Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a podcast from WOR. Back now to the
WOR Saturday Morning Show with Larry MINTI. Welcome back. Did
you know that we are under a cyber attack from Iran?
Well we are, and Kevin SURRELLI, futurist reporter and founder
of the Meet the Future website, has all the details.
Let's start with something that may be happening now. And
(00:22):
I was surprised to see this. There may already be
an Iranian cyber attack on the US.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, you know, in the hours really that followed the
US attack against the nuclear sites facility sites in Iran.
These hacktivists, these hackers behind keyboards, they're really just showing
brute for and 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 that
(00:51):
they're clogging the system, jamming the servers, taking popular websites
offline for a couple of hours. Now, some Irani and
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 the platform social
(01:11):
media platform. As 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.
(01:33):
But 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 (01:43):
Wait you take it back up for a second. What
is a DDoS attack.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
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 clawed 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
(02:08):
it can knock major systems offline if the defenses are weak.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So what you're saying, it's like Ticketmaster when Taylor Swift
tickets go on south.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I am not calling Taylor Swift a cyber terrorist at all, right, but.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
That's like, that's what it does to the website track.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I see the analogy, and I like the anal, And
you're absolutely correct.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Okay, Natalie has always suspected Taylor Swift of 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 isn't
China getting into the national defense. This is just a
whole lot of hackers flooding the system. So it's a
(02:52):
minor attack, isn't it compared.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
To annoying protesters? Right to be honest with you, And
so you know, I remember when I was a kid,
might 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,
(03:16):
we rely on artificial intelligence, we rely on driverless 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.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Like a Yeah, for sure, that gets scary.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
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
(03:59):
you look at the end 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, we're either about
five years out or fifteen years out from quantum computing,
(04:21):
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
(04:43):
actually just had a 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 (04:58):
Let's back up for a second and then talk again
about the B list hackers from Iran. They got into
Trump's truth social well not.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
His account, but the platform itself, and so they were
able to just again, 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,
it begs the question from a diplomatic sense, what is
the cyber red line? You know, so awesome when we
(05:29):
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. But on the cyberfront, the rules
(05:49):
of the road are much more gray. And so 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 are our businesses protecting themselves against it? And so
(06:10):
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 (06:19):
Thanks so much, Kevin surreally, futurist reporter and founder of
the Meet the Future website. Next time we talk to you,
we'll talk about life on Mars. This has been a
podcast from wor
This is a podcast from WOR. Back now to the
WOR Saturday Morning Show with Larry MINTI. Welcome back. Did
you know that we are under a cyber attack from Iran?
Well we are, and Kevin SURRELLI, futurist reporter and founder
of the Meet the Future website, has all the details.
Let's start with something that may be happening now. And
(00:22):
I was surprised to see this. There may already be
an Iranian cyber attack on the US.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, you know, in the hours really that followed the
US attack against the nuclear sites facility sites in Iran.
These hacktivists, these hackers behind keyboards, they're really just showing
brute for and 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 that
(00:51):
they're clogging the system, jamming the servers, taking popular websites
offline for a couple of hours. Now, some Irani and
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 the platform social
(01:11):
media platform. As 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.
(01:33):
But 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 (01:43):
Wait you take it back up for a second. What
is a DDoS attack.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
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 clawed 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
(02:08):
it can knock major systems offline if the defenses are weak.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So what you're saying, it's like Ticketmaster when Taylor Swift
tickets go on south.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I am not calling Taylor Swift a cyber terrorist at all, right, but.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
That's like, that's what it does to the website track.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I see the analogy, and I like the anal, And
you're absolutely correct.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Okay, Natalie has always suspected Taylor Swift of 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 isn't
China getting into the national defense. This is just a
whole lot of hackers flooding the system. So it's a
(02:52):
minor attack, isn't it compared.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
To annoying protesters? Right to be honest with you, And
so you know, I remember when I was a kid,
might 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,
(03:16):
we rely on artificial intelligence, we rely on driverless 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.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Like a Yeah, for sure, that gets scary.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
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
(03:59):
you look at the end 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, we're either about
five years out or fifteen years out from quantum computing,
(04:21):
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
(04:43):
actually just had a 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 (04:58):
Let's back up for a second and then talk again
about the B list hackers from Iran. They got into
Trump's truth social well not.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
His account, but the platform itself, and so they were
able to just again, 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,
it begs the question from a diplomatic sense, what is
the cyber red line? You know, so awesome when we
(05:29):
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. But on the cyberfront, the rules
(05:49):
of the road are much more gray. And so 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 are our businesses protecting themselves against it? And so
(06:10):
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 (06:19):
Thanks so much, Kevin surreally, futurist reporter and founder of
the Meet the Future website. Next time we talk to you,
we'll talk about life on Mars. This has been a
podcast from wor
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