Laura Shin has reported on crypto scams since the early days and wrote one of the first stories on sim swaps. That did not stop a spear-phishing attempt from getting her to download software and run a terminal command before she caught it.

Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins turn her near miss into a practical defense playbook, then debate whether self-custody still makes sense for anyone with a public crypto profile.

Hosts:

• Austin Campbell, Host of Bits + Bips, Founder of Zero Knowledge Group, and Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern

• Ram Ahluwalia, Co-host of Bits + Bips and CEO of Lumida

• Chris Perkins, Co-host of Bits + Bips and Head of Franklin Crypto

Guest:

• Laura Shin - Founder and Host of Unchained

This clip is from a longer conversation on crypto security and social engineering. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/yKHaE6xMZsE 

We go live every Monday - subscribe to catch it live.

Sponsors:

👉 Cape: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained   (use code: UNCHAINED).

Chapters:

🎣 00:00 The fake podcast invite that nearly caught Laura Shin

💻 00:26 How far it went: a download, then a terminal command

🛡️ 05:02 Austin's hard rules for when someone puts time pressure on you

🏦 06:36 Why Ram says ETFs now beat self-custody for public figures

🥷 07:39 Chris on getting hacked and losing his Snoop Dogg NFT

🤖 10:41 Why the same playbook is coming for banks via AI voice clones

🦅 11:33 Chris on letting the private sector recover stolen crypto

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices