dot com: The Hacking
Is the post-Cold War era over? In this brave new world, nothing is too small, or big, to be digitalised…including acts of war. Russian ransomware attacks almost doubled last year. At this very moment, cybercriminals are crippling schools, supermarkets, dentists, kindergartens, hospitals, oil pipelines - all in the name of money. Katie Puckrik wants to know who, and why. You can listen to the previous series of dot com on this same feed. Series 1 unveils the hidden army of volunteers behind the world's biggest encyclopaedia; and series 2 explores the heat behind the headlines of the US's 5th biggest social media website, Reddit. Dot com is presented by Katie Puckrik, written and produced by Anna Staufenberg, and edited by Crawford Blair.
Episodes
October 19, 2021 • 49 mins
This is where it starts. The gateway to the hidden universe of Wikipedia. Behind that laptop screen there's a teaming anthill of Wiki people; writing, writing, writing, to bring free knowledge to the world. But who are they, what do they sound like, and what do they do? They're oddbods, lovers, leaders, loners. And nobody has any idea who they are. Until now.
The clips used in this episode are from Wikimedia Commons and are publish...
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October 26, 2021 • 44 mins
It's the 15th January 2001 and a new website has just been launched. A free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Crazy idea, right? Maybe. But twenty years on, Wikipedia is in over 320 different languages and is growing by thousands of articles every day. How did we get from there, town Wikipedia in 2001, to here, metropolis Wikipedia 2021? For the second episode of dot com, Katie Puckrik's going back to the start to find out ...
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November 2, 2021 • 48 mins
Have you noticed anything about most of the Wikipedians we've met so far? One little thing they all have in common? Katie has. We've only heard two women. Two women and eight men. That's not great, but it's normal. There are deep, systemic problems with Wikipedia: 90% of editors are male, and they're overwhelmingly white. Only 5.5% of all articles on Wikipedia are to do with the entire continent of Africa. So Katie's asking, why? W...
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November 9, 2021 • 43 mins
Pizzagate! Covid's made up! Trump really won! Cher's dead! We're ruled by lizards and Q rules all! Fake news, misinformation, or (to call a spade a spade) lies. We all know them. We've seen them around, on Twitter, Youtube, Reddit. But how does Wikipedia deal with breaking news and hoaxes? How do the editors sift the believable from the bull? Many lies get caught. But some manage to slip through the net and onto the page, where the...
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November 16, 2021 • 41 mins
Katie's been in this world, this weird and wacky Wikiverse, for about six months now. But there's one thing she still doesn't understand. Wikipedia's more than just a URL, a web page on your screen. It's a community where people form a deep connection with the world...right? But when the power's switched off and the screen goes black, does that bond stay put or does it flicker and disappear? In this episode, Katie's taking you some...
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November 23, 2021 • 53 mins
It's the final episode, and Katie's looking to the future. The internet, the World Wide Web and Wikipedia are built on wonderful ideals of openness and not-for-profit knowledge for all. But they're not owned by anybody, and those ideals are being attacked. So Katie's asking: where is this all headed? And at the centre of it all...can Wikipedia survive?
The clip used in the episode is from Wikimedia Commons and is published under a ...
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January 28, 2022 • 5 mins
From the makers of dot com: The Wikipedia Story, this is dot com: Redditland.
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...
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February 1, 2022 • 44 mins
In late 2020 a comment was posted on the social media website Reddit. It might have been inconsequential. Forgotten. But it wasn't, and soon the world's eyes were on the site. It tipped the first domino that, a few months later, would flip the stock market upside down and set Wall Street on fire. This is the story of David and Goliath, and the start of presenter Katie Puckrik's journey into the world of this lesser-known website - ...
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February 8, 2022 • 41 mins
Drama. With a capital 'D'. Reddit's full of it. Anti-vaxxers vs. science, Bible Belters vs. atheists, racists vs. the rest. It's teaming with trolls, discussions, shouting matches, protests. And, in this episode, Katie's snuffling it out. What she'll find? That this is the only website on the internet where people have taken their masks off and bare all. The fine, and the foul.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out informat...
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February 15, 2022 • 42 mins
It's 2014 and Reddit's at the centre of one of the biggest scandals to hit Hollywood. A hacker has released nude photos of over a hundred celebs onto the internet, and the sub 'The Fappening' has cropped up; the fastest-growing sub of all time. 'Celebgate,' people are calling it. Who was behind the leak, though, and why did they do it? And what do the leaks show about the strings Reddit pulls in the world around us Is the site a mi...
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February 22, 2022 • 41 mins
"Reddit is the ultimate forum for fans," apparently. But where are they? The fan, the kook, the ultimate fanatic? In this episode Katie's kicking drama to the curb, and looking at the wholesome and nerdily positive sides to Reddit; and giving time to the unpopular thought that actually, there is some good out there. Lots of it.
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
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March 1, 2022 • 52 mins
The Donald subreddit was the most controversial moral dilemma on the stained map of Reddit's history. One of the most active subs of all time, it was incredibly effective at spreading and disseminating memes about the soon-to-be-President - and it very quickly got a crooked reputation. Rife with misogyny, white supremacy, anti-Semitism, homophobia and transphobia, the questions stands: Why was it allowed to stay on the site for fiv...
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March 8, 2022 • 49 mins
All roads lead to Rome. Or, in this case, San Francisco. Katie’s journey into the complex, fantastic and infuriating world of Reddit over the last five episodes has been shadowed by the murky office of the admin; so for the final episode of the season, Katie’s looking at the story of the people really pulling the strings. She’ll find a tale that involves shock appointments and rush dismissals, suicide, and a sinister emphasis on pr...
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July 19, 2022 • 50 secs
From the makers of dot com: Redditland, this is dot com: The Hacking. Out on Tuesday 26th July.
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July 26, 2022 • 40 mins
You'd think healthcare would be a no-go. You'd hope that, surely, even Russian cybercriminals have their moral boundaries. But you have no idea the lengths they'll go to for money. This is the story of how the world's oldest maternity hospital, Dublin's Rotunda Hospital, was crippled with a single email and forced to revert to pens and paper. Is the post-Cold War era over? In this brave new world, nothing is too small, or big, to b...
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August 2, 2022 • 45 mins
It's not just cybercriminals who hack. In February 2022 Russia invades Ukraine, and a few months later someone leaks 60,000 private messages from one of the world's most complex, ruthless and profitable Russian ransomware gangs, alongside a post 'Glory to Ukraine!' The findings - what they reveal about who these hackers are, how they recruit, and how they choose victims - are incendiary. Is the post-Cold War era over? In this brave...
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August 9, 2022 • 42 mins
Psychological pressure...that's what ransomware is all about. Holiday weekends and Fridays are prime time for ransomware attacks, and on Friday 2nd July 2021 Robert Cioffi was looking forward to celebrating Independence Day with his family. But soon he'd be caught up in the biggest single ransomware attack to date, that would have a disastrous domino effect on up to 2000 businesses worldwide: kindergartens in New Zealand, dental pr...
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August 16, 2022 • 44 mins
Ransomware gangs don't just go for the big fish. Kareem grew up on the West Side of Chicago in a neighbourhood woven with a pattern of guns, drugs and violence; until Lincoln College - a tiny place, one of the US's only Predominantly Black Institutions - turns his life around. But in December 2021, ransomware comes to town. Plus: Katie meets Barack Obama's ex-Special Advisor for Cybersecurity, who finally untangles the question tha...
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February 29, 2024 • 7 mins
What do you hear at the bottom of the ocean? How does it feel to swim with whales? Or make friends with an octopus? Come and find out. This is Life Under Water.
Wildlife filmmaker and TV personality Hannah Stitfall wants to take you the world below the waves. She’ll be chatting to freedivers, marine biologists, submarine pilots and more, hearing mind-boggling stories about the oceans-deep and its inhabitants. We explore The Lost C...
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