Bank of America has a message for its customers: please, for the love of God, stop handing your banking passwords to your AI assistant. And if your robot does something daft with your money? That's your problem, not theirs. Meanwhile, a company that promised to rescue ransomware victims without paying the criminals stands accused of... paying the criminals. ProPublica's Renee Dudley was on the case years before the indictment. Plus, Dropzone AI's Edward Wu asks what happens when AI models break out of their test environment and go hacking, and whether AI agents can help overstretched security teams keep up. All this and more in episode 491 of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity expert and keynote speaker Graham Cluley, and special guest Renee Dudley.

Ambulances were diverted, surgeries cancelled, and medical students sent home from classes after a ransomware group attacked the University of New Mexico's Health Sciences Center (HSC) this week. Read more in my article on the Fortra blog.

A Ukrainian man who carried out ransomware attacks for both the Nefilim and Hive gangs, including attacks on law firms and a healthcare provider during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been sentenced to 70 months in a US prison. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.

Imagine buying a brand new hardware wallet for your cryptocurrency with the shrink-wrap still on... what could possibly be hiding inside? We break out a Geiger counter and a cat to find out. Meanwhile, malicious ads are targeting journalists with zero-click attacks. Plus, Origin’s Spencer Thompson reveals what AI agents are really getting up to on your employees’ laptops when nobody’s looking. All this and more in episode 489 of the “Smashing Security” podcast with cybersecurity expert and keynote speaker Graham Cluley, and special guest Lianne Potter.

A 28-year-old Russian man has been arrested by German police, suspected of being a key member of the Qilin ransomware gang. Detectives have linked the man to the attack against blood-testing firm Synnovis, that disrupted London hospitals, and resulted in the death of a patient. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.

Krybit is a fast-growing ransomware gang that was hacked by a rival, hit back, and is still extorting victims. Find out how it works, who it has targeted, and what organisations can do to protect themselves. Read more in my article on the Fortra blog.

A ransomware negotiator attended a cybersecurity conference, only to be arrested by the FBI in connection with its investigation into the ShinyHunters gang. Meanwhile, hackers get the keys to ASOS's app and the chance to message every single customer. What did they say? And how did the company respond? We have thoughts. All this and more is discussed in episode 488 of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity expert and keynote speaker Graham Cluley, and special guest Paul Ducklin.

An alleged key figure in the ShinyHunters cybercrime group has been arrested in the Netherlands, and - in a sinister twist - the 24-year-old suspect is also being investigated for attempting to arrange two murders. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.

A court in Zurich has sentenced a Ukrainian man to 12 years and nine months in prison, and banned him from Switzerland for ten years, for developing ransomware that blackmailed companies around the world. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.

Researchers wanted to test if LG's smart TVs come with any security risks - but their lawyers noticed a snag: the terms and conditions would forbid it. So they came up with a solution. They got plastered before setting up the TV, on the reasoning that you can't be legally bound to a contract you agreed to while drunk. What they discovered will make you look at your TV rather differently... Meanwhile, awful Android malware with the audacious name "Awesome" (in Indonesian) is doing the rounds, stealing your data, demanding a ransom, and then giving you a "jump scare"... Plus, in our featured interview, Andy Hornegold of Intruder explains why the mid-market is where cybercriminals are having the most fun right now - and how AI is helping attackers get from "first foot in the door" to "full ransomware disaster" in less than a working day. All this and more in episode 485 of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity expert and keynote speaker Graham Cluley, and special guest Lianne Potter.

When a chap called Matt noticed his Bluetooth headphones wouldn't switch to his phone, he was surprised to realise the reason was a single AliExpress webpage sitting open in his browser - playing nothing at all, at zero volume. And yet somehow his hardware could hear it. Audio fingerprinting is one of the sneakiest tracking tricks on the web. Meanwhile, the intelligence agencies of the "Five Eyes" (not Five Guys) have got together and published advice on how companies should communicate after a cyber attack. The summary? For the love of God, stop calling every breach "sophisticated." All this and more in episode 484 of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity expert and keynote speaker Graham Cluley, and special guest Danny Palmer.

CRPx0 is a cybercrime operation that started off operating a scam before pivoting into a fully-blown ransomware and cryptocurrency business. Read more in my article on the Fortra blog.

More than 1,000 organisations, 500,000 stolen credentials, and one self-propagating worm named after a Dune sandworm - two men now face charges over TeamPCP's global hacking spree. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.

Every time you add an extension or plugin to your browser, there's a risk that you might be doing more than managing your cryptocurrency wallet, generating passwords, taking notes, or tracking sports results. There's a chance that you have just handed a complete stranger access to your savings. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.

The ransomware gang Gunra has been creating havoc - exploiting unpatched VPNs and firewalls to steal data, encrypt systems, and extort victims across healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and more. Read more in my article on the Fortra blog.

Graham gets a phone call from the police. Well, someone who sounds convincingly like the police. There's just one small problem: what they really want is the 24-word seed key to Graham's cryptocurrency wallet. Meanwhile, if you've stayed in a hotel recently, the free Wi-Fi you connected to might have come with an unexpected extra: an all-you-can-eat buffet of "Captive Crunch" for a Russian intelligence-linked hacking group. And a group calling itself the "ExFilSquad" has walked off with 600,000 records of the UK's teachers and head teachers from the Department for Education — sending an unusually polite ransom demand. All this and more in episode 479 of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity expert and keynote speaker Graham Cluley, and special guest Danny Palmer.

You've been headhunted for a great job in cryptocurrency. All you have to do is complete a short online assessment - with your webcam on, of course, so they can verify who you really are. Which is ironic, because the person recruiting you doesn't exist. And North Korean hackers using this trick have already made off with $643 million in crypto this year alone. Meanwhile, researchers at UC San Diego have discovered that 2.2 million cars across the United States can be unlocked or immobilised by anyone with a bit of Bluetooth kit - thanks to one aftermarket car alarm that made a truly spectacular cryptographic blunder. The bug has been sitting there since 2017. Nobody noticed. All this and more in episode 478 of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity expert and keynote speaker Graham Cluley, and special guest Paul Ducklin.

Ukraine's computer emergency response team, CERT-UA, has warned that the Kremlin-backed Sandworm hacking group is leveraging fake CAPTCHA checks on compromised websites that persuade users to run malicious code. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.

The Anubis ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation has hit some healthcare organisations hard - but they are not the only ones at risk. Read more in my article on the Fortra blog.

When a company falls victim to a ransomware attack, it is not uncommon for it to turn to experts for help. Specialist ransomware negotiation firms handle communications with criminal gangs on a victim's behalf. What victims don't expect is that their trusted negotiator might be separately sharing details of the victim's cyber-insurance policy and negotiation strategy directly with the attackers themselves. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.