We're living in the Age of Digital Social Contagions. #27

Welcome everybody to the Security Guy and the CIA Spy Show podcast, where we are keeping you on top of what is new and ahead of what is next at all times on all things security, tech, and digital literacy. Knowing that when good people like you want to make sure that their money, their family, and their business is safe and secure from attackers, hackers, and thieves, or you just want to make sure your tech is running smoothly, my name is Robert Siciliano. I am the Security Guy, and along with my co-host Peter Wormka, who is a real and retired United States CIA spy, we will give give you every single tool, tip, tactic, and skill that you need to fight the bad guy and keep your physical and digital life secure, worry less, and even make you happier. This podcast will help you breathe easier with less stress and a greater sense of well-being. So let's get at it. And welcome to The Security Guy and CIA Spy. I am Robert Siciliano, and this is Ivar Warmka coming from Orlando, Florida. And Peter Wonka is the CIA spy. He's actually a, a retired cover.

Now you're saying I'm a CIA spy? Oh my gosh.

Well, I mean, hey, you know, I mean, unless, unless the, the, uh, the, the entire podcast is a lie, uh, I mean, you are, you are a, you're a Langley guy, right?

I am, I am. I didn't spend very much time in headquarters. None of us like to spend time at headquarters, even if you're working for corporate America, people prefer not to be in headquarters but be out in the, in the field. So fortunately, I spent most of my career out in the field.

So, um, who were some of the, um, some of the directors you worked under, like, uh, Leon Panetta? Like, who'd you work on?

Uh, boy, I'm just trying to think of— under Tenet, George Tenet most of the time, and then Leon Panetta And, uh, now, man, it'd be former director of the NSA too. I've just— I lost Hayden, General Hayden. How could I forget? Um, under him as well. And yeah, those are the main three that I served under.

Yeah, so I just watched, uh, Zero Dark Thirty.

Oh, okay.

You like it? Probably for probably the 30th time.

I guess you liked it.

Love that film. And, uh, uh, Leon Panetta was played by, uh, James Gandolfini.

Ah, wow. Okay.

Yeah, yeah, which was pretty awesome. And, um, Jessica— and I forgot her last name, she's such a great actress— uh, there was a scene in the movie where, uh, Panetta sat down with, um, Maya, I guess her name was, and, and, and he, he asked— he goes, so, so, you know, What have you done besides, you know, work on, um, on finding Osama bin Laden, you know, for the past 12 years? And she looks at him, she goes, nothing, nothing, it's, it's all I've ever done. You know, like she was like obsessed with finding him and he saw it and it was that one situation that made him go, okay, yeah, let's do the raid. Because she's like, she, she was 100% sure that he was, you know, in Pakistan at that particular house.

And, uh, yeah, well, Robert, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but I guess this morning on the news they were talking about this new podcast that's actually coming out, uh, sponsored by Langley, that's going to sort of like give some truth to a lot of this really super sexy stuff that CIA spies allegedly do. Uh, and so this thing's coming out in short order. So I guess if people want to learn about the real life of a typical CIA agent. This supposedly— this podcast was to shed some light on the real— the reality of how we live.

Yeah, that movie was 1,000% true. Okay, Peter.

All right, all right, that's all right. I don't want to burst your bubble. Anyway, let's move on to— got a pretty full program here today, right?

Yeah, we got stuff to talk about. Okay. Uh, all right, so, uh, first, um, hey, uh, CNET talks about Zelle scams. Protect yourself to stop thieves in their tracks. Zelle, as you Zelle is a form of person-to-person payment provider, so like PayPal and Venmo, Zelle, Cash App, and so forth. Zelle generally works through the Bank of America platform. You can move money from one account to the other. It's pretty easy to do. I use it when I'm soliciting donations when I'm running for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.. And people, you know, put money into my account, and then I pay, you know, Bank of America with that. So what's happening? I pay the charity with that. So what's happening? Criminals are using the banking payment service Zelle to steal money from unsuspecting victims. Why it matters: 100 million Americans with Zelle connected to their bank accounts will be vulnerable until banks offer more protections. What's next? Politicians and government agencies are asking for new regulations that will push banks to better compensate customers who have been defrauded. So the banking payment, uh, Zelle acts as quick and easy to send money for purchases from private sellers, but its transactions are instant and irreversible, making it attractive target for scammers and thieves. So every week, uh, new Zelle scams, uh, stories to light. In Massachusetts, a man accidentally gave scammers remote access to his phone and quickly lost $3,000. Facebook Marketplace dominated Zelle scam stories lately. Prompting the Better Business Bureau to put out a warning. Uh, according to the Wall Street Journal, and the Consumer Finance Bureau is expecting Zelle to change some of its policies. Let's get into— I actually have something from, uh, Zelle and Bank of America itself. All right, so Bank of America, here's what you need to know about this trending scam. Uh, they have an educational video, and all of this, by the way, will be in the show notes that we can provide, that we will provide to everybody via, you know, whatever platform you're watching it on, and via our newsletter. So here are the details of the Pay Yourself scam. You receive a text message that looks like a fraud alert from your bank about unusual activity. The text may look something like, "Did you make a purchase of $100 at ABC Merchant?" If you respond to the text, you have now engaged the scammer and will receive a call from a number that appears to be from a bank. So what they'll do is they'll change up the caller ID to look like it's coming from, say, Bank of America. Okay, so the moment that you respond to the text, you are engaging the scammer. You're essentially, um, in bed with the bad guy. You are contacting pure evil. All right, and these people are good at what they do. They understand social psychology. They understand how to get to you emotionally. So that you will cough up sensitive information and do what they want you to do. They'll appear to be a representative from a bank and will offer to help stop the alleged fraud by asking you to send money to yourself with Zelle. Hmm. The scammer will ask you for a one-time code you just received from the bank. That one-time code, they're going to log into your account. If you give them the code, they will use it to enroll their bank account with Zelle using your email and phone number. The scammer now has the ability to receive your money into their account. It's a pretty simple, ingenious scam.

Yeah, it's a clever way to get around the multi-authentication factor, right, of getting that code sent to you, or they can still ask for it. You know what it kind of reminds me of? Uh, I'm dating myself, but Robert, I think you would remember this as well. Do you remember in the late '70s when banks— when the first ATMs came out? And how the general public did not trust these machines. They would prefer to go into the bank and deal with a, with a real person, a teller, to make their deposit or to get cash. They did not want to use them. Banks then began to start charging fees to use the teller to try to get people to use the ATMs. And little by little, people began to accept that this technology and trust this technology without really questioning it. But now people have, you know, we're using more and more technology. If you go into the banks, you know how they find a teller. All this technology is there and people kind of blindly trust it. So this is really— it's kind of interesting how this technology, if people don't understand how it works and how it can be circumvented, uh, how they can be really pulled into, uh, such a scam.

Yeah, fundamentally this particular scam is called a man-in-the-middle attack. That's what this is. All right, so what you can do to stay protected: don't trust caller ID. So I said that, right? You could do, you could do a quick Google search right now for caller ID spoofing, and you'll find plenty of services right now that for free will, um, change what shows up on your— on whoever you call caller ID. You could change it to any phone number, any name of any company. You can make it say the local police department, Publishers Clearing House. Bank of America, and so forth. Don't share codes based on a call you receive. All right, anytime anybody ever calls you, email, texts you, always be suspicious, plain and simple. Don't be pressured to act immediately, especially if they're calling you saying you are a potential victim of fraud, they're going to take even more money from you if you don't act right now. The moment your blood pressure starts to boil, there's a sense of immediacy there's a sense of loss, right? That is an absolute red flag every single time the phone rings. Okay, so they are saying visit the Security Center for more tips on red flags, details why. So that's basically the long and the short of it. Zelle is a great tool. Just make sure that, um, you know, two-factor authentication, your mobile phone is password protected. Um, you know, your username could be anything, and people are accessible just by a quick search on Zelle. Uh, you know, Facebook Marketplace, if somebody wants to buy or sell something, they might say, hey, you know, I'd be interested in buying that, give me your Zelle credentials and I'll be happy to pay you twice as much as it's worth.

If it's happening with Zelle, it's probably also happening with some of the other payment platforms.

Yeah, Cash App, Venmo, you name it, Apple Pay, Facebook Pay, right? All right, so just please, like, just if you're on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, anything like that, it is just a cesspool. Just know that chances are somebody is trying to fleece you every single time they contact you.

All right, remember, verify then trust.

Verify then trust. Exactly. Okay. Uh, yeah, this is a bit disheartening, Peter. Check this out.

All right, I saw this and it just sickens me. It just really, really sickens me. Yeah, sorry.

For those of you who have kids, uh, especially— well, I mean, boys are definitely potential, you know, look at— everybody has mental health issues, okay? Girls can be more susceptible because there's just so many more scams that are targeted towards young women, or at least so many more issues targeting young women. Um, and, uh, I mean, you'll, you'll see how it all plays out. So, how social media is literally making teens mentally ill. This is the New York Post. Uh, this is, uh, just, you know what, today. Um, so here, uh, Susie— and I'm gonna— this is, this is put out by a doctor, researcher, and so forth. I'm going to read this particular part of the story because It really matters. So Susie was a typical 22-year-old recent college grad from the Midwest who was admitted into this doctor's medical health clinic in Austin with a variety of increasingly common psychiatric disorders: depression, self-harm, borderline personality disorder. Uh, BPD is a serious personality disorder that has 50 times the suicide rate of the general population, is typified by black and white thinking like self-harm behavior, emotional volatility, impulse behavior, shifting self-image, and feelings of emptiness. It's awful. All of that is awful. So while Susie did initially present some of the classic BPD symptoms— feeling empty, suicidal— something didn't add up, the doctor said. Unlike most BPD clients, she didn't have any of the early red flags. She had good grades and many friends in high school with stable relationships and a stable home environment and no history of mental illness in her family. So basically, like, this girl on the outside was doing fine, but she was having some issues eventually that were a lot worse, right? So, but overall, she was actually, you know, came from a good home life. Like, there was relative balance in her life, okay? But something happened. During Susie's treatment, we discovered the real culprit. She'd been spending 12 to 15 hours a day on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube after becoming depressed when her friends went away to university and she stayed home and attended community college. Initially trying to better understand her depression, she did some research. She started to follow BPD influencers— basically people who have BPD, right, and, and talk about dealing with it, but not necessarily in a good way— and joined online BPD groups where she said they felt a sense of belonging. Slowly and unwittingly, she started to emulate what she was learning about BPD online, like cutting her arms after watching videos of influencers declare that cutting helped them feel in control, or at least feel something. WTF, Peter.

You know, this— and this is— and this, I, I get a feel because I do hear, you know, from other individuals that this is becoming more and more— this is not an isolated case. They're starting to hear about this, and it's just so sad of how the young folks— and probably not just young folks, older, older adults as well— are getting drawn into this online community, uh, where, you know, that this is what they seek for, for help versus anything on the outside, talking to other individuals who might be able to help them. They're taking, you know, whatever comfort they may feel from these online communities that actually, you know, makes it worse in the long run.

Yeah, yeah. As human beings, right, we become what we think about, right? So whatever your focus is, you know, that's— we, we live in the atmosphere of our thoughts, right? So whatever your thoughts are, whatever you think about, that's what you become, you know, in so many words, right? Uh, you know, if you're thinking about— if you see advertisements for fast food and you're getting a craving and you just can't stop thinking about it, you're going to get in your car, you're going to go to McDonald's, you know. Um, you know, if you're, if you're like drawn to the cabinet and there's like chocolate in there and like you just keep thinking about it, you're gonna eat the chocolate, and so on. If you're watching porn all the time, like, it's gonna affect your life. You know, so this right here, with young fragile minds, right, uh, they're looking for an outlet of research, uh, for information, whatever, like help. Uh, they stumble upon something like this that is anything but help. Uh, so what they were saying was, is that, check this out, this is, this is actually a good thing. But something quite amazing happened while she was in treatment. She got better very quickly. Once all her devices and social media were removed, within 2 weeks she was calmer and less reactive. She made friends at the program, she no longer cut her arms, and thoughts of suicide evaporated. But if she really had BPD, she shouldn't have been cured that quickly. Clients with real BPD typically require many months or even years of treatment before seeing improvement. So what was really happening? Well, this is it. Look at this sentence.

This is brilliant.

We're living in the age of digital social contagions. It's a contagious virus, you know. And, uh, I mean, you know what, like something that goes viral, what that's all about. Somebody sends out a tweet, they post a video, something fun or funny or something ridiculous, something awful. It goes viral, it goes viral, right? Well, we're living in the age of digital social contagions, viruses, uh, and like a virus, this bad information spreads. So what does this mean for, you know, you as an audience? It means that anybody that's in your life right now that, that is at any level at risk, you need to engage, you need to, you know, interfere, intervene, whatever is necessary in order to, you know, grab that person, hug them, find out what's going on, you know, do a deep dive, get them whatever help they might need before they, you know, start doing bad things. Like my daughter right now, my oldest daughter, she's doing a, um, a, a report on this particular issue. Right? And I said to her, I said, look, I know you're doing good. I know that everything's fine. I mean, she's like a teenager, so she battles with like teenage angst, right? I go, but you need to understand, like, because from where I come from, you know, in the world of security awareness and security awareness training, like, I'm constantly consuming information that's bad, right? Information that's upsetting, information that, you know, I need to understand in order to provide perspective to my audience, right, to my people, to my— the people I train. I said, and in doing that and consuming this information, as you be— as you think about this stuff, you have to be able to separate it from, you know, who you are and what you're all about and understand what, you know, why it is you're consuming that, right? And I said, so as a teenager and as you are consuming this, just make sure that you don't, you know, become it. If this is purely for you to do some research on and to put it out there and to learn from. But obviously, as you know, because you're a smart kid, nothing here is good for you, but your understanding of it and how other people in your life might be affected by it is important.

It is important. You know, we've discussed this in the past, how important it is for parents to have more dialogue with their kids. And even if you have that dialogue with your kids, they might not tell you because maybe your relationship is not quite that close. They might not tell you about the problems they are having, but even more of a reason to sort of, you know, we talk about privacy, you know, if parents think, well, I need to respect the privacy of my children, but if they're going through this, I would rather much monitor a little bit what they're doing online than to all of a sudden find out, well, they committed suicide. And at that point, there's no going back, right? Robert Siciliano, there's a related topic when you talk about online, you know, the effect of being on checking their phones, being online. I don't know if you saw it. There was a news story a couple of days ago where there's a number of schools now that are actually going to prohibit the use of a student's cell phone. They're going to have to lock it up in their locker or put it into a very special locked bag while they're in school. And the ones that have already tested this or using it, they found a remarkable increase in engagement the students have in the classroom, engagement with fellow students during lunch hour, they're actually talking with each other versus looking at their phone. So there's more than just this issue and this whole part of being so connected with that phone where it becomes your life versus everything else that's going on around you, other people.

Yeah, yeah, too much, too much. It's too much for these young minds. And listen, privacy, for a 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12-year-old is overrated. Like, as a parent, we are responsible for every aspect of what they do inside and outside of the home. And so if you are like giving your kid all this privacy, which means like you're completely hands-off, letting them do their thing— like when parents say, oh, you know, my kid knows more about technology than I do, That's the parent like throwing their hands up in the air and kind of giving up. This is not a technology problem. This is a parenting problem. Yeah. And so the, the more parents are involved in their kids' digital lives, the less of a digital divide there will be.

Yeah, you said it. Well said.

All right, all right. So, um, next on the list of whacked out things going on in the world: armed moped thieves terrorize Manhattan. Grab-and-go crooks rip $12,000 Rolex. From a man's wrist while a woman fights off two men trying to grab her necklace outside the Guggenheim. So basically, like, in some upscale neighborhoods in, um, uh, New York and Chicago and other parts of the country, we're seeing a rise in these types of crimes. We talked about this, I think, in the last podcast where it might have happened in Chicago. Um, woman knocked to the ground by three guys who had pulled up and they saw her walking. And listen, this is a problem This happens when crime rises during times of inflation, uh, when people are having a difficult time either getting a job or making money. Uh, while murder rates have gone down slightly, uh, in the past year, I mean, they're still the highest they've ever been, you know, in quite some time. 2021 were the worst on record for, like, I think the past, like, I don't know, like, uh, uh, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 years or even longer. But, uh, Uh, these types of thefts are definitely going up.

Yeah, Robert, you know, I've been through this. I mean, I lived overseas in some places where I've— I mean, I lived— I lived with this on a day-to-day basis. Cities like São Paulo, Brazil, Mexico City, etc. And I think there's two things I want to highlight. First of all, whether or not you make yourself a target by what— are you carrying something on you that someone else might want? And it's, it's easy steal, like a Rolex watch or something else. Or maybe even you're carrying that expensive, uh, uh, iPhone on you and you just happen to put it in your back pocket while you're walking, or you put it on a, uh, table, you know, like maybe in a Starbucks, and you decide to go to the restroom and leave the phone out there. These are like making it easy pickings of things that could be of value to a criminal. And the other part of this is your own self-awareness. Are you aware of what's going on? Around you, you know, because you're going to be spotted. You're going to be spotted for something that you're carrying on you, and you're also going to be— you said they're going to decide to target you because you're not paying attention. Yeah, those are the two, two reasons, big reasons, I think.

Yeah, we call that self-awareness, but we also call it situational awareness, right? You should be involved, you should be aware wherever you are, whatever you're doing, of the situation. Everything going on around the perimeter of your body, 50 to 100 feet at all times. Is somebody paying any unwanted attention to you? Do you know what's going on behind you? Do you know what's going on to the left and the right and what's coming up towards you? And the more conscious and cognizant you are of your environment, the more aware you are, the less likely you're going to be chosen, uh, by an attacker. If you're just buried in your mobile phone, not paying any attention, you have no idea that anybody is even paying any unwanted attention to you to begin with. You know? So—

Which a lot of people are, and once again, buried in that phone. And that's why they get even hit by cars, because they're not paying attention.

Yeah, awful. And I've seen a lot of that. All right, Peter. So, check this out. Boston Police warn, like you said, of cell phone thieves who swipe data and banking information. So, yours truly, this guy right here, was actually featured, um, in this particular story. Let's, uh, let's watch it.

All right, stolen and bank accounts hacked. A warning from Boston police as some of you get ready to head into the city this weekend. Thanks for joining us on this Friday night.

I'm Vanessa Welk, and I'm Mark Harkness. Boston 25 News reporter John Lockhart is live in Boston.

And John, one victim lost thousands of dollars. That's right, Mark, $8,000 from his bank account. And the thieves also got his Social Security number. Now, we spoke to a security expert tonight. He says your phone, it can be just like a gold mine for thieves.

Pretty scary. I mean, I definitely don't want anything stolen, especially as like a young person. It can do a lot to you.

Northeastern student Masha Yukubovich was unaware of the recent rash of cell phone thefts and appreciates Boston Police putting out a warning.

I am glad they put it out. Something good to know.

Security expert Robert Robert Siciliano, the CEO of ProtectNow, says this is nothing new, but in the digital age, our phones become a treasure trove for thieves.

If your phone is lost or stolen and it doesn't have a passcode on it, bad guys have access to everything.

One person responded to BPD's post saying it happened to him a few weeks ago. Thieves stole $8,000, his Social Security number, and locked him out of his iCloud account just by using his passcode. Boston police warn of what's called shoulder surfing.

It's very easy for somebody to come up behind you and actually use their phone to zoom in and record exactly what you're doing over your shoulder.

Police also caution people to always log out of apps, especially financial and banking ones.

If your phone is stolen while you're actually on it, that means it's not locked. That means that All of your apps that are currently active, somebody could get access to.

If your phone is stolen, wipe it clean from another device, enable the lost mode, or remotely wipe all data from the device. And finally, Siciliano says always be aware of your surroundings. He calls it situational awareness.

No matter where you are, no matter what you're doing, know what's going on behind you, in front of you, to the left and the right, and make sure that nobody's paying any unwanted attention to you.

And two more things: make sure you back your phone up to the cloud so you can always retrieve that data. And also, if your phone gets stolen, change all the passwords connected to that device. We're live in Boston tonight. I'm John Monahan for your local station, Boston 25 News.

Thanks, John. Yeah, so that's what's going on. BPD, Boston Police Department, has all kinds of tips here.. We'll include them in the show notes. So Peter, what do you got going on these days? I mean, talk, talk to like, what do you, what is your response to this first?

Well, first of all, I, I mean, um, to me it's kind of a no-brainer, but then again, people are, people are just becoming so used to having that cell phone and not realizing that how much of their life is on that, that phone, you know, whether it's financial data, their own personal records, even some photographs that I guess if people had access to, they might be, you know, uh, would not be happy with. So you got to realize you have— you got to have control over that phone. And with the, uh, passcode, I mean, you have to actually program your phone that it will go into, uh, I'm gonna call it like logout, right, after, after, you know, 30 seconds or a minute or 5 minutes. And that— so that has to be— make sure that you, you, you, uh, do that with your phone because there's probably a lot of people that don't have that. They probably— well, it's inconvenient. I'll just leave it open all the time. And if you're in your house, maybe it's not that big a deal. But if you're carrying your cell phone outside of your house, which all of us do, that becomes a serious issue.

Yeah. Yeah. So really just, you know, pay attention to what's going on around the perimeter of your body, especially, you know, when you're on your phone walking down the street, exposed in public, walking back and forth to work. You know, you might be walking your dog. You might, you know, just be, you know, out for a stroll. Just know what's going on around the perimeter of your body, no matter where you live. If you say, well, I live in a safe area or a safe neighborhood, great. That doesn't necessarily mean that bad things don't ever happen there, you know. So you do need to have a certain awareness about you. And then, you know, um, log out of your most sensitive apps and, uh, definitely password protect that device. And make sure you have Find My. Find My is an app on your iDevices—iPhone, iPad, Mac, and so forth—that allows you to lock, locate, wipe that device. Similar apps are available for your Android devices as well. So, Peter, what do you got going on these days?

Well, I'm coming back from several conferences over the last few days, and I got one coming up, InfoSec World, here in Orlando. I'm going to be speaking on the dangers of deepfakes. People are fascinated with the topic, but they know very little about it. And, uh, this is something that I think we're going to be hearing a lot more about over the next, uh, several months.

What about you, Robert? Uh, so me and my team are— by the way, you could see Peter online at Counterintelligence Institute, uh, counterintelligence-institute.com. Uh, there's his handsome mug right there. And me and my team are online at, uh, Protect Now LLC. By the way, we have, uh, 21, um, Google reviews just from the past, uh, few weeks of gigs. We are at a 4.9 on our Google reviews. Uh, y'all should go check out our, um, Google profile. Uh, check out protectnowllc.com. Check out our hacked password checker, uh, hacked email checker. And other than that, you know, Peter, last words.

Everybody stay safe out there and watch out for each other and engage people and find out how they're feeling so that people don't have to go online just to find a group of influencers that might take them down the wrong direction.

Wise words. See you next time, Peter. Bye-bye. Take care.