Hedge 188: Sidewalk, Who’s Responsible?, and Data Breaches
It’s the last show of the month, which means it is time for a roundtable! Today we are discussing three news stories, including Amazon’s Sidewalk Labs, a court case in California involving Cisco and the Great Firewall of China, and yet another data breach.
Gret episode. Ok, a bit of feedback.
Regarding the yet another security breach, you’re right. It’s likely going to continue to happen. But I don’t totally agree that it’s because it’s just too big to control. That is part of the issue, but I think the bigger is that nothing happens when a breach occurs. What we get is some hot air from a CEO…”we’re sorry…we take this seriously…this is our top priority…blah.blah.blah…” Then it happens again and we get the same speech. Heck, look at T-Mobile who has had major breaches back to back and what happens? Nothing. Until there are real ramifications, nothing will change. It’s sad but right now it’s cheaper to pay any fines (which are pennies at best) or just offer some rather useless credit monitoring. Look at Equfax. Hundreds of millions of social security numbers and credit profiles leaked. What happened? Nothing. To be clear when I say “nothing”, I mean nothing of any substance. They may pay a small fine, but until actual damages are awarded to those who have had their data carelessly handled, unfortunately I do not think anything will change. Please…somebody prove me wrong!! 🙂
Now Russ, something you said about people basically “needing” a phone today just to effectively get by. I agree. And for that I feel bad. It’s like a hidden tax on people. Being unable to survive (we’re not there yet, but inching there) without a monthly phone plan being bound to a charger and reliant on unpredictable and spotty cell service is really unfortunate in my view. So yes I agree that it’s nearly a requirement now. And that makes me sad.
Thanks for the show. I do listen regularly.