The Protege — "Possibly the Worst Intelligence Disaster in U.S. History"

More from Hacked

1. 

   16 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 12 min

   Breaking the Chain of Custody

   We start this chatty chat looking at the legacy of EternalBlue, an NSA-developed cyberweapon that leaked in 2017 and powered global disasters like WannaCry, to explain a new mobile threat called "Coruna." Just as EternalBlue likely escaped government chain of custody to become a tool for mass digital carnage, Coruna is a sophisticated iPhone exploit framework leveraging 23 vulnerabilities that has similarly migrated from elite surveillance into the hands of broader cybercriminal groups. This "EternalBlue moment" for mobile marks a shift where nation-state-grade tools, capable of silently…

2. 

   2 Mar 2026 · 1 hr 25 min

   The $5 Wrench Attack

   In this chatty chat episode, we kick things off with a primer on one of the oldest methods of stealing money—made new again in the age of crypto: the $5 wrench attack. It’s a simple tactic, but it has enabled some surprisingly significant damage. We also cover recent incidents, including the DJI robot vacuum hack, and wrap up with an in-depth discussion on AI harnesses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

3. 

   16 Feb 2026 · 56 min

   =Coffee

   A lot of modern AI models have a kind of security guard layer that sits in front of them. Its job? A binary choice as to whether the prompt heading into the model is safe or not. Kasimir Schulz, a lead security researcher at HiddenLayer, has been researching how to trick these models. Their solution, a technique called "Echogram" involves words with such positive statistical sentiment — such overwhelming good vibes — that it flips that verdict. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

4. 

   16 Jan 2026 · 1 hr 25 min

   The Charizard Charade

   Pokémon cards became a billion-dollar market—and then a massive fraud target. This episode follows the rise of ultra-rare Pokémon prototypes, the grading systems meant to protect collectors, and the amateur investigator who used codebreaking and printer forensics to expose a modern forgery ring hiding in plain sight. All that plus a nice chatty chat after the break to kick off the year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

5. 

   31 Dec 2025 · 1 hr 30 min

   2025 Chatty Chat Year in Review

   It’s the 2025 Chatty Chat year in review friends! We’re diving into a big old pile of stories from the past year and speculating on what’s to come in 2026. If you’re wondering where this sits on the "in-depth interview vs. casual chatting" spectrum, just know we spend a considerable amount of time talking about how rad the Switch 2 is. This is not a deep dive, just a good time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

6. 

   15 Dec 2025 · 1 hr 11 min

   Inside the Smishing Triad

   A deep dive into Lighthouse, a phishing-as-a-service platform linked to millions of scam texts worldwide, and the sprawling “smishing triad” ecosystem built around it. With security researcher Ford Merrill, we unpack how modern scam operations work at industrial scale — from fake e-commerce sites and mass SMS campaigns to the wallet-provisioning techniques that let criminals turn stolen credit cards into tap-to-pay phones. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

7. 

   2 Oct 2026 · 1 hr 23 min

   The GTA 6 Leak With a $250,000 Crypto Question

   It's a good old chatty chat. We dig into the GTA 6 leak, with a strange crypto angle to it. Harnesses like Open-claw become consumer products with Muse and dots. And other stuff? Lots Hacked is presented by NordLayer. NordLayer is a network security platform for modern teams. NordLayer gives companies centralized control over who can access their systems, keeps every connection fast and encrypted, and requires no additional hardware or complex infrastructure. nordlayer.com/hackedpodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

8. 

   15 Sep 2026 · 56 min

   Hotline Hacked Vol. 15 | The $500k Server Room Mistake

   We return to Hotline Hacked with a server rack that shuts down a factory, a college library ignoring a keylogger risk, Claude unexpectedly finding its way into a recruitment backend, and a few hacking stories that spiral in very different directions. Hacked is presented by NordLayer. NordLayer is a network security platform for modern teams. NordLayer gives companies centralized control over who can access their systems, keeps every connection fast and encrypted, and requires no additional hardware or complex infrastructure. nordlayer.com/hackedpodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…

9. 

   1 Sep 2026 · 1 hr 4 min

   The Hugging Face Hack

   Agentic swarms? PR boondoggle or really big deal? When Hugging Face was breached by a mysterious intruder, OpenAI admitted it was one of their own AI agentic systems going rogue to cheat on a benchmark. Tom Bonner joins us to break down the 500+ raw code artifacts the agent left behind—and what it means when an AI compresses weeks of complex cyberattacks into just 8.5 hours. Hacked is presented by NordLayer. NordLayer is a network security platform for modern teams. NordLayer gives companies centralized control over who can access their systems, keeps every connection fast and encrypted, and…

10. 

    26 Aug 2026 · 1 hr 7 min

    Bruce Schneier — Snowden, Crypto Wars, and the Future of Agentic Hacking

    This was a fun one. We sat down with security icon Bruce Schneier to talk about AI systems that break the rules, cybersecurity beyond computers, the fight over encryption, the Snowden documents, blockchain, digital rights, and what happens when machines learn to exploit the systems humans built. Hacked is presented by NordLayer. NordLayer is a network security platform for modern teams. NordLayer gives companies centralized control over who can access their systems, keeps every connection fast and encrypted, and requires no additional hardware or complex infrastructure.…

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