• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

3

Today, Emily Blunt is worth $80 million thanks to her Hollywood career—but she actually wanted to be a UN Spanish translator on $80K

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

3

Today, Emily Blunt is worth $80 million thanks to her Hollywood career—but she actually wanted to be a UN Spanish translator on $80K
TechCyber Saturday

Data Sheet—Saturday, January 9, 2016

Robert Hackett
By
Robert Hackett
Robert Hackett
Down Arrow Button Icon
Robert Hackett
By
Robert Hackett
Robert Hackett
Down Arrow Button Icon
January 9, 2016, 3:39 PM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Welcome back to your regularly scheduled Cyber Saturday dispatch, dear readers. I hope you’ve had a pleasant new year. (I know I have.)

To build on what your weekday host, Adam Lashinsky, reported yesterday—that Washington’s law enforcement and intelligence establishment planned to pay a visit to Silicon Valley on Friday—Fortune has now learned more about the proceedings of that closed-door meeting. Yes, the reports are in. And they’re surprisingly…encouraging?

The nation’s biggest spy and security bosses convened in the tech Mecca—a calculated show of deference, no doubt—to make a request: Help, they beseeched, terrorism cannot be countered alone. Indeed, the threats that our increasingly connected world faces today are unlike any that have come before; operatives coordinate—crowd-source, really—attacks through the social media networks and messaging apps that ordinary citizens enjoy for purposes of free expression. These same tools of democracy are being exploited to radicalize and recruit mass murderers. What can anyone do to fight back?

Presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump—the respective Democratic and Republican frontrunners—have both recently called upon the ingenuity of America’s innovation capital to help combat the Islamic State in cyberspace. And that’s just what Friday’s hours-long conversation entailed. A person familiar with the day’s goings-on described the atmosphere as being one of a brainstorming session. At the table, no paucity of leadership: Tim Cook of Apple, Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, Susan Wojcicki of Google, to name a few of the big hitters representing the coding contingent. From that other capital: James Comey, director of the FBI, Michael Rogers, director of the NSA, and James Clapper, director of national intelligence, among others. What might easily have devolved into a clash of titans manifested as a discussion marked by civility and the potential for (cautious) collaboration.

Matthew Prince, CEO of CloudFlare, told Fortune after the summit that he went into the meeting highly skeptical of the other side’s aims and intentions. He was prepared to hold his ground against strong-arming and one-sided arguments. That’s why he was pleasantly surprised to discover that Washington’s bigwigs approached the tech side in the spirit of unpretentious partnership—not asking for “backdoor” access to data, but for assistance in brainstorming possible ways to keep social media sites safe and open fora for users. “I came in tweeting cynically, and I left feeling optimistic,” he said.

“It’s what I would hope a government would do,” he added.

The suits and the hoodies have often talked past one another on matters of security in recent months, especially when it comes to the subject of encryption. Perhaps the latest confab signals a detente of sorts. D.C. and S.V. may not see eye to eye on every matter, but they can at least agree on the common enemy of their enemy. More news below.

Robert Hackett

@rhhackett

robert.hackett@fortune.com

Welcome to the Cyber Saturday edition of Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily tech newsletter. Fortune reporter Robert Hackett here. You may reach me via Twitter, Cryptocat, Jabber, PGP encrypted email, or however you (securely) prefer. Feedback welcome.

 

THREATS

Washington met with Silicon Valley to talk ISIS and social media. Nationals security and intelligence bosses met with top execs of tech giants on Friday to discuss possible ways to counter terrorist organizations online. The factions—frequently at odds ever since Edward Snowden revealed the scope of government spying in 2013—seemed open to cooperation. (Fortune, Guardian)

First cyberattack power outage confirmed. A blackout affecting a Ukrainian utility has been linked by several cybersecurity firms to a hacking campaign that used strains of "BlackEnergy" and "KillDisk" malware. For six hours, 80,000 customers of Prykarpattyaoblenergo lost power, and at least two other utilities' networks were also infected. Ukraine's state security service blamed Russia, while computer forensics researchers have linked the attack to a potentially Moscow-based group. (Fortune)

Time Warner Cable customers hacked. The cable company notified customers that as many as 320,000 of them may have had their email addresses and account passwords stolen. The FBI had, in turn, warned the company that some of of its customers' data "may have been compromised." That makes this the new year's first major data breach announcement. (Fortune)

Uber settled over privacy breach. The ride-sharing service must pay a $20,000 fine for belatedly reporting a security breach that exposed the personal information of its drivers. The New York Attorney General's office began investigating the company and its privacy practices after learning that an employee has accessed a user's ride logs without permission. The office ultimately penalized Uber for failing for months to report an incident in which an engineer had unwittingly uploaded the login information for one of the company's private database online. (Fortune)

Comcast's home security system flawed. The cybersecurity firm Rapid7 said that its researchers easily overcame Comcast's Xfinity home security product. They used conventional radio-jamming equipment to interfere with the system's sensors, thus preventing an alarm from sounding during a break-in. Rapid7 said it tried to report the vulnerability to the company a couple of months ago, but Comcast never responded. Comcast said Rapid7 had notified the wrong email address. (Ars Technica)

Prepare for a cyber insurance bonanza. Insurance specialists expect revenue collected on cyber insurance premiums to rise by 300% or more in the next five years, according to Bloomberg's Bureau of National Affairs. The industry is still young and has few standards. (Bloomberg BNA)

Share today's Data Sheet with a friend:
http://fortune.com/newsletter/datasheet/

Looking for previous Data Sheets? Click here.

ACCESS GRANTED

Should governments support strong, end-to-end encryption?

The Dutch government has released its official position on whether it should require tech companies to provide law enforcement agencies with special access to encrypted data and communications. In the case of the Netherlands, the decision is, at least for now, clear: No backdoors... Read the rest on Fortune.com.

TREATS

Poet? Didn't know it. Verse-filled server logs. (Vice Motherboard)

Hack me twice? Fool on PayPal. (SC Magazine)

Goodnight, sweet Internet Explorer. Hello, Edge. (Fortune)

Biggest power grid threat: Squirrels, not hackers. (CSM Passcode)

Sorry, Tarantino. A hacker-cinephile's apology. (The Hollywood Reporter)

FORTUNE RECON

At CES You Can Even Find a Connected Gadget for Your Dog by Stacey Higginbotham

Twitter's Stock Has Fallen to Its Lowest Point Ever by Jen Wieczner

Skate or Die: Are Electric Skateboards the Best Rideable? by David Z. Morris

'Stolen' Is the Insanely Addictive Viral Game That People Are Begging to Play by Erin Griffith

Facebook Is Preparing for a Future Without Phone Numbers by Valentina Zarya

ONE MORE THING

Most top cybersecurity startups are cockroaches, not unicorns. They're good at hunkering down during nuclear (read: VC funding) winters in order to keep financially afloat. But investors dislike their lengthy exit cycles. (TechCrunch)

EXFIL

“My hope is that at the very least, people debating it, from the staffers to the congresspeople, understand how it works. I have a sneaking suspicion in a lot of cases they do not.”

PayPal co-founder and Affirm CEO Max Levchin, discussing his reasons for funding a brand new cryptography prize: the Levchin Prize for Real-World Cryptography, which was awarded to two parties for the first time on Wednesday. ("It," in the quote above, refers to "encryption.") Levchin said in a personal blog post that he owes much of his technologic—ergo business—success to the mathematical science. (Wall Street Journal, To Long Too Tweet)

About the Author
Robert Hackett
By Robert Hackett
Instagram iconLinkedIn iconTwitter icon
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

Michael Burry just shorted Caterpillar’s 172% AI rally. One analyst says his bet won’t even matter
Investingstock prices
Michael Burry just shorted Caterpillar’s 172% AI rally. One analyst says his bet won’t even matter
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 2, 2026
7 hours ago
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
EconomyDebt
AI’s $2.2 trillion deficit fix is already half fake, economists say
By Tristan BoveJuly 2, 2026
8 hours ago
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei
AIEye on AI
Anthropic’s Fable model is back. But U.S. AI policy is still a mess
By Jeremy KahnJuly 2, 2026
8 hours ago
ai
North AmericaImmigration
Trump’s $46 billion ‘smart wall’ with Mexico bets on AI and scale
By Rebecca Santana and The Associated PressJuly 2, 2026
10 hours ago
sk
AISouth Korea
AI “grief videos” turn mourning into a $390 service in South Korea
By Hyung-Jin Kim and The Associated PressJuly 2, 2026
10 hours ago
Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo looks to the far right during a conference.
CryptoBlockchain
Securitize is latest crypto company to go public as BlackRock-backed firm sees stock jump 3% on debut
By Camila Grigera NaónJuly 2, 2026
10 hours ago

Most Popular

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
Big Tech
As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 1, 2026
2 days ago
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
Success
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
By Sydney LakeJune 25, 2026
8 days ago
Today, Emily Blunt is worth $80 million thanks to her Hollywood career—but she actually wanted to be a UN Spanish translator on $80K
Success
Today, Emily Blunt is worth $80 million thanks to her Hollywood career—but she actually wanted to be a UN Spanish translator on $80K
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJuly 2, 2026
20 hours ago
Mark Zuckerberg feeds his cows macadamia nuts and beer to create the 'highest-quality beef in the world' on his $300 million estate in Hawaii
Success
Mark Zuckerberg feeds his cows macadamia nuts and beer to create the 'highest-quality beef in the world' on his $300 million estate in Hawaii
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 2, 2026
10 hours ago
Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 1, 2026
2 days ago
Americans are escaping the U.S. for New Zealand where house prices have hit a new low—but only wealthy Americans with $3 million spare can invest
Success
Americans are escaping the U.S. for New Zealand where house prices have hit a new low—but only wealthy Americans with $3 million spare can invest
By Emma BurleighJuly 2, 2026
12 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.