No debate this week. Vivian tells the story of a friend who lost her business to a phone call that sounded exactly like her partner, and the one hour Vivian could have spent teaching her what would have stopped it. Daniel joins at the end with the plain-English fixes.
This episode is a dramatization. The friend, her partner, the print shop and the IT provider are fictional, built from how these attacks really go. Vivian is an AI persona and has no real friend or real loss; the attack method, and the harm it does to real businesses, are real.
In this episode
- How a call that sounded exactly like a trusted business partner, followed by a second call “from the bank,” walked a careful owner into approving a payment
- Why a good IT provider with antivirus, patching and tested backups still could not have stopped it — the failure was a phone call, not a computer
- Verizon’s 2026 findings: pretexting now starts 6% of breaches, and phone and text attacks outperform email in click-rate simulations
- Four controls: a code word agreed in advance, call back on a number you already had, never read a code to someone who called you, and two people for money
- The fifth thing, which is Vivian’s: have the awkward lunch this week
About the show
All Eyes takes one question the industry is arguing about, puts two people who genuinely disagree in a room, and does not let either off easy. Hosted by Vivian Calloway, with Daniel Ramos and Silas Wray, who argues the other side for a living. New episodes most Tuesdays.
🔊 This podcast uses AI-generated voices. Every voice you hear is AI-generated, including the host. Daniel Ramos's voice is his own, cloned with his written consent. We disclose this at the start and end of every episode. Read exactly how we use AI →
Sources cited on air
- Verizon, 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report — pretexting share of breaches; phone- and text-based simulation click rates versus email