Thread by @GeringTuvia

Good evening, everyone, and especially to the (likely) Iranian hacker who posed as Bloomberg's Odd Lots cohost Joe Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) in a failed spear-phishing attempt against me.
1/5

As a long-time listener to the show, I expressed my interest, and this is what the hacker responded.

Red flags:
- He used Outlook instead of org domain.
- Attached file where text could be used.
- Joe is a busy guy. A production assistant should be reaching out to guests.
2/5

I opened the PDF in a virtual machine. Check out the graphics and questions. Not bad at all! An LLM and manual graphic design were likely used to tailor the form to yours truly. This ain't your grandma's hacker.
3/5

I attribute the attack with moderate confidence to Iran, given its history of targeting INSS researchers and because, seriously, who hosts a podcast about China, the Middle East, and the great power competition without asking a single question about Iran?
4/5

It took Joe less than a minute to respond and confirm this was, indeed, a doppleganger. What a mensch.

Better luck next time, fam.