Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons Podcast

Available Episodes

5 of 458

40 Years of Phrack
Way before the world wide web, computer enthusiasts were sharing information via digital bulletin board systems (BBS). This amounted to attaching a modem to your home computer and allowing other people to dial in from their computers (one at a time) to download “textfiles” and share “warez” – or cracked software applications, often games. This scene gave rise to several electronic “zines” that published articles on hacking and phone phreaking techniques. One of the most popular zines, Phrack, was started in 1985 and is still going strong forty years later. Today we’ll discuss the colorful and storied history of this pioneering zine with two Phrack editors, skyper and TMZ. Interview Notes Phrack magazine: https://phrack.org Phrack Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrack Hacker Manifesto: https://phrack.org/issues/7/3 Smashing the Stack for Fun and Profit (Aleph One): https://phrack.org/issues/49/14 E911 Document Leak: https://phrack.org/issues/24/5 Texfiles archive: http://www.textfiles.com/ DEF CON: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW-D1I27E08 HOPE: https://www.youtube.com/live/7ZeN53mKhbE?t=26726s WHY 2025 talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtyzTsOtx4A WHYcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwY1q3aEFS0 Cap’N Crunch whistle: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3193749 Further Info My book: https://fdsd.me/book My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter Support the mission: https://fdsd.me/support Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch Table of Contents 0:00:13: Intro 0:01:31: Interview setup 0:03:13: Lingo definitions 0:05:32: How did Phrack Magazine start? 0:09:14: How did BBS systems give rise to phone phreaking? 0:15:59: How did Phrack compare to other zines? 0:19:35: How do you define “hacker”? 0:25:10: What goes into making an issue of Phrack? 0:30:00: What’s the story behind Phrack’s famous “hacker manifesto”? 0:33:32: Why was your E911 article so controversial? 0:36:27: What does it mean to “smash the stack”? 0:41:41: What are there ethical issues around releasing hacking tools? 0:45:46: Is the original hacker ethos still alive today? 0:50:18: How has hacking evolved in the last 40 years? 0:52:51: How will AI impact hacking? 0:54:24: Wrap-up 0:56:55: Patron podcast preview 0:57:39: Looking ahead
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59:42
Be Wary of Holiday Scams
With the holiday season come holiday scams – and honestly, just more scammer activity across the board, in general. People are busy and buying lots of stuff, and it’s a time when we’re more vulnerable to schemes to take our money and infect our devices. Today we’ll talk about a few current scams going around and give some solid advice to avoid becoming a victim. In the news: FCC scraps cybersecurity rules for telcos; WhatsApp flaw exposed 3.5B phone numbers; ClickFix scam update; Border Patrol is monitoring US drivers for ‘suspicious’ travel patterns; a tricky Apple Support scam; USPS and EZ-Pass scams; a cool new tool for monitoring your home network for rogue devices; state and local cyber grant program to be renewed; airlines shut down program that sold your flight records; CA court ends electricity surveillance program; also, a few more holiday gift ideas! Article Links Despite Chinese hacks, Trump’s FCC votes to scrap cybersecurity rules for phone and internet companies https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/21/despite-chinese-hacks-trumps-fcc-votes-to-scrap-cybersecurity-rules-for-phone-and-internet-companies/ A Simple WhatsApp Security Flaw Exposed 3.5 Billion Phone Numbers https://www.wired.com/story/a-simple-whatsapp-security-flaw-exposed-billions-phone-numbers/ ClickFix may be the biggest security threat your family has never heard of https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/11/clickfix-may-be-the-biggest-security-threat-your-family-has-never-heard-of/ Border Patrol is monitoring US drivers and detaining those with ‘suspicious’ travel patterns https://apnews.com/article/immigration-border-patrol-surveillance-drivers-ice-trump-9f5d05469ce8c629d6fecf32d32098cd ‘It made my blood run cold’: scammers are targeting Apple users with this devilishly clever trick – here’s how to stay safe https://www.techradar.com/computing/cyber-security/watch-out-apple-fans-this-scary-scam-is-stealing-personal-accounts-with-real-apple-support-tickets Scam USPS and E-Z Pass Texts and Websites – Schneier on Security https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2025/11/scam-usps-and-e-z-pass-texts-and-websites.html Your IP Address Might Be Someone Else’s Problem (And Here’s How to Find Out) https://www.greynoise.io/blog/your-ip-address-might-be-someone-elses-problem Full renewal of state and local cyber grants program passes in House https://therecord.media/state-local-cyber-grants-program-house-passage Airlines Will Shut Down Program That Sold Your Flights Records to Government https://www.404media.co/airlines-will-shut-down-program-that-sold-your-flights-records-to-government/ Victory! Court Ends Dragnet Electricity Surveillance Program in Sacramento https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/11/victory-court-end-dragnet-electricity-surveillance-program-sacramento Best & Worst Gift Guide: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/best-worst-gifts-2025/ All my gift guides: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/category/best-worst-gifts/ Further Info EasyOptOuts 25% discount: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/dragon-hacks-opt-out/ Consumer Reports $10 off: https://www.consumerreports.org/fdsd/ eBay AI settings: https://accountsettings.ebay.com/ai-preferences My book: https://fdsd.me/book My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch Table of Contents 0:00:08: Intro 0:01:34: Quick tidbits 0:05:10: News preview 0:07:02: FCC scraps cybersecurity rules for telcos 0:11:02: WhatsApp Flaw Exposed 3.5B Phone Numbers 0:17:47: ClickFix scam 0:24:53: CBP is monitoring US drivers for ‘suspicious’ travel patterns 0:32:12: Clever Apple Support scam 0:38:05: More scams to watch for 0:40:19: Your IP Address Might Be Someone Else’s Problem 0:47:15: State and local cyber grant program to be renewed 0:49:13: Airlines Shut Down Program That Sold Your Flights Records 0:51:40: CA Court Ends Electricity Surveillance Program 0:55:27: Tip of the Week 1:03:53: Looking ahead 1:06:22: Patron podcast previews 1:07:42: Looking more ahead
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1:08:31
Best & Worst Gifts for 2025!
Holiday shopping season is here! And that must mean that it’s time again for my annual Best & Worst Gift Guide! But this time I’ve recruited some top minds from Consumer Reports to lend their expertise and enlighten us with their tech gift-giving strategies! Yael Grauer, Stacey Higginbotham and Jeff Landale join me for a round table discussion of how to give tech gifts that won’t ruin the security and privacy of your recipients! Interview Notes $10 off Consumer Reports!! https://www.consumerreports.org/fdsd/ Consumer Reports: https://www.consumerreports.org/ Cyber Readiness Report: https://innovation.consumerreports.org/new-report-2025-consumer-cyber-readiness/ Security Planner: https://securityplanner.consumerreports.org/ Vulnerability Disclosure Programs: https://innovation.consumerreports.org/who-ya-gonna-call/ Give Dragon Coupons! https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/give-the-gift-of-security-and-privacy/ Library Freedom Project: https://libraryfreedom.org/ Yael on spyware and iPhone 17: https://innovation.consumerreports.org/apples-new-iphone-memory-protections-safeguards-devices-against-sophisticated-attacks/ Yael interview (Security Planner): https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2025/02/17/security-planner/ Stacey interview (software tethering): https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2024/11/11/cutting-the-software-tether/ iVerify interview: https://podcast.firewallsdontstopdragons.com/2023/11/13/securing-your-smartphone/ Further Info All my Best & Worst guides: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/category/best-worst-gifts/ My book: https://fdsd.me/book My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter Support the mission: https://fdsd.me/support Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch Table of Contents 0:00:15: Intro 0:02:18: What is your tech gift giving philosophy? 0:08:37: What are some worrying tech trends? 0:17:41: What are your tech gift horror stories? 0:22:09: What are your thoughts on giving tech gifts to kids? 0:29:52: What gifts are on your naughty list? 0:42:31: What’s on your nice tech gift list? 0:54:51: How should you handle receiving a bad gift? 1:07:06: Any other hot tips or advice? 1:11:08: What are some great non-tech gifts? 1:17:40: How can Consumer Reports help here? 1:20:39: Wrap-up 1:22:35: Dealing with phone spyware 1:24:35: Newsletter info 1:24:51: IoT vulnerability programs 1:25:04: Give Thanks 1:25:37: Patron podcast preview 1:26:28: Other gift ideas 1:27:27: EasyOptOuts and PayPal 1:28:12: Looking ahead
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1:29:05
Erasing Your Online Data
Data brokers are amassing tons of our personal information, often from public sources. You can try to find all of these brokers and request your data be deleted, but it’s a lot easier to deputize a trustworthy and affordable service to do all that work for you – and to do so on a regular basis. I’ll give you my easy button solution for this. Also in the news: Meta will use your AI sessions to target ads; Google is rolling out agentic AI shopping tools; OpenTable is gathering and sharing your dining habits; Amazon sues Perplexity over their agentic shopping tool; first ever reported AI-orchestrated hacking campaign; EU Commission looks to gut privacy laws; lawmakers want to ban all VPN use; US Senator uses opponents’ can VIN info against them; and new health privacy bill seeks to protect data in apps, smart watches. Article Links Meta won’t allow users to opt out of targeted ads based on AI chats https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/10/meta-wont-allow-users-to-opt-out-of-targeted-ads-based-on-ai-chats/ Google Is Rolling Out ‘Agentic Checkout’ to Make Your Purchases for You https://lifehacker.com/tech/google-is-rolling-out-agentic-checkout Texas Server Says Your Waitstaff Can Now See What Type Of Customer You Are If You Use OpenTable https://brobible.com/culture/article/opentable-ai-customer-profiling/ Amazon sues Perplexity over ‘agentic’ shopping tool https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/perplexity-receives-legal-threat-amazon-over-agentic-ai-shopping-tool-2025-11-04/ Disrupting the first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign https://www.anthropic.com/news/disrupting-AI-espionage Civil society decries digital rights ‘rollback’ as European Commission pushes data protection changes https://therecord.media/civil-society-privacy-rollback Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/11/lawmakers-want-ban-vpns-and-they-have-no-idea-what-theyre-doing Senate Democrats seek to ‘get to bottom’ of Moreno’s car-data collection https://rollcall.com/2025/11/06/senate-democrats-seek-to-get-to-bottom-of-morenos-car-data-collection/ Health privacy bill seeks protections for data collected by apps, smartwatches https://therecord.media/health-privacy-bill-seeks-protections-apps-smartwatches Tip of the Week: Erasing Your Data: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/dragon-hacks-opt-out/ Further Info Ask ARC to delete data and stop sharing: https://www.404media.co/how-to-opt-out-of-airlines-selling-your-travel-data-to-the-government/ My book: https://fdsd.me/book My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch Table of Contents 0:00:07: Intro 0:00:45: News briefs 0:02:57: News preview 0:05:38: Meta won’t let you opt out of AI data gathering 0:15:05: Google Is Rolling Out ‘Agentic Checkout’ 0:20:13: OpenTable gathering and sharing your dining info 0:31:22: Amazon sues Perplexity over ‘agentic’ shopping tool 0:38:57: First reported AI-orchestrated cyber attack 0:51:33: European Commission pushes data protection changes 0:55:15: Lawmakers Want to Ban VPNs 1:04:03: Senator uses VIN info against opponents 1:10:38: Health privacy bill seeks protections for data collected by apps, smartwatches 1:12:43: Tip of the Week 1:16:26: Looking ahead
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1:18:16
Becoming Cyber Resilient
In the US alone, there are tens of thousands of small organizations that are responsible for critical infrastructure and vital community services. Most of them don’t have an IT department let alone a cyber security expert on staff. And yet these organizations are being attacked by cyber criminal gangs with ransomware and are also being targeted by foreign adversaries who would like the ability to disrupt our very civilization. While the US federal cyber agencies have not properly responded to these threats, a handful of volunteer organizations have emerged, organized under the Cyber Resilience Corps, to address these needs. Today I’ll speak with Michael Razeeq, Grace Menna, Adrien Ogee and Eric Franco about their much-needed efforts. Interview Notes Cyber Resilience Corps: https://cltc.berkeley.edu/program/cyber-resilience-corps/ Volunteer! https://cybervolunteers.us Cyber Security Clinics: https://cybersecurityclinics.org/ The Ransomware Hunting Team: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ransomware_Hunting_Team Roadmap to Cyber Defense: https://cltc.berkeley.edu/publication/roadmap-to-community-cybersecurity/ Path to Long-Term Cyber Resilience report: https://cltc.berkeley.edu/publication/a-path-to-long-term-cyber-resilience-for-under-resourced-organizations/ Grace Menna’s BSides LV talk: https://www.youtube.com/live/v20rxx_afw0?&t=1410 CISA Cybersecurity Resources for High-Risk Communities: https://www.cisa.gov/audiences/high-risk-communities/cybersecurity-resources-high-risk-communities FBI InfraGuard: https://www.infragardnational.org/ Further Info My book: https://fdsd.me/book My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter Support the mission: https://fdsd.me/support Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch Table of Contents 0:00:13: Intro 0:00:26: Couple announcements 0:01:09: Interview setup 0:03:38: Defining some terms 0:06:40: Introductions 0:07:51: What is the Cyber Resilience Corps? 0:13:59: What are some of the other affiliated cyber groups? 0:19:24: How do you reach organizations in need? 0:26:43: Do orgs ever resist or eschew your help? 0:34:22: How are these efforts funded? 0:42:14: is there agreement on where to focus efforts? 0:44:02: Which sectors are most important to secure? 0:51:11: Are there accepted standards for infrastructure security? 0:53:38: What are the requirements for volunteers? 1:04:19: How do match volunteers with needs? 1:08:28: How long do the support relationships last? 1:16:31: What key things have you learned from your initial work? 1:22:58: How do you scale this effort to address the massive need? 1:25:18: Shouldn’t Big Tech be doing more here? 1:33:49: How can we help? 1:37:28: If I’m an organization, how do I get help? 1:38:38: What’s next? 1:44:28: Wrap-up 1:47:59: Patron podcast preview 1:48:59: Looking ahead
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1:49:58