Podcast Episode 8: We Go Deep on Coffee, Hackable Child Trackers and More

This week we look at Troy Hunt’s pen testing results with the TicTocTrack watch and the privacy issues of tracking our kids. We examine the changes coming in the AMP project as well as implications of the UK’s new porn age restriction law coming into effect in July. We review a story uncovered by Cisco’s Talos security team about a group called SeaTurtle who carried out an espionage campaign via DNS hijacking. We take a new look at why the Nigerian prince scam is still netting over $700,000 per year, and how the City of Chicago lost more than $1 million in a phishing scam. We also take a look at the nascent influencer economy and some of the effects on both service companies and influencers themselves.

For our interview this week, I have something a little different. I was recently in Idyllwild, California for a few days and made friends with an amazing couple who run a coffee roastery and tasting room. Chris and Katie Bayer are the owners of Black Mountain Coffee Roasting. If you love coffee and WordPress you’re going to love this interview. Enjoy!

Here are approximate timestamps in case you want to jump around:
0:45 TicTocTrack, the Hackable Kids’ Watch
14:24 Changes to AMP
21:14 UK Pornography restriction law
29:25 Sea Turtle group and DNS hijacking
38:19 Nigerian Prince scams and why they’re still around
50:42 City of Chicago and a phishing scam
58:13 The influencer economy
1:07:26 Interview with Chris and Katie Bayer

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This week in the news we cover:

• Troy Hunt takes a look at a kids’ smart watch with some extraordinary security and privacy concerns.
• There are some updates to Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) that make sites visited via AMP appear to be the actual publisher’s site.
• The United Kingdom has a new law coming into effect in July with stricter requirements to restrict pornography access.
• Cisco Talos security researchers have discovered a new team of sophisticated hackers they’ve named Sea Turtle that has hijacked internet domains of entire countries.
• A new look at an old story, Nigerian prince scams are still raking in over $700,000 a year. We talk about why this is still important.
• The City of Chicago fell victim to a phishing scam that almost lost them over $1 million, but the funds were recovered.
• The influencer economy is growing, but one service business doesn’t want any part of it. An Instagram influencer had her account shut down after a group reported her account repeatedly.

You can find me on Twitter as @mmaunder and Kathy as @kathyzant. Please don’t hesitate to post your feedback in the comments below.