Exploiting Psychology
Easy Prey
Scams are often explained as a failure of judgment, but the truth is far more human. People are not fooled because they are foolish. They are manipulated at the exact moment emotion overrides logic, whether that emotion is fear, loneliness, hope, urgency, financial stress, or the desire to believe something better is finally possible. My guest today is Dr. John Demartini, one of the world’s leading authorities on human behavior, perception, resilience, and personal development. For more than five decades, he has researched, written, and taught in the fields of human awareness and potential....
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Investment Traps
Easy Prey
Investment losses can be confusing because they do not always tell the whole story. Sometimes money is lost because the market has changed. Other times, an investor was sold something they did not understand, pushed into a product that was never appropriate, or denied the information they needed to make a real decision. Courtney Werning has built her career in that space, helping investors sort through what happened and whether someone can be held responsible. Courtney is a named partner at Meyer, Wilson, and Werning, a national investor protection firm that has recovered more than $350...
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Elder Exploitation
Easy Prey
Aging parents often rely on the people closest to them for help, but what happens when that help becomes a way to take control? For Charles Wallace, the warning signs started small. His mother’s fridge was suddenly overfilled. A caregiver refused to provide receipts. Spending patterns began to shift in ways that did not make sense. At the time, each concern could be explained away. Looking back, they were part of something much larger. Charles spent 15 years in banking and finance, and after his mother’s death, he used that experience to reconstruct more than 3,000 transactions. What he...
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Art Heists
Easy Prey
The world of art theft looks glamorous in the movies, but the reality is far more complicated. From multi-million dollar forgery schemes to undercover FBI operations recovering stolen national treasures, art crime is a global industry hiding in plain sight. This conversation digs into how these crimes actually play out and why the people who pull them off often end up stuck with the very pieces they thought would make them rich. My guest today is Robert Wittman, a former FBI special agent and the founder of the FBI’s Art Crime Team. Over a 20-year career, he worked undercover in more...
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The Power of Prediction
Easy Prey
We make predictions all the time including about the weather, about traffic, about what someone is going to say next. It feels natural, even rational. But when algorithms start making predictions about us, whether we'll repay a loan, reoffend after prison, or respond to a medical treatment, something fundamental shifts. The forecast stops being a guess and starts becoming a verdict. My guest today is Carissa Veliz, a philosopher and associate professor at the University of Oxford, where she also researches at the Oxford Internet Institute. Her work focuses on the ethics of technology, privacy,...
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Privacy vs Reality
Easy Prey
Online security advice often sounds simple until you actually try to follow it. Between password managers, privacy settings, and data brokers, protecting yourself can start to feel like a full-time job. That gap between what sounds easy and what’s actually realistic is where a lot of people get stuck. My guest today is Yael Grauer, a freelance investigative technology reporter who covers privacy, security, digital freedom, hacking, and mass surveillance. She also works as a program manager of cybersecurity research at Consumer Reports, where she manages Security Planner, a free resource that...
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Wired to Trust
Easy Prey
It’s easy to think scams only work when someone misses something obvious. In reality, most of them don’t look obvious at the start. They show up as normal situations with just enough friction to notice, but not enough to stop. That small gap is where people tend to move forward instead of stepping back. My guest today is Tali Sharot, a cognitive neuroscientist who studies how we form beliefs and make decisions. She’s known for her research on the neural basis of human optimism, and her work has been published in leading journals. In her books, The Optimism Bias and The Science of...
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Intimate Partner Fraud
Easy Prey
Most scams leave a digital trail. A fake email, a spoofed number, a fraudulent website. You can trace them, report them, sometimes even reverse them. But what happens when the scam has no digital trail at all, because it isn't happening on a screen? What happens when the con is standing right in front of you, making you laugh, meeting your friends, and planning a future with you? My guest today is Tracy Hall. She's an author, keynote speaker, and senior marketing executive with over 25 years at some of the world's most recognizable tech companies including eBay, Virgin, GoDaddy, and...
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Identity without Passwords
Easy Prey
Every day, employees at hotels, restaurants, and resorts across the country are doing exactly what they were hired to do: being warm, responsive, and eager to help. It's what makes hospitality work. It's also what makes hospitality one of the most targeted industries in cybersecurity. When your entire workforce is trained to say yes, teaching them to be suspicious is an uphill battle. The smarter solution might be to take the target off their backs entirely. Jasson Casey is the co-founder and CEO of Beyond Identity, a company built around one idea: making identity-based attacks impossible....
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When Cybercrime Gets Personal
Easy Prey
Most security breaches don't begin with sophisticated code or elaborate technical exploits. They begin with a phone call, a convincing email, or someone at a help desk who just wanted to be helpful. The human layer is often the weakest link, and the criminals who understand that are the ones causing the most damage. My guest today is May Chen-Contino. She's the CEO of Unit 221B, a threat disruption company that delivers actionable intelligence to enterprises, law enforcement, and government agencies. Her background spans cybersecurity, fintech, and SaaS leadership at companies like PayPal and...
info_outlineRegulators have to invest a considerable amount of time in keeping legislation and policy up to date regarding technology and AI, but it’s not easy. We need floor debates, not for sound bytes or for political gain, but to move policy forward.
Today’s guest is Bruce Schneier. Bruce is an internationally renowned security technologist called The Security Guru by The Economist. He is the author of over a dozen books including his latest, A Hacker’s Mind. He has testified before Congress, is a frequent guest on television and radio, has served on several government committees, and is regularly quoted in the press. He is a fellow at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, a lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School, a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and AccessNow, and an advisory board member of EPIC and VerifiedVoting.org.
Show Notes:
- [1:40] - Bruce shares what he teaches at Harvard and the current interest in policy.
- [4:27] - The notion that tech can’t be regulated has been very harmful.
- [6:00] - Typically, the United States doesn’t regulate much in tech. Most regulation has come from Europe.
- [7:52] - AI is a power magnification tool. Will the uses empower the already powerful or democratize power?
- [9:16] - Bruce describes loopholes and how AI as a power magnification tool can mean something different in different situations.
- [12:06] - It will be interesting to watch AI begin to do human cognitive tasks because they will do them differently.
- [13:58] - Bruce explains how AI collaboration can be a real benefit.
- [16:17] - Like every text writer, AI is going to become a collaborative tool. What does this mean for writing legislation?
- [17:18] - AI can write more complex and detailed laws than humans can.
- [21:27] - AI regulation will be skewed towards corporations. Bruce explains how public AI could work.
- [23:46] - Will AI help the defender or the attacker more?
- [26:19] - AI can be good against legacy, but we need some sort of infrastructure.
- [29:27] - There’s going to be a need for proof of humanity.
- [32:29] - It is hard to know what people can do to help move regulation along. Ultimately, it is a political issue.
Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.