Smashing Security

A 23-year-old radio enthusiast spent £300 on a piece of kit from the internet, and used it to bring four packed high-speed trains to a screeching halt. His defence in court? Possibly the most creative excuse we've heard all year.
Meanwhile, owners of $4,000 robot lawnmowers are discovering that their gadget can be hijacked over the internet, redirected at journalists who foolishly lie down in front of it, and used to harvest Wi-Fi passwords, email addresses, and GPS coordinates. Change the default password? Sure - until the next firmware update silently resets it back.
Plus - don't miss our featured interview with XBOW's Brendan Dolan-Gavitt about how AI is transforming penetration testing.
All this and more in episode 468 of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity expert and keynote speaker Graham Cluley, and special guest Geoff White.

EPISODE LINKS:

Open source tool maker Grafana Labs says hackers stole its code, refuses to pay ransom - TechCrunch.
Man accused of stealing Beyoncé’s unreleased music takes guilty plea - ABC News.
Shai-Hulud code drop: Open season for supply chain attacks- ReversingLabs.
Student hacked Taiwan high-speed rail to trigger emergency brakes - BleepingComputer.
Polish teen derails tram after hacking train network - The Register.
The Cheap Radio Hack That Disrupted Poland's Railway System - WIRED.
The man with an army of Yarbo robot lawn mowers - The Verge.
Ever been run over by a robot? I have - for science! - TikTok.
RD280UA 28” WQXGA BenQ Programming Monitor with Backlight and Flexible Arm - BenQ.
Kai Shun DM-0708 combination sharpening stone, grain 300/1000 - Knives and Tools.
AI-Assisted ICS Attack on a Water Utility - Dragos.
Adversaries Leverage AI for Vulnerability Exploitation, Augmented Operations, and Initial Access - Google Cloud Blog.
Smashing Security merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, stickers and stuff)

SPONSORS:
Vanta - Expand the scope of your security program with market-leading compliance automation… while saving time and money. Smashing Security listeners get $1000 off!
XBOW - The autonomous offensive security platform that helps security teams scale. Start a pentest today.
OPSWAT - Read Benny Czarny's book, "Cybersecurity Upside Down", to rethink how you protect your organization from file-based threats, including those powered by AI.

SUPPORT THE SHOW:
Tell your friends and colleagues about “Smashing Security”, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser.
Become a supporter! Join Smashing Security PLUS via Patreon or Apple Podcasts for ad-free episodes on our early-release feed!

FOLLOW THE SHOW:
Follow us on Bluesky or Mastodon, or on the Smashing Security subreddit, and visit our website for more episodes.

THANKS:
Theme tune: "Vinyl Memories" by Mikael Manvelyan.
Assorted sound effects: AudioBlocks.

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome to the largest educational data breach in history - affecting nearly 9,000 institutions, every Ivy League university, and 30 million students mid-finals. When Canvas's parent company refused to pay and announced they had deployed "security patches" instead, the hackers were less than impressed. So they came back through the cat flap.
Meanwhile, a famous finance expert's face has been showing up on Facebook adverts promising hot stock tips and exclusive WhatsApp investment groups. Spoiler: it isn't him, the tips aren't real, and you're about to be scammed.
Plus we chat to Mike Nichols of Elastic, about how the SOC isn't dying, attackers and defenders are both deploying AI agents, and how the real security crisis is no longer human users - it's the bots acting on their behalf.
All this and more in episode 467 of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity expert and keynote speaker Graham Cluley, and special guest Danny Palmer.

EPISODE LINKS:

ICO fines South Staffordshire £963K over 2022 breach - The Register.
US bank reports itself after AI customer data mishap - The Register.
Hackers abuse Google ads, Claude.ai chats to push Mac malware - Bleeping Computer.
Canvas hack: What we know about apparent cyberattack that impacted thousands of schools - CNN.
Canvas hack: Company pays criminals to delete students' stolen data - BBC News.
Post by @amosmagliocco.bsky.social - Bluesky.
Post by @sethcotlar.bsky.social - Bluesky.
The Architecture of Deception: How a $187 Million Fraud Ecosystem Exploits Trust Across Australia and the United States - Group IB.
The Fake Nobel that Duped the Romanian Academy - Scena9.
A (Very) Short History of Life On Earth by Henry Gee - Waterstones.
Smashing Security merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, stickers and stuff)

SPONSORS:
Vanta - Expand the scope of your security program with market-leading compliance automation… while saving time and money. Smashing Security listeners get $1000 off!
Elastic – AI is transforming security operations, but security is still a data problem. Learn how context-rich data drives faster, more reliable defence.
CoreView - How secure is your Microsoft 365 tenant? Find out with CoreView's free Microsoft 365 Tenant Security Scanner.

SUPPORT THE SHOW:
Tell your friends and colleagues about “Smashing Security”, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser.
Become a supporter! Join Smashing Security PLUS via Patreon or Apple Podcasts for ad-free episodes on our early-release feed!

FOLLOW THE SHOW:
Follow us on Bluesky or Mastodon, or on the Smashing Security subreddit, and visit our website for more episodes.

THANKS:
Theme tune: "Vinyl Memories" by Mikael Manvelyan.
Assorted sound effects: AudioBlocks.

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Meta's smart glasses promise privacy "designed for you" - but everything they record was being beamed off to workers in Nairobi to label by hand. When those workers blew the whistle, Meta sacked all 1,108 of them.
Meanwhile, the IT press is in a frenzy over a new Linux bug called "Copy Fail" - complete with logo, dedicated website, and a marketing-friendly name. But is it really the disaster everyone's making it out to be?
And in our featured interview, Jake Moore of ESET explains how he tricked a company into offering his deepfake clone a job - after a perfectly normal-looking video interview.
All this and more in episode 466 of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity expert and keynote speaker Graham Cluley, joined this week by special guest Paul Ducklin.

EPISODE LINKS:
Anti-DDoS Firm Heaped Attacks on Brazilian ISPs - Krebs On Security.
Microsoft Defender wrongly flags DigiCert certs as Trojan:Win32/Cerdigent.A!dha - Bleeping Computer.
Trellix confirms data breach after hack of 'a portion' of its source code - TechRadar.
Meta’s AI Smart Glasses and Data Privacy Concerns: Workers Say “We See Everything” - Svd.
Dispute over fate of Kenyan workers who saw Meta AI glasses films - BBC News.
Copy Fail - CVE-2026-31431.
Copy Fail: Hype versus reality - the full story - SolCyber.
Flight into Danger: The Original Airplane! - BBC Sounds.
The Luton writer behind the original Airplane! - BBC News.
Code Dependent by Madhumita Murgia - Pan Macmillan.
The Code Book - Simon Singh.
Smashing Security merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, stickers and stuff)

SPONSORS:
Vanta - Expand the scope of your security program with market-leading compliance automation… while saving time and money. Smashing Security listeners get $1000 off!
ESET - 30 years of threat research behind unique global telemetry, AI-native technology, and human expertise working together to keep your business protected.
Action1 - Keep your systems safe (and your sanity intact) with the patch management platform that just works. The best part? Your first 200 endpoints are free, forever, with no functional limits.

SUPPORT THE SHOW:
Tell your friends and colleagues about “Smashing Security”, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser.
Become a supporter! Join Smashing Security PLUS via Patreon or Apple Podcasts for ad-free episodes on our early-release feed!

FOLLOW THE SHOW:
Follow us on Bluesky or Mastodon, or on the Smashing Security subreddit, and visit our website for more episodes.

THANKS:
Theme tune: "Vinyl Memories" by Mikael Manvelyan.
Assorted sound effects: AudioBlocks.

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

A developer at an AI startup wanted to cheat at Roblox. They downloaded a dodgy script on their work laptop. That one decision triggered a cascade of failures that ended with a $2 million data breach affecting hundreds of thousands of organisations. All for some free in-game currency.
Meanwhile, there's a 1980s phone protocol called SS7 that lets shadowy surveillance companies track anyone, anywhere, via their mobile phone. Governments know about it. Telecoms know about it. Nobody's fixing it.
All this and more in episode 465 of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity keynote speaker and industry veteran Graham Cluley, joined this week by special guest James Ball.
Plus! Don't miss our featured interview with Rob Edmondson of CoreView, discussing how to lock down Microsoft 365 before it's too late.

EPISODE LINKS:

Burglar alarm biz gets burgled, ShinyHunters pursues ransom - The Register.
Ransomware negotiator pleads guilty after leaking victims' insurance details to 'BlackCat' hackers - Tom’s Hardware.
Grok tells researchers pretending to be delusional ‘drive an iron nail through the mirror while reciting Psalm 91 backwards’ - The Guardian.
Vercel April 2026 security incident - Vercel.
App host Vercel says it was hacked and customer data stolen - TechCrunch.
Vercel Breach Tied to Context AI Hack Exposes Limited Customer Credentials - Hacker News.
Sorry for the Nazi spam from my Twitter account - Graham Cluley.
Bad Connection: Uncovering Global Telecom Exploitation by Covert Surveillance Actors - Citizen Lab.
Surveillance vendors caught abusing access to telcos to track people's phone locations, researchers say - TechCrunch.
The rapid rise of phone surveillance firms - The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Please shut up about your Spotify Wrapped - The New World.
Think For Yourself - Beatles Song Identification Game.
Nodes: Free Connection Puzzle & Vertex Game Alternative.
Smashing Security merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, stickers and stuff)

SPONSORS:

Elastic – AI is transforming security operations, but security is still a data problem. Learn how context-rich data drives faster, more reliable defence.
Vanta - Expand the scope of your security program with market-leading compliance automation… while saving time and money. Smashing Security listeners get $1000 off!
Coreview - Download "Total Tenant Takeover", a white paper about the Microsoft 365 Disaster No One Is Ready For.

SUPPORT THE SHOW:
Tell your friends and colleagues about “Smashing Security”, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser.
Become a supporter! Join Smashing Security PLUS via Patreon or Apple Podcasts for ad-free episodes on our early-release feed!

FOLLOW THE SHOW:
Follow us on Bluesky or Mastodon, or on the Smashing Security subreddit, and visit our website for more episodes.

THANKS:
Theme tune: "Vinyl Memories" by Mikael Manvelyan.
Assorted sound effects: AudioBlocks.

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

A company that ran anonymous tip lines for 35,000 American schools - handling reports of bullying, weapons, and self-harm - boasted on its website that it had suffered zero security breaches in over 20 years. A hacker called Internet Yiff Machine thought that sounded like a challenge, with predictable results...
Meanwhile, Rockstar Games gets hacked again - and the stolen data turns out to be less embarrassing than the financial secrets it accidentally revealed. GTA Online is still making half a billion dollars a year. Red Dead Redemption is not.
All this and more in episode 464 of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity keynote speaker and industry veteran Graham Cluley, joined this week by special guest BBC cybersecurity correspondent Joe Tidy.
Plus! Don't miss our featured interview with Ryan Benson of Meter.

EPISODE LINKS:
Grinex exchange blames "Western intelligence" for $13.7M crypto hack - Bleeping Computer.
Are Former Black Basta Affiliates Automating Executive Targeting? - Reliaquest.
Apple is working on passcode bug locking out iPhone users - The Register.
Hackers who stole crime tip records offering data cache for $10k - San.
P3 Advertised 20+ Years and 0 Security Breaches. You Can Guess What Happened Next - Databreaches.net.
Portland police urge residents to avoid Crime Stoppers following hack - San.
GTA-maker Rockstar Games hacked again but downplays impact - BBC News.
Rockstar hackers release their stolen data, reveal that Rockstar was right to not pay them anything for it - PC Gamer.
XCancel.
”We Are Anonymous” by Parmy Olson - Penguin.
Smashing Security merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, stickers and stuff)

SPONSORS:
Elastic – AI is transforming security operations, but security is still a data problem. Learn how context-rich data drives faster, more reliable defence.
Meter – Network infrastructure for the enterprise. Get a free personalised demo.
Vanta – Expand the scope of your security program with market-leading compliance automation… while saving time and money. Smashing Security listeners get $1000 off!

SUPPORT THE SHOW:
Tell your friends and colleagues about “Smashing Security”, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser.
Become a supporter! Join Smashing Security PLUS via Patreon or Apple Podcasts for ad-free episodes on our early-release feed!

FOLLOW THE SHOW:
Follow us on Bluesky or Mastodon, or on the Smashing Security subreddit, and visit our website for more episodes.

THANKS:
Theme tune: "Vinyl Memories" by Mikael Manvelyan.
Assorted sound effects: AudioBlocks.

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy