Latest / Brian Thomas / Tech Friday w/ Dave Hatter - Sponsored by Intrust IT - 10/23/2026

Transcript

Tech Friday w/ Dave Hatter - Sponsored by Intrust IT - 10/23/2026 · Brian Thomas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm KRC, the talk station. 630. I'll be there tonight. Question,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: will my fellow Rush geek Dave Hatter from Interest IT
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: be there? You're going to go see the Rush show tonight.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Dave Hatter, welcome back. Thanks to Interest IT, your company,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: for sponsoring the segment we call Tech Friday with Dave Hatter.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Dave.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Brian, and as always, thanks for having me on. No,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: I will not be there tonight, unfortunately. General Hatter had
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: other plans for Private Hatter.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Ah, yes, I know the hierarchy. You know how to
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: make life good for yourself at home. Anyway, I was
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: telling my listeners this morning about your first story, refrigerators
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: being hacked in France. I had a portable air conditioner
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: at home, and it went belly up under the warranty period,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: so they sent me a new one. It's a newer model,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: and it came equipped with something I would have never bought,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: internet of things device i have now you it tells
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: you to download an app now this came with a
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: remote control so i figure anybody who bought one of
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: these is never going to be further than 10 15
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: feet away from it so either get up and go
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: adjust it yourself or use the remote control it came
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: with why do you have to have an app he
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: asked out loud while thinking of dave hatter and of
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: course refrigerators also hooked up to the internet in france
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: resulting in a hacking god almighty dave.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Well yeah you know i You don't need an app
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: for it. No, you don't. I mean, use the native
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: remote or get up and walk over and press the
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: buttons on it. You know, the app exposes you to
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: this kind of risk. So as you know, we've been
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: doing this show for, I don't know, almost 13 years now.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: And I've been blasting on the Internet of Things, a.k.a.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: smart devices, probably that whole time. And this is just
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: another example. But it illustrates, A, this goes well beyond
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: your privacy. Can the thing listen to you, watch you,
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: that sort of thing? And even beyond cybersecurity from the
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: standpoint that once these devices are connected, they serve as
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: launching points for bad guys that can hack them and
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: access other devices in your environment and potentially destroy your company.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: But this shows you the way these things can be
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: weaponized in unusual ways that you wouldn't think of. So
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: what does a refrigerator do by design? Well, it keeps
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: things cold, right?
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: So we find out in this attack, which here's one headline.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: From France 24, they said, unprecedented cyber attacks target refrigeration
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: units at hundreds of French supermarkets. And then Forbes did
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: a later piece on this that really drives the point home.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: So they say, the night of October 11th, hackers targeted
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: hundreds of industrial refrigeration controllers at hundreds of French supermarkets.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: The attackers heated refrigerators and freezers to 122 degrees Fahrenheit
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: for roughly six hours by switching on the defrost function.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: So this is part of the problem. These things have
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: software in them, which is controllable. That's what it's designed
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: to do, control the device, right? Now they're connected to
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: the Internet. If that software has vulnerabilities or possibly isn't
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: even just configured correctly, it may not even be that
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: there's a vulnerability that could be exploited by bad guys
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: that you don't know about in the software, like this
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: PHP thing that has exploited the Internet over the past
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: couple of years.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, I mentioned that this morning.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah. It's that you don't configure it for security purposes.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Bad guys get in, switch on the defrost function, which
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: ruined the food in millions of dollars worth of food, rather,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: in hundreds of supermarkets. But in some cases, these things
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: actually caught on fire. They got too hot, caught on fire.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: So your smart refrigerator at home. I think we talked
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: about this last week. LG smart refrigerators rolled out a
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: software update that bricked. Bricked is nerd speak for it
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: no longer works because the software made it stop functioning.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: How'd you like to come home and your house is
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: burned down because your home refrigerator overheated and burned the
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: place down or your coffee maker or anything that has
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: a heating element in it that's connected to the internet.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: And then it goes on to say, and this is
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: the last piece that I don't think most people can connect. Okay. So,
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: so we have, A vulnerability in this case that's exploited
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: by bad guys because it's connected to the internet and
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: they discover this vulnerability. AI is rapidly accelerating this vulnerability identification.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: They overheat and destroy the contents at the minimum and
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: in some cases cause damage to the building itself because
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: they literally caught on fire. But then they say that
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: millions of dollars in loss or millions of euros in
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: loss in this case and that perhaps insurance is not
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: going to pay for this because While I encourage every
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: business out there to have cyber insurance, if you do
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: not understand what the policy covers and does not cover,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: because it may not cover every conceivable attack, and if
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: you do not do what you say you're doing, when
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: you fill it out and they say, do you have
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: multi-factor authentication? Yes. Do you have backups? Yes. And you don't?
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Guess what's going to happen, Brian? Deny. Yeah. Claim denied.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: We're not going to pay the claim. We're not going
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: to pay the claim because you didn't do what you
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: said you were doing. So, yeah. How would you like
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: to walk in? Your store's on fire. You've lost millions
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: of dollars in inventory. And the insurance company says, yeah,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: we're not going to pay it because you had known
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: vulnerabilities in these devices and or you did not configure
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: them correctly. And thus, they don't work. Wow. So, yeah,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: it's I just cannot stress enough. We have got to
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: get serious about this, both from a critical infrastructure standpoint
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: and And from businesses understanding the risk, connecting everything to
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: the Internet and everything with software it creates. I'm not
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: saying you can't have it under any circumstances, although the
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: less the better. But if you're not securing this stuff correctly,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: if you're not taking these risks seriously, this is yet
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: another example of what could happen and I tell you
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: will happen when they find your Internet of Things devices
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: and can exploit them.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: And when you're in Trust IT and find them online
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: at interestit.com or working for businesses, which you do for
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: computer needs, is this the type of guidance you will
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: provide a business, sort of an insurance review?
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, it is, Brian. See, I
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: knew that. Our goal as a company working with businesses
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: is to keep them productive because, right, you got to
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: do what you do to make money. You got to
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: be productive. You can't have so much that you can't work. Productive, resilient,
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: so that if and when a cyber attack succeeds, because, Brian,
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: there's nothing you can do that will completely block this. Understood.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: But you can make yourself a very, very difficult target.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: Resilient so that if and when something happens for whatever reason,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: cyber attack or whatever, You can recover quickly with minimal downtime,
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: minimal impact, and then ultimately secure, right? Venn diagram of
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: those three things working together based on your risk tolerance
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: to make sure that your business is successful and that
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: you are less likely to suffer these kinds of attacks
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: and have the minimal impact if and when you do.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: TrustIT.com. Of course, Business Courier says they're the best. There's
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: a lot of the reasons why right there, boiled down.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: More with Dave Hatter coming up, including... Top five scams
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: targeting my senior friends and passwords. We've talked about that
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: one before. Don't go away. And we've talked about trees before.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: 641.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Jess Tracker, for the rush bombers this morning
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: and anticipation of the show tonight. IntrustIT.com. You heard the commercial.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: And you hear Dave Hatter. He is the principal at
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Intrust IT, but his employees do own the company. I
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: think that's a cool thing, Dave Hatter. I know you've
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: got some really great employees, but Let's go out of
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: order here. Let's push the scams targeting older Americans off.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: I think it'll take longer than the password issue. But
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: real quick question from Rick on the Internet of Things
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  Speaker 1: device issue. He said, can Internet of Things be isolated
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: with our routers, asked Rick.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Rick obviously knows something about this, and the answer is yes.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: There you go.
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  Speaker 2: Ideally, it's going to depend on the router and its
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: configuration and capabilities and so forth, but the short answer
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: is yes. Ideally, you'd create what in most non-nerd speak
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: would be like a guest network or a separate network.
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  Speaker 2: More advanced devices will let you create VLANs or virtual LANs,
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  Speaker 2: so you can have... this device on this network, and
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: these devices on that network, and they can't see each other.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: And I would also remind folks, you know, if you
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: buy an Internet of Things device, you don't have to
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: connect it to the internet.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Like the air conditioner.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's going to limit its capabilities, potentially, right? And
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: depending on what you bought it to do, it might,
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: you know, significantly reduce the viability of it for you.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: But ultimately, yes, Rick is right. And that is something
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  Speaker 2: people should look into. But it's usually, you know, difficult
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  Speaker 2: for the non- technical person to do that sort of thing.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Well, and it's stupid for a technical person to have
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: a stupid password like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Dave.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, it is. This is really kind of insane.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: But before we dig into the details of this, Brian,
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: I want to read you another headline and you'll see
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: in this, it goes back to the first story because
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  Speaker 2: I mentioned in this case, they exploited vulnerabilities in the
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: software of these internet connected refrigeration units. But I mentioned configuration.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: configuration would be, well, the software, the platform, whatever gives
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: me the capability to secure it, but I don't use
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: it correctly and or I do things like use a
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: password like one, two, three, four, five, six. So here's
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: a headline. I'm going to do a presentation this morning.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: And this is in my slide deck. So Security Week magazine,
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: analysis of 6 billion passwords shows stagnant user behavior. So
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: we've talked about these giant breaches and leaks before. Good
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: guys analyze this stuff to see, well, what are people
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: doing out there and how can we help them understand
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: what they should be doing to secure their stuff? Six
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: billion passwords were reviewed from these leaks. Most common stolen
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: passwords in 2025 were, wait for it, 123456, admin and password.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: If you are using admin as an administrator password on anything,
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: you're going to have your to burn down metaphorically. You
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: are making it so easy. And I get, oh, I
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: have 100 passwords. How can I remember all these strong,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: unique passwords? I totally understand that. The answer is have
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: less passwords and or use a password manager. But back
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: to this story. So now– so there's the evidence that
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: people continue to do this, and then here's how it
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: ultimately blows them up, blows their organization up, and blows
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: society up. Hacker accesses IT firm with password 123456, stealing
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: personal data of 8.8 million people. A Danish company would
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: access to the country's Central Register of Persons database. So
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: this is an IT company providing services to a government agency.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: They use the password. They should know better, right? But again,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: 6 billion passwords, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, one
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: of the most common ones, Brian. Here's an IT company
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: not following the most basic cyber hygiene. And by the way,
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: I know we're running out of time. For those of
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: you out there who would like to learn more about this,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: especially as businesses, and you don't want to work with
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: someone like Entrust, look up the Center for Internet Security
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Critical Controls. Center for Internet Security Critical Controls. I'll put
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: it in my show notes today. They have a framework
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: that will help you secure your business. But here, again,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: IT company, working with government agencies, using the password 123456.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: The bad guys know people use these passwords. They don't
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: even really have to hack you at that point. They're
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: just logging in and stealing your stuff. And now it's
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: the 9 million people in Denmark who are now the
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: victims of this because this data apparently contains names, addresses,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: and ID numbers. Almost 9 million people.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Very quickly, Dave, quick recitation of good password managers.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Well, at Entrust, we use 1Password. Number 1Password. Keeper is
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: a good one. But if you're a regular person and
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: you're not looking for an enterprise tool, use CNET, C-N-E-T.com, ZDNet, ZDNet, ZDNet.com,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Tom's Guide, Consumer Reports. They have editors that review these things,
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: PC Magazine, and they'll tell you, here are the best
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: five password managers for the average person. We like this
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: one best because of this reason. So you don't even
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: have to take my word for it. Again, Keeper is
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: a good one, 1Password. But there are magazines that will
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: tell you, here's what you should use.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Don't go away. The top five scams targeting older Americans.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: 650.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: The 55KRC, the talk station. You can find all Dave
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Hatter's notes in this segment at LinkedIn.com. LinkedIn.com. Just search
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: for Dave Hatter and the documents he relies upon. And
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: we'll post throughout the week materials that are very worth reading.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Pivoting over away from passwords and onto senior scams. Dave,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: this is just awful that it happens. But, of course,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: that's an easy target, those seniors.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Sadly, Brian, it is. And before I dig into this
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: specific thing, I want to give people some additional resources.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Because I think a lot of folks think this could
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: never happen to me. This isn't really happening. This is
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: all speculation. So first off, I encourage all your listeners,
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: I've mentioned this many times before, ic3. gov. Indigo Charlie number three, ic3. gov.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: This is a website hosted by the FBI, the Internet
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Crime Complaint Center, thus the ic3. gov. They put out an
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: annual report every year that explains what they're seeing out there.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: It's very useful to see what's actually happening, not just
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: what someone like me is warning you about. Secondarily, then,
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: I've talked about this guy before, Kit Boga. He's on YouTube.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: He's got a website. He's a scam, the scammer guy.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: And I just recently learned about another guy. He has
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: a website called Scammer Payback. He goes by the name Pierogi.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: You can find him on all the social media sites.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: They actually show you these scams in real time. When
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: they get the text that says, hey, I thought we
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: were meeting for lunch today or whatever, right? They'll call
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: that number. They'll click that link. In some cases, they'll
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: hack back too. Like they'll literally take over the bad
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: guy's computers and wipe them out and you can watch
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: them doing it. I love that. But at the very least,
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: they will waste these people's time. And Kit Boga is
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: famous for he'll pretend to be an older woman. And say, oh, yeah, honey,
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: I'm going down to Target to get the gift cards. Oh,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: I hit a pothole. I got a flat tire. I'm
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: going to have to call AAA. And he'll just keep
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: them on the phone saying crazy stuff until they eventually
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: realize they've been scammed. But my point of all that, Brian,
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: is you can see these in action. You can see
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: that these people are not technical wizards. They are con
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: artists using this technology to con you. And the bigger
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: point is they will tell you any lie, any lie whatsoever.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: There's nothing they will not say or do to get
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: to your money. So it's really instructive and insightful to
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: go watch these channels. Again, Scammer Payback, Kit Bogum. But
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: the top five scams, according to Consumer Affairs, and you'll
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: find this backed up by the FBI, government and business
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: imposter scams. All this data I mentioned in the last
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: segment that's been leaked about you, it makes it easy
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: for me to go to, let's say, the Hamilton County
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Sheriff's website, look up Deputy Bob. Call you up because
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: I got your phone number. I got all kinds of
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: information about you that's been stolen and leaked by your
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: smart refrigerator and such over the years. I'm Sheriff Bob
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: from Hamilton County Sheriff's Office. You have a warrant for
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: your arrest. I'm going to need you to get some
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: gift cards or we're going to come arrest you tonight.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: And they say, OK, look me up. I'm on the website.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: They're con artists, Brian. All this information is available about you.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: All this information is available about these agencies that they're
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: going to pretend to be. And they'll lie to you
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: like this. Again, Kit Boga, scammer payback. You can watch
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: it in real time. Investment in cryptocurrency fraud. Suddenly your
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: soulmate has found you on Facebook or TikTok or whatever. Well,
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: they are your soulmate because they know all this information
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: about you, and they know all the right things to
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: say to strike up a rapport, have you fallen in love,
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: et cetera. And then eventually it's like, hey, you know,
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: I've been making a lot of money in crypto. Let
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: me show you how. And then boom, money gone. The
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: tech support scams. We've talked about this many times over
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: the years. Apple, Microsoft, Google, fill in the blank, is
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: not looking over your phone or your device. They're not
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: going to call you and say, hey, you have a virus.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: Let me remote into your computer and fix it. If
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: you get a call like that, guaranteed scam, immediately hang
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: up the phone. Do not talk to them absolutely positively.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Do not let them install software on your phone or
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: your computer or take control of it in any way.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Because once they do, there's really no way short of
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: having an expert to guarantee that you've gotten them out
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: of it. Do not do that. Romance scams. I already
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: kind of touched on this one. Hey, again, even if
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: you're on like a dating site, you could be in
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: a video game. The scammers are everywhere. Anywhere there's people,
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: a large number of people that are congregated, they're there.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: suddenly you start up a conversation. Next thing you know, again,
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: they happen to like the same bands as you and
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: the same movies as you. They know all of this
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: about you, right? They're scamming you. So I'm not saying
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: you can't find your soulmate online, but what I am
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: saying is you have to have, to quote you, the
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: jaundiced eye of skepticism, Brian, to any kind of thing
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: like this because the scammers are everywhere. And then finally,
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: the grandparent and family emergency scam, which are being fueled
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: by AI voice clones. Right. So as this article says,
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: skepticism can save you. Move slow. Talk to someone else.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Create a safe word. I had my conversation with my
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: mom about this one. If you hear my voice and
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: I'm asking you for money, that will period never happen.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to call you to ask for money.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: But that's just one form of a grandparent family emergency scam.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: I just said, listen, if you ever question whether or
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: not you're talking with me or any of the children,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: et cetera, what you need to do is ask this question.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: that no one in the world would know except someone
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: you've told to ask the question about. So that's the
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: easiest way to end that one right out of the gate.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: And also, I totally agree with that. That is the
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: right sort of thing to do. And also to just say,
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: hang up and call back on no number. The likelihood
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: of you calling from jail is pretty slim probably, right?
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: Hang up, call you at home, call your wife. Skepticism
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: and verification have never been more important. right? Assume, assume scam,
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: start out with skepticism and then verify before you click
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: the link, before you make the call or whatever, that
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: is by far your best defense. Cause again, a lot
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: of this, it's not technical, Brian, it's social engineering. It's spoofing,
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: making things that look real, lying to you and yeah,
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: catching you off guard. Right. So be safe out there, folks.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: I am glad that I have made the right life choices.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: I always kind of question what, why am I so
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: jaded and skeptical and cynical about everything? It's not my
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: default position, but Here I find myself in 2026 having
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: reflecting back going, hey, I've been in the right place
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: pretty much my entire life.