Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
TikTok receiving another extension to keep operating in the US
despite last year's ban that was passed with broad bipartisan support.
President Trump continues a push to bring the popular app
under American ownership, and it still faces many hurdles moving forward.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Bill forcing TikTok's China based parent company to divest and
turn it over to US ownership or face the ban.
It has never really gone into effect and it appears unlikely
to do so anytime soon. And some other relevant news
as well, potential cyber threats and actions from Iran post
the US military bombing of their nuclear sites and facilities.
Joining US now in the koa common Spirit health hotline.
MSU Denver Professor in Computer Sciences and Cybersecurity is Steve Batty, Professor.
(00:38):
Welcome back to Colorado's Morning News. I want to get
to TikTok, but I've got to ask about this right now.
In light of the news over the weekend, we know
Iran is a serious cyber actor and cyber attacker. Do
you anticipate seeing them do some sort of attack like
that on the US, Probably because it had more impact
than what they could do militarily, But what do you
see potentially they could do to retaliate, right.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
So, yeah, they are a serious actor. They have a
lot of very towns of folks over there, and so
I guess my major concern would be any sort of
cyber attack against what we call the seventeen sort of
infrastructure places, our own energy, medical, first responders, all those
other sorts of things, and financial of course is included
in that. So the FBI has a list of seventeen
(01:23):
infrastructure things that they are very very concerned about in general,
and so those are the areas I think that they
could do the most damage.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
What could that look like if we saw a cyber
security attack like that on any of those seventeen would
we know right away that Iran is the victim, is
the culprit of it?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
No, it's sometimes difficult to figure out who the culprit
is because you know, it's easy to tell if it's
actually coming directly from Iran. But you know, they certainly
can use VPNs, you know, virtual private networks and these
sorts of things to disguise where they're coming from. I
think what it would look like is something like the
Colonial pipeline that was an accident, It was a hack
but you know, it shut down a major pipeline on
(02:05):
the East coast for a couple of days, and so
that's the sort of thing that they would I think.
I mean, I can't read anybody's mind here, but I
think that would be the sort of thing they would
go after. They'd love to go after the military. I'd
suggest though, that that those particular networks are hardened more
than maybe the civilian networks might be.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
How sophisticated is Iran when it comes to cyber Yesterday
during the Sunday shows, one of them, I think it
was JD. Vans or somebody said that, you know, the
RN's not really good at the war piece at or
rethink it, but they are they more effective as a
cyber attacker than maybe we realize.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Maybe, And so that's you know, it's really really hard
to tell until an attack has occurred in those sorts
of things. But I would personally put them in the
top ten of folks who have cyber abilities, and so
you know, they're not maybe the first five, but they
certainly would be in the top ten on my list,
and partially because they want to weaponize what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Any connection or concerns when it comes to TikTok still
not being in the US hands and still being up
and operating. Are these two completely separate stories in this situation.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
I think in this situation they're completely separate stories. A
concern with TikTok always is is they collect a lot
of user data. So, for example, if Ron could, although
I don't think they probably can break into where the
data are stored and backed up, which is historically Singapore,
and now it has been brought on shore and the
(03:33):
company Oracle is responsible for the data and the backup,
so I think it'd be pretty tough. But as always,
then what would it look like if they got those data?
That's I think the major concern of mind is.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
The security threat with TikTok, the data mining and possible
spying by China. Is that overblown or do you perceive
that as a real threat.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
I don't think TikTok's any better, are any worse than
most other sort of social media companies. They do collect
a lot of data, you know IP addresses where your
computer exists, what we call geolocation. They recently extended it
so that they can collect your facial and voice prints.
That's a concern when we're talking about deep fakes, and
(04:17):
certainly they record your preelections, what you'd like in those
sorts of things, and those sorts of data. That kind
of information certainly can be used against a person. And
it's also the case that China has done data collection
in the United States before via hacking, and so most
(04:38):
people would say that the equafax hack probably originated in China.
And we know for a fact that the Office of
Personnel Management hack originated in China. So data collection, you know,
per se, isn't that big a deal. But once we
start aggregating, once we start bringing all those disparate pieces
of data together, then you know, we have a very
good view into a person's financial status, where they live,
(05:01):
what they like, and no sorts of things, and that
becomes a larger and larger concern. It's a big enough
concern that I believe it's the current count as thirty
two state governments have banned the use of their employees
using TikTok.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
It may be the million dollar question, professor, but what
do you think the future of TikTok looks like?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Oh, I think it's going to continue. There is they
continue to expand, right, they have a billion users. I
do believe, you know, once it gets down to the wire,
there will be a US company willing to, you know,
cough up the dough buy them. They certainly have large
(05:43):
amount of revenue stream. It's not as big on a
per user basis as some of the other platforms, but
certainly they certainly have a whole lot of people in
the United States and elsewhere, of course, that they can
reach and essentially advertise to, which is how many of
these platus forms continue to exist.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Final question for you, We just had this in our
business news and according to cyber News, hackers pulling off
one of the largest data breaches in history about sixteen
billion passwords logging credentials from companies like Apple and Google.
Are you still surprised that companies that are in the
tech space and occupy it and our giants are still
getting caught for lack of a better term, with their
shorts down.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
No, because it's difficult to do, and it's very very
important that all of us attempt to have essentially unique
passwords for every site and whenever possible, especially for the
sensitive sites, use multi factor two factor authentication, and that's crucial,
especially in some of these releases that we have seen
now and in the.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Past, MSU Denver Professor and Computer Sciences and Cybersecurity. It's
Steve Baty
TikTok receiving another extension to keep operating in the US
despite last year's ban that was passed with broad bipartisan support.
President Trump continues a push to bring the popular app
under American ownership, and it still faces many hurdles moving forward.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Bill forcing TikTok's China based parent company to divest and
turn it over to US ownership or face the ban.
It has never really gone into effect and it appears unlikely
to do so anytime soon. And some other relevant news
as well, potential cyber threats and actions from Iran post
the US military bombing of their nuclear sites and facilities.
Joining US now in the koa common Spirit health hotline.
MSU Denver Professor in Computer Sciences and Cybersecurity is Steve Batty, Professor.
(00:38):
Welcome back to Colorado's Morning News. I want to get
to TikTok, but I've got to ask about this right now.
In light of the news over the weekend, we know
Iran is a serious cyber actor and cyber attacker. Do
you anticipate seeing them do some sort of attack like
that on the US, Probably because it had more impact
than what they could do militarily, But what do you
see potentially they could do to retaliate, right.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
So, yeah, they are a serious actor. They have a
lot of very towns of folks over there, and so
I guess my major concern would be any sort of
cyber attack against what we call the seventeen sort of
infrastructure places, our own energy, medical, first responders, all those
other sorts of things, and financial of course is included
in that. So the FBI has a list of seventeen
(01:23):
infrastructure things that they are very very concerned about in general,
and so those are the areas I think that they
could do the most damage.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
What could that look like if we saw a cyber
security attack like that on any of those seventeen would
we know right away that Iran is the victim, is
the culprit of it?
Speaker 3 (01:41):
No, it's sometimes difficult to figure out who the culprit
is because you know, it's easy to tell if it's
actually coming directly from Iran. But you know, they certainly
can use VPNs, you know, virtual private networks and these
sorts of things to disguise where they're coming from. I
think what it would look like is something like the
Colonial pipeline that was an accident, It was a hack
but you know, it shut down a major pipeline on
(02:05):
the East coast for a couple of days, and so
that's the sort of thing that they would I think.
I mean, I can't read anybody's mind here, but I
think that would be the sort of thing they would
go after. They'd love to go after the military. I'd
suggest though, that that those particular networks are hardened more
than maybe the civilian networks might be.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
How sophisticated is Iran when it comes to cyber Yesterday
during the Sunday shows, one of them, I think it
was JD. Vans or somebody said that, you know, the
RN's not really good at the war piece at or
rethink it, but they are they more effective as a
cyber attacker than maybe we realize.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Maybe, And so that's you know, it's really really hard
to tell until an attack has occurred in those sorts
of things. But I would personally put them in the
top ten of folks who have cyber abilities, and so
you know, they're not maybe the first five, but they
certainly would be in the top ten on my list,
and partially because they want to weaponize what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Any connection or concerns when it comes to TikTok still
not being in the US hands and still being up
and operating. Are these two completely separate stories in this situation.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
I think in this situation they're completely separate stories. A
concern with TikTok always is is they collect a lot
of user data. So, for example, if Ron could, although
I don't think they probably can break into where the
data are stored and backed up, which is historically Singapore,
and now it has been brought on shore and the
(03:33):
company Oracle is responsible for the data and the backup,
so I think it'd be pretty tough. But as always,
then what would it look like if they got those data?
That's I think the major concern of mind is.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
The security threat with TikTok, the data mining and possible
spying by China. Is that overblown or do you perceive
that as a real threat.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
I don't think TikTok's any better, are any worse than
most other sort of social media companies. They do collect
a lot of data, you know IP addresses where your
computer exists, what we call geolocation. They recently extended it
so that they can collect your facial and voice prints.
That's a concern when we're talking about deep fakes, and
(04:17):
certainly they record your preelections, what you'd like in those
sorts of things, and those sorts of data. That kind
of information certainly can be used against a person. And
it's also the case that China has done data collection
in the United States before via hacking, and so most
(04:38):
people would say that the equafax hack probably originated in China.
And we know for a fact that the Office of
Personnel Management hack originated in China. So data collection, you know,
per se, isn't that big a deal. But once we
start aggregating, once we start bringing all those disparate pieces
of data together, then you know, we have a very
good view into a person's financial status, where they live,
(05:01):
what they like, and no sorts of things, and that
becomes a larger and larger concern. It's a big enough
concern that I believe it's the current count as thirty
two state governments have banned the use of their employees
using TikTok.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
It may be the million dollar question, professor, but what
do you think the future of TikTok looks like?
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Oh, I think it's going to continue. There is they
continue to expand, right, they have a billion users. I
do believe, you know, once it gets down to the wire,
there will be a US company willing to, you know,
cough up the dough buy them. They certainly have large
(05:43):
amount of revenue stream. It's not as big on a
per user basis as some of the other platforms, but
certainly they certainly have a whole lot of people in
the United States and elsewhere, of course, that they can
reach and essentially advertise to, which is how many of
these platus forms continue to exist.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Final question for you, We just had this in our
business news and according to cyber News, hackers pulling off
one of the largest data breaches in history about sixteen
billion passwords logging credentials from companies like Apple and Google.
Are you still surprised that companies that are in the
tech space and occupy it and our giants are still
getting caught for lack of a better term, with their
shorts down.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
No, because it's difficult to do, and it's very very
important that all of us attempt to have essentially unique
passwords for every site and whenever possible, especially for the
sensitive sites, use multi factor two factor authentication, and that's crucial,
especially in some of these releases that we have seen
now and in the.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Past, MSU Denver Professor and Computer Sciences and Cybersecurity. It's
Steve Baty
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