Your cell phone number uniquely identifies you. Many companies rely on this 1-to-1 relationship to authenticate you to their systems. So if someone were to somehow manage to steal your mobile phone number – a hack called SIM swapping – they could use that to impersonate you and compromise any of your accounts that are validated via SMS or phone call. There’s a new tool to combat this scam that’s better than the old-style account PIN codes. I’ll explain how it works.
In the news: many Brother printers have serious cyber vulnerabilities; Belkin in abandoning Wemo smart devices next January; Xfinity’s WiFi routers can detect motion in your entire home; Bluesky is rolling out age verification in the UK; California is using drones to catch the use of illegal fireworks; McDonald’s AI hiring bot was hacked to expose millions of applicants’ data; Mexican drug cartel hacked FBI phone to catch informants; US strikes blow against North Korean fake worker scams; Denmark is looking to ditch Microsoft products.
Article Links
- New Vulnerabilities Expose Millions of Brother Printers to Hacking https://www.securityweek.com/new-vulnerabilities-expose-millions-of-brother-printers-to-hacking/
- Belkin pulls the plug on Wemo smart home products which will stop working in 2026 https://9to5google.com/2025/07/10/belkin-wemo-smart-home-shutdown-list/
- Using WiFi Motion in the Xfinity app https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/wifi-motion
- Bluesky is rolling out age verification in the UK https://www.theverge.com/news/704468/bluesky-age-verification-uk-online-safety-act
- Huge fines coming for Californians caught by drone with illegal fireworks https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/california-drones-illegal-fireworks-20629637.php
- McDonald’s AI Hiring Bot Exposed Millions of Applicants’ Data https://www.wired.com/story/mcdonalds-ai-hiring-chat-bot-paradoxai/
- Drug cartel hacked FBI official’s phone to track and kill informants https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/06/mexican-drug-cartel-hacked-fbi-officials-phone-to-track-informant-report-says/
- Identities of More Than 80 Americans Stolen for North Korean IT Worker Scams https://www.wired.com/story/identities-of-80-plus-americans-stolen-for-north-korean-it-worker-scams/
- Why Denmark is dumping Microsoft Office and Windows for LibreOffice and Linux https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-denmark-is-dumping-microsoft-office-and-windows-for-libreoffice-and-linux/
- Tip of the Week: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/freezing-your-mobile-account/
Further Info
- Tom’s Hardware on WiFi Motion: https://www.tomshardware.com/networking/routers/new-xfinity-router-motion-detecting-feature-stokes-privacy-fears-feature-powered-by-wi-fi-signals
- RockYou password list: https://cybernews.com/security/rockyou2024-largest-password-compilation-leak/
- LibreOffice: https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/libreoffice/
- Eurostack: https://eurostack.eu/
- Running Linux in a VM on Windows: https://itsfoss.com/install-linux-mint-in-virtualbox/
- Age verification: https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/05/06/age-verification-wants-your-face/
- My book: https://fdsd.me/book
- My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter
- Support our mission! https://fdsd.me/support
- Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons
- Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch
Table of Contents
- 0:00:00: Intro
- 0:00:17: DEF CON coming up fast
- 0:03:34: News preview
- 0:06:31: New Vulnerabilities Expose Millions of Brother Printers to Hacking
- 0:11:51: Belkin pulls the plug on Wemo smart home products
- 0:14:25: Using WiFi Motion in the Xfinity app
- 0:21:19: Bluesky is rolling out age verification in the UK
- 0:26:49: Huge fines coming for Californians caught by drone with illegal fireworks
- 0:29:36: McDonald’s AI Hiring Bot Exposed Millions of Applicants’ Data
- 0:35:31: Drug cartel hacked FBI official’s phone to track and kill informants
- 0:39:54: Identities of More Than 80 Americans Stolen for North Korean IT Worker Scams
- 0:48:33: Why Denmark is dumping Microsoft Office and Windows for LibreOffice and Linux
- 0:55:48: Tip of the Week
- 1:01:37: Merch reminder
- 1:02:12: Patron podcast preview
- 1:02:45: Looking ahead