They know exactly what they’re targeting, and that’s infinitely harder to protect yourself from.
(MUSIC SEGUE)
[00:00:14] Julie: Welcome back to AARP’s The Perfect Scam.
I’m Julie Getz, and with me today is my cohost, Frank Abagnale.
Frank, it’s always great to see you.
[00:00:23] Frank Abagnale: Great to be here.
Can you just explain what an ethical hacker is and what do they do?
They think like the criminal.
[00:01:12] Julie: So how do you become an ethical hacker?
Do you have to have a criminal background?
That takes a lot of time.
So it’s good to have ethical hackers, because it’s an instinct that people have.
[00:02:02] Julie: Absolutely.
Well Frank, thank you.
[00:02:22] Julie: Good morning, Jason.
It’s Julie Getz with AARP’s The Perfect Scam.
[00:02:26] Oh, I’m very good.
How are you doing today?
[00:02:28] Julie: Meet Jason Glassberg.
He’s a professional hacker.
I mean, isn’t that what we all see in the movies?
Well, it turns out that’s not what Jason’s like at all.
[00:02:56] Jason Glassberg: Ah, it’s not so bad.
I’ve got kids to go to school, so I’ve been up for a couple of hours.
He’s also a Seattle Seahawk enthusiast.
This all makes him a lot less scary.
[00:03:19] Jason Glassberg: I always was interested in computers.
How are folks like you helping keeping us safe?
[00:04:28] Jason Glassberg: There’s really two ways to look at the whole world of security.
There’s the reactive: I have a software company, and I’ve developed an tool.
And that’s one way that we would engage with the client.
What are some of the pitfalls I should be considering as I’m designing something?
[00:05:15] Julie: What are some of the projects that you’re working on now?
Are you allowed to tell us about them?
[00:05:47] Julie: And why is security so important for medical devices?
But for every benefit there’s a kind of a, an equal dark side.
Basically we want to be able to keep confidential information from the patient to be as secure as possible.
[00:06:55] Julie: Got it.
That sounds very helpful, particularly with the aging population.
All of this is so important.
[00:07:01] Jason Glassberg: Well absolutely.
It’s just an incredible benefit.
All of this interconnectivity that’s blossomed in the last 10 years is just an enormous benefit to everyone.
And that’s ultimately what we try and do in our field.
[00:07:31] Julie: Interesting.
[00:08:27] That’s really interesting to learn about big businesses.
And unfortunately this is the kind of attitude that some of the bad guys will take advantage of.
And the way they do this is a number of ways.
[00:10:02] Julie: What about using your credit card?
[00:11:51] Julie: In your line of work, do you see scams on a daily basis?
We look at deep dives into people’s programs.
[00:12:27] Julie: What typically happens when somebody clicks on one of those links?
So people can install these bad pieces of software in your machine.
[00:13:32] Jason Glassberg: You’ve got the analogy of the car thief, right.
So you’ve got two kinds of car thieves.
And that’s kind of one classification.
The other is the more targeted approach.
[00:14:44] Julie: Those are all really good tips, and I love that analogy.
Is there anything I didn’t ask you that you may want to share with our listeners?
And so devices and systems that are the most secure may not necessarily be the easiest to use.
[00:15:23] Julie: All right.
Well, thank you so much and enjoy the rest of your day, Jason.
[00:15:27] Jason Glassberg: All right, thank you so much.
[00:15:33] Julie: Now I’m back with my cohost, Frank Abagnale.
Frank, it sounds like most of the companies that hire Jason are big corporations.
And here’s the scary part, they have so much more to lose than the big company.
We’re out of business.
We don’t have the money.
[00:17:13] Julie: Those are all excellent points, Frank.
I wanted to ask you, earlier in the show, Jason talked about the dark side of technology.
How do you see this dark side showing up?
So this is all part of that too much information.
[00:18:22] Julie: Wow.
I don’t need my refrigerator to talk to my toaster.
They’ve been getting along great for years and years without having a conversation.
So sometimes we have too much technology, unnecessary technology.
I understand that Congress has actually made it easier to do this.
There’s no fee.
Once you’ve done it, you never have to do it again.
So today, everyone should freeze their credit.
All right, well Frank, thank you so much.
Once again, we have Frank Abagnale, and we’ll see you next week.
[00:20:27] Frank Abagnale: Okay, thank you.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For AARP - The Perfect Scam, I’m Julie Getz.
But ethical or white hat hackers help companies protect themselves against attack.
For instance, if you are looking for a job you are more vulnerable to a work-at-home scam.
