WEBVTT - Tech News: US Defense Contractors Flunk Basic Cybersecurity 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:14.800 He there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:18.440 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio. And 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:21.520 how the tech are you. It's time for the tech 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:27.720 news for a Thursday, December one, two thousand twenty two. 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:32.680 Where did the year go? Yet again? I at the 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:35.400 end of a year. I feel like the previous year 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:40.280 both lasted an eternity and was over in the blink 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.159 of an eye. I don't know how that is possible. 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:47.559 I guess it's cause Einstein found out time is relative. Man, 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:52.000 that guy was the worst. Okay, let's get to it. 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:55.360 I am I'm kidding about Einstein. Let's get to the 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:59.880 tech news so far this week, and um, it's getting 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.360 little quiet, which is fine. Usually we do see tech 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:06.360 news quiet down towards the end of the year, gearing 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.240 up to c e s and then things get back 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:13.720 into crazy town. So, first up, we have a scary 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:18.120 situation here in the United States. I think it's pretty 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:21.520 well understood by just about everybody that cyber attacks and 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:26.600 cyber warfare are a constant threat. Really, they're constantly happening, 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:31.800 whether it's from state sponsored hacking groups that are working 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:36.600 on behalf of a government, or quote unquote independent groups 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:40.720 that claim to merely be aligned with some nations goals 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:44.720 but not actually you know, sponsored by that nation, or 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:48.920 maybe it's a cyber criminal organization. But we've seen tons 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:54.000 of attacks on various high profile targets all around the world. Well, 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:58.400 the scary thing I read is that, according to cybersecurity researchers, 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:04.840 eighty seven per cent of US defense contractors failed to 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:11.720 meet basic cybersecurity regulations. Eighty seven per cent failed. That 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:17.359 is a sobering thought. Infosecurity Magazines James Coker explains that 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:21.160 to get a passing grade, they must achieve a score 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:26.200 of seventy on the Supplier Risk Performance System as designed 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:31.919 by the Pentagon. Only of defense contractors managed to do that. 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:35.400 By the way, to be considered fully compliant, you would 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:39.040 have to achieve a score of one ten. So yeah, 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:42.640 this is a little like flunking your big math test, 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:45.480 except in this case, your math test describes how prepared 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:49.480 you are for cyber attacks and security intrusions. And considering 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:53.720 we're talking about key contractors in the supply chain for 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:56.600 the U. S Department of Defense, and that We've had 0:02:56.720 --> 0:03:01.040 so much conversation of the last two years about importance 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:06.640 and delicacy of supply chains. This is a huge problem now, y'all. 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:09.160 I have complained in the past about how the average 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:14.200 person it's pretty bad at practicing basic infosecurity measures, but 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:19.679 this is unfathomable to me. You would think that these companies, 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:23.760 given the business that they are in, would be particularly careful, 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:27.840 as they would clearly be high profile targets for hackers. 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:30.680 But it appears the opposite is true now. In James 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:35.160 Coker's article, which is called majority of US defense contractors 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:41.280 not meeting basic cybersecurity requirements, well, he explains part of 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:44.320 the problem is that traditionally the US government hasn't been 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:49.000 super good at cracking down on these requirements. And you know, 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:51.040 you just have to look at kids to know if 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.480 a rule is not being enforced, well, you might just 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:56.480 feel like there's no need to observe the rule in 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.640 the first place, Like it's almost the same as no 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.680 rule being there at all. Coker also points out that 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:06.920 some of these contractors are, you know, smaller companies, They're 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:13.120 not like huge defense contractors, and not all of them 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:16.880 have the assets or experience or knowledge base that you 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.919 find in some of the larger organizations, and that the 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.720 learning curve to adopting proper security measures is a pretty 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.480 steep one. It can be tough to do, and that 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:28.719 may well be the case, but I maintain that when 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:33.640 you consider the potential consequences of a security intrusion into 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:37.400 the supply chain of national defense, having to buckle down 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:41.000 in order to meet regulations is a tiny price to pay. 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:44.760 While we're on the subject of infosecurity, I have in 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.640 the past recommended that people adopt password vault systems so 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.840 that they can create and store strong passwords for all 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:55.479 the online services they use, and I still think that's 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:58.600 a really good idea. I use one myself. You know 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.320 you don't want to reu is the same password at all? 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.240 You don't. I mean, you might want to for the 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:06.919 sake of convenience, but you don't for the sake of security. 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:09.680 You also want each of your passwords to be difficult 0:05:09.720 --> 0:05:12.919 to guess, and that means making each password really hard 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:15.200 to remember. Because by difficult to guess, we're not just 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.159 talking about for humans. We're talking about for computers too. 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:21.599 Now you can do something really clever like you can 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:25.960 pick say, three unrelated words for each service, and you 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:28.800 string these three words together and that makes your password. 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:30.839 This is actually a really good way to make a 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:35.240 strong password. But even then, as you add more passwords, 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.200 like as you have more and more services that you're 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:40.599 doing this for, it can get a little tricky to 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.960 remember which string of words you used for which service. 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.880 So password vaults help out in this case, right, Typically 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:51.640 you use one master password in order to access the vault, 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.159 and then everything else is stored in the vault so 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:56.960 you don't have to remember it well. One such password 0:05:57.040 --> 0:06:01.000 vault is last Pass, and unfortunately, hackers were able to 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:05.159 access a cloud storage service used by last pass, and 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:09.000 they were able to access quote unquote certain elements of 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:13.480 last pass users information. Now, there hasn't really been any 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:18.160 clarification on what that means exactly, like what information was accessed, 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:23.479 and very little on if anything was even you know, taken. 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:28.040 But presumably any passwords accessed are heavily encrypted, which at 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.360 the very least makes it unlikely that the hackers are 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.600 able to do anything with the information they stole, at 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:37.640 least not right away. Further, last Pass says it does 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:42.000 not store master passwords at all. That instead, when you 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.799 put in your master password, it goes through what's called 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:49.560 a one way salted hash. So this is an encryption 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:54.000 process that is not reversible, and it generates this jumble 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:57.560 of characters that can then be used as a key. Anyway, 0:06:57.600 --> 0:06:59.800 if you use last Pass, you might want to look 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:02.680 in to see just you know what, if anything the 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:06.279 service is recommending you do. It might be to change 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:10.040 your master password, which you know you should be doing 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:14.400 on the rag anyway, and I still think password vaults 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:16.800 are a critical security tool for the average person. By 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.840 the way, I actually use one myself. I used to 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:22.400 use last Pass, but now I use a different one, 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:26.119 So I mean I didn't have any issues with last Pass, 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:29.320 I just kind of switched to a different service. But yeah, 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:33.720 I still think that they're all, you know, important elements 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:38.080 to personal data security. A few weeks back, the Washington 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:41.680 Post published an article linking a software company to a 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:45.480 US military contractor that raised a lot of eyebrows. So 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:50.000 this software company is called trust Core Systems. That's a 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.880 t R U S t c O R Systems, and 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.320 it's in the business of issuing digital certificates, which is 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:00.360 an important part of making sure that the sites you 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:05.080 visit are in fact legitimate. So certificates are what tell 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:09.240 browsers that a site is trustworthy, that there's been this 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:15.000 designated authority or hundreds of them actually that ends up 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:18.880 generating this certificate that says, yes, you can trust this website. 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:21.760 So there are hundreds of these companies that you know, 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:25.240 issue these kinds of certificates, and trust Core is one 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:29.160 of them. But according to the Washington Post, trust Core 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:34.040 has the same slate of officers, agents and partners as 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.880 a company that's been known to make spywear and is 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:43.520 in turn connected to a defense company called Packet Forensics. Now, 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:47.160 when you hear the name packet Forensics, that suggests a 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:51.439 company that's in the business of analyzing data transmissions, possibly 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:55.640 to intercept communications and pass intelligence along to US government agencies. 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:59.320 So this starts to paint a pretty ugly picture. You've 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:03.480 got a company it's in charge of certifying trustworthiness that's 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:08.120 tied to a company that is effectively spying on digital transmissions. 0:09:08.600 --> 0:09:12.080 The association has been enough for both Microsoft and Mozilla 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:16.320 to stop trusting certificates from trust Core, which kind of 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:18.920 seems to have an ironic name now doesn't it, and 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:22.839 other browsers are likely to follow a suit anyway. Everybody's 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:25.240 a spy, kind of like how in the john Wick 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:29.280 movies everybody is an assassin. I mean, seriously, the entire 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.280 economy in the john Wick universe must be assassin based. 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:38.160 I guess that's a discussion for a different podcast. Across 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.560 the pond, in the UK, more than one hundred thousand 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:45.880 small businesses have joined in a class action lawsuit against Google, 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:49.920 and they are seeking more than thirteen point five billion 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:54.640 British pounds and lost ad revenues. So these are mostly 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:59.760 publishers and related businesses, and they're saying that they cannot 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:02.040 come peat against Google when it comes to the online 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:06.760 ad business, which is a business that Google definitively dominates. 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:10.120 I mean, you just can't deny that claim. It is 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:15.080 obvious that Google dominates online advertising. But these companies also 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:19.360 say that Google, through this domination, can essentially dictate pricing 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:23.600 and other terms of ad deals, and that this affects 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.680 the overall ad industry, that these other companies have no 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:32.880 choice but to follow Google's lead because Google is so 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:36.560 powerful and has so much weight in the industry that 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:40.880 all terms are defined by Google, and that Google is 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.440 acting more or less as a monopoly, at least as 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.800 far as settling these terms. So the lawsuit argues that 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.079 these smaller companies have had to sell ad space for 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.800 much less than they should, losing out on up to 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:56.720 of their AD revenue since January one, two thousand fourteen. 0:10:57.200 --> 0:10:59.520 Now we'll have to keep an eye on this lawsuit 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.320 to see where it goes, But in general, this falls 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:05.840 in line with this larger trend we've been seeing in 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:10.360 tech as more regulators, politicians, and even smaller companies are 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:17.079 pushing back against big text dominant position in various markets. Okay, 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:19.360 that's the first section of tech News. We're gonna take 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:22.960 a quick break. When we come back, it's everybody's favorite 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:25.280 guy to talk about in tech. Things are about to 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:37.760 get muskie, but first this break. Okay, we're back and 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.280 it's time for the Elon Must section of the show. 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:42.920 But this will be relatively short. We've only got a 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:45.440 couple of stories. So first up, and this is a 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.720 tiny one, but over in China, Tesla has had to 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.720 issue a recall or recall, I guess that's how we 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:57.000 should say that on more than four five thousand Tesla 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.720 vehicles in order to address a problem with side marker 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:03.880 lights on the cars, which were determined that you know, 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:09.760 under extreme circumstances, could potentially contribute to catastrophic car accidents. 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:13.400 But a recall ain't a recall, at least not like 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:15.960 it was in the old days, because in this case, 0:12:16.000 --> 0:12:19.679 the recall is actually an over the air firmware update, 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.000 So owners are not going to have to take their 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:25.520 vehicles anywhere. They're not gonna have to go back to 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:27.880 like the dealership or something and give up their car 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.800 for any length of time. It'll actually be issued over 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:36.240 the air, and it still qualifies as a recall legally, 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:39.960 even though you know the drivers just it just means 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:43.200 that their their lights will behave slightly differently from one 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.160 day to the next. Honestly, I do think it's super 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:49.320 cool that cars have reached a level of sophistication in 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:52.480 which at least some issues can be fixed just by 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.199 sending out an update and you don't have to take 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:57.920 it back. It is kind of odd that we have 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.199 this sort of antiquated system where we have to designate 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.480 that as a recall. Because as much as I dog 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.800 on Elon Musk and on Tesla. Uh. I don't think 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:12.240 it's really fair to just say, hey, almost half a 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.720 million Tesla's were recalled in China, because I feel like 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:21.000 that paints a very inaccurate picture of what's actually happening. 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:25.959 So I personally think we need to kind of update 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.280 our definitions of what a recall is and isn't, or 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:34.120 have some other term for these kinds of fixes where 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:39.000 recall does not bring up this idea that people had 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:41.600 to surrender their vehicles or that Tesla had to take 0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:46.160 them back or anything like that anyway. Next up is Neuralink, 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:49.520 which is the Elon Musk backed company that is developing 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:54.840 brain computer interfaces or BC eyes. Now, as Brain computer 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.120 Interface suggests, this is a type of technology that would 0:13:58.160 --> 0:14:00.920 allow a human to interact with a comp you directly 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:05.520 through thought through brain activity. And Elon Musk has been 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:07.880 known to get all futuristic with this vision and talk 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:10.600 about how one day human intelligence is going to merge 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:14.000 with AI. To me, that sounds like he's kind of 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:19.520 falling into the philosophy of Ray Kurtzwil, a known futurist 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:24.680 who known famous futurist who has really pushed forward the 0:14:24.720 --> 0:14:28.200 idea of the singularity being on the horizon. I think 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:30.080 he most recently said he thinks it will be here 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.280 by two thousand forty five. I just can't shake the 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.960 feeling that these really rich people are just terrified at 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:39.000 the thought that one day they are going to cease 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.000 to exist, so they're kind of feverishly predicting and hoping 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:45.480 for a get out of death free card. Maybe I'm 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:48.760 being totally unfair. I could just be so cynical and 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:52.600 skeptical that that's how I feel about it now. But 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:54.800 you know, they could be onto something, right. I mean, 0:14:54.840 --> 0:15:00.360 I don't want to dismiss the concept, but we are definitive, far, 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:02.760 far far away from being able to merge AI with 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:06.840 human intelligence. Musk did say he hopes that the neuralink 0:15:06.960 --> 0:15:10.240 interface will be implanted in a real human brain within 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:12.600 six months or so, because so far the company has 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:15.840 been testing this tech out on animals like monkeys and pigs. 0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:19.840 And to be clear, there are other bc I devices 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:22.800 out there, including some that are, you know, attached to 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:26.680 real human brains. People are really using these kind of 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:31.360 interfaces to interact with computers for very specific use cases, 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:35.480 and neural links design is particularly sophisticated. It's a really 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:39.440 cool design and it has benefits over other implementations of 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:44.640 this technology, including a smaller surgical footprint, which is obviously important. 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:49.000 You want to reduce or ideally eliminate the risk of 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:53.800 things like infection or surgery complications because you have to 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:56.280 implant these things into brains, which means you've got to 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.760 get to the brain, and that means going through either 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:03.840 the skull or I saw one suggestion that had going 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:09.040 through the jugular to feed a chip up into the brain. 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:11.760 That way. Either way seems pretty extreme to me, right, 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:16.520 And you know, it also is going to allow for 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:20.280 wireless transmission of data because a lot of the BCIs 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:22.800 that exist right now, you have to be tethered to 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:25.680 a machine. Now in the case of b C I 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:27.720 S the way we're seeing it used in a lot 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:31.680 of cases are for people who have limited or no mobility, 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:36.360 right So being tethered to a machine, while not ideal, 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:40.560 also does not have a huge impact on quality of 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:42.720 life in the sense that these are people who otherwise 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:46.800 aren't capable of moving anyway. But what there are able 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:50.240 to do now is to use thought to control electronics 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:53.000 in some way, either by moving a cursor and typing 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:56.640 things out, or some other form of communication where they're 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:01.320 able to interact with their environments and with other people 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:05.360 when previously they were not capable of doing that. And honestly, 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:09.320 that is the use that I can get behind, and 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.040 that's in fact what the Neuralalink teams are working toward. Really. 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.520 Elon Musk is talking about AI and human intelligence merging, 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.640 but these teams are looking at a more pragmatic approach 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:21.560 and one that could have a transformative effect on a 0:17:21.600 --> 0:17:26.040 person's life who otherwise would be facing incredible challenges that 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.840 most of us can't even imagine going through. To me, 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:34.560 that is the inspiring thing about this technology, way way 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:40.240 more energizing and and inspiring than thinking that one day 0:17:40.240 --> 0:17:42.840 I'll be able to complete the New York Times crossword 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:46.320 puzzle and pen in just five minutes. I don't see 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:49.520 that as being the huge benefit. And lastly, in our 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:54.400 Muskie section, Terry Breton, and I don't know if I'm 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:57.920 pronouncing that name correctly anyway, This is an EU official 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:01.359 in charge of implementing the upcoming Digital Services Act or 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:04.800 d s A in the EU once that Act has 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:10.240 been finished and approved. That is it's still not complete anyway. 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:13.119 Bretton has indicated that Twitter is going to have a 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:15.520 lot of work to do in order to comply with 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:20.120 EU laws to operate in the EU, the implication being 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.280 that if Twitter fails to do that, it could potentially 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:27.400 be banned from the EU. However, I should add that 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:33.200 the EU really focuses on very large operating platforms or 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:38.240 v lops, and as of now, Twitter has not yet 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:41.840 been designated a v LAP, so it's possible that Twitter 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:46.679 won't be won't be subject to the most restrictive rules 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:49.320 in the EU. It still will have to follow some, 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:54.320 but not maybe all, of the super tight restrictions. I'm 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:58.080 sure that Musk would much prefer not having to follow 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.119 every single restriction that will be coming up from the 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.199 d s A. Elon Musk actually had a meeting with 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:08.040 Breton and it seemed to go pretty well. Musk said 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:11.159 that he thought that the rules were all very reasonable. 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:16.760 But this puzzles me a bit simply because of what 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:19.080 Musk says and what he's been doing appear to be 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:22.240 at odds of each other. Because, like the d s A, 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.480 is going to require transparent and thoughtful sets of policies 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:30.480 on things, for example, like banning and unbanning accounts. But 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:34.600 must just recently announced that, you know, thousands of banded 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:38.359 accounts would be allowed back on Twitter, and there's nothing 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:42.879 transparent or thoughtful about that approach it. It seems, at 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:47.040 least on the outside, that Musk is ruling Twitter mostly 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:51.280 by whim, which is antithetical to the requirements of the EU. 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:54.520 But Musk also has said that he plans to hand 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:57.480 control of Twitter over to some other CEO at some 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:00.680 point in the future, So may be by the time 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.040 the d s A is actually in full effect, it 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.439 will be a moot point because Musk won't be the 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:09.280 one calling the shots. I don't know. I just feel 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:13.239 like the narratives here are are at cross purposes with 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:17.399 one another. The two things cannot be an alignment based 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.720 upon what we have seen so far with Musk's version 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.480 of Twitter. But yeah, confusing stuff, and that is it. 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:28.200 That's it for the Elon Musk section this week. Thank goodness. 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:31.000 We do have a couple more stories Before we get 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:33.160 to those. We're gonna take another quick break and we'll 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:45.120 be right back. Okay, got a few more to wrap up. 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:49.240 Andy Jase, this CEO of Amazon has indicated that the 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:54.120 Prime video streaming unit of Amazon could potentially spin off 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:57.359 to become its own company. This really confused me at first, because, 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:00.720 like the headlines were saying Prime to become standalone owned company, 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:04.320 and Prime refers not just to the streaming video service 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.439 but to the Amazon Prime program, which is one that 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:09.960 gets you like free shipping and all that kind of 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:14.280 stuff for a yearly subscription. But yeah, anyway, he said 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:18.520 this during an interview during the deal Book Summit, which 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:22.800 just concluded. A lot of stuff happened there, including some 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:26.560 stuff about f t X and its implosion, but I 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:28.680 don't want to get into all that. Maybe I'll talk 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:32.040 about that and into the year episode. So it would 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:35.040 be interesting to see Prime Video kind of spinoff and 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:37.520 become its own standalone company. But I've got a lot 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:41.440 of questions. For example, if the video streaming division becomes 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:45.600 a standalone company, would that mean an Amazon Prime membership 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:50.400 would no longer serve as access to the streaming content 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:54.159 on the standalone company the separate company, or would Prime 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:58.400 members be able to use their membership both on Amazon 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:01.800 and the standalone video a service. If not, would that 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:04.720 mean they'd have to subscribe to yet another streaming service. 0:22:05.680 --> 0:22:07.879 I don't know the answer to this. These are all 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:11.600 just hypothetical questions. Anyway, Jesse did not outright say that 0:22:11.720 --> 0:22:14.520 this is definitely going to happen. He just said that 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:18.560 over time the company has looked at opportunities to follow 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:22.119 this kind of approach, so I wouldn't be surprised to 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:25.560 see it happen. I am very curious about the implementation 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:29.920 and whether or not that would affect how you access 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:33.800 either the Amazon Prime features that have become very popular 0:22:34.000 --> 0:22:37.840 at Amazon or the streaming video, because if they split 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:42.399 that out, then they're gonna be people asking questions like, well, 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:45.600 are you going to reduce the cost of Amazon Prime them? 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:48.680 Because if I'm not getting the streaming video, then you're 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:52.359 taking stuff away from the subscription, So why would I 0:22:52.400 --> 0:22:55.399 pay as much when you're taking things away? These are 0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:58.399 all questions that I just don't have answers to. Now. 0:22:58.880 --> 0:23:01.360 I'm sure most of y'all are familiar with the concept 0:23:01.400 --> 0:23:05.240 of focus groups and entertainment. These groups, which usually consist 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:08.720 of you know, just average people, are gathered together by 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:14.760 market analysts, end up watching early cuts of shows or films, 0:23:15.160 --> 0:23:18.920 and then they give feedback to studio representatives, who might 0:23:19.040 --> 0:23:22.080 then take that feedback and send it to producers, who 0:23:22.200 --> 0:23:24.880 might then phone up directors and demand that the directors 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:28.720 make the movie less sad or whatever, you know, like, hey, 0:23:28.760 --> 0:23:31.600 what if Old Yeller just gets better by the end. 0:23:32.080 --> 0:23:35.960 That kind of thing. Now, in some cases, focus groups 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:38.400 can really help set a project on the right path, 0:23:38.640 --> 0:23:43.320 Like maybe it turns out that motives are muddled and 0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:46.040 people don't understand why characters are doing things, and it 0:23:46.119 --> 0:23:48.600 wasn't the intent of the director for that to happen, 0:23:49.280 --> 0:23:51.560 it's just how it came out in the edit. Well, 0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:53.479 if people are confused, it may not be a very 0:23:53.480 --> 0:23:56.440 satisfying experience. Maybe it's something the director can fix even 0:23:56.520 --> 0:23:58.840 by having an alternative edit, or maybe they have to 0:23:58.880 --> 0:24:02.240 go and do reshoots. Those can all be good things, 0:24:02.280 --> 0:24:05.480 but it also could lead to a director's vision being 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:09.240 totally compromised. We've heard stories of that to where a 0:24:09.240 --> 0:24:12.560 director essentially loses all control of a film or an editor, 0:24:12.960 --> 0:24:15.159 and because really, when you get down to it, the 0:24:15.160 --> 0:24:18.880 finished film, the editor's touch is at least as important 0:24:18.880 --> 0:24:22.480 as the directors, sometimes more important. Anyway, all that aside, 0:24:23.160 --> 0:24:27.160 Netflix is actually going to expand its focus group program 0:24:27.240 --> 0:24:31.320 right now that consists of around two thousand subscribers who 0:24:31.800 --> 0:24:35.360 are allowed to watch Netflix original content early and give 0:24:35.440 --> 0:24:38.320 feedback on it. So the company plans to expand this 0:24:38.400 --> 0:24:42.479 to quote tens of thousands of users around the world 0:24:42.600 --> 0:24:45.800 end quote, and that's going to happen starting early next year. 0:24:46.280 --> 0:24:50.560 So if you're a Netflix subscriber, maybe you'll become a tastemaker. 0:24:50.840 --> 0:24:53.360 Then you can be the one to tell Tim Burton, hey, 0:24:53.400 --> 0:24:59.359 please stop messing with the Adams family's interpersonal dynamics so much. 0:24:59.880 --> 0:25:03.880 Or Tega is doing a phenomenal job, but you're messing 0:25:04.080 --> 0:25:08.119 with one of the greatest families and American fiction. Stop it. 0:25:09.720 --> 0:25:15.119 I might be projecting. Rolls Royce, the aviation company, not 0:25:15.280 --> 0:25:20.480 the luxury car, recently demonstrated a jet engine using hydrogen 0:25:20.560 --> 0:25:23.520