WEBVTT - Tech News: Hack the Planet 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:16.160 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff tech News edition 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:21.520 for Tuesday, January five, twenty twenty one. I'm your host, 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:24.960 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:28.000 and I love all things tech. And welcome to the 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.960 very first episode of tech Stuff, covering tech news every 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:34.920 Tuesday and Thursday. And I'll bring you headlines from the 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:39.120 tech world and give you a little context and maybe 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:42.920 some of that old Strickland flair which usually manifests as 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.720 puns and stupid references. Spoiler alert, you'll get at least 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:49.800 one of those in this episode. So let's hit the 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:52.960 headlines now. In this first section, I thought I would 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:56.200 cover some of the heaviest topics, and our first is 0:00:56.280 --> 0:00:59.680 a big one. My top story is that a judge 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:02.880 in the United Kingdom has denied a request from the 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:06.960 United States to extradite Julian Assange to the u S. 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:11.880 Assange is the founder of Wiki Leaks, or is often 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:15.920 credited as such. That is, the organization dedicated to publishing 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:21.160 internal documents from governments, companies, and other organizations in an 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:26.360 effort to increase transparency. The official wiki Leaks site puts 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:29.880 it like this, Our goal is to bring important news 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:34.160 and information to the public. We provide an innovative, secure, 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:38.080 an anonymous way for sources to leak information to our journalists. 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:42.400 Then they mentioned that that way is their electronic dropbox. 0:01:43.120 --> 0:01:46.399 One of our most important activities is to publish original 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:50.600 source material alongside our news stories, so readers and historians 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:54.840 alike can see evidence of the truth end quote. The 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.600 organization has been connected to several high profile events around 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:03.800 the world, just early involving clandest in government activities or 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:08.799 ethically questionable corporate practices. Sometimes you end up getting both 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.200 at the same time, and as such, the organization is 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:17.640 frequently under let's call it intense scrutiny and pressure, political 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.040 and business and otherwise. It has also occasionally shown a 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:26.480 tendency to promote baseless conspiracy theories and be used as 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:31.079 sort of an end to push Asane's particular political views. 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:35.800 For example, during the twenty sixteen election cycle, WikiLeaks published 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:39.080 many reports that were seen as particularly harmful for Hillary 0:02:39.120 --> 0:02:45.000 Clinton's ultimately unsuccessful campaign to become president. In addition, Julian 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.480 Assange made statements saying Clinton would be a bad president 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:53.239 and later investigations showed that WikiLeaks representatives had sent numerous 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:56.720 messages to Donald Trump Jr. Coaching him on how the 0:02:56.760 --> 0:03:00.840 Trump campaign might contest election results of things not go 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:03.959 their way now. In the end, the election, of course, 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.280 went to Trump in twenty sixteen, but as we see 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:11.120 his administration push very hard to overturn the election results 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:14.360 from twenty twenty, it seems like some of that playbook 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:17.960 might still be in use. Various agencies in the United 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:21.200 States have been investigating Wiki leaks and Assange all the 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:26.600 way back since in a federal grand jury indicted Assange, 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:30.400 though at the time only a relatively small number of 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:34.120 people actually knew what that indictment was because it was 0:03:34.160 --> 0:03:39.120 a sealed indictment. However, in twenty nineteen, Assange lost his 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:43.440 asylum status at the Ecuador embassy in London. That in 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:47.480 itself is a long story. Assange had been there since, 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:52.960 but in twenty nineteen British officers would arrest Assange once 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.720 Ecuador no longer gave him asylum, and this all stemmed 0:03:56.760 --> 0:04:00.480 from a twenty twelve decision in which the UK was 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:04.240 going to extradite Assange to Sweden after Assange had become 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:07.600 the focus of a sexual assault case. Now that's when 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:11.880 Assange skipped bail and sought asylum at the Ecuador embassy. 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:15.400 So this arrest was in response to him skipping bail. 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:20.760 The Swedish authorities who were pursuing that sexual assault case 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:24.960 against Assange had dropped charges in twenty nineteen. Now, Sange, 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:27.039 for his part, said the only reason that he was 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.479 fighting extradition to Sweden in the first place was that 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:33.160 he saw that as a stepping stone for him getting 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.000 extradited to the United States. In other words, he was saying, 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:40.120 don't send me to Sweden because they're not really interested 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:42.680 in pursuing a case against me. There's no case against me. 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.080 They just want to get me so that I can 0:04:45.120 --> 0:04:47.920 then be sent to the United States. So the UK 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:52.159 authorities took a Sage into custody, and then American lawyers 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:54.920 delivered a couple of indictments and demanded a Sange be 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:58.200 extradited to the US to stand trial, which kind of 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:01.440 you know, goes to report what Assange was saying would 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:03.000 happen if he had been sent to Sweden in the 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.719 first place. So first up among those indictments was the 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:11.600 sealed indictment which related back to a league from Chelsea Manning, 0:05:12.080 --> 0:05:14.599 and we learned that this indictment charges a Sange with 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:20.640 conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. That's essentially a a hacker charge, 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.560 and it has a maximum of a five year sentence. 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:27.359 So while it's a crime, you wouldn't consider it something 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:33.159 that a country would spend a decade plus pursuing. However, 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:37.560 closely following that was another indictment, this one including seventeen 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.279 charges against a Sange and stating that he violated the 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:45.279 Espionage Act of nineteen seventeen. Now, this one is a 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:48.760 much more serious charge or series of charges, I guess 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:50.599 I should say, and it carries with it a potential 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.039 maximum sentence of more than a hundred fifty years in prison. 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:57.400 Now there's a lot to say about those charges, including 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:00.640 the implications of what it would mean for journals if 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:04.560 Assange were found guilty of them, but as of right 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:08.080 now that's a moot point because the UK judge denied 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:12.039 the extradition demands. The UK judge stated that Assange is 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.280 not mentally fit for such a thing, that he might 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:17.520 be a suicide risk were that to go through. So, 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:21.040 in other words, the request is denied due to concerns 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.760 for the health of the accused. The US can appeal 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:28.320 this decision, but as of this recording, Assange remains in 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.120 custody in the UK. There have been talks of a 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:35.240 possible presidential pardon from Donald Trump. That would be interesting 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:38.680 because it was largely his administration that has pushed for 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:42.919 the charges under the Espionage Act. The Obama administration chose 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:45.719 not to do that, largely because of those concerns of 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:48.920 how it would affect journalists. It's not like they had 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:52.400 a soft spot for Assange, but more that it was 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:56.880 hard to justify those charges if journalists would not be 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:59.760 held to the same measure. I'm sure we're gonna have 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:02.480 all lot more to talk about this story later on 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:06.120 this year. But moving on over at Google, more than 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:10.440 two hundred employees have signed cards supporting the formation of 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:16.560 an employee union called the Alphabet Workers Union. Employee union 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:20.040 is a difficult phrase for me to say, but Alphabet, 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:21.960 in case you weren't aware, is the name of the 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:26.680 holding company under which Google sits, along with companies like Weymo. 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:33.040 The unionization follows several instances and which employees collectively protested 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:37.640 Google corporate moves from being involved with military projects like 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:42.960 Project Maven to Google's forced arbitration policy. Now that last 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:45.680 one is a policy in which Google requires employees to 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:50.320 first pursue any concerns they might have that could even be, 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:53.320 you know, legal concerns. They have to first pursue them 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:57.440 internally with Google HR before they can then look to 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:03.200 external solutions like lead election. This became particularly important when 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:06.600 Andy Rubin, a former Google executive and father of the 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:12.680 Android smartphone platform, left Google amid sexual harassment allegations very 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:18.520 credible ones, while also pocketing a ninety million dollar exit package. 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:22.640 Membership in the union is being extended or will be extended, 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:26.520 not just a full time employees, but also Google contractors, 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.320 who lack many of the benefits that full time Googlers have. 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.600 They also represent the bulk of the workforce at Google. 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:38.880 The plan is for the Alphabet Workers Union to work 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:42.960 with the Communications Workers of America or c w A 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:47.400 in order to unionize, and if the process succeeds, Google 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:51.640 employees will devote a percentage reportedly one per cent of 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:56.240 their salary or their earnings from the company to union fees, 0:08:56.400 --> 0:09:00.000 which will pay for organization and legal fees, among other things. 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:03.280 Wings The hope is to put pressure on Google leadership, 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:06.959 which has been under criticism from multiple parties, both internally 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:10.600 and externally over the past few years for everything from 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:15.720 protecting executives from investigations into sexual harassment allegations to suppressing 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:22.200 employee attempts to organize protests. Next, Tesla just fell short 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:25.880 of its goal of producing five hundred thousand vehicles in 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:31.400 even with a global pandemic in play. The company reported 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:36.320 that it had shipped four hundred thousand, five hundred fifty 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:40.720 vehicles in the year, and that's pretty impressive. But also 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.120 it's a reminder that Elon Musk was a vocal opponent 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:48.640 of government measures aimed at reducing the spread of COVID nineteen. 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:53.400 He frequently promoted unscientific statements on Twitter, where he has 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.560 lots of followers, and that's a very polite way of 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:00.280 saying he was spreading misinformation like crazy, and he did 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:03.360 that several times about the virus throughout the year. He 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:07.600 also reopened his Tesla factory early. He defied a county 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:10.960 order that said that businesses like that were to remain 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.920 locked down and closed, and he just up and up 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:16.520 said no, we're going to reopen, and it didn't take 0:10:16.600 --> 0:10:19.360 long at all for COVID cases to break out among 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:23.480 the factory staff. As for Musk, he actually contracted COVID 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:28.359 as well in November. His case was reportedly a mild one, 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:32.920 and he perhaps changed his tune a little bit after that. 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.760 So Tesla very nearly made its production goal for twenty 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:40.800 but one does wonder what the cost of that was. 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:46.520 Let's switch on over to SpaceX, another company associated with 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:50.959 Elon Musk. SpaceX recently announced some interesting plans on how 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:54.559 the company is going to retrieve the super heavy rockets 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:59.880 for reuse. Uh So, right now SpaceX launch vehicles used 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:04.400 Alcon nine boosters, and these boosters have legs on them, 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:08.120 so the boosters actually will use their thrusters their engines 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:12.400 to orient themselves vertically and slow their descent and land 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:15.600 on those legs at the base of the boosters. But 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:21.559 SpaceX plans for the super heavy boosters to not have legs. 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:24.240 So how are those going to land safely so that 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:28.480 they can then be retrieved and prepped for future use. Well, 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:31.480 it's going to come down to the launch tower that's 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.800 used as a stabilizer for when the space vehicle initially 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.800 launches from Earth. If you've ever seen images or been 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:41.960 at a launch, you've seen, you know, the rocket, the 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:44.520 thing we think of as a rocket being very close 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:48.840 to a giant tower, a stabilization tower. That's the secret here. 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.840 So when the booster is returning to Earth after it 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:57.720 has launched its payload, the tower will help catch the 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:01.840 returning super heavy booster. The launch vehicle will use its 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:04.520 engines to orient itself and slow it's descent, just like 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:07.440 a Falcon nine would. So it's not like, you know, 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:09.080 they're just gonna rush up to the top of the 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:11.199 tower and put a big old catcher's mid on the 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:13.160 end of it so that it can, you know, try 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:17.040 and and catch that pop fly super booster. The arm 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:19.480 will have a essentially kind of a hook on it 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:23.520 in order to catch the booster as it descends slowly, 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:26.480 so the engines on the booster will be engaged, it 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:30.760 will be descending, and then it will descend next to 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:33.400 the tower so that the tower can hook on to 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:37.360 this super booster, and thus it never really touches down 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:39.600 on the ground. It hangs there at the end of 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:43.040 the the arm on the tower. Now, according to SpaceX. 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:45.200 The goal is to cut down on the costs of 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.280 building and operating the boosters because they won't you know, 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:52.880 need that extra material for legs, and it will also 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.839 potentially cut down on the time spent between launches. Now ideally, 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:01.000 the returning booster could be serviced on the very pad 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:04.520 that it launched from, prepping it for its next mission. 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:07.320 In fact, the company has the ambitious goal of making 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:11.360 the turnaround time less than an hour between touchdown and 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:15.199 the next launch, which is crazy. If SpaceX can make 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:18.960 that work, it would create the opportunity for an unprecedented 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:23.959 number of space applications, from satellite launches to spacecraft with 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:26.959 you know, actual human beings aborted. But all of this 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:30.040 right now is just in the planning stages. The super 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.240 heavy boosters themselves will not be ready for testing until later, 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:36.520 but it could be a super nifty way for us 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:39.680 to launch stuff into space and then reuse those very 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:43.120 expensive boosters. We've got a lot more news, but before 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:54.000 we get to that, let's take a quick break. Welcome back, 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:57.600 and now let's all get ready to be terrified as 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:00.480 we enter a news section I'd like to call I 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:04.960 just can't hack it because well, all has to do 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:08.800 with hacking. Now, when it comes to hacks, the Solar 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:12.920 Winds story just gets worse as time goes on. All right, 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:16.480 to catch you up, a company called Solar Winds makes 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:21.440 enterprise level software and it helps customers manage various I assets. 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.200 And we're talking about heavy duty software here, the type 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:27.320 of thing that would be used by you know, big 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:32.920 companies or even bigger government agencies and organizations. One of 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:36.080 those pieces of software is called Orion, which is a 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:40.760 particularly popular piece of I T management software that thousands 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:45.080 of Solar Winds customers rely upon, tens of thousands in fact, 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:50.080 and at some point hackers compromise the Orion software on 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:54.840 the Solar Winds side, So they managed to infiltrate and 0:14:55.000 --> 0:15:00.120 inject malicious code directly into the Orion code at the 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:04.560 Solar Winds location. And then that meant that whenever Solar 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:07.760 Winds would push out an update or a patch to 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:12.400 its customers, that malicious code went along for the ride. So, 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:16.440 if you're familiar with typical information security procedure, you know 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:19.200 it's usually a good idea to install patches when they 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:23.840 come out because those patches could address security vulnerabilities and 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:26.480 thus make you less likely to become a target. But 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:30.120 in this case, a patch would push out the malware 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:34.360 that would then infect customer systems and give hackers administrative 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:38.720 level access to their systems. According to Microsoft, a hacker 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:42.920 could impersonate any of the affected organizations existing users, which 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:48.320 is yawza. Microsoft said that its own systems were affected 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:52.720 quote beyond just the presence of malicious solar winds code 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:56.560 end quote, which does not sound like good news at all. 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:00.440 What is slightly better is that, according to micro Soft, 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:04.200 the hackers couldn't actually make changes to critical stuff. They 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:07.720 could snoop and they could view source code, so they 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:09.880 could go and look at the source code for various 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:14.240 Microsoft products. Which that's not great news for Microsoft. It 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:19.680 represents a potentially disastrous existential crisis for the company if 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:23.440 the source code for their products were to be released, Um, 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:26.120 that could mean that someone else could potentially, you know, 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:30.280 make their own version of Microsoft products. Well. The company 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.800 has also stated that none of its resources appear to 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:35.920 have been used by the hackers to attack other targets, 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:39.480 so that's also some good news. Now. The prevailing theory, 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:44.160 based on investigations, is that these hacks originated out of Russia, 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:48.640 and they constitute one of the largest espionage projects ever conducted. 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.360 Affected systems include those belonging to the US Department of 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:56.840 Homeland Security and the National Institutes of Health, among numerous 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:02.000 other high profile, highly sensitive department in US government. So 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:05.240 how is this attack so successful? Well, there are a 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:08.960 few contributing factors. One is that in an election year, 0:17:09.480 --> 0:17:13.320 much of the US cybersecurity assets were focusing on the election, 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:16.800 which may have meant fewer assets were available to monitor 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:21.000 everything else. Another is that the hackers were targeting a 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:25.359 trusted tool, compromising that tool, and then counting on the 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:28.280 software supply chain to do all the rest of the 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:32.879 work for them. They didn't have to distribute the malware 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:37.080 to all their various targets. They hit this one source 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.760 and it did the distribution for them, so they just 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.720 let solar Winds do all the work that way. And 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:47.280 of course all these companies and agencies had no reason 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:50.960 to suspect that solar Winds was going to compromise their systems. 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:54.520 They were a trusted partner. So the hackers themselves are 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.600 really careful, and they were able to escape detection until 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:02.520 December twenty and we still don't know when this attack 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:05.879 officially started. It looks like it started at least as 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:09.239 far back as March, but maybe earlier than that. We 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:13.520 don't know how bad the attack was, how how widespread 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:16.359 it is, and how deeply ingrained it is in various systems, 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:20.600 But I think it's safe for us to call it really, really, 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:26.320 really bad. I think that's on track. On Monday, January three, 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:29.600 twenty one, T Mobile revealed that it had been the 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:33.240 target of a security breach. Moreover, the hackers may have 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:37.639 gained access to sensitive information, including call related information made 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:41.320 by T Mobile customers. Now, according to the company, this 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:45.840 breach did not include stuff like customer names or their 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:51.320 addresses either snail mail or email, or their pen or 0:18:51.440 --> 0:18:55.760 their social Security number or their payment information or other 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:59.600 supersensitive data that would be really handy if someone had 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:02.879 the hint of stealing identities, so that part is good 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:07.120 that that information was not compromised. But at least some accounts, 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:11.360 maybe as many as two hundred thousand of them, were accessed. 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:15.960 Now according to T Mobile, the information that was accessible 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:20.760 may include stuff like phone numbers, number of lines subscribed to, 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:24.080 and in a small number of cases, some call related 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:28.560 information collected as part of normal operation and service. I 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:32.120 don't actually know what that means now. T Mobile has 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:34.960 a history of security breaches, so this is not great 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:38.280 news for them. There's currently an investigation into where those 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:41.600 hacks may have originated, and the company has reached out 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:45.560 to customers who were affected by this, the people who 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:50.199 own the accounts that were accessed. Moving on, ticket Master 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:55.200 is a big ticket sales and distribution company, and it 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.399 has venues as its clients. I often think of myself 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:01.520 as a ticket Master customer if I'm purchasing something to 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:05.359 go see a show or whatever, but really the big 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:10.159 customers for Ticketmaster are the theaters and concert venues and 0:20:10.200 --> 0:20:12.639 things like that. And the way this works is that 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:16.920 the venues will set aside tickets for Ticketmaster and they 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:20.400 get to decide what the face price value of those 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:24.040 tickets are. So if you see a ticket on Ticketmaster, 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:27.959 know that that price was decided upon by the venue, 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:32.159 not by Ticketmaster. But Ticketmaster does put in service fees 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:36.200 that generates revenue for the company. So if you've ever 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:39.399 seen a ticket where there's crazy high service fees, just 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:43.879 that's where Ticketmaster's revenue comes in. I have personally seen 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:48.600 tickets where the service fees were fifty of the ticket price, 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:53.040 which I think is truly ridiculous. Anyway, Ticketmaster was found 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:57.719 guilty of illegally accessing computer systems belonging to a competitor. So, 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:00.960 in other words, they were found guilty of hacking. And 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:05.240 in this case, the competitor was crowd Surge. Live Nation 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:10.440 that's a Ticketmaster's parent company hired a guy named Stephen 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:15.280 Meade in two thousand thirteen, and Mead was crowd Surge's 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:21.720 former general manager of US operations. Mead revealed passwords to 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:25.520 a tool called artist Toolbox, and that was an app 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:29.440 that provided real time data about tickets that were being 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:33.359 sold by crowd Surge. So Ticketmaster had an inside view 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:38.679 as to crowd surges actual business. Now, according to the charges, quote, 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:44.320 Ticketmasters employees brazenly held a division wide summit at which 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:48.320 the stolen passwords were used to access the victim company's computers, 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:52.680 as if that were an appropriate business tactic end quote. 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:56.560 Crowd Surge filed the lawsuit against Live Nation, you know, 0:21:56.560 --> 0:22:01.320 Ticketmaster's parent company, in so this shows that these cases 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:04.840 take a real long time to get through the entire 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:08.080 court system. Ticketmaster was found guilty. They're going to have 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:11.360 to pay a ten million dollar fine, and they also 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:14.640 have to create and maintain a compliance and ethics program 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:16.840 to prevent this sort of stuff from happening again in 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:21.959 the future. Also, the people who were primarily responsible for 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:25.879 this whole thing are no longer with the company. And 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:29.879 to round out our hackasan let's talk about Adobe Flash. 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:34.240 You remember Adobe Flash. It's the browser plug in that 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:38.080 was designed to allow for more rich web based content 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:43.160 and experiences. So Flash enabled a lot of that sort 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:46.639 of rich content stuff like audio and video, and and 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:50.840 games and other elements that became common on the web. 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:54.159 But the plug in also became a focal point for 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:57.200 various criticisms, especially by the time you get to about 0:22:57.280 --> 0:22:59.840 twenty ten or so. And the plug in was also 0:23:00.000 --> 0:23:03.440 owned to expose users to security vulnerabilities, which been it 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:07.159 offered up chances for hackers to exploit that plug in 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:12.360 and thus cause mischief. And generally speaking, it's a bad 0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:16.959 idea to install the security vulnerability into your system, as 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:20.080 all the people who are affected by this Solar Winds 0:23:20.119 --> 0:23:23.280 hack have learned. Now over the past several years, there's 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:26.320 been a pretty consistent move away from Flash to the 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:30.200 point that very few sites online still use it. Most 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:34.560 of them have switched to other tools, primarily HTML five, 0:23:34.680 --> 0:23:37.760 which supports a lot of the functionality of Flash, so 0:23:37.840 --> 0:23:42.880 you could build out web tools and web features that 0:23:43.200 --> 0:23:45.440 did the same thing Flash did, but without having to 0:23:45.480 --> 0:23:49.800 actually use the plug in in. Adobe announced it was 0:23:49.840 --> 0:23:52.240 going to end support for the Flash player by the 0:23:52.359 --> 0:23:57.720 end of twenty looking at my calendar, it is now so. 0:23:57.800 --> 0:24:01.320 Adobe says it will block content from running in Flash 0:24:01.320 --> 0:24:05.160 players starting on January twelve of this year, and Adobe 0:24:05.280 --> 0:24:09.680 also urges all users who have the Flash browser plug 0:24:09.720 --> 0:24:14.560 in to uninstall it on their computers because it will 0:24:14.680 --> 0:24:18.360 at that point only represent a potential open door for hackers. 0:24:18.359 --> 0:24:23.720 There will be no legitimate use for Flash at that stage. Okay, 0:24:24.160 --> 0:24:28.480 we've gotten through the hacking news for this Tuesday. Let's 0:24:28.520 --> 0:24:31.960 move on to something else after we take this quick break. 0:24:39.600 --> 0:24:43.240 Let's wrap up our first tech stuff news episode with 0:24:43.400 --> 0:24:47.959 a few eclectic items, and we're gonna go back to Microsoft. 0:24:48.040 --> 0:24:50.639 So besides the fact that they're dealing with the solar 0:24:50.680 --> 0:24:53.200 winds problem, which I'm not gonna go back into, that's 0:24:53.200 --> 0:24:59.240 the bummer, right, Microsoft has planned a revamp for Windows, apparently, 0:24:59.760 --> 0:25:03.400 not that the company has necessarily said anything officially. However, 0:25:03.960 --> 0:25:08.280 The Verge reported that a job listing on Microsoft's site 0:25:08.960 --> 0:25:11.560 would be the source of this big piece of news, 0:25:11.600 --> 0:25:15.480 and that job listing, which was for a software engineer, says, quote, 0:25:15.960 --> 0:25:19.400 on this team, you'll work with our key platform Surface 0:25:19.600 --> 0:25:22.359 and O e M partners to orchestrate and deliver a 0:25:22.480 --> 0:25:27.120 sweeping visual rejuvenation of Windows experiences, to signal to our 0:25:27.160 --> 0:25:31.520 customers that Windows is back, and ensure that Windows is 0:25:31.560 --> 0:25:36.560 considered the best user OS experience for customers. End quote. Now, 0:25:36.560 --> 0:25:39.800 I don't think they should call to come back. Windows 0:25:39.800 --> 0:25:42.400 has been here for years, so I don't know if 0:25:42.400 --> 0:25:48.639 the ladies love Windows. Interestingly, it's kind of cool and 0:25:48.720 --> 0:25:52.520 weird to see Microsoft really turn its attention two Windows. 0:25:53.000 --> 0:25:56.919 Jerry Nixon once called Windows tend the quote last version 0:25:56.920 --> 0:26:00.920 of Windows end quote, meaning that Microsoft would push out 0:26:01.040 --> 0:26:05.520 updates to that OS over time, but Windows ten would 0:26:05.600 --> 0:26:09.520 just remain the official operating system of Microsoft, rather than 0:26:09.560 --> 0:26:13.080 going with an all new version. So this story seems 0:26:13.080 --> 0:26:16.639 to support that because we're not talking about Windows eleven, 0:26:17.119 --> 0:26:21.360 so that to me is kind of fascinating. Various reports 0:26:21.400 --> 0:26:24.480 say that Microsoft is planning some changes to the user 0:26:24.520 --> 0:26:28.200 interface of Windows ten and to modernize it. Now, here's 0:26:28.200 --> 0:26:30.960