# Hacked

> Strange tales of hacking, tech, privacy, AI, & cybercrime

Hacked is a long-running podcast about hacking, scams, security, AI, crypto, espionage, and internet culture, hosted by Jordan Bloemen and Scott Francis Winder. This site is the full episode archive — 10 years and 150+ episodes of named breaches, hacks, and scams — each with show notes and, where available, a complete transcript.

## Subscribe
- [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/hacked/id1049420219)
- [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/21zZfOy7VCSIIWlJ64DElv?si=71a575fef04c47cc)
- [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@hackedpodcast)
- [RSS](https://feeds.megaphone.fm/hackedpodcast)

## Key pages
- [Episodes](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes): the full archive — searchable (full-text, incl. transcripts) and filterable by topic, format, and year
- [About](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/about): About the show and its hosts
- [Hotline](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/hotline): Hotline Hacked — the listener voicemail line
- [Support](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/support): Ways to support the show
- [Advertise](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/advertise): Advertising and media kit

## Recent episodes
- [The Man Who Was There For Cybersecurity’s Strangest Moments — Mikko Hyppönen](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/the-man-who-was-there-for-cybersecuritys-strangest-moments-mikko-hypponen/): Finnish cybersecurity veteran Mikko Hyppönen recounts his career's defining moments: tracking down the Brain virus creators in Pakistan, analyzing Stuxnet, and investigating Finland's Vastaamo psychotherapy data breach.
- [The Domain That Outlived a Country](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/the-domain-that-outlived-a-country/): The .su domain, registered by Soviet physicist Aleksei Soldatov in 1990, outlived the USSR and became a haven for cybercrime, nostalgia sites, and botnets — until Russia's 2019 Sovereign Internet Law forced a confrontation over who…
- [Hotline Hacked Vol 14](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/hotline-hacked-vol-14/): A caller recounts hacking his parents' Net Nanny software as an 11-year-old Guild Wars addict by installing a keylogger, then socially engineering his dad to log in so he could capture the admin password.
- [The REKK Wreck](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/the-rekk-wreck/): REKK was a Telegram-based refund fraud operation run by Lithuanian national Dominykas Radečkis. It bribed mail carriers, forged returns, and social-engineered retailers like Amazon, netting ~€5M before his 2024 arrest in Vilnius.
- [The Bad “Bet”](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/the-bad-bet/): US Army Green Beret Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke allegedly bet $33K on Polymarket that Maduro would be removed, then participated in the January 2026 raid that captured him, netting $409K in profit. He faces federal charges for insider…
- [Wizard Spider](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/wizard-spider/): Investigative journalist Jeff White uncovered how Russian ransomware gang Conti (aka Wizard Spider) operated like a corporation — with payroll, HR, and $180M/year — using leaked internal messages after members exposed the group following…
- [REvil Redux](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/revil-redux/): Germany's BKA officially unmasked Danil Shukin, 31, as 'Unknown,' the alleged operator of ransomware operations GandCrab and REvil, which extorted billions globally. The FBI had previously identified him but he remains free in Russia.
- [Birds of a Feather Panopticon Together](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/birds-of-a-feather-panopticon-together/): Flock Safety's network of 100,000+ license plate reader cameras across 49 states has wrongly triggered police stops due to ~10% misread rates, while researcher John Gainesek found 51 security flaws including open live feeds and…
- [Breaking the Chain of Custody](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/breaking-the-chain-of-custody/): Google researchers identified a sophisticated iPhone exploit kit called 'Karuna' containing 23 exploits across 5 iOS attack chains. Evidence suggests it originated as a government surveillance tool before spreading to Russian espionage…
- [The $5 Wrench Attack](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/the-5-wrench-attack/): Physical crypto robberies—"$5 wrench attacks"—surged in 2025. A recent case involves two teenagers allegedly coerced via Signal to invade a Scottsdale home holding $66M in crypto, armed with a 3D-printed gun.
- [=Coffee](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/coffee/): Researcher Kazimir Schultz of Hidden Layer explains Echogram, a technique exploiting AI guardrail models by appending words like "=coffee" to malicious prompts, flipping safety verdicts from unsafe to safe without changing the harmful…
- [The Protege — “Possibly the Worst Intelligence Disaster in U.S. History”](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/the-protege-possibly-the-worst-intelligence-disaster-in-u-s-history/): Former FBI operative Eric O'Neil recounts how he was placed undercover as Robert Hanssen's assistant to catch the FBI agent who spent 22 years selling U.S. secrets to Russia in what the DOJ called possibly the worst intelligence disaster…
- [The Charizard Charade](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/the-charizard-charade/): A forgery ring sold fake Pokémon prototype cards — purportedly from original designer Takumi Akabane's archive — as authenticated slabs worth hundreds of thousands, until collector Scott Mastro Matteo exposed the fraud using a microscope.
- [2025 Chatty Chat Year in Review](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/2025-chatty-chat-year-in-review/): The Hacked podcast hosts review 2025 in a casual year-end chat, covering AI's financial scale vs. underwhelming consumer impact, the rise of agentic AI, MCP protocols, and predictions for proactive AI in 2026.
- [Inside the Smishing Triad](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/inside-the-smishing-triad/): Researcher Ford Merrill spent two years investigating the Smishing Triad, a Chinese cybercrime operation behind Lighthouse, a phishing-as-a-service platform linked to 115M stolen US card numbers and ~$1B in fraud losses.
- [The Gayborhood](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/the-gayborhood/): UK law firm Austin Hayes filed a claim against Grindr on behalf of 12,000 users, alleging the app shared sensitive data—including HIV status and sexual orientation—with ad companies like MoPub without explicit consent between 2018 and 2020.
- [How Much of Facebook’s Revenue Is Scam Ads—And Other Chat Worthy Questions](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/how-much-of-facebooks-revenue-is-scam-ads-and-other-chat-worthy-questions/): Reuters obtained internal Meta documents showing the company knowingly earned ~$16B/year (10% of total revenue) from scam ads, serving 15B daily, and deliberately planned slow revenue reductions only if forced by regulators.
- [BADBOX 2.0](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/badbox-2-0/): BADBOX 2.0 is a botnet of millions of pre-infected cheap Android TV boxes, tablets, and projectors used for ad fraud and residential proxies. Google sued 25 anonymous operators; researcher Gavin Reed of Human Security explains how it grew…
- [The SIM Farm](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/the-sim-farm/): The US Secret Service dismantled a massive SIM farm in New York (300+ servers, 100,000+ SIM cards) tied to a Christmas Day swatting spree targeting politicians including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Mayor Michelle Wu. A teen swatter and two…
- [The Banxico Heist and a High Wire Act of Solo Podcasting](https://www.hackedpodcast.com/episodes/the-banxico-heist-and-a-high-wire-act-of-solo-podcasting/): In 2018, hackers exploited Mexico's SPEI interbank payment network by compromising bank connector software to inject phantom transfers, stealing hundreds of millions of pesos via cash mules. A crime group called BRT, led by Hector Ortiz…