A chatty chat in which we discuss the Infinite Backrooms and the extremely profitable shock-meme-cult it spurred, a big update in the McDonald's ice cream machine right to repair story, Apple Bug Bounties, Canadian hackers and so much more.

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We wanted to know: How was USDoD, the hacker behind major data breaches, unmasked? On this episode, we trace his journey from infiltrating FBI-linked networks to leaking sensitive data, and hear from OSINT specialist and Predicta Lab CEO Baptiste Robert, who used open-source intelligence to follow USDoD’s digital trail, revealing what law enforcement missed along the way.

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The whole second half of this one is one long call but trust us it's worth it. A call in show with tales of hackers getting hacked back, spoofed emails, and operating system vulnerabilities.

Hotline Hacked is brought to you by DeleteMe. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Now at a special discount for our listeners: Today get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.com/HACKED and use promo code HACKED at checkout.

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A chatty chat episode where we discuss a Harvard research project turning Meta Ray-Bans into facial recognition hardware, an Irish court case resolution on a password breach, a live-action roleplaying game solved basically while we were talking, and much more.

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We think Zeke Faux’s Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall is one of the best modern books about crypto. It’s a globetrotting adventure and a great piece of reporting. To celebrate the paperback release, we sat down with Bloomberg investigative reporter and author Zeke Faux to dig into his experience writing it, what he learned, and what he thinks happens next.

Number Go Up is now available in paperback wherever you get your books.

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It's a five-alarm fire in the fifth instalment of our call in show. We hear from a caller who accidentally won a naval war-game by unplugging a radio, a person whose company hired someone who clearly lied about their technical background, a very wholesome story about Counterstrike, and a person who decided to do a scavenger hunt by scavenging online instead of the real world.

Hotline Hacked is brought to you by DeleteMe. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Now at a special discount for our listeners: Today get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.com/HACKED and use promo code HACKED at checkout.

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In which we discuss alleged Spotify streaming ad fraud that brought in millions, extremely poor voter outreach and an extended tangent on AI.

Correction: we failed to make the "Ramen Empire" joke. Our apologies.

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Fourth times a charm. Share your strange tale of technology, true hack, or computer confession at hotlinehacked.com. We discuss stealing login credentials with microphones, hacking courses for cybersecurity classes for instant grades, and parking pits.

Hotline Hacked is brought to you by DeleteMe. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for DeleteMe. Now at a special discount for our listeners: Today get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to joindeleteme.com/HACKED and use promo code HACKED at checkout.

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You can do lot of damage by changing someone's bike gear at the wrong time. A collection of stories including a DIY laser mad science project that aims to replicate a $150,000 piece of equipment, and one of the largest leaks of US Social Security Numbers.

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DEFCON: The Biggest Hacking Event in the World

Every year DEFCON, the world’s biggest hacking conference, descends on Las Vegas for a weekend of digital mad science, security, and community building. We braved the desert heat to go find out what it’s all about and to see how many people would talk into a microphone at privacy-centric event. 

Check out the Capture the Flag replays here: https://www.youtube.com/@livectf

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We all just watched one of the largest IT events in years unfold in real time with the CrowdStrike incident. We wanted to understand it better, so we called up security researcher and educator John Hammond to get to the bottom of it. 

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