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Infosec Decoded Season 5 #44: Breakup

With Doug Spindler and sambowne@infosec.exchange

Recorded Fri, June 6, 2025

Politics

From bromance to breakup: How Elon Musk and Donald Trump blew up

19 companies pulling back their support for Pride

Long COVID in Young Children, School-Aged Children, and Teens

Long COVID is common, affecting up to 10% to 20% of children with a history of COVID-19. With almost 6 million US children potentially affected, this is higher than the number of children with asthma, the most common chronic health problem in children.

The Law Firms That Appeased Trump—and Angered Their Clients

After firms struck deals to avoid punitive executive orders, some big clients decided to take their business elsewhere

Canada's "old relationship" with the U.S. is over, newly elected prime minister says

Mike Lindell claims 'Satan' controls voting machines ahead of defamation trial

Russia seeks to ban ‘propaganda’ promoting childfree lifestyles

US immigration officers ordered to arrest more people even without warrants

Ice officers told to get ‘creative’ with arrests, including of undocumented people encountered by chance

Infosec

The Prime Minister's Gold Telephone

It was used in the 1960s to connect the Canadian Prime Minister to the US President. It turns out that the handsets were broadcasting “recoverable voice signals” down the telephone line, even if the handset was in the “disconnect position.” In other words, even when the phone was hung up, it was transmitting what was said near the phone.The handsets were equipped with an “impaired speech” amplifier that helped boost the volume and clarity of the caller’s voice — and this function continued to work even if the handset was resting on the cradle.

Android malware Crocodilus adds fake contacts to spoof trusted callers

'700 Indian engineers posed as AI': The London startup that took Microsoft for a ride

Builder.ai, once touted as a revolutionary AI startup backed by Microsoft, has collapsed into insolvency after revelations that its flagship no-code development platform was powered not by artificial intelligence—but by 700 human engineers in India.

Federal Authorities Probe Effort to Impersonate White House Chief of Staff

In recent weeks, senators, governors, top U.S. business executives and other well-known figures have received text messages and phone calls from a person who claimed to be Wiles, the people familiar with the messages said. Government officials think the impersonator used artificial intelligence to imitate Wiles’s voice.

Wiles has told associates that her cellphone contacts were hacked, giving the impersonator access to the private phone numbers of some of the country’s most influential people.

Australian ransomware victims now must tell the government if they pay up

Australia became on Friday the first country in the world to require victims of ransomware attacks to declare to the government any extortion payments made on their behalf to cybercriminals.

Apple Gave Governments Data on Thousands of Push Notifications

Push notification data can sometimes include the unencrypted content of notifications. Requests include from the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Israel.

These gas appliances — one of the largest sources of LA’s smog — could be phased out

Water heaters and furnaces powered by natural gas emit more smog-causing gases than the region’s largest industrial polluters.

X's new "encrypted" XChat feature doesn't seem to be any more secure

It apparently lacks forward secrecy, has an easily brute-forced PIN, and gives Twitter sufficient information to decrypt the messages.