This transcript was generated automatically, and has not been manually verified. It may contain errors and omissions. In particular, speaker labels, proper nouns, and attributions may be incorrect. Treat it as a helpful guide rather than a verbatim record — for the real thing, give the episode a listen.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Me and rappers, we have a similar mindset, we think similar ways.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. One was entitled will you help me repair my door?

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UNKNOWN. Will you help me repair my door? Smashing security, episode 316 of Musk and Afroman with Carole Theriault and Graham Cluley. Hello, hello, and welcome to Smashing Security, episode 316. My name's Graham Cluley.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. And I'm Carole Theriault.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. And Carole, we're joined this week by no one. No one at all. But there's a good reason, isn't there?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Yes, it's April, and April is a busy month for us for many reasons. I've even had to move Sticky Pickles to a bimonthly.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh my goodness.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. You know, publishing. Yeah, because there's a lot going on. We will have guests this month, don't worry. But today you have just the two of us, intimate.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Yes, because I'm giving a talk this week, you're doing things this week, so it's a little bit easier. Anyway, better get on with it.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. We should. But before we kick off, let's thank this week's sponsors: Bitwarden, Kolide, and Drata. It's their support that helps give you this show for free. Now coming up on today's show, Graham, what do you got?

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GRAHAM CLULEY. I'm gonna be taking you back to school.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. And I'm going to be talking about a spat between a Grammy-nominated artist and his local cops. All this and much more coming up on this episode of Smashing Security.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Now, Chum Chum, as you know, and as some of our listeners will know, I live in the countryside.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Say, for anyone who lives in Canada or America, he does not live in the countryside. He lives in a suburb that has a few trees.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. And a few sheep. Far enough to not be able to get a broadband cable connection to my house. And it turns out not to be able to get a reliable mobile data signal either. And it's caused all sorts of difficulties over the years.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. And you still signed the lease despite being a podcast host.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. So, it's caused all kinds of difficulties when wanting to record over the internet a podcast. And as regular listeners may recall, it was a past Pick of the Week of mine that I eventually solved the problem by investing in Starlink.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Giving money to a very responsible individual.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah, yeah. Well, anyway, so it turned out Elon Musk's low Earth orbit satellites were the best way for me to beam data in and out of my abode. Up and down they go to a satellite via a dish in the back garden, and it actually gives me pretty incredible internet access. I mean, I'm really impressed by it. Someone else who's impressed is my son, because it means he can play video games with his mates online.

And we don't take this for granted. So when we get up in the morning, we never forget what it was like not to have decent internet access. And so we hold a little prayer meeting. We go, oh, thank you very much, Elon Musk, for everything that you have done for us.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. I knew you had a bromance with him. Yeah, you love him. You always have.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Only in the case of Starlink, I do think is rather wonderful. Now, it turns out I am not the only person who is worshipping Elon Musk.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Everyone, you heard him. He admits he worships Elon Musk. We have it on recording.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. But for different reasons. There is a men's group, for instance, in Bangalore, India, and they have recently been filmed worshipping at the feet of a picture of Elon Musk. In fact, there's a little bit of video here — I'll put a link in the show notes so we can check it out.

Look, check this out. Now what you're seeing there are people chanting their own versions of Sanskrit mantras, which loosely translate to salutations to Elon Musk, salutations to Twitter, and salutations to evicting feminists from the Twitter platform.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Are you okay? This could be misinformation because as far as I know, your Sanskrit mantra knowledge is pretty basic at best.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Well, this particular group have a less than complimentary view on feminists. They've previously said that they are intellectually challenged with very less academic grounding than them — they're very ungrateful people who aren't looking after men properly.

And the media have reported on this — they've been filmed doing all their prayers to Elon Musk. And the thing is, this particular group were banned from Twitter, but then, of course, last year, Elon Musk took over Twitter, which meant he said, "Come on back in, boys."

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Open the floodgates. Let's see what happens.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. "You're sort of people we want in here after my former employees, that woke bunch," he said, "who kicked you all out. Now come on in — free speech and all the rest of it." So they're very happy to be back on Twitter.

Now, they're not the only Elon Musk fans out there other than me. There's also a lady called Dr. Jan McGee, and she is the subject of my story today.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Another Elon lover.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Dr. Jan McGee is the principal of a STEM school — STEM is science and technology and engineering.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Maths and engineering, yeah.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. All that kind of thing, right. The school is called the Byrne Science and Technology Charter in Oak Hill, which is somewhere in Florida. She's the big cheese, the head honcho, the fat cat, the big enchilada, the grand poobah, the numero uno — she is the big one.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. I don't know why you have to call her names.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. No, this is probably what it says on her business card, right? It doesn't just say principal — she's a big deal. And she's been working at Byrne Science and Technology since it was founded as a school — she's been there about 12 years, and she's helped make it a huge success.

This school has an A rating, which is obviously the best rating you can have, and there's a long waiting list to get through its doors if you want to become a student at it. She's really driven it forward, and she's really been interested for years in teaming up with tech companies in the Florida area who might invest in the school, help it grow, etc. Guess who's top of her list?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Someone who had a lot of wonga at some point? Elon Musk — is he based in Florida?

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GRAHAM CLULEY. I think part of his space activity maybe is based in Florida.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Oh yes, of course it would be.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah, there seems to be a lot of space expertise. I get that.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. I'm sure she's not the only principal that would something like that. So, you know, right.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. And he's obviously someone who's got a few quid spare — you'd think he's probably a bit flash with the cash. He may sometimes make rash decisions — throw a bit of money here, throw a bit of money there. Dr. Jan has made no secret of this — she thinks Elon Musk is amazing.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Yeah, like you do.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. No, no, no, no, no, no. Well, steady on there, because I'm not a huge fan of Elon Musk, actually.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. You said you worshipped him. We all heard it.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Only because he's given us internet access where I live. There's no other reason. I think he's a fairly, from what I've seen, fairly odious human being.

But anyway, what do you know? Dr. Jan gets contacted by Elon Musk. She's been saying for years she wants, she'd like nothing more than to partner up with him to advance the school's fortunes.

Then, bong, up in her email pops Elon Musk. They begin to chit, they begin to chat. There's chitting and chatting and chotting going on.

They're having a great time. Jesus Christ. All this chitchat is with the aim of working out some kind of relationship between Musk's companies and his wealth and the school by Dr. Jan.

Now, there are some who are a little bit sceptical during this 4-month conversation. And by some, what I mean is other people at work at the school, because of course, Dr. Jan, she comes running into the staff room.

Hey, everybody. Allegedly. She comes running in saying, oh my goodness, I've been speaking to Elon Musk.

It's all wonderful. You know, we're going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it.

She's got her coffee. She's got her patches on her elbows. She's got all that teacher stuff going on.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Did anyone say, should we just double-check that it's really Elon Musk?

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh, apparently so. Apparently. Oh, great.

Some of them have dared to suggest to Dr. Jan that she might want to be a little bit careful. Before she gets into metaphorical bed with Elon Musk.

Maybe he isn't entirely trustworthy. Maybe if it's the real Elon Musk, it's not entirely trustworthy. I don't know.

I haven't said that. Well, I did, but I didn't mean that. Dr. Jan won't have any of it.

And so, despite all the warnings from her colleagues— remember, she's the principal of the school— She writes a cheque. Dr. Jan McGee writes a cheque, believing that the person she's been speaking to is Musk, and believing that Musk has pledged to match the fund.

So she's going to write him a cheque for $100,000. Whoa! Don't schools have boards?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Yes, they do! But how can she write a cheque on her own? Oh, wait, this is the whole thing!

This is the whole thing, Crow!

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GRAHAM CLULEY. This is the thing. Right? She's writing this check, and she believes that she's going to get several million dollars in return.

Right? She just has to make some sort of— I don't know why.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. I don't know why. Does she really believe that? Do you know that, or are you just making that up?

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GRAHAM CLULEY. This is what she believed was happening. She believed she was making the donation. Now, at her school, you're absolutely right, there is a school board of governors or whatever.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Yes. Trustees. Yeah.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. As a principal, as the high school principal, is only allowed to write checks from the school's account of up to $50,000 without board approval. But this high school principal, because she's chatting to Elon Musk, decided to write one for $100,000.

So can I just understand something?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. So what happened? Musk chats her up, Musk quote unquote chats her up and says, oh, we'd love to help you out with your stuff. Write me a check, right?

I don't understand, right? Write me a check for 100 grand. And it's curious, isn't it?

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GRAHAM CLULEY. It's curious because if you're going to get millions, it's like, well, why do I have to do that? Handling fees, Twitter investment, maybe Amber Heard has run off with his wallet. Who knows? Something has happened. 'Can you just tide me over? I haven't got enough for the rocket fuel this month.' Who knows what?

But somehow he convinces her to write a check for $100,000, and she believes she's going to get her school millions in return. But she didn't ask permission from the board, probably because she knew the board included people who'd heard about this Musk plan and were somewhat skeptical as to what was going on. So, she didn't have permission. She wrote the check. Someone at the school then got wind of that she'd done this. The school's business manager—

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CAROLE THERIAULT. It's amazing that someone can spend 100 grand in a school and no one noticed. Like, there should be alarm bells that go off everywhere, right?

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Someone tipped off somebody, or an alarm bell went off, or something happened. The school's business manager jumped in. He leapt in, a bit like Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston, jumping in the way of a bullet.

Bullet being shot by some crazed fan, right? It's a bit like that. So he jumps in, leaps in, and he managed to stop the cheque before it cleared. And then, of course, there's all the big post-mortem, because the board get together and the teachers get together, and they say, "What the bloody hell is the head doing here? Why is she doing this?" There's a big school meeting.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. They took a frickin' while. Like, there must have been quite a few warning signs before this that was not all right with Dr. Jan McKee.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Apparently they had been saying to her over a protracted period of time, we don't think that's a good idea, but for whatever reason she went on and did it anyway. There was a school meeting which has been televised, we might be able to link to it in the show notes, where Dr. Jan apologized to the school board, the workers, the parents. She admitted she'd fallen for a scam. She said, and she said, I'm a very smart lady.

I'm well educated. I fell for a scam. She said, grooming is when you talk to someone and you believe in them and they get you to trust them that this is really, really real. And so I fell for it.

So she threw herself down at the mercy of these people. Thankfully, the money wasn't lost. She apologized. They weren't very forgiving.

It turns out that some of her co-workers also said at the meeting that they weren't really happy with her being at the helm. Maybe they'd lost some trust in her. Some of them described a toxic working environment.

I imagine there was a bit of argy-bargy over the months over this Musk deal, and that may have caused some friction between people. Three administrators threatened to quit, and eventually Dr. Jan offered her resignation. She walked out accompanied by some applause, which I think was rather sardonic.

Her husband, who's also a teacher, he quit at the same time as well. It's all there on the video. People say only morons fall for a scam, right?

Some people say that. Some people think, well, how dumb can you be to fall for a scam like this? This is the principal of a school who fell for this, even though she was being warned for months and months that it was unlikely to be real.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Graham, even influencers can fall for it. Influencers? Not just school principals. It takes all sorts. Anyone can fall for them.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. So is this how you think of someone even more impressive than a high school principal is a social media influencer? What do you mean even? For example.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. For example. You know, I just, I don't know why you're making such a big deal about them being a school principal. It's not like they're genius or something.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Well, because they have been trained. They've been educated. You would expect them to be of a certain substance, wouldn't you? I would expect so.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. But what does substance have to do with being groomed and falling for a scam? I kind of agree with her on that front. She obviously—

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Yes, she did. But there were people all around her saying, you really reckon so? But she went for it, and it wasn't even her money, it was the school's money.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. I get all that, but presumably she's been there for 12 years. It just— it's kind of gross when someone does this rather than offering them help maybe first. They may say no to the help. You might be going, look, you need—

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GRAHAM CLULEY. So what help are you suggesting that she be offered then, rather than being booted out?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Well, I don't know, maybe therapy to find out where this obsession with Elon Musk is going on, or see what— why she would think he was such someone that would be so wonderful to her. Like, what evidence does she have that he would be great, for example? But no, but do you know what I mean? They just—

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GRAHAM CLULEY. You know what should actually happen? Elon Musk, right? He must Google his name to look for himself in news reports. He must find this story. Surely he is rich enough, just for the lols and the giggles, to actually now come forward and say, 'Actually, it was me.' Oh, it wasn't him?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. No, of course it wasn't him. No, he didn't say that.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. But he could now offer $5 million for the school with the understanding that she has to be put back in charge. And maybe they call it the Elon Musk School for Technology and Science.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. I'm not sure he's got $2 million to rub together at the moment, Graham.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh, bless him. Bless him.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. You see, you do love him.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Carole, what have you got for us this week?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. We have Joseph Edgar Foreman. Okay, this guy is an American rapper, a singer, a songwriter, political activist, comedian, musician. That's at least what it says on his Wikipedia page.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. You know, people who say that they do all of these things, do they really do all of these things? It's me saying, you know, 'can make toast' or something, or 'bake beans.' You know, I don't say 'bake bean maker.' I don't say—

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Maybe your profiles would be more interesting if you did.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Well, maybe. Okay, fair enough.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. And of course, I don't know this name. I didn't recognize this name, Joseph Edgar Foreman, because this guy had a stage name, and his stage name was— or is still Afroman. Okay, Afroman. And this brought me back because out of all of his— I'm sure there are many and many— there was one song that I remember playing at many parties that I went to in the early noughties, and it's entitled "Because I Got High." Because I got high.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Yes, yes.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. It's because the lyrics are so ridiculous. Okay, so it starts this. Okay, I've got the lyrics here.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Can you sing it to us? It would be the tune which will really—

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CAROLE THERIAULT. He's got a very deep voice, Afroman.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah, exactly. I'm thinking you can do it.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. And he sounds exceptionally high while he sings the song. So I don't know how to do that. Okay. But I was going to clean my room until I got high. I was going to get up and find the broom, but then I got high. My room is still messed up and I know why. 'Cause I got high. Because I got high. Because I got high. And that's basically pretty similar. When you hear the original, you'll be, oh, Carole, you did a good job there.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. It's William Wordsworth, really, isn't it? That's very impressive.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Well, funny you should say that because it was nominated for the Grammy Awards for best rap solo performance in 2002. I didn't know that. So move over Bowie. Bowie's not a rapper.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. What am I talking about? No, I was about to say, what rap song did he do?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Anyway, as far as I know, this was his biggest hit. He did do other things in the last 20 years because he is a singer-songwriter, political activist, comedian, musician.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Now let's fast forward to last year, August 2022. Afroman, a married guy, right? He lives out in Adams, Ohio, and he decides to go to Chicago, leaving his wife at home, doing whatever. And all is fine and tickety-boo until bang, bang, bang! And they hear, "this is a raid!" And the door gets rammed down.

Seven armed cops— I don't know if they were all armed, but seven cops, some armed with what looks machine guns of some sort, present a warrant to search Afroman's house. I don't think they have machine guns.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. They're not giving machine guns to policemen now.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. You're going to have a chance to take a look and you tell me what they are. I don't know.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. I don't know very much. All right.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. And the reason is for drug possession, trafficking, and kidnapping. That's what the warrant says. So they start their raid searching through everything.

Afroman's wife whips out her phone to record what she can of the raid, catching glimpses of law enforcement officers involved. She wants to get their identity. And Afroman's house also had some surveillance inside and outside, which captures images of the raid in progress. Now, I don't know why people have surveillance in their homes, inside their homes.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Well, for this kind of thing, that's why they have it, Carole, because then they can go and sell it to YouTube or put it up on Snapchat or whatever the thing is, TikTok.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Yeah, I guess, the cops go through everything, they bag and tag stuff to take away, including money they found, right? Because it could be tied to illegal activities. And they must have had some big lead or something because these were seven cops, and they have a warrant and they show up ready for resistance, with guns and bulletproof vests and the whole nine yards.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. A tank? I didn't see the tank.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. I didn't see the tank. But following the raid, Adams County Prosecutor's Office said the officers had found no probative criminal evidence and that Afroman faced absolutely no charges.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Curious.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. So scary experience, right? If this were me and I had done nothing wrong as far as I was concerned and my home gets raided with the door totally bashed in onto the floor.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. That'd be terrible, wouldn't it?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. You would be miffed. You would be miffed.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Miffed is exactly the word I was thinking of. I would be miffed.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. You would be miffed because who's cleaning all this shit up?

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GRAHAM CLULEY. I bet they don't send round someone with a dustpan and brush afterwards, do they?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. No. Who's paying for the damages, right?

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GRAHAM CLULEY. A vacuum cleaner. They could donate a few vacuum cleaner bags.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. That would be something.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Did they wipe their feet on the way in? I bet they didn't.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Did they put everything back exactly as it was? And worse, Afroman says that when they finally dropped the charges and his cash, his monies were returned to him from the cop shop post-raid, it was $400 light.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. And that would matter to Afroman because he hasn't had a hit since 2002.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Well, I don't know, he may have had a marijuana hit, but allegedly, allegedly, allegedly. So frustrating. So what do you think Afroman does to make this bitter pill a little bit sweeter?

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GRAHAM CLULEY. I'm going to think he takes the video footage and uses it in the music video for his new version, "I Got High," which he's going to name—

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CAROLE THERIAULT. I'm trying to think of something which rhymes with "high." Well, you're not that far off.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Me and rappers, we have a similar mindset, so I'm not surprised. We think similar ways.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. So he does. He uses it in his creative endeavors.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Right.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. He drops some songs, a trio of songs. So one was called "Why You Disconnecting My Video Camera," which I don't think needs much explanation.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Bit difficult to rhyme that one, I suspect.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. One was entitled "Will You Help Me Repair My Door?" Will you help me repair my door? And one was called "Lemon Pound Cake," referring to a cake that you can see under a cake cloche in the kitchen being eyed by one of the cops during the raid.

And there's actually an Insta post where he intimates that the cop took the cake as part of the raid, saying, quote, congratulations to Police Officer Pound Cake, thank you for getting me 5.4 million hits on TikTok. I couldn't have done it without you, obviously. As you can see, all my pound cake is gone. Officer Pound Cake confiscated my pound cake. He said something happened to his body camera on the way to the evidence room. LOL.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Is it allowed to republish video of policemen doing their job? Albeit eating your cake and putting it on the public internet? Because surely the police deserve some privacy.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. It's your video camera in your house.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Yes, but it's someone else's face. It's just someone doing their job. I mean, there could be repercussions.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Oh, do you not think most of the internet is made up of people showing other people's faces? Well, maybe. Do you not— you know, come on.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. I feel sorry for PC Pound Cake.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. There are music videos composed entirely of the security camera recordings of the raid to accompany the songs. Would you like to see one of these babies?

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GRAHAM CLULEY. I would love to see one of these.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Okay. Do you want to see the pound cake one maybe? Because he sets it to a particular song.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. The Adams County Sheriff kicked down my door. Then I heard the glass break. They found no kidnapping victims, just some lemon pound cake. Mama's lemon pound cake, it tastes so nice. It made the sheriff wanna put down his gun and cut him a slice. Lemon Pound Cake, he wanna put down his gun. Lemon Pound Cake, trending on TikTok. Lemon Pound Cake, under the boardwalk, down by the sea.

Yeah, huh? Oh, I quite like Afroman. He's all right. I have to say, these policemen do look like the kind who would eat cake. I don't think those are machine guns though, Carole. Not in the clip I'm looking at.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Let me give you another clip, 'cause I know there's one where they're big guns. You might know a lot more about guns than I do.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Of course I do. Of course I do. Under the pound cake. They did kick down that door very, very— Look at that gun. Oh, those are— Okay, yeah. Yeah, those look like rifles or something, don't they?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Okay, automatic rifles.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. But I don't know if they're automatic. Me neither. No idea. Yes. Okay. You don't want one of those pointed at you, without a doubt.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. And so when Afroman—getting back to the story—so when Afroman puts out these videos, and maybe perhaps just to make sure they get the proper attention, he also announces his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. His campaign manager, Jason Savage, cites inflation, the housing market, law enforcement corruption, and unsurprisingly, legalizing marijuana as key issues.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. I think John McAfee, when he ran to be US president, he had similar sort of campaign ideals, didn't he? Yes, it does seem—it is a way to get publicity, isn't it? It's a shame we can't run to be president of the United States. No, it's not. I wouldn't want to be.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. No, no, no, they wouldn't want you either. No offense, but yeah. And just as an aside, in Ohio, cannabis is legal for medical use and is still illegal for recreational use.

So, you know, that's the campaign. So anyhow, these videos get a lot of love. And Afroman's also media savvy. So he is going around telling this story.

And of course, this is a media story that people love, you know, the underdog treated unfairly, but he pokes back, you know, in the form of music, right? And he's happy to go on the air and talk about it. So you know, you'll see him on Rolling Stone, NME, TMZ, I've got all kinds of links in the show notes if you're interested. And you think the story ends here, but it doesn't because there's a twist.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Okay, what's happened?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. The cops are suing Afroman for putting them in his videos without their permission. Knew it! Aha! NME reports that the four deputies, two sergeants and a detective, claimed emotional distress, embarrassment, ridicule, loss of reputation, and humiliation as a result of Afroman's response to the raid. I can understand that.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. I appeared on the podcast once and I suffered emotional damage and embarrassment from that. So them appearing in Afroman podcasts, Afroman music videos, I can understand it. It would actually—you can imagine a lot of people not taking them seriously out on the beat if they've been seen in Afroman video. Sure.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. But think of all the people that make songs out of people's speeches, right? For example, changing the words of what they say. We've seen that happen with loads of celebrities. We also see people that are not celebrities being, you know, hounded by media all over the place. If this was inside the New York Times, this happened, would they show the videos?

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GRAHAM CLULEY. They probably wouldn't sing "Under the Boardwalk" to them.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. They could hire Afroman. I'm sure he'd be available. The complaint says, you know, they're seeking profits that Foreman's making by using their images, including revenue from songs, music videos, and concert tickets, on top of the promotion of his Afroman brand and merch proceeds.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Surely the Drifters, or whoever wrote "Under the Boardwalk," are the ones who should first of all be asking for their share of the cash.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Love it. And they're also demanding a court injunction to take down all the videos and posts, you know, using their faces. But it doesn't end there.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. No? Oh, for goodness' sake.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Almost. On March 22nd, Foreman revealed in an Instagram post that he intends to countersue for the unlawful raid and money being stolen, as well as damage caused to his family, career, and property.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. And what about the cake? And what about the frickin' cake? Is he suing over the cake?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. It's a proper cake fight. And I'll try and keep tabs and report back if something utterly fascinating happens. The cop winning this case is interesting to me because I think it sets a really interesting precedent for non-police people being able to say, my face is being used in a deepfake and I want you to do something about that.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. I think you'll find it's called deepcake. Not deepfake these days.

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---

GRAHAM CLULEY. Our friends at Bitwarden have been busy this month adding some fab new features to their open-source password management solution. Now, did you know that you can log into Bitwarden using a secondary device instead of your master password?

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Very, very cool. And The Bitwarden team has hardened the security of its vaults, protecting new vaults with 600,000 iterations by default.

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Smashingsecurity.com. And welcome back. And you join us at our favorite part of the show, the part of the show that we like to call Pick of the Week.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Pick of the Week. Pick of the Week.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Pick of the Week is the part of the show where everyone chooses something they like. Could be a funny story, a book that they've read, a TV show, a movie, a record, a podcast, a website, or an app. Whatever they wish.

It doesn't have to be security related necessarily. Better not be.

Well, my pick of the week this week is not security related. In fact, I am indebted to one of our supporters.

Dave Barker supports us on Patreon. Hey, Dave.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Yeah. High five to you.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Thanks to all of our supporters. If you're supporting us on Patreon or on Apple Podcasts, we really appreciate it.

He suggested this pick of the week to me and I checked it out and I thought, this is great. It is a thing called Atlas Obscura.

Atlas Obscura is a website. It's also an app for Android and iOS.

And it is a way to find cool places to visit that might not be in the usual tourist guide. So Dave told me that he was in Leeds and he visited Winifred, which is a giant elephant mural hidden away in a car park.

Ooh, interesting. And he also stumbled— he was also in a field in Northumberland where he encountered a giant spoon sculpture.

And he says it's his go-to whenever he visits a new place to try and to tick more things off. So I thought, well, that sounds fun.

I thought maybe I should give this a go. So I went onto Atlas Obscura and I looked up Oxford.

Yes. And yeah, so I thought, well, let's find something.

And one of the things it told me about was a little story, a place I can go and check out called New College, right? So there's New College in Oxford, founded in 1371, hence it's called New College, one of the new ones.

1371. And it has a great big dining hall with huge oak beams in its roof.

This is what Atlas Obscura told me. And these beams are as large as 2 foot square.

They're about 45 feet long. These are hulking, great big oak beams holding up its roof, right?

Mm-hmm. And about 100 years ago, which was 500 years since the college was founded, someone went up into the roof and they found the beams were riddled with beetles, little bugs and things, and the beams need to be replaced, right?

They're being eaten away by these beetles. But where do you find enormous oak beams?

This is the problem New College was trying to answer. And so what happened was some bright spark at the university said, well, hang on, there might be some suitable oak trees on college land.

So the college, the Oxford University land up and down the country, Yeah, they own a lot of land. Yeah, and they have these forests, and there are foresters who are looking after this land.

So they called in this forester who hadn't, you know, had any reason to visit the college for many years. And they said to him, have you got any suitable oak we could use to repair this?

And he sort of pulled his forelock and he says, well, sir, we was wondering when you'd be asking. And it turned out that when the college was founded in 1379, a grove of oaks had been planted to replace the beams in the dining hall when they became all beetly.

Because oak beams always become beetly in the end. And this plan had passed down from one forester to the next for over 500 years, telling them, don't cut down them oaks.

Those ones are for College Hall at New College, Oxford. So they've been growing these things for hundreds of years, and then someone came knocking, said, "Can we have some oaks, please?"

And so they were able to fix it.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. What a great job looking after those oaks.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Can't be that hard, can it?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. I've actually dined in this dining hall. Oh, have you?

Yes. I have a number of friends who are lecturers, and I've been invited.

They get dinners occasionally. And there was a high table and the whole nine yards.

La-di-da! Yeah, well, you know, anyway, it's a very cool room as well.

And this is a very excellent pick of the week. Thank you, Dave.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Thank you, Dave, for telling us about this. It's absolutely wonderful. Really appreciate being told about this. So check out Atlas Obscura on your smartphone or on the web. Links in the show notes.

Excellent. Carole, what's your pick of the week?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Well, mine's pretty cool too. My pick of the week is my new headphones for doing these shows.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh really? Oh, what have you got?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Yes, I have purchased Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphones.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Don't you love these names?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. So my old headphones were the Sony MDR-7506, right?

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah, that's what I have.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Yeah. And they were kind of falling apart. I've had them a long time.

I know you can replace components, but I also found that they don't sit perfectly on my head. I know there's adjustments and stuff and I played around with them for years and years and years, but I still get noise bleed a little bit. And I find them quite tight as well on the head.

I find I just get headaches, you know, if I wear headphones for a long time. It always gets a bit, you know, you get a bit close. But I'd find it was happening within an hour, right?

So I contacted one of my best pals, Vanja—Vanja, friend of the show—to help me select a new pair. And with his help, I ended up with these. Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pros.

Now they're closed over-the-ear headphones, but they offer exceptional isolation. You're really impressed with it right away as soon as you put them on.

They have this kind of silver gray velour that makes them super comfortable to wear, but it really soundproofs you in. And there's a spring steel headband that gives me a secure fit.

They're German. I've had them for a few weeks now. I love them.

And they're about $150. I think I paid 90 quid £100 in the UK for them. So about the same price as the MDRs.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Well, for someone like you who does lots of podcasts, it's important to have some good headphones.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Totally, totally. And I know there's headphones out there that are super expensive, but I really think these are great.

So my pick of the week are the Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro. I'd even suggest Graham, you take a look at them. I'm not being sponsored by them or anything like that, obviously.

But I really them. So thank you for making a great product, I'm happy. And thanks to Vanja, right?

Yeah. And Dave. Dave and Vanja, thank you guys for Pick of the Weeks this week.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Brilliant. Well, that just about wraps up the show.

You can follow us on Twitter at Smashing Security, no G, Twitter and LastPass have a G, and we also have a Mastodon account. Look for Smashing Security or visit smashingsecurity.com/mastodon to find us.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. And massive shout out to these episode sponsors, Kolide, Drata, and Bitwarden. And of course to our wonderful Patreon community.

It's thanks to them all that this show is free. For episode show notes, sponsorship info, guest list, and the entire back catalog of more than 315 episodes, check out smashingsecurity.com.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Until next time, cheerio, bye-bye.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Bye-bye.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. We're gonna have a guest next week, aren't we?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Yeah, I'm asking Dave.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. I haven't heard back yet. Not that Dave. Not Dave the Patreon supporter.

Dave the other Dave. Are we talking to the audience now?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. No.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. Have we? No. Okay, I was just giving you something.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Oh, thanks.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. That's your best? That's your best?

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Put in a link to these headphones.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. I want to see them.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Okay, they're great, man. Seriously, I love them.

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GRAHAM CLULEY. I'll stop recording.

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CAROLE THERIAULT. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

-- TRANSCRIPT ENDS --