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Smashing Security podcast episodes

438: When your mouse turns snitch, and hackers grow a conscience

Your computer's mouse might not be as innocent as it looks - and one ransomware crew has a crisis of conscience that nobody saw coming. We talk about how something as ordinary as a web page could turn your mouse into a surprisingly nosey neighbour, and why ransomware gangs need to think carefully about their...

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437: Salesforce's trusted domain of doom

Researchers uncovered a security flaw in Salesforce’s shiny new Agentforce. The vulnerability, dubbed "ForcedLeak", let them smuggle AI-read instructions in via humble Web-to-Lead form... and ended up spilling data for the low, low price of five dollars. And we discuss why data breach communications still default to "we take security seriously" while quietly implying "assume no...

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436: The €600,000 gold heist, powered by ransomware

Ransomware doesn’t just freeze computers - it can silence alarms too. And when the Natural History Museum in Paris went dark, thieves helped themselves to €600,000 worth of gold in a daring late-night heist. Meanwhile, developers have a new headache: a worm dubbed “Shai Hulud” has wriggled its way through more than 180 npm packages,...

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435: Lights! Camera! Hacktion!

When "bad actors" stop being hackers and start being... actual actors. This week, Graham and special guest Jenny Radcliffe play “Hacker or Ham?” (yes, Steven Seagal, we’re looking at you), before diving into a campaign which saw an Iranian gang luring Israeli performers with fake casting calls for a serious film. We unpack why positive...

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434: Whopper Hackers, and AI Whoppers

Ever wondered what would happen if Burger King left the keys to the kingdom lying around for anyone to use? Ethical hackers did - and uncovered drive-thru recordings, hard-coded passwords, and even the power to open a Whopper outlet on the moon. Meanwhile, over in Silicon Valley, one AI wunderkind managed to turn a $7...

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433: How hackers turned AI into their new henchman

Your AI reads the small print, and that's a problem. This week in episode 433 of "Smashing Security" we dig into LegalPwn - malicious instructions tucked into code comments and disclaimers that sweet-talks AI into rubber-stamping dangerous payloads (or even pretending they’re a harmless calculator). Meanwhile, new research from Anthropic reveals that hackers have already...

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432: Oops! I auto-filled my password into a cookie banner

We unpack how some password managers can be tricked into coughing up your secrets, with a clickjacking sleight-of-hand, what website owners can do to prevent it, and how to lock down your personal password vault. Then we time-hop to the post-quantum scramble: "harvest-now, decrypt later", Microsoft's 2033 quantum-safe pledge, and whether your printer will survive...

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431: How to mine millions without paying the bill

In episode 431 of the "Smashing Security" podcast, a self-proclaimed crypto-influencer calling himself CP3O thought he had found a shortcut to riches — by racking up millions in unpaid cloud bills. Meanwhile, we look at the growing threat of EDR-killer tools that can quietly switch off your endpoint protection before an attack even begins. And...

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430: Poisoned Calendar invites, ChatGPT, and Bromide

A poisoned Google Calendar invite that can hijack your smart home, a man is hospitalised after ChatGPT told him to season his food with… pesticide, and some thoughts on Superman’s latest cinematic outing. All this and more is discussed in the latest edition of the "Smashing Security" podcast by cybersecurity veterans Graham Cluley, joined this...

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429: Replit panics, and the AI that will kill you

Those of you who tuned in to last week's episode (#428) will have heard the big news from my podcast pal Carole that she's decided to move on from her co-hosting duties on the show. There have been some lovely messages of support sent through for Carole, and indeed for me too. Thank you very...

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