Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and I love all things tech. And this is the
Speaker 1: tech news for Tuesday, August twenty four, twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: Let's get to it, because there's a lot to cover.
Speaker 1: The crisis in Afghanistan is devastating, but there are some
Speaker 1: interesting ways that tech and tech related companies are trying
Speaker 1: to help the people of Afghanistan. For example, Airbnb, which
Speaker 1: often gets lumped in with tech companies because of the
Speaker 1: software that handles bookings and such, has announced it will
Speaker 1: supply temporary housing to up to twenty thousand Afghan refugees.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of people, but that's less than half
Speaker 1: of those the US says it has evacuated for Afghanistan
Speaker 1: so far, with thousands more attempting to flee the country.
Speaker 1: Airbnb says it will fund the stays for those refugees,
Speaker 1: giving them a safe place to live while they look
Speaker 1: for more permanent housing. Airbnb CEO Brian Cheski called quote
Speaker 1: the displacement and resettlement of Afghan refugees in the US
Speaker 1: and elsewhere one of the biggest humanitarian crises of our
Speaker 1: time end quote, which I think is a pretty darn
Speaker 1: good summary. He also said he hopes that other leaders
Speaker 1: of business will step up to try and help as well,
Speaker 1: and I hope the same thing. In related news and
Speaker 1: Afghan app called at t Sab, and my apologies for
Speaker 1: butchering the pronunciation of that is trying to help the
Speaker 1: people of Kabul stay safe. The app publishes real time
Speaker 1: reports of conflict, including you know, reports of gunfire or explosions.
Speaker 1: It also reports on traffic congestion as well, clearly very
Speaker 1: important if there's an incident going on in the area,
Speaker 1: and it's all in service of keeping the people of
Speaker 1: the city informed and hopefully safe from harm. A ground
Speaker 1: team in Cabool actually supplies the reports, so this isn't
Speaker 1: some sort of automated service. It's rather one that's powered
Speaker 1: by real humans that are on the scene. The team
Speaker 1: posts the reports to a private WhatsApp group, and then
Speaker 1: there's another team of fact checkers who review the reports
Speaker 1: for accuracy. They remove any that are you know, unsubstantiated
Speaker 1: in an effort to cut down on misinformation or perhaps
Speaker 1: even disinformation. The app includes the ability to use location
Speaker 1: data to send relevant alerts to people who could be
Speaker 1: affected that way. Let's say that there's an incident in
Speaker 1: your area, you would learn through it. You know about
Speaker 1: it through the app through a notification, but for stuff
Speaker 1: that would be happening, say across the other side of
Speaker 1: the city, you wouldn't necessarily get that alert. Sarah Wa Hindi,
Speaker 1: who founded the app, actually escape Cable for a second time,
Speaker 1: I should add, and has worked to raise money from
Speaker 1: within Afghanistan to support her efforts. She also recently took
Speaker 1: steps to protect her employees in Afghanistan. She went to
Speaker 1: delete all information about the female employees of the company
Speaker 1: in order to protect them as the Taliban was advancing
Speaker 1: across Afghanistan. The Taliban has extremist beliefs regarding women, such
Speaker 1: as they have to remain at home unless they are
Speaker 1: accompanied by a male relative. That's one of many incredibly
Speaker 1: extreme rules the Taliban seeks to impose upon the population.
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'll be reporting on more stories from Afghanistan
Speaker 1: in future episodes, but for now, let's switch our focus elsewhere.
Speaker 1: So from Afghanistan to Malaysia, it's time to talk about
Speaker 1: the semiconductor shortage and COVID nineteen again. Now, we've been
Speaker 1: in a shortage of semiconductors for several months now, with
Speaker 1: practically retext sector affected as a result of this, from
Speaker 1: personal computers to video game consoles, to automobiles and beyond.
Speaker 1: We're seeing the shortage impact the supply chains of multiple
Speaker 1: industries and this has a ripple effect on stuff like pricing.
Speaker 1: For example, the auto market has seen skyrocketing prices, which
Speaker 1: is in part a consequence of this shortage. Though it
Speaker 1: does get a bit more complicated than that. So what
Speaker 1: does Malaysia have to do with all of this, Well,
Speaker 1: the country has become an important part of the supply
Speaker 1: chain for semiconductors. UH. They are a large center in
Speaker 1: semiconductor testing, so they do a lot of the testing
Speaker 1: of the tech to make sure that it's actually working
Speaker 1: so q a UH. They also are a big part
Speaker 1: of packaging, so they're part of that process too. But
Speaker 1: COVID cases have been on the rise in Malaysia and
Speaker 1: the seven day average of reported daily infections has gone
Speaker 1: above windy thousand cases, which is pretty astonishing. The Malaysian
Speaker 1: government has already granted certain exemptions to the manufacturing industries
Speaker 1: in the country in an effort to keep the economy going,
Speaker 1: essentially saying, you know, we're supposed to lock down, but
Speaker 1: we're dependent upon you for our economy, so you can
Speaker 1: continue to operate. But that has also meant that some
Speaker 1: of these factories have had to shut down completely for
Speaker 1: weeks at a time due to infected employees coming into work.
Speaker 1: There's a serious vaccination push within Malaysia at the moment,
Speaker 1: and according to the Health Ministry, fifty seven percent of
Speaker 1: the country's population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Speaker 1: We're likely to see the effects of these disruptions for
Speaker 1: months to come across multiple product lines, and businesses are
Speaker 1: likely to struggle with keeping production going as they encounter
Speaker 1: component shortages. While the semiconductor shortage is a huge headache
Speaker 1: for the automotive industry, one company in particular is dealing
Speaker 1: with a different technical problem, and that company is GM,
Speaker 1: which has announced a recall of the Chevrolet Bolt as
Speaker 1: in all of them. Every single Bolt vehicle that has
Speaker 1: been manufactured and sold, including the newest ones on the market,
Speaker 1: are all part of this recall. The issue is one
Speaker 1: that folks in the text space have seen before, which
Speaker 1: is battery problems, as in, you know, lithium batteries that
Speaker 1: catch fire on their own. The batteries and Chevy bolts
Speaker 1: come from the company l G. It's LG KIM to
Speaker 1: be specific, and GM says after an investigation, the company
Speaker 1: discovered ten cases in which faulty batteries caught fire. GM
Speaker 1: traced the issue to two separate manufacturing problems that together
Speaker 1: created a short circuit. And just in case you've heard
Speaker 1: that term but you don't actually know what it means,
Speaker 1: I'll give you a quick explanation. So electricity flows through
Speaker 1: conductors right like you have a conductive substance, electricity can
Speaker 1: flow to it. Well. Circuits are essentially a pathway made
Speaker 1: out of conductive elements, and electricity will follow down this
Speaker 1: pathway and somewhere along the way, the electricity does some work.
Speaker 1: So like the classic example is it lights a lightbulb
Speaker 1: or whatever before it continues on the rest of the
Speaker 1: pathway and ends at the other terminal. But if you
Speaker 1: were to create a shortcut that bypassed the lightbulb and
Speaker 1: went from one terminal to the other directly, electricity would
Speaker 1: take that path. It would be the easiest path for
Speaker 1: it to get to where it quote unquote wants to go.
Speaker 1: And when you're talking about batteries, if you create a
Speaker 1: shortcut for electrons to go from the negative terminal to
Speaker 1: the positive terminal really quickly, well, the battery tends to
Speaker 1: heat up because the electrochemical process that generates the electrons
Speaker 1: in the first place, it ramps up faster and faster,
Speaker 1: and this can lead to a fire or even an explosion.
Speaker 1: That was the case with Samsung's Galaxy phone a few
Speaker 1: years ago, and it appears to be a similar issue
Speaker 1: with a Chevy Bolt. GM says that the recalls, which
Speaker 1: cover more than one thousand vehicles, are likely to cost
Speaker 1: the company nearly two billion dollars, and it also said
Speaker 1: it plans to seek reimbursement from LG, which just makes
Speaker 1: me think of a very advanced version of the joke
Speaker 1: from Better Off Dead two billion dollars, I want my
Speaker 1: two billion dollars. I don't know how many of you
Speaker 1: out there have actually seen Better Off Dead and recognize
Speaker 1: that reference, but never mind. Making dense batteries is a challenge,
Speaker 1: like making batteries that can hold enough energy storage so
Speaker 1: that they can do what we need them to do
Speaker 1: that's already very hard to do, making them in mass quantities,
Speaker 1: while ruling out defects is even harder. But these are
Speaker 1: challenges that will need to overcome as the world creeps
Speaker 1: towards electrification of vehicle fleets. Right if we start to
Speaker 1: push more and more towards electric vehicles, which you know,
Speaker 1: we should in an effort to remove transportation as a
Speaker 1: big source of carbon emissions, while we obviously have to
Speaker 1: make sure that the batteries that were depending upon are
Speaker 1: reliable and safe. US President Joe Biden is reportedly hosting
Speaker 1: a cybersecurity meeting in the near future, and big names
Speaker 1: like Apple CEO Tim Cook and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
Speaker 1: are among the guest list. The assumption is that this
Speaker 1: group will be called to discuss recent high profile cybersecurity
Speaker 1: issues such as the rise of ransomware and the emergence
Speaker 1: of supply chain cyber attacks. And just to define some terms,
Speaker 1: ransomware is a specific subset of malware that locks down
Speaker 1: systems or otherwise makes data inaccessible to users unless they
Speaker 1: pay a ransom to the hackers, typically in the form
Speaker 1: of cryptocurrency. These attacks can center on individuals like you
Speaker 1: could get targeted by a ransomware attack, but it's more
Speaker 1: common to see hacker take aim at really big organizations
Speaker 1: where they can have a really big payday, particularly ones
Speaker 1: that rely heavily on digital information, such as healthcare organizations
Speaker 1: where that is critical to their operation, or you know,
Speaker 1: companies in the tech sector in general. A supply chain
Speaker 1: attack is a an attack where hackers focus on the
Speaker 1: company that supplies software to other companies. So imagine a
Speaker 1: company that creates like administrative software that's used in corporate offices,
Speaker 1: and you've got a lot of organizations, like big companies
Speaker 1: that rely on this particular administrative product. That's what they
Speaker 1: use to keep their records or whatever. So these hackers
Speaker 1: in this case would go in and target that software company.
Speaker 1: They would try to infiltrate that company systems and then
Speaker 1: plant malware into the code of a software patch. And
Speaker 1: then when the patch goes out to all the company's customers,
Speaker 1: the customers, because they trust the software patch because it's
Speaker 1: coming from a known source, it's coming from a vendor
Speaker 1: they work with, they install that patch, and unknowingly they
Speaker 1: introduced the malware into their own systems. This is the
Speaker 1: sort of thing we suspected happened with solar winds, though
Speaker 1: later reports made that a little more muddy and complicated.
Speaker 1: The Verge published an article about this. But the companies
Speaker 1: I see listed, which include the Southern Company, IBM, Google, JP,
Speaker 1: Morgan Chase, and Amazon in addition to Google and Apple,
Speaker 1: all these companies are are obviously big tech companies. They
Speaker 1: or they are related to tech, or depend heavily on tech. Undoubtedly,
Speaker 1: they all have departments that focus on cybersecurity, but none
Speaker 1: of them are actual cyber security companies. And I'm curious
Speaker 1: if the White House is also inviting security researchers from
Speaker 1: one of or maybe more than one of the big
Speaker 1: security research firms out there, in addition to these high
Speaker 1: profile companies. I don't know. The White House hasn't really
Speaker 1: commented on it. We have some more stories to cover,
Speaker 1: but before we get to that, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1: We're back turning to Apple. Apple turnomer. The company recently
Speaker 1: announced that employees will not be returning to the office
Speaker 1: in October after all, and October was already delayed. The
Speaker 1: original plan was to come back in September, but then
Speaker 1: the company pushed that back to October, and CEO Tim
Speaker 1: Cook famously posted a memo that talked up the benefits
Speaker 1: of being at work in an office environment with the
Speaker 1: announcement that employees would be expected to go into the
Speaker 1: office at least three days a week. While Apple employees
Speaker 1: objected to this, and an internal survey showed that the
Speaker 1: majority of employees were not in favor of a return
Speaker 1: to the office while the pandemic was still going on
Speaker 1: well due to coronavirus numbers continuing to rise and the
Speaker 1: dangers of the delta variant as well as other ants.
Speaker 1: Now Apple employees won't be expected to return to the
Speaker 1: office until January of next year. Now I'm thankful for that,
Speaker 1: because I really think pushing to go back to the
Speaker 1: office while the numbers are so bad is beyond irresponsible.
Speaker 1: Other tech companies like Facebook and Amazon have made similar
Speaker 1: decisions for a corporate employees, and that brings me to
Speaker 1: another point that I need to stress this really does
Speaker 1: only apply to corporate employees. The people who work in
Speaker 1: the corporate offices of these companies. Amazon and Apple both
Speaker 1: still have employees who have to go to work in
Speaker 1: various like warehouses and stores and whatnot, so there is
Speaker 1: a sharp divide here. Right. The corporate employees are allowed
Speaker 1: to continue to work remotely, but other employees they're required
Speaker 1: to go in and that's a pretty tough issue to
Speaker 1: get into. I'm gonna save that for a full episode
Speaker 1: because I do think it's something that we need to
Speaker 1: talk about. In other Apple News, employees are organizing at
Speaker 1: the company to voice concerns about the company these policies, processes,
Speaker 1: and culture. As part of that strategy, the employees have
Speaker 1: launched a website. That website is Apple to dot us.
Speaker 1: That's Apple t oo dot us. They have issued a
Speaker 1: statement about their plans, which I'll read part of right now. Quote.
Speaker 1: For too long, Apple has evaded public scrutiny. The truth
Speaker 1: is that for many Apple workers are reality faced disproportionately
Speaker 1: by our black, Indigenous, and other colleagues from minoritized, racial, gender,
Speaker 1: and historically marginalized groups of people. The culture of secrecy
Speaker 1: creates an opaque, intimidating fortress. When we press for accountability
Speaker 1: and redress to the persistent injustices we witness or experience
Speaker 1: in our workplace, we are faced with a pattern of isolation, degradation,
Speaker 1: and gas lighting. No more. We've exhausted all internal avenues
Speaker 1: We've talked with our leadership, we've gone to the people team,
Speaker 1: we've escalated through business conduct. Nothing has changed. It's time
Speaker 1: to think different. A group of Apple workers have joined
Speaker 1: together to organize and protect ourselves. We are asking fellow
Speaker 1: Apple workers who want to see real change at Apple
Speaker 1: to share their stories. End quote. This statement goes on
Speaker 1: there's actually a lot more at the website, but you
Speaker 1: can read the whole thing at Apple two dot us.
Speaker 1: According to the Verge, the group of employees consisted of
Speaker 1: around fifteen current and former Apple employees, so not not
Speaker 1: a huge group. However, they are already getting support among
Speaker 1: other current and former Apple employees who are posting their
Speaker 1: stories and the site is publishing them as well. As
Speaker 1: some of these stories are getting published in internal communications
Speaker 1: channels like Slack channels and stuff at Apple. So we
Speaker 1: will continue to follow this story as it develops. And
Speaker 1: now for some stories about hacking and cryptocurrency. The Verge
Speaker 1: reports that a hacker who stole around six hundred million
Speaker 1: dollars worth a cryptocurrency from a company called the Polly
Speaker 1: Network has returned the assets. And you might be saying, what,
Speaker 1: and I mean, I know I was, well it turns
Speaker 1: out that this particular hacker found an exploit and decided
Speaker 1: to take the assets and then store those assets, those
Speaker 1: stolen cryptocurrencies into a trusted account while the hacker then
Speaker 1: communicated with Polly Network and Polly Network worked to patch
Speaker 1: the vulnerability. Apparently, the hacker decided to do this because
Speaker 1: they felt it was just a matter of time before
Speaker 1: someone else spotted this vulnerability and then stole crypto. But
Speaker 1: for real zes, this hacker a a white hat hacker type,
Speaker 1: was really making a big statement, and so once Polly
Speaker 1: fixed the problem, the hacker returned all those assets, and
Speaker 1: the Polly network then invited the hacker to serve as
Speaker 1: the chief security adviser for the company, which was kind
Speaker 1: of cute, and the hacker even asked that some of
Speaker 1: the hacker's own money taken from a half million dollar
Speaker 1: bounty that Polly Network paid for the reporting of the
Speaker 1: bug in the first place, that some of that might
Speaker 1: should be distributed to the quote unquote survivors of the
Speaker 1: escapade to make up for the inconvenience and stress of
Speaker 1: having money stolen, even though it was just a temporary thing.
Speaker 1: No word yet on whether Polly customers will stick with
Speaker 1: the company in the wake of this experience, or if
Speaker 1: they'll look to port their assets to some other organization. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: in Sweden, authorities are legally required to return bitcoins to
Speaker 1: a convicted drug dealer because of the way things were
Speaker 1: worded during the dealer's sentencing. See after being convicted of
Speaker 1: the crime of dealing drugs, the court ruled that the
Speaker 1: dealer should be stripped of his earnings as a drug dealer.
Speaker 1: Those earnings were in bitcoin. He had earned thirty six
Speaker 1: bitcoin as a drug dealer, and around the time when
Speaker 1: he was arrested, those bitcoin were worth around a hundred
Speaker 1: thirty seven thousand dollars. Now, apparently the sentencing framed this
Speaker 1: in the form of standard Swedish currency rather than bitcoin,
Speaker 1: saying all right, well, we need the the equivalent amount
Speaker 1: in cash seized from this drug dealer. But by the
Speaker 1: time the Swedish enforcement authority was ready to actually auction
Speaker 1: off the cryptocurrency to get the equivalent cash, the value
Speaker 1: of bitcoin had increased dramatically and the whole one seven
Speaker 1: thousand dollars worth of fine only required three bitcoins to
Speaker 1: cover it. And because the court didn't demand the bitcoin instead,
Speaker 1: they demanded that cash equivalent of bitcoin at the time
Speaker 1: of sentencing, which was around a hundred thirty seven thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: That meant that the other thirty three bitcoin could not
Speaker 1: be auctioned off because the court had already received the
Speaker 1: amount of money and had demanded and those thirty three
Speaker 1: bitcoin had to be returned to the drug dealer and
Speaker 1: that is now worth around one point six million dollars.
Speaker 1: Apparently crime does pay, and this is another example of
Speaker 1: how courts around the world are really struggling to keep
Speaker 1: up with how things change in the text space. Uh
Speaker 1: and a lot of people have said, well, this just
Speaker 1: shows that the sentencing needs to be more specific about
Speaker 1: taking the bitcoin that was earned as opposed to the
Speaker 1: cash equivalent of whatever the bitcoins value was at that time.
Speaker 1: Lesson learned. Alright, that wraps up the big news stories
Speaker 1: for Tuesday, August one. Will be back later in the
Speaker 1: week with some more. If you have suggestions for topics
Speaker 1: I should cover on Tech Stuff, reach out to me.
Speaker 1: The easiest way to get in touch with me is
Speaker 1: over on Twitter. The handle for the show is text
Speaker 1: stuff H s W and I'll talk to you again
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