
CLICK HERE PODCAST
Recorded Future News’ award-winning Click Here podcast tells stories about the people and ideas shaping the digital world and introduces listeners to the colorful characters on the frontlines of today’s biggest cyber and intelligence headlines. Hosted by former NPR Investigations correspondent Dina Temple-Raston, Click Here explores the shadowy world of ransomware, disinformation campaigns, and hacks to help listeners understand and protect themselves from adversaries in cyberspace. Click Here is the recipient of two Headliner Awards, a regional Edward R. Murrow award and was a 2023 Webby Honoree for best tech podcast. New episodes every Tuesday, where ever you get your podcasts.
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WHAT WILL MOSCOW DO WITH THE WAGNER GROUP NOW?
Available September 26, 2023
The Russian private army known as the Wagner Group has been tied not just to atrocities in Ukraine but to operations in Africa that helped Russia extend its reach. The looming question for Moscow: What do we do with Wagner now?
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WHAT WAGNER GROUP LEARNED FROM ISIS
Available September 19, 2023
Back in August, the leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was killed in a fiery plane crash. So we decided to revisit an episode we did a few months ago about the Wagner group and how it recruits. It turns out they tore a page out of the ISIS playbook.
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DUTCH POLICE, CYBER BOOBY TRAPS AND A DARK MARKET TAKEDOWN FOR THE AGES
Available September 12, 2023
Led by a motley crew of old-school cops and cyber whiz-kids, a Dutch police unit takes control of one of the dark web's most notorious drug markets and makes history.
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'DING-DONG DITCH' ON STEROIDS
Available September 5, 2023
Remember ding-dong ditch? You and your friends rang a doorbell and then ran away? These days the prank of choice among the young cyber set is something called swatting: calling the police with a hoax report that sends them rushing — guns drawn — to some address and unsuspecting victim. After years of writing it off as childish mischief, legislators, law enforcement and tech companies are finally trying to address it.
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THE CLOP GANG'S IN LOVE WITH A SPECIAL KIND OF BUG
Available August 29, 2023
Back in May, a Russian-speaking cyber gang named Clop broke into MOVEit, a little-known file transfer program. They managed to steal data from some 60 million people (and counting). While the scale of the attack was impressive, what really raised eyebrows was how they did it.
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ILYA SACHKOV V. THE KREMLIN
Available August 22, 2023
Ilya Sachkov co-founded the cybersecurity company Group-IB to make the world safe from Russian-speaking cybercriminals. Then he asked Russian authorities to help round them up, and things went spectacularly wrong.
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MEET CHATGPT'S EVIL TWIN
Available August 15, 2023
Wave goodbye to those pesky emails from Nigerian princes and say hello to the latest generation of AI-enabled email scamming. It’s smarter, faster and, by the way, looks like it’s coming from your boss. The only thing that might stop it? AI itself.
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ONE WOMAN'S ORWELLIAN EXPERIENCE WITH DISINFORMATION
Available August 8, 2023
We look at an American disinformation campaign that shows how online abuse directed at women goes far beyond some mean tweets. And, an update on a Syrian activist who was on the receiving end of a misinformation crisis of her own.
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TROUBLE IN THE CLOUD
Available August 1, 2023
In May, Chinese hackers broke into the Microsoft cloud and stole emails. The breach exposed not just a flaw in the code, but a glitch in company’s business model. And it raised a question: Is storing data in the cloud as safe as we thought?
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SPECIAL FEATURE: ‘THE INTERNET IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA’ FROM THINGS THAT GO BOOM
Available July 25, 2023
This week, we share an episode from PRX and Inkstick Media’s “Things that Go Boom” podcast about the thousands of miles of fiber optic cable lying at the bottom of the sea. Some 95 percent of the world’s electronic data is traveling through them and cables are taking centerstage in the high-stakes competition between the U.S. and China.
ListenTHE MEXICAN ARMY’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH SPYWARE
Available July 18, 2023
Since our story on spyware in Mexico aired back in March, researchers have discovered a roster of Pegasus spyware infections on the phones of local journalists, activists, and even officials within the Mexican president’s inner circle. This week, we return to our deep dive on the use of spyware in Mexico and the revelation that the army created a secret military intelligence unit dedicated to its use.
ListenSPECIAL FEATURE: 'LIFE, DEATH AND AI' FROM ENDLESS THREAD
Available July 11, 2023
From WBUR's “Endless Thread" podcast, a story on a growing segment of artificial intelligence: immortalizing the dead through predictive AI text and how bots can help us understand grief.
ListenREALITY WINNER AND THE HANDLING OF SECRET DOCUMENTS
Available July 4, 2023
We revisit a sit-down interview we had with NSA contractor Reality Winner shortly after she spent 4 years in prison for passing a single classified document to a reporter. Given all the focus on classified documents and the way they’ve been handled in recent weeks, it seemed a good time to take another look at what happened to Reality.
ListenCAN SATELLITE SURVEILLANCE SAVE SUDAN FROM ITSELF?
Available June 27, 2023
Two decades after Arab militias first torched villages and killed hundreds of thousands of people in West Darfur, violence has returned to the region. We tell the story of one group of researchers who use open source intelligence, algorithms and satellite imagery in a bid to quell the violence in Sudan.
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EXCLUSIVE: INSIDE AN AMERICAN HUNT FORWARD OPERATION IN UKRAINE
Available June 20, 2023
We go behind the scenes of U.S. Cyber Command’s hunt forward operation in Ukraine. We interviewed half a dozen American cyber warriors who were on the ground in Kyiv, and they provide new details about the effort to defend Ukrainian networks against Russian cyberattacks in the weeks before the war.
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A RETURN TO MODEL DRONE PILOTS AND UKRAINE’S SPRING OFFENSIVE
Available June 13, 2023
As Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive begins, we revisit a story we did last winter about some unusual Ukrainian women training to become part of the nation’s Army of Drones.
ListenAN UNLIKELY TEACHER: WHAT WAGNER GROUP LEARNED FROM ISIS
Available June 6, 2023
The Russian private army known as the Wagner Group is trying to persuade young men to join the fight in Ukraine. Their online recruitment efforts don’t just hint at the future of modern warfare: They’re a callback to an earlier time, when a group called ISIS lured young men to fight in Syria.
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WAZAWAKA: ‘MOST WANTED’ AND, HE SAYS, UNDETERRED
Available May 30, 2023
This month, the FBI added Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev to their Most Wanted hacker list for his alleged role in a number of ransomware attacks against U.S. targets. In a rare interview shortly after the FBI announcement, he talked about the new designation and what he wants to do next.
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SPECIAL FEATURE: 'THE SLAVE ARMIES POWERING A NEW KIND OF GOLDEN TRIANGLE CYBERCRIME' FROM THE UNDERWORLD PODCAST
Available May 23, 2023
From “The Underworld” podcast, a conversation about casino towns, gangster owners, and a new twist on scamming operations. Nathan Paul Southern and Lindsey Kennedy took a trip along the Mekong River and revealed new details about southeast Asia’s latest scourge: cyber slaves.
ListenHIVE’S WEWORK EXPERIMENT — AND WHAT WENT WRONG
Available May 16, 2023
When the FBI and Justice Department took down a collective of cybercriminals known as Hive earlier this year, it targeted a group that made a name for itself, in part, by holding hospital and healthcare systems for ransom during the pandemic. What made the group so effective was its own twist on WeWork-style collaboratives… and it led to their demise.
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‘OPERATION COOKIE MONSTER' AND THE GENESIS TAKEDOWN
Available May 9, 2023
The Department of Justice says last month’s effort to bring down the Genesis Marketplace represents a departure from traditional law enforcement actions. ‘Operation Cookie Monster' wasn’t about nabbing masterminds. It was about making it harder for JV hackers to enter the world of cybercrime.
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MORALITY IN IRAQ: YOU SHOULD WORRY BECAUSE THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT
Available May 2, 2023
Iraq's government has an app that allows citizens to report “indecent” content to the authorities. Similar apps crowdsourcing morality have popped up across the region, raising new concerns about the future of free speech in the Middle East.
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PORTRAIT OF BASSTERLORD AS A YOUNG MAN
Available April 25, 2023
What makes a hacker tick? That’s what we wanted to find out when we reached out to Bassterlord, a 27-year-old hacker in Ukraine who joined some of the most infamous hacking crews of our time. Researcher Jon DiMaggio of Analyst1 has released a report about him, and he gave Click Here an exclusive first look. Then, we spoke to Bassterlord ourselves.
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TRACERS ON THE STAGE
Available April 18, 2023
We go behind the scenes of the new book by WIRED’s Andy Greenberg, "Tracers in the Dark." It explains how a handful of entrepreneurs and investigators demystified cryptocurrency tracking. Recently, we spoke with Andy and some crypto tracers onstage at the Links 2023 conference in New York City. Plus, North Korea’s ingenious effort to launder its stolen crypto.
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HOW A MATHEMATICIAN AND AN ENTREPRENEUR HELPED LAW ENFORCEMENT TAKE A BITE OUT OF CRYPTO CRIME
Available April 11, 2023
When cryptocurrency burst on the scene in 2008, it was touted as anonymous — a boon to cyber criminals all over the world. Then a few mathematicians and some federal agents proved otherwise, in a way so big it birthed an industry. With a tip of the hat to Andy Greenberg’s new book “Tracers in the Dark,” we talk to them about how they did it.
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SNOWMEN IN THE PARK AND IRAN'S QUIET VIRAL DISSENT
Available April 4, 2023
Six months after demonstrators took to the streets of Iran hoping to end its draconian hijab laws and push for a change in the leadership, the protests have moved online — into a quiet civil disobedience campaign that leadership is finding hard to control.
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CLEAR THE RUNWAY: UKRAINE'S MODEL PILOTS
Available March 28, 2023
Drones of all shapes and sizes are part of the war effort in the skies above Ukraine. Some are helping kill the enemy; others spy on formations and guide bombs to their targets. We take you inside a school meant to boost that effort by training women to fly them. Plus, a leading dark web hacking forum meets its demise.
ListenWHAT THE CYBER WAR IN UKRAINE IS TEACHING US
Available March 21, 2023
In a recent conversation on WAMU’s nationally syndicated show 1A, we talked about lessons learned one year into the world’s first truly hybrid war. The conversation happened amid a report from Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center that found new worrying signs on the Russia-Ukraine cyber front. They believe Sandworm, a cyber military unit of Russia’s intelligence service, has been launching new phishing campaigns, cyber espionage operations, and is stepping up coordination with hacktivists groups.
ListenEnemy of the State (Part 2) : ¿Quién es Guacamaya? (Who is Guacamaya?)
Available Tuesday March 14
Last week we told you about the Mexican military’s secret use of Pegasus spyware. In Part 2 of our series, we introduce you to Guacamaya, the hacktivist collective that has stolen some 25 terabytes of data from military institutions across Latin America … and they aren’t done yet.
ListenEnemy of the State (Part 1): Mexico, spyware, and a secret military intelligence unit
Available March 7, 2023
A new investigation by R3D and Citizen Lab shows the Mexican Army bought and systematically deployed Pegasus spyware against ordinary Mexican citizens and set up a secret special military unit dedicated to high-tech surveillance. Click Here was part of a small group given early access to their findings.
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Ukraine’s drone whisperers: What the weapons are telling us
Available February 28, 2023
Russia has deployed the Iranian-built Shahed drone to wreak havoc on Ukraine’s infrastructure. We speak to a man who is a kind of drone whisperer. After years of taking these Shahed drones apart, he says if you listen, they have amazing stories to tell.
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Oyez, Oyez, Oyez: Twenty-six words get their day in the High Court
Available February 21, 2023
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in a case that will consider a 1995 law that shields social media companies from liability. Gonzalez v. Google could allow people to sue tech companies that use algorithms to sort through their content. Plus, we check in with Alexander Martin, The Record's U.K. editor, about his takeaways from the Munich Security Conference.
ListenMiss Lonelyhearts and the money mules
Available February 14, 2023
In a special Valentine’s Day episode, we look at the evolution of romance scams. They aren’t just about bilking lonely people out of their life savings anymore – scammers have diversified, and they’re making victims accomplices in a roster of cyber crimes from email scams and check fraud to money laundering.
ListenXi's Brave New World
Available February 7, 2023
At a time when an errant spy balloon has raised new questions about President Xi Jinping’s absolute control over all things Chinese, we take a look at how his regime quelled last year’s Covid protests and how an arsenal of digital weapons helped tighten his grip on power. Plus, facial recognition’s latest nemesis: knitwear.
ListenSPECIAL FEATURE: SHOOT THE MESSENGER: ESPIONAGE, MURDER, & PEGASUS SOFTWARE
Available January 31, 2023
“Shoot The Messenger” from Exile Content Studio and PRX looks at what happened to the murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The first weapon used against him was digital – a sophisticated spyware called Pegasus.
ListenEXCLUSIVE: AXON STILL WANTS TO PUT TASER DRONES IN YOUR KID’S SCHOOL
Available January 24, 2023
Click Here goes inside the internal deliberations of an AI ethics board grappling with whether a company should develop stun-gun-enabled drones for police departments. After a year of study, Axon’s AI ethics board concluded the technology was too ripe for abuse. Weeks later the company’s CEO announced a plan to build a weaponized drone to prevent mass shootings in schools. And, cybercriminals’ new best friend: ChatGPT.
ListenLOCKBIT DIARIES: A RESEARCHER’S YEAR UNDERCOVER WITH THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS RANSOMEWARE GANG
Available January 17, 2023
After spending more than a year undercover with the notorious ransomware gang LockBit, one researcher explains how the group revolutionized the business of ransomware.
ListenGENSHIN IMPACT: TRYING TO BALANCE MASS APPEAL WITH BEIJING’S BLESSING
Available January 10, 2023
Genshin Impact put the Chinese video gaming industry on the map. But while the game has delighted players, it begs the question: Can China’s Communist Party and a massively popular video game peacefully co-exist?
ListenCALL ME CRYPTO CURIOUS
Available January 3, 2023
We take a deep dive into a corner of the cryptocurrency economy that hasn’t (completely) tanked yet: Bitcoin mining. It is part cryptography, part math, and part luck.
ListenSPECIAL FEATURE: ‘SUMMER IN CAPUTH’ FROM EXILE
Available December 27, 2022
An episode from “Exile”from the Leo Baeck Institute and Antica Productions. At the height of his fame, a shirtless, barefooted Albert Einstein escapes the bustle of Berlin for a simpler life. The best thinkers of the time gather at his beloved summer house in Caputh to laze by the water, swap ideas, and gossip. There, he can escape the pressures of global fame, but his summer haven can’t keep him safe from Germany’s growing Nazi threat.
ListenTHE MUSICIANS WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD
Available December 20, 2022
At a time when Vladimir Putin is attempting to redraw the Iron Curtain, we revisit an earlier episode in which we take a trip back to the Soviet Union circa 1985 when four American musicians smuggled messages in and out of the Soviet Union — with music. Plus, DefCon’s answer to those alien transmissions.
ListenSPECIAL FEATURE: ‘SAVING UKRAINIAN CULTURAL HISTORY ONLINE’ FROM THE LAST ARCHIVE
Available December 13, 2022
We share special episode of The Last Archive, a podcast about the history of truth — or the lack thereof. Harvard historian Jill Lepore uncovers the secrets of the past the way a detective might. In this episode, Jill chats with Anna Kijas, a co-organizer of SUCHO: Saving Ukrainian Cultural History Online. Lepore and Kijas talk about her effort to preserve online resources that are at risk of disappearing because of the war in Ukraine
ListenTHROWING BRICKS FOR $$$: VIOLENCE-AS-A-SERVICE COMES OF AGE
Available December 6, 2022
We go back to an episode we did earlier this year about a gang of SIM swappers who are behind something called violence-as-a-service. Doxing or defacing websites, they told us, just doesn’t send enough of a message. So, they are throwing molotov cocktails or slashing tires of their rivals instead. Trouble is – it is getting more popular and commonplace and is bound to affect the rest of us.
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SPECIAL FEATURE: ‘THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME’ FROM BIG BROTHER: NORTH KOREA’S FORGOTTEN PRINCE
Available Tuesday November 29
“Big Brother: North Korea’s Forgotten Prince” from School of Humans and iHeartPodcasts introduce you to the person who should have been North Korea’s leader – had he not been on the receiving end of what may be the 21st century’s most bizarre assassination plot.
ListenNORTH KOREA’S MONSTER FAKE OUT
Available Tuesday November 22
North Korea has launched an unprecedented number of missiles this month. So we bring you an encore episode about a team of researchers using open-source intelligence to track the hermit kingdom’s nuclear ambitions.Plus, the Yanluowang ransomware group finds itself the victim of a leak.
ListenROUNDING UP A CYBER POSSE FOR UKRAINE
Available Tuesday November 15
Washington and the tech world have been talking about public private partnerships in cyberspace for decades. The NSA and Cyber Command have intelligence about attacks; cybersecurity companies have the means to block them. It looks like they are finally working together — not in the U.S, but in Ukraine.
ListenSELLING VICE SOCIETY: OLD EXPLOITS, EASY TARGETS, AND THE ILLUSION OF GREATNESS
Available Tuesday November 8
Vice Society burst on the ransomware scene in early 2021, attacking a roster of government offices, hospitals and, notoriously, schools. But cybersecurity experts say the group isn’t your typical ransomware operation: they’re some of cyber crime’s biggest posers, using old exploits on easy targets to give the illusion of greatness.
ListenIS OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE THE SOLUTION TO OUR ELECTION WOES?
Available Tuesday November 1
Ben Adida is the executive director of a voting technology non-profit that provides software and operational support to states during elections. He’s embarked on an almost impossible mission: to restore faith in our election system. The way he proposes to do that? With open-source software that everyone can see.
ListenTHE SUPREME COURT CASE THAT COULD CHANGE THE INTERNET
Available Tuesday October 25
Nohemi Gonzalez was killed in the 2015 ISIS attacks in Paris and now is at the heart of a Supreme Court case that will reconsider Section 230, part of a 1995 law that shields social media companies from liability. Gonzalez v. Google could allow people to sue tech companies that use algorithms to sort through their content.
Listen‘PRESENCE MATTERS’: NAKASONE AND EASTERLY ON UKRAINE, COLLABORATION, AND MIDTERM ELECTIONS
Available Tuesday October 18
The head of NSA and Cybercom Gen. Paul Nakasone and CISA director Jen Easterly came to the Council on Foreign Relations last week for a rare sit-down interview. They talked about hunt teams in Ukraine, public-private partnerships and threats ahead of the midterms, with Click Here host Dina Temple-Raston presiding over the session. Plus, one researcher bests Charming Kitten.
ListenTHE HIJAB WILL NEVER BE THE SAME
Available Tuesday October 11
The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in Iran has ignited the most powerful protests the country has seen in years. In addition to violence, authorities have responded with a host of new tools to throttle mobile phone connections, block social media sites, and make it harder for people to organize. Plus, Iran’s diplomatic kerfuffle over a cyber attack in Albania.
ListenREALITY WINNER AND THE HANDLING OF SECRET DOCUMENTS
Available Tuesday October 4
As the wrangling continues over classified documents former President Trump took to his Florida home, we take a second look at the case of Reality Winner. She is the NSA contractor who served time in prison for passing a classified document to a reporter. We had a rare interview with her in February.
ListenUKRAINE’S MASS GRAVES HAVE STORIES TO TELL
Available Tuesday September 27
The town whose name has become synonymous with Russian atrocities in Ukraine is rushing to digitize information about the dead — not just to identify them and give families closure — but to hold Russians accountable for the wanton brutality in Bucha. Plus, scandal in the elite chess world.
ListenTHROWING BRICKS FOR $$$: VIOLENCE-AS-A-SERVICE COMES OF AGE
Available Tuesday September 20
Young people who have been making millions hacking mobile phones — known as SIM swappers — have found a new way to intimidate and harass their rivals. They call it “violence-as-a-service” or “IRL jobs,” and it includes a Telegram channel where they can order brickings, firebombings, and even shootings in the real world.
ListenTHE GREAT TRACTOR JAILBREAK
Available Tuesday September 13
The talk of DEF CON 2022 was the handiwork of a white hat hacker named Sick Codes. On stage, he demonstrated how he broke the digital locks of a John Deere tractor. He did it with such ease it made people start to wonder: just how hack-able is the world’s agriculture sector?
ListenTHE SCARIEST PIECE OF MALWARE SINCE STUXNET
Available Tuesday August 30
Back in April, cybersecurity officials discovered the notorious “Industroyer” malware in the Ukrainian electrical grid. It might have been the scariest infrastructure hack since malware destroyed centrifuges at an Iranian uranium enrichment plant in 2010 – were it not for a TGIF miracle. Plus, a visit with the IT Army of Ukraine and a different kind of information operation.
ListenTHE MUSICIANS WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD
Available Tuesday August 23
At a time when Vladimir Putin is attempting to redraw the Iron Curtain, we take a trip back to the Soviet Union circa 1985 when four American musicians smuggled messages in and out of the Soviet Union — with music. Plus, DefCon’s answer to those alien transmissions.
ListenA RETURN TO STANISLAV
Available Tuesday August 16
We first spoke with Russian business owner Stanislav back in early March, shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Almost six months later, we check back in with him to see how he’s doing, and look at a new report that suggests the Russian economy is cratering. Plus, inside a massive breach affecting a police database in Shanghai.
ListenEXCLUSIVE: NORTH KOREA’S MONSTER FAKE OUT
Available Tuesday August 9
Thousands of satellites watch the world from above. We offer a mystery story about an infamous North Korean video, a team of very observant researchers, and a search for the truth.
ListenPEGASUS IS LISTENING
Available Tuesday August 2
Carine Kanimba’s father may be one of the most famous Rwandans on earth – Paul Rusesabagina. He was the manager of the Hôtel des Mille Collines, and he sheltered more than 1,200 Rwandans during the 1994 genocide. Now his daughter is at the center of a Capitol Hill inquiry into the proliferation of commercial spyware, a particular program called Pegasus, and the future of the company that created it.
ListenSPECIAL FEATURE: ‘EL SALVADOR’S BITCOIN EXPERIMENT’ FROM NOTHING IS FOREIGN
Available Tuesday July 19
Earlier this year, the CBC’s Nothing is Foreign podcast reported on how El Salvador’s promise of a cryptocurrency paradise runs up against reality.
ListenThe POST-ROE DIGITAL WORLD
Available Tuesday July 12
An encore performance of one of our most popular episodes. Five years ago, a Mississippi woman named Latice Fisher was charged with murdering her stillborn child. The evidence against her: a controversial 400-year-old test and the search history on her cellphone.
ListenSPECIAL FEATURE: ‘NSO’ FROM Darknet Diaries
Available Tuesday July 5
Last August, the Darknet Diaries host Jack Rhysider did a story about the NSO Group’s most famous product — Pegasus — a surveillance program which has the ability to turn just about anyone’s phone into a pocket spy.
ListenSON OF CONTI
Available Tuesday June 28
The Conti ransomware group appeared to be on ropes earlier this year when its internal chat logs went public –revealing the inner workings of a hacking cartel. Then, the gang surprised everyone by launching a cyber attack against Costa Rica aimed at overthrowing its government. Plus, what happens when a company actually wants to talk about being the target of a ransomware attack – how much will they say?
ListenNORTH KOREA’S CRYPTOCURRENCY OBSESSION
Available Tuesday June 21
For years, North Korea was known for making such a perfect counterfeit hundred-dollar note, the Treasury Department had to change how it printed them. Now, North Korea is all about crypto – and it has been cooking up all kinds of crazy schemes in order to get the Big Score. Plus, we hear from a two-time North Korean defector.
ListenGILMAN LOUIE AND THE DANCE WITH WOLF WARRIORS
Available Tuesday June 14
In a wide-ranging conversation on the fringes of this month’s RSA Conference, we sat down with Silicon Valley venture capitalist and Presidential Intelligence Advisory Board member Gilman Louie. We talked about the Chinese cyber threat, the growth of superpower competition, and the importance of bringing high-tech manufacturing back to America.
ListenGENSHIN IMPACT’S MASS APPEAL WITH BEIJING’S BLESSING
Available Tuesday June 7
Genshin Impact put the Chinese video gaming industry on the map. But while the game has delighted players, it begs the question: Can China’s Communist Party and a massively popular video game peacefully co-exist? Plus, we hit the ground at this year’s RSA Conference in San Francisco.
ListenR-EVIL AND THE TEXAS HACK THAT CHANGED RANSOMWARE AS WE KNOW IT
Available Tuesday May 31
An encore performance of the Click Here pilot episode on REvil and how it landed on a new business model. It happened in an unlikely place: Texas.
ListenROE V. WADE IN A WORLD OF DIGITAL DUST
Available Tuesday May 24
Five years ago, a Mississippi woman named Latice Fisher was charged with murdering her stillborn child. The evidence against her: a controversial 400-year-old test and the search history on her cellphone. We explain how in a post-Roe world, pattern data will be an even greater threat. Plus, the DOJ tweaks its use of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
ListenAT WAR WITH FACIAL RECOGNITION: CLEARVIEW AI IN UKRAINE
Available Tuesday May 17
Facial recognition technology is changing the war in Ukraine. It is finding infiltrators, providing evidence for war crimes and, more darkly, providing fodder for propaganda. We talk to Clearview AI’s CEO about its role in the conflict and what it means for the future.
Listen‘CREAM OF THE CREAM’: RUSSIA’S HIGH-TECH BRAIN DRAIN
Available Tuesday May 10
Tech entrepreneurs and developers are fleeing Putin’s Russia in droves. Meet three members of the exodus: a young successful entrepreneur… a corporate manager… and a high-school computer whiz who can’t wait to leave. Plus, DHS’ Rob Silvers on how ransomware ends.
ListenSPYWARE AND ‘A WORLD OF BOND VILLAINS’
Available Tuesday May 3
Ron Deibert founded The Citizen Lab, a high-tech human rights watchdog at the University of Toronto. He’s concerned the Internet could unleash our darkest angels. Now, he has an even bigger worry: spyware. It’s become so normalized even democratic nations are using it as high-tech oppo research. Plus, a pause in open source mapping in Ukraine.
ListenLAPSUS$: THE SCRIPT KIDDIES ARE ALRIGHT
Available Tuesday April 26
How a new cyber extortion team called LAPSUS$ managed to convince the world that it had turned low-tech hacking operations into high impact heists. And two high-schoolers who tinkered with a punch card and almost brought down the IBM computer center in Manhattan.
ListenTHE ENTREPRENEUR AND THE JIHADIST
Available Tuesday April 19
A Los Angeles tech entrepreneur reveals for the first time the role he played in bringing one of the world’s deadliest hackers to justice. And the founder of Craigslist talks about his effort to build a cyber civil defense force.
ListenARE AMERICA’S NUCLEAR SYSTEMS SO OLD THEY’RE UN-HACKABLE?
Available Tuesday April 12
In its latest defense budget, the Biden Administration has asked Congress to fund the modernization of America’s nuclear weapons systems.The current system – that until recently was still using eight inch floppies – is seen as so old that it’s virtually un-hackable. So if you modernize, now what? Plus, cyber hits from Nigeria’s music scene.
ListenTHE RISE OF HIGH-TECH DESPOTISM
Available Tuesday April 5
Noura Al-Jizawi thought she’d left the repression of the Assad regime behind her when she left Syria with her sister. Instead she became the target of an online subversion campaign. Plus, we meet the founder of a retro computer museum in Mariupol, Ukraine.
ListenWAR, SANCTIONS AND CRYPTO’S BIG MOMENT
Available Tuesday March 29
As sanctions squeeze the Russian economy, ordinary Russians are having to navigate a financial system in mid-collapse. For some, the solution has been cryptocurrencies. We talk to a small businessman in St. Petersburg who explains. Plus, the hack heard ‘round the indie music world.
ListenFIGHTING RUSSIA WITH COMPUTERS, NOT RIFLES
Available Tuesday March 22
A volunteer army made up of thousands of IT professionals from around the world is seeking to fight Russia in cyberspace. We talk to some of its members and discover new limits to Russia’s hacking efforts.
ListenMeet the Team
- Dina Temple-Raston
is the host and executive producer of the Click Here podcast as well as a senior correspondent at Recorded Future News. She previously served on NPR’s Investigations team focusing on breaking news stories and national security, technology, and social justice and hosted and created the award-winning Audible Podcast “What Were You Thinking.”
- Sean Powers
is a senior producer for the Click Here podcast. He came to the Recorded Future News from the Scripps Washington Bureau, where he was the lead producer of "Verified," an investigative podcast. Previously, he was in charge of podcasting at Georgia Public Broadcasting in Atlanta, where he helped launch and produced about a dozen shows.
- Will Jarvis
is a podcast producer for the Click Here podcast. Before joining Recorded Future News, he produced podcasts and worked on national news magazines at National Public Radio, including Weekend Edition, All Things Considered, The National Conversation and Pop Culture Happy Hour. His work has also been published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Ad Age and ESPN.