Podcast Episode 7: The Tyler Lau Interview, Assange, Thought Experiments, AirBnB Scams and More



This week we look at the Assange arrest, an irresponsible security researcher affecting the WordPress community and do a bit of a thought experiment. We also look at Google’s Sensorvault and how it’s being used by law enforcement, the fascinating rise and fall of the Bayrob malware gang, and some tips for avoiding a new AirBnB scam. I also talked to Tyler Lau at WordCamp Phoenix last month, and we share that interview with you today. Tyler is the Social Community Manager at Sandhills Development. Sandhills makes some very popular plugins including Easy Digital Downloads, AffiliateWP. We talked about the WordPress community, WordPress in general and some of the cool things that Sandhills is involved in. Enjoy!

Here are approximate timestamps in case you want to jump around:
0:51 Assange taken into custody
20:27 Irresponsible security researcher
30:50 Google Sensorvault
35:14 Bayrob malware gang
43:07 Land Lordz service powering AirBnB scams
49:57 Tyler Lau interview

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This week in the news we cover:

• Julian Assange is taken into custody after seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The US Department of Justice is charging him with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion for agreeing to break a password to a classified U.S. government computer.
• Ars Technica publishes details about the rogue security researcher with a grudge dropping 0days on innocent WordPress users. We’ve covered this irresponsible researchers on past episodes. Mark had a bit of a Tweet storm about this over the weekend. Here’s the link to the WordPress HackerOne bug bounty program.
• Google’s sensorvault, a database of location records from hundreds of millions of devices, is being used by law enforcement.
• A fascinating story about the Bayrob malware gang from Romania gives an detailed look at who makes money from malware, their expertise, and ultimately how they were caught.
• Scammers use a new tool called Land Lordz to automate fake AirBnB scams, but there are ways to detect this scam and stay safe.

You can find me on Twitter as @mmaunder, Kathy as @kathyzant, and Tyler Lau as @tylermaximuslau. Please don’t hesitate to post your feedback in the comments below.