The Social-Engineer Podcast

This month, Chris Hadnagy and Ryan MacDougall are joined by Adam Levin.  Adam is a nationally recognized expert on cybersecurity, privacy, identity theft, fraud, and personal finance and has distinguished himself as a fierce consumer advocate for the past 50 years. Adam is the former Director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, and currently is the founder of CyberScout and co-founder of Credit.com. He is also author of the critically acclaimed book Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World Full of Scammers, Phishers, and Identity Thieves. Adam is also the host of the podcast What the Hack with Adam Levin, where they talk to fascinating people about the most terrifying things that ever happened to them in cyberspace. December 20, 2021

00:00 – Intro 

03:26 - Adam Levin Intro 

04:37 – How did you get started in the industry? 

07:42 – What has the shift been like in the types of attacks from the 90s until now? 

09:53 – How does the recent Robinhood breach tie into what we’re discussing? 

12:00 – What should people be focusing on when they hear stories like this? 

14:28 – Do these simplistic solutions really work? 

18:45 – What type of advice would you give to companies that have public facing employees? 

20:22 – You said something interesting earlier, “the company has to deal with it empathetically”.  What does that mean to you? 

24:51 – Empathy, continued 

30:22 – What do you see coming in the near future, what types of scams will become popular? 

33:53 – What are some things people can look out for to avoid scams? 

38:20 – Do you find that catastrophe and the emotional factor is used to get people to fall for scams? 

41:39 – Finding Adam on the web: 

42:57 – What are some action steps corporations can take to protect themselves? 

45:13 – Who is your greatest mentor? 

47:40 – Book Recommendations 

  • Condor – TV Show 
  • Spy novels (none specifically suggested) authors: Tom Clancy, Brad Thor, Vince Flynn 
  • Yellowstone – TV Show series 
  • FBI series and all spinoffs 

49:16 – Outro 


This month Chris Hadnagy is joined by our good friend, Anne-Maartje Oud. For 20 years Anne-Maartje has been a behavioral advisor, consultant, chairwoman, and keynote speaker. On top of that she is the CEO and founder of The Behavior Company based in Amsterdam where she helps customize personal development programs for companies and organizations worldwide.  

Anne-Maartje is also a trainer who gives lectures and training at several universities in the Netherlands. She is also going to be a trainer at the Human Behavior Conference in March 2022.  

[December 13, 2021] 

00:00 – Intro 

03:12 – Anne-Maartje intro 

04:22 – What got you started in conflict resolution? 

06:23 – Can you teach people to control behavior that’s based on emotion? 

08:53 – Before words come out, what would you tell someone to do to not react and show that emotion? 

12:30 – How do you start a conversation that leads to some benefit? 

15:35 – What if that doesn’t work? 

17:41 – How do you instruct people to remember it all? 

19:51 – How important is understanding for managers and leaders? 

20:52 - How would you instruct managers to go about learning this? 

22:27 – Do you find that companies that have upper level management that focus on behavioral analysis have less conflict down the ladder? 

27:01 – HuBe Con – what will you do there? 

29:24 – Joe Navarro co session – what is that session all about? 

36:51 – Finding Anne Maartje on the web: 

37:39 – Book Recommendations: 

Shakespeare’s Plays – favorite is Hamlet 

39:24 – Who would you consider your biggest mentors? 

41:09 – Outro 


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