Dell RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines vulnerability (CVE-2026-2769) within three days, citing hard-coded credentials that allow unauthenticated root access and links to a China-aligned threat cluster; Texas Attorney General filed suit against TP-Link alleging deceptive security and origin claims and risks tied to Chinese state-linked threats, while TP-Link denies the allegations and says it operates independently, stores U.S. user data on AWS, and bases core operations in the U.S.; researchers found an unsecured MongoDB database tied to AI-powered identity verification provider ID Merit exposing nearly 1 billion records with sensitive personal data, attributed to misconfiguration rather than compromise of the AI systems; and a MarketWatch report describes whistleblower Chuck Borges alleging SSA master data was copied to a cloud environment without oversight, contrasted by the Social Security Commissioner stating the core Numident database remained secure, with Love noting no confirmed public evidence but expressing concern about the implications if such foundational data were compromised.
00:00 Sponsor Message: Meter's Full-Stack Networking
00:19 Headlines: Dell Exploit, TP-Link Lawsuit, Massive Data Leak, SSA Claims
00:45 Urgent Patch Order: Actively Exploited Dell RecoverPoint CVE
02:19 Texas Sues TP-Link Over Router Security & China-Ties Allegations
03:31 AI Identity Verification Leak: Nearly 1 Billion Records Exposed
05:07 Did SSA Data Leak? Whistleblower vs. Official Denial
06:54 Host Take: What If the "Foundational" Database Was Compromised?
07:37 Wrap-Up + Sponsor Thanks and Where to Book a Demo

Info Stealers Target OpenClaw, a Robot Vacuum API Flaw Exposes Thousands, Best Buy Fraud Shows Zero Trust Context, and Canada Goose Data Leaked via Supplier
The episode covers multiple security incidents and lessons. Hudson Rock details how an info stealer malware infection can vacuum OpenClaw data, including authentication tokens, master keys, device private cryptographic keys, and the agent-defining soul.md file that can reveal a "mirror" of a user's life; the attack was not targeted, raising concerns about upcoming dedicated OpenClaw-stealing modules. A hobbyist coder using an AI coding tool to reverse-engineer DJI Romo communications unintentionally accessed roughly 7,000 robot vacuums in 24 countries, enabling live camera and microphone access and floor-plan generation due to missing messaging-level access controls; DJI also shares infrastructure with portable home battery stations and initially claimed the flaw was fixed before a live demonstration showed it was not. Two Best Buy cases illustrate that Zero Trust must consider behavior and context: a Florida employee allegedly used a manager override code 149 times from March–December 2024 to buy discounted electronics, costing about $120,000, while a Georgia case involved over $40,000 in merchandise leaving a store over two weeks amid claims of blackmail. Finally, ShinyHunters leaked about 600,000 Canada Goose customer records, but Canada Goose found no breach in its systems; the data was attributed to a third-party payment processor breach from August 2025, with records largely dating from 2021–2023, underscoring supply-chain risk and ongoing fraud/phishing potential. The episode is sponsored by Meter, which provides an integrated wired, wireless, and cellular networking stack for enterprises.
00:00 Sponsor: Meter + Today's Cybersecurity Headlines
00:44 Info-Stealer Jackpot: OpenClaw Tokens, Keys & 'soul.md' Exposed
03:17 DIY App, Real-World Disaster: 7,000 Robot Vacuums Exposed via DJI Servers
05:34 Best Buy Insider Fraud: Why Zero Trust Needs Behavior Monitoring
07:36 Canada Goose Leak: When a Third-Party Payment Processor Gets Breached
09:28 Wrap-Up + Sponsor Message (Meter)

This episode covers multiple active threats and security changes. It warns of an actively exploited critical BeyondTrust remote access vulnerability (CVE-2026-1731, CVSS 9.9) enabling pre-authentication remote code execution in Remote Support and Privileged Remote Access, noting SaaS was patched while on-prem deployments require urgent manual updates and may already be compromised. Microsoft details an evolution of the ClickFix social engineering technique where victims are tricked into running NSLookup commands that use attacker-controlled DNS responses as a malware staging channel, leading to payload delivery (including a Python-based RAT) and persistence via startup shortcuts, alongside increased Lumma Stealer activity. 
Cybersecurity Today  would like to thank Meter for their support in bringing you this podcast. Meter delivers a complete networking stack, wired, wireless and cellular in one integrated solution that's built for performance and scale.  You can find them at Meter.com/cst
Researchers also report Mac-focused campaigns abusing AI-generated content and malicious search ads to push copy-paste terminal commands that install an info stealer (MaxSync) targeting Keychain, browsers, and crypto wallets. T
The show describes fake recruiter campaigns targeting developers with coding tests containing malicious dependencies on repositories like NPM and PyPI, linked to the "Gala" operation and nearly 200 packages. Finally, it reviews NPM's authentication overhaul after a supply-chain worm incident—revoking classic long-lived tokens, moving to short-lived session credentials, encouraging MFA and OIDC trusted publishing—while noting remaining risks such as MFA phishing, non-mandatory MFA for unpublish, and the continued ability to create long-lived tokens.
00:00 Sponsor: Meter + Today's Cybersecurity Headlines
00:48 Urgent Patch: BeyondTrust Remote Access RCE (CVE-2026-1731) Actively Exploited
02:45 ClickFix Evolves: DNS Lookups (nslookup) Used as Malware Staging
04:34 Mac Malware via AI Search Results: Fake Terminal Commands Deliver Info-Stealer
06:08 Fake Recruiters, Real Malware: Coding Tests Poison Dev Environments
07:19 NPM Security Overhaul After Supply-Chain Worm—What's Better, What Still Risks
09:11 Wrap-Up, Thanks, and Sponsor Message

This special Valentine's Day episode of Cybersecurity Today examines romance scams (often called pig butchering) and how fraudsters exploit trust, vulnerability, and loneliness. 
Host Jim Love speaks with McAfee Head of Threat Research Abhishek Karnik  about new findings showing the scale and demographics of these scams, including widespread encounters with fake or AI-generated profiles, frequent financial solicitations, and that men are also heavily impacted. 
Cybersecurity Today  would like to thank Meter for their support in bringing you this podcast. Meter delivers a complete networking stack, wired, wireless and cellular in one integrated solution that's built for performance and scale.  You can find them at Meter.com/cst
The episode features survivor Beth Highland's detailed account of being manipulated via Tinder through long-term messaging, an AI video call, forged documents, and a crypto payout scheme that led her to send about $26,000 via Bitcoin ATMs before her financial advisor—trained in romance fraud—helped her recognize the scam and stop further losses, including a demanded $50,000 "activation fee." Beth discusses emotional aftereffects, stigma, reporting, red flags, and her book, "Diary of a Romance Scam: 
When Swiping Right Goes Wrong," along with her advocacy work. The conversation broadens to the role of AI in making scams more realistic (deepfakes, voice/video, document generation), the importance of privacy and not overposting, involving trusted family/advisors, institutional training and intervention points along the fraud "kill chain," and using technology and education to detect and reduce scams.
LINKS 
Beth Hyland's Book - Diary of a Romance Scam: When Swiping Right Goes Wrong
https://www.amazon.com/Diary-Romance-Scam-Swiping-Right/dp/1662962843

00:00 Sponsor: Meter's all-in-one networking stack
00:18 Valentine's Day on the dark side: heartbreak meets cybercrime
02:15 Romance scams ("pig butchering") are everywhere—who gets targeted
04:15 McAfee research: fake profiles, AI, and the real victim demographics
07:07 How scammers hook you: profiling, psychology, and long-game manipulation
09:01 Beth's story begins: post-divorce, isolation, and trying Tinder
10:36 The perfect match: mirroring, fast intimacy, and early red flags
14:32 AI video call + the push-pull breakup: emotional control tactics
17:09 The money trap: Qatar story, bank access, and Bitcoin ATM payments
23:34 The $50K "activation fee" and the wake-up call from a financial advisor
26:25 Cutting him off—and getting pulled back in by guilt and gaslighting
30:18 How to help victims: listening, tools, and where to get support
33:17 Turning pain into purpose: Beth's book and grieving a romance scam
34:47 Turning Pain Into Purpose: Supporting Romance-Scam Survivors
35:56 Stop Blaming Victims: Changing the Language Around Scams
38:38 "It Can Happen to Anybody": Why Smart People Get Hooked
40:58 Social Engineering 101: How Scams Exploit Different Emotions
42:14 Why McAfee Is Focusing on Consumer Scams (and the AI Factor)
45:43 AI Deepfakes & Low-Cost Tools: The New Scam Industrialization
49:19 Oversharing, Spearphishing & Replay Attacks: How Victims Get Retargeted
53:24 Practical Red Flags: Meeting in Person, Isolation Tactics, Family Checks
57:08 Training the "Kill Chain": Banks, Cashiers, Advisors & Early Intervention
01:00:33 Tech Fighting Tech: Detection, Identity Protection & Digital Assistants
01:02:57 What's Next: Agentic AI, Bigger Attack Surfaces & Trust-and-Safety by Design
01:08:03 Wrap-Up: Start the Conversation, Resources, and Final Thanks

This special Valentine's Day episode of Cybersecurity Today examines romance scams (often called pig butchering) and how fraudsters exploit trust, vulnerability, and loneliness. 
Host Jim Love speaks with McAfee Head of Threat Research Abhishek Karnik  about new findings showing the scale and demographics of these scams, including widespread encounters with fake or AI-generated profiles, frequent financial solicitations, and that men are also heavily impacted. 
Cybersecurity Today  would like to thank Meter for their support in bringing you this podcast. Meter delivers a complete networking stack, wired, wireless and cellular in one integrated solution that's built for performance and scale.  You can find them at Meter.com/cst
The episode features survivor Beth Highland's detailed account of being manipulated via Tinder through long-term messaging, an AI video call, forged documents, and a crypto payout scheme that led her to send about $26,000 via Bitcoin ATMs before her financial advisor—trained in romance fraud—helped her recognize the scam and stop further losses, including a demanded $50,000 "activation fee." Beth discusses emotional aftereffects, stigma, reporting, red flags, and her book, "Diary of a Romance Scam: 
When Swiping Right Goes Wrong," along with her advocacy work. The conversation broadens to the role of AI in making scams more realistic (deepfakes, voice/video, document generation), the importance of privacy and not overposting, involving trusted family/advisors, institutional training and intervention points along the fraud "kill chain," and using technology and education to detect and reduce scams.
LINKS 
Beth Hyland's Book - Diary of a Romance Scam: When Swiping Right Goes Wrong
https://www.amazon.com/Diary-Romance-Scam-Swiping-Right/dp/1662962843

00:00 Sponsor: Meter's all-in-one networking stack
00:18 Valentine's Day on the dark side: heartbreak meets cybercrime
02:15 Romance scams ("pig butchering") are everywhere—who gets targeted
04:15 McAfee research: fake profiles, AI, and the real victim demographics
07:07 How scammers hook you: profiling, psychology, and long-game manipulation
09:01 Beth's story begins: post-divorce, isolation, and trying Tinder
10:36 The perfect match: mirroring, fast intimacy, and early red flags
14:32 AI video call + the push-pull breakup: emotional control tactics
17:09 The money trap: Qatar story, bank access, and Bitcoin ATM payments
23:34 The $50K "activation fee" and the wake-up call from a financial advisor
26:25 Cutting him off—and getting pulled back in by guilt and gaslighting
30:18 How to help victims: listening, tools, and where to get support
33:17 Turning pain into purpose: Beth's book and grieving a romance scam
34:47 Turning Pain Into Purpose: Supporting Romance-Scam Survivors
35:56 Stop Blaming Victims: Changing the Language Around Scams
38:38 "It Can Happen to Anybody": Why Smart People Get Hooked
40:58 Social Engineering 101: How Scams Exploit Different Emotions
42:14 Why McAfee Is Focusing on Consumer Scams (and the AI Factor)
45:43 AI Deepfakes & Low-Cost Tools: The New Scam Industrialization
49:19 Oversharing, Spearphishing & Replay Attacks: How Victims Get Retargeted
53:24 Practical Red Flags: Meeting in Person, Isolation Tactics, Family Checks
57:08 Training the "Kill Chain": Banks, Cashiers, Advisors & Early Intervention
01:00:33 Tech Fighting Tech: Detection, Identity Protection & Digital Assistants
01:02:57 What's Next: Agentic AI, Bigger Attack Surfaces & Trust-and-Safety by Design
01:08:03 Wrap-Up: Start the Conversation, Resources, and Final Thanks