Grid failures, Instagram scams, and Legal Aid leaks
Smashing Security
Graham Cluley
4.7 • 579 Ratings
🗓️ 21 May 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this week’s episode, Graham investigates the mysterious Iberian Peninsula blackout (aliens? toaster? cyberattack?), Carole dives in the UK legal aid hack that exposed deeply personal data of society's most vulnerable, and Dinah Davis recounts how Instagram scammers hijacked her daughter’s account - and how a parental control accidentally saved the day.
All this and more is discussed in the latest edition of the "Smashing Security" podcast by cybersecurity veterans Graham Cluley and Carole Theriault, joined this week by special guest Dinah Davis.
Warning: This podcast may contain nuts, adult themes, and rude language.
Episode links:
- 418 - I’m a teapot - MDN Web Docs.
- 2025 Iberian Peninsula blackout - Wikipedia.
- What could have caused the major power outage in Spain and Portugal? Experts weigh in - Euro News.
- Spain investigates cyber weaknesses in blackout probe - Financial Times.
- Report on Working Conditions at INCIBE, the company Investigating the blackout - El Cierre Digital.
- My Teen's Instagram Account was Hacked - Dinah Davis.
- We Got Her Account Back, Here’s What the Forensics Revealed - Dinah Davis.
- 'Significant amount' of private data stolen in Legal Aid hack - BBC News.
- Civil legal aid: millions still without access to justice - The Law Society.
- Civil representation - Legal aid data - GOV.UK.
- Legal aid statistics England and Wales bulletin Oct to Dec 2024 - GOV.UK.
- Funding for justice down 22% since 2010 - Bar Council.
- The Assembly - ITV.
- The Assembly review – this celebrity interview show is going to be massive - The Guardian.
- The Assembly: Inside the most groundbreaking TV show of the year - The Independent.
- David Tennant gets emotional from neurodivergent musicians - YouTube.
- OceanMan.
- All the Colours of the Dark by Chris Whitaker - Orion Books.
- Smashing Security merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, stickers and stuff)
Sponsored by:
- Vanta – Expand the scope of your security program with market-leading compliance automation… while saving time and money. Smashing Security listeners get $1000 off!
- 1Password Extended Access Management – Secure every sign-in for every app on every device.
- MetaCompliance - MetaCompliance's Security Awareness Planner is your free 12-month roadmap to reduce risk and build a culture of cyber awareness.
SUPPORT THE SHOW:
Tell your friends and colleagues about “Smashing Security”, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or Podchaser.
Become a supporter via Patreon or Apple Podcasts for ad-free episodes and our early-release feed!
FOLLOW US:
Follow us on Bluesky or Mastodon, or on the Smashing Security subreddit, and visit our website for more episodes.
THANKS:
Theme tune: "Vinyl Memories" by Mikael Manvelyan.
Assorted sound effects: AudioBlocks.
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacyTranscript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | It struck me that if you were an invading force of extraterrestrials, then this would be the time to attack. |
| 0:11.1 | Yeah. |
| 0:11.9 | I mean, how could you defend your country from an alien invasion? |
| 0:16.3 | I don't think it has to be alien. |
| 0:18.2 | It could be just a bunch of flies, you know, that land in the city |
| 0:21.4 | and you have not, you can't, you know, do anything about it. But why these flies coming from? |
| 0:24.7 | Where's the aliens coming from? |
| 0:30.8 | Smashing Security, Episode 418, Grid failures, Instagram scams, and legal aid leaks with Carol Terrio and Graham Cluley. |
| 0:47.2 | Hello, hello, and welcome to Smashing Security episode 418. |
| 0:51.7 | I'm a teapot and my name is Graham Cluley. I'm Carol Tario and not a teapot. |
| 0:58.7 | And we're joined this week by a special guest. Coral, you do know the whole 418, I'm a teapot thing, |
| 1:05.8 | surely. No. Oh, okay. We know like 404 is Page Not Found. Yeah. Well, 418 is I'm a teapot. Oh, I didn't know that either. |
| 1:17.7 | Well, now you know. And that is the voice of our special guest this week, Dinah Davis. Hello, Dinah. Great to have you back on the show. Hi, how's it going? Welcome. Very good. So first, before we |
| 1:31.8 | kick off, let's thank this week's wonderful sponsors, Meta Compliance, One Password, and Vanta. It's their |
| 1:38.3 | support that help us give you this show for free. Now, coming up on today's show, Graham, what do you |
| 1:43.0 | got? I'm going to be asking who turn the lights out. Okay. What about you, Dinah? |
| 1:48.1 | I'm going to talk about how my daughter got her Instagram account hacked. |
| 1:52.4 | Ooh, and I'm going to see why UK legal aid needs a big fat band-aid. All this and much more coming up on this episode of Smashing Security. |
| 2:06.4 | Now, chums, Chums, Monday the 28th of April, just about like three or four weeks ago, isn't it? |
| 2:13.5 | Do you remember what you were doing on that day? |
| 2:16.0 | I do. |
| 2:17.0 | You do? |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Graham Cluley, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Graham Cluley and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.