
Tech Takes
Friend of Views, Ahmad Thomas was named as the CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. In taking on the role, Ahmad pledged to continue the great work of SVLG on housing, education and transportation, while noting rightly that tech needs fundamental change when it comes to racial justice, diversity and equity issues. We look forward to seeing the great work that Ahmad will do!
Ahmad is part of the Dianne Feinstein coaching tree, former staffers who are taking leadership roles in the tech industry and California politics. The indefatigable Annabel Changjust landed a spot as head of state government affairs for Waymo. The charismatic Amanda Renteria recently became the CEO of Code For America. And the mercurial Gil Duran is, of course, the editor of the Sacramento Bee opinion page. These are smart, talented individuals who like our favorite Senior Senator, bring a detailed, pragmatic approach to solving problems and will be forces to be reckoned within this world for years to come.
Anti-Trust
According to Politico, next week’s anti-trust hearing with the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook is “likely to be postponed because of the announcement that the late Rep. John Lewis will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol next week.” When it does happen, this hearing is likely to take center stage in Washington — as the regulatory world waits to see what will happen. Our humble advice to these tech giants: with Democrats expected to make gains in fall, it’s time to get your competition houses in order and build out a network of people willing to make the case why your platform has advanced competition, not drowned it out.
Cyber Corner
Twitter Hack Not Technical At All
As so often is the case, all the greatest cyber tools and technologies can be undermined by the behavior of one or a handful of employees. When it comes down to it, cybersecurity remains a human-intensive endeavor. As details emerge on last week’s Twitter attack, it is clear that good old-fashioned social engineering is the best way to infiltrate a hardened network.
According to Slate, the Twitter breach has been traced to a hacker’s access to an internal chat channel on Slack. “Knowledge of Twitter’s corporate structure and its employees’ roles and communication systems likely made the attack smarter and helped plan and affect the breach.”
Cyber’s biggest challenge will continue to focus on the need to create solutions that mitigate human errors. An alarm system in a house can have every bell and whistle but if the owner doesn’t turn it on or you give someone else your code, it is vaporware.
How will cyber become “people proof?”
Cyber Business Booming
One new study from Canalys shows that cybersecurity spending globally should grow by 6% this year.
The study predicts that endpoint security (8.5%), email and web security (10.3%), data security (8.5%) and vulnerability and security analytics (10%) will see the steepest spending increases this year. Network security will barely rise, but perhaps that is in direct response to an increase in cloud migration as remote workforces expand.
The Musts – Read, Watch & Listen

So much hope is riding on a breakthrough, but a vaccine is only the beginning of the end. – The Atlantic
Karen Bass rises as sleeper pick to be Biden’s VP
This Crowdfunding Site Was Made by First Responders, for First Responders – Military Times
New York State to spend $750M on EV charging infrastructure – Elektrek
Maybe Don’t Watch…


The 114 Best Podcasts You Can Listen To In 2020
The Pull of the Stars on Audible
The National Security Law Podcast: Portland Trailblazing

The Alienist: Angel of Darkness
AOC’s Speech on the House Floorafter being called an F—ing B