WEBVTT - Tech News: Elon Wants His Musk All Over Twitter 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:14.600 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.360 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio, 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:20.040 and how the tech are you? It is time for 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:25.920 the tech news for Thursday, April twenty twenty two. Also, 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:28.480 if this episode sounds a little different, it's because I'm 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:31.680 actually in the office today and using a slightly different 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:34.240 microphone set up. So that's why. Now let's get to 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:37.920 the news. If you listen to Tuesday's news episode of 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:40.840 tech Stuff, you heard me talk about how Elon Musk 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:45.480 declined an offer to join Twitter's board of directors, and 0:00:45.800 --> 0:00:49.400 that one of the potential reasons for that might have 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.720 been that if he had joined the board of directors, 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:55.160 he would have to agree to a limit of no 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:58.680 more than fourteen point nine percent of Twitter's shares. He 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:01.880 would not be allowed to purchase more than that, So 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:05.600 the implication there being that Ellen potentially wanted to control 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:07.840 Twitter that would require him to own at least fifty 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:12.880 of Twitter's stakes. Well, now it sounds like phase two 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:16.840 of his plan has launched, because Bloomberg reports Musk has 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:20.039 made an offer to buy Twitter for fifty four dollars 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:24.399 and twenty cents per share. That would bring the total 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:31.240 valuation of Twitter's purchase to around forty three billion dollars. Now, 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:34.520 this would be an outright hostile takeover, or potentially a 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.520 hostile takeover, with Musk attempting to convince current shareholders to 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.600 sell off their shares at a premium markup. And in 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:45.160 pre market trading, Twitter shares were around forty eight dollars 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:48.320 per share, so Musk is giving a bit of a 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:52.240 markup on that cost, and he's hoping the offer remakes 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:56.000 is one that big shareholders just can't refuse. Now, Twitter's 0:01:56.040 --> 0:02:00.240 board was fairly diplomatic in its response, saying it would 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:02.840 review the offer and respond in whatever way was in 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:06.280 the best interest of Twitter stockholders. This is by no 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:10.280 means a surefire deal. Last year, Twitter shares climbed to 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:14.799 seventy dollars per share, so it shows the company has 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:17.440 hit much higher highs than where it's at right now, 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:22.799 and even higher highs than Musk's offer. So that has 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:25.359 been enough to suggest, at least to some analysts, that 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:29.160 Musk's offer, while significant, is still far too low for 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:33.200 Twitter shareholders to take it seriously. And Musk himself has 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:36.880 said it's the best and last offer that he'll he'll make. 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:41.680 He also seems to have implicitly threatened that he's going to, 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:45.960 you know, offload all his stock if this deal doesn't 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:50.960 go through, which could have a negative effect on Twitter's 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:56.160 share price. So it's almost like, like some people are saying, 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:59.080 it's almost like he's he's committing almost a kind of 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:02.200 extortion when you look at it that way. It's not 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:06.720 what I'm saying because I don't want to get sued, 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.400 but that is what some folks are, particularly over on Reddit, 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:12.959 which you know, the most level headed people in the 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:15.360 world are on Reddit, but a lot of them are 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:19.200 kind of making that that argument. Whether or not that's 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:21.960 the case, I can't say. But as for how I 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.440 feel about this, Twitter is the one social platform that 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:29.320 I still hang out on regularly now, but y'all have 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:30.840 probably picked up on the fact that I am not 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:34.480 the world's biggest elon Musk fans. So if his deal 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:35.960 were to go through, I feel like I would just 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:38.160 kind of fade away from Twitter too, and that would 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:40.760 leave me no option but to scream my daily word 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.560 all scores out the window to anyone who can hear me. 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:48.680 But we're not there yet. In related musk news, a 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:52.800 former Tesla employee sued the company last year, alleging that 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:55.280 he was the target of racial abuse at the factory 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:58.800 where he worked. He was an elevator operator there. And 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:01.720 at the end of at that court case, a jury 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:05.240 found in the employees favor and awarded him nearly a 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:08.200 hundred thirty seven million dollars. So why am I talking 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:12.760 about now, Well, we finally got to a federal judge 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.680 upholding the verdict. But in the process, the judge slashed 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:20.440 the jury awarded amount and reduced it down to fifteen 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:24.320 million dollars. That's still obviously a huge chunk of change. 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:27.680 That's far from the massive rebuke that the jury had 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:32.520 intended against Tesla. In metaverse news, the tech world is 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:36.120 a buzz after discovering that Meta the apparent company of Facebook, 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:40.839 intends to slap a forties seven point five percent fee 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:45.359 on all transactions that take place regarding digital experiences and 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:50.080 items within Horizon Worlds, which is the company's virtual environment platform. 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:54.799 So people are essentially saying this is showing us Facebook's 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:58.279 plan for the metaverse, right that Facebook wants to dominate 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:02.000 the metaverse, and then four anyone who wants to interoperate 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:06.680 within that world to pay nearly fifty of every transaction 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:10.039 to Facebook itself. And it really does sound like Meta 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:12.279 is taking a big page out of Apple's book and 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:16.280 then cranking the dial up to eleven. Uh again, like, 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.400 if you want to do business within meta space, then 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:23.480 you have to funnel that business through Meta's processing system, 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:27.120 and by doing that you incur two different fees. One 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:31.120 of those fees is a hardware platform fee that applies 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:33.880 to all sales that go through the Meta quest Store, 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:37.279 which is kind of akin to the app store on smartphones. 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.360 It's where users would purchase you know, games and experiences 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:43.120 and that kind of thing. And then there's a seventeen 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:47.880 point five percent fee charged against the Horizon VR platform itself. 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.080 And as you can imagine, being told to play in 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:53.920 the space is gonna cost you nearly half of every 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:57.200 sale you make. Hasn't floated over so well in the 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:00.480 developer community, and I feel this is really where we're 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:03.840 seeing Meta pour so much money into the metaverse. You know, 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:07.000 this is why it's happening, because it's a mad dash 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:11.760 to become the biggest and preferably the only metaverse game 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:15.919 in town. If you dominate it, then you get to 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:19.760 dictate what the what the the terms are, right, You're 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:21.960 the one who sets all the rules. So it would 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:24.119 give Meta all the leverage in the world to charge 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:27.839 whatever they wanted and restrict access however they liked, and 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.440 exploit the technology and whichever ways are going to make 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.520 the most money. From a business perspective, that's kind of 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:37.000 what capitalism is all about, right, Like it's that's that's 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:39.920 what the machine is geared for. But from a quality 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:44.839 of life and fairness perspective, it really kind of bites. Meanwhile, 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.479 Apple took the opportunity to fire a shot across the 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.799 bow of Meta. Market Watch got a quote from Fred 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.799 Sayings of Apple that blasted Meta for repeatedly criticizing Apple 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:56.960 in the past for its thirty percent cut for in 0:06:57.080 --> 0:07:00.360 app transactions. But then, of course Meta turns around in 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:03.320 heaps and even bigger cut for its own community of 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:06.800 merchants and developers in the Horizon world space. So Apple 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:10.280 isn't so much defending its own practice instead of saying, 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:13.080 Facebook really wants to use Apple for free, and they 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:16.480 say we're greedy. But then look at the Shenanigans their pulling. Now. 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:19.960 Now I'm paraphrasing, but I feel like that's an accurate 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:23.640 depiction of what is going on here. Meanwhile, Apple still 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.200 faces opposition all around the world when it comes to 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:30.120 how it conducts itself within app purchases and Apple's own 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:33.840 payment processing system. My guess is that Meta's plan will 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:38.360 similarly become the focus of scrutiny by regulators everywhere at 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.920 some point. But right now the company could be in 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:45.360 the clear simply because we're so far away from a 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:50.640 metaverse actually being a thing anyway that regulators might not 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:53.760 see that there's very much to regulate as of yet. 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:58.120 But yeah, things are starting to get a little spicy. 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:02.080 Vice has a couple of Arcticle goals about Amazon and 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:07.119 its ongoing struggles against unionization attempts. On April thirte Lauren 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:12.000 Kory Gurley's article Amazon cracks down on organizing after historic 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:16.600 union win, and then today Gurley has another article titled 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:20.720 Amazon Labor union is inspiring Amazon workers around the country 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.520 to unionize. So we've got kind of two sides of 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:26.960 a coin going on here. So the first bit concerns 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:30.600 the employees at the Staten Island, New York Warehouse. Uh, 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:33.640 these Amazon employees recently passed a vote to form a 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:37.000 union and now they're going to have union elections coming 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:42.280 up later this month. Meanwhile, according to employee complaints, Amazon 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:46.199 reps have been busy removing pro union literature and signage 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:50.400 and holding mandatory anti union meetings on an even you know, 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:54.320 more frequent basis, and the company has hired high powered 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:58.439 union busting consultants to work on this. The complaints include 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:02.040 allegations of illegal activity because it is against the law 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:04.960 for a company to remove or toss pro union literature 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:09.720 that's in designated break areas. And if that is in 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.720 fact what has been happening, because again I'm basing this 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:18.160 purely unemployee reports and the reporting of vice that um 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:20.120 that you know, the company could really get into trouble 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:25.400 for doing this, for for conducting illegal union busting tactics. However, 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:28.439 that is something that could take months just to get 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.360 into the court system and months more to resolve, and 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:34.880 that's assuming anyone actually presses formal charges on this matter. 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:38.320 So Amazon could just be employing a strategy to cause 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:41.600 as much trouble as possible in order to head things off, 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:47.360 mitigate the impact of unionization, break the union spirit as 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:50.040 as quickly as possible, and then just deal with any 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:54.319 consequences that happened later on. However, all that might actually 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:57.199 end up biting Amazon on the butt, because the second 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:59.600 of those two articles indicates that a lot of other 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:02.880 Amazon on facilities around the United States are showing signs 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:06.400 of organizing in the wake of the Staten Island warehouse vote. 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:10.720 And it's even possible that Amazon's actions could anger more 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:14.120 people into taking action. And I've been saying for a 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:16.840 while now that I'm getting the sense there's this growing 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:20.319 labor movement here in the United States. I feel it's 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:23.559 still in that growing phase, and it does have the 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.920 potential to snowball into a full on labor revolution. But 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:31.800 I want to stress I'm talking about potential here. Nothing 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.199 is ever a guarantee. It's also possible that down the 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:37.560 road we're gonna look back on this time in history 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:39.680 just see it as kind of a brief flash in 0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.760 the pan that quickly fizzled out. That could happen too. 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:46.160 It really just depends upon the will of the workers. 0:10:46.200 --> 0:10:48.560 But I don't know. I think I can hear the 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:52.360 people sing By the way, both of those articles on 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:55.120 Vice are well worth a read. You should definitely check 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:58.000 those out. We've got some more news stories to cover 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:00.520 in today's episode. Before we get to that, let's take 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:13.840 a quick break. We're back. There's an ongoing blacklist in 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:18.520 the United States against certain companies in China. That blacklist 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:20.920 means ain't no one here in the US supposed to 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:25.800 sell components to those companies without the express permission of 0:11:25.840 --> 0:11:29.200 the U S government in the form of a special license. Now, 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:34.000 a US company called Synopsis is under investigation for doing 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:38.640 just that. The company makes software for electronic design automation. 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:41.920 So this is a kind of software that helps chip designers, 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:46.319 like semiconductor chip designers, lay out their architecture, and it's 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:50.160 one of many important pieces in the microchip and semiconductor industries. 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.000 The U S. Department of Commerce is investigating to see 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:57.200 if Synopsis supplied either directly or through affiliates, this kind 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:01.640 of software. Two companies connected to the telecommunity aaitions company Huawei. Now, 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:04.439 if you've been following tech news for a while, you 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.480 might remember that Huahwei is a company that fell into 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:09.760 the U. S. Government's cross hairs. A couple of years ago. 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:14.880 Huawei makes lots of stuff, including components for telecommunications infrastructure, 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:19.960 and many US based telecommunications companies relied on Huawei technology. 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:23.680 But after critics raised concerns that Huahwei could use embedded 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:27.360 tech to potentially spy on Americans and share that information 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:32.199 with the Chinese government, there was a seismic shift. Telecommunications 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:36.280 providers were given deadlines to extract Huawei tech from their systems, 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:39.319 and Huawei in general was put on this blacklist. Now, 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:42.640 in order to sell legally to Huahwei, as I mentioned earlier, 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:45.320 a company first has to obtain a special license from 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:49.360 the U. S government. According to these allegations, that's something 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:52.360 that Synopsis may not have done. Now. For its part, 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.679 Synopsis denies it has done anything wrong. It claims that 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:59.200 it has abided by all laws and regulations. So we'll 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.880 have to wait for the outcome of the investigation to 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:05.640 see if the authorities agree. And it could possibly be 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:07.520 the case. It could very well be that this is 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:11.640 just a very complicated thing. Synopsis did nothing wrong, and 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:14.480 we go from there. We have to wait and find out. 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.880 But speaking of China, the conglomerate ten Cent will be 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:22.040 cracking down on a service that previously would allow Chinese 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:25.320 gamers to access certain foreign games that weren't on the 0:13:25.400 --> 0:13:30.360 approved list by the Chinese government for Chinese consumption. Now, 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:32.520 one story we've seen play out over the last couple 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:36.480 of years is China's authorities pushing back against the tech sector. 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:40.400 In particular, the government has issued tighter regulations and restrictions 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.880 and closed a lot of loopholes that existed earlier. One 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:47.000 of those was this platform that would let people in 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:50.120 China use apps that would give them a speed boost, 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:52.640 and that would allow them to access certain games, including 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:56.719 games from overseas. Now ten Cent is going to restrict 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:59.880 those apps so that they only interface with games that 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:04.200 operating within China itself. So those apps are essentially, like 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:06.120 I said, it's a speed boost. It's a way for 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:11.160 users to make use of higher bandwidth internet connections, because 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:15.240 the typical internet connection in China is far too slow 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.600 to allow for things like gaming. You you just it's 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:22.680 not practical for that. Uh, so you could use these apps. 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:24.480 You can become a customer and use these apps and 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.920 by that way access gaming, and some people are doing 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:31.320 it to access games from other countries. Uh, this is 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:33.520 gonna be tough not just on gamers, but also for 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:36.280 all those game companies that saw the apps as a 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:39.200 kind of hush hush way to tap into the truly 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:45.040 massive market of Chinese gamers. US cryptocurrency enthusiast Virgil Griffith 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:48.800 has been sentenced for more than five years in jail 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:52.640 after bleading guilty on charges of helping North Korea find 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:57.520 ways to sidestep sanctions. Griffith advised North Korean government officials 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.440 and how they could leverage cryptocurrencies like a theory them 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:04.800 to ignore sanctions against them from other countries, as well 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:07.960 as to do stuff like launder money. You know, the 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:10.800 stuff that regulators have said for a long time is 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:14.560 something they are concerned about when it comes to cryptocurrency, 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:17.360 but it's something that a lot of crypto bros often 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:20.160 wave off or ignore. They're like, oh, you're just scared 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:24.440 of losing your power. But then we get actual instances 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.680 of this happening. It's really, I think a big step 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:31.600 back for the crypto community when one of their recognized 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.640 experts in the field is practicing the very thing that 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:38.280 regulators have been scared about the whole time. And to 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:41.600 be clear, I'm not saying that cryptocurrency is inherently bad, 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:45.120 or that it's even mainly used for illegal activities. What 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:48.880 I'm saying is that cryptocurrency is very well suited for 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:52.960 those types of illegal activities, and so it shouldn't surprise 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:58.080 us when some people put it to that very specific use. Anyway, 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:00.680 North Korea is by no means a in lee country 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:02.720 to the United States, so it comes as a little 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:06.640 surprised that Griffith received a fairly stiff penalty here. And 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:09.200 my guess is it would have been even more severe 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.880 had he pled not guilty and it had gone to trial, 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:17.360 assuming of course, that he had ultimately been found guilty 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.240 of the crime. So it could have been worse, I guess, 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:25.120 is what I'm saying. Yesterday, several US agencies issued warnings 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.880 that cybersecurity researchers had discovered malware tools created by quote 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:33.640 unquote unnamed advanced threat actors. This comes from an article 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:37.000 from The Guardian which is titled US Federal alert warns 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:40.880 of the discovery of malicious cyber tools. So the threat 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:45.600 actors in question designed malware tools specifically meant to interface 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:49.840 with industrial control systems. Now, these are not like your 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:54.120 standard personal computers. These are purpose built systems that are 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:58.200 in charge of handling really important and really specific tasks. 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:01.480 Like it might be a system that connects to a 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:05.000 power grid or the system that connects to a natural 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:08.439 gas facility, and it controls not just computer systems but 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:12.879 also actual like you know, valves and things like that. Um. Anyway, 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:16.359 we're talking about these similar, large industrial complex systems that 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:21.120 typically are very tightly integrated into our infrastructure. Now, this 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:23.639 is not a new thing for us to see threats 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:27.720 to these types of institutions. Several years ago, a link 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:32.040 the investigation found evidence that cyber spies had compromised computer 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:35.720 and electro mechanical systems in the power grid and the 0:17:35.760 --> 0:17:39.920 United States, as well as other infrastructure, and that those 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:44.160 spies were likely either from China or working on behalf 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:47.840 of the Chinese As for this latest realm, the current 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:51.359 suspicion is that the attackers are connected to Russia, but 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:53.760 there's no firm evidence on the matter that has been 0:17:53.760 --> 0:17:56.919 shared so far. Details on the matter are scarce, but 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:01.119 according to one US official, AGE were able to discover 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:04.400 the malware before they could actually be used in an attack, 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:08.600 so that's a good thing. Finally, Disney has shut down 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:12.000 an unauthorized copy of the game Club Penguin. It was 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:17.080 called Club Penguin rewritten and thus evicted thousands of online players. 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:20.040 All Right, you might not know what this is. Club 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:24.640 Penguin was this online RPG that was marketed to younger audiences, 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:27.680 and in the game, players would be little cartoon penguins, 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:29.359 and they could do all sorts of cute c stuff, 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:32.800 playing various little games and things. Well, Disney bought that 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:36.840 property in two thousand seven, spinning at an incredible seven 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:39.960 hundred million dollars to do so. I'm not sure what 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:43.040 seven hundred million dollars for Club Penguin comes out to 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:45.880 in terms of per pound of penguin, but it's got 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:48.560 to be a lot. However, over the course of the 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:52.480 following decade, Club Penguin's relevance began to fade, and Disney 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:55.920 ultimately decided to shut down the main game. They launched 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.800 a couple of related products that didn't last very long either, 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:03.320 and fan would occasionally decide that they would get a 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:07.119 copy of the code for the game and host it 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:10.760 on a private server or a shared server, and they 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:13.679 would invite other folks to come and play. Now, sometimes 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:18.440 this led to pretty shady situations and dangerous situations where 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:22.360 you know you had some some schevy stuff happening, and Disney, 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:25.840 perhaps the most enthusiastic defender of copyright and IP that 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:30.159 ever existed, would go after these servers after discovering them, 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:33.119 and that is what happened with Club Penguin Rewritten. The 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:35.880 server hosting the copy was in England, and Disney got 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:39.120 hold of the City of London Police and pretty soon 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:42.720 the server administrators willingly surrendered the server to the authorities 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:44.919 and it got shut down. This is one of those 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:47.080 situations where I can kind of see both sides of 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:50.200 the issue. For fans, it is really frustrating when a 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:53.240 big company purchases an I P and then doesn't do 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:55.439 anything with it. They just hold onto it and that 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.879 means no one can do anything with it. Meanwhile, you 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.879 might really want to see another game or another product 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:05.760 in that line, and there's nothing you can do about it. 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:09.480 On the other hand, this is also a property that 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:12.320 Disney owns, so it has the right to do nothing 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:14.800 with it if it wants to. It stinks, but it 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.399 can um and if someone is ripping off the game 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:21.479 and shady stuff is going on, that can reflect badly 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:23.879 on Disney. I mean they do own the property, it 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:28.000 can still tarnish Disney's reputation. So they have a vested 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:30.560 interest in going after those kinds of things and shutting 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:34.800 it down. But we end this episode saluting our fallen 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:38.880 penguin friends. May you sled merrily through the cyber afterlife. 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:42.159 That's it for this episode. If you have suggestions for 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:44.880 topics I should cover on tech Stuff, you better get 0:20:44.880 --> 0:20:48.200 in those requests quick on Twitter because once Elon Musk 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:50.960 owns the place, I am out. But the handle we 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:54.359 use is text stuff hs W and I'll talk to 0:20:54.440 --> 0:21:02.880 you again. Really. So, tech Stuff is an I Heart 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:06.720 Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:09.840 the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:11.240 listen to your favorite shows.