0:00

Esther Ajao: A lot of marketers I just say, well look at our AI

0:03

products and sometimes there is no AI in their product at all.

0:09

Antone Gonsalves: Hi, and welcome to our first tech news

0:12

this week show. I'm your host techtarget is Torial. News

0:17

Director Antonio Gonzalez is different difficult these days

0:20

to find a tech company or a startup that doesn't have an AI

0:25

story. But how much of it is real? Evidently not enough. This

0:31

week, the Federal Trade Commission warned the tech

0:33

industry that the agency's keeping a close eye on this AI

0:37

claims. To explain why the FTC raised the red flag is tick

0:43

target editorials AI reporter, Esther Zhao. So what prompted

0:49

the FTC one? Esther Ajao: Well, AI is the all the buzz right now, especially

0:55

when it comes to chat TBT everyone is talking about AI

0:58

everyone is talking about generate generative AI. And so

1:02

the FTC is noticing this, that a lot of marketers are just

1:05

saying, well look at our AI products. And sometimes there is

1:09

no AI in their product at all. So they're like, hold up, you

1:12

got to you got to dial back a little bit.

1:14

Antone Gonsalves: Yeah, that's odd. I mean, it just in terms of

1:17

a business model, if you're advertising, something that

1:20

doesn't exist, I mean, you would think that at some point, you

1:26

get caught up and in that. So is this. So what's prompting this,

1:33

this tactic? I mean, is this a case of rogue marketers is

1:38

intentional misleading by vendors, or an indication of the

1:42

immaturity of AI? Esther Ajao: Well, it's a little bit of both, right? It comes

1:46

like aI washing, which is what an analyst said, it's called AI

1:50

Washington wishes saying that your product is able to do

1:53

something AI powered, when it's actually not able to do so. So

1:56

AI Washington has been around for such a long time, the FTC is

2:00

warning cons, because of the fact that there's just so much

2:03

hype right now. And so because of the hype, marketers are

2:06

jumping on top of this. So the FCC want to say, well, just make

2:10

sure that what you're marketing or advertising as actually

2:14

having AI is doing what it's promising to do. Otherwise,

2:18

you're lying, or you're misleading consumers. So it's

2:23

always been around. It's like, it's always been the practice

2:27

of, I guess, vendors, re hyping hold product and put it an

2:32

advertising like logo on it and be like, this has AI powered.

2:36

But now because of the hype, the FTC is like, we're gonna start

2:40

coming down on it. And also, because of all the news that has

2:43

been happening around the AI Bill of Rights, Bill of Rights,

2:46

and the way that the US has kind of reorganized reorganizing the

2:51

steps a place to take on AI. Antone Gonsalves: What is the what can the FTC do? Fines are?

3:01

Esther Ajao: Basically, yeah, basically, that that is, what

3:03

they're gonna do is they're gonna find you if you're lying.

3:06

I mean, they've already coming. They've already said that

3:08

they're going to be coming pretty hard on people whose

3:11

algorithms are bias. So they like we're gonna step up our

3:15

policing on this. I mean, they're not necessarily like,

3:19

they can only really fine, but there's no like a real

3:22

government agency that's coming against this people who are

3:25

doing this other than the FTC. So it's just a warning to say,

3:28

we know that, hey, AI is all the hype right now. But dial back

3:31

advertising and make sure that your products are doing exactly

3:34

what it's supposed to do, or what you're promising that it's

3:37

going to do. And also, I mean, if the products are not doing

3:41

what is said to do, then what you have is a lot of people who

3:44

are gonna be like, well, AI is a lie, right. And one of the

3:47

things that I found interesting in that one is like, the FTC is

3:50

like, we're not in a science fiction world. We're still in a

3:54

world of reality. We're still in a world of tangibility. So make

3:57

sure that we are all on even playing field we all uneven

4:00

ground. Antone Gonsalves: And the last question is, how does all this

4:04

misinformation affect tech buyers? In the AI industry? I

4:08

think that's well, that's critical for our readers.

4:11

Esther Ajao: How does it affect tech buyers? Well, it makes them

4:13

not want to buy into this Hey, I had I write for I mean, it keeps

4:19

the vendors or the enterprise with me like well, is this

4:21

really AI or is it just puts a bad reputation on the AI front

4:26

and we're back? Where were we began? AI is ticking. I feel

4:29

like AI has taken such a leap in the past year or so, where

4:33

people are starting to actually believe in it. But when you have

4:36

people lying or misleading, that will bring us back a little bit.

4:45

Antone Gonsalves: Next up is security is a top priority at

4:48

all enterprises, but keeping up with the changing tactics of

4:52

cyber criminals is hard. techtarget editorial senior news

4:56

writer Alex caleffi recently reported on how criminals are

5:01

using more than ransomware to extort money from companies. So

5:06

what are cyber criminals, latest extortion tactics?

5:09

Alexander Culafi: It's interesting because in the last

5:11

few years ransomware has evolved and changed quite a bit since it

5:16

became sort of the cyber attack and extortion method of choice

5:20

that's sort of at the top of all of our minds at the moment. So

5:23

the for the past few years, ransomware has operated at a

5:26

double extortion model, meaning that cyber criminals are both

5:31

encrypting data on sort of victim networks. But they're

5:34

also stealing and exfiltrating the data in order to blackmail

5:38

with them with it by basically saying that we'll put your data

5:42

on our leak sites and sort of show it to the world unless you

5:46

pay up, which is unfortunately proven very effective. But that

5:51

has changed a little bit in recent years. I mean, the double

5:54

extortion is still the method of choice. But there are developing

5:58

extortion models that are entering the scene as well. One

6:01

is the triple extortion method in which you're encrypting the

6:04

data, you're stealing the data and threatening victim

6:08

organizations with it. But you're also launching DDoS

6:11

attacks. And then there's also what's called extortion where,

6:16

and in which case, you're not even encrypting the victim

6:22

files, you're just straight up exfiltrating the data, sometimes

6:25

without even using malware, and just using the threat of leaking

6:30

data alone as the method of extortion, sort of skipping

6:34

ransomware altogether. Antone Gonsalves: Okay, you also reported this week, a slight

6:39

decline in ransomware. And also that you reported that

6:44

ransomware is becoming more effective. So why is it

6:48

declined? And how is it improving?

6:50

Alexander Culafi: So there have been a number of vendor reports

6:54

in the last few months, sort of their 2022 research roundup

6:59

reports that are showing slightly declining numbers and

7:02

various aspects of ransomware. IBM had stats in their latest X

7:07

Force threat intelligence Index report, suggesting defenders are

7:11

getting better at stopping attacks. Mandiant saw a 15%

7:15

decrease in the number of ransomware intrusions that

7:17

responded to last year. And both CrowdStrike and COVID. Were

7:21

noted a drop in the average ransomware demand payment in

7:25

2020 to over 2021. Now, that's not to say that ransomware is

7:29

getting significantly better. It's still an enormous problem,

7:33

especially in industrial settings, where I think some

7:36

data suggests it might actually be getting worse there. And

7:39

because of avenues like ransomware as a service, it is

7:44

easier than ever for let's say novice threat actors to conduct

7:48

ransomware attacks. But these numbers are important, because

7:52

it is the first time I've seen in my, you know, three, four

7:56

years on this specific beat where multiple vendor data

8:01

points are moving in lockstep in the right direction, you know,

8:06

away from ransomware getting worse, which is small, but

8:12

still, I think a big deal. Whether those numbers will hold

8:15

or not or get even better. We'll see.

8:17

Antone Gonsalves: And how are cybersecurity pros that are

8:20

battling these threats? Has there been any improvements on

8:23

their side? Alexander Culafi: There have been I would say one of the most

8:27

encouraging things about ransomware, which is not one of

8:31

those things where you can say too many encouraging things is

8:35

that defenders are getting better. Now, that sometimes

8:38

happens because board members are taking notice of ransomware

8:44

and security in general. It could be because unfortunately,

8:48

organizations suffer a cyber attack and they have to learn

8:51

from it. cyber insurance is getting stricter requirements.

8:55

And then the other side of it is that the government has been

8:59

getting more aggressive and I would say becoming more helpful

9:02

in the response to cybersecurity overall in the last few years

9:06

Sissa the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency,

9:10

they've been enormous force for sort of sharing information to

9:14

defenders. Law enforcement has shown signs of acting

9:18

aggressively against ransomware see beehive bust in January, and

9:23

the Biden administration actually, as we're recording

9:26

this today, on Thursday, they just released their National

9:29

Cybersecurity strategy, which will also hopefully provide good

9:35

momentum against cybercrime. But, you know, threat actors,

9:38

they're also always adapting. They're using diverse extortion

9:41

models, like we said. So it'll be interesting to see how the

9:45

push and pull as it were between defenders and adversaries

9:50

changes over the future. Antone Gonsalves: US lawmakers are struggling to write

9:57

regulations that combat missing from nation in other problems on

10:02

today's social networks, but whatever they come up with, it

10:06

might not be enough to control decentralized social networks

10:10

like Mastodon to help us understand the dilemma.

10:14

Lawmakers face is techtarget editorials government reporter

10:18

McKinsey Holland. Alright, so help our viewers understand what

10:23

decentralize what a decentralized social network is,

10:27

and how does it differ from like Facebook and Twitter.

10:31

Makenzie Holland: So we have reached this place where when

10:34

you log on to the internet, you're likely going to be

10:37

interacting with, you're going to go to Google search, or

10:40

you're going to log into metas, Facebook, Instagram, you're

10:44

interacting with what we call tech giants, kind of these

10:47

platforms that have really come to dominate the Internet as we

10:50

know it today. And they're kind of viewed as in this topic of

10:56

decentralized versus centralized internet, they're kind of viewed

10:58

as these centralized entities that we all deal with when we

11:01

log on to the internet today. And those organizations, you

11:05

know, they're very established, they have a governance

11:07

structure, you know, here's a hierarchy where someone is

11:10

responsible for this operation, or this part of the business.

11:15

There's an established government structure for these

11:17

businesses. So a decentralized social network like Mastodon,

11:23

which it looks like Twitter when you open it, and it rose to

11:27

prominence as an alternative to Twitter, when Elon Musk bought

11:31

the company last year, the difference with a company like

11:35

Mastodon, which you know, identifies as a nonprofit

11:39

organization and a decentralized platform is that there's no

11:42

single authority over it. So if the business does well, you

11:46

know, shareholders aren't benefiting. It's a user and

11:50

volunteer run network. You know, when you create an account, it's

11:53

similar to signing up with an email, you pick, Gmail, Hotmail,

11:58

Yahoo, you pick a topic that you identify with, and then while

12:02

you're able to communicate with others in that email chain,

12:05

there's not like a single one that runs the program. And so

12:11

the kind of idea behind a decentralized social network

12:14

like Macedon, or you see examples of decentralized

12:17

platforms, like cryptocurrencies, these digital

12:21

currencies that are rising as alternatives to traditional

12:24

banking and mana money in the real world, the goal of these

12:28

decentralized platforms and networks is to move power away

12:33

from traditional banking entities from tech giants, these

12:36

established entities, that's kind of the idea behind these

12:40

decentralized networks. Antone Gonsalves: So are they the people who organize these

12:46

networks, are they purposely trying to avoid regulation, and

12:51

if they can spread, they can spread misinformation or

12:56

anything else, and there's no way to regulate because there's

13:00

no central central authority for regulators to go after?

13:06

Makenzie Holland: Sure. I don't think that that's the goal,

13:09

because there are, you know, rules of the road for you know,

13:13

hate speech and like, even a platform like Mastodon, if you

13:16

log on and look at it, there are rules like, okay, you know, this

13:20

kind of speech will not be tolerated, like in that

13:23

particular group. So when you sign up with an account, like

13:25

Mastodon, and you align with a certain topic, and essentially,

13:29

its users and volunteers that will report if there's hate

13:32

speech or misinformation on the platform, and then that gets

13:35

taken down within that individual group that's run by

13:37

these users and volunteers. So I don't think the goal is to run

13:40

away from regulation. The goal is to offer an alternative to

13:47

these established entities because, you know, typically

13:50

when people will go online, and it's like, I want to join social

13:52

media, you have two big options. It's, you know, meta, it's

13:57

Twitter. And so the, these kinds of platforms where there's not,

14:03

you know, like, kind of, like I mentioned is like, the goal is

14:05

to move power out of the hands of these, you know, established

14:09

companies and try to, you know, kind of compete in this

14:14

different environment in a different structure. So, I

14:16

wouldn't say that the goal is to move away from regulation, it's

14:19

just to offer an alternative.

14:23

Antone Gonsalves: That's it for today's show. I hope you enjoyed

14:26

it. And I look forward to bringing you the latest news in

14:30

tech next week. And take care