Smarter Online Safety with Jocelyn King

I just spent 9 days at Black Hat, DEFCON, and BSides Las Vegas — the week the industry calls "Hacker Summer Camp" — and I watched a stranger get deepfaked in real time. Here's my full debrief.
I'm Jocelyn King, the Queen of Online Safety, and every August I go straight into the middle of it: 115°F heat, four conferences, and the smartest hackers and defenders on the planet showing exactly what they've broken. This year the takeaway was impossible to miss — AI isn't just a tool we use anymore. It's an active participant in both the attack and the defense. In this special edition of the Smarter Online Safety Show, I'm breaking down the five biggest things I took away from Hacker Summer Camp 2026, and turning every one of them into something you can actually do to protect yourself, your family, and your business.
IN THIS EPISODE:✅ The $40 kids' GPS smartwatch that can let a stranger track your child in real time — 36 million trackers, one shared server✅ Why AI agents behave like teenagers, including a real military exercise where an AI refused a direct order✅ "Ghostjacking" — how hackers hide instructions inside the activity logs your AI agent reads every day✅ Why your AI assistant needs its own identity, and why "read" and "act" permissions are not the same thing✅ Why AI-generated code isn't automatically secure code✅ I watched a stranger get cloned — face and voice — live, and how it connects to a real $25.6 million deepfake video call scam✅ The "employee" on your next video call who might not be a real person✅ My SAFER method for spotting any scam, no matter what story it's wearing✅ Why Cliff Stoll's 75-cent accounting error, 40 years later, is still the best lesson in cybersecurity
📘 Want the full playbook? My book, Digital Self-Defense in an AI World: How to Protect Yourself Online, walks you through the exact steps to protect yourself, your family, and your accounts:https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Self-Defense-AI-World-Yourself/dp/B0H4X258H3 

An AI agent escaped a testing lab and hacked into a real company's systems — with zero human direction. That's not science fiction, it happened in July 2026, and when I brought it up to my guest, a cybersecurity veteran with FOUR DECADES protecting Fortune 5 companies, healthcare systems, and government agencies, even he admitted: "That scared me."
In this episode of Smarter Online Safety, I sit down with Rick Cobello — former Chief Information Security Officer, cybersecurity advisor, and now author of the cybercrime thriller *The Shady Side of Saratoga* — to talk about what's really happening behind the headlines. We get into:
✅ Why an autonomous AI agent breaking containment should worry every business owner✅ The hidden truth about corporate data breaches (and why companies never tell you the real numbers)✅ Why your medical records are worth more than your credit card on the dark web — and can't be "reissued" once they're stolen✅ The free tool that shows if your email has already been exposed in a breach✅ Simple, real steps — the same ones Rick teaches seniors in his own community classes — to audit your own digital safety✅ How Rick turned 40 years of real cybersecurity cases into a page-turning crime novel
Rick spent his career on the inside — General Electric, New York State cybersecurity leadership, healthcare systems holding millions of patient records — and he's seen the breaches nobody ever hears about. Now he's telling those stories through fiction, and in this conversation, he tells them to you straight.
If you've ever wondered whether your data is really safe, or what a security expert actually does to protect himself online, this episode is your wake-up call.
📚 Grab Rick's book, The Shady Side of Saratoga, linked below.
🔗 Resources & Links Mentioned in This Episode
- 📖 The Shady Side of Saratoga (Rick's novel, paperback) — https://www.amazon.com/Shady-Side-Saratoga-Richard-Cobello/dp/B0H3W7MMZV - 📖 Kindle edition — https://www.amazon.com/Shady-Side-Saratoga-Richard-Cobello-ebook/dp/B0H3LSY767 - 🌐 Rick Cobello's official website — https://cobello.com/ - 🔍 Have I Been Pwned (check if your email's been exposed in a breach — the tool Rick recommends) — https://haveibeenpwned.com/ - 🛠️ IObit Advanced SystemCare (free PC protection/registry tool Rick uses) — https://www.iobit.com/en/advancedsystemcarefree.php - 📰 Background on the AI agent incident referenced in this episode:  - CNN — https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/22/tech/openai-hugging-face-ai-cybersecurity   - Washington Post — https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2026/07/30/timeline-cyberattack-by-openais-ai-agent-shows-its-sophistication/ 

Is your feed even real anymore? In Part 2, I sit back down with security expert and RooVerse founder Ross Thorpe to talk about the AI-generated content quietly taking over social media — AI slop, bots, deepfakes, and how to actually spot it before it fools you.
We get into the stats that stopped me in my tracks: how much of what you're scrolling past every day isn't made by a real person, what just a few minutes of chatbot use does to your brain, and the bots making up a huge share of "engagement" on the platforms you use daily. Ross also walks me through RooVerse, the human-only social app he built specifically to keep AI out, and shares the habits he actually uses to stay sane — and real — online.
This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Haven't seen Part 1 yet? That's where we cover physical and campus safety — go listen to that first.
In this episode:🤖 Why "AI is the average" — and what that means for everything you're scrolling past🤖 The real percentage of social media images that are now AI-generated🤖 What 10 minutes of chatbot use does to your critical thinking🤖 How to spot AI-generated content before it fools you🤖 Inside RooVerse — the social app built with zero AI content, ever
Ross Thorpe is the founder of RooVerse and works with NGS Security, the UK's leading security provider for universities and student accommodation.🔗 RooVerse: https://rooverse.app/ 🔗 NGS Security: https://www.ngssecurity.co.uk/ 
Sources & studies mentioned in this episode:🔗 Forbes — AI-generated content now dominates social media images: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2025/03/10/15-mind-blowing-ai-statistics-everyone-must-know-about-now/ 🔗 Cambridge Disinformation Summit: https://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/events/cambridge-disinformation-summit-2025/ 🔗 ScrollAware — the "25 years scrolling" statistic: https://www.scrollaware.com/ 🔗 MIT Media Lab — "Your Brain on ChatGPT" cognitive debt study: https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/your-brain-on-chatgpt/ 🔗 MIT/Oxford/Carnegie Mellon/UCLA — study on 10 minutes of AI use reducing persistence: https://ai-project-website.github.io/AI-assistance-reduces-persistence/ 

Sending your kid off to college this year? Before move-in day, watch this. I sit down with campus security expert Ross Thorpe to talk about the college safety tips every parent and student actually needs — not the generic checklist, the real stuff.
Ross has spent his career protecting university students on the ground, and in this episode we get into why "no" is a complete sentence, how to stay safe at parties and concerts without living in fear, the oversharing habit that turns your online presence into a physical safety risk, and what to actually do when someone won't take a boundary seriously. We also break down Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and why you can't expect anyone — student or otherwise — to thrive if they don't feel safe first.
This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Part 2 goes even deeper into the online side of safety — subscribe so you don't miss it.
In this episode:🔒 The #1 campus safety mistake students make in their first semester🔒 Why physical safety and online safety are now the same conversation🔒 What to say (and do) when someone won't respect a boundary🔒 Simple habits that make you a harder target — without paranoia🔒 The safety framework I now use with my own family
Ross Thorpe works with NGS Security, the UK's leading security provider for universities and student accommodation.🔗 NGS Security: https://www.ngssecurity.co.uk/ 🔗 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (referenced in this episode): https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html 
If this helped you — or made you think differently about how you or your kid shows up online and in the real world — share it with someone heading off to campus this year. Subscribe for Part 2.
Stay safe out there.

Cybersecurity expert Scott Schober has been hacked more times than he can count — so I sat him down to break exactly how AI voice cloning scams and SIM swap attacks are draining bank accounts right now, and the free, simple steps that actually stop them.
In this episode of The Smarter Online Safety Show, I talk with Scott Schober — author of Hacked Again, Cybersecurity Is Everybody's Business, and Senior Cyber, and CEO of Berkeley Varitronics Systems — about the scams targeting your family, your phone number, and your bank account right now.
We cover:✅ How AI voice cloning scams trick families into wiring money to "grandkids" who were never in danger✅ Why SIM swapping is the fastest-growing threat to your two-factor authentication✅ The "digital footprint" mistake almost everyone makes on Google and social media✅ Why changing your password every 90 days might actually make you LESS secure✅ The counterintuitive password trick Scott swears by✅ What high-net-worth individuals do differently to stay protected online
Scott has personally been hacked — his credit cards, debit card, business account, social media, and website were all compromised — and turned that experience into a mission to help the rest of us stay safe online. If you or someone you love uses a smartphone, online banking, or social media, this conversation could save you from becoming the next victim.
🔗 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE / GUEST RESOURCESScott Schober's website: https://scottschober.com/ Berkeley Varitronics Systems (Scott's company): https://www.bvsystems.com/ Book — Hacked Again: https://www.amazon.com/Hacked-Again-Scott-N-Schober/dp/099690221X Book — Cybersecurity Is Everybody's Business: https://scottschober.com/cybersecurity-is-everybodys-business/ Book — Senior Cyber: Best Security Practices for Your Golden Years: https://www.amazon.com/Senior-Cyber-Security-Practices-Golden/dp/1736315803Cybercrime Magazine: https://cybercrimemagazine.com Scott's video podcast, "What Keeps You Up at Night?": https://scottschober.com/what-keeps-you-up-at-night/ Scott on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/snschoberScott on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scott_schober 

Your Venmo, Strava & Netflix accounts may be public right now — I sat down with Kraken's Global CISO to find out how to fix it.
In this episode of the Smarter Online Safety Show, I'm joined by Dr. Alex Shulman-Peleg — Global CISO at Kraken, PhD in Computer Science, holder of 14 patents in cloud security and access control, and author of 30+ cybersecurity publications cited over 4,000 times. We dig into online privacy, social media privacy settings, identity theft, deepfakes, and digital self-defense in the age of AI.
In this episode, you'll learn:✅ Why your social media privacy settings are wide open by default — and exactly how to lock them down✅ The hidden privacy risks of Strava, Venmo, and shared Netflix/streaming accounts✅ How data breaches and identity fraud connect through your school, utility, and everyday online accounts✅ Why you should treat every single online account like a bank account✅ How AI deepfakes and identity theft are now combining to target everyday people✅ The tagging and photo-sharing setting most people forget even exists✅ Simple password manager and multi-factor authentication (MFA) habits that actually work✅ A true story about how good intentions online can be weaponized against the people we're trying to protect
👤 About Alex Shulman-Peleg:Alex is the Global CISO at Kraken ( https://www.kraken.tech ), the AI-powered energy tech platform, and has previously built and scaled cloud security programs at EY, Citigroup, and IBM Research.🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shulmana/ 🔗 Google Scholar (publications & patents): https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=O7t54HwAAAAJ 🔗 ONUG board profile: https://onug.net 
If this episode helped you, share it with someone who needs to hear it — because once your privacy is gone, it's a lot harder to get back.

AI scams are getting smarter every day — and even cybersecurity experts almost get fooled by them. In this episode I sit down with ethical hacker and social engineering expert Lee Anderson to break down exactly how phishing, AI-powered scams, and online predators are targeting you, your kids, and your smart home devices right now — and what actually stops them.
Lee has spent 16+ years inside offensive security and phishing programs, and he doesn't sugarcoat it: he shares the moment his own son nearly fell for a phishing scam, and why he says "even someone who's in it isn't immune."
🔐 What you'll learn in this episode:✅ Why AI scams are fooling even trained cybersecurity professionals✅ The truth about "deleting" files — and why your old hard drive isn't as clean as you think✅ How online predators actually groom kids (and how to talk to your kids about it without fear)✅ The hidden malware risk inside smart devices like digital photo frames and TV streaming boxes✅ How to set up a guest Wi-Fi network to protect your home (explained in plain English)✅ VPNs 101 — what they actually protect you from, and what they don't✅ How to pick a VPN you can actually trust✅ Simple digital self-defense habits that build real cyber resilience
👤 About my guest:Lee Anderson is a cybersecurity expert and Masters-level Social Engineer with 16+ years of experience in offensive security, phishing, and security awareness training. He's a longtime volunteer with the Innocent Lives Foundation, working to identify and help bring online predators to justice, and is the founder of the "Curious and Secure" brand and the Hack Attack Defense game.
🔗 Innocent Lives Foundation: https://www.innocentlivesfoundation.org 

How do you find a hidden camera in your hotel room before it's too late? In Part 2, executive protection expert Frank Roberson and I go even deeper.
Missed Part 1? Start there first — this picks up right where we left off. I open up about my own cybercrime attack, where hackers impersonated a family member to disable my alarms and cameras, unlock my deadbolts, and plant surveillance inside my own home without leaving a trace.
From there, Frank and I cover how your smart devices can become an attack surface used against you, and the wire fraud scheme that cost one family office over $400,000 after criminals studied their billing patterns for three months before striking. We also break down hidden camera detection while traveling, including a pre-check-in bug sweep that found recording devices planted in a Super Bowl host hotel room, and a real hidden camera found behind a USB plug in a restaurant bathroom.
Frank also walks through the hotel security assessment he did in London (with Johnny Depp staying down the hall), the pickpocket scams tourists run into in Europe, the "rule of three" test his team uses to spot if someone is following you, and why situational awareness at a gas station could save your life.
Frank has spent over two decades in executive protection, counterintelligence, and high-threat response as CEO of the Black Rhino Group. He breaks down the pre-event indicators, gut-instinct signals, and simple checklist habits that separate being prepared from being paranoid.
If you travel, work remotely, or just want more control over your own privacy and safety, this episode is for you.
🔗 Learn more about Frank & Black Rhino Group: https://blackrhinogrp.com/