Hacked

It’s the 2025 Chatty Chat year in review friends! We’re diving into a big old pile of stories from the past year and speculating on what’s to come in 2026. If you’re wondering where this sits on the "in-depth interview vs. casual chatting" spectrum, just know we spend a considerable amount of time talking about how rad the Switch 2 is. This is not a deep dive, just a good time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A deep dive into Lighthouse, a phishing-as-a-service platform linked to millions of scam texts worldwide, and the sprawling “smishing triad” ecosystem built around it. With security researcher Ford Merrill, we unpack how modern scam operations work at industrial scale — from fake e-commerce sites and mass SMS campaigns to the wallet-provisioning techniques that let criminals turn stolen credit cards into tap-to-pay phones.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the last few years, Grindr has branded itself as the global gayborhood—a digital safe space for queer communities. But a series of European investigations raised serious questions about how the app handled user data. In this episode, we talk with Chaya Hanoomanjee of the law firm Austin Hayes, who is leading a major UK claim alleging that Grindr shared sensitive user information, including in some cases health data, without proper consent. We trace the story from Norway’s multimillion-euro fine to the 12,000-person UK action and unpack what “special category data” actually means, why these cases matter, and what we’re all really agreeing to when we tap “accept.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s a chatty chat. I repeat, this one's a chatty chat. Today we’re digging into the big weird questions on our desk: what percentage of Meta’s revenue allegedly comes from knowingly running scam ads, what exactly recently pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao did and why he walked free, and what happens when AWS—the concrete pad foundation of the modern internet—goes down. If long-form nerd talk isn’t your vibe, totally fine—we’ll catch you next time. For everyone else, here’s some good good chattin’ for your dishes, your commute, or whatever you’re up to right this second. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hh hey maybe don't buy that $14 projector off amazon. In this episode, we dive into the sequel nobody asked for: BADBOX 2.0 — the return of last year’s botnet built out of bargain-bin Android gadgets. Google just filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that millions of sketchy streaming boxes, projectors, and mystery electronics were shipped pre-infected from factories overseas. The moment someone plugs one in, it joins a global botnet used for ad fraud, click fraud, and even to rent out your home internet connection to criminals. We talk to the team at HUMAN Security, the researchers credited in Google’s suit, about how they traced this thing across 222 countries, why it came back bigger than before, and how you even begin to kill a botnet that ships itself directly to people’s living rooms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The story of a massive swatting hoax campaign across the US that helped take down a piece of cybercrime infrastructure in the heart of New York. That and a big rambling chatty chat about Tilly Norwood, AI bubbles, and somehow, very briefly, Goku. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The question: can one host of a podcast that was planning to do a chatty chat episode proceed at the last minute while the other host is unfortunately out sick? Wish our dear pal Scott a speedy recovery and wish ya boy luck as he threads this needle. We discuss — I discuss? — the heist of Mexico’s financial system, the European airport hack, and a slew of other tech tales.  As I say in the ep — if one guy talking into a mic telling weird tech stories alone isn’t your jam, I will not blame you for rejoining us in the next one when your TWO intrepid cohosts are back at it in what I’m assuming will be full health.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The story of a hoax within a hoax within a hoax within an AI soft rock band. That and a bunch of other stories about technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reboundergame.com ( if you wanna wishlist our work in progress game on Steam

We discuss the rise of China’s early patriotic hacking scene, and a new report that unravels how some of its most skilled members eventually found their way into more formal, state-aligned cyber operations. This episode is brought to you by Push Security. Check them out at Pushsecurity.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We unpack how a Swedish entrepreneur used Pablo Escobar’s name to sell fake phones, flamethrowers, and crypto — and how a viral scam built on influencer hype finally came crashing down. That and other stories. Hacked is brought to you by Push Security, check them out at PushSecurity.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We start with the AI hiring chatbot used by McDonald’s, and the vulnerability hiding beneath the conversation. What looked like some janky job application exchanges led two security researchers, Ian Carroll and Sam Curry, to uncover a serious flaw. That and a bunch of Grok madness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Just for fun: an actual no script, no plan, hot mic blather-athon. If you crave a nice structured story with lots of research, give the ep we dropped a few days ago about the Texas Lottery Courier App scandal a listen. This is to wash some dishes to. Links to some stuff we discuss below: CBC On Design First Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh4OLQxXEZ0&t=36s Input free generative AI by Terrence Broad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_LLD8ffgVc Reverse Turring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxTWLm9vT_o Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A London syndicate used a phone app to buy nearly every combination in the Texas Lottery—and walked away with a $95 million jackpot. In this episode, we dig into how that happened, what it reveals about the modern lottery system, and a handful of other stories. Hacked is brought to you by PushSecurity.com. Check them out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode: the inside story of Danabot, the malware-as-a-service platform that thrived in the shadows for nearly a decade—until a critical mistake exposed its creators. Just last week, U.S. prosecutors unsealed charges against sixteen alleged operators, using evidence pulled not from a takedown, but from Danabot’s own infection logs. Plus: a roundup of other top stories. Last week was a rerun—life got a little hectic—so we kept the mic hot and recorded a 90-minute marathon episode to make up for it. Let us know if you're intro it. Hacked is brought to you by Push Security Check them out at pushsecurity.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today malware is all nation state actors and organized crime, but in the beginning it was more about making a statement. Dan is a malware historian. He finds old hardware and viruses, runs them, and sees what happens. So we sat down to discuss the history of malware, where it's come from, and where he thinks it's going next. Check out his amazing YouTube channel at ⁠https://www.youtube.com/user/danooct1 Hacked is brought to you by PushSecurity.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Schools out for summer. Another collection of computer confessions and strange tales of technology. Hacked is brought to you by Push Security. Check them out at Pushsecurity.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of exploitation, self-harm, and abuse. Listener discretion is advised. A network called 764 has turned abuse into currency. It spread through Discord, Telegram, and gaming platforms—built around “lorebooks,” collections of coerced violence traded for status. In a strange twist, this harm group has connections to cybercrime groups we've covered on this show before. Note: I was recording in an office, which between that and the subject matter, explains why my tone is pretty hushed in this one. Hacked is brought to you by Push Security—helping companies stop identity attacks before they happen. Phishing, credential stuffing, session hijacking—Push tackles it right where it starts: in the browser. Smart, seamless, and built for how people actually work. Check them out at pushsecurity.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We discuss a schism years in the making — the infamous imageboard 4chan gets hacked by its own offshoot, Soyjak.party, in a breach that exposed moderator identities, source code, and shattered the myth of online anonymity. Then, we look at Cluely — an AI tool built by a suspended student to help users “cheat” on job interviews — and the viral campaign pitching it as a revolution. Is it a tech breakthrough, a social bluff, or both? Hacked is brought to you by Push Security—helping companies stop identity attacks before they happen. Phishing, credential stuffing, session hijacking—Push tackles it right where it starts: in the browser. Smart, seamless, and built for how people actually work. Check them out at . Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A tech worker stumbles upon mass fraud and brings receipts, a flag football prank goes very right, a teenager uses Net Send and gets in trouble — but not as much as the person they're in trouble with, and a guy almost sends his pal on a "Taken" style revenge mission to Kosovo. Got a strange tale of technology, security, or hacking? Share it at HotlineHacked.com. Hacked is brought to you by Push Security. Check them out at PushSecurity.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices