Privacy Files

There are approximately two million nonprofit organizations operating in the United States alone, accounting for one out of every ten private-sector workers.

It's an industry that's literally measured in the trillions of dollars.

Yet when it comes to business operations, due to shoestring budgets, many nonprofits run their entire operations using software like Google Workspace or similar low-cost (or free) tools. And they t...

Cryptocurrency has made many people very wealthy. There are more than 88,000 millionaires who got rich through crypto investing. In fact, there are even 17 "crypto billionaires."

But for every person who makes it big in the world of cryptocurrency, there are many times more who either never grow their investment or who lose money.

In this episode of Privacy Files, Brian Tillman returns to the studio to help Rich make sens...

According to the United States Federal Trade Commission, Americans lost $10 billion to fraud in 2023 alone. In that same year, Americans were defrauded $4.6 billion via investment scams.

In this episode of Privacy Files, we talk to Val Harkless, a government contractor who assists with fraud and analysis for the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Division of Enforcement. She works tirelessly to uncover a variety of crim...

In the United States, fraud and identity theft together result in tens of billions of dollars in losses annually.

Contributing to this growing problem is the continued use of usernames and passwords stored in giant, centralized databases owned by large companies. These databases are often the target of hacking attacks. And this stolen data finds its way into marketplaces on the dark web.

The good news is, there's a better way a...

When it comes to data privacy, the legal and regulatory environment is changing faster than ever.

While in the United States, no federal privacy law exists, there's a growing sentiment from those who are watching closely that things are about to change.

In this episode of Privacy Files, we talk to privacy law attorney Alan Chapell. Alan is the Founder of Chapell & Associates, a legal consulting firm that helps digital media...

Ever since the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT in November 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) has dominated the news.

AI is bringing a level of realism and human-like behavior to technology that just two years ago would have been considered unthinkable.

But AI is also introducing new data privacy concerns.

In this episode of Privacy Files, we examine the rising phenomenon of romantic AI chatbots and what these applications are doin...

On this show, we have talked quite a bit about the red hot cybersecurity industry. Companies can't fill open positions fast enough.

Globally, cybersecurity spending exceeds $200 billion.

But there's a small problem. You might call it a cybersecurity paradox.

Despite companies spending more than ever on cybersecurity, companies are also losing data more than ever.

In this episode of Privacy Files, we talk to Richard Hollis, ...

The rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is bringing great promise to the world in the form of increased productivity and a better quality of life.

However, as with any new technology, there are people who look to leverage it for nefarious purposes.

Deepfakes are seemingly everywhere now. And while some are being used for humor or general entertainment, many deepfakes are being used to inflict harm.

In this episode of Privacy...

Web3, or Web 3.0, is a new vision for the World Wide Web where the user is in control. While Web3 has been called many things, there's no doubt that its architecture enables for the democratization of the web.

The key concepts of Web3 include decentralization, blockchain technologies and token-based economies.

While the pervasiveness of fraud in cryptocurrency has tarnished the image of Web3, decentralization continues to be th...

With large data breaches making headline news nearly every week, cybersecurity is a hot topic.

Recently, AT&T discovered the personal information of more than 70 million current and former customers being sold on the Dark Web.

Compounding this is the fact that it takes on average nearly seven months for a corporate security and compliance team to even identity that a data breach occurred in the first place.

With the average cos...

According to a recent study at the University of Texas at Austin, from January 2020 to February 2024, people lost more than $75 billion around the world to the scam of pig butchering.

Named after the practice of farmers fattening hogs before slaughter, victims are lured into fake crypto investments. Once victims send enough funds, the scammers disappear. Hence, the pig is slaughtered.

Victims routinely lose hundreds of thousands or...

In 2023, Americans lost more than $10 billion to fraud. This is the largest annual loss in US history.

In terms of dollars lost, investment scams emptied consumers' bank accounts more than any other scam at $4.6 billion.

But a close second was imposter scams at $2.7 billion.

In this episode of Privacy Files, we look at the tragic story of former New York Times journalist Charlotte Cowles.

On Halloween of 2023, Charlotte became ...

The demand for cybersecurity professionals is strong. Job vacancies in the industry grew from one million in 2013 to 3.5 million in 2021.

And because of this shortfall in talent, companies are struggling to keep up with the latest in modern threat awareness, including phishing, social engineering, Business Email Compromise (BEC), and financial fraud.

Many corporate security and compliance teams feel that their company's apps, d...

In 2015, Dr. Robert Epstein, a psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, made world news.

Dr. Epstein was one of the authors of a groundbreaking study that found that Google's search ranking algorithm could influence how people vote.

Even more shocking, according to Dr. Epstein, "We estimate, based on win margins in national elections around the world, that Google could determine the ou...

In 2023, it is estimated that $3.1 trillion in illicit funds moved through the global financial system. Financial crimes can take many forms.

Money laundering accounted for trillions of dollars supporting a wide range of crimes, including $346.7 billion in human trafficking, $782.9 billion in drug trafficking activity, and $11.5 billion in terrorist financing.

In 2023, fraud scams and bank fraud schemes reached $485.6 billion in to...

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States, consumers reported losing more than $10 billion to fraud in 2023. This is a 14% increase over reported losses in 2022.

Some of the most common scams include investment scams, imposter scams, bank transfer scams and cryptocurrency scams.

"Digital tools are making it easier than ever to target hard-working Americans,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s...

The rise of remote work has led to the rise of a wild phenomenon: the overemployed.

While it is difficult to know exactly how many people juggle multiple full-time jobs simultaneously, it is evident the trend is more common than most realize. 79% of remote workers say they have been overemployed within the past year

In fact, on Reddit, there is a subreddit called "r/overemployed" with nearly 300,000 community members. The...

Modern organizations face continuous threats from bad actors that put systems, data and people at great risk. This is why it's critical for companies to adopt solid cyber governance strategies.

Cyber governance, or cybersecurity governance, is a holistic approach to mitigating business risks. Via risk management and security awareness, companies develop cybersecurity plans designed to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber threa...

If you have ever spent some time on dating apps, you most likely have encountered fake profiles. And with recent improvements in AI, there's a good chance some of those fake profiles aren't even using pictures of real people.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in 2022, nearly 70,000 people reported some form of a romance scam, with total reported losses reaching $1.3 billion, equating to a median loss of $4,40...