How a cybersecurity boss framed his own employee

How a cybersecurity boss framed his own employee

From Smashing Security by Graham Cluley

March 5, 2026 · 50 min · Episode 457

About this episode

This episode unravels a shocking tale of a cybersecurity boss who framed an innocent employee while exploring the implications of nation states manipulating AI models.

When a top cybersecurity firm discovered it had a leak, you would expect the FBI to be called. Instead, the person put in charge of the investigation was the actual leaker... who promptly sent an innocent colleague into a career-ending ambush. In this episode, we unravel the jaw-dropping tale of a defence contractor caught selling zero-day exploits to a Russia-linked broker. Plus: are nation states quietly poisoning AI models to bend reality itself? We explore how “foreign information manipulation interference” could target not just social media users, but the large language models we increasingly trust for answers — and what that might mean for truth, trust, and the future of online influence. All this, and much more, in episode 457 of the "Smashing Security" podcast with cybersecurity veteran Graham Cluley, and special guest Carl Miller. EPISODE LINKS: Large-Scale Online Deanonymization with LLMs - Simon Lermen. Hacked Prayer App Sends ‘Surrender’ Messages to Iranians Amid Israeli and US Strikes - Wired. “Stay safe out there gamers”: Streamers say Amazon just made Wishlists a doxxing risk - Daily Dot. Apple alerts exploit developer that his iPhone was targeted with government…

People in this episode

Host: Graham Cluley

Guest: Carl Miller

Topics covered

  • cybersecurity
  • investigation
  • nation state interference
  • AI manipulation
  • zero-day exploits
  • online influence

Keywords

  • cybersecurity
  • investigation
  • zero-day exploits
  • AI manipulation
  • nation states
  • online influence
  • truth
  • trust

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: FBI, U.S. Defense Contractor, Russia, US Department of Justice, US Department of Treasury

Products: zero-day exploits

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