Tech Brew Ride Home - Mon. 10/22 - Fred Wilson Wants You To Vet Your Venture Funders

Episode Date: October 22, 2018

Facebook wants to buy some cybersecurity, Washington wants to know what Silicon Valley will do for its country, Fred Wilson wants you to ask yourself if your investors are bad actors, and stealing a Tesla by hacking the entry fob. Links: Facebook on Hunt for Big Cybersecurity Acquisition (The Information) Who Are My Investors? (AVC) Thieves steal a Tesla Model S by hacking the entry fob (Engadget) A tech executive's video of his Tesla Model S being hacked and stolen is going viral (Business Insider) Video of the Tesla theft Google Home Hub review (CNET) Google Home Hub review—Awesome hardware for Google’s nascent smart display software (Ars Technica) Google Home Hub Review: At the intersection of useful and just plain cute [Video] (9to5Google) Google Home Hub review: A more personal smart display (Engadget) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg Podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech Meme Right Home from Monday, October 22, 2018. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, Facebook wants to buy some cybersecurity. Washington wants to know what Silicon Valley will do for its country.

Fred Wilson wants you to ask yourself if your investors are bad actors. And stealing a Tesla by hacking the entry fob. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Today, the information is reporting that Facebook is looking to acquire a cybersecurity company. That's not a big shock to regular listeners of this pod. As every week and seemingly every day, there's some sort of news related to Facebook and data privacy, hacks, spam, you name it. It's clear that Facebook wants to be seen investing in cybersecurity in an effort to boost its reputation around security and, of course, to actually help secure customer data

against hackers. According to the report, Facebook has created an internal team devoted to finding cybersecurity companies that are willing to be bought. Facebook declined to comment to the information. But this wouldn't be the first time Facebook has acquired a cybersecurity company. In 2014, it bought Private Corps, which handles server-side protection. However, it appears that this time, whatever company Facebook buys will be focused on a different part of the stack. Perhaps maybe a firm that analyzes patterns of user logins or other analytics might fit

the bill. another possibility would be a company that implements user-level security features to beef up the resilience of the core Facebook login. Regardless of what kind of company comes in, a key reason for this acquisition is simply to increase the number of skilled security experts Facebook employees. That was one driver behind the private core acquisition. But Facebook will face some hurdles in buying into this sector.

The information reports that Facebook is competing against Amazon, Google, and Hewlett-Packard enterprises, which are all trying to do basically the same thing. at the same moment, and cybersecurity is currently a hot market. Cisco just bought Duo Security in August, quoting from the information. Overall, in the third quarter, there was $5 billion in total acquisition activity in cybersecurity across 38 deals, according to an analysis by Momentum Cyber, a cybersecurity advisory firm. That was up 204% over the previous quarter, end quote. While Facebook will likely find a firm willing to be assimilated,

it's unclear whether the effort will have much of an effect on consumer attitudes. Facebook's brand is now seriously tarnished by the ongoing series of data breaches and data security scandals. Why are there so many data breaches? Maybe in part because Facebook's core business involves collecting and storing user data. It's sort of like the wisecrack attributed to Willie Sutton. Why do bank robbers rob banks? Because that's where the money is. Just this past Friday, I interviewed Matt Cudder,

for my other podcast, the Internet History podcast. That episode is dropping this Sunday, by the way. If you weren't aware, Matt Cuts left Google a couple years ago, after 15-odd years running Google's web spam team, and he left to head up the United States Digital Service, which is tasked with using technology to help the government function better and more efficiently. Well, it looks like the Trump administration wants to see more people like Matt help bring the government into the digital age because today, Mr. Trump invited them to chat.

According to the Washington Post, representatives from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and IBM, among many others, met with White House officials today. The big ask was for tech companies to help their staffers take, quote, tours of duty working in government, working to modernize state and federal agencies' use of technology. White House officials told the post that they're trying to get American tech workers to see. serve their country over the long term, not just President Trump. Quoting the post interview here, this event on Monday is not just about our efforts, it's about our successor and their successor after that, added one official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's thinking, it's good for the country in the long term, for technology professionals to have civil service in their career at some point, end quote. It remains to be seen whether that call to

patriotic duty will work as there are already multiple programs in place that attempt to improve tech and government. After the horrific rollout of health care.gov, the Obama administration created two organizations, 18F, and the U.S. Digital Service. That's the one that Matt Cuts works for to help with procurement and other tech matters. The Trump administration has retained both of these and added a third called the Office of American Innovation, which reportedly brought reps from roughly 50 companies and several tech trade associations to the meeting today. There are plenty of factors that could reduce cooperation between tech workers and the U.S. government, for example, lower salaries, extensive background checks, political differences,

conflicts of interest when recommending procurement from a prior employer, perhaps, and so on. But in a sense, what we're seeing with today's call to national service for tech is reminiscent of President Kennedy's founding of the Peace Corps in 1961. an idea he actually came up with right before he was elected. Yesterday on his AVC blog, Fred Wilson, tackled the thorny question of where VC money comes from and what responsibilities stem from taking somebody's money. The first part of the problem is simply asking whose money you're taking,

and the second step is asking yourself if you want to align yourself with that person. This all comes at a time when tons of business leaders are vocally stepping away from that Saudi Arabian conference this week, mostly because they disagree with the human rights records of their hosts. But what if those hosts are also investors in your startup? There is a ton of Saudi money, especially in the last few years in Silicon Valley startup coffers. Quoting from Wilson's piece,

it is time for all of us in the startup and VC sector to do a deep dive on our investor base and ask the question, who are our investors and can we be proud of them? do we want to work for them? Sadly, the answer for many will be no, and it will not be easy to unwind those relationships, end quote. On Twitter, Phil Wolfe wrote, quote, even with a first level of disclosure, VC funds should watch for washing of contributions through apparently clean intermediaries. So this is a supply chain problem, the same dark money challenge affecting campaign finance transparency,

end quote. One more quote from Wilson's piece that drives his point. home, not all money is the same. The people that come with it and who are behind it matter. Today, a cautionary tale for Tesla Model S owners. Your key fob is not sufficient to secure your car, at least not if you don't use any other security features. Sunday night in Essex, England, Anthony Kennedy's Tesla Model S was stolen. Kennedy later posted a YouTube video showing detailed security footage of two men stealing his car while it was parked and charging overnight in front of his home. The men walk up to the car, apparently unaware of the two security cameras pointed at them. One man stands by the driver's side door and tries the handle, which causes the car to start looking for the key fob.

The other, armed with a tablet device, starts walking around the outside of the house, searching for the key fob signal. This signal is part of what's called a passive keyless entry or PKEe system. There's a known weakness in the system used in the Tesla Model S and a variety of other high-end vehicles. In fact, Tesla has warned owners about this specific attack and has already recommended ways to mitigate the danger. More on that in a second. Quickly, though, on the video, you can see that the key fob signal is located by the guy with the tablet, and it's transmitted from the tablet to the phone of the thief standing by the car, effectively extending the range of the fob's communication with the car for an instant.

When that happens, the door is unlocked and the car be careful. came drivable. What happens next is sort of comedic. You should watch the video for this. There's a link in the show notes. As the thieves can't seem to figure out how to unplug the Tesla charging cable in the dark, both men try it several times, yanking and fiddling with it before finally figuring out that there's a simple button to press to disengage the charger.

It's a bit surprising that two guys who are wondering around with a two-part Tesla cracking system have apparently never used a Tesla before, but hey, maybe that's why they stole it. to try one out for the first time. In this particular theft, the owner points out that he did not activate the pin-to-drive feature, a Tesla security feature that would have required a passcode for the thieves to actually start driving after entering and activating the car. The thieves managed to disable the car's remote access features and likely remove the car's SIM card, blocking its ability to communicate wirelessly. This means it cannot be tracked directly by the owner or Tesla,

but if the thieves plug it into a Tesla supercharger, it can be tracked that way. At the time of this recording, the car has not been recovered yet. Kennedy, as well as several bloggers, have pointed out that there are a couple of easy security measures to ensure that this doesn't happen to you. First, you can store your key fob in a Faraday pouch, which blocks wireless radiation,

preventing anything from picking up the signal in the first place. Second, enable that pin-to-drive feature on the Model S, or a related Model 3 feature that requires a registered phone to be present in the car, which would mean that even if this attack were successful, thieves could not actually drive the car after opening the door. Today, the Google Home Hub launched in the U.S., UK, and Australia. It's just $149 and features a 7-inch touchscreen attached to a small speaker with the whole thing powered by Google Assistant.

It has nice kitchen-centered features like Visual Recipe Walkthroughs, and a very nice, albeit small, display. One of its banner features is the complete lack of a camera. So unlike competitors' smart displays, there's literally no way for this thing to watch you, and reviews are loving that, especially for the price. But note that it does have, of course, microphones for voice commands,

along with a physical button to mute them. But here's a roundup of some of the many positive reviews that we read today. Andrew Gebhardt at CNETRite. quote, the Google Home Hub's touchscreen is responsive and works well in combination with Google Assistant, whether you ask for help on a recipe or to check what's on your calendar. Pictures and videos look particularly crisp, thanks to an ambient light sensor that adapts the screen brightness and warmth to match the room. A control panel screen makes it easy to organize and control your smart home devices, end quote.

Ron Amadeo at Ars Technica writes, quote, The Home Hub speaker is notably better than a Google Home Mini, which is a relief. Still, it lacks the thumpy base of a regular Google Home, which means you have a bit of a decision to make with the Home Hub. Do you want a touchscreen or do you want better sound from a regular Google Home? The Home Hub manages to pump out sound in all directions very well, including the front. The cloth on the back should not be used as an indication of where the sound comes from. The Home Hub and now other smart displays can also join a speaker group so your Home Hub and Google Home speakers can pump out music in unison, end quote. Stephen Hall at 9 to 5 Google writes,

quote, another key selling point of the Google Home Hub is that it functions as a great live photo frame. It wasn't that long ago that digital picture frames that simply pulled photos off a USB drive were this price, but the Google Home Hub is much more. It wirelessly and automatically pulls all the best photos from your Google Photos library and displays them all on this beautiful display, end quote.

And finally, Nicole Lee at Engadgett writes, quote, what really makes the Home Hub feel more personal is that it doesn't have a camera. One of the most common criticisms of Amazon's Echo Spot is that even though it looks and feels like an alarm clock, having a camera by your bedside feels intrusive. That's how my husband felt when I was testing the Echo Spot last year, and we ended up kicking it out of the room after just a week. Sure, I can toggle the camera off with a physical switch, but that mutes the device's microphone too, which negates the purpose, end quote. That's all for today. I've been your host, Brian McCullough. You can follow me on Twitter

at Brian MCC. And of course, you can order my book, How the Internet Happened, which comes out tomorrow. The majority of the show was written today by Chris Higgins, who you can follow on Twitter at Chris Higgins. And of course, we had the help of the TechMeme editors, who you can follow on Twitter at TechMeme. Thanks for listening. Talk to you tomorrow.