How 14 orders of chicken McNuggets helped nail a suspected Russian hacker

**Graham Cluley** (0:03)
I have to say, despite the fact that I have used it, I do feel completely dirty and appalled at myself for having used it. And my opinion on that has strengthened only over time. So I do think it's completely reprehensible of me.

**James Ball** (0:18)
Yes.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:29)
Smashing Security, Episode 477
How 14 orders of chicken McNuggets helped nail a suspected Russian hacker. With Graham Cluley and special guest James Ball.

**Graham Cluley** (0:41)
Hello, hello and welcome to Smashing Security Episode 477 My name's Graham Cluley.

**James Ball** (0:45)
And I'm James Ball.

**Graham Cluley** (0:46)
James, welcome back to the show. It was a pleasure to have you. Now, I was following you on Bluesky and I saw that you had an unusual way of handling the extreme heat which we were experiencing a couple of weeks ago. Many people have been caught out by those scam adverts on YouTube for things which claim to be able to air condition in your room.
But what did you do?

**James Ball** (1:10)
I mean, the good news is I didn't fall for any scams.

**Graham Cluley** (1:13)
Good, well done.

**James Ball** (1:14)
The bad news is I went insane and booked myself flights right up to the Arctic Circle. And so I spent a week up in Tromsø in Northern Norway.
Norway goes a long way up and Tromsø is right at the top. It's the gateway to the Arctic, 24 hour sunshine this time of year, but crucially never got above 15 degrees. Truly delightful.

**Graham Cluley** (1:41)
And was this an intentional reaction to the weather situation we were suffering from?

**James Ball** (1:45)
It was fully 100% a reaction to the heat wave. I booked the travel, I think, 30 hours before I got the plane. Right. And it was genuinely a result of Googling, where can I go that's cold?
And there were lots of sort of things where it's like, well, this is about 20 or this place is also in the heat wave. And like Northern Scotland was really expensive. And it turned out that actually going up to the Arctic, I mean, I spent a week there and including the flights, it cost me less than a thousand pounds.

**Graham Cluley** (2:21)
And you got to see the England-Norway World Cup game as well, I think.

**James Ball** (2:25)
Yes, in Norway. They had screens up in the town square full of very drunk Norwegians who, yeah, I don't think they were cheering on England, you know.
Although the nice thing was, the day after I was sort of worried I'd have to try and put on a really terrible American accent or something. And they did all sort of say, look, just beat Argentina. We don't want Argentina to win.
And I heard that like from three or four different people. So they were kind of okay with it. They were cooler than they could have been. But strongly recommend it. Tromso is great. Just don't get a curry there. Norway does not do spice. I had a Vindaloon and I don't think it ever touched a capsicum.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:10)
This week on Smashing Security.

**Graham Cluley** (3:12)
We won't be talking about how a man in India has been accused of using an AI chatbot to help him plan a triple murder.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:20)
You'll hear no discussion of.

**Graham Cluley** (3:21)
How the July 2026 patch update from Microsoft comes with security updates for record-breaking 570 vulnerabilities.

**James Ball** (3:32)
We won't even mention.

**Graham Cluley** (3:34)
How plugging in an LG monitor can automatically install adware on your Windows PC that bombards you with McAfee pop-ups without ever asking your permission. So James, what are you going to be talking about this week?

**James Ball** (3:49)
I'm going to be talking about the Suno hack because I think there's quite a lot in there.

**Graham Cluley** (3:55)
And I'm going to be discussing why ordering McNuggets may not be good for your online privacy, particularly if you're a hacker. All this and much more coming up in this episode of Smashing Security.
Now, chums chums, imagine if you can that you are a spy working for the Russians, right? What's the worst thing that could possibly occur if you were actually working for the Russians? Would your biggest threat be having your identity exposed, being found out by the FBI? Would it be about Western intelligence agencies, finding out where you're based, locating your identity and extraditing you? What the biggest threat actually be about Chicken McNuggets?
That is the thing we're going to be exploring. Do you stand anywhere in particular on Chicken McNuggets, James?

**James Ball** (4:48)
I'm actually a big fan of them. For a long time as a kid, I ate very little else. I've traveled in many, many countries in the world and every single one that had a McDonald's, I've been to the McDonald's in that country.