- We kick off the show with Carl Rutstein, SVP and Global Head of Consulting & Analytics at Visa, to talk about protecting business from cyberthreats. We’ll learn all about its new Cybersecurity Advisory Practice, which provides guidance and support to businesses on managing cyber risks
- Speaking protection, Michal Salát, Director of Threat Research at Norton, shares takeaways from the company’s Cyber Safety Insights Report – this time on “Connected Kids.” You’re not going to want to miss that chat, especially if you have kids, grandkids, or nieces/nephews
- I’ll also play an interview recorded at AWS re:Invent about ‘Sign Speak.’ which provides AI-powered American Sign Language (ASL) tools to enhance communication between Deaf/Hard of Hearing and hearing individuals — built by the community, for the community. I sit down with CEO Yami Payano
- Thank you to Visa and Sandisk for your support!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the ever changing world
of technology? Check it Out can help make some sense
of it all. Breaking down geeksbeak into street speak. Technology columnist, author,
and TV personality Mark Saltzman covers consumer technology each week
for every listener. Mark tackles the latest news, reviews, and
how toos to help you understand what's hot, what's not
(00:22):
and why.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hey, everyone, welcome to check it out. It's episode four six.
Hope you're all having a great day so far and
a great summer so far as well. I do say
so far because we've still got a chunk left of August.
Even though I hear Costco already has Halloween decorations out.
If that's true, and hey, I write for Costco Connection Magazine,
(00:48):
I'm not slamming them because they know what they're doing
over there in Issaquah, Washington, outside of Seattle, very smart people.
If it's out at Costco warehouses, that means people are
buying Halloween decorations already, or they wouldn't have it on
display yet. A listener wrote me to say, home depot
also has its Halloween decorations already. What's going on? I
(01:10):
just want everything to slow down a little. That said,
I did have a guest on last week on this
program who talked about back to school tech. In fact,
wherever you're listening to this in the country, you may
already be getting ready to go back to school.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, we aren't talking back to school today, but we
have a fantastic show for you. Nonetheless, let me tell
you what's on tap. Visa will help me kick off
the show in a moment to chat about its new
cybersecurity Advisory practice, which gives guidance and support to businesses
tied to managing cyber risks. But we'll also get some
(01:46):
takeaways as regular consumers who shop online or at retail,
how to best protect ourselves in an age where AI
attacks are growing in sophistication. My first guest, Carl Rutstein
from Visa, will be on in about sixty seconds. He
serves as Senior vice president and Global head of Visa
Consulting and Analytics at Visa.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Very nice guy.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
After that, and speaking of protecting ourselves, Norton will join
us on techt out a leading cybersecurity brand, and in
this interview with Norton's Michel Salat, who is director of
Threat Research we're going to talk about protecting kids online
as we'll hear results tied to Norton's latest Cyber Safety
(02:31):
Insights report, this time on connected kids. You're definitely not
going to want to miss this chat, especially if you
have children, grandkids, or nieces and nephews. And finally, I
love when tech can help even the playing field for
those with challenges, such as those with a physical disability.
I was at an AWS event Amazon Web Services, and
(02:55):
I've recorded an interview there about sign Speak, which provides
it's automated American Sign Language recognition, ASL, transcription and production
to help deaf and hard of hearing individuals communicate effectively
in virtually any situation. I'll catch up with CEO Yami Piano,
and you'll hear the interview later on in the program.
(03:17):
Here on Tech it Out, all of this and more
on a brand new episode powered by Visa, which happens
to be our first of three guests today. So without
further delay, let's officially kick off a new Tech it
Out with our first interview.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
I know there are.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Many business owners and IT decision makers who tune into
this radio show and podcast, and so you're going to
want to hear this next interview with Visa about its
new cyber security advisory practice, which provides guidance and support
to businesses on managing cyber risks and improving their security posture.
Joining us from Visa is Carl Rutstein. He's senior vice
(03:52):
president and global head of Visa Consulting and Analytics. Good
to chat with you, Carl, Thanks so much for your time.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Oh, of course, thank you. Mark.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
We talk about Visa's news cybersecurity advisory practice and a
newly published report. I believe it's entitled Countering Emerging Cyber
Threats and Payments. Please tell us a bit about your
role as global head of Advisory Services for Visa.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
What does that mean exactly?
Speaker 5 (04:16):
So, we built up an advisory practice to support our clients,
and we do exactly what you would expect a consulting
firm bolted onto a network would do. We help our clients,
and those could be large bank issuers, they could be
large acquirers, they could be large merchants. But there are
also any size bank or merchant or fintech player, anyone
(04:37):
connected to Visa. We're helping them, and we're helping them
essentially do four things.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
It's easy to think.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
About it around acquisition, engagement, retention, and risk. We help
our clients get more customers, get more out of those customers,
keep those customers, and manage things like.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Authorization and fraud.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
And what we're focusing on today is how we're helping
them with cybersecurity.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
And just to give you a frame reference, as.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
We said during our investor day earlier, we did over
one point three billion dollars of advisory work with our clients.
We have well over two thousand professionals. These are consultants,
data scientists, economists, product specialists that really are dedicated helping
our clients against those four buckets. And we are very
(05:22):
focused and DNS so we do about five thousand projects
a year just against those four things.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
So we're very very deep.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Sounds it.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
I attended your Visa product drop in the Bay Area
a couple months back.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
But this is I guess different than the investor day.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Oh yes, there are two different things.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Gosh, the product drop between Ryan and Oliver and Jack,
it really blew a lot of people away on what
a gena commerce is going to be doing. If you
could dream it, AI could do it. So it's actually
quite interesting.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yeah, awesome, Carl.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
If our listeners want to hear that interview by the
way hop out agentic AI and what Visa is doing
and what they predict the near future holds, they can
just do a search on their favorite podcast platform for
tech it Out and the word Visa and you'll find it.
But we've got you to talk about the cybersecurity advisory practice.
But clearly, as you just mentioned those four buckets, your
world is much broader than cybersecurity.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
But let's zoom in there.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Please remind our listeners how much Visa has invested in
this space over the past few years.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
It's really important to remember. This is like the reason
Visa exists.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
We think of cybersecurity and protecting the ecosystem as a
core part of our mission, and therefore we want to
create a secure and trust an ecosystem where consumers and
businesses could exchange goods for payments. Protecting the ecosystem from
fraud or cybersecurity is just what we've been doing, and
always have done, and always will do. The tricky part
is fraud is an ever evolving challenge. So to answer
(06:43):
your question, we spend over twelve billion dollars on technology
and infrastructure just in the last five years, which includes
cybersecurity and fraud prevention. So it's our proactive approach to
protecting the integrity of the network. And to put this impact,
like in perspective, Mark in the US alone, we blocked
over fourteen billion dollars of presumed fraud.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
It's a thirty.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Percent increase from the prior year. So the success is
powered by our significant advancements and fraud prevention, AI powered
threat detection and really our network resilience. It's core to
what we do and it's one of the reasons that
we're launching this cybersecurity advisory practice just continue to help
our clients in this area.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
That was twelve billion with a B yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Right.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Ironically, just as the cyber criminals are leveraging AI to
steal from businesses, governments and individuals, AI can also be
used by the likes of Visa to fight back, you know,
to predict something that doesn't seem right and flag and
quarantine and then remove those threats so we can get
on with our transactions.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
So with that in mind, Carl, that's a great segue
as to why Visa established this focused advisory practice.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
So we decided to launch this cybersecurity advisory practice just
because our clients were asking about our clients need deeper,
more proactive support and just navigating the complexities of today.
So as digital commerce expands, and it's been a three
hundred percent surge of internet fraud just over the last
few years, so our clients are just increasingly looking for
(08:16):
ways to proactively identify, evaluate, and obviously mitigate these cyber threats.
And this new practice just builds on our proven capabilities
to help the ecosystem. So, as I mentioned, we've got
a global network of over two thousand consultants, data scientists, economists,
product experts.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
And we really want to get embedded with.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
Our clients to help them frankly improve their cybersecurity capabilities,
starting with their strategy, going into a maturity assessment, and
then helping them evolves.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
These needs and demands continue to evolve.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
I mean, just to give you a sense, there's a
few sort of services that we provide just to make
this real. So one is under what we call our
Cybersucitecurity Institute, which is really connected to VC University. This
is just you know, security workshops, so training and awareness
for employees. Another is a cybersecurity and maturity assessment where
(09:13):
we empower organizations to just understand what's required, what the
gaps are, and to ultimately help them mitigate. And then
one of the ones that is just easy to understand
once you explain it, but it is one of those
words that I'm sure when you interviewed my colleague Mike
Jabara he mentioned, but enumeration defense. This is just a
specialized service where the criminals are essentially finding weak merchants
(09:38):
and just pinging them with purchase transactions with I don't
want to say random, because there's an algorithm underneath it,
but just sixteen digit pan numbers, cvbs and expiration dates
to just find cards that work, and then when they
find a card that work, they just do a bunch
of purchases. So we leverage artificial intelligence to just watch
this and when we see these patterns as we shut
(10:00):
them down. So just last year we blocked over one
hundred and fifty million fraudulent transactions which were essentially enumeration attempts.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Wow, those are big numbers. Carl, could you tell us
a bit about AI and how it is being leveraged
by fraudsters. You touched on this already, and I mentioned
how AI can both hurt and help the payments space.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Can you elaborate a bit more on that?
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Of course, as Visa's core mission is the largest credit
card network, it is our job number one to protect
the safety and security, and we are a trust based business.
AI has become a double edged sword in cybersecurity. So
in the same way that we want to protect the ecosystem,
fraudsters are using AI to exploit it, and they're doing
it at scale, and they're being incredibly frankly creative and industrious.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
So I'll give you three quick examples.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
So one, it used to be when you wanted to
do phishing training for your employees how to find phishing scams,
you normally say misspelling or subject verb, mismap other typos. Now,
with large language models, they write highly convincing memos, so
there are no more spelling errors as a telltale sign.
(11:08):
Phishing emails and text messages in particular that you get
on your phone can look incredibly legitimate.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
More with Carl Rutstein from Visa when we return, including
a pretty scary story that can happen to any one
of us, We'll be right back with more Check it Out.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Listen to Check it Out whenever you want to find
the Check it Out podcast, did I Too, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Welcome back to Teck it Out.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
We are chatting with Carl Rutstein, who serves as global
head of Visa's advisory business. Visa, if you weren't aware,
is the largest credit card company in the world in
terms of purchase volume and the number of cards in circulation.
We're talking about combating evolving cyber threats in the payments space.
Before the break, Carl, you were about to share a
story about deep fakes, how AI can be used as
(12:06):
an effective tool to defraud people.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Please continue your thoughts.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Sure, well, I was out for dinner the other night
and someone was telling me about their adult kid who
got scammed from a utility here in Illinois. I live
in Chicago, and you know, they had the phone number,
they had the person's name and other basic facts, and
before she knew it, she was out several hundred dollars
to pay a bill that she didn't know. Another example
(12:32):
is creating synthetic identities at scale, So this is enabling
mass account creation and then fraudulent rings are just very
hard to detect because they're flooding the system. The one
that is the most scariest, and I have a specific
recommendation for your listeners, are deep fake videos and sort
of voice clones. These are highly convincing impersonations and they
(12:53):
trick people into transferring funds. So I won't out my colleague,
but one of my coworker I was talking with on
a Monday and he said, the craziest thing happened on Saturday.
I got a call from my daughter who was frantic.
She had just run through a stop sign and hit
a woman who was pregnant who had to go to
the hospital, and she was arrested, and she was incredibly
(13:15):
distraught and crying on the phone, and the police officer
came on and explained that they're going to have to
hold her till the court's open on Monday, so she's
going to have to spend Sunday in jail. And as
my colleague tried to post bail, a court appointed lawyer
was able to do something with the help of the
judge on the weekend, I guess, but he needed fifteen
(13:36):
thousand in cash for bail. So while my colleague was
driving around San Francisco, to find fifteen thousand dollars cash
on a Saturday. He eventually connected with his son in law,
who said, what are you talking about. She's in the
bathroom brushing her teeth. Oh wow, the whole thing was
a fake and it was his daughter crying on the
phone with her voice and everything. So my advice to
your listeners, and I did this for you know, my kids,
(13:58):
come up with a safe word. Come up with a
word that if any of your family members are calling
in distraught and they need funds, just ask them, you know,
your goldfish's name growing up or something, and if they
don't know that name, just hang up on it. So
it's pretty scary out there.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, indeed, thank you for sharing that and great advice.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
That was going to be my next question.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
How do we fight back a lot of our listeners
they don't know what to do, they feel helpless.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Any other suggestions, sure.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
I mean, first you want to be proactive. It's easy
to be reactive.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Something happens and then you want to react to it,
but you're going to have to lean in. So first,
for our clients, you know, we stress adhering to payment
standards like PCI DSS, which just stands for Payment Card
Industry Data Security Standard. Just to stay up to date
on all the standards that we put out, assessing cybersecurity
maturity level. So we work with clients to assess how
(14:48):
mature they are, conduct regular testing, audit the systems, implement
what we call, or i think what is called a
zero trust concept, which assumes the tax can originate both
externally and internally and therefore does require you know, multiple
authentications when people are using the system. You know, our
advisory practice, which really does leverage AI and the expertise
(15:10):
of our consultants is a great start. Not to put
in a sales plug for our advisory, but we literally
have these assets available in capabilities to help our clients.
It's why we build up this business. So we do
want to have our clients take advantage of it. And
then even for the smallest e merchants, you know, we
could do threat modeling and incident response. At the end
of the day, we're meeting clients where they are and
(15:32):
helping them get.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
To be where they need to be.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
All great advice and also for consumers as well, like
you shared having a safe word, yes, not trusting anybody,
like always have your backup, Like, if you get a
text message, an unsolicited message, even if it looks legit,
or a phone call that sounds legit, do your due diligence.
Call your bank, for example, with the number you already
have for them, maybe on the back of the card,
not with the number that's in the text message or email.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Just some common sense tips, right, yes, And what about
shopping Before I let you go?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
How do we remain more cyber safe when buying something
both online and at retail.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
Well, we have a role to play in protecting ourselves,
and I would be remiss if I didn't say, use
your credit or debit card. Visa spends billions of dollars
protecting the ecosystem, and you often have zero liability. So
if you have an option to use a Visa credit
or your Visa debit card, that is always the best
option to protect you from liability. Now, in addition to that,
(16:27):
just be wary of offers that seemed too good to
be true when shopping online. It's easy to say, but
if you hadn't heard of the retailer, be a little suspect.
Never click on links via email or SMS text messages.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
You know, be mindful of what you share on social media.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
Because the example I gave you before, Mark, the person
I went out for dinner with this bill from a
utility in Illinois felt legitimate because they knew this this
person's name, and they knew her address, and therefore she,
you know, transferred the funds and when she reached back
to the utility, they're.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Like, we have no idea what you're talking about, so
be vigilant.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
All great advice, and yeah, I've heard a lot of
these deep fakes, whether it's audio or video, are based
on clips that we ourselves have uploaded to social media.
You know, maybe have something that your daughter or your
grandson said and they just need a couple of seconds
of their face or their voice in order to create
something more sophisticated. So it is pretty scary times, but
like you said, with buyer protection, it's a no brainer
(17:22):
to use your visa card. Awesome, Carl, it's been great
chatting with you. Is there a website we can leave
our listeners with to learn more.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Yes, Visa dot com slash protect and you can navigate
to all our resources from that.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
You are out Visa dot com slash protect.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Carl.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Thank you so much for your time. It's a pleasure
to have you on the program for the first time,
hopefully won't be the last. All the best, Thank you again.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Thank you, Mark, It's terrific.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Speaking of protection, when we return on tech it Out,
we're going to catch up with Norton, a leading cybersecurity brand,
to hear about connected kids, how AI is putting our
kids at risk even more so than the usual sort
of concerns about screen time and inappropriate websites. And we're
going to talk how things have changed. You're definitely going
(18:06):
to want to tune into this if you're a parent
or grandparent. So when we return on tech it Out,
Norton joins us.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Stick with us. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I want to follow Mark Google and Mark with a
C and Saltzman with.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
A Z.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Breaking down geeks peak into street speak. This is check
it Out to check it out with technology columnist, author,
and TV personality Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Welcome back everyone, you're listening to check it out. If
you've got kids who spend time online, which I would
venture to say that would be most of them in
today's day and age, you're going to want to hear
this next interview with Norton, a leading global brand that
focuses on providing security and privacy software and services. Norton
just released its Cyber Safety Insights Report on Connected Kids
(19:03):
that explores, in part, how children are interacting with emerging
technologies like AI and the associated risks with it. Joining
us to break it all down is Michel Salat, He's
director of Threat Research for Norton. Welcome to the program, Mikale,
good to chat with you.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
Hello, Thanks for having me sure Now.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Hey, before we talk about the Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report,
this time focusing on Connected Kids, please tell us a
bit about Norton. You're much more than an anti virus company, right,
I think that's where most people think of you as
an anti virus company, but you do so much more
these days.
Speaker 6 (19:36):
Yeah, we are way more than just an antivirus because
as the threat landscape progresses, purely antivirus just doesn't cut
it anymore. So we focus a lot about digital privacy
as well as identity protection. We have products ranging from
the aforementioned av through VPNs identity protection to password management
(20:02):
utilities to improve the performance of your computer. So we
really aim to provide complex services and complex protection for
anything you might want to do online, all.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Right, So for individuals and families and also businesses.
Speaker 6 (20:19):
Yes, we have individual products, families as well as small
small businesses.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, okay, so a holistic approach to address the evolving
threat landscape out there. So with that in mind, let's
talk about this newly published report.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
What did you set out to find?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Again, it was called the Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report
Connected Kits.
Speaker 6 (20:41):
We are trying to understand how our customers operate online
and what are the threats that they're concerned about. And
sometime ago we ran a report on the effects of
the cybersecurity on elderly people and the kids, where the
next group that we wanted to understand how they behave
(21:03):
and how they operate online and how we can improve
our protection for them.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
All right.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
So this was a survey that set out to find
how kids who are connected, as I mentioned off the top,
how it's changing compared to just a few years ago,
I e AI and related threats associated with it.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
What were some of the key findings from your report?
Speaker 6 (21:24):
So some of the KEEM findings were that more than
one in four parents say that their kids are very
actively using AI, and they're using it for let's say,
digital companionship and digital help. So it's showing us an
interesting trend where kids would rather go to this kind
(21:46):
of robotake friend or digital friend rather than a parent
or a real friend when they have an issue. So
it also shows us that parents are worried about the
use of AI by their kids. It's important to see
the broader context of the report because as kids are
(22:09):
using technology more and more, and we saw that a
lot of kids use tublets by the age of two,
so like almost half of the kids get access. And
we also see that like one in four kids use
cell phone by the age of eight. They are inevitably
going to be affected by threats online and by technology
(22:32):
like AI. So parents are worried and try to understand
the kids.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
I got any restaurant where kids are with their families
and you'll see in many instances a tablet and iPad
on their lap. Yeah, that is not surprising at all.
I want to ask you about cyberbullying in a moment,
and I don't think that's a necessarily new phenomenon when it.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Comes to AI. But just going back to turning to
AI for.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Emotional support, I think that's disconcerting too many people here
aring this that if a child has a problem, whether
it's with their friends, a love interest, or something going
on at home, that they're turning to AI like chatchypt
or Google, Gemini or Copilot to talk to it.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
And get advice. This is what you found in your
report that this is fairly common.
Speaker 6 (23:18):
It's probably easier for the kids to talk to an
AI agent than to parent because it is stripped of emotions,
and the AI agents, in their attempt to make themselves
feel more live, they agree with a lot of the
things that we talk about with them, so there is
a sense of verification and agreement about the problem. So
(23:43):
if the kids come in and says they are not
nice to me, the AI agent typically tries to say
something like, yeah, I understand that it is hard to
feel unappreciated or something like that. So it is easier
probably for the kids to talk an a At the
same time, it is important to use AI as a tool,
(24:06):
so it can be used for bad and it can
be used for good. And we shouldn't understand the fact
that kids are talking to AI as something really bad.
We should rather use it as a tool and explain
to them that if you need some immediate help and
you don't feel like talking to a parent, go to
an AI, but understand that the AI can't help you
(24:29):
fix it, so it is important to tell it to
your parent or tell it to somebody, to an adult,
to be able to fixate and get better support in
the real world.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Great point.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
We are chatting with Mechal's a Lot, director of threat
research for Norton, a leading cybersecurity brand. We are talking
about it's cyber Safety Insights report, this timeline Connected Kids
that explores how children are interacting with emerging technologies like
artificial intelligence. We just learned that several kids are turning
(25:03):
to AI to talk to them about problems, about emotional issues.
It's one thing for the AI to say to the
child who's typing in the prompt or using their voice
depending on the platform, to say, I understand how you're feeling,
and you know, I get it. But it's another thing
to give it advice, which is the next step. Right
when the child or the tween or the teen says
(25:24):
what do I do about it? That's where things might
not be good, but I like your advice about you know, for.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Parents to know that their kids are doing this. That's
number one.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Number two is to encourage them to talk to an adult,
whether it's someone at school, a therapist, parents themselves about
issues and not rely on AI. Yes, it's a tool,
as you said, but when it comes to advice on
emotional issues, that's where I think a lot of parents
will be concerned. Were the folks at Norton surprised to
learn that nearly a quarter of all kids said that
(25:54):
they've been cyberbullied? That seems like a high number.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
Definitely, this seems like a high number about all. So
we should realize that nowadays a lot of our lives
happened online. And that's to a point.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Impersonated more with Norton about its Connected Kids cybersecurity report.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
When we return on teck it Out. I'm your host,
Mark Saltzman. Stick with us. We'll be right back breaking.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Down geek speak into street speak. Check it Out hosted
by Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Welcome back to teck it Out. We are chatting with
Michel Salat.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
He is director of Threat Research at Norton, a leading
cybersecurity company. We're talking about its Insights report. This time
it's tied to Connected Kids would it be fair to say, Michel.
As we continue our chat, kids and tweens and teens
need to think twice about what they upload because it
could be forever. Right, even if they think it's going
(27:02):
to disappear like a Snapchat photo, you know, something inappropriate,
there's ways to archive that. Obviously, this is a concern
because it can be used against them, including ties to cyberbullying.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
Yeah, when you go online, it's easy to put a video.
Everybody now has a cell phone with a camera, So
if the kid does something stupid or not really well
thought through or embarrassing, chances are that it will get
recorded and it will likely get shared on YouTube or
TikTok or Instagram. It's not like it used to be ten, fifteen,
(27:39):
twenty years ago when it happened and as soon as
people forget about it, nobody really can get back to
it and remember. But nowadays it's recorded, it's stored online,
it never goes away, and it's basically easier not only
to get feedback or whatever we want to call it
from your peers in the school or people that were
(28:02):
there at the time when it happened, but also from
anybody else who gets to the video later on, so
the impacts are much bigger, and it might not be
bullying when it started, but it can become bullying later on.
So twenty four percent, after all, is not that high,
(28:23):
but it's also not a low number. So it should
be without saying that kids and parents should talk to
each other and have a healthy relationship so when stuff
like this happens, they can talk about it and they
can help each other own.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
So that's a great segue into my last question and
something you've addressed already.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Which is what to do about all of this?
Speaker 2 (28:45):
So I'm sure a lot of the parents are listening
to this interview right now. They often feel helpless because
the kids understand technology more than they do. That's the irony.
Yet it's our job to protect our children. So what
can we do to combat.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Some of these findings?
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Please us through any solutions, and don't be shy about
recommending Norton as part of the solution.
Speaker 6 (29:05):
Thanks for that. We have family products that help parents
manage screen time for their kids. We see already from
the report that eighty six percent of parents actually try
to manage screen time and limit what kids see online
and how they work with the technology. But also is
kind of visible that children are very familiar with technology
(29:28):
in general and are actively finding ways how to get
around protections put in by parents. So it shows that
it's very important that the parents have healthy relationship with
their kids and talk about what's happening in the school
in the physical world as well as what they do
in the virtual one online because that has a similar
(29:54):
impact on their lives. And we already mentioned the fact
how soon kids use devices, like from the age of two,
like forty percent of kids are almost half of them
use tablets very early on, and it is easy for
us parents to give a kid a tablet to keep
(30:14):
it entertained while we're doing something else. But also that
shouldn't come at cost of interaction between the kids and parent.
We should basically keep the relationship going and keep the
relation healthy so that when the kids are bullied or
when the kids feel down, they have somebody to come
(30:37):
to and to talk to, because that is the best
way how we can protect them only against regular bullying,
but against cyber bullying and any other digital threat.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
That is a great point, Michal I've often said the
same thing that as awkward as those conversations are with
your kids about cyber bullying or sexting or any other
modern day concerns. That it's better to air those out
and have an open dialogue because technology is a great tool,
but there's got to be that human element as well.
And then finally, where can we learn more about this report, Michal,
(31:09):
and more about Norton as well.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
Norton dot com. We have all the products listed in there.
You can use a trial version if you would like
to try for free.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
And there's an area with blog posts and you can
learn more about the Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report Connected
Kids right there, Michal. Thank you so much for your time.
I appreciate it. It's an important information that you've shared.
Thanks again, have a great rest of your summer.
Speaker 6 (31:31):
Thank you very much. Have a great summer too.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
All right, Two things, One, thank you for tuning in
to Tech it out. If you want to reach out
to say hi on social media, let me know what
you think of the show. Maybe you've got suggestions for
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Blue Sky, YouTube, LinkedIn and TikTok. Please do send me
(31:57):
a note and yeah, tell me where you're listening to
Tech it out from. I always get a kick out
of the cities and towns that people tune into, sometimes
far away countries who stream the show. But if you're
listening on your favorite local talk radio station, let me
know the call letters for it, or if you're tuning
in via the podcast, love to hear what platform you
like the best, like Spotify or Apple or Audible, tune
(32:20):
in radio, iHeart, etc. So it's Mark Saltzman, M A
R C S A L T Z M A N
again Mark Saltsman, Mark with a C, Saltsman with the Z.
The second thing is that I wanted to give a
shout out to sand Disc. They've got this new phone
drive USB C. Looks like a regular flash drive a
(32:42):
thumb drive, but it's got a USB C connection and
you can insert it into the bottom of an iPhone
now that they have USBC instead of a proprietary lightning connector.
Or you can plug it into an Android phone or
tablet and it'll automatically back up all your important photos
and videos so you don't run out of storage. You
don't have to pay for a monthly cloud account. Either
sanddisk dot com has more. They start at thirty six bucks.
(33:04):
All right, when we return on tech it out a
smart use of AI for those who are hard of
hearing or death.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Stick with us, We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Follow Mark Saltzman on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, Listen
to check it out whenever you want.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
As listeners of this show know, I get excited about
technology that can enhance, er enrich people's lives, and with
that comes accessibility tools to even the playing.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Fields for everybody.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yesterday I spoke with a company here at AWS in
Las Vegas called dot Lumen that has created a wearable
headset to help those who are blind or vision impaired
better navigate around city streets with tactical like vibration cues,
almost like a guide dog that could nudge you a
certain way. Now we're going to learn about a tool
for those who are or hard at hearing. We're joined
(34:01):
by Yami Paiano. She's CEO and co founder of sign Speak.
Very nice to meet you, Very nice to meet you.
Speaker 7 (34:08):
Thank you for having me here today.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Why don't we dive right in? What is sign speak?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
So?
Speaker 7 (34:13):
Signspeak is essentially an interpreting agency that is led by AI.
So we've created a proprietary software that would essentially do
the two mechanisms that an interpreter does, which is interpret
sign language into voice and then voice back into sign language.
And then we also have a human force behind it
because at the end of the day, our goal is
(34:34):
to provide accessibility. Because there's forty eight million deaf and
hard of hearing in the US, there's a huge interpreter shortage.
There's only ten thousand certified interpreters. That's like one interpreter
for a lot of deaf people. So our goal is
really making sure that that deaf people get access everywhere.
And in addition to that, our technology extends beyond interpretation
(34:56):
to be able to now anything that has voice recognition
now can be activated through sign language. So think about
all the amazing AI agents that are being created that
a voice activated or soon summary. Right, we all now
use summarization at the end of our calls in Zoom
and other video conferencing calls. So imagine being able to
(35:17):
now have signers and deaf people in the workforce that
can have that same tool as well.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
All right, so would this tool sign speak be available
to those who do online video chatting like you're zooming
with your colleagues or even on a consumer level with
family and friends.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
And there's like.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
A AI avatar in the corner that is signing what
you are saying verbally, and then the person who is
signing on the other end, who is deaf or hard
of hearing, they can sign back and then it's a
simulated voice.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
Is that fair?
Speaker 2 (35:47):
And is it mostly for online video communication?
Speaker 7 (35:50):
Yes, so right, that's exactly right. There's a fake person
that is in the center, and then the deaf person
can signed and we can speak into it would be
a similated voice. It is for online and we do
have a in person app that the deaf consumers don't
need to pay for. It is more for them to
get used to the technology. This is brand new AI,
(36:13):
so really making sure that the deaf consumer gets used
to it from the comfort of their home. So we
do offer it for them to use it at home,
but we understand that the deaf community should not pay
for their own accessibility, so we offer it at the
consumer level, and we're also offering it to enterprises.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
All right, So do you mean then just like you
and I are talking in the same room right now,
that if you had it on your phone, that this
could kind of be a mediator between us two if
you were deaf and I did not speak ASL. Yes, exactly, Okay,
thanks for that. How does AWS help you deliver this service?
Speaker 7 (36:46):
Yeah, I think that our infrastructure takes into account latency
because the real time communication needs to happen instantaneously and
in real time. So right now our system is equal
to the latency of an interpreter. So usually because we're
talking about ASL and English, two different, completely different languages
(37:08):
with two different grammatical structure, there is about a three
to two second lag time that any interpreter will have,
and the deaf community is very used to it. What
my team is super excited about AWS is sort of
AWS Trainium, AWS Inferratio, which really allows us to train
(37:28):
these models and operate.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Them at a lower cost.
Speaker 7 (37:31):
So that then when we're talking about things like using
smaller models on the phone or on device, well now
that is a reality, and we've seen what has happened
with voice recognition, where now voice recognition is essentially everywhere.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
That is because we have.
Speaker 7 (37:46):
Smaller models that can do that, and AWS has allowed
us to get there through some of their technology.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
We are chatting with Yami Paiano. She's CEO and co
founder of sign Speak. That's the name of the company
and the solution the serve.
Speaker 7 (38:00):
Yes correct, So please go to www dot sign speak dot.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
All right sign dash speak dot com to learn more. Yamy,
it's been a pleasure chatting with you. Thank you so
much and have a great rest of your AWS Reinvents show.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Thank you and same to you and.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Hey, thanks for tuning into Tech it Out everyone. Hope
you enjoyed the program. We had three guests, Visa Norton
and sign Speak, a company that AWS has partnered with
to help those who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Speaking of Visa, thank you for your ongoing support on
Tech it Out. If you want to hear this show
(38:36):
all over again or share it with someone special, simply
go to your favorite podcast platform do a search for
tech it Out and you can add my name as well,
Mark Saltzman, Mark with the C, Saltsman with the Z
and you'll find this episode at the top of the page.
It's episode four oh six if you prefer to search
that way.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Thank you once again for tuning in.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Have a great rest of your day, and I look
forward to catch up with you next week for another brand.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
New episode of Tack It Out. Bye bye for now.
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the ever changing world
of technology? Check it Out can help make some sense
of it all. Breaking down geeksbeak into street speak. Technology columnist, author,
and TV personality Mark Saltzman covers consumer technology each week
for every listener. Mark tackles the latest news, reviews, and
how toos to help you understand what's hot, what's not
(00:22):
and why.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hey, everyone, welcome to check it out. It's episode four six.
Hope you're all having a great day so far and
a great summer so far as well. I do say
so far because we've still got a chunk left of August.
Even though I hear Costco already has Halloween decorations out.
If that's true, and hey, I write for Costco Connection Magazine,
(00:48):
I'm not slamming them because they know what they're doing
over there in Issaquah, Washington, outside of Seattle, very smart people.
If it's out at Costco warehouses, that means people are
buying Halloween decorations already, or they wouldn't have it on
display yet. A listener wrote me to say, home depot
also has its Halloween decorations already. What's going on? I
(01:10):
just want everything to slow down a little. That said,
I did have a guest on last week on this
program who talked about back to school tech. In fact,
wherever you're listening to this in the country, you may
already be getting ready to go back to school.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Crazy.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, we aren't talking back to school today, but we
have a fantastic show for you. Nonetheless, let me tell
you what's on tap. Visa will help me kick off
the show in a moment to chat about its new
cybersecurity Advisory practice, which gives guidance and support to businesses
tied to managing cyber risks. But we'll also get some
(01:46):
takeaways as regular consumers who shop online or at retail,
how to best protect ourselves in an age where AI
attacks are growing in sophistication. My first guest, Carl Rutstein
from Visa, will be on in about sixty seconds. He
serves as Senior vice president and Global head of Visa
Consulting and Analytics at Visa.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Very nice guy.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
After that, and speaking of protecting ourselves, Norton will join
us on techt out a leading cybersecurity brand, and in
this interview with Norton's Michel Salat, who is director of
Threat Research we're going to talk about protecting kids online
as we'll hear results tied to Norton's latest Cyber Safety
(02:31):
Insights report, this time on connected kids. You're definitely not
going to want to miss this chat, especially if you
have children, grandkids, or nieces and nephews. And finally, I
love when tech can help even the playing field for
those with challenges, such as those with a physical disability.
I was at an AWS event Amazon Web Services, and
(02:55):
I've recorded an interview there about sign Speak, which provides
it's automated American Sign Language recognition, ASL, transcription and production
to help deaf and hard of hearing individuals communicate effectively
in virtually any situation. I'll catch up with CEO Yami Piano,
and you'll hear the interview later on in the program.
(03:17):
Here on Tech it Out, all of this and more
on a brand new episode powered by Visa, which happens
to be our first of three guests today. So without
further delay, let's officially kick off a new Tech it
Out with our first interview.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
I know there are.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Many business owners and IT decision makers who tune into
this radio show and podcast, and so you're going to
want to hear this next interview with Visa about its
new cyber security advisory practice, which provides guidance and support
to businesses on managing cyber risks and improving their security posture.
Joining us from Visa is Carl Rutstein. He's senior vice
(03:52):
president and global head of Visa Consulting and Analytics. Good
to chat with you, Carl, Thanks so much for your time.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Oh, of course, thank you. Mark.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
We talk about Visa's news cybersecurity advisory practice and a
newly published report. I believe it's entitled Countering Emerging Cyber
Threats and Payments. Please tell us a bit about your
role as global head of Advisory Services for Visa.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
What does that mean exactly?
Speaker 5 (04:16):
So, we built up an advisory practice to support our clients,
and we do exactly what you would expect a consulting
firm bolted onto a network would do. We help our clients,
and those could be large bank issuers, they could be
large acquirers, they could be large merchants. But there are
also any size bank or merchant or fintech player, anyone
(04:37):
connected to Visa. We're helping them, and we're helping them
essentially do four things.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
It's easy to think.
Speaker 5 (04:42):
About it around acquisition, engagement, retention, and risk. We help
our clients get more customers, get more out of those customers,
keep those customers, and manage things like.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Authorization and fraud.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
And what we're focusing on today is how we're helping
them with cybersecurity.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
And just to give you a frame reference, as.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
We said during our investor day earlier, we did over
one point three billion dollars of advisory work with our clients.
We have well over two thousand professionals. These are consultants,
data scientists, economists, product specialists that really are dedicated helping
our clients against those four buckets. And we are very
(05:22):
focused and DNS so we do about five thousand projects
a year just against those four things.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
So we're very very deep.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Sounds it.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
I attended your Visa product drop in the Bay Area
a couple months back.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
But this is I guess different than the investor day.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Oh yes, there are two different things.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Gosh, the product drop between Ryan and Oliver and Jack,
it really blew a lot of people away on what
a gena commerce is going to be doing. If you
could dream it, AI could do it. So it's actually
quite interesting.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yeah, awesome, Carl.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
If our listeners want to hear that interview by the
way hop out agentic AI and what Visa is doing
and what they predict the near future holds, they can
just do a search on their favorite podcast platform for
tech it Out and the word Visa and you'll find it.
But we've got you to talk about the cybersecurity advisory practice.
But clearly, as you just mentioned those four buckets, your
world is much broader than cybersecurity.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
But let's zoom in there.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Please remind our listeners how much Visa has invested in
this space over the past few years.
Speaker 4 (06:19):
It's really important to remember. This is like the reason
Visa exists.
Speaker 5 (06:22):
We think of cybersecurity and protecting the ecosystem as a
core part of our mission, and therefore we want to
create a secure and trust an ecosystem where consumers and
businesses could exchange goods for payments. Protecting the ecosystem from
fraud or cybersecurity is just what we've been doing, and
always have done, and always will do. The tricky part
is fraud is an ever evolving challenge. So to answer
(06:43):
your question, we spend over twelve billion dollars on technology
and infrastructure just in the last five years, which includes
cybersecurity and fraud prevention. So it's our proactive approach to
protecting the integrity of the network. And to put this impact,
like in perspective, Mark in the US alone, we blocked
over fourteen billion dollars of presumed fraud.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
It's a thirty.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Percent increase from the prior year. So the success is
powered by our significant advancements and fraud prevention, AI powered
threat detection and really our network resilience. It's core to
what we do and it's one of the reasons that
we're launching this cybersecurity advisory practice just continue to help
our clients in this area.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
That was twelve billion with a B yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Right.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Ironically, just as the cyber criminals are leveraging AI to
steal from businesses, governments and individuals, AI can also be
used by the likes of Visa to fight back, you know,
to predict something that doesn't seem right and flag and
quarantine and then remove those threats so we can get
on with our transactions.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
So with that in mind, Carl, that's a great segue
as to why Visa established this focused advisory practice.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
So we decided to launch this cybersecurity advisory practice just
because our clients were asking about our clients need deeper,
more proactive support and just navigating the complexities of today.
So as digital commerce expands, and it's been a three
hundred percent surge of internet fraud just over the last
few years, so our clients are just increasingly looking for
(08:16):
ways to proactively identify, evaluate, and obviously mitigate these cyber threats.
And this new practice just builds on our proven capabilities
to help the ecosystem. So, as I mentioned, we've got
a global network of over two thousand consultants, data scientists, economists,
product experts.
Speaker 4 (08:35):
And we really want to get embedded with.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
Our clients to help them frankly improve their cybersecurity capabilities,
starting with their strategy, going into a maturity assessment, and
then helping them evolves.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
These needs and demands continue to evolve.
Speaker 5 (08:51):
I mean, just to give you a sense, there's a
few sort of services that we provide just to make
this real. So one is under what we call our
Cybersucitecurity Institute, which is really connected to VC University. This
is just you know, security workshops, so training and awareness
for employees. Another is a cybersecurity and maturity assessment where
(09:13):
we empower organizations to just understand what's required, what the
gaps are, and to ultimately help them mitigate. And then
one of the ones that is just easy to understand
once you explain it, but it is one of those
words that I'm sure when you interviewed my colleague Mike
Jabara he mentioned, but enumeration defense. This is just a
specialized service where the criminals are essentially finding weak merchants
(09:38):
and just pinging them with purchase transactions with I don't
want to say random, because there's an algorithm underneath it,
but just sixteen digit pan numbers, cvbs and expiration dates
to just find cards that work, and then when they
find a card that work, they just do a bunch
of purchases. So we leverage artificial intelligence to just watch
this and when we see these patterns as we shut
(10:00):
them down. So just last year we blocked over one
hundred and fifty million fraudulent transactions which were essentially enumeration attempts.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Wow, those are big numbers. Carl, could you tell us
a bit about AI and how it is being leveraged
by fraudsters. You touched on this already, and I mentioned
how AI can both hurt and help the payments space.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Can you elaborate a bit more on that?
Speaker 5 (10:21):
Of course, as Visa's core mission is the largest credit
card network, it is our job number one to protect
the safety and security, and we are a trust based business.
AI has become a double edged sword in cybersecurity. So
in the same way that we want to protect the ecosystem,
fraudsters are using AI to exploit it, and they're doing
it at scale, and they're being incredibly frankly creative and industrious.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
So I'll give you three quick examples.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
So one, it used to be when you wanted to
do phishing training for your employees how to find phishing scams,
you normally say misspelling or subject verb, mismap other typos. Now,
with large language models, they write highly convincing memos, so
there are no more spelling errors as a telltale sign.
(11:08):
Phishing emails and text messages in particular that you get
on your phone can look incredibly legitimate.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
More with Carl Rutstein from Visa when we return, including
a pretty scary story that can happen to any one
of us, We'll be right back with more Check it Out.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Listen to Check it Out whenever you want to find
the Check it Out podcast, did I Too, or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
Welcome back to Teck it Out.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
We are chatting with Carl Rutstein, who serves as global
head of Visa's advisory business. Visa, if you weren't aware,
is the largest credit card company in the world in
terms of purchase volume and the number of cards in circulation.
We're talking about combating evolving cyber threats in the payments space.
Before the break, Carl, you were about to share a
story about deep fakes, how AI can be used as
(12:06):
an effective tool to defraud people.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Please continue your thoughts.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Sure, well, I was out for dinner the other night
and someone was telling me about their adult kid who
got scammed from a utility here in Illinois. I live
in Chicago, and you know, they had the phone number,
they had the person's name and other basic facts, and
before she knew it, she was out several hundred dollars
to pay a bill that she didn't know. Another example
(12:32):
is creating synthetic identities at scale, So this is enabling
mass account creation and then fraudulent rings are just very
hard to detect because they're flooding the system. The one
that is the most scariest, and I have a specific
recommendation for your listeners, are deep fake videos and sort
of voice clones. These are highly convincing impersonations and they
(12:53):
trick people into transferring funds. So I won't out my colleague,
but one of my coworker I was talking with on
a Monday and he said, the craziest thing happened on Saturday.
I got a call from my daughter who was frantic.
She had just run through a stop sign and hit
a woman who was pregnant who had to go to
the hospital, and she was arrested, and she was incredibly
(13:15):
distraught and crying on the phone, and the police officer
came on and explained that they're going to have to
hold her till the court's open on Monday, so she's
going to have to spend Sunday in jail. And as
my colleague tried to post bail, a court appointed lawyer
was able to do something with the help of the
judge on the weekend, I guess, but he needed fifteen
(13:36):
thousand in cash for bail. So while my colleague was
driving around San Francisco, to find fifteen thousand dollars cash
on a Saturday. He eventually connected with his son in law,
who said, what are you talking about. She's in the
bathroom brushing her teeth. Oh wow, the whole thing was
a fake and it was his daughter crying on the
phone with her voice and everything. So my advice to
your listeners, and I did this for you know, my kids,
(13:58):
come up with a safe word. Come up with a
word that if any of your family members are calling
in distraught and they need funds, just ask them, you know,
your goldfish's name growing up or something, and if they
don't know that name, just hang up on it. So
it's pretty scary out there.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, indeed, thank you for sharing that and great advice.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
That was going to be my next question.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
How do we fight back a lot of our listeners
they don't know what to do, they feel helpless.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
Any other suggestions, sure.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
I mean, first you want to be proactive. It's easy
to be reactive.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
Something happens and then you want to react to it,
but you're going to have to lean in. So first,
for our clients, you know, we stress adhering to payment
standards like PCI DSS, which just stands for Payment Card
Industry Data Security Standard. Just to stay up to date
on all the standards that we put out, assessing cybersecurity
maturity level. So we work with clients to assess how
(14:48):
mature they are, conduct regular testing, audit the systems, implement
what we call, or i think what is called a
zero trust concept, which assumes the tax can originate both
externally and internally and therefore does require you know, multiple
authentications when people are using the system. You know, our
advisory practice, which really does leverage AI and the expertise
(15:10):
of our consultants is a great start. Not to put
in a sales plug for our advisory, but we literally
have these assets available in capabilities to help our clients.
It's why we build up this business. So we do
want to have our clients take advantage of it. And
then even for the smallest e merchants, you know, we
could do threat modeling and incident response. At the end
of the day, we're meeting clients where they are and
(15:32):
helping them get.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
To be where they need to be.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
All great advice and also for consumers as well, like
you shared having a safe word, yes, not trusting anybody,
like always have your backup, Like, if you get a
text message, an unsolicited message, even if it looks legit,
or a phone call that sounds legit, do your due diligence.
Call your bank, for example, with the number you already
have for them, maybe on the back of the card,
not with the number that's in the text message or email.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Just some common sense tips, right, yes, And what about
shopping Before I let you go?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
How do we remain more cyber safe when buying something
both online and at retail.
Speaker 5 (16:05):
Well, we have a role to play in protecting ourselves,
and I would be remiss if I didn't say, use
your credit or debit card. Visa spends billions of dollars
protecting the ecosystem, and you often have zero liability. So
if you have an option to use a Visa credit
or your Visa debit card, that is always the best
option to protect you from liability. Now, in addition to that,
(16:27):
just be wary of offers that seemed too good to
be true when shopping online. It's easy to say, but
if you hadn't heard of the retailer, be a little suspect.
Never click on links via email or SMS text messages.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
You know, be mindful of what you share on social media.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
Because the example I gave you before, Mark, the person
I went out for dinner with this bill from a
utility in Illinois felt legitimate because they knew this this
person's name, and they knew her address, and therefore she,
you know, transferred the funds and when she reached back
to the utility, they're.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Like, we have no idea what you're talking about, so
be vigilant.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
All great advice, and yeah, I've heard a lot of
these deep fakes, whether it's audio or video, are based
on clips that we ourselves have uploaded to social media.
You know, maybe have something that your daughter or your
grandson said and they just need a couple of seconds
of their face or their voice in order to create
something more sophisticated. So it is pretty scary times, but
like you said, with buyer protection, it's a no brainer
(17:22):
to use your visa card. Awesome, Carl, it's been great
chatting with you. Is there a website we can leave
our listeners with to learn more.
Speaker 5 (17:28):
Yes, Visa dot com slash protect and you can navigate
to all our resources from that.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
You are out Visa dot com slash protect.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Carl.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Thank you so much for your time. It's a pleasure
to have you on the program for the first time,
hopefully won't be the last. All the best, Thank you again.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Thank you, Mark, It's terrific.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Speaking of protection, when we return on tech it Out,
we're going to catch up with Norton, a leading cybersecurity brand,
to hear about connected kids, how AI is putting our
kids at risk even more so than the usual sort
of concerns about screen time and inappropriate websites. And we're
going to talk how things have changed. You're definitely going
(18:06):
to want to tune into this if you're a parent
or grandparent. So when we return on tech it Out,
Norton joins us.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Stick with us. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I want to follow Mark Google and Mark with a
C and Saltzman with.
Speaker 5 (18:17):
A Z.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Breaking down geeks peak into street speak. This is check
it Out to check it out with technology columnist, author,
and TV personality Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Welcome back everyone, you're listening to check it out. If
you've got kids who spend time online, which I would
venture to say that would be most of them in
today's day and age, you're going to want to hear
this next interview with Norton, a leading global brand that
focuses on providing security and privacy software and services. Norton
just released its Cyber Safety Insights Report on Connected Kids
(19:03):
that explores, in part, how children are interacting with emerging
technologies like AI and the associated risks with it. Joining
us to break it all down is Michel Salat, He's
director of Threat Research for Norton. Welcome to the program, Mikale,
good to chat with you.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
Hello, Thanks for having me sure Now.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Hey, before we talk about the Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report,
this time focusing on Connected Kids, please tell us a
bit about Norton. You're much more than an anti virus company, right,
I think that's where most people think of you as
an anti virus company, but you do so much more
these days.
Speaker 6 (19:36):
Yeah, we are way more than just an antivirus because
as the threat landscape progresses, purely antivirus just doesn't cut
it anymore. So we focus a lot about digital privacy
as well as identity protection. We have products ranging from
the aforementioned av through VPNs identity protection to password management
(20:02):
utilities to improve the performance of your computer. So we
really aim to provide complex services and complex protection for
anything you might want to do online, all.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Right, So for individuals and families and also businesses.
Speaker 6 (20:19):
Yes, we have individual products, families as well as small
small businesses.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Yeah, okay, so a holistic approach to address the evolving
threat landscape out there. So with that in mind, let's
talk about this newly published report.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
What did you set out to find?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Again, it was called the Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report
Connected Kits.
Speaker 6 (20:41):
We are trying to understand how our customers operate online
and what are the threats that they're concerned about. And
sometime ago we ran a report on the effects of
the cybersecurity on elderly people and the kids, where the
next group that we wanted to understand how they behave
(21:03):
and how they operate online and how we can improve
our protection for them.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
All right.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
So this was a survey that set out to find
how kids who are connected, as I mentioned off the top,
how it's changing compared to just a few years ago,
I e AI and related threats associated with it.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
What were some of the key findings from your report?
Speaker 6 (21:24):
So some of the KEEM findings were that more than
one in four parents say that their kids are very
actively using AI, and they're using it for let's say,
digital companionship and digital help. So it's showing us an
interesting trend where kids would rather go to this kind
(21:46):
of robotake friend or digital friend rather than a parent
or a real friend when they have an issue. So
it also shows us that parents are worried about the
use of AI by their kids. It's important to see
the broader context of the report because as kids are
(22:09):
using technology more and more, and we saw that a
lot of kids use tublets by the age of two,
so like almost half of the kids get access. And
we also see that like one in four kids use
cell phone by the age of eight. They are inevitably
going to be affected by threats online and by technology
(22:32):
like AI. So parents are worried and try to understand
the kids.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
I got any restaurant where kids are with their families
and you'll see in many instances a tablet and iPad
on their lap. Yeah, that is not surprising at all.
I want to ask you about cyberbullying in a moment,
and I don't think that's a necessarily new phenomenon when it.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Comes to AI. But just going back to turning to
AI for.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Emotional support, I think that's disconcerting too many people here
aring this that if a child has a problem, whether
it's with their friends, a love interest, or something going
on at home, that they're turning to AI like chatchypt
or Google, Gemini or Copilot to talk to it.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
And get advice. This is what you found in your
report that this is fairly common.
Speaker 6 (23:18):
It's probably easier for the kids to talk to an
AI agent than to parent because it is stripped of emotions,
and the AI agents, in their attempt to make themselves
feel more live, they agree with a lot of the
things that we talk about with them, so there is
a sense of verification and agreement about the problem. So
(23:43):
if the kids come in and says they are not
nice to me, the AI agent typically tries to say
something like, yeah, I understand that it is hard to
feel unappreciated or something like that. So it is easier
probably for the kids to talk an a At the
same time, it is important to use AI as a tool,
(24:06):
so it can be used for bad and it can
be used for good. And we shouldn't understand the fact
that kids are talking to AI as something really bad.
We should rather use it as a tool and explain
to them that if you need some immediate help and
you don't feel like talking to a parent, go to
an AI, but understand that the AI can't help you
(24:29):
fix it, so it is important to tell it to
your parent or tell it to somebody, to an adult,
to be able to fixate and get better support in
the real world.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Great point.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
We are chatting with Mechal's a Lot, director of threat
research for Norton, a leading cybersecurity brand. We are talking
about it's cyber Safety Insights report, this timeline Connected Kids
that explores how children are interacting with emerging technologies like
artificial intelligence. We just learned that several kids are turning
(25:03):
to AI to talk to them about problems, about emotional issues.
It's one thing for the AI to say to the
child who's typing in the prompt or using their voice
depending on the platform, to say, I understand how you're feeling,
and you know, I get it. But it's another thing
to give it advice, which is the next step. Right
when the child or the tween or the teen says
(25:24):
what do I do about it? That's where things might
not be good, but I like your advice about you know, for.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Parents to know that their kids are doing this. That's
number one.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Number two is to encourage them to talk to an adult,
whether it's someone at school, a therapist, parents themselves about
issues and not rely on AI. Yes, it's a tool,
as you said, but when it comes to advice on
emotional issues, that's where I think a lot of parents
will be concerned. Were the folks at Norton surprised to
learn that nearly a quarter of all kids said that
(25:54):
they've been cyberbullied? That seems like a high number.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
Definitely, this seems like a high number about all. So
we should realize that nowadays a lot of our lives
happened online. And that's to a point.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Impersonated more with Norton about its Connected Kids cybersecurity report.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
When we return on teck it Out. I'm your host,
Mark Saltzman. Stick with us. We'll be right back breaking.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Down geek speak into street speak. Check it Out hosted
by Mark Saltzman.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Welcome back to teck it Out. We are chatting with
Michel Salat.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
He is director of Threat Research at Norton, a leading
cybersecurity company. We're talking about its Insights report. This time
it's tied to Connected Kids would it be fair to say, Michel.
As we continue our chat, kids and tweens and teens
need to think twice about what they upload because it
could be forever. Right, even if they think it's going
(27:02):
to disappear like a Snapchat photo, you know, something inappropriate,
there's ways to archive that. Obviously, this is a concern
because it can be used against them, including ties to cyberbullying.
Speaker 6 (27:15):
Yeah, when you go online, it's easy to put a video.
Everybody now has a cell phone with a camera, So
if the kid does something stupid or not really well
thought through or embarrassing, chances are that it will get
recorded and it will likely get shared on YouTube or
TikTok or Instagram. It's not like it used to be ten, fifteen,
(27:39):
twenty years ago when it happened and as soon as
people forget about it, nobody really can get back to
it and remember. But nowadays it's recorded, it's stored online,
it never goes away, and it's basically easier not only
to get feedback or whatever we want to call it
from your peers in the school or people that were
(28:02):
there at the time when it happened, but also from
anybody else who gets to the video later on, so
the impacts are much bigger, and it might not be
bullying when it started, but it can become bullying later on.
So twenty four percent, after all, is not that high,
(28:23):
but it's also not a low number. So it should
be without saying that kids and parents should talk to
each other and have a healthy relationship so when stuff
like this happens, they can talk about it and they
can help each other own.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
So that's a great segue into my last question and
something you've addressed already.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
Which is what to do about all of this?
Speaker 2 (28:45):
So I'm sure a lot of the parents are listening
to this interview right now. They often feel helpless because
the kids understand technology more than they do. That's the irony.
Yet it's our job to protect our children. So what
can we do to combat.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Some of these findings?
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Please us through any solutions, and don't be shy about
recommending Norton as part of the solution.
Speaker 6 (29:05):
Thanks for that. We have family products that help parents
manage screen time for their kids. We see already from
the report that eighty six percent of parents actually try
to manage screen time and limit what kids see online
and how they work with the technology. But also is
kind of visible that children are very familiar with technology
(29:28):
in general and are actively finding ways how to get
around protections put in by parents. So it shows that
it's very important that the parents have healthy relationship with
their kids and talk about what's happening in the school
in the physical world as well as what they do
in the virtual one online because that has a similar
(29:54):
impact on their lives. And we already mentioned the fact
how soon kids use devices, like from the age of two,
like forty percent of kids are almost half of them
use tablets very early on, and it is easy for
us parents to give a kid a tablet to keep
(30:14):
it entertained while we're doing something else. But also that
shouldn't come at cost of interaction between the kids and parent.
We should basically keep the relationship going and keep the
relation healthy so that when the kids are bullied or
when the kids feel down, they have somebody to come
(30:37):
to and to talk to, because that is the best
way how we can protect them only against regular bullying,
but against cyber bullying and any other digital threat.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
That is a great point, Michal I've often said the
same thing that as awkward as those conversations are with
your kids about cyber bullying or sexting or any other
modern day concerns. That it's better to air those out
and have an open dialogue because technology is a great tool,
but there's got to be that human element as well.
And then finally, where can we learn more about this report, Michal,
(31:09):
and more about Norton as well.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
Norton dot com. We have all the products listed in there.
You can use a trial version if you would like
to try for free.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
And there's an area with blog posts and you can
learn more about the Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report Connected
Kids right there, Michal. Thank you so much for your time.
I appreciate it. It's an important information that you've shared.
Thanks again, have a great rest of your summer.
Speaker 6 (31:31):
Thank you very much. Have a great summer too.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
All right, Two things, One, thank you for tuning in
to Tech it out. If you want to reach out
to say hi on social media, let me know what
you think of the show. Maybe you've got suggestions for
upcoming guests or topics. I'll spell my name in a moment,
but you can find me on x formerly, Twitter, Instagram, threads, Facebook,
Blue Sky, YouTube, LinkedIn and TikTok. Please do send me
(31:57):
a note and yeah, tell me where you're listening to
Tech it out from. I always get a kick out
of the cities and towns that people tune into, sometimes
far away countries who stream the show. But if you're
listening on your favorite local talk radio station, let me
know the call letters for it, or if you're tuning
in via the podcast, love to hear what platform you
like the best, like Spotify or Apple or Audible, tune
(32:20):
in radio, iHeart, etc. So it's Mark Saltzman, M A
R C S A L T Z M A N
again Mark Saltsman, Mark with a C, Saltsman with the Z.
The second thing is that I wanted to give a
shout out to sand Disc. They've got this new phone
drive USB C. Looks like a regular flash drive a
(32:42):
thumb drive, but it's got a USB C connection and
you can insert it into the bottom of an iPhone
now that they have USBC instead of a proprietary lightning connector.
Or you can plug it into an Android phone or
tablet and it'll automatically back up all your important photos
and videos so you don't run out of storage. You
don't have to pay for a monthly cloud account. Either
sanddisk dot com has more. They start at thirty six bucks.
(33:04):
All right, when we return on tech it out a
smart use of AI for those who are hard of
hearing or death.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
Stick with us, We'll be right back.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Follow Mark Saltzman on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, Listen
to check it out whenever you want.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
As listeners of this show know, I get excited about
technology that can enhance, er enrich people's lives, and with
that comes accessibility tools to even the playing.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Fields for everybody.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yesterday I spoke with a company here at AWS in
Las Vegas called dot Lumen that has created a wearable
headset to help those who are blind or vision impaired
better navigate around city streets with tactical like vibration cues,
almost like a guide dog that could nudge you a
certain way. Now we're going to learn about a tool
for those who are or hard at hearing. We're joined
(34:01):
by Yami Paiano. She's CEO and co founder of sign Speak.
Very nice to meet you, Very nice to meet you.
Speaker 7 (34:08):
Thank you for having me here today.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Why don't we dive right in? What is sign speak?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
So?
Speaker 7 (34:13):
Signspeak is essentially an interpreting agency that is led by AI.
So we've created a proprietary software that would essentially do
the two mechanisms that an interpreter does, which is interpret
sign language into voice and then voice back into sign language.
And then we also have a human force behind it
because at the end of the day, our goal is
(34:34):
to provide accessibility. Because there's forty eight million deaf and
hard of hearing in the US, there's a huge interpreter shortage.
There's only ten thousand certified interpreters. That's like one interpreter
for a lot of deaf people. So our goal is
really making sure that that deaf people get access everywhere.
And in addition to that, our technology extends beyond interpretation
(34:56):
to be able to now anything that has voice recognition
now can be activated through sign language. So think about
all the amazing AI agents that are being created that
a voice activated or soon summary. Right, we all now
use summarization at the end of our calls in Zoom
and other video conferencing calls. So imagine being able to
(35:17):
now have signers and deaf people in the workforce that
can have that same tool as well.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
All right, so would this tool sign speak be available
to those who do online video chatting like you're zooming
with your colleagues or even on a consumer level with
family and friends.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
And there's like.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
A AI avatar in the corner that is signing what
you are saying verbally, and then the person who is
signing on the other end, who is deaf or hard
of hearing, they can sign back and then it's a
simulated voice.
Speaker 3 (35:47):
Is that fair?
Speaker 2 (35:47):
And is it mostly for online video communication?
Speaker 7 (35:50):
Yes, so right, that's exactly right. There's a fake person
that is in the center, and then the deaf person
can signed and we can speak into it would be
a similated voice. It is for online and we do
have a in person app that the deaf consumers don't
need to pay for. It is more for them to
get used to the technology. This is brand new AI,
(36:13):
so really making sure that the deaf consumer gets used
to it from the comfort of their home. So we
do offer it for them to use it at home,
but we understand that the deaf community should not pay
for their own accessibility, so we offer it at the
consumer level, and we're also offering it to enterprises.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
All right, So do you mean then just like you
and I are talking in the same room right now,
that if you had it on your phone, that this
could kind of be a mediator between us two if
you were deaf and I did not speak ASL. Yes, exactly, Okay,
thanks for that. How does AWS help you deliver this service?
Speaker 7 (36:46):
Yeah, I think that our infrastructure takes into account latency
because the real time communication needs to happen instantaneously and
in real time. So right now our system is equal
to the latency of an interpreter. So usually because we're
talking about ASL and English, two different, completely different languages
(37:08):
with two different grammatical structure, there is about a three
to two second lag time that any interpreter will have,
and the deaf community is very used to it. What
my team is super excited about AWS is sort of
AWS Trainium, AWS Inferratio, which really allows us to train
(37:28):
these models and operate.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Them at a lower cost.
Speaker 7 (37:31):
So that then when we're talking about things like using
smaller models on the phone or on device, well now
that is a reality, and we've seen what has happened
with voice recognition, where now voice recognition is essentially everywhere.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
That is because we have.
Speaker 7 (37:46):
Smaller models that can do that, and AWS has allowed
us to get there through some of their technology.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
We are chatting with Yami Paiano. She's CEO and co
founder of sign Speak. That's the name of the company
and the solution the serve.
Speaker 7 (38:00):
Yes correct, So please go to www dot sign speak dot.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
All right sign dash speak dot com to learn more. Yamy,
it's been a pleasure chatting with you. Thank you so
much and have a great rest of your AWS Reinvents show.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Thank you and same to you and.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Hey, thanks for tuning into Tech it Out everyone. Hope
you enjoyed the program. We had three guests, Visa Norton
and sign Speak, a company that AWS has partnered with
to help those who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Speaking of Visa, thank you for your ongoing support on
Tech it Out. If you want to hear this show
(38:36):
all over again or share it with someone special, simply
go to your favorite podcast platform do a search for
tech it Out and you can add my name as well,
Mark Saltzman, Mark with the C, Saltsman with the Z
and you'll find this episode at the top of the page.
It's episode four oh six if you prefer to search
that way.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
Thank you once again for tuning in.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Have a great rest of your day, and I look
forward to catch up with you next week for another brand.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
New episode of Tack It Out. Bye bye for now.
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