Angus Loten

For starters, this is a fascinating kind of story because it's an under-the-radar economic indicator of what's really happening out there on the ground.

And what appears to be happening out there on the ground, at least among a lot of tech workers, is they're none too happy.

There's been flat hiring.

There's been flat wages.

Folks are getting passed over for promotions.

People are getting outsourced, different jobs.

AI is taking over a lot of the manual labor end of the tech stuff.

So there's a lot of people who aren't too happy.

And that's what makes hackers happy, because they can recruit disgruntled insiders to help them with data breaches, because the insiders, of course, have authorized access.

And with that, they're able to get in even under the most strenuous fortified systems, not even through a back door.

It's through the front door.

and get out a lot of very valuable data.

This is precisely why it makes it an economic indicator, because hackers typically go on social media sites.

They go on career sites like LinkedIn, even X or Facebook, and they're just looking for threads where employees are complaining about their jobs or they're saying, I was just passed over for a promotion and just venting.

And if they think they've got someone who may qualify for assisting them in these attacks,

They'll reach out at first.

They won't say, hey, you want to help us break into your company?

They'll just warm up with a conversation and this, that, and the other thing and say, well, look, there is a way you can make a little extra money if you want to.

And we're not asking for too, too much.

We just need this little bit of data.