28 Aug 2025

Tech: Phishing, Operation Serengeti, Insider's kill switch

From Nine To Noon, 11:05 am on 28 August 2025
17034337 - concept image for an internet kill switch

A disgruntled employee's decision to create a "kill switch" for his company's software has netted him a four-year jail term in the US. Photo: 123RF

Tech commentator Tony Grasso joins Kathryn to talk about the big news in the cyber-crime world, including a highly successful phishing campaign using Voicemail emails.

He'll look at Interpol's Operation Serengeti that resulted in the arrest of over one thousand people in 18 African countries and recovery of US$97m, and the four years' jail earned by a former software developer who'd inserted a "kill switch" in his former employer's computer network.

Tony Grasso is Principal Consultant at cybersecurity firm TitaniumDefence. He worked at GCHQ in the UK and is a former Intelligence Officer in New Zealand.