WEBVTT - Tech News: Freedom From Algorithms 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.080 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:18.360 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:21.920 and I love all things tech. This time for the 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:27.160 tech news for Tuesday, November nine, twenty twenty one. Let's 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.680 get to it. In the United States, lawmakers in the 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:34.640 House of Representatives have introduced a bill that would require 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:39.159 companies that use algorithms to determine what users see to 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:44.280 offer up an alternative algorithm light version. So, in other words, 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:48.599 a company like Meta slash Facebook would have to give 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:53.159 people the option to opt out of the algorithm driven 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.960 methodology that the company relies upon. Now, the idea behind 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.320 this is that it would let users choose a path 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:04.120 less likely to fill up their news feeds with the 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:09.160 type of material that quote unquote drives engagement, since we've 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.400 seen time and time again that a lot of bad 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:15.480 actors have taken advantage of that approach to spread misinformation 0:01:15.920 --> 0:01:20.959 and hate speech and other awful stuff. This comes on 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:24.880 the heels of the Francis Hogan hearings, in which the 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:29.200 former Facebook employee shared her observations about the company's practices 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:33.560 and She asserted that these practices are harmful on a 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:37.640 really broad scale, not just two people individually, but potentially 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:42.080 to big stuff like the concept of democracy itself. The 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:44.800 bill is worded in a way that says companies would 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:49.760 need to create an quote input transparent algorithm end quote, 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.360 meaning that the platform wouldn't use any user data to 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:59.040 determine what that user sees, so theoretically get a more 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:03.120 generic experien oriants in that regard. One way this might 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:07.760 manifest is a true reverse chronological order of posts. That is, 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:11.000 you would see the most recent posts at the top 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:13.800 of your feed, and then you would work down to 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.320 progressively older posts, you know, the way a lot of 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:21.080 folks preferred Facebook before the company made that choice harder 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:24.320 and harder to find and ultimately watered it down with 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:29.200 an algorithmic approach. If this bill becomes law, it could 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:33.680 have a massive impact on Facebook's business. The company depends 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:37.440 heavily on promoting material that gets a lot of engagement 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:41.480 because that keeps people on the platform longer. That therefore 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:45.440 Facebook has more time to sell more ads, essentially to 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:49.959 display more ads to users, and thus they make way 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:54.240 more money through advertising. Any regulations that would impact that 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:58.399 could potentially lead to people spending less time on the platform, 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:02.120 and then Facebook would make money, which I assure you 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:06.400 the company is not super keen on doing so. If 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:10.000 this bill does pass, I can almost guarantee that, unless 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:14.480 it is otherwise mandated by the law, Facebook will make 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:18.920 sure that this option to switch to the transparent algorithm 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:22.440 approach will be buried deep in options so that the 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:26.160 average person isn't likely to go looking for it anyway. 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:29.400 I think this is an interesting approach, and one I 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:32.840 happen to think is is a pretty decent idea, at 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:36.880 least on the surface. I also imagine it won't stop 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.840 Facebook's critics from advocating for the company to get broken up. 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:45.680 That is a conversation I suspect will continue. The US 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.840 Federal Trade Commission, or FTC will soon send around sixty 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:54.680 million dollars to more than a hundred forty thousand drivers 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:58.200 for Amazon. So why is that happening? Well, this is 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:04.200 because Amazon US illegally withholding tips that the drivers had 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:10.240 earned from customers between to twenty nineteen. The FTC sued 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:13.360 Amazon earlier this year over the matter, saying that the 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:17.240 company was regularly holding back tips that customers had opted 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:22.200 to give drivers through you know apps and web based services. Further, 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:26.920 the FTC said that Amazon only stopped doing this once 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:31.240 they became aware that the FTC was investigating them. Amazon 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.760 ultimately settled this case out of court and agreed to 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:39.080 return all the money it had stolen from drivers, and 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.080 they would also stop obfuse skating how much the drivers 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:46.000 were making. Also, the company can't change how tips are 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:52.279 factored into driver compensation without first acquiring drivers informed consent 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.680 on the matter due to terms of the settlement. According 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:59.599 to the FTC, the largest payout to an individual driver 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:04.520 and I can't believe this, it's an excess of twenty 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:10.080 eight thousand dollars. Now, the average payout is closer to 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.000 four d twenty two dollars. But let's go back to 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:16.080 that twenty eight large for a second. Imagine, just for 0:05:16.120 --> 0:05:20.200 a moment, that you found out your employer had effectively 0:05:20.320 --> 0:05:25.560 stolen twenty eight thousand dollars from you, that you had 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:30.200 earned that money, but your employer took it for themselves. 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:37.720 That is beyond unacceptable. I mean it's absolutely crazy. Right Anyway, 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:42.200 drivers who received checks and that would be one nine thousand, 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.960 five hundred seven of the drivers, they should deposit or 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:51.200 cash those checks before January seven, twenty two. The remaining 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:54.440 drivers are actually receiving their payouts the paypals, so they 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.400 don't have to worry about that. If a driver receives 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.160 more than six hundred dollars, they will also receive than 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:03.120 I R S. Form ten to fill out because they 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:05.960 have to declare that on taxes, but that should actually 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:12.040 affect fewer than twenty thousand of the more than one drivers. Anyway, 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:14.279 I am glad to hear that the drivers will finally 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:16.720 be getting the money they earned, and glad that for 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:20.120 once we're seeing a big company held accountable for screwing 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:24.760 over the workers that that company employs. Speaking of companies 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.520 that are being held accountable, it's time to talk about 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:31.919 Tesla again. So you might remember that last month the 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.120 company rolled out an update to Tesla owners who are 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:38.479 participating in the beta program for the so called full 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.960 self driving feature. And once again I remind you that 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:45.200 full self driving is in fact a misleading phrase because 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:50.400 it is not actually a fully autonomous mode. Anyway, that 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:55.640 rollout ended up causing dangerous problems as Tesla vehicles were 0:06:55.640 --> 0:07:02.640 autonomously miss and mistakenly interpreting a potential frontal collision even 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.440 if there were no cars or any other obstacles in 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:07.760 front of the vehicles. They were saying, WHOA, We're about 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:10.600 to collide with something and there was nothing there. That 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:14.160 then prompted the cars to engage the brakes to avoid 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:19.400 this so called collision, and it made the Tesla's practically undrivable. 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:23.280 Owners reported this issue. Some people even took videos of 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:25.240 what it was like trying to drive the car with 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:29.160 this mode enabled, and they showed how the car would 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:33.320 spontaneously detect a potential collision in perfectly safe conditions and 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:37.440 then slam on the brakes, and obviously that act would 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:42.120 then constitute an actual dangerous situation, potentially leading to rear 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:46.200 end collisions if someone were following that Tesla and they 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:49.720 were going at a good clip. The company hastily rolled 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:53.680 back this update, and Elon Musk tweeted out the equivalent 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.720 of Hey, these things happen. It's software had it's a 0:07:56.760 --> 0:08:00.600 beta program and essentially brushed it off, but Tesla. The 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:04.840 company subsequently filed a recall notice with the National Highway 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:09.400 Traffic Safety Administration or the n h t s A 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:15.040 a government authority that obviously oversees stuff like safety issues 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:19.280 with highways and roads. So why did Tesla actually issue 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:24.080 the recall if they had already rolled back the update. Well, 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:26.800 that was because the nh T s A has been 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:30.800 taking a more aggressive approach in investigating and regulating self 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:34.920 driving vehicles recently, and Tesla has been the subject of 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:38.600 some scrutiny. The n h T s A had already 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:43.199 reprimanded Tesla, saying that the company has to actually follow protocol. 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:45.880 It has to operate within the boundaries of laws and 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:50.000 regulations for vehicles instead of just playing more fast and 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:53.920 loose like a typical Silicon Valley company. If a software 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:57.640 company rolls back a patch, that might be frustrating, right 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:00.000 if a patch ens up making things worse for your 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:02.719 software and then they roll it back. But for car 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:05.240 companies this is really a matter of safety. I mean, 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:07.960 if my copy of Diablo gets rolled back, I might 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.880 lose some data, but with cars, we're talking about life 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:15.120 or death kind of stuff. Anyway, Tesla, the company has 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:19.560 started to change its ways conforming to these requirements, but 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:24.439 not without Elon complaining about it and sicking rabid Tesla 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:29.680 fans On regulators. Classy guy that Elon Musk also classy folks, 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:35.360 those rabid Tesla fans cheese. I suspect this isn't going 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.240 to convince the government to adopt a more lenient approach 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:42.520 to Tesla, because Elon Musk is really good at rilling 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.880 people and organizations and governments up. And while we're talking 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:50.440 about Musk, let's also mention his ongoing complaints about, you know, 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:54.200 having to pay taxes like a common person. You know, 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:57.960 it's that thing that billionaires really hate to do. There's 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:02.120 been an increased push to in increased taxes to billionaires. 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:05.360 Those are the people who can obviously afford to pay 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:08.400 taxes the most, but are also the least inclined to 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.400 do so. And Musk is no exception to the rule 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:13.760 that these ultra rich folks really just don't want to 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:17.600 part way is with even a fraction of their billions. Anyway, 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:21.679 Musk tweeted out a pole recently, and he wrote, quote 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:26.120 much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:30.520 of tax avoidance. So I propose selling of my test 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.680 less stock. Do you support this? End quote? Nearly fifty 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:39.280 of the respondents said yes. Nowhere yet on if Elon 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:41.360 Musk has followed through with this. He said he would, 0:10:42.160 --> 0:10:44.520 but at least when I have gone to record, that 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.160 had not yet been reported. However, if he did sell 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:49.880 that off, based upon the closing price for Testlas stock 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:52.600 on Friday, it would have meant he would have been 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:57.040 selling around twenty one billion with a b dollars worth 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:02.600 of stock. Yawza. Also, the whole thing appeared to affect 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:06.600 Tesla's stock value because the price of Tesla's stock declined 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.680 by five percent. And I think this is yet another 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:14.760 example of Elon Musk's messaging having a potentially massive impact 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:17.560 on the market. We've seen it before, where he tweets 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.160 something and then we see a massive move in the market. 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:24.360 I think that says a lot about Musk's influence. It 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:27.520 also says a lot about his lack of concern about 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:31.360 how much influence he has, and it probably it's a 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.840 pretty decent argument about you know why, the stock market 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:39.360 is sometimes just a big old dumb psychological experiment. Now, granted, 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:44.400 over time, the market typically will correct itself as long 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:46.120 as there is enough time for it to do so, 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:50.000 and there's a lack of interference, but really this does 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:54.000 nail home that we humans are emotional and often irrational 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:57.640 creatures that can do a lot of harm without a 0:11:57.640 --> 0:12:01.400 lot of effort. The Washington Post most reports that the 0:12:01.480 --> 0:12:05.400 Israeli military has been employing facial recognition technology in a 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:10.400 widespread surveillance campaign targeting Palestinians in the West Bank region. 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:14.640 It's part of an initiative called Blue Wolf, and according 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:18.320 to the Post, it involves the Israeli military taking photos 0:12:18.360 --> 0:12:22.480 of Palestinians and those photos go into a large database 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:26.160 of images, and the Blue Wolf system looks for matches 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:29.320 in its database and then sends a signal to the 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:32.200 soldiers phone, and the phone will flash a color to 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.440 the soldier indicating whether the person in the image should 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:38.600 be left alone or if the soldiers should detain that 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:43.760 person or even arrest them. Apparently, the military created incentives 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:47.680 for soldiers to participate in this program, getting them to 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.560 take thousands of photos of Palestinians in the process. There 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:55.640 were even competitions for soldiers where they could win prizes 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:58.559 if they took the most photos within a given amount 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:03.360 of time. The system also interconnects with closed circuit UH 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:06.760 security cameras. Those are found throughout the West Bank region. 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:09.320 There in, in fact, are some of these cameras that 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:13.400 aim at or into homes of Palestinians, So to call 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:17.720 this invasive would be understating things to the extreme. And 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:21.240 the fact that there were incentives for soldiers to be 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.040 active participants in this really makes me think of the 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:26.960 awful stop and frisk policy that we used to see 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.680 in New York City not that long ago, in which 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:33.280 police officers effectively had quotas they were expected to meet 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:38.080 when it came to just stopping random citizens and frisking them, 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:43.160 which led to disproportionate targeting of non white citizens. And 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:47.199 as always, we have to remember that facial recognition technology 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.320 is far from perfect. So even if you roll it 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:54.880 out in a way that isn't you know, authoritarian and scary, 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.440 the technology still makes mistakes and when it comes to 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:01.360 stuff like deciding if someone should be detained or arrested, 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:06.600 that really becomes a dystopian nightmare. After that one, I 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:09.319 think we all could use a little bit of a break, 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:20.840 So we will be back after these short messages. We're back. 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:25.160 So the brokerage company robin Hood, which is known primarily 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:29.000 as a fee free company that allows the average person 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:32.800 to invest in you know. The stock market has recently 0:14:32.840 --> 0:14:37.160 announced that hackers had breached corporate systems and gained access 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:41.640 to the personal information of around five million customers. Uh 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.560 most of them, it was just their email addresses. However, 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.080 the hackers were also able to see the full names 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:52.440 of around two million robin Hood customers and apparently for 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:56.680 a lucky three d robin Hood customers. The hackers also 0:14:56.760 --> 0:15:01.080 saw more personal information like there's zip code and their 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:05.000 birth date and other stuff. Now, robin Hood says that 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:09.760 the more sensitive information stuff like social security numbers or 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:13.200 bank account numbers or debit card numbers, those were not 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:17.520 part of this breach, so it definitely could have been 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:21.040 a lot worse. And apparently the hackers were able to 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:26.120 gain access through the tried and true method of social engineering, 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:29.520 which essentially is a fancy way of saying they tricked 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:33.240 someone into letting them in. So in this case, it 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:37.240 seems like they fooled a customer support representative at robin 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.560 Hood to grant them access to the system. The classic 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:42.560 way of doing this, by the way, is that you 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:46.120 pose as I T and that you need access to 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:48.960 a system in order to install an update or otherwise 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.160 do some sort of maintenance, and you trick someone into 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:56.520 giving you that level of access. You know, obviously from 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:00.640 a hacker standpoint, what you're aiming for is administrator level access. 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:03.080 But sometimes, you know, you just take what you can get. 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:05.560 That seems to be the case with robin Hood in 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:10.600 this instant. So that's a classic way of getting access 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:12.480 to a system. It doesn't require you to set it 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:16.320 a keyboard and just randomly guess at passwords, which is 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:20.480 that's how we typically see it in like Hollywood productions, 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:25.240 you don't often see the social engineering side. Some shows 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:27.840 and movies do that, but most of the time it's 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:31.880 the whole No, it's not that no, it's not that oh, hey, 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:34.400 you got it, which I mean, if it were that easy, 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:38.400 then nothing would be safe. It's not that easy. By 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:40.960 the way. You might also remember robin Hood as the 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:47.720 company that was heavily criticized when individual investors wanted to 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:51.320 invest in game Stop stock as part of a hedge 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:54.800 fund squeeze campaign, and then they found that robin Hood, 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:58.280 the supposed brokerage for the people, had put the brakes 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.320 on that activity, saying that they didn't want to encourage 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:05.240 market volatility and such, whereas the critics were saying that 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:09.879 Robin Hood had corporate ties with individuals who had a 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:14.000 financial stake in game Stop stock going down. If you 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:17.280 don't remember that story, game Stop stock had been trading 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:19.919 it around twenty dollars a share for a long time, 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:27.800 and then uh, after months of enthusiasm, we saw more 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:31.959 investors individual investors start to buy up game Stop stock, 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:34.840 which drove the price up. At last I looked at 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:37.719 with some trading it somewhere around two nineteen dollars, so, 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:41.800 you know, ten times as valuable as it was a 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:45.280 couple of years ago. Pretty incredible. But the whole reason 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:47.280 for that, or at least one of the reasons for that, 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.440 was that there were these hedge funds that had recommended 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:54.160 short selling the stock, which hinges on a stock price 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.160 going down. With the stock price going up, it ended 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:01.479 up putting the squeeze on these hedge funds. Anyway, just 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:06.680 another fun story in the in the history of Robin Hood. 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:12.879 In other hacker news, a group called fail overflow announced 0:18:12.920 --> 0:18:16.640 it had uncovered the root keys for PS five encryption, 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:20.560 that is, the Sony PlayStation five. Now what does that 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.680 actually mean. Well, let's suss this out, so consoles when 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:28.560 you boil them down, video game consoles are just specialized computers. 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:31.360 Not that I recommend you boil a video game console 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:33.800 or any other computer for that matter, because that will 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:39.040 definitely violate your warranty. But computers run software, right However, 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:42.639 video game consoles typically have protections in place, so you 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:45.320 can't just run any software you like on them. You 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.199 can only run the stuff that the company allows you 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:50.760 to run on them, so you can run specific software 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:54.119 like games. So it's a gated community in other words, 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:58.680 and the company behind the video game console controls gate access, 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.560 but the encryption keys, the root keys, are essentially a 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.760 way to fool the gate into thinking you're the authorized 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.240 identity that can come and go as you please. That 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:12.399 means you could potentially run other types of software on 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:16.040 this console once you unlock it. Now to me, it 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:19.520 sounds like the fail overflow group is really your classic 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:24.160 hacker group. These are people who wonder how systems actually work, 0:19:24.440 --> 0:19:26.440 and then they figure it out, and then they learn 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:30.200 how they can exploit those systems. You know, but by exploit, 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:32.879 I really mean they just use it in a way 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.560 that was not the way the creators intended. So running 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.679 home brew software and a console doesn't have to involve 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:43.560 stuff like pirating games, for example, And in fact, fail 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:46.760 overflow has made statements that make me think that the 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.880 hacker group really doesn't want to encourage piracy at all, 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:53.520 just the opposite. In fact, however, the group also acknowledges 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:57.400 that the majority of people who would actually use root 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:01.520 keys would likely be doing so in order to pirate games. 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:04.919 Perhaps for that reason, the group is not publishing the 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:08.160 root keys. Oh so they have participated in the past 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:14.359 and finding bugs in Sony platforms and and earning money 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:17.000 that way, because a lot of companies will pay out 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.560 essentially a bug bounty. In this case, I think it's 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:25.200 a reminder that security systems are not perfect and they're 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:30.240 not infallible. And this would be an argument that Sony 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:35.199 had put in a maybe not a weak encryption scheme, 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:37.560 but not the strongest that they could. Like, if it 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:41.399 is something that is breakable, that's not great. It shows 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:46.640 a weakness, and that's not necessarily meant to exploit that weakness, 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:51.359 but rather perhaps an indication to the company, Hey, the 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:54.480 way you did this was not very good. You need 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:58.040 to do better. Ransomware attacks have been on the rise 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:01.520 for the last couple of years, and the hacker group 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:04.639 REvil is one of several that have been in the 0:21:04.640 --> 0:21:08.040 news lately. The U s Department of Justice recently announced 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:11.199 that it had arrested someone alleged to be part of 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:15.320 the Revill gang. This would be a Ukrainian man named 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:22.800 Yaroslav Vazynski. Polish authorities detained Vezynski in October because US 0:21:22.840 --> 0:21:28.160 authorities had issued an indictment against Vizynski way back in August, 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:33.199 and Vazynski now faces extradition hearings which could see him 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:35.720 transferred to the United States to stand for trial for 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:39.240 cyber crimes. In addition, the d o J announced that 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:42.879 it had seized more than six million dollars in assets 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:47.880 believed to be linked to Revil's ransomware activities. Now, this 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:52.560 money did not come from Vezynski's accounts. Instead, they came 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:57.719 from a Russian named Yavigny paulian In. And I know 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:00.760 I've butchered the name. You don't have to let me know. 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.760 I apologize, But it was a different member of REvil, 0:22:04.840 --> 0:22:09.040 or alleged member I should say of REvil. And he 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:12.639 was also indicted in August. He remains at large, so 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:16.679 he has not been taken into custody. Zynski is the 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:20.920 third of Revil's alleged members to be arrested. They could 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:24.320 potentially face a prison sentence of up to one hundred 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:28.159 years if they were convicted on all counts against them, 0:22:28.200 --> 0:22:32.119 And I think this is really a campaign that's a 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:36.320 message to ransomware gangs that if they are caught, they 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:39.280 face a price that's much higher than what they can 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:42.880 extort through ransomware attacks. But whether that acts as an 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:47.439 actual deterrent remains to be seen. Recently, the House of 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:52.800 Representatives passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which most 0:22:52.840 --> 0:22:56.240 folks have heard of as the one point to trillion 0:22:56.480 --> 0:22:59.920 dollar infrastructure bill here in the United States. Now that 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:03.800 there is a ton of stuff in that bill, and 0:23:03.840 --> 0:23:07.040 we're going to talk about a couple of tech related pieces. 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:11.280 One of those is a sixty five billion dollar package 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:16.000 to increase broadband internet access in the US. Most of 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:20.119 that would go to subsidies to internet service providers that 0:23:20.200 --> 0:23:25.560 commit to building out broadband infrastructure into underserved areas. Some 0:23:25.760 --> 0:23:28.600 of the money will also go to subsidy programs that 0:23:28.640 --> 0:23:32.640 will help individual households so that they can afford broadband 0:23:32.760 --> 0:23:36.200 access plans and thus offset the cost that they would 0:23:36.200 --> 0:23:39.840 otherwise have to pay. These measures are a good step, 0:23:39.960 --> 0:23:44.200 but they represent a massive cut to what was originally 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:47.600 in the bill. The original version of the bill set 0:23:47.600 --> 0:23:52.360 aside one hundred billion dollars to improve broadband access, so 0:23:52.600 --> 0:23:55.720 almost half of that got taken out by the time 0:23:55.760 --> 0:23:59.920 it finally was passed. Still, a little improvement is better 0:24:00.200 --> 0:24:04.560 than the status quo by definition, but it now falls 0:24:04.600 --> 0:24:06.639 to the various I s p s and the f 0:24:06.760 --> 0:24:09.720 c C to make sure that this plan actually leads 0:24:09.760 --> 0:24:14.119 to action and increased access once President Biden actually signs 0:24:14.160 --> 0:24:18.159 it into law. Of that is, so while the law 0:24:18.480 --> 0:24:22.119 is a good step in the right direction, it's not 0:24:22.160 --> 0:24:24.120 as big at step is what people were hoping for. 0:24:24.480 --> 0:24:28.840 And of course the activation is really what matters. Right. 0:24:28.880 --> 0:24:32.080 If these companies end up taking subsidies and then really 0:24:32.160 --> 0:24:35.439 drag their feet on actually building out the infrastructure, it 0:24:35.480 --> 0:24:38.200 doesn't really do anyone any good. And we have seen 0:24:38.240 --> 0:24:41.400 that kind of stuff happened in the past. Uh, hopefully 0:24:41.600 --> 0:24:45.880 that's not how it's gonna turn out this time. But um, 0:24:45.960 --> 0:24:49.280 you know, it's too early to say. We have a 0:24:49.280 --> 0:24:52.359 couple more stories that we're going to cover. But before 0:24:52.400 --> 0:25:02.360 we get to that, let's take another quick break. So 0:25:02.480 --> 0:25:04.760 I mentioned that there were a couple of pieces in 0:25:04.760 --> 0:25:08.440 that Infrastructure bill that related to tech. Well, another element 0:25:08.920 --> 0:25:11.919 is one that actually concerns me quite a bit, and 0:25:11.960 --> 0:25:15.320 I've talked about it in a previous tech Stuff tech 0:25:15.440 --> 0:25:20.320 News episode. So wrapped up in that Infrastructure bill is 0:25:20.359 --> 0:25:25.080 a mandate that car manufacturers will have to incorporate technology 0:25:25.119 --> 0:25:29.359 that can passively monitor drivers and identify whether or not 0:25:29.560 --> 0:25:33.600 the driver is operating a vehicle while impaired, and then 0:25:34.400 --> 0:25:38.000 go on to limit or prevent vehicle operation if the 0:25:38.080 --> 0:25:40.920 vehicle says, yeah, this person is kind of messed up. Now, 0:25:41.000 --> 0:25:45.040 let me be clear, if the technology we used to 0:25:45.160 --> 0:25:50.840 do this were amazingly accurate, and the implementation in systems 0:25:50.880 --> 0:25:54.280 that would limit motor vehicle operation were proven to be 0:25:54.600 --> 0:25:58.800 both effective and safe, I would be all for this. 0:25:59.080 --> 0:26:05.080 I don't want intoxicated or otherwise impaired drivers to operate vehicles, 0:26:05.080 --> 0:26:08.840 potentially putting themselves and others in severe danger. I don't 0:26:08.880 --> 0:26:13.120 want that to happen. I think driving well intoxicated is Honestly, 0:26:13.160 --> 0:26:16.280