June 27, 2025 • 7 mins
Kevin Cirilli talks with Mendte in the Morning about the retaliation by Iran in the form of cyber attacks on US websites.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And now for a futurist reporter and founder of Meet
the Future website, Kevin Sirilli. You know, I was just
thinking a moment ago as I was as I was
going to introduce you and thinking about you coming up.
Are you the only futurist reporter in the country is
or do you have competition?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
No, that's what they tell me, Larry. So hopefully in
the future it stays clear. Did you predict that.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
You can always make something up?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'm not an astrologist, but I'll maybe I'll get my
tarot cards right.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
But if worse comes to worst, I mean, since nobody
knows the future, you can just go ahead and make
something up if you want to.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, you know, the good thing about the future is
that there's always a future, so there's always coming out next.
So you know, tough to lay off journalists when you're
covering what's happening tomorrow yesterday.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Well, thank god for that. But let's start with something
that may be happening now. And I was surprised to
see this. There may all already be an Iranian cyber
attack on the US.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, so you know, in the hours really that followed
the US attack against the nuclear sites of facility sites
in Iran. These activists, these hackers behind keyboards, they're really
just showing brute for So what do I mean by that?
They're doing what's known in the intelligence community as DDoS
attacks denial of services attacks. All that means, Larry, is
(01:26):
that they're clogging the system, jamming the servers, taking popular
websites offline for a couple of hours. Now, some Iranian
hackers took credit and it's already back online, so this
is not some widespread outage, but they took credit for
actually clogging the truth social President Trump's platform social media
(01:47):
platform following the Iranian nuclear facility attacks. But that said,
you know, I'm based in Washington, d C. Larry, and
what concerns the intelligence community, the military community is that
Lord forbid, there would ever be a cyber nine to
eleven that has not happened. And the United States is
the best innovation, the best technology in the world. But
(02:10):
that said, these d DOS attacks are showing to the
architects of these tech platforms that these hackers have the
ability to penetrate.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Wait a second, back up for a second. What is
a DDoS attack?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yes, it's a denial of service attack? And all that is.
It just overwhelms a server and floods it with fake traffic.
So it clogs the you know, to use a telephone analogy,
it clogs the phone lines and it makes it harder
for anyone to access the line. And so it's not
high tech. It's just brute force. But it can knock
(02:46):
major systems offline if the defenses are weak. So what
you're saying, it's like Ticketmaster when Taylor Swift tickets go
on sale. I am not calling Taylor Swift a cyber
terrorist at all, but that's like, that's what it does
to the website track. I see the analogy, and I like,
(03:06):
and you're absolutely correct.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Okay, Natalie has always suspected Taylor Swift as being an agent.
She says this all the time that she thinks that
she might be an agent. Uh, let's but it is
really the B team of hackers, isn't it. This is
in China getting into the national defense. This is just
a whole lot of hackers flooding the system. So it's
(03:29):
a It's a minor attack, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Compared to annoying protests? Right to be honest with you,
And so, but I think you know it. You know.
I remember when I was a kid, my teachers would
say the United States is protected because of the oceans.
But I think as a culture, as a society, we
need to be thinking of protecting the digital domain, that
the digital frontier as if it's a piece of land.
Because as we continue to advance with technology, we rely
(03:57):
on artificial intelligence, we rely on dry less cars. In
the future, a cyber attack can jump from URL to IRL.
So the bottom line is that we want to make
sure that our defense capabilities keeps pace with our ability
to implement innovations like AI.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, for sure, that gets a little scary.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, and listen, and I'm not you know, you know this.
I'm an optimist when it comes to technology, and I'd
rather live in a world with this technology than without it.
And this artificial intelligence, by the way, United States invented
that we are able to and we have the best
cyber capabilities in the world, but that we are able
to defend it as well. And especially with AI, when
(04:42):
you look at the energy grids, for example, and how
much energy it takes to use AI, We're going to
have to make sure that our energy grid structures are
protected as well. Something that I'm really interested in is
quantum computing, which is going to come after artificial intelligence.
Depending on which tech company you ask, were either about
five years out or fifteen years out from quantum computing,
(05:04):
which is, like I would argue, going to be bigger
than the next Internet, and that actually could pose significant
risk to encryption. And people when they hear encryption they
think of crypto, and yes, that's correct, but encryption is
how we secure everything. And so if you're wondering what
the government's really up to on the tech front, they
(05:27):
actually just had this huge hacking thing where they sent
in the math nerds. Larry and the math nerds had
to come up with ways to defend the digital frontier
and encryption from quantum because quantum is arguably could be
an encryption killer.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Let's back up for a second and talk again about
the B list hackers from Iran. They got into Trump's
truth social Yeah, well.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Not his account, but the platform itself, and so they
were able to just again cloud the system take it down.
There's been some concern. Typically when there's some type of
military force that they go after banking institutions, they go
after energy grids, as you mentioned, but it begs the
(06:14):
question from a diplomatic sense, what is the cyber red line?
You know? So awesome when we talk about modern warfare,
we talk or even just warfare, we talk about there's
a red line. If this country does this, this country
will do that. And you know, President Trump and was
praised by the Israelis for holding that red line as
it relates to last week's attack against the nuclear facilities.
(06:38):
But on the cyber front, the rules of the road
are much more gray. And so you know, obviously if
they took out hospital digital systems, that would warrant a response.
But when there's just these denial of services against private
sector companies, what actually is the red line? And our
(06:59):
businesses protecting themselves against it? And so you get into
a lot of complicated issues very fast, about reputational risks
for shareholders and whatnot. But it is the future of warfare.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Thanks so much, kevin'sur really futurist reporter and founder of
the Meet the Future website. Next time we talk to you,
we'll talk about life on Mars and the fact that
Natalie's little sus as the kids say, when it comes
to tailor swift, you know what I can see that
And now for a futurist reporter and founder of Meet
the Future website, Kevin Sirilli. You know, I was just
thinking a moment ago as I was as I was
going to introduce you and thinking about you coming up.
Are you the only futurist reporter in the country is
or do you have competition?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
No, that's what they tell me, Larry. So hopefully in
the future it stays clear. Did you predict that.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
You can always make something up?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'm not an astrologist, but I'll maybe I'll get my
tarot cards right.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
But if worse comes to worst, I mean, since nobody
knows the future, you can just go ahead and make
something up if you want to.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well, you know, the good thing about the future is
that there's always a future, so there's always coming out next.
So you know, tough to lay off journalists when you're
covering what's happening tomorrow yesterday.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Well, thank god for that. But let's start with something
that may be happening now. And I was surprised to
see this. There may all already be an Iranian cyber
attack on the US.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yeah, so you know, in the hours really that followed
the US attack against the nuclear sites of facility sites
in Iran. These activists, these hackers behind keyboards, they're really
just showing brute for So what do I mean by that?
They're doing what's known in the intelligence community as DDoS
attacks denial of services attacks. All that means, Larry, is
(01:26):
that they're clogging the system, jamming the servers, taking popular
websites offline for a couple of hours. Now, some Iranian
hackers took credit and it's already back online, so this
is not some widespread outage, but they took credit for
actually clogging the truth social President Trump's platform social media
(01:47):
platform following the Iranian nuclear facility attacks. But that said,
you know, I'm based in Washington, d C. Larry, and
what concerns the intelligence community, the military community is that
Lord forbid, there would ever be a cyber nine to
eleven that has not happened. And the United States is
the best innovation, the best technology in the world. But
(02:10):
that said, these d DOS attacks are showing to the
architects of these tech platforms that these hackers have the
ability to penetrate.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Wait a second, back up for a second. What is
a DDoS attack?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yes, it's a denial of service attack? And all that is.
It just overwhelms a server and floods it with fake traffic.
So it clogs the you know, to use a telephone analogy,
it clogs the phone lines and it makes it harder
for anyone to access the line. And so it's not
high tech. It's just brute force. But it can knock
(02:46):
major systems offline if the defenses are weak. So what
you're saying, it's like Ticketmaster when Taylor Swift tickets go
on sale. I am not calling Taylor Swift a cyber
terrorist at all, but that's like, that's what it does
to the website track. I see the analogy, and I like,
(03:06):
and you're absolutely correct.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Okay, Natalie has always suspected Taylor Swift as being an agent.
She says this all the time that she thinks that
she might be an agent. Uh, let's but it is
really the B team of hackers, isn't it. This is
in China getting into the national defense. This is just
a whole lot of hackers flooding the system. So it's
(03:29):
a It's a minor attack, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Compared to annoying protests? Right to be honest with you,
And so, but I think you know it. You know.
I remember when I was a kid, my teachers would
say the United States is protected because of the oceans.
But I think as a culture, as a society, we
need to be thinking of protecting the digital domain, that
the digital frontier as if it's a piece of land.
Because as we continue to advance with technology, we rely
(03:57):
on artificial intelligence, we rely on dry less cars. In
the future, a cyber attack can jump from URL to IRL.
So the bottom line is that we want to make
sure that our defense capabilities keeps pace with our ability
to implement innovations like AI.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, for sure, that gets a little scary.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, and listen, and I'm not you know, you know this.
I'm an optimist when it comes to technology, and I'd
rather live in a world with this technology than without it.
And this artificial intelligence, by the way, United States invented
that we are able to and we have the best
cyber capabilities in the world, but that we are able
to defend it as well. And especially with AI, when
(04:42):
you look at the energy grids, for example, and how
much energy it takes to use AI, We're going to
have to make sure that our energy grid structures are
protected as well. Something that I'm really interested in is
quantum computing, which is going to come after artificial intelligence.
Depending on which tech company you ask, were either about
five years out or fifteen years out from quantum computing,
(05:04):
which is, like I would argue, going to be bigger
than the next Internet, and that actually could pose significant
risk to encryption. And people when they hear encryption they
think of crypto, and yes, that's correct, but encryption is
how we secure everything. And so if you're wondering what
the government's really up to on the tech front, they
(05:27):
actually just had this huge hacking thing where they sent
in the math nerds. Larry and the math nerds had
to come up with ways to defend the digital frontier
and encryption from quantum because quantum is arguably could be
an encryption killer.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Let's back up for a second and talk again about
the B list hackers from Iran. They got into Trump's
truth social Yeah, well.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Not his account, but the platform itself, and so they
were able to just again cloud the system take it down.
There's been some concern. Typically when there's some type of
military force that they go after banking institutions, they go
after energy grids, as you mentioned, but it begs the
(06:14):
question from a diplomatic sense, what is the cyber red line?
You know? So awesome when we talk about modern warfare,
we talk or even just warfare, we talk about there's
a red line. If this country does this, this country
will do that. And you know, President Trump and was
praised by the Israelis for holding that red line as
it relates to last week's attack against the nuclear facilities.
(06:38):
But on the cyber front, the rules of the road
are much more gray. And so you know, obviously if
they took out hospital digital systems, that would warrant a response.
But when there's just these denial of services against private
sector companies, what actually is the red line? And our
(06:59):
businesses protecting themselves against it? And so you get into
a lot of complicated issues very fast, about reputational risks
for shareholders and whatnot. But it is the future of warfare.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Thanks so much, kevin'sur really futurist reporter and founder of
the Meet the Future website. Next time we talk to you,
we'll talk about life on Mars and the fact that
Natalie's little sus as the kids say, when it comes
to tailor swift, you know what I can see that
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