AS HEARD ON - The Jim Polito Show - WTAG 580 AM: Iran Threat, Economic Damage to US, Cyberwiping Attacks on Small Businesses and More

Welcome!

Good morning, everybody. I was on with Mr. Jim Polito this morning and we discussed what Iran is threatening and how likely they are to succeed and what small businesses need to do to protect themselves. So, here we go with Mr. Polito.

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Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Hey, good morning, everybody. It's kind of a somber day today. Everything that Iran has threatened to do to the US and other countries along with those they have perpetrated, of course, for a long time. But the cyber attacks that started ramping up in 2012, we started having some warnings about this whole thing. Excuse me back in November of last year, 2019. And, man, I'm already your head. And we're right now we have even more warnings about so we got to understand this stuff, and that's what I talked to Jim Polito about this morning. It is essential if you think that you are not at risk you are, and I talked a lot about that with Jim this morning. Make sure you are on my email list as well and be doing more free pieces of training. And you'll find all of that just by going to Craig Peterson dot com, you should be able to sign up there, or Craig Peterson dot com slash subscribe, so let's get into it right now. I talked with Jim exclusively about Iran, what are they capable of and what's going on over there?

Here he is no time like the present to have a tech talk guru Craig at your side, you know, we've got a random threatening cyber attack. Or we've got an analyst saying that it's likely that Iran really can't do anything conventional in terms of warfare, but maybe they can carry out cyber attacks. Joining us right now is the man who is the armor of the United States when it comes to any cyber attacks, our good friend, and Tech Talk Guru Craig Peterson. Good morning, Craig.

Hey, good morning, Jim. I'm doing well. And yeah, this is a little scary.
Yeah, it is. So So why don't you lay it out for us? You know, there's a lot of other things we could have discussed on the consumer front things, there's always time for those. I think it's best to take your time today and get this analysis from you. What are they capable of doing? What do you think they'll do? If they are to attack? What are they interested in? What does it mean for the average person? I mean, I loaded up your plate there. I think it's time for us to dive in.

Absolutely. Well, there there's a lot here to be worried about. It's a very legitimate worry. There are a lot of people out there right now who say that if this turns into a kinetic war, in other words, if shots are being fired, it would make the whole Iraq conflict look like a walk in the park. Because, of course, Iran does have a lot of military armaments. Let's talk about the cyber side because that's kind of where I come in. They have already fired a shot in that war. I've been saying for a long time that World War three shots have been fired, and it is in the online space. Tehran is widely considered to be one of the world's most malicious online actors. We have kind of a list. There's about four or five of them out there. You've got Iran, China, Russia, and North Korea, but one of Iran's specialties, and all of this is something that's called a wiper attack.
Now you're familiar with ransomware and ransomware attacks. That is where some malware arrives onto your computer, it goes ahead and encrypts everything on the laptop so so that you can read it, they can use it anymore, and then it pops up a screen saying, hey, pay up. A wiper attack has a similar Our outcome gym, and a wiper attack gets onto your computer and erases everything. So you no longer have access to any of your data. But now what's happened is, there's no ransom to pay. There's no chance of getting your data back. There was a vast, massive hack against the Saudi Arabian oil. The Saudi Arabian oil companies called Saudi Aramco, was not only attacked but to had 30,000 of their Computers, wiped, It was a big deal there.

Wow. 30,000 Wow. So, the Iranians are not interested in doing what the Eastern European hackers do, which is to get money out of us. Iranian hackers want mayhem, and that means wiping out all your data.

Absolutely. And you remember Sheldon Adelson. And of course, he's the guy that owns Las Vegas Sands. Iran attacked him. And that attack was because he was supporting President Trump. He's a conservative, libertarian guy. So now we have the Defense Intelligence Agency warning late last year about what Tehran was trying to do and their military goals and intentions, including in cyberspace. So let's talk about why does it matter to me, Saudi Aramco huge companies lots of money, how would attacking them hurt the United States? Well, of course, they expected the price of oil to go way up. For that to hurt the US but because of President Trump allowing fracking encouraging drilling, of course, the cost of oil hardly went up at all. Right now, it's back down to the same prices this morning. It's like $52 a barrel that we saw before any of these conflicts going on. But let's talk about your business and my business. Yeah, a business, a small business here in the United States that has a wiper attack, 20% of them will file for bankruptcy the very next day.

Wow.

Those that don't file for bankruptcy the next day, 60% of small businesses that are the victims of ransomware attacks and wiper attacks, remember that's what Iran is doing. 8% of those small business small-medium companies will be out of business in six months. So what we're looking at here, Jim, is that if you want it successful in going after our companies in the United States. And nothing is suggesting they won't be successful. Because so many businesses aren't doing the right things for their security. They could have a significant impact on us here in the United States by shutting down our SMBs are small, medium businesses, who are the source number one creator of jobs here in the United States.

I want to point out one other thing real quick here, Ars Technica, you know, and they publish a big website, online. Annually they release a Death Watch, where they list the businesses that are going to die this year. On this year's Death Watch is Symantec. Symantec, you know the guys that make Norton. Yeah, they're on the Deathwatch. Why? Because their stuff doesn't work. That's true of 99% of what you'll see in the stores. It doesn't work. My prediction Iran is going to be successful. The only thing that's going to hold them back from having massive wiper attacks, which the FBI and Homeland Security are warning us about, is that Iran doesn't have enough people working in cyber operations to shut down our whole economy.

We're talking with our good friend, Craig Peterson Tech Talk Guru about the cyber threat from Iran. So, Craig, it appears to me that, you know, the big worry everyone has, What about our utilities? What about the, you know, our banking? What about all these big systems? It appears to me from what you're saying. Those are relatively well-armored. The problem is, the small business isn't. And if you can go after enough of them, it can be close to as devastating as shutting down, say, your electrical grid or our internet. It can be just as devastating. It may take longer, as you said, and more people are going after individual small businesses, but it can be just as devastating.

You're right. These people have gone after the federal government. There was a website taken offline here on Sunday because it had a picture of an Iranian flag and a bloodied President Trump punched in the face. That was a small site, the federal depository library program. Okay, you're right. These banks that are here in the US are quite well protected. I helped them put together some of that protection many many years ago. Go protecting all of the credit card transactions here in the United States, the company that number one provider of credit card transactions. So I know these guys at the banks are well protected. Many of our, our government agencies are well protected. And you know that I, for two years, I did the webinar training for the infragard program, which are people who are responsible for private sector infrastructure security. So, I have some knowledge of this stuff. So they're well protected, and which isn't to say that they're not going to get somebody to click on something that they shouldn't click on, and then cause problems but they are well protected. It's a small-medium business space. It's the heartbeat of American business, the creator of jobs, that is really at risk here. Iran, as I said, I don't think they have the people that they need to devastate the United States and our industries our small-medium businesses. However, remember at the top I mentioned, other countries involved in this sort of thing over the years, those include China, Russia, and North Korea. North Korea has caused problems. China and Russia, if they were mad, could devastate our economy without firing a single shot.
Yeah, I mean, the thing is, though, what's interesting is that, like the cold war between the Soviet Union, you know, the United States and China, there was mutually assured destruction. So, the Soviets knew, okay, if we launch missiles at them, they'll launch rockets at us. Don't the Chinese know now, okay. If we make a cyber attack against the United States, they're going to make a cyber attack back, and you have the deterrent, which is mutually assured destruction, even though the Chinese would say during the Cold War? Well, if you launch all your missiles at us, they'll still be 500 million of us left. You know we'll wipe out more of you, then you'll wipe out of us. But isn't there isn't they're kind of the mutually assured destruction right now that keeps the peace between US and China.

You are dead-on as usual, Jim. Under President Obama, he started to beef up our cyber counter-attack force if you will. President Trump has taken that to the next level in a massive way. Where we now have in place offensive cyber attack capabilities. So that is the primary reason that no one has come after us in the cyber realm. Look at what we were able to do with our partner Israel to the Iranian nuclear program. That was all done through a cyber attack. We shut the silly thing down. And they know we will come after them. And if anything, I think Jim, you've hit the nail on the head again, that is the primary reason behind them not coming after us in a huge way, but they have been coming after us. And let since last fall, I have seen the results of some of these wiper attacks. And they've been kind of nipping at our heels. But if they are upset that, you know, when it comes to war, you throw everything you can, when you're down on the ground and beaten bloody. They're not there right now. But every business out there, man, you've got to pull up your socks.

Make sure you are on my email list because I'm going to be doing some more free pieces of training, and these are real training, right? I'm not sitting there selling you. I'm in on for an hour, and I'm teaching you things you need to know and do and giving you actionable items. So get on my email list right now because this is free. Hey, if you wanted to hire me What the heck, right? But I want to get that message out just like I did for the FBI infragard program for two years. That's an entire volunteer position. But you must do that. You can do that just by visiting my website at Craig Peterson dot com. And of course, Jim, we went overtime again.

No, but you can also text My name to Craig Peterson by texting the name Jim J-I-M to this number 855-385-5553. That's 855-385-5553
standard data and text rates apply.

You heard it right there. There's a lot of other things we could have discussed with Craig Peterson, but this was the most necessary for small businesses. They're the ones that need to worry, Craig, as usual, awesome segment. I love talking with you. We will catch up with you next Tuesday. All right.

Thanks again, Jim. Take care.

Thank you, Craig Peterson. Everybody. I encourage you to do that. Again, standard data and text rates apply. It's always great to be on his mailing list. Now I am because I do the show here. But I'm also part of that mailing list when there's an alert. He sends it out. He's not looking to sell you anything. He's not looking to sell your name. Craig does this out of the goodness of his heart. It's a great segment. Okay, when we return a final word.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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