James Lyne: Everyday cybercrime -- and what you can do about it

How do you pick up a malicious online virus, the kind of malware that snoops on your data and taps your bank account? Often, it's through simple things you do each day without thinking twice. James Lyne reminds us that it's not only the NSA that's watching us, but ever-more-sophisticated cybercriminals, who exploit both weak code and trusting human nature.
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[@mahela1993]

what an amazing crowd!! just so energetic and humorous..!!!

[@JasonBornTV]

Kind of awkward when he's making all of these jokes with no reaction. I found myself sharply exhaling through my nose. Great talk.

[@7celestialtrumpets]

he ate his balls up there

[@grappenmaker3604]

that public is dead LMFAO

[@awseomeACE]

I feel bad Mr Lyne he put some neat jokes and no one laughed :(

[@jaesonv]

True. I feel for the crowd though. They missed out a lot. :)

[@FightWeekShowcase]

awseomeACE I personally thought this was one of the best Ted talks. he had a few funnies that no one laughed at... must of been a German audience :P

[@AndezFPS]

I thought I was the only one whod noticed. lol

[@SunvoxMusic]

They did laugh. But there's no microphone on the audience so you didn't hear them ;)

[@lambertbrother1628]

You could hear some of the laughter though, so unless that laughter was so loud it was picked up by his cheek mic your theory does not hold up. Besides I've seen other TED talks where the audience were definitely heard laughing. try kzbin.info/www/bejne/lYLHgYpuf9eMsLM or my favourite, kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWW4lGCZr9mmgNE

[@JamesLyne]

Thank you everyone for the comments (and on the TED site). Great to see the security pros got it was a simplified demo and talk to try and capture more mainstream attention. Articles due shortly to outline the best practices for those that are interested.

[@amardeepsingh3914]

Charming presentation

[@JamesLyne]

Thank you, really glad you enjoyed it. We need to build up more discussion in this area as it is starting to affect our society more and more.

[@JamesLyne]

Thank you, I'm really glad it had an impact! Spread the word and tell some family and friends :)

[@mihriomar5158]

Thank you

[@emilie416]

This talk is really funny but I feel like the audience were boomers

[@jorgesepulveda8380]

lol. Did they hide the identity of the dolphin at 12:03 ?

[@elizabeth1927]

Was the audience dead? The only other TED talk I laughed so much while watching was the scam email one!

[@lambertbrother1628]

Did you see the sequel to the scam email talk? kzbin.info/www/bejne/eWW4lGCZr9mmgNE

[@reenaesmailcomposer]

Ah, finally! I was waiting for TED to start addressing this stuff -- I almost wish there was a whole TED event just dedicated to cybercrime -- James Lyne's lecture addresses a huge problem that has far-reaching effects, and takes more than the time he is allotted to fully unpack. It points to so many other issues that could be discussed individually. Hoping to see more of this -- thanks James!

[@JamesLyne]

Very true. Whilst some operating systems due have architectural advantages over others the user will always be a weakness. I tried in the talk to raise awareness for people outside the security community - WE all know these things but it's important to make others thing about it too.

[@madstarr2]

Very good presentation! It was delivered with humor, but yet the seriousness of the issues facing us all in protecting our data was heard loud and clear. I am sharing the link to this with many family members who don't quite understand the seriousness behind logical protection.

[@OvenBakedCookie]

I am a software engineering student and I found your talk extremely informative and fascinating! Thank you so much for this talk! People need to treat online privacy like the locks on their doors.

[@RedMclaren]

I've never seen such an active discussion going on a TED video. Really good to see this.

[@TheStevenWhiting]

I'm an IT engineer, just discovered James today on TED. Really good talk because it's nice and easy for none tech people to understand. Also liked the point about phones, ipads, Androids etc giving away previously connected WIFI APs when they are scanning. You didn't seem to take this further though? I assume time reasons. Explaining that people can then setup a fake AP with the same name, so if you're in the area, you're connect to the rough AP rather than the genuine one.

[@JamesLyne]

Thank you Dan that's very kind. There was so much more that could have been covered, but it's a short talk and hard to decide. It's far from perfect but I am glad that some people like yourself found it valuable :)

[@twinstu50]

#1. Absolutely riveting presentation!. I'm just over 60, was in the R.A.A.F. - communications/security/intel. gathering. Only during my last couple of years did computers make their presence known, but what I saw and heard really troubled me, and still does. Most people have virtually 'no idea' of REAL security, they merely hover around the edges of it, thinking what they do is their best security practice, it's their laziness and nievete that is their own major security threat. In...

[@JamesLyne]

Thank you! Booklet is nearly ready :) Will post it here in reply.

[@mentonerodominicano]

One of the most informative talks I've seen.

[@aayushtheapple]

One of the great TEDTalk I had ever seen.

[@JamesLyne]

They were actually great. It's a big room with lots of people and I'm the only one with a mic. They asked lots of great questions afterwards and were very engaged. I can't complain!

[@JamesLyne]

And a HUGE thank you to those who provided intelligence and information for the talk, SophosLabs and those referenced in the URL in the talk (about the gang) who put it together. You guys are awesome.

[@mshmbo]

James Lyne, I hope that the world have many people like you, thank you.

[@JamesLyne]

There are some great initiatives trying to improve this such as the Rasberry PI project. We need to make sure that people not only know how to use technology but that there is a community of people who understand how it works too.

[@JamesLyne]

I will be posting it on here very shortly!

[@JamesLyne]

Thanks Brandon, really glad you enjoyed it :)

[@clownmakemesmile]

Dude you are awesome, a not boring IT related topic talk is always good, and I hope to see you more often here!

[@JamesLyne]

Thank you James!

[@AyushPokharna4]

2020 still mesmerising

[@johncharles676]

Good information, but scary. Knowing what cyber criminals can do.

[@delatroy]

Thanks for the talk - one of the better on TED. Subbed. Your suggestion for asking yourself "is this information something that I want to share online or not?" is something that people won't be able to answer in most cases I suspect because we can't predict in what contexts it be used in. Sharing your dob for example on a dating site could be very useful when used in conjunction with other data to tie you down but that wouldn't be an obvious consideration upfront - i.e. today's reality.

[@EmilyFrancona]

So worth watching and sharing!

[@pranaykar]

That was an amazing learning experience; Thanks James

[@NickSinghSG]

James, that was a fantastic talk. Thanks for the valuable info on protecting ourselves from viruses and attacks.

[@JamesLyne]

that said, it was done that way for various use cases involving multiple AP and now it is there it's tougher to change!

[@ecophysicsEMF]

This talk very well done, well explained, well illustrated, and shockingly relevant. Thanks for sharing this.

[@JamesLyne]

I had to remind myself of that several times through the talk when I gave it. Huge room! I am really glad you liked it though :)

[@dunnyboy01]

I miss the days of talking to my buddy on two tin cans connected with a string...

[@sarahharris162]

Very insightful! Definitely worth a watch.

[@JamesLyne]

Thank you :)

[@stacyhackney6100]

Thank you.

[@artistryartistry7239]

Very charismatic and interesting speaker! Every minute was engaging!

[@DoisKoh]

Excellent.

[@Rin-ot7ww]

worth to listen to, helpful !

[@SCAREDBANANA]

Excellent talk.

[@alwaysrelyonchrist]

Awesome lecture!!! Objective and intuitive.

[@tonyrico8475]

thank you for this information

[@JamesLyne]

Absolutely not! I keep on practicing and trying to improve though :)

[@CindyPatriciaRodriguezPalacio]

Tremenda conferencia; muy informativa, practica y aterrizada en la actualidad del cibercrimen; gracias TED!!

[@hcs1833]

Great job James!

[@PKR1503]

Great speech James! Had the perfect balance of humor and information making it very engaging to listen to :)

[@Kasugano]

This was so informative. Even though I knew the basics about hacking and viruses I learned a lot. Loved the Presentation.

[@JamesLyne]

Excellent point. I had an argument with a friend recently who said security is a temporal issue - the new generation won't have the same problems. Unfortunately whilst familiarity with technology has increased, the notion of privacy and security in many cases has reduced. People are prepared to give up more information and don't see it as a risk. Education and awareness are one of our biggest problems.

[@32ghzt54]

Very good speak. This should be mandatory to watch for every user of a PC or smartphone.

[@brianaw1361]

Great talk

[@moneymayhem2000]

What a great talk

[@ZailBG]

That was a great talk! Also quite entertaining!

[@jojoturano1]

Hi thanks for the info you share with us..it's great you are teaching people how to protect themselves

[@THESUPREMEDJ]

Good Talk!

[@ArsalanJawaid1]

Amazing!

[@JamesLyne]

good advice.

[@JamesLyne]

Hi there! That's an excellent question. A scan with an up to date anti-malware product is a good quick check to see if malicious code is on your system. A great deal of the mainstream malware like FakeAV, Randsomeware, Banking Trojans etc will show up if not at first shortly after. Some malicious code of a more targeted nature may not be detected. It gets pretty difficult to detect this unless you are prepared to do some fairly rigorous checks on your system.

[@damianorlando1]

Informative talk.

[@JamesLyne]

Hey there, let me clarify. The device in question LOOKS like a USB key but is actually a small programmable keyboard. The idea is to bypass exactly the control you describe. The device plugs in and then types out the malicious payload rather than running it as a file. This means it can run on a system even where autorun is disabled. There are a few of these devices but they don't cost much to make or acquire. Hope that makes more sense now :)

[@monkelover2134]

That was brilliant James.

[@Arpedk]

Brilliant talk! :)

[@loloaz11]

AMAZING!

[@khaluu2000]

I swear you are the first TED-talks person to interact via youtube, not that everyone here realizes it, but that kinda makes you a celebrity and that's pretty awesome. Thanks for sharing. Oh and btw have you ever gone to or been a spokesperson at def-con?

[@andjao9183]

one of the best ted talks that ive heard.

[@practicing1]

You have not heard much then

[@JamesLyne]

Had an out of band question about detecting/clearing rootkits. Unfortunately detecting rootkits can be quite a challenge -even up to date AV often misses it because it's running at a higher level than the security software itself. Prevention is obviously good but not always realistic. Rootkit cleanup is best done from a separate boot disk where it is not running, or really by rebuilding/restoring from a backup.

[@JamesLyne]

A pleasure, I'm glad you liked it. There's plenty more to pick up and lots of good material online if you want to learn more.

[@crazyengineer101]

really good!

[@JamesLyne]

I love that site.

[@changeisnowpeople]

james lyne you rock!... thank you...

[@jeromeferguson4904]

Very informative

[@godthisisannoying]

Good job on the presentation. You've probably come to realize the older generations are already lost to this cyber "war", as too few of them will ever realize the scope of their computer's capabilities. However, it's the younger generations' growing tendency to look at technology from a black box PoV that is truly scary. As computing becomes more and more console-ified and cloud-y, it'll only get worse. The same happened to electronics w/ VLSI, but people couldn't hack your fridge from Russia.

[@bahiyyihlawson6711]

Thank you! I am shocked about the query boxes, but I didn't quite catch the point about the windows calculator. Hopefully you could put together a presentation for kids that gets the point across. I assume game sites,like Barbie dress up, etc, are virus ridden.

[@zirbat16]

this was very informative

[@MW3LITE]

i benefited a lot from this, very interesting!

[@klauser10]

Nice!

[@JamesLyne]

Very much agreed.

[@alexanderkagali]

I have learnt alot.

[@andy4an]

Interesting Talk.

[@tnx4info]

very interesting, thank you!

[@cybercrime3073]

We hack everything,cash app flip,bitcoin investment,PayPal flip,iPhone hack,credit score boost.......dm on Instagram page cyber_crime__hacker

[@pranaykar]

Yep! Understanding these risks really helps as it enables us to tweak and write appropriate algorithms we use to design a communication system. Clearly u r the Guru in this field and I hope I can learn lots from U. Hungry for knowledge! Any special blog you'd refer to? :) Cheers!

[@luizguilhermemoreirasales1548]

Otimo video não sabia disso

[@Competitiveforlolz]

Best ted talk.

[@JamesLyne]

As to how to remove it, a great deal of malware can be removed with clean up tools. Sometimes a particularly nasty piece of malware a cleanup from a separate book disk. In the worst instances rebuilding to a backup may be necessary. It's very prudent to have a backup on this basis.

[@Excelsoft]

Thanks. Already followed all handles ;) you guys do a great job. Peace, from Palestine.

[@degs24]

The crowd must've just had lunch and are sleeping. He's hilarious! Great presentation.

[@HilariousHyena]

Awesome

[@unvergebeneid]

My computer science A-levels were quite good. We did some basic algorithms and data structures which teaches you a lot about how computers work already.

[@RahulPrasad-tc3cp]

Your an awesome speaker James. Not usually expected from a computer geek !. We're you always a natural speaker?

[@JamesLyne]

Absolutely. Use a boot disk or another computer to mount the file system is a good call. It's getting harder to insert rootkits with trusted boot mechanisms providing hardware through to bootloader trust relationships with more modern operating sytems, but there are plenty around without that!

[@ogunwaletunde6618]

Nice speech

[@tomasbehrens]

holy moly that ddos ad is ancient. seeing that pepsi max pop up caught me off guard

[@2bitwannabe]

Nice Talk James. Did you use the SE Toolkit for USB Demo?

[@JamesLyne]

That is an excellent point - I entirely agree. Those that know how to USE technology are becoming far more common. The number of people who know how it actually works is far too small.

[@Durakken]

Good point... Hadn't thought of that, but I imagine you could create a crazy algorithm to mask a single print and there be enough variation in the uniqueness of biometric data that it would be near impossible to crack, but i dunno.