What NOT to Do When Wiretapping the Government with Bryan Seely - a podcast by Chris Parker

from 2023-07-12T10:00

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Today’s guest is Bryan Seely, a world famous cyber security expert, ethical hacker, author, keynote speaker, and former US Marine. He is known for intercepting calls to the US Secret Service and FBI. We chat about why and how he did it and surprisingly why he didn’t go to jail.

Show Notes:

[0:48] - Bryan shares his background, what he does now, and what he is famous for.
[2:10] - To show how easily hacked and manipulated Google Maps was, Bryan changed the names of locations which didn’t get their attention.
[4:03] - At the time, the FBI didn’t know that Bryan wiretapped them. Bryan explains how this was an issue and how he let them know.
[6:14] - They didn’t believe him and he explains how he proved it and what the major problems with their communications were.
[8:03] - At no point was Bryan arrested, but he had to show how he managed to wiretap them.
[10:00] - Bryan managed to record 40 calls.
[11:26] - Because he had no ill intent, he told them what he was doing and how he did it to help prevent it happening by others, Bryan was not charged.
[13:24] - Technically, Bryan didn’t do anything that wasn’t possible for anyone else to do. He didn’t hack a system, but rather saw a logic flaw.
[15:51] - There wasn’t technically anything wrong. It was just designed in a way that could easily be exploited.
[18:50] - The cost of just letting people know about a breach is high.
[20:44] - Bryan believes that companies should be honest about breaches and what they will do to fix the problem.
[23:41] - We don’t intentionally broadcast our information or location, but it is easy to guess in many cases.
[24:57] - There are little things that we do that we think are protecting us but are actually giving out more information than we should.
[27:26] - Bryan shares some tips in keeping you protected, like turning off Bluetooth and wifi on your phone.
[28:36] - Anyone can create a wifi network and name it anything, like Starbucks Wifi or Free Airport Wifi to make it easy to have people connect.
[30:47] - Teach your kids how to be safe.
[31:42] - Bryan primarily uses authenticator apps for MFA, but any kind is helpful.
[35:20] - Bryan is currently writing another book and loves meeting people who have done great things for cyber security education.

Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.

Links and Resources:

Further episodes of Easy Prey

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Website of Chris Parker