Does Meta really need to sell Instagram and WhatsApp?
Persh Dave: absolutely. The timing when some of these moves were first published was considered a kind of questionable as it was between these investigations on the meta and when these cases on these cases began to be submitted to large tech companies.
Zoe Schiffer: I’m going to take another short break. And when we come back we’ll tell you what to check out on Wired.com this week. Welcome to Uncanny Valley. I am Zoë Schiffer, Director of Business and Industry at Wired. Today, Wired senior writer Paresh Dave is joining us. Before we go, Paresh, can our listeners tell our listeners about what they have to read today on Wired.com, besides the stories already mentioned in this episode?
Persh Dave: yes. Smishing Triad, a fraud organization that steals world wealth.
Zoe Schiffer: Are there any fishing variants?
Persh Dave: It’s a combination of phishing and SMS. Smithing, yes.
Zoe Schiffer: Smithing. I got it, got it, got it.
Persh Dave: We are sure we all got a text message saying, “We have to pay the road toll for this toll.” It’s very annoying. I still get them all the time. I don’t know why our phones can’t stop this, but this story by colleague Matt Burgess tells us how many of these messages come from this group of cybercriminals who are in fact constantly improving fraud software. Cybersecurity doesn’t have an advantage here. And my takeaway was to get more and more messages before these messages got better. And this article is part of the Wired Series, the most dangerous hacker guide you’ve never heard of. And this is dangerous, isn’t it? Someone responded to these text messages, entered their credit card numbers and all their money was stolen. That’s not great.
Zoe Schiffer: After starting Wired, I began receiving messages from company executives that aimed to ask them to enter their personal information. It was like, “I don’t know if they’ll text me or not.” But no.
Persh Dave: Maybe it was our cybersecurity team tested us. I don’t know. I had that too.
Zoe Schiffer: They do that sometimes.
Persh Dave: And how about you, Zo? What would you recommend this week?
Zoe Schiffer: Well, in addition to your great pre-writing about the trial, everyone should read and give people a good overview of what we should expect, we published the work this morning by Caroline Haskins. This is part of the Tesla protest charges that are happening. Attorney General Pam Bondy, Trump and Elon Musk are all urging people engaged in violent conduct against Tesla’s property to be charged with truly serious crimes. And this is the second time we know that FBI terrorism investigators have been involved in investigations relating to public backlash against Elon Musk and Tesla, particularly. Bondi said the man in question would go to jail for more than 20 years, despite him not being convicted yet. We have many details about the allegations in this case. What I found on the arrest warrant is a really good overview of what’s going on. Paresh, thank you for joining me today.
Persh Dave: Thank you for taking me.
Zoe Schiffer: That’s our show today. Links to all the stories we talked about in the show notes. Be sure to check out Thursday’s episode The eerie valleythis is all about surveillance technology, protest, and how to safely navigate physical and online spaces at this moment. If you like what you heard today, follow the show and rate it on your chosen podcast app. Please view any questions, comments or suggestions. uncannyvalley@wired.com. Kyona Moghadam and Adriana Tapia produced this episode. Macro sound Amalral mixed this episode. Pran Bandi was a studio engineer in New York. Jordanbell is our executive producer. Global Audio’s Condé Nasthead is Chris Bannon. Katie Drummond is the global editorial director at Wired.