Transatlantic Cable Podcast

This week on the Transatlantic Cable podcast, our good friend Ahmed is a bit under the weather, so we return temporarily to our original podcast line-up.

We jump right in with the story everyone’s been talking about: Log4J. We start out with an overview of what is going on there and then hop into a second story about botnets leveraging the vulnerability. After that, we discuss a case of fat fingers causing an NFT to be sold for $3,000 — sounds like no big deal, but it was valued at $300,000. Once that cheap sales went through, the item was flipped for a whole lot more money. Talk about a whoopsie.

From there, our discussion shifts to Instagram. Prior to its grilling by the US Congress, the social network announced some changes to the platform. The changes aim to improve users’ experiences and avoid some of the associated harms such as bullying, damage to self-image, and more. Dave and I debate a bit whether it’s just a PR stunt or something that will really benefit society.

Our fourth story has us diving into a lawsuit Google filed against some hackers. The problem is that it appears largely symbolic.

For our final story, we head to China, where a man stole more than $20,000 from an ex-girlfriend by unlocking her phone and bank account while she was sleeping — creepy! And to close out the podcast for the year, we offer some tips for anyone who gets new electronics over the holidays.

Direct download: KL_Podcast_232.mp3
Category:technology -- posted at: 6:51am EDT

After a brief hiatus in old Constantinople, Ahmed and I rejoin David just in time for the 131st edition of the Transatlantic Cable podcast.

To kick things off, we dive into The Sandbox metaverse and a sale of land to be the neighbor of Snoop Dogg – yes the dogfather. Believe it or not, one of the NFTs purchased for this digital version sold for a whopping $450K – so yes, you read that right, the cost of a home in many US markets for a plot in the Snoopverse; what a time to be alive.

 

From there, we head into a look into Facebook’s removal of their self-imposed ban on cryptocurrency ads on their platforms. After a brief quiz break, we jump into a pair of stories that discuss disinformation and what the platforms of Facebook and Twitter are doing to battle it. Spoiler – not enough.

 

To close out the podcast, we head to the UK, where scammers are using the Omicron variant of Covid-19 to lure people into a phishing scheme.

Direct download: KL_Podcast_231_1.mp3
Category:technology -- posted at: 4:35am EDT

Welcome to the 230th episode of the Transatlantic Cable podcast. Due to travel commitments, Ahmed and Jeff are unable to attend this week’s episode. Filling in is the ever dependable Jag.

To start, we look at an interesting story look at the Australian government’s impending policy, which will force social media companies to ‘unmask’ online trolls. From there, we look at a story around facial recognition for goats in China (yes, really.)

After that, rather unique story, David sits down with David Emm to talk about the recent Kaspersky GReAT APT review. After that, we look at two stories from the BBC, the first around a crypto currency called JRR Token (no relation to JRR Tolkien, according to the creators) and the final story around a proposed government legislation in the U.K which will ban default passwords on smart devices. Smart thinking.

Direct download: KL_Podcast_230.mp3
Category:technology -- posted at: 6:20am EDT

1