Season 7 Episode 11 - McFraud

Hacking the Gibson

In the 1990s and early 2000s, fast food giant McDonald’s teamed up with iconic board game Monopoly to run a promotion that lured customers with prizes ranging from a free small fries to a million dollars in cash. Pairing fast food with a game that’s famous for taking hours and straining family relationships might not seem like an obvious choice, but it generated a ton of buzz in the U.S. It all ended in scandal when the FBI charged the head of security for the contest with fraud and conspiracy for rigging the game. We’ll talk about how he dunnit, and what it teaches us about basic infosec principles.