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☆ Deepfake disruption: Securing elections from AI threats
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-20 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailDeepfake disruption: Securing elections from AI threatsAlex Stamos, SentinelOne chief trust officer and Stanford University lecturer, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss concerns around misinformation and AI-fueled deepfakes during the election season, how to secure elections from AI threats, and more.

Persons: Alex Stamos Organizations: Stanford University

☆ There are some serious problems with the 'TikTok ban' bill: SentinelOne's Alex Stamos
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThere are some serious problems with the 'TikTok ban' bill: SentinelOne's Alex StamosAlex Stamos, SentinelOne chief trust officer and former Facebook chief security officer, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss Stamos' issue with the current bill which would ban TikTok and more.

Persons: Alex Stamos Alex Stamos, Stamos Organizations: Facebook

☆ SentinelOne's Alex Stamos discusses if a TikTok ban is possible
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailSentinelOne's Alex Stamos discusses if a TikTok ban is possibleHosted by Brian Sullivan, “Last Call” is a fast-paced, entertaining business show that explores the intersection of money, culture and policy. Tune in Monday through Friday at 7 p.m. ET on CNBC.

Persons: Alex Stamos, Brian Sullivan, “ Organizations: CNBC

☆ ‘Dune: Part Two’ Gives Sci-Fi-Obsessed Silicon Valley a Reason to Party
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Mike Isaac | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a top-floor atrium in downtown San Francisco on Thursday evening, tech workers from Google, Slack, X and Mozilla mingled next to a pair of cardboard cutouts of Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya. Alex Stamos, the former head of security at Facebook, was also spotted. “Do you think they’ll let me take home one of the freaky sandworm popcorn buckets?” someone in the crowd tittered. The techies were all there to celebrate Silicon Valley’s newest obsession: “Dune: Part 2,” the latest movie adapted from the Frank Herbert-authored science-fiction saga, which helped inspire many of them to become interested in technology. The film, which follows the 2021 installment “Dune,” sold an estimated $81.5 million in tickets in the United States and Canada over the weekend, the biggest opening for a Hollywood film since “Barbie.”

Persons: Zendaya, Dustin Moskovitz, chatted, Tim O’Reilly, Alex Stamos, Frank Herbert, ”, “ Barbie Organizations: Google, Mozilla, Facebook Locations: San Francisco, United States, Canada

☆ Microsoft hack could've been the start of a 'pretty significant campaign': SentinelOne's Alex Stamos
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailMicrosoft hack could've been the start of a 'pretty significant campaign': SentinelOne's Alex StamosAlex Stamos, SentinelOne chief trust officer, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the recent Microsoft hack by Russian intelligence group, what it means for the cybersecurity landscape at large, and more.

Persons: Alex Stamos Alex Stamos Organizations: Microsoft

☆ The Israel-Hamas war shows how social media has given up on facts
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-18 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The Israel-Hamas war shows how social media platforms no longer want to deal with the news. AdvertisementAdvertisementNot too long ago, social media was the future of news. To accompany this flow of verified information, Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies built large content moderation teams and partnerships. Reading these, it's easy to see how social media can divide people during difficult times. The social media account posed as a BBC journalist to share this misinformation for engagement.

Persons: —, Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk's, Adam Mosseri, Karan Singhal, Singhal, there's, Cristiano Ronaldo, Marcus Hutchins, Mosseri, we're, Andy Stone, Zuckerberg, Alex Stamos, TikTok Organizations: Service, Facebook, Twitter, Elon Musk's Twitter, CNBC, BBC, Palestinian, Meta Locations: Israel, Moroccan, Israeli, Syria, Meta, France, Germany, Canada

☆ The out-of-control spread of fake news about the Israel-Gaza conflict on X is 'a direct result of Musk's policies,' misinformation expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-10 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The rampant spread is "a direct result of Musk's policies," a misinformation expert told Insider. "The fact that people with verified accounts can monetize their content means they have the wrong incentive," he said. "They're incentivized to spread content that's going to get engagement, clicks, and ultimately make them money. Even if you keep saying don't trust verified accounts, it's still difficult for people to navigate that landscape." Van der Linden said although misinformation was also present on Twitter before Musk's time, the platform used to have better resources to tackle it.

Persons: —, Linda Yaccarino, Elon Musk, Musk, Sander van der Linden, Van der Linden, van der Linden, it's, Stanford, Alex Stamos, der Linden, They're Organizations: Service, Hamas, Cambridge Social, University of Cambridge, Twitter Locations: Gaza, Israel, Egypt

☆ Elon Musk has 'cut off the good guys, empowered the bad guys' on X, says Stanford's Alex Stamos
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-05 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailElon Musk has 'cut off the good guys, empowered the bad guys' on X, says Stanford's Alex StamosAlex Stamos, Krebs Stamos Group partner, Stanford Internet Observatory director and former Facebook chief security officer, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss X, formerly known as Twitter, slashing its disinformation and election integrity team ahead of the 2024 election, the potential implications for next year's presidential election, and more.

Persons: Elon Musk, Alex Stamos Alex Stamos, Krebs Organizations: Krebs Stamos, Stanford Internet Observatory, Facebook

☆ Twitter’s future is in doubt as Threads tops 100 million users
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The results underscore the risk Meta poses to Twitter’s business and raise questions about how, or if, Twitter can stem its losses. Twitter traffic had already been trending downward for months, according to data from the internet infrastructure company Cloudflare and the web analytics firm Similarweb. “Twitter traffic tanking,” Prince said as he posted the chart. A Twitter rival but not quite a Twitter replacementFueling Threads’ rapid growth has been Meta’s use of Instagram as a springboard to sign up new users, along with what many Threads users have identified as a dissatisfaction with Twitter. But after a Threads user pointed out that the new app was not featured in Twitter’s trending topics tab, Zuckerberg replied “Concerning” with a crying-laughter emoji.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, Twitter didn’t, Cloudflare, Matthew Prince, ” Prince, Similarweb, ”, David Carr, We’ve, Alex Stamos, —, Stamos, ” Stamos, Kim Kardashian, Jeff Bezos, Axios, Adam Mosseri, Mosseri, Musk Organizations: Washington CNN, Twitter, Meta, Elon, CNN, “, Stanford Internet Observatory, Facebook

☆ Analysis: Meta's 'friendly' Threads collides with unfriendly internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Katie Paul | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Maintaining that idealistic vision for Threads - which attracted more than 70 million users in its first two days - is another story. To be sure, Meta Platforms (META.O) is no newbie at managing the rage-baiting, smut-posting internet hordes. For starters, the company will not extend its existing fact-checking program to Threads, spokesperson Christine Pai said in an emailed statement on Thursday. Asked by Reuters to explain why it was taking a different approach to misinformation on Threads, Meta declined to answer. INTO THE FEDIVERSEFurther challenges in moderating content are in store once Meta links Threads to the so-called fediverse, where users from servers operated by other non-Meta entities will be able to communicate with Threads users.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, Christine Pai, Pai, Adam Mosseri, Instagram, satanists, Donald Trump, Meta's Pai, Alex Stamos, Solomon Messing, Katie Paul, Kenneth Li, Matthew Lewis Organizations: YORK, Meta, Reuters, New York Times, West Bank, Conservative, Stanford Internet Observatory, Center for Social Media, New York University, San, Thomson Locations: San Francisco

☆ Instagram algorithms promote accounts that share child sex abuse content, researchers find
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailInstagram algorithms promote accounts that share child sex abuse content, researchers findAlex Stamos, Director of the Stanford University Internet Observatory and former Facebook chief security officer, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss an investigation by university researchers and The Wall Street Journal on how Instagram’s algorithms connect and promote accounts that facilitate and sell child sexual abuse material.

Persons: Alex Stamos Organizations: Stanford University Internet Observatory, Facebook

☆ Instagram's algorithms are promoting accounts that share child sex abuse content, researchers find
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Instagram's recommendation algorithms have been connecting and promoting accounts that facilitate and sell child sexual abuse content, according to an investigation published Wednesday. Meta's photo-sharing service stands out from other social media platforms and "appears to have a particularly severe problem" with accounts showing self-generated child sexual abuse material, or SG-CSAM, Stanford University researchers wrote in an accompanying study. Stamos, who is now director of the Stanford Internet Observatory, said the problem has persisted after Elon Musk acquired Twitter late last year. "They then cut off our API access," he added, referring to the software that lets researchers access Twitter data to conduct their studies. Earlier this year, NBC News reported multiple Twitter accounts that offer or sell CSAM have remained available for months, even after Musk pledged to address problems with child exploitation on the social messaging service.

Persons: Instagram, Alex Stamos, Stamos, Elon Musk, CSAM, Musk Organizations: Stanford University, Wall Street Journal, Stanford, Policy Center, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Stanford Internet Observatory, Elon, Twitter, NBC News, YouTube

☆ Explainer: How Montana could enforce a TikTok ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Montana's ban is set to take effect on Jan. 1 2024. While TikTok can theoretically block IP addresses registered in Montana, app stores will have a more difficult time. "It would thus be impossible for our members to prevent the app from being downloaded specifically in the state of Montana," the TechNet representative testified. The app stores also would need to monitor more detailed location data from users' phones than they currently use, infringing on users' privacy, Stamos said. "The youth of Montana are about to become America's experts in VPNs," Railton said.

☆ Facebook's former security chief calls Elon Musk's blue check marks saga a 'historical self-own'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Ex-Facebook exec Alex Stamos said Elon Musk's blue check saga was a "historical self-own." Last week, Musk took away blue check marks from some legacy accounts, only to return some of them. Facebook's former security chief, Alex Stamos, said Elon Musk's blue check mark saga last week was a "historical self-own." The billionaire initially agreed to give blue check marks solely to users who subscribed to Twitter Blue for $8 per month, but many celebrities and news organizations made a point of refusing to pay for the service. Stamos, who has been critical of Musk in the past, was previously Facebook's chief security officer until 2018.

☆ Tesla investor Ross Gerber says he's planning to run for a seat on the board to revamp the company's image: 'I think it's time for Tesla to grow up'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Ross Gerber, CEO of investment firm Gerber Kawasaki, is a Tesla shareholder. Others are more vocal, using their significant stake in a company to influence its management — they're often known as activist investors. Now, one particularly aggravated, activist Tesla investor named Ross Gerber, is planning to run for a seat on Tesla's board, Bloomberg reported Friday. Gerber, the chief executive officer of investment firm Gerber Kawasaki, announced his plans during a Twitter Spaces audio conference hosted by Bloomberg on Friday. Tesla and Gerber Kawasaki did not immediately respond to Insider's request for a comment.

☆ Elon Musk claims the FBI paid Twitter to ‘censor info from the public.’ Here’s what the Twitter Files actually show
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The embattled billionaire, perhaps seeking to distract from the chaos he has wrought at his social media company, is making grossly misleading claims about Twitter and the FBI. In a tweet Tuesday, Musk wrote, “Government paid Twitter millions of dollars to censor info from the public.” As supposed proof, Musk shared the latest installment of the so-called “Twitter Files” published the day before by environmentalist and writer Michael Shellenberger. Musk’s claim has absolutely saturated right-wing media. If you rely on Fox News or talk radio or one of the online outlets that makes up the constellation of right-wing media, you likely believe the biggest scandal since Watergate is unfolding. A sitting Republican congressman even said on Tuesday he was in favor of halting “all funding” for the FBI over the story.

Twitter will no longer allow users to promote their accounts on at least seven other major social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social, the platform announced Sunday. "We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms. However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter," Twitter Support tweeted Sunday. Twitter’s rule change left out some major social media platforms, most notably TikTok. Other social media companies have few, if any, rules about users’ posting links to their accounts on other platforms.

☆ Elon Musk could lose control of Tesla if the automaker's stock keeps tumbling, ex-Facebook security chief says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Elon Musk could face activist investors as Tesla's stock falls, an ex-Facebook exec warns. Activist investors buy up big stakes in public companies and then agitate for change — sometimes in the board room. Stamos was previously Chief Security Officer at Facebook and he was also previously Chief Information Security Officer at Yahoo. Last week, some Tesla investors expressed concern that Twitter had become too much of a distraction for the carmaker's CEO. Tesla's stock was trading a little over $150 a share late Friday.

☆ Netflix has lost its golden touch. Here's why the streamer is so boring now.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Finance has long ranked employees, but it's been out of fashion in tech for nearly a decade. Netflix once made an explicit choice to invest in underrepresented communities, Paris Marx writes. Shows like "Orange is the New Black" and "GLOW" gave spotlights to women, queer people, people of color, and non-Americans. But, according to Marx, the company stopped prioritizing stories from underrepresented communities, and new players were throwing their hats into the streaming wars. Now, Marx writes that Netflix is filled with bland shows, half-assed reality TV, and hopelessly derivative movies.

☆ Elon Musk has divided Silicon Valley friendships in the same way Donald Trump divided American families, according to former Facebook executive
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Tom Dotan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Musk's fans and critics in Silicon Valley find it increasingly hard to get along, according to Alex Stamos, Facebook's former CISO. Stamos, who helped oversee content moderation at Facebook during the turbulent post-2016 election period, compared the situation to Donald Trump's divisiveness. "There's a scary impulse in the valley right now [to defend Musk]," Stamos said. "The fact that he has become this pied piper for otherwise serious people...it feels in Silicon Valley like after Trump was elected and families got a little riven." Stamos also predicted that as the Musk-Twitter experiment continues to unravel, Musk's Silicon Valley supporters will recant their position if his free-for-all approach results in real-world consequences.

☆ Elon Musk and Facebook's former chief security officer got into it on Twitter over the release of the 'Twitter Files Part 2'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Elon Musk sparred on Twitter with Facebook's former security chief over "Twitter Files part two." Alex Stamos tweeted "Musk fired the lawyer" who would tell him what happens if non-employees have access to users' DMs. On Thursday, conservative columnist Bari Weiss tweeted the latest thread of "files," an installment about "Twitter's secret blacklists." Journalist Matt Taibbi tweeted the first part of the "Twitter Files" last week, which Musk described as internal communications that would reveal Twitter tried to censor free speech on the platform. Stamos tweeted that he was the target of "a wave of really poorly targeted racist and antisemitic slurs from" Musk's "posse," after Musk's reply.

☆ Twitter searches for China protests bombarded by spam and porn, raising alarms among researchers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The fire, and long simmering frustration over the country’s zero Covid policies, helped spur the rare protests in China. GreatFire.org, which helps Chinese citizens get around the country’s internet censorship, noted a torrent of “dating” spam tweets appearing on Friday tagged with “Urumqi,” the capital of Xinjiang. The flood of spam tweets is still ongoing, Smith told CNN on Monday. Twitter is officially blocked in China, but estimates of the number of Twitter users in China have ranged between 3 million and 10 million. Musk has pushed back on suggestions that his ownership of Tesla, which is heavily invested in China, may give the Chinese government “leverage” over Twitter.

☆ A former Facebook security chief told Elon Musk on Twitter to stop firing engineers for correcting Musk's 'clear misstatements'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A former Facebook executive weighed in on Elon Musk's tumultuous new ownership of Twitter. Stamos advised Musk on Twitter to stop firing engineers for "correcting your clear misstatements." Musk has publicly fired some workers who have taken to Twitter to dispute claims he has made about the company. The firings have been praised by many of Musk's Twitter followers, but it has also attracted some detractors, including Facebook's former chief security officer Alex Stamos. On Tuesday, Stamos offered advice on Twitter about how to fix Twitter's lag time, finishing his thread by writing, "stop firing best engineers for correcting your clear misstatements."

San Francisco-based Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the security situation at the company. He echoed a pessimistic view among some Twitter users this week: The service might go down entirely under Musk's ownership. Verification serviceOn Friday, Twitter paused the rollout of its Twitter Blue verification service, intended to let users pay $8 a month for a verification badge. “The debacle with the Twitter verification is a really strong indicator as to what can go wrong,” Roger said. “When the verified Twitter users got hacked a few months ago, it was only a bitcoin scam, right?” Rogers said.

☆ Facebook said an Indian publication, The Wire, used faked documents in an investigation. Now the publication is taking the stories down. Here's a timeline of the escalating conflict.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Facebook claims a series of reports by an Indian news site, The Wire, were based on faked documents. On Tuesday, an expert The Wire used in a story denied publicly that he commented in any way to the publication. Stone responded on Twitter saying, "as it's been clear from the outset @thewire_in's stories are based on fabrications." Varadarajan wrote on Twitter that the email account The Wire uses, a protonmail.com address, had been "hacked via the hacking of a MacBook." Kumar of The Wire deactivated his Twitter account.

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