HP's hold music, and human trafficking
Smashing Security
Graham Cluley
4.7 • 579 Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2025
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Journey with us to Myanmar's shadowy scam factories, where trafficked workers are forced to run romance-baiting and fake tech support scams, and find out why a company's mandatory hold time for tech support could lead to innocent users having their computers compromised.
All this and more is discussed in the latest edition of the "Smashing Security" podcast by cybersecurity veterans Graham Cluley and Carole Theriault.
Plus - don't miss our featured interview with Acronis CISO Gerald Beuchelt!
Warning: This podcast may contain nuts, adult themes, and rude language.
Episode links:
- HP deliberately adds 15 minutes waiting time for telephone support calls - The Register.
- HP mandated 15-minute wait time for callers - why that was good news for criminals - Bob Sullivan.
- How vulnerable people are trafficked to fuel a global cyber scam industry - ABC News.
- Hundreds of foreigners freed from Myanmar's scam centres - BBC News.
- 'I need help': Freed from Myanmar's scam centres, thousands are now stranded - BBC News.
- Some foreigners pulled out of Myanmar scam centres face struggle to get home - Yahoo! News.
- 'Pig Butchering' Scam: How China's 'Broken Tooth' stole over $75 bn from global investors using crypto currencies - The Economic Times.
- Scunthorpe problem - Wikipedia.
- Scunthorpe Sans font.
- Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne - Goodreads.
- Smashing Security merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, stickers and stuff)
Sponsored by:
- Acronis - Integrated cybersecurity, data protection and endpoint management built for MSPs.
- Threat Vector - The podcast from Palo Alto Networks that gives you timely analysis of current security trends and challenges.
- Drata - The world’s most advanced Trust Management platform – making risk and compliance management accessible, continuous, and 10x more automated than ever before.
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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 | So you're on hold and you're sitting there with the hold music and you're kind of in La La Land where you can actually do work. |
| 0:08.8 | And some of these channels every 30 seconds, some voice comes on, your call is important to us. |
| 0:15.6 | You are fort deep in line. And then gives you an ad sometimes and then goes back to music. |
| 0:22.3 | Yes. If you're having such a great support experience you want to buy more from us, |
| 0:26.2 | then here's other things you can have tech support problems with. Smashing Security, Episode 407, HPs hold music, and human trafficking, with Carol Terrio and Graham Cluley. |
| 0:47.7 | Hello, hello, and welcome to Smashing Security episode 407. My name's Graham Cluley. |
| 0:52.3 | And I'm Carol. |
| 0:53.8 | 4707, Carol. I know, I know. And so it goes on. |
| 0:58.3 | You know, there are people out there who've listened to every single episode of Smash Insecurity. |
| 1:03.1 | Wow. They've undertaken the Odyssey. Someone should do the math of how many hours that is. |
| 1:10.0 | Yeah. a lot. |
| 1:12.4 | Well, we have a jam-packed show today, so you're going to get another hour on that docket. |
| 1:17.1 | But before we kick off, let's thank this week's wonderful sponsors, Akronis, Drata, and Palo Alto |
| 1:23.7 | Networks. It's their support that help us give you this show for free. |
| 1:27.4 | Now, coming up on today's show, Graham help us give you this show for free. |
| 1:29.7 | Now, coming up on today's show, Graham, what do you got? |
| 1:34.1 | I'm going to be talking about when tech support is the cybersecurity vulnerability. |
| 1:40.9 | And I'm going to see if we can squeeze out some compassion for the unfortunate scammer. |
| 1:44.8 | Plus, I chat with Gerald Buchelt. |
| 1:52.0 | He's Akronis' chief information security officer, and he shares loads of tips on how the security professional can get the boss on side. |
| 1:55.2 | All this and much more coming up on this episode, Smashing Security. |
| 2:00.3 | Now, chums, chums, a question for you to kick off this show. |
... |
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