2 days ago
Episode 271 - Handles, Honeypots, Hardware Wallets, and Hinges
Welcome to this week's episode of the PEBCAK Podcast! We’ve got four amazing stories this week so sit back, relax, and keep being awesome! Be sure to stick around for our Dad Joke of the Week. (DJOW)
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Wheel of Fortune's announcer says he wandered into a ped*phile chatroom by accident — but the same username left a two-year trail on a second forum.
- Pseudonym reuse is forensics: Jim Thornton was fired from Wheel of Fortune hours after TMZ published photos of him posting into a chatroom from a plane under the handle "NicholasB77." His lawyer's defense was that he mistook it for a suicide-prevention site. An independent journalist then found the same handle on a second pedophile forum, posting from mid-2023 to late-2025 — praising that chatroom, coaching other members on staying hidden, and repeatedly posting a photo of a topless boy. One recycled username across two sites is the entire story. Thornton has not been charged.
Dutch police baited a bank-helpdesk scam with a fake pensioner, the courier showed up, and the court acquitted him anyway.
- https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2026:8867
- The decoy that was too good: police seeded phishing sites with a fake pensioner's details, got the scam call a day later, and arrested the courier who came to collect. Amsterdam's court acquitted him. Under Dutch law, fraud requires that someone was actually deceived, and the decoy clocked the script on the first call. Prosecutors charged completed fraud instead of attempt. The judges basically said attempt would have stuck, but it wasn't on the indictment. Great sting, wrong paperwork.
Trezor's shipping-vendor breach now reaches 81,000 customers, and in Mexico a family was murdered over a $1.5M hardware wallet.
- https://decrypt.co/377795/mexican-family-killed-bitcoin-cold-wallet
- Your shipping data is your threat model: Trezor's breach grew from 14,000 to 81,000 customers after logistics provider ShipMonk failed to delete data it had contractually promised to delete. Attackers got in via a Metabase SQL injection zero-day — the same campaign that hit Framework and Tally — and ShinyHunters has sent extortion mail. Leaked names, addresses, and phone numbers of confirmed hardware-wallet buyers is a wrench-attack shopping list. See also: four people killed in Atizapán, Mexico on September 1, allegedly by a business associate who knew about the Bitcoin in the house.
Apple's "Surprise and Shine" event delivered a foldable iPhone Duo, a 2nm chip, and a $100 price hike that's really $300.
- https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/09/apple-september-2026-event-recap/
- Apple's fall lineup: foldable iPhone Duo (pre-orders Oct 16, ships Oct 23), iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max on the A20 Pro, the first 2nm phone chip, with variable aperture cameras, a tripled vapor chamber, and up to 45 hours of battery. Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, AirPods 5 with ANC standard, iOS 27 on September 14. The security-adjacent bits: Apple Reference Image for photo authenticity, the new C2 modem, and Siri AI daily usage limits with "expanded access" for a fee.
Dad Joke of the Week (DJOW)
Find the hosts on LinkedIn:
Chris - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chlouie/
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