Exploring the intersection of security, technology, and society—and thinking about what might be coming next. 20+ hours of reading and analysis condensed into a 10-minute summary every Monday morning.
A comment from Renee DiResta on what makes Volodymyr Zelenskyy such an effective communicator:
“Short recurring declarative sentences, calm delivery looking directly at camera, selfie video format conveys authenticity, everyman “of the people” in every aspect of the formulation. Reinforces leadership while conveying humanity, strength, calm, and bravery.” More
A list of journalists, academics, and think-tank experts covering Ukraine. More
Russia says they’ll respond militarily if Finland or Sweden joins NATO. More
Elon Musk has enabled Starlink’s satellite-based internet service for Ukraine. More
62% of US voters say Putin wouldn’t have invaded Ukraine if Trump were president. More
Unlike most of the world right now, the Chinese internet sentiment is largely pro-Putin and pro-Invasion. More
BP is abandoning its stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft, and will write down $25 billion related to the three-decade investment there. More
Germany said they’ll spend $113 billion in 2022 on defense, and reversed their position and will now send weaponry to Ukraine. More
Meta is going to ban Russian companies from running ads and getting paid on their platform. More
The Military Gap Between Ukraine and Russia is Vast. More
Google has disabled Maps traffic data in Ukraine to protect citizens. More
The DoD is acknowledging that contractor consolidation has created a national security risk. I’ve worried about this for a long time. If there are only a few companies that help us build our future tech and future weapons, that’s also a short list of targets for China and other adversaries. More
It appears that NVIDIA is experiencing a major ransomware attack, and there are reports that they’ve actively gone after the attacker by encrypting their laptop with ransomware. This is all very early, though. I wouldn’t have too much confidence in this first wave of reporting. More
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Cloudflare is buying Area 1 Security, a company focused on combatting phishing. More
TECHNOLOGY NEWS
Amazon is about to overtake Pandora as the No. 2 US music streaming service. More
You can now do telehealth visits using Amazon Alexa and a company called Teledoc. You say, “Alexa, I want to talk to a doctor.”, and it connects you via audio to one of their doctors. They say video visits are coming soon. More
TikTok’s maximum video length is now 10 minutes, up from 3 minutes just last July, and just one minute before that. I think this is likely to harm the platform in some ways, as constraints drive creativity. More
HUMAN NEWS
41 million Americans believe in QAnon. Like I’ve said in the past, our problem isn’t just social media or drugs: it’s ignorant and gullible people who can’t properly evaluate evidence in search of truth. 25% of Republicans and 9% of Democrats believe in QAnon. More
A February 2022 poll from Economist/YouGov found that only 30% of independent voters approve of Biden’s performance. More
CONTENT, IDEAS & ANALYSIS
A Disturbing Idea About Business and Human Workers — There’s an idea that haunts me every few months around the purpose of companies and the need for humans to feel valuable in the world. This essay talks through it. More
Thoughts on Ukraine — I wish I had something smart to say about this situation. But I’m not an expert on Ukraine or on Russia, and I’m only just now learning about Ukraine’s history. I don’t have anything to offer. I’m just disappointed that this type of thing is still possible. I wanted to believe that intertwined economies would harm countries from hurting each other, because those other countries contain their customers. It’s clearly not true. Another Santa fantasy to stop believing in. I am happy though that the US did a good job of uniting most of the world against Putin, and it’s both sad and inspiring to see the strength of the Ukrainian people. I’m disappointed in China’s response, with the government publicly saying they’re on Russia’s side, and the people seeming to side with Russia as well. It really does frame China and Russia as two authoritarian states in a world that’s trying hard to move away from that model. I guess I hope that the Russian people somehow find a way to remove Putin. I’m not optimistic about what he’d be replaced with, but I think it’s time to risk it. I’m hoping for a quick resolution, and to Vlad and everyone else in the community who are from Ukraine or Russia, I wish you well in this difficult time.
