Hacking Humans

Hacking Humans

Join Dave Bittner and Joe Carrigan each week as they look behind the social engineering scams, phishing schemes, and criminal exploits that are making headlines and taking a heavy toll on organizations around the world.
Join Pro Today
To get access to ad-free episodes, exclusive podcasts, unlimited briefings, stories, and transcripts, and other valuable bonus features sign up today.

Recent Episodes

Ep 282 | 3.21.24

Job seeker beware: Spotting sneaky scammers on job boards.

This week we are joined by Maria Varmazis, host of the N2K daily space show, T-Minus. She shares the story on scammers posing as recruiters on LinkedIn to get you to fall for an age old phishing scam. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up, the first being from listener Alex who shared a video on scammers being forced to prove they are not robots. Listener Chloe wrote in with a question, asking about a potential scam she encountered. Joe has a story from the BBC this week regarding a love scam in the Philippines. Finally, Dave shares the story on the FCC approving a voluntary cybersecurity labeling program for wireless IoT products. Our catch of the say comes from Mark, who shares a personal story on a recruiting scam nightmare.

Ep 281 | 3.14.24

Cyberattack chaos and the impact on families.

This week we are joined by N2K CyberWire's very own Catherine Murphy, and she is sharing her family's experiences with Lurie Children's Hospital's recent cybersecurity incident. Dave shares a story on the dangers of Googling airline customer service numbers when an issue occurs. Joe shares another story on scary scams that are costing people millions of dollars, now getting the FBI involved. Our catch of the day was found from the Washington University in St. Louis from their Scam of the Month posting, which shares another tale of a scam, this time trying to recruit for an open vacancy as a research assistant for undergraduates. The scammers pose as a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering to try and get students to sign up for this fake job posting.

Ep 280 | 3.7.24

New tools, old problems.

This week we are joined by Maria Varmazis, host of the N2K daily space show, T-Minus. She discusses how AI is being used as a possible solution to one of the oldest scams in the book in Japan. Dave and Joe share some listener follow up, one from listener Alan and one from Clinton, who both write in about a recent episode and they share their thoughts on the story of Charlotte Cowles being scammed out of $50,000. Dave shares a story about calendar meeting links, from Calendly, a popular application for scheduling appointments and meetings, being used to spread mac malware. Joe shares write ins from several listeners, some writing in to share experiences with scams they have come across, others writing to warn others on scams they have seen used in the real world. Our catch of the day comes from Zach with an oddity, getting scammed by mail!

Ep 279 | 2.29.24

Navigating the post-password landscape.

Mike Kosak, Principal Intelligence Analyst at LastPass, is discussing passkeys, threat actors, and Volt Typhoon. Joe shares a new free certification you could get if you are looking to get into the field. Joe also shares a terrifying story about how everyone can be conned, and it's not as obvious as it may seem sometimes. Dave's story is warning Costco members of a new phishing scam that attempts to steal their credit card information. Our catch of the day comes from listener Pryce who shares an email they received regarding a charge they are getting from "NortonLifeLock."

Ep 278 | 2.22.24

Scamming the innocent.

This week we are joined by Maria Varmazis, host of the N2K daily space show, T-Minus. She brings us a scary story from a woman who never thought she'd ever be scammed. Dave and Joe shares some follow up before getting into their stories, they share a story from a listener who sent in a LinkedIn link about scammers targeting Walmart. They also share a question from listener Cynthia, who asks about bank scam covered before, and how to respond to these scams. Dave shares a story from an anonymous source this week, who writes in about the dangers of crypto scams. Joe has two stories for us this week, the first one being from a friend of his that works for a company that specializes in military contracts. This company was hiring an employee and received three emails that all were very similar to one another, sharing that this is a red flag and wanted to write in to share the dangers of this scam. The second story is a very similar story to the one covered on Andy Cohen a few episode ago, and shares how a Jefferson county couple were scammed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Our catch of the day comes from listener Thomas who shares a story on AI voices sounding like famous people and his experience.

Load More
Hacking Humans
Host(s)
Dave Bittner
Joe Carrigan
Dave Bittner is a security podcast host and one of the founders at CyberWire. He's a creator, producer, videographer, actor, experimenter, and entrepreneur. He's had a long career in the worlds of television, journalism and media production, and is one of the pioneers of non-linear editing and digital storytelling.
Joe Carrigan, is a Senior Security Engineer with the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute. He has been a Software Engineer for over twenty years and has been working in the security field for more than ten years focusing on usable security and security awareness. He has experience in a broad range of fields including authentication systems, embedded systems, data migration, and network communication.
Schedule: Thursdays
Creator: CyberWire, Inc.
CyberWire logo