202. Uber hearings, Davos, CLOUD Act, and John Perry Barlow

Cyberlaw Podcast alumnus Marten Mickos was called before the Senate Commerce Committee to testify about HackerOne's bug bounty program. But the unhappy star of the hearings was Uber, which was heavily criticized for having paid out a large bonus under cloudy circumstances. Sen. Blumenthal and others on the Hill treated the payment as more ransom than bounty and pilloried Uber for not disclosing what they called a breach. Even Uber, under new management, was critical of its performance.

As the only cyberlaw podcast with a Davos correspondent, we ask Alan Cohn to give highlights of the event from a cybersecurity point of view. I bring the color commentary and snark.

With Microsoft Ireland case heading to argument, the Justice Department and Big Tech are hoping to head the Court off with a legislative solution. Jamil Jaffer explains what the CLOUD Act will do. I point out who's missing from the Grand Coalition and question whether Big Privacy has the clout to stop the act.

Fancy Bear hackers seeking high-tech weapons data from US defense contractors get lucky – up to 40% of their phishing links strike paydirt. Michael Mutek explains what this likely means for the Defense Department – more regulation, probably. Whether more regs and more compliance will produce more security is the question no one can answer.

A cyberdiplomacy office is back from the dead, sort of: Secretary Tillerson now says he'll create a bureau for cyberspace headed by an Assistant Secretary. And, as Jamil explains, the fight switches to which undersecretary will oversee the office.

Nick Weaver and Jamil comment on the news that Justice has pulled in an impressive haul of cyber-fraudsters, bookended by doubts whether any hackers can ever be extradited from places like the UK and Ireland. Because, face it, how many can't claim to be on the spectrum?

I close with a tribute to John Perry Barlow, who died last week. If you wanted to know how many women would fall for a combination Grateful Dead lyricist, technologist, and cowboy, John could tell you. Exactly.

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