The Cyberlaw Podcast

In this bonus episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart Baker revisits his April 2015 interview with Joseph Nye (@Joe_Nye). Stewart and Professor Nye discuss cyberwar strategy, the problem of attribution, and the rise of China, among other things. The Cyberlaw Podcast will return from hiatus with another edition of Blockchain Takes Over the Cyberlaw Podcast on September 4. Stewart will return the following week with an interview with Bruce Schneier. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of the firm.

In our 228th episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart Baker interviews FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips (@FTCPhillips). Stewart and Commissioner Phillips are joined by Matthew Heiman, Gus Hurwitz (@GusHurwitz), and Dr. Megan Reiss (@MegReiss) to discuss: The National Defense Authorization Act is nailed down early; CFIUS reform is along for the ride; plus Cyber Solarium; but wait, there is more; circuits split on insurance coverage of phishing losses; ACLU’s phony test of Amazon’s face recognition service matches 28 members of Congress against 25,000 mugshots at an 80% confidence level; China screws Qualcomm despite the US deal with ZTE: NXP acquisition dies of felony neglect by authorities; matching China stride for stride, the New York Public Service Commission has revoked the 2016 conditional approval of the Charter-Time Warner merger; GDPR sucks (money out of the economy)! Both Facebook and Twitter lost about 20% of their value this week; India takes on WhatsApp over end-to-end encryption. Also, Commissioner Phillips tells us that the FTC will be holding a series of hearings this winter regarding Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century. You can learn more about the hearings on the FTC website. You can file public comments on upcoming topics through August 20, 2018, as well. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of the firm.

In our 227th episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart Baker interviews Bobby Chesney (@BobbyChesney), who recently co-authored a paper with Danielle Citron (@DanielleCitron) titled, “Deep Fakes: A Looming Challenge for Privacy, Democracy, and National Security.” Stewart and Bobby are joined by Maury Shenk, Nick Weaver (@ncweaver), and Patt Cannaday to discuss: Is the EU’s $5 billion fine on Google a bad idea grounded in anti-Americanism? President Trump seems to think so; the DOJ cyber digital report (PDF) sets sensible new standards for avoiding partisanship while naming foreign states trying to influence US opinion – but if DOJ gives Big Tech special access to intelligence, will Big Tech use the intel in a nonpartisan way? Recent speculative execution attacks on Intel and ARM processors (Spectre et al.). Overdoing it wrong? Senate doesn’t just cave on ZTE penalties for violating export control law – it also caves on US supply chain worries; the FISA document dump on Carter Page – sure, it undercuts Devin Nunes, but what are the ramifications for FISA applications that rely heavily on news media articles? All 50 states have taken federal funds (PDF) to improve election cybersecurity – now it’s up to them to deliver a secure election in November; EU and Japan agree on mutual adequacy findings allowing personal data transfers – but will the findings meet the European Court of Justice’s absurdly solipsistic requirements? You can also find Bobby Chesney on the National Security Law Podcast (@NSLpodcast), which he co-hosts with Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck). If you want to learn more about deep fakes, check out the Heritage Foundation’s recent discussion in which Bobby participated. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of the firm.

Episode 226: Where Are All My Twitter Followers?

In our 225th episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart Baker interviews General Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) regarding his new book The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in an Age of Lies. Stewart and General Hayden are joined by Paul Rosenzweig(@RosenzweigP), David Kris (@DavidKris), Nate Jones (@n8jones81), and Nick Weaver (@ncweaver) to discuss: ZTE takes compliance steps, gets preliminary life support order from Commerce Department; and China Mobile’s application to provide telecom service to Americans is also going to bite the dust – after only seven years of dithering; remarkably, European Parliament has second thoughts about self-destructive copyright maximalism – maybe Wikipedia Italy’s blocking campaign had some effect? Is Europe leaving the US in the dust when it comes to rifling through immigrants' digital data? And: Israel claims that social media monitoring has cut down on lone-wolf attacks – the Palestinians aren’t happy; DNC tries to improve security, gets 80% of its staff not to click on bad links – what’s sad is that this really is pretty good by the standards of most institutions; Feds have developed a strategy to bust Dark Web money launderers; NSA’s mass data destruction. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of the firm.

In our 224th episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart Baker interviews Duncan Hollis regarding his and Matthew Waxman’s paper, “Promoting International Cybersecurity Cooperation: Lessons from the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI).” Stewart and Duncan are joined by Maury Shenk, Christopher Conte, Jamil Jaffer (@jamil_n_jaffer), and Laura Hillsman to discuss: California’s new privacy law; SEC charges a second Equifax manager with insider training; White House draws a line in the sand over ZTE in statement of administration policy – but not veto threat, and the president decides only to beat up Chinese investments once; serious problems in the USA Freedom Act record system; facing reality, Reality pleads; kind of a sad showing for Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act’s information-sharing provisions; The Intercept continues to pioneer relevance-free journalism; trust in social media is collapsing, especially among Republicans, who (remarkably) also think tech companies need more regulation. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of the firm.

In our 223rd episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart Baker interviews David Sanger (@SangerNYT) regarding his new book, The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age. Stewart and David are joined by Pat Derdenger, Michael Vatis, Matthew Heiman, and Jim Lewis to discuss: Carpenter: What the future holds. Private sector Carpenter-ish steps. Wayfair: What the future holds. North Korea is hacking banks in Latin America. Cyber attacks during Trump-Kim summit. Joshua Schulte leaks his startlingly pedestrian jail diaries. Chinese hackers getting stealthier? Project Solarium proposal in NDAA. Are the Chinese releasing OPM hack data? More karma for Southern Poverty Law Center? Algeria shuts down Internet completely to stop student cheating. Administration struggling with privacy principles to compete with GDPR. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of the firm.

In our 222nd episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart Baker interviews Megan Stifel (@MeganStifel) regarding her white paper for Public Knowledge. Stewart and Megan are joined by Brian Egan and Gus Hurwitz (@gushurwitz) to discuss: ZTE, staggered but not dead, spurs White House-Congress fight over National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) language, which might not actually do what was intended (see also Commerce’s denial order for ZTE). The AT&T-Time Warner merge. A Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) reform bill is on the NDAA and bound for passage: what it does. The long withdrawing roar: Kaspersky, condemned by the European Union (EU), pulls out of EU projects. Chinese hackers are back to stealing competitive secrets. EU content filtering payoff to Big Copyright tells us where the regulated Internet is going – just ask Spanish soccer fans about surveillance. US sanctions cybersecurity companies with Silicon Valley footprints for helping the Russian FSB do its hacking. New privacy paper pantses privacy ideology. Apple’s new USB restricted mode … looks like it’s defeated already? Reader mail: Sigh. (Stewart’s losing the war against sigh près.) The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of the firm.

In our 221st episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart Baker, Nicholas Weaver (@ncweaver), David Kris (@DavidKris), and Nate Jones (@n8jones81) discuss: LabMD decision from the 11th Circuit overturns decades of FTC acquisition of legal authority through bureaucratic adverse possession; Commerce says it has a deal with ZTE. Is bipartisan opposition from Congress too late? This Week in Leaks: More ill-advised romance in the intelligence community; James Wolfe pays the price; Paul Manafort has similar problems with secure messaging; The Hansen bust: What does it say about Chinese espionage and the OPM hack? And the Mallory conviction for good measure; Speaking of China, they recently scored a cyberespionage coup.

In our 220th episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart Baker, Maury Shenk, Gus Hurwitz (@GusHurwitz), and Megan Reiss (@MegReiss) discuss: GDPR disruptions: Some US sites just exclude Europeans; GDPR yields new Schrems lawsuits against Big Tech; But it may also boost the giants’ cloud business and close the door on adtech rivals; Wilbur Ross, having caved on GDPR, whines about it and asks for exactly the wrong kind of relief; ICANN sues Tucows for dropping PII collection – and loses, tout suite; And the ePrivacy Regulation is on deck. Kaspersky loses both its lawsuits in one blow. This week in government cybersecurity reports offering ineffectual responses to attacks the Iranians have already shown they will use: Iranians ready retaliation attack on US industrial controls; DOE/DHS offer soothing words about grid resilience in the face of cyberattack, but little real support for the emollient; Commerce and DHS release botnet response report – full of visions of the future without the guts to say how we will get there.

In our 219th episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart Baker interviews Nick Bilton (@nickbilton), special correspondent for Vanity Fair and New York Times-bestselling author. Stewart and Nick discuss the thrilling true story of Ross Ulbricht and the Silk Road takedown in Nick’s book American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road. You can grab a paperback reprint copy of the book starting today.

In our 218th episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart Baker, Michael Vatis, Markham Erickson, and Nick Bilton (@nickbilton) discuss: The ZTE mess gets messier as the Senate moves to block sanctions relief. The FBI grossly overstated the number of encrypted phones it encountered last year. Mugshots.com operators were arrested for looking like they were up to no good? Trump dumps security for his phone. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of the firm.

In our 217th episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast Alan Cohn, Jack Hayes, Lisa Zarlenga and Chelsea Parker take over the podcast. Jack discusses the status of regulation surrounding cryptocurrencies including anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance, the Department of Treasury’s letter regarding initial coin offerings (ICOs), and the New York Attorney General’s questionnaire for cryptocurrency exchanges. Lisa provides an overview of tax issues surrounding cryptocurrency from establishing basis to hard forks to airdrops. Lisa also highlights the changes in regulation surrounding like-kind exchanges due to the 2018 Tax Reform Bill and questions surrounding the taxation of tokens. Chelsea discusses trends coming out of New York Blockchain Week 2018 and Consensus 2018. Alan Cohn highlights Steptoe’s panel “Blockchain in Supply Chain, Navigating the Legal Waters” at Consensus 2018 and gives an overview of he and Lisa's presentations on the tax treatment of digital currencies and tokens at the Accounting Blockchain Coalition’s conference. The panelists also highlight where they see the industry going next in terms of adoption and regulation. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of the firm.

In our 216th episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast Stewart Baker, Paul Rosenzweig, and Nicholas Weaver discuss: China’s tech challenge. ZTE – Trump’s first bailout: the shutdown, and the bailout. The National Defense Authorization Act 2019 may hit Chinese telecom equipment firms again. John Bolton may get rid of the cyber coordinator National Security Council position. Russia could have changed voter databases. US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decides to screw around with border search standards for phones – Orin Kerr weighs in. Will Iran return to widespread cyberattacks in the wake of the US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action? (With better tools than you might think: Recorded Future/Insikt on Iran’s semi-privatized hacking ecosystem.) Crowdstrike on the new sophistication of Nigerian scammers. Uber responds to pedestrian/autonomous vehicle collision with safety review; software flaw blamed for death. Tesla wisely keeps its trap shut (this week). The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of the firm.

In our 215th episode of The Cyberlaw Podcast Stewart Baker, Jennifer Quinn-Barabanov, Jamil Jaffer, and Megan Reiss discuss: Domain fronting goes the way of the dodo before the NGOs can really muster a campaign but the NGOs give it a shot anyway. A lot of privacy cases settle with payments to the defendants’ (and maybe the judge’s) favorite charities. These “cy pres” payments are going to the Supreme Court and my guess it’s not for a round of hugs. Genetic engineering is boring; biohacking is cool (or would be if you could just reboot people after a programming error - but you can’t). Was Europe’s ballyhooed takedown of ISIS a failure? It never rains but it pours: fresh off a ban on Chinese phones from US military retail stores, there may be even more pain in the works for ZTE and other Chinese mobile infrastructure providers. Congressman Ruppersberger on cybersecurity, information sharing and DHS. Our guest interview is with Nicholas Schmidle, staff writer for The New Yorker. The views expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not reflect the opinions of the firm.