Tech Brew Ride Home - Tue. 08/16 – Was The Twilio Breach A Route Into Signal?

Episode Date: August 16, 2022

Was the Twilio breach really about hacking into Signal users? Apple’s serious about returning to the office. Tired: a global chip shortage. Wired: a global chip glut? Amazon says the FTC is harassing its executives. And how far can Uber go to raise prices? Sponsors: DraftKings Daily Fantasy App; Promocode: Techmeme Storyblok.com/ridehome Links: Signal says 1,900 users’ phone numbers exposed by Twilio breach (TechCrunch) Apple Sets Return-to-Office Deadline of Sept. 5 After Covid Delays (Bloomberg) Chipmakers’ Pandemic Boom Turns to Bust as Recession Looms (Bloomberg) Twitter Has to Give Musk Only One Bot Checker's Data: Its Ex-Product Head (Bloomberg) Amazon accuses FTC of harassing executives including Jeff Bezos and Andy Jassy (FT) Walmart+ members will soon get Paramount+ streaming as part of their subscription (Engadget) Uber Raises Prices by About 5% in London to Attract More Drivers (Bloomberg) 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 for Tuesday, August 16th, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough. Today was the Twilio breach really about hacking into signal users. Apple's serious about returning to the office. Tired, a global chip shortage. Wired? A global chip glut. Amazon says the FTC is harassing its

executives and how far can Uber go to raise prices. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Remember that breach of Twilio systems that got an eyes emoji from me? Well, Well, Signal says attackers access the phone numbers and SMS verification codes for around 1900 users as a part of that Twilio breach, or maybe I guess as a result of it, which makes sense if you were going to breach Twilio, the highest value thing that you would be looking for would be something like Signal users, right? Quoting TechCrunch. Twilio, which provides phone number verification services to Signal, said on August 8 that

malicious actors accessed the data of 125 customers after successfully fishing multiple employees. Twilio did not say who the customers were, but they are likely to include large organizations after Signal on Monday confirmed that it was one of those victims. Signal said in a blog post Monday that it would notify about 1,900 users whose phone numbers or SMS verification codes were stolen when attackers gained access to Twilio's customer support console. While this didn't give the attacker access to message history, which Signal doesn't store, or contact lists and profile information, which is protected by the user's security pin, Signal said, quote, in the case that an attacker was able to re-register an account, they could

send and receive signal messages from that phone number, end quote. For those affected, the company says it will unregister signal on all devices that the user is currently using or that an attacker registered them to and will require users to re-register signal with their phone number on their preferred device. Signal also advises users to switch on registration lock, a feature that prevents an account from being re-registered on another device without the user's security pin. Although the Twilio breach impacts a fraction of signals 40 million-plus users, users have long bemoaned how Signal, considered one of the most secure messaging apps, requires users to register a phone number to create an account.

Other end-to-end encryption apps such as wire allow users to sign up with a username. While Signal has slowly moved to end its reliance on phone numbers, such as with the introduction of Signal Pins in 2020, this incident will likely reignite calls for it to move faster, end quote. Despite being among the most reactive companies at the beginning of COVID times, it seems even Apple is fed up with COVID times. Sources are telling Mark German that Apple has set a return to office deadline for September 5th. Employees will come in Tuesdays, Thursdays, and a third day determined by individual teams.

Quoting Bloomberg, that's a shift from Apple's original plan, which called for in-person work on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. The company notified employees of the new approach on Monday. The Cupertino-California-based tech giant has been working toward getting its employees back in the office since at least June 2021 when it first announced the three-day policy. But virus flare-ups forced the company to push back deadlines, leaving workers on a two-day-a-week schedule. The new policy will first take effect in Silicon Valley and then spread to other offices.

Apple has been making other COVID-19 adjustments. The new policy comes weeks. after the company dropped its mask mandate in common areas of offices. Apple had removed such a requirement at individual desks several months ago. The company also held an in-person gathering at its campus in June to watch a developer's conference presentation. That was a first since 2019 and signaled that Apple was inching closer to normal operations, end quote. Man, this is turned quickly. How much have we been talking about chip shortages in recent years? And now we're going to have to start talking about a chip glut, maybe a historic one. It's sort of complicated, like the whole are we in a recession question,

because a lot of folks will still have a hard time finding the chips they need. But if you're a chip producer, well, experts increasingly say the chip market is facing an inventory correction, which could be the worst downturn in a decade as the global economy weakens and demand fades, quoting Bloomberg. The semiconductor market enjoyed a massive run-up in orders during the pandemic, sending sales and stock prices to new highs, and, triggering a global scramble to find enough supplies. There was hope in some circles that the boom could be sustained for several more years without a painful pullback, but chipmakers are now facing a familiar problem, growing inventory, and shrinking demand. It's a dilemma as old as the computing age.

It takes years to build a chip plant, and they don't always come online when they're most needed. In the last few years, the problem was a lack of supply. As recently as this quarter, automakers and some other customers were complaining they still couldn't get enough electronic components. But fortunes have turned swiftly for the biggest chipmakers. Companies like Nvidia are reporting more than 40% annual declines in their core businesses, while Micron Technology warns that demand is evaporating fast in many areas. This week, Chinese government data showed that output of integrated circuits plunged 17% in July after robust growth in 2021, reflecting supply chain shocks, as well as a tapering in demand for lower-end chips from the world's biggest semiconductor market.

The treachery of the semiconductor cycle was driven home when President Biden signed the $52 billion chips in Science Act to stabilize domestic production on the very day that Micron, the U.S.'s biggest maker of memory chips, told investors' demand was fading. It's sort of darkly humorous, said Stanford C. Bernstein analyst Stacey Reskin. The politicians are going to find out how quickly shortages can resolve themselves when the industry turns, she said, end quote. Personal computer makers, some of the biggest of chips were the harbinger of darker times. Desktop processor shipments dropped to their lowest level in nearly three decades in the second quarter, according to Mercury Research. Total processor shipments experienced their largest year-over-year falloff since about 1984. It's a painful hangover following pandemic lockdowns when the work-from-home trends spurred demand for PCs and other devices. Chipmakers had been rushing to keep up with a flood of orders, and supply chain snags made customers even more desperate. Manufacturers of electronic devices were willing to buy chips at whatever price they could. Now consumers are cutting down on big-ticket purchases

and chip buyers are following suit. That's created what the industry calls an inventory correction. The last such downturn was in 2019, and they don't usually last long. But this one is expected to be especially pronounced due to a weakening global economy. If an inventory correction happens at the same time the economy slides into recession, the industry won't get the speedy rebound it saw after the last slump. Christopher Dainley, a city group analyst, the industry's dropped to be the worst in at least a decade, possibly two. Every company and every chip category is likely to suffer, he said, end quote. Elon check in now. A judge has ordered Twitter to give Elon Musk documents from a former Twitter executive Musk said was a key witness,

but has denied Musk's similar requests for the identity of 21 others. That one person who was identified, well, they've been on this particular podcast a couple of times. Quoting Bloomberg again, Musk, whom Twitter sued to make him complete the deal, accused the company this month of hiding the names of workers specifically responsible for evaluating how much of the platform's customer base is made up of spam and robot accounts. He asked the judge to force Twitter to identify them. So far, Twitter has given up the names of records custodians who aren't as familiar with the data in question. On Monday, Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathleen St. J. McCormick mostly denied Musk's requests in a one-page ruling, ordering that Twitter needn't, quote,

collect review or produce documents, end quote, from any of the other 21 additional custodians Musk asked for. The exception is Kvon Bakpore, former head of consumer product, who was fired in May. Bakepore was the top product executive at Twitter for years before he was unexpectedly dismissed by new chief executive officer Parag Agrawal. It was his product team that was most directly responsible for expanding Twitter's user base, and it is the, quality of that base, Musk has questioned in seeking to walk away from the deal. Backeport joined Twitter in 2015 when the company acquired his live video app Periscope and quickly climbed the ranks under former CEO Jack Dorsey. He was pushing Twitter into new product areas like live

audio spaces and newsletters before he was ousted. The departures of Bakeport and Bruce Falk, formerly in charge of revenue product, reflected Twitter's state of limbo while it awaited a new owner, a state now intensified by the litigation. Meanwhile, a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting efforts have left some employees unsure of whether the projects or teams they are working on will be prioritized under new leadership, end quote. This is an interesting tactic. Amazon has accused the Federal Trade Commission of harassing its top executives, including Jeff Bezos and Andy Jassy, as part of the FTC's investigation into Amazon's prime membership

program, quoting the Financial Times. Since March 2021, the regulator has been investigating whether Amazon uses deceptive techniques to lure customers into signing up for Prime, the subscription service that offers free delivery and other benefits at a cost of $139 a year. The FTC is also examining whether Amazon unfairly complicates the process for customers who want to cancel their membership. In a filing from August 5th that was made public by the regulator on Monday, Amazon said the investigation had become unduly burdensome on employees and executives after at least 19 were served individual subpoenas or civil investigative demands to give evidence. The company called for the FTCs,

to quash or limit the demands, which it alleged, served no other purpose than to, quote, harass Amazon's highest ranking executives and disrupt its business operations, end quote. Amazon said briefing Bezos and Jassy to testify on granular details would be, quote, a tremendous burden on them, end quote. At a minimum, the company said the deadline to provide the information should be extended. The FTC did not respond to a request for comment. Amazon did not respond to requests for further comment. Amazon said the sudden demands followed months of inactivity from the FTC and alleged the company and its executives were given just a few weeks to comply. It added that the FTC had circumvented Amazon's legal team to serve the subpoenas directly to the individuals creating confusion and delay, in their

words. Executives, in addition to Bezos and Jassy, who were served with subpoenas included Doug Harrington, Amazon's head of retail, and Russell Grandinetti, head of international consumer, end quote. Confirmation of something we talked about recently. Walmart has officially partnered with Paramount to include the $4.99 per month ad-supported tier of the Paramount Plus streaming service as part of its Walmart Plus subscription. Quoting and Gadget, Walmart Plus members who are currently paying $12.95 a month or $98 a year for unlimited free delivery on orders over $35 across the U.S. will also get a Paramount Plus essential subscription for free. Walmart's membership practices will remain the same. It's just that the service will now come

with an answer to Amazon's Prime video. The Paramount Plus essential plan typically costs $5 a month or $50 a year and streams content with limited commercial interruptions. Paramount's streaming service offers shows and movies from various production studios, including BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, and the Smithsonian Channel. It also streams every CBS sports event and gives users access to the CBS News streaming network and to all local CBS stations across the country. Walmart and Paramount have reported agreed to a two-year partnership that would give Walmart Plus members access to the ad-supported streaming service. The first 12 months will be an exclusive partnership between the two, though it's

unclear what would change once they enter the second year of the deal. Walmart says its membership program has shown positive growth every month since its launch in 2020. Paramount also recently reported that its streaming service has been doing well and that it has added 3.7 million subscribers in the second quarter of the year, even after pulling out of Russia. The partnership could boost their numbers further, though we'll likely have to wait until the companies publish their earnings results by the end of the year to know for sure, end quote. Finally today, one more sign that the era of venture capital money subsidizing our collective lifestyles is over. Uber says it plans to raise prices across the UK, including by 5% on average in the city of London. This is, they say, to attract

drivers, quoting Bloomberg. Prices will increase across the country by different rates depending on the city, Uber said in a statement on Monday. The aim is to draw 8,000 more drivers in London to meet demand in the Capitol. A year ago, an exodus of Uber drivers led to a shortage of rides in London with the people who previously worked for the app moving to courier jobs for the likes of Just Eat Takeaway or Amazon. That year, Uber also spent heavily trying to lure drivers back following shutdowns from COVID-19, driving losses. The GMB Labor Union took credit for negotiating the raise in a separate statement on Monday. Uber agreed to formally recognize the U.K. Union last year following a landmark Supreme Court ruling in the country that forced the company to classify a group of its drivers as workers and pushed it to grant similar vacation and minimum wage rights to all 70,000 of its drivers in the country. The company said that it's attracted 10,000 drivers across the UK since it began providing vacation pay and pensions, end quote.

Again, it's funny how you can attract more workers when you pay more or offer more benefits. People keep having to relearn that lesson, it seems. But maybe the real experiment Uber is running is whether or not their business model can work when fares are at market rates, when wages are at market rates, and maybe profit margins are at logical rates. As Dar Obasanjo tweeted on Twitter, the ride-sharing business dilemma continues to be true. Low prices, well-paid drivers, a profitable platform. Pick two, end quote. I lived with them on Montague Street in a basement down the stairs. There was music in the cafes at night and Revolution in the air.

Before I lived in New York City myself, I had no idea how many New York references are in Bob Dylan lyrics, but they're everywhere once you start to listen for them, which makes sense since New York is where he became famous. Montague Street is in Brooklyn Heights. There's even folks who think that all along the Watchtower, which you might not know was originally a Dylan song, not a Hendricks song, refers to the watchtower at the one-time Jehovah's Witness Complex in Brooklyn Heights.

Today, it's the world headquarters of Etsy, just up the street from My Office in Dumbo, which, coincidentally, is the building where Etsy got its start and where Adam Newman got his start, opening his first shared office space before breaking up with his original partners and then starting WeWork. So, funny enough, my office is where Etsy and WeWork both began. Talk to you tomorrow.