Smashing Security podcast #298: Housing market scams, Twitter 2FA, and the fesshole

Elon Musk is still causing chaos at Twitter (and it’s beginning to impact users), are scammers selling your house without your permission, and Google gets stung with a record-breaking fine.

All this and much more is discussed in the latest edition of the award-winning “Smashing Security” podcast by cybersecurity veterans Graham Cluley and Carole Theriault, joined this week by The Cyberwire’s Dave Bittner.

Plus don’t miss our featured interview with Pentera’s Shakel Ahmed talking about automating continuous cyber defence validation.

Hosts:

Graham Cluley – @gcluley
Carole Theriault – @caroletheriault

Guest:

Dave Bittner – @[email protected]

Episode links:

• Graham offers Dave Bittner some advice on “Welcome Datacomp”… in 1995! – Usenet.
• Elon Musk apologises to users for Twitter being slow – Twitter.
• Former Twitter employee doesn’t think Elon Musk knows what he’s talking about – Twitter.
• Eric Frohnhoefer says Elon Musk is wrong – Twitter.
• Twitter engineer calls out Elon Musk for technical BS in unusual career move – The Register.
• Elon Musk says that he is turning off microservices “bloatware” – Twitter.
• Twitter’s SMS Two-Factor Authentication Is Melting Down – Wired.
• Elon only trusts Elon – Platformer.
• Elon’s paranoid purge – Platformer.
• Google to pay nearly $400 million over deceptive location tracking practices – The Record.
• Follow Smashing Security on Mastodon.
• South Bay Man Pleads Guilty to Participating in a Multimillion-Dollar Real Estate Scam Involving Fake Open Houses at Not-for-Sale Homes – Justice.gov.
• A South Bay man accepted hundreds of offers from open houses. But the homes weren’t for sale – LA Times. 
• The typing of the Regex.
• Fesshole – Twitter.
• If Books Could Kill – Apple Podcasts. 
• Smashing Security merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, stickers and stuff)

Sponsored by:

• Pentera – Pentera’s Automated Security Validation Platform is designed to help teams increase their security posture against modern day threats across the entire attack surface. Evaluate your security readiness with continuous and consistent autonomous testing with granular visibility into every execution along the way.
• Kolide – the SaaS app that sends employees important, timely, and relevant security recommendations concerning their Mac, Windows, and Linux devices, right inside Slack.
• Bitwarden – Password security you can trust. Bitwarden is an open source password manager trusted by millions of individuals, teams, and organizations worldwide for secure password storage and sharing.

Support the show:

You can help the podcast by telling your friends and colleagues about “Smashing Security”, and leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser.

Become a Patreon supporter for ad-free episodes and our early-release feed!

Follow us:

Follow the show on Twitter at @SmashinSecurity, or on Mastodon, on the Smashing Security subreddit, or visit our website for more episodes.

Thanks:

Theme tune: “Vinyl Memories” by Mikael Manvelyan.
Assorted sound effects: AudioBlocks.

Found this article interesting? Follow Graham Cluley on Twitter, Mastodon, or Threads to read more of the exclusive content we post.

Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "Smashing Security" podcast. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.