S1: All right, welcome to Episode two. Seventy nine, if you're
S1: having a good start to the week. Starting off with
S1: security news. FBI and CIA have released new tactics being
S1: used by Russia's SVR, SVR is also known as EPEAT
S1: 29 and Cozy Bare, and they're believed to be responsible
S1: for solar winds and many other attacks. They're believed to
S1: be primarily targeting government networks, think tank and policy analysis
S1: organizations and information technology companies, and their tips have evidently
S1: moved from installing malware networks. This was back before like
S1: 2018 to attacking cloud email services such as Microsoft's Office 365,
S1: password spraying and targeting VPN services and a whole bunch
S1: of other tidbits as well. But the they collaborated again,
S1: like we're seeing a lot from the government right now
S1: and releasing these joint reports, talking about how people can
S1: look for signs of compromise, signs of attack, and just
S1: generally collaborating and communication, which I think is fantastic. Says
S1: also released an advisory around Arktos Systems, Real-Time Operating Systems for.
S1: Industry experts have submitted an 81 page report to the
S1: Bush administration aimed at coordinating efforts to counter ransomware. They
S1: are looking to unify into a task force that helps
S1: disrupt the problem, using a combination of techniques, including disrupting payments,
S1: prosecuting attackers and disrupting services that support the ecosystem, including
S1: forums where services are sold. Python Library IP address is
S1: vulnerable to a critical IP address, validation vulnerability first found
S1: in the Net Mask library earlier this year. This particular
S1: issue basically causes leading zeros to be stripped off of addresses,
S1: which is allowing attackers to bypass filters. So basically, you
S1: can't really tell what's going to get allowed through based
S1: on what's being sent because it's doing some wonky stuff
S1: with the input. So we definitely want to patch that,
S1: I think this is introduced in Python three to three.
S1: If I'm remembering correctly, but either way, you want to
S1: make sure you're running the latest version of chicken or
S1: at least that you have this patch installed. Krebs says
S1: Experian has a leaky API that exposed most Americans credit
S1: scores for some period of time. Independent researcher that found
S1: this as usual and brought it to Krebs and Krebs
S1: says the story on it. Census found more than one
S1: point ninety three million databases exposed to the Internet on
S1: cloud servers, so it was looking for a whole bunch
S1: of databases and it found mostly Misako, followed by PostgreSQL
S1: and Breadths. Kaspersky says it found new malware, which it
S1: believes based on a bunch of patterns within the code,
S1: it believes it was created by the CIA. The NYPD
S1: has canceled the use of its robotic dog due to
S1: public backlash. And they're complaining because they're saying this thing
S1: would have saved a lot of people or helped a
S1: lot of people and avoided putting people in bad positions,
S1: especially police in bad positions. But I don't know if
S1: you make something that looks like a black mirror episode,
S1: I think you can expect bad things to happen. U.S.
S1: Navy SEALs are shifting from counterterrorism to global skills, which
S1: are more technology oriented, such as electronic warfare in the
S1: use of unmanned systems, also known as drones, for the
S1: purposes of collecting intelligence. And they're evidently heading more towards
S1: the boats, which they used to operate from in the past.
S1: As opposed to doing counterterrorism in the desert and other places.
S1: Microsoft released updates to at least 110 security issues in
S1: its monthly patch Tuesday release, including for updates to exchange.
S1: They've also identified two dozen so vulnerabilities and Iot and devices,
S1: and they're collectively being called Bad Elich because they're due
S1: to memory allocation problems. Cisco firewalls have several remote, accessible
S1: vulnerabilities that have patches available, there are patches out for Sumba,
S1: and TuneUp is warning of each Lucker ransomware. If you
S1: have tuned up, find a way to not have a
S1: tune up, that's my current advice. Park Mobile had a
S1: breach that exposed license plate and mobile number information for
S1: 21 million users and Vectorized raised 130 million dollars to
S1: do a power saw. Technology news, Google is experimenting with
S1: new office designs as employees return from covid, they're mostly
S1: thinking about September ish or 1st returns back into the offices.
S1: They're going to be strongly encouraging, but not requiring that
S1: returning people are vaccinated. In the meantime, they've saved around
S1: one billion dollars by not having employees on site. But
S1: I think that's a separate calculation than determining whether or
S1: not they've actually increased or decreased productivity with the remote workforce.
S1: That'll be separate information to factor in their. Amazon is
S1: spending one billion dollars to raise operation workers pay by
S1: up to three dollars an hour. Tesla's upgrading its Powerwall
S1: two systems to Powerwall plus, which have the same capacity
S1: but higher surge output. They're trying to basically make like
S1: a decentralized power grid using their own products, which it's
S1: very much like really like it. I love the idea.
S1: The Linux kernel now has over one million commits. When
S1: or how many are malicious? Really think someone to do
S1: a full audit of this thing just seems nasty, especially
S1: given that recent University of Minnesota, I think, where they
S1: did a project, it got approved by the ethics board
S1: to actually submit malicious code to see if it got caught,
S1: which it didn't. And that's why that whole university is
S1: now banned from submitting code. But it seems like people
S1: are just mad because they exposed an ugly truth, like
S1: we need more people doing this kind of thing, you know,
S1: red teaming, something that's used by billions of devices and systems.
S1: Is it trillions? I don't know, but definitely billions. Companies,
S1: Amazon's net sales increased 44 percent in the first quarter
S1: of 2021, Microsoft's revenue increased 19 percent in the first quarter,
S1: and Google's revenue grew 34 percent in the first quarter.
S1: Humanos Fizer is currently testing a covid cure with 60 individuals,
S1: and if successful, this would be used in patients who
S1: already have covered as opposed to the vaccine, which is
S1: used to prevent getting it. They said basically in the story, which,
S1: you know, it's journalism, but they said it attacks the
S1: spine of the virus and basically tears it apart. Really exciting.
S1: Probably exciting for the company as well, if they were
S1: to be able to have this and the vaccine sometime.
S1: The measures taken to control the spread of covid have
S1: nearly eliminated influenza worldwide, U.S. deaths from the flu in
S1: twenty to twenty one season was around 600, and in
S1: the two years before it was twenty two thousand and
S1: 34000 respectively. California is looking to stop messily from taking
S1: millions of gallons of its water. Global electric vehicle sales
S1: grew 41 percent in 2020. Soaring lumber prices are adding
S1: 36000 dollars to the cost of new homes. Biden has
S1: proposed ARPA dush each he dorper for cancer. I think
S1: this is brilliant. Absolutely love it. It seems like they
S1: would call it like Karpas or Harpa. Just to keep
S1: the naming convention with Dapo, which is very recognizable. H
S1: doesn't have the same ring to it. Over 3000 cargo
S1: containers fell off ships last year, and we're already past
S1: that pace by a long shot because a thousand have
S1: already fallen into the ocean in 2021 due to pressure
S1: to speed up deliveries, causing more accidents. There's now a
S1: journal of controversial ideas, the JCI. Can't wait to see
S1: what they publish. And a new study shows that consumption
S1: of sugar sweetened beverages and high BMI independently are associated
S1: with lower testosterone in men. Content, ideas and analysis explaining threats,
S1: threat actors vulnerabilities and risk using a real world scenario.
S1: This is my expansion of a tweet by my friend
S1: Casey Ellis on how to think about these key infosec terms.
S1: What's the read if you ever have to get into
S1: these debates with. Friends and coworkers. A summary of biology
S1: Srinivasan Thoughts on the future, my passing of a fascinating
S1: for our conversation between Balaji Sreenevasan and Tim Ferriss, where
S1: they're talking about the ideas of cities becoming a lot
S1: more different from each other politically and attracting completely different
S1: types of people like Austin seems to be tech plus libertarianism,
S1: for example. Portland seems to be like hippie and anti authority.
S1: So assuming people are mobile enough to pick up and move,
S1: this could be a fascinating effect over time. Very significant
S1: effect over time. I think it really does depend on
S1: who can just pick up and move. I feel like
S1: that's not a super common thing, requires money to move
S1: and to have a job where you're going, that kind
S1: of stuff. And but, yeah, it would make different cities
S1: become kind of natural experiments around innovation and standard of
S1: living and stuff. I think it's really cool. I love
S1: the idea of the states being independent for this reason,
S1: but this is like one of biologies ideas here was
S1: that mayors are going to become more like CEOs. So
S1: they'll have a lot more control and a lot more
S1: innovation going on and that will increase the variance that
S1: you see inside of these different cities. So I think
S1: it's a really cool idea. Notes I Finished Our Mathematical
S1: Universe by Max Tegmark, and I really think about the
S1: greater existence of like universes, multiverses and stuff like that
S1: in a completely different way. So I highly recommend this
S1: book for anyone who likes Hawking, Sagan, Tyson or anything
S1: related to cosmology. It'll blow your mind, this book will.
S1: Currently rereading the Red Queen, which is the book of
S1: the month, and you should definitely come join us. As
S1: you may have noticed already, we launched our new logo
S1: as part of our ongoing site design update, and it's
S1: not just a new visual, has a lot of meaning
S1: built into that, which I talk about in the launch post,
S1: which I have linked to you in the newsletter. And
S1: the you bookclub speaking, that is absolutely thriving. We're talking
S1: about doing actually more meet ups, including a new midmonth
S1: meet up with a rotating topic. We're talking about talking
S1: about the future. We're talking about career conversations, exploring interesting
S1: questions and seeing what each of us thinks just kind
S1: of going around the table. And Tim, who's a big
S1: part of our community and also runs his own community
S1: in east Texas. He's already got a plan for how
S1: we can lay out like 12 of these going for
S1: a year out and basically have them all scheduled out
S1: and really cool sort of theme in concept to each one.
S1: So looking forward to that. We're also thinking about. Additional
S1: meet ups, actually in regular space and meatspace, actual physical
S1: meet ups, if that becomes a safe thing to do.
S1: And the first one we're thinking about is a dinner
S1: at Black at DEFCON next year, definitely not this year.
S1: I'm not going I don't know who is, but. I
S1: won't be there, but we're thinking for 20, 20 to
S1: a dinner and also maybe a weekend getaway in Big
S1: Sur where we bring family so we can actually go.
S1: So that would be like during the day you spend
S1: time with family or whatever, you know, family and kids
S1: and whatever you're doing to be able to get yourself
S1: out there to Big Sur. And then in the evenings,
S1: the other group would get together and we would have
S1: dinner or, I don't know, drinks, tea. I have no
S1: idea what would be available there. But we would just
S1: hang out in like a common area or outside, I
S1: don't know. Do star walks like all kinds of astronomy
S1: stuff we could do, but mostly conversation hanging out. Same
S1: way we do in the book clubs and other meet ups.
S1: So that's the idea. And yeah, our monthly meet up
S1: the book club itself has become a favorite event of
S1: the month for a number of our members and definitely
S1: me included. And it just turns out it's a lot
S1: of fun to talk about interesting topics with a bunch
S1: of smart and pleasant people. It's like the Internet. We
S1: were all promised, but so often never materialized. So few
S1: are not a member. You should consider signing up and
S1: coming to join us. Be a lot of fun. Discovery profiler, A.S.
S1: Tool for finding social network profiles, one thing that these
S1: tools are good for is looking up your own profile
S1: and making sure that you either delete these accounts or
S1: that you have them locked down properly. So if, you know,
S1: you probably have multiple usernames over your. The course of
S1: your IT career, but plug them into a tool like
S1: this and, you know, you might get like 55 hits,
S1: come back and be like, oh, I forgot that police existed.
S1: And maybe it has like the dumbest password ever, which
S1: is now in a million different leaks all over the place.
S1: And you could just use it as a tool to
S1: clean up after yourself. Whether Spark get a remarkably accurate
S1: visual and description of the weather in any city, I
S1: put the send for my home city and the city
S1: I'm hoping to move back to soon. And it was yeah,
S1: it was it was remarkably interesting, like really accurate. And
S1: a couple of other people I know have tried to
S1: get the same results. My friend Alejandro Hernandez at bioactive
S1: where I used to work, has released new research on
S1: how stock prices are affected by vulnerabilities and breaches, and
S1: he's presenting his findings at Blackheart Asia. So congrats to
S1: Alejandro on that. Gizzi release the world's smallest back door, really?
S1: Cool looking little back door here. Other new U.S. federal
S1: sea services, zero trust. And this one's crazy, it turns
S1: out we've all been using our trash bags incorrectly, so
S1: they're actually shipped to us inside out. So if you
S1: look at if you just take one out of the
S1: bag or the box. You'll see that the seam is
S1: like facing you. You think that, oh, that's how it's
S1: supposed to be. No, supposed to be that way. It's
S1: actually inside out. And the reason for that is you're
S1: supposed to just open it. Turn it upside down, so
S1: the opening is facing down and then put it over
S1: the outside of the trash can, then you just take
S1: the rest of the bag and stuff it down in
S1: the middle and now it's right side in. And you
S1: didn't actually have to do all the shenanigans to get
S1: it in there. So you put it on like a
S1: hat and then push it down through the middle. Who knew?
S1: I saw this one tick tock, I didn't want to
S1: link to tick tock, so I'm linking to a YouTube
S1: video describing. And the army has a new night vision
S1: goggles and the visuals on these things look completely awesome.
S1: So I was in the Army. I used to just
S1: love playing with these night vision goggles when I was
S1: on duty and. Yeah, these the old ones were like
S1: this really kind of washed out green looking, which you've
S1: probably seen in a million movies, and that's exactly how
S1: they looked. It wasn't much contrast, very little depth of field.
S1: Like there's a bunch of problems, these new ones. There's
S1: like a white outline around everything. It's like very some
S1: quite predator looking because Predator was actually worse than us.
S1: But it's actually has detail. It's a white it's a
S1: white visual instead of green. Which automatically seems to make
S1: the contrast better. It's just very cool looking, actually have
S1: a link to some of the video. In the show.
S1: Got a cool list here of significant cyber incidents, which
S1: I said on Twitter. I really wish this was a
S1: spreadsheet so someone can make that happen. That would be awesome.
S1: And got a link here to all cause mortality statistics
S1: for each US state. And evidently, it's mostly updated. There
S1: are a few stragglers states, I think they said North
S1: Carolina is kind of lagging on data, but it's mostly
S1: up to date and accurate. And it just shows a
S1: massive number of what is its deaths that don't have
S1: a reason. And I forgot there's a term for it.
S1: It's like unaccounted for or something. But ah, no cause
S1: is at no cost us anyway. It's in, it's in
S1: the report and. It's fascinating. I mean, there's so much
S1: additional numbers here, so I think what it really means
S1: is the COVA numbers are likely to go up significantly
S1: because they're just the proper attribution has been done. But
S1: definitely worth taking a look at that visual. Got another
S1: article here, welcome to the YOLO economy. This is from
S1: New York Times, pretty good essay and how to make
S1: your voice sounded more attractive and competent. This is a
S1: BBC article and they're saying could also be the reason
S1: for vocal fry, which is like what I try to
S1: do just there, which is where you slow down your
S1: voice and it drops very low. And evidently, it's supposed
S1: to signify competence in some sort of way. There's a
S1: pretty good article. Recommendations, if you like, thinking about the
S1: future across tech policy, government, etc., you really should listen
S1: to this conversation with biology that indicated above. It's on
S1: the Tim Ferris podcast, which I haven't been listening to
S1: Tim Ferriss much, honestly. But I do listen when I
S1: hear a cool topic or a cool guest and this one,
S1: it blew me away. It is almost four hours, so
S1: I will warn you about that. I listened to 2x
S1: on YouTube. So was it four hours for me? But
S1: I took a lot of notes. I actually wrote that
S1: whole post, which is the summary of it, trying to
S1: capture all the ideas. But I'm telling you, if you
S1: think about the future, if you like the future stuff
S1: that I talk about, you should listen to this guy.
S1: He's an investor. Andreessen Horowitz, like, really cool guy, happens
S1: to have a PhD from Stanford, which he never mentions,
S1: just a really smart guy and has some really interesting
S1: ideas about where the future is going, especially as it
S1: relates to crypto. That's kind of his thing about crypto.
S1: So biology. Definitely recommend that you follow this guy and
S1: start by listening to this episode on the team first podcast.
S1: And the aphorism for the week. Everyone you meet is
S1: fighting a battle you know nothing about, be kind always.
S1: Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing
S1: about the kind always. Robin Williams.