Cryptocurrency traders suffer a hamster-related loss, beware of charity scammers this holiday season, and do you have the patience to sit through Peter Jackson's eight-hour Beatles documentary?
All this and more is discussed in the latest edition of the "Smashing Security" podcast by computer security veterans Graham Cluley and Carole Theriault, who are flying solo this week.
Visit https://www.smashingsecurity.com/254 to check out this episode’s show notes and episode links.
Follow the show on Twitter at @SmashinSecurity, or on the Smashing Security subreddit, or visit our website for more episodes.
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Warning: This podcast may contain nuts, adult themes, and rude language.
Theme tune: "Vinyl Memories" by Mikael Manvelyan.
Assorted sound effects: AudioBlocks.
Sponsored By:
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Links:
- How Stanley Kubrick Staged the Moon Landing — The Paris Review.
- The Day the World Didn't End — NASA.
- Does Finland Exist? Many Don't Think So — The Culture Trip.
- Mr Goxx, the crypto-trading hamster beating human investors — BBC News.
- Mr Goxx's Twitch channel — Twitch.
- RIP Mr. Goxx: Cryptocurrency trading HAMSTER DIES of unknown causes — Daily Mail.
- Epstein’s death proves feeding ground for conspiracy theories — Financial Times.
- Smashing Security episode 114: Darknet Diaries, death, and beauty apps — In which we discussed the Quadriga case.
- Find QuadrigaCX’s missing $190 million, and you could win a $100,000 bounty — Graham Cluley.
- Fraud: Charities warned to be extra vigilant over coming months — UK Fundraising.
- Donate safely this Giving Tuesday — FTC.
- Watch The Beatles: Get Back — Disney +
- The Beatles: Get Back trailer — YouTube.
- Kaweco Brass Sport pen.
- Smashing Security merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, stickers and stuff
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcript +
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.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Does Finland really exist?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Oh, it definitely exists. I've been there.
GRAHAM CLULEY. There is a theory that Finland is actually the Baltic Sea. According to the theory, Russia and Japan made up the country of Finland in 1918.
CAROLE THERIAULT. It was a little bit rainy when I was there, but I didn't realize I was in a boat the whole time.
ROBOT. Smashing Security, Episode 254: A Dead Hamster, a Brass Pen, and the Beatles with Carole Theriault. Carole Theriault and Graham Cluley. Hello, hello, and welcome to Smashing Security episode 254. My name's Graham Cluley.
CAROLE THERIAULT. And I'm Carole Theriault.
GRAHAM CLULEY. And Carole, this week we are joined by the very special, the incredible, the wonderful, extraordinary nobody. Absolutely nobody. How come? Why don't we have a guest this week?
CAROLE THERIAULT. We've been busy AF lately. December is always a difficult time, isn't it? It's just there's a lot of work around.
GRAHAM CLULEY. And I've been on an overseas trip. I've just come back from Saudi Arabia, the beautiful city of Riyadh.
CAROLE THERIAULT. And you are currently in quarantine, aren't you?
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yes, I'm self-quarantining. I haven't got any symptoms and I've had no positive test results. But under the new regulations because of Omicron, I'm not allowed out for a few days having just returned. So I'll be stuck here until I get a negative test result, which hopefully will happen in in the coming hours.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Well, we're all extremely thankful for that. Now let's thank this week's sponsors: 1Password, Perimeter 81, and Upticks. It's their support that helps us give you this show for free. Now, coming up on today's show, Graham, what do you got?
GRAHAM CLULEY. I have got a story for you about hamster-related conspiracy theories.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Okay, that's fun. And I'm talking charity scams. All this and much more coming up on this episode of Smashing Security.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Now, chum, Chum. I love a conspiracy theory, don't you?
CAROLE THERIAULT. I do. You often accuse me of being a conspiracy theorist on this show, so I'm surprised you're admitting that you're actually into them as well.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh, no, no, no, no. I think there's a difference between love in a conspiracy theory and believing a conspiracy theory.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Yeah, I don't believe conspiracy theories. Well, I probably do. I don't know which ones. I don't know that they're conspiracy theories.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Let me run a few past you and see if you believe them or not. Okay. Did man really land on the moon, or was it a hoax filmed by Stanley Kubrick, who then felt bad about it, included clues about the truth in The Shining? So, did man really land on the moon? What do you think? Or was it a hoax?
CAROLE THERIAULT. I think men really landed on the moon.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Okay, all right. In 2008, you remember those ever-so-smart scientists at CERN in Geneva? They turned on the particle accelerator there, didn't they? The most powerful and largest one in the world.
CAROLE THERIAULT. The Hadron Collider?
GRAHAM CLULEY. That's the thing. Now, did they, when they do that, did they also accidentally create a black hole in the center of the Earth and we all got sucked into it and we just haven't noticed yet?
CAROLE THERIAULT. I have no idea. Oh. If we haven't noticed, I wouldn't know.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Well, all right, but you are considering the possibility. All right.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Well, I know nothing. I know sweet fuck-all about hadron colliders and how they work. I have no idea.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Okay, all right, okay. So that's a possible from you. You think we might have been sucked into something.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Yes, that's right, that's right. It's a possible from me. Yes, focusing on that. All right, okay. Yeah.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Let's try another one. Does Finland not really exist?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Finland, no, it definitely exists. I've been there. So that one I can be—
GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh, well, have you been to Finland or have you been to eastern Sweden Western Russia or northern Estonia, because there is a theory that Finland is actually the Baltic Sea. And anyway—
CAROLE THERIAULT. It wasn't, it was a little bit rainy when I was there. But I didn't realise I was in a boat the whole time.
GRAHAM CLULEY. According to the theory, Russia and Japan made up the country of Finland in 1918. So that Japan could fish there without causing huge environmental impact, and then transport their fish via the Trans-Siberian Railway. That's why the railway was created, by the way. Pretending that they were actually transporting Nokia products.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Okay.
GRAHAM CLULEY. And other countries have cottoned on to this, but they've agreed to keep it a secret for some reason or other. So that's the conspiracy. So you think Finland does exist?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Yes, I do. Although I'm now questioning it now, because that sounded really impressive, what you just said.
GRAHAM CLULEY. It sounds plausible, doesn't it?
CAROLE THERIAULT. It sounds exceptionally plausible.
GRAHAM CLULEY. So my final one for you is the one which I'm going to focus on today, which is, did Warren Buffett, the super investor—
CAROLE THERIAULT. The rich, the super, super duper rich man.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did he organise the assassination of a cryptocurrency trading hamster?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Like a hamster hamster, an image of a hamster, or a person called Mr. Hamster?
GRAHAM CLULEY. No, no. What do you mean an image of a hamster?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Well, like an actual rodent.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yes, I'm talking about an actual hamster with four paws and a liking for cheese. Yeah.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Is it called assassination if you kill an animal?
GRAHAM CLULEY. Alright, does it matter? Did Warren Buffett—
CAROLE THERIAULT. I don't know, you've made me question everything now. I'm questioning everything. I'm like, I'm totally paranoid now.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Did he organise the death of a cryptocurrency trading hamster? Yes or no?
CAROLE THERIAULT. I have no idea.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Well, maybe you'll be able to decide by the end of my little section.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Okay, I look forward to that.
GRAHAM CLULEY. There is a hamster. His name is Mr. Gox, seemingly named after Mt. Gox, which was a cryptocurrency trading platform which went bankrupt some years ago. Now, Mr. Gox, he has a trading desk, a hamster wheel, and two tunnels marked buy and sell made out of loo paper rolls. And he was telling people how to invest.
CAROLE THERIAULT. The hamster?
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yes. So he would choose—
CAROLE THERIAULT. With his mouth? He would sit there and go, "Frank!" Frank, you definitely gotta buy this one. It's time to buy. Okay, he's the E Sher Mouse now.
GRAHAM CLULEY. So he would, first of all choose what kind of currency he thought people should trade in by going in the hamster wheel. And rather like the wheel of fortune. Rather like that. You see, he would run round and that would choose a random cryptocurrency, and he would stop on the cryptocurrency he wanted, and then he would either run down the loo paper roll, which was marked sell or the one that was marked buy. And that would tell people which cryptocurrency to sell or buy. And—
CAROLE THERIAULT. So is this, is this like being streamed online on a website or something?
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yes.
CAROLE THERIAULT. You can go watch it.
GRAHAM CLULEY. On Twitch.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Right.
GRAHAM CLULEY. He has a Twitch channel as all cool people do.
CAROLE THERIAULT. All right. So it's on Twitch.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yes. And so far so normal, right? So far so 2021.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Oh yeah. Super normal. Super normal.
GRAHAM CLULEY. But what's unusual, what was unusual about this was that Mr. Gox, the hamster.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Hamster.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yes, was actually making money. He was beating professional cryptocurrency traders and fund managers, and folks would tune into his Twitch channel to watch him trading in real time and maybe follow his suggestions.
CAROLE THERIAULT. So what you're saying is that knowing absolutely nothing about crypto, just going in and randomly buying and selling various different things could lead you to be way more rich than the actual investors that are apparently specialists in this field.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Well, maybe the legitimate investors are also randomly buying and selling cryptocurrency. I mean, maybe this makes more sense than wasting time trying to work out which one you should be investing in.
CAROLE THERIAULT. That's my point, right? So the fact that I know nothing about this might give me an edge. Right.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Because Mr. Gox, the furry pawed trader, was doing quite well. By the end of September, Gox Capital, his investment firm, was up about 20%. It was actually outperforming even Berkshire Hathaway, which is Warren Buffett's company.
CAROLE THERIAULT. So— There's a lot of words here you're using. So what you're saying now, hamsters can actually own companies? Okay. This is good.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Well, if you had—
CAROLE THERIAULT. So he's sitting there with his little fat cigar going, "We're quittin', guys!" Okay.
GRAHAM CLULEY. I don't—
CAROLE THERIAULT. You're fired!
GRAHAM CLULEY. I don't think you should give cigars to hamsters. I think that's a bit like giving cigarettes to rabbits. It's kind of not cool. I know people do it. Not good though. So all was going well. Everything was right with the world until the end of November when it was announced that Mr. Gox, real name Max.
CAROLE THERIAULT. The hamster.
GRAHAM CLULEY. He had suddenly Yes, he had suddenly and unexpectedly died of unknown causes.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Right.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Apparently after going off his food for a day or two, which is a very sad thing to hear, obviously. It was reported by the world's press that Mr. Gox, the hamster, had died. But—
CAROLE THERIAULT. I'm really glad that they saved Colin Inches for this. Okay.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah. So, well, you know, it's, yeah, but Kroll, he was doing quite well. He was an extraordinary hamster. And many of Mr. Gox's 18,000 Twitter followers were mourning his death. But inevitably, parallels have been drawn with the mysterious death in prison of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and the case of Quadriga's Gerald Cotten. Do you remember Gerald Cotten? No. In Quadriga. We've talked about this on the podcast before. So in early 2019, we learned that the founder and chief executive officer of a cryptocurrency exchange called Quadriga had suddenly and unexpectedly died, a bit like Mr. Gox the hamster.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Dun dun dun!
GRAHAM CLULEY. But Gerald Cotton wasn't hanging out in his hamster cage. Instead, he was travelling in India where he claimed he was opening an orphanage.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Is he a human or is he a fellow hamster as well?
GRAHAM CLULEY. No, Gerald Cotton is a 30-year-old human. Hamsters don't tend to live that long. Now, when he allegedly died, the company claimed that $250 million Canadian dollars worth of cryptocurrency belonging to hundreds of thousands of customers was either missing or couldn't be accessed because only—
CAROLE THERIAULT. Oh, I now do.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yes.
CAROLE THERIAULT. I do remember the story now. Yes.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Only Cotten had the password to its offline cold wallets.
CAROLE THERIAULT. And he was now mysteriously disappeared or dead.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh, he went overseas. He's disappeared. And it's like, well, so have the funds, it seems. What's going on?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Crazy story, yeah.
GRAHAM CLULEY. And there's even apparently now a Netflix documentary being made about how investors are sort of sleuthing around trying to get to the bottom of what happened. Is Gerald Cotten really dead? Had he taken all the money? Has his wife got the money? All this kind of stuff, you know.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Yeah, it's a great story though, come on.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah, it's a very cool story. So I think there are parallels here. So we've got a case of two individuals who have died from unknown cause in a mysterious way when they were having some sort of success related to cryptocurrency.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Okay. Did you drink any crazy juice in Saudi Arabia? Because, okay.
GRAHAM CLULEY. What's crazy? What's crazy?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Why are you tying these two things together?
GRAHAM CLULEY. Because they're both in the world of cryptocurrency and they've died.
CAROLE THERIAULT. So therefore it's causal, it's correlated, it's definitely related. Okay.
GRAHAM CLULEY. You are the one who believes we're living in a black hole caused by the scientists.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Okay, gaslighter.
GRAHAM CLULEY. The hadron, well.
CAROLE THERIAULT. I just said I didn't know. I think the answer I said is I have no idea.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Don't think you can light gas inside a black hole. That would be a good test. Something for you to think about, Carole. Anyway, take care. Take heed, maybe. As to how you invest your cryptocurrency, both where and whose advice you're taking, whether it be a hamster or someone. Why?
CAROLE THERIAULT. I don't understand. So a hamster's died and your story is take heed when people that were actually taking his advice were making more money than other people.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Well, well, so what?
CAROLE THERIAULT. So basically, look for a new hamster should be your advice.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Not easy to replace. A hamster that talented?
CAROLE THERIAULT. It seems to me any hamster could do this job. I wonder if they were kind of like down different holes, there was like food or different scents put in to try and, you know, entice them one way or another. There's a conspiracy theory.
GRAHAM CLULEY. There you go. Crow, what have you got for us this week?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Well, Graham, I don't know if you've noticed, but Christmas is a-coming.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Jingle, jingle, ho, ho, ho.
CAROLE THERIAULT. You have a kid. It must be like serious when you have a kid. You must like be like getting lists of all the crap you're going to need to get and all the stuff.
GRAHAM CLULEY. No, not really, because it's not my job. That's what Father Christmas, also known as Santa Claus, is doing, Carole.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Oh, so you don't even get to see the list at all and you have to just go buy blind?
GRAHAM CLULEY. I mean, no, I don't have to buy anything. Everything is bought by Father Christmas and his magic elves. They're the ones who handle it. And isn't that great?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Okay, well, I want to— I want you to imagine, Graham, that you are feeling generous. I know, really try and imagine that you're feeling generous.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah.
CAROLE THERIAULT. And you decide to give money to a worthy cause. Right? And you're just mulling this over. And lo and behold, you get in your social media feed, you see that Martha, okay, your great, great friend Martha has just loved a post from a charity you haven't heard of before.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh, that's good of her.
CAROLE THERIAULT. And it's helping save the starving donkeys at Christmas time.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh, little donkeys.
CAROLE THERIAULT. And you love Martha, you like donkeys. I know you love donkeys. So do you click the link?
GRAHAM CLULEY. Well, I might be interested in what she's giving money to. Yeah, why not?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Yeah, I think you would be like, hmm. I think your immediate reaction would be like, I think Martha might be falling for something. I just want to double check that this is really—
GRAHAM CLULEY. What, just because she's liked something charitable?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Well, I think no. Okay. So she said, hey, hey, Graham, you can only be my friend if you give him 100 quid.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Ah, now then. Now, knowing Mark, now I'm a little bit more— now I'm feeling less charitable and less interested. Yes.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Right. Okay. So because the thing is, is there seems to be quite a bit of charity scam warnings going on out there. I was doing some research for another story I was doing. For our friends at the Cyberwire, actually. And it turns out that there's a big kerfuffle about raising awareness about charity fraud.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Have you had these? Do you get these in your mail? Do you?
GRAHAM CLULEY. Not a huge amount, but I'm interested in this kerfuffle. Is the problem that genuine charities are upset about people warning about charity scams because it may mean the genuine charities don't get as much? Charity.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Well, that is what this story is all about because that's my concern as well. Right? There's all this news about all these charity scams going on, especially during the holiday season. The FBI have just put out a release on this and the reason is, of course, people tend to give more generously during the holiday season. Or yet another reason, depending on where you live, is that there are tax deductions for charity donations.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Right, yeah.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Before the end of the year. So if a scammer pretended to be an agent from a well-known charity group or sent you an email invitation for a donation at the right time, you might be much more likely to click on it. And you know, being duped by a charity scam during the holiday season is like putting on a Santa hat only for it to be filled with, you know, my in-laws' bread sauce. Like, it is not fun.
GRAHAM CLULEY. I don't think it matters who's made the bread sauce. I don't think it's specific to your in-laws.
CAROLE THERIAULT. I fricking agree. Yeah.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah. It's not a good thing.
CAROLE THERIAULT. No, but if you decide to give money to like, I don't know, the homeless or the sick or the lonely or the elderly, and you found out you ended up lining the pocket of some scammer, you'd be a bit—
GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh, I'd be really annoyed.
CAROLE THERIAULT. But you know, this is the thing that I kind of think is fascinating by charity scams, because a charity scammer needs to fool you into happily giving the money away. Unlike a ransom attack, right? Where it kind of goes, if you don't give me your money, we are going to embarrass you publicly.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Or at least that's honest. At least that's an honest way of robbing you, right? They've been fairly upfront saying, look, here's the deal.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Yeah. Yeah.
GRAHAM CLULEY. We are criminals.
CAROLE THERIAULT. We will show your naked pictures unless you give us 200 quid.
GRAHAM CLULEY. There's a certain decency about being robbed in that way, right? Or being extorted from in that fashion. It's like, okay, I understand. What's going on here? But when they come to you with a little jingle, jingle, jingle, say, oh, look at the poor orphans. Will you give money to the poor orphans? Or something like that. And then you find out that you've been scammed, then that's gonna be, yeah, that's somehow worse, isn't it?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Yeah, but it's way worse for the people that depend on the charities, of course. Because there's people out there, like if you stop giving to food banks and shelters and health centers, what then?
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, totally, yeah.
CAROLE THERIAULT. So this is a really sticky pickle.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh, don't start that.
CAROLE THERIAULT. No, no one's paid for us. No one sponsored this. But no, but it is, right? Because people tend to want to give at this time, but they're going to be worried about scammers because, hey, they're not going to get their tax deduction if they go for the wrong charity. So it seems to me we need some advice, right? Because Christmas time is coming.
GRAHAM CLULEY. You're the woman to give us some.
CAROLE THERIAULT. No, you are. I think you are. You're the experts here in loads of things, you know, related to tech. So what advice do you have? No, of course I've got a list of things. Of course I've got a list of things. I just want to see if you hit any.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Well, I suppose if you have a favourite charity already and you know what their website is, for instance, you could go directly to their website.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Right. Don't follow links. Go and search on a search engine and find the exact page if you want to give to that specific charity that you already know about.
GRAHAM CLULEY. The other thing you could do is if you have a favourite charity, maybe you could have a standing order. So that each year they take some money.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Give the hackers money month on month.
GRAHAM CLULEY. No, no, no, not the hacker. No, look. What are you doing to me?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Well, I just see you're getting in interview mode. It was cute. It was cute.
GRAHAM CLULEY. I'd be careful as well if you were on the high street too, because people might come up to you, mightn't they, sort of shaking their collection tin.
CAROLE THERIAULT. 100%. 100%. That's happened to me a lot. 'Cause I think there's a lot of scammers in my neighbourhood who use charities.
GRAHAM CLULEY. And you know what's happening now as well?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Tell me.
GRAHAM CLULEY. People are wearing masks, so which makes them even seem even more like bandits. It's like, oh, hang on, who might you be stopping me? Daylight, you know, highway robbery that's going on here.
CAROLE THERIAULT. I think the best advice I have is slow down. Like, it is a problem that actual legit charities tend to go, right now, this is happening, and, you know, fill you with emotive images. And, you know, like, if you don't give right now, away, this is what's going to happen. And yeah, you know, scammers have capitalized on that. But I think our job is to kind of say, slow down. So get the information, go away, and then process that and do your own research. Don't like just sign up and do a money order right there and then, because especially in shopping center or door, door stopping events, it can be pretty— you can feel bad to say no. But I think if someone's pressuring you to pay right now rather than giving you information to let you go think about it, Yeah.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah. And sometimes I've done that when people have come to my door and knocked on my door and said, we're collecting for, I don't know, the Three-Legged Donkeys of Malaga or something like that. And it's like, you know, they show you some emotive—
CAROLE THERIAULT. See donkeys again. I know.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah. And they show you some emotive photographs and you think, oh crikey. But I would rather say, look, can you give me a leaflet?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Exactly.
GRAHAM CLULEY. And I'll read about this. And when I'm feeling a bit more sensible and less pressured, then I'll make a decision as to whether I want to do this or not.
CAROLE THERIAULT. But a lot of people don't want to look like an idiot at that time. Do you have trouble with that or no? No, it comes naturally.
GRAHAM CLULEY. I think that was an insult.
CAROLE THERIAULT. No, it wasn't really. Now, another piece of advice. What do you think about using a credit card in these situations? Because if you do, you have a lot more rights to dispute a charge if something goes wrong than any other type of payment. So people that say, oh, that's true, you pay me with gift cards or like a money transfer or a bit of bitcoin, you know, or a bit of crypto, bit of Ethereum, Dogecoin, Lucky coin.
GRAHAM CLULEY. And some of the credit cards out there, for instance, those provided by past sponsor privacy.com, for instance, you can create little virtual credit cards, can't you?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Love that. Revolut do that too, yeah.
GRAHAM CLULEY. You could give them your details, but you could maybe have a limit as to how much it's spent and you'd know who was using that card because sometimes you're nervous about giving your credit card details and where else is this going to end up and how's it going to be used?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Exactly. And the other thing is, is in order for tax deductions to work, and this is where the US guys might be more au fait with this than we are, because we know about tax deduction stuff, but how many people when they give to a charity go and check beforehand to see if they're listed amongst the charities that from which you can actually deduct your tax from? You know what I'm trying to say?
GRAHAM CLULEY. I know what you say, and I, I must admit I only do that personally when I'm given a charitable donation of more than £1 million. If it's just little sums of money, like half a million, I don't bother. But when it's a big sum that I'm giving, then I do care.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Right. No, no, I've given like a billion and never actually looked. Oh.
GRAHAM CLULEY. So. Wow.
CAROLE THERIAULT. I'm more generous than you. That's all I'm trying to say.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Grow Bezos. Yeah.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Yeah, I'll be up there in the air. I'll be up there. Yeah. We're going to be in the spaceship together. I can't wait.
GRAHAM CLULEY. You'll be riding up on his great big— Yeah. Oh!
CAROLE THERIAULT. Can we go to Pickle Week, please?
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CAROLE THERIAULT. Pick of the Week. Pick of the Week.
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. Doesn't have to be security related necessarily.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Better not be.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Well, my pick of the week is not security related. Last week, Carole had her pick of the year. Did you not, Carole?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Yes, I did. You haven't even watched it yet, and it's now gone from Netflix.
GRAHAM CLULEY. I didn't get a chance. I did see the trailer, but it sounded really good. Anyway, maybe I will go and purchase it online to watch.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Worth it. Worth it.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Right. Because I have a pick of the year as well. Ooh. The TV event of the year, if not maybe several years, because I have been watching—
CAROLE THERIAULT. Is this Doctor Who related?
GRAHAM CLULEY. No, not Doctor Who. I have been watching on Disney Plus Get Back, the new documentary by Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings fame. Have you heard of this, Carole?
CAROLE THERIAULT. No. I know Peter Jackson. I know of Peter Jackson, but I don't know anything about the documentary. I don't have Disney Channel.
GRAHAM CLULEY. You should get a free trial for 7 days or however long, and then just binge on this. So Peter Jackson, as you know, he made Lord of the Rings, right? And they were— Oh, do you remember he did his extended cut? He did this, it's like, oh, 3 movies. Oh my goodness. And they put them out on DVD and they were like 3 and a half hours long and they went on forever and ever, but they were great. You know, they were good movies. And then he did The Hobbit and somehow he managed to split The Hobbit into 3 different movies as well. It's just like, God, drag it out, mate.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Oh, moneymaker.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, he's done the same again because it was announced maybe 18 months ago or so that Peter Jackson was making a documentary or remaking a documentary about the Beatles and it would be coming out of the cinema and then COVID happened. And during the COVID thing, the decision was made, let's not put this in the cinema. Let's instead put it out on streaming and we'll make it rather than one 1.5-hour movie, we'll make it 3 separate documentaries with a total running time of about 8 hours.
CAROLE THERIAULT. I think we can start saying now that it's been Peter Jacksoned.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yes. Right? So, yes.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Verb it up.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Each episode is about 2.5 to 3 hours long. I've watched it all. I downloaded some of it before I got to Saudi Arabia, and then I've watched the remainder since getting back. And what it is is this, right? Okay, I have to set the scene for those people who aren't Beatles nerds. In January 1969, the Beatles went to Twickenham Film Studios, a great big like hangar-like thing. It's cold. It was huge. It wasn't the normal place where they recorded their music. And they had this challenge because at the end of January 1969, Ringo was going off to make a terrible movie called The Magic Christian with Peter Sellers.
CAROLE THERIAULT. He didn't know at the time it was going to be terrible though.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Presumably not. Ringo wanted to be a big movie star. He was put into this movie. And so the Fab Four thought, okay, why don't we use this bit of time which we've got to make a TV documentary? We'll have ourselves filming, rehearsing for a show, rehearsing for a concert, and we'll rehearse songs from The White Album, which had just been released, a double album, extraordinary album they'd just released. And then when they got there, they said, hey, you know, why don't we just like come up with completely new songs? So they decided instead of recording and rehearsing songs they'd already written, right? They would instead write 14 new songs within 3 weeks, learn them, then perform them in a concert in public. They'd not done any public performances for about 3 years since the crazy days of Beatlemania. Wow. So, they started doing this and the tensions rose. And within a few days, George Harrison quit the band. Oh. Because it had a bit of a—
CAROLE THERIAULT. Falling out.
GRAHAM CLULEY. A variety of possible reasons. Some people say it's because Yoko ate some of his biscuits. Other people say Paul McCartney was being a bit overbearing.
CAROLE THERIAULT. As long as there was no hamsters involved, I'm happy.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Right. And when he came back, they dumped the idea of a TV documentary and things like that. They said, instead, we're going to make it a movie and we'll finish the movie with a big concert performance. And the director was saying, oh, well, why don't we go to Tripoli and we'll be in the amazing architecture and you'll be surrounded by 2,000 Arabs holding torches? Or let's go to a sick kids' hospital, but not too sick, just broken legs and stuff. And so he's saying, oh, the director's got all these ideas and they don't really want to do any of this, right? They don't really want to. And it's like this pressure, like, how are we going to learn all these songs? And they're goofing around. Anyway, the film came out in 1970. It's called Let It Be. And it was a pretty dreary affair, not least because just before the film came out, it was announced that the Beatles had split up. And some people viewed the movie as the reason why the Beatles split up. Okay, zoom forward to the present. Peter Jackson has taken over 160 hours of the raw camera footage and hundreds and hundreds of hours of audio. He stitched it all together. He's upscaled the footage, re-edited this into this 3-part documentary called Get Back. So effectively, you are a fly on the wall over these 3 weeks watching the Beatles very candidly rehearsing songs, even coming up with songs on the spot. So for instance, you actually see the moment when Paul McCartney um, wrote the Get Back song. You know the song Get Back? Jojo was the dad. So you see him just strumming away and the tune begins to appear out of thin air, and then the other Beatles get involved and they make it this song. And there's other hilarious things which happen in the documentary. I absolutely loved it. It was wonderful. 8 hours. Now, it may not be for the casual Beatles fan. You may find it a little bit drawn out.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Peter Jacksoned.
GRAHAM CLULEY. And the first episode in particular is a little bit more depressing than the others because they're not very happy in the first part of this documentary.
CAROLE THERIAULT. They're all bitchy to each other?
GRAHAM CLULEY. There's just—
CAROLE THERIAULT. Anybody want tea? No, no, I'm fine, thank you.
GRAHAM CLULEY. There is a lot of tea and toast being made during the course of it. But there are funny things which happen. There's a song called 'Two of Us' and Lennon and McCartney at one time are actually singing it like ventriloquists. They sort of challenge each other. Can you sing the song without moving your lips? They're going, "Ta-da-da, Stein de Taurel, got the gear, got the gear." Anyway, they're doing, there's a lot of arsing around, but it's wonderful. And I've been looking forward to seeing it so much. It's now come out, hasn't disappointed. Beatles fans around the world are delighted with it. Go to Disney+ if you're even a little bit interested in the Beatles and watch it. It is slightly slow TV, and I do like slow TV.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Okay, you've mentioned a number of times. Yeah.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah. Yeah. So that is it. And it is my pick of the year.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Whoa.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Get Back by Peter Jackson on Disney+.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Okay. Yeah, I just— the energy that was coming off you during that, I didn't even feel I could interrupt.
GRAHAM CLULEY. So I might, I might watch it again. I might watch it again this week.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Good.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Locked down for a few weeks. Exactly.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Why don't you learn it? Why don't you learn every single line in it? And then you could entertain all your friends. I'd love that so, so, so much. So much.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh, I'll put a link into the trailer. You'll like the trailer at least. That's only a minute and a half. That's quite fun. Link's in the show notes. Carole, what's your pick of the week?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Okay, so I recently had a birthday.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh.
CAROLE THERIAULT. And I got a few great gifts. Ah. Graham, you gave me a very interesting gift. I've actually started it. It's a book. So listeners, it's a book. It's quite an intense, heavy book. I was very impressed by you buying this for me. It's called A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women. And it's by Siri Hutzfeldt. And it's essays on art, sex, and the mind. And I'm 30 pages in. And so far, my takeaway is that we give credence to scientists and researchers more than we do artists. And it's a damn shame. But I'm still to read about all the reasonings as to why.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh, but you're enjoying it, are you?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Yeah, yeah, I am. Oh, good. She's quite an engaging writer. I've not read her before.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Right. Okay.
CAROLE THERIAULT. So thank you very much. However, my book is not my pick of the week.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Oh.
CAROLE THERIAULT. It's the gift that my husband bought me. And listeners, I love this. If you like pens, it's not an ordinary pen.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Right.
CAROLE THERIAULT. It is a Brass Kaweco. So K-A-W-E-C-O. Brass sports pen.
GRAHAM CLULEY. A sports pen?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Well, it's called brass. It's called sport because it's smaller and it's very— it's just amazing. So it's beautiful.
GRAHAM CLULEY. What type of— is it a fountain pen? Is it a ballpoint pen?
CAROLE THERIAULT. It's a fountain pen.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Right.
CAROLE THERIAULT. I'm sure they do ballpoint pens. Kaweco have been pen people since like the 1870s or something. But this brass pen is the perfect weight. It writes like a dream. It's super compact and fits into the smallest pouch or case. It's beautiful. You should look it up, Clue. It's really, really good.
GRAHAM CLULEY. It's the bomb. Does it take ink cartridges or do you have to do that? Do you remember the slurpy thing?
CAROLE THERIAULT. You can do both of them. So currently I have an ink cartridge in it. But I also have a plunger one that I can— because I have lots of ink around the house, so I can actually plunge in ink of different colors into the little plunger receptacles. You can choose how you want to use it.
GRAHAM CLULEY. What do you do with your pen?
CAROLE THERIAULT. Write, doodle, draw. Make lists.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Yeah.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Yeah.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Boring. Yeah. Okay. I thought maybe you'd do something more fun with it. All right. Fair enough.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Listen.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Pick earwax out or something like that.
CAROLE THERIAULT. I'm not even talking to you anymore, Graham. I'm talking to listeners. Listeners, it is the bomb. Okay. I actually heard about this pen about 6 months ago and I mentioned it to my other half. Right. And then of course I totally forgot about it and he didn't. And that's why I married well. So this is my pick of the week, the Kaweco Brass Sport. And I'm proud to recommend anybody who likes to draw, doodle, or handwrite. And link in the show notes.
GRAHAM CLULEY. I love a doodle. I must say.
CAROLE THERIAULT. Explains a lot.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Well, that just about wraps up the show for this week. If you want to follow us, you can do so on Twitter @SmashingSecurity, no G, Twitter won't allow us to have a G. And we've also got a subreddit. So go and check out Smashing Security up there. And don't forget to ensure you never miss another episode, follow Smashing Security in your favorite podcast app, such as Overcast, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
CAROLE THERIAULT. And big shout out to our episode sponsors, 1Password, Upticks, and Perimeter 81. And of course to our wonderful Patreon community. It's thanks to them all that this show is free. For episode show notes, sponsorship information, guest lists, and the entire back catalog of more than 253 episodes, check out smashingsecurity.com.
GRAHAM CLULEY. Until next time, cheerio, bye-bye. Bye. Maybe we could do the podcast sometime like a ventriloquist. So without moving our lips.
CAROLE THERIAULT. I thought you were going to ask us if we could Peter Jackson our podcast and make it 3 hours long.
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