The Awareness Angle: Cyber Security Awareness and Human Risk

This week the internet came for your fridge, your laptop and your DNA, and it wasn't subtle about any of it.
Hackers hit Coca-Cola's dairy brand fairlife with ransomware and shut down US milk production. Mac users are under fire from two new malware strains — one that holds your computer hostage until you type your password in, and another disguising itself as Apple's own crash reporter. And 23andMe is paying $18 million over the breach that exposed millions of people's genetic data. That's the one you genuinely cannot fix by resetting a password.
Also this week: Lidl customers caught in a supplier breach they knew nothing about, the two young men behind the Transport for London hack jailed for five and a half years each, scammers hiding remote access tools inside fake greeting cards, Microsoft's biggest ever Patch Tuesday followed within hours by a researcher dropping a brand new unpatched bug, and a BitLocker flaw that quietly undermined encrypted laptop security.
In Security Socials: a ChatGPT hallucination that sent someone on a wasted road trip, a ClickFix awareness video with half a million likes and the comment section that explains exactly why we keep talking about this stuff, the AI facial recognition case that put an innocent grandmother in jail for five months, and a law firm that used one shared master password for everything.
New episodes every week. Cybersecurity news for humans.
Chapters:00:00 Intro01:37 This week on The Awareness Angle03:17 Breach Watch: Lidl supplier breach08:24 23andMe pays $18m DNA settlement13:59 Mac malware ClickLock holds your computer hostage19:45 Mac malware disguised as Apple crash reporter29:26 TFL hackers jailed for five and a half years32:33 Fake e-cards hiding remote access malware37:44 Microsoft's record Patch Tuesday and a fresh zero-day46:44 Coca-Cola fairlife ransomware halts milk production49:27 Security Socials: ChatGPT bike shop fail51:46 ClickFix video with half a million likes54:44 AI facial recognition jails innocent grandmother57:21 GM removes authenticator app MFA1:00:51 Luke's story: the law firm with one password for everything1:04:31 Outro
TikTok / Instagram: @antdaviscyberLinkedIn: antdaviscyberWebsite: riskycreative.com

Episode 96 of The Awareness Angle
This week an insurance company leaked driver's license numbers for nearly 7 million people because one employee clicked a phishing email. Sainsbury's facial recognition system was 99.98% accurate and 100% wrong about the shopper it publicly kicked out. A 15 year old took down a national anime streaming service with malware ChatGPT helped him write. A Scattered Spider suspect hopped three countries on a VPN and still got caught by a number hidden in every Windows PC. And Google's own AI helped scammers steal $1.9 billion, so now Google is suing people for using Google properly.
Ant and Luke break it all down in plain English, no jargon, for anyone who wants to understand what's actually happening in cybersecurity without needing a technical background.
Plus this week's Phish of the Week from Hoxhunt and a look at what's trending across security socials.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:17 Housekeeping and the heatwave chat
03:25 Breach Watch: AssuranceAmerica driver's license breach
09:47 Accenture source code breach
13:22 Sainsbury's facial recognition wrongly flags shopper
20:07 15 year old uses ChatGPT to hack Bandai Namco
26:18 OnlyFans creators accidentally clean up hacked gov sites
32:04 Scattered Spider hacker caught by Windows device ID
41:35 Google sues scammers who abused its own Gemini AI
47:30 Quick hit stories
57:17 Security Socials
1:07:42 Luke's story: AI deepfake YouTube channel
1:14:20 Wrap up
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Music: "16" by Falling Forever, https://fallingforever.bandcamp.com/track/16, licensed under Creative Commons, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

iPhone 18 Pro design files leaked, Aflac gets hit for the third time in a few years, and a bank robber in London gets away with £117,000 just by wearing the right uniform. This week's episode has a bit of everything.
Hackers stole 630GB of unreleased iPhone 18 Pro design files from Apple's manufacturing partner Tata Electronics, proving that even Apple's secrets aren't safe once you outsource the manufacturing. Medtronic tells millions of customers their health data and Social Security numbers were stolen, though the actual medical devices are safe to use. Aflac's Japan business gets breached for the third time in a few years, exposing bank details for 4.4 million people. Scammers register earthquake donation scam sites in Venezuela before rescue teams even finish pulling people from the rubble. Japanese hotel staff get targeted with fake guest complaint emails hiding malware that sits quiet until it's needed. UK hospital cyberattacks jump tenfold this year, a lot of them still exploiting a vulnerability from 2021. Opera launches a browser feature built to stop you hacking yourself, which might be the most 2026 sentence Ant's said all week.
Plus PewDiePie tells his followers to ditch ChatGPT for a self hosted AI tool, a Commodore flip phone with no social media, the bank robbery solved by an Uber booked in the thief's own name, a tamper evident jar for storing sensitive items, why blurring your face doesn't actually hide your identity, and what WhatsApp usernames really mean for your privacy.

*** Please note - All views and opinions expressed in this episode are our own and do not reflect those of our employers. ***

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
3:16 Medtronic data breach exposes health records
6:07 Aflac hack exposes 4.4 million bank details
9:37 iPhone 18 Pro design leak from Tata Electronics
13:52 Venezuela earthquake donation scams
18:21 Japanese hotels hit with malware phishing
23:19 UK hospital cyberattacks up tenfold
27:13 Opera's Paste Protect stops ClickFix attacks
33:50 PewDiePie's Odysseus AI tool
40:27 Degoogling and the Commodore flip phone
43:09 The bank robber who just asked for the money
48:16 A tamper evident jar for sensitive items
51:58 Why blurring your face doesn't work
54:05 WhatsApp usernames explained
Follow The Awareness Angle:
TikTok and Instagram: @antdaviscyber
LinkedIn: antdaviscyber
Website: riskycreative.com
Music: "16" by Falling Forever, used under CC BY 4.0
Track: https://fallingforever.bandcamp.com/track/16
Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

GTA 6 scams launched within hours of pre-orders going live. Scattered Spider's teenage hackers pleaded guilty for the TfL attack, and one of them was hacking US hospitals while on bail. And a fake AI plugin passed every security scanner because the malware only switched on after the check was done.
This week on The Awareness Angle: why attackers are borrowing your trust instead of breaking it, what the TfL case tells us about where the real hacking talent is, and why a clean security scan no longer means what it used to.
Also this week: 630GB of Apple and Tesla manufacturing secrets stolen from their supplier, three million Texans had driving licence numbers taken from a hunting licence database, fake receipts appearing in the Shop app for purchases you never made, ClickFix malware hitting Gizmodo readers through a compromised account, the White House app federal workers can't delete from their phones, and the cybersecurity firms including Huntress and HackerOne who got hacked through a marketing tool.
00:00 Intro
01:35 This week on The Awareness Angle
02:52 Breach of the Week: Apple and Tesla supplier hacked, 630GB leaked
07:43 Breach of the Week: 3 million Texans' driving licences stolen
11:01 Fake receipts in the Shop app
18:29 Scattered Spider guilty plea: TfL hack and US hospital attacks
23:00 GTA 6 scams
29:06 The AI plugin that passed every security scan
36:46 Gizmodo ClickFix attack
43:25 White House app on government phones
48:57 Cybersecurity firms hacked through Klue
54:09 Topic: Hosting malware on ChatGPT's own domain
57:37 Topic: The TikTok inheritance scam DM
1:02:13 Topic: Your address on the floor of a corner shop
1:05:28 Topic: Google AI gets it wrong
1:08:14 Topic: Luke's email from the US Defence Counterintelligence Agency
Subscribe for weekly cybersecurity news made for humans, not just IT teams.
The Awareness Angle is an independent podcast by Risky Creative, hosted by Ant Davis and Luke Pettigrew.
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Website: riskycreative.com
Our Intro and Outro Song © 16 by Falling Forever
https://fallingforever.bandcamp.com/track/16
Licence: Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

This week the threats are getting bigger and the defences are getting stranger. A criminal gang hit a school system that holds records for eleven million kids, Americans lost a record three and a half billion dollars to imposter scams, and the FBI built an entire fake town just to train agents to fight cybercrime. Plus earbuds that could be listening in, malware hiding in Steam wallpapers, a nasty new Android banking trojan, your cheap streaming box secretly working for criminals, and Google quietly deciding to use your IP address for ads.
Chapters
00:00 Intro
03:01 Breach of the Week — Infinite Campus / ShinyHunters
07:56 Imposter Scams — $3.5 Billion Record
13:45 The FBI's Fake Town — Kinetic Cyber Range
18:50 Bluetooth Flaw — Beats Studio Buds
24:20 Steam Wallpaper Malware
28:17 Android Banking Trojan — Rokarolla
35:14 Popa Botnet — Cheap Streaming Boxes
39:11 Google — IP Address Ad Targeting
42:24 Security Socials — Fake iOS Virus Pop-up
46:10 Security Socials — Claude Age Verification
56:05 And Finally — Whale Song Captcha, Cloudflare Lava Lamps & SETI@home
The Awareness Angle is an independent podcast by Risky Creative. Subscribe for weekly cybersecurity news made for humans, not just IT teams.

Find us
Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/the-awareness-angle-newsletter-7274932363787132928/
Website: riskycreative.com
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@antdaviscyber
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/antdaviscyber
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antdaviscyber
Our Intro and Outro Song © 16 by Falling Forever
https://fallingforever.bandcamp.com/track/16
Licence: Creative Commons CC BY 4.0