Trump Cracks Down on Cybercrime; U.S. Citizen Freed From Russia | NTD Good Morning (Oct. 22)

Welcome to NTD Good Morning. Steph and Carrie here. Here are today's top stories. U.S. citizen Stephen Hubbard is back on home soil after spending four years in Russian detention. How President Trump says he secured Hubbard's release. And the president is highlighting his administration's efforts to fight fraud. Officials say they've shut down scams and recovered billions of dollars. The midterm race enters its final stretch with President Trump and Vice President Vance rallying voters in two key states takeaways from both rallies and boarding up and bracing for new riots paris shopkeepers describe the aftermath of looting now their neighborhood is coming together to help critical flaws in a program used by two-thirds of the world's websites could leave them exposed to cyber attacks cyber security agencies urge organizations to update immediately And as the holiday season approaches, we're going to show you how to protect yourself online as AI-driven cyberattacks are targeting shoppers and travelers. We're going to speak with an expert at Google. This is NTD Good Morning. Live from our global headquarters in New York City, here are Stephanie Cox and Carrie Dunst. All right, very much looking to that conversation with Google. You can never be too safe these days. It seems like every moment you use your phone, you're getting some unwanted text or some robocall or something. And their tactics are always evolving. So it's very handy to keep abreast of all these changes and how to fight back and push back against it, too. Absolutely. All right. Thanks so much for joining us this morning. This is Thursday, October 22nd. We are so glad to have you with us. But let's start with President Trump highlighting his administration's efforts to combat fraud. The officials there say that the crackdown has led to major seizures overseas and charges in cases involving millions of dollars in food assistance fraud. Here's more on the president's roundtable. President Trump holding a roundtable Wednesday to discuss his administration's efforts to combat fraud. Federal officials highlighting investigations into online scams and cybercrime. Under the Trump administration, we have marshaled the full force of the federal government to combat discourse. We have very talented people. We have people that do nothing but this, and they're really good at it. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller explaining the scope of the operation. Whether it's welfare fraud, where we're getting ripped off by these refugees and foreign scammers, or cybercrime, where you have entire foreign economies that are propped up on stealing from American seniors, what you're saying is America is not a pile of treasure for other countries and other people and other scammers all around the world to loot for themselves. FBI Director Kash Patel says the bureau's Operation Blackout has targeted scam compounds overseas, compounds he describes as entire towns and ecosystems built for criminal syndicates to fleece American citizens. Patel says the operation has taken down 20 of these scam compounds. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with our partners at DOJ and the United state's attorney's offices have seized over 17 billion dollars from these scam compound fraud centers. Seized it. That means that's money we got back. We're going to use it with our DOJ partners to prosecute these individuals and then get that money back to the American people from which it was stolen. Separately, Vice President J.D. Vance and other officials announced results from a seven-week nationwide effort targeting alleged fraud in food assistance programs. The administration says more than 40 suspects have been charged. Attorney General While Todd Blanche said investigators uncovered $42 million in alleged fraud involving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. To put this number in perspective, 220,000 Americans could have eaten for the entire month of October if it were not for this $42 million in fraud. Vice President Vance leads President Trump's task force to eliminate fraud. He explained the scale of that effort. There are dozens and dozens of economists, of 22-year-old staffers, of people who are working 90, 100 hours a week for very little pay to fight fraud and to deliver for the American people. The vice president saying enforcement will continue. And staying on the topic of fraud, a mother and daughter were indicted on over 450 counts for alleged health care fraud operation in New York. That's a lot of that's a lot of counts right there. It comes as authorities visit multiple facilities in the city, and they're issuing this order. Check it out. This administration has embarked on an unprecedented, all-of-government action against fraud. The owner and program director of an adult daycare center have been arrested on fraud allegations in Staten Island, New York. Prosecutors say they fraudulently billed Medicaid more than $530,000. A lot of these are just paying seniors cash to enroll, and then they bill Medicaid for services never delivered. The Staten Island suspects are indicted on 457 counts. The top count is healthcare fraud in the second degree and carries up to 15 years in prison. And federal health officials say they sent more than 100 notices to adult daycare centers in New York City, most of them in Queens, in a crackdown on alleged Medicaid fraud on Tuesday. got arrested, some got, you know, search warrants, some are going to get excluded, which means they can't bill anybody in Medicare or Medicaid anywhere. They're shutting them out of the federal system. And some people just got letters saying, hey, we're watching you. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid says one center billed millions for transporting wheelchair users. However, when authorities arrived at the facility, they say it wasn't wheelchair accessible. One place we visited didn't even have wheelchair accessibility ramps or any wait for the wheelchairs to get up. And they had billed $2.1 million for non-emergency medical transport. Another facility that CMS administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz visited on Tuesday allegedly had sign-in sheets filled out for future days. This is fraud. I know, sir. But, you know, some people do that. It's your job to stop this. This is stealing from the American taxpayer. I don't know if they're going to come on Wednesday and Friday and next month and the rest of it. These people are signing up for future days. Then on Tuesday from the Oval Office, Oz said malicious actors in Minnesota were allegedly bribing mothers $1,500 to falsely claim an autism diagnosis for their children. This could allow operators to bill Medicaid for autism services that were never delivered or needed. We are now pursuing dozens of cases against those folks, including criminal investigations. Along with the arrests and notices, Oz says there is much more to come. Reporting in Washington, D.C., Jason Blair, NTD News. And thanks to Jason for that important report. Next, American citizen Stephen Hubbard is back in the U.S. after being freed from Russian detention. Hubbard returns home after spending four years in Russia. And just today we got back Stephen Hubbard. I've been hearing about Stephen Hubbard for years. Got him back from Russia, which should have been done by Biden and the Biden administration. administration he was in there for a long time he was taken during the biden administration and i called up vladimir putin and i said you got to do me a favor you got to give me back stephen hubbard his son was on television i got to watch and i saw the son is fantastic and he wants you know he wanted his father back and uh vladimir putin said yep you can have him and we We just got him about 10 hours ago. The State Department yesterday saying he was returning to his loved ones. And Special Envoy Steve Witkoff says that the release followed President Trump's request to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as we just saw. Witkoff says Hubbard joins more than 110 Americans who President Trump has freed since returning to office. The release was not part of a prisoner exchange with Russia. And a new warning for Americans in Saudi Arabia. The State Department has ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and their families to leave the kingdom. The move coming as Iran-backed Houthi terrorist groups, terrorists in Yemen, step up attacks on civilian targets there. Hours just after the order, an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam killed one person. It injured eight others. Earlier yesterday, Saudi officials said two people were killed when a drone was intercepted near Saudi Aramco's Sheba Oil Field. And the State Department is urging Americans use extreme caution at Saudi airports. Meanwhile, joining us now for insight on the situation in France as unrest continues and the country and authorities brace for potentially what looks to be another weekend of riots there in the country. We're joined by Etienne Fauchere, a Paris-based journalist for the Epoch Times, specializing in French politics and U.S.-France relations. Good to have you with us, Etienne. What did you actually see on October 17th when all this began? And how did a movement that started with high schoolers complaining about their schools turn into burned-out cars and looted shops so quickly? Hi, Stefania. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here with you. So right now, like the high school protest and the protest against the cost of living are widely seen as a pretext for far left protest. Even the French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has said earlier this week that the far left has been planning insurrections in the country. So, the unrest has been going on for quite a while now. It started in mid-September, just to set the scene, and the government, as well as the French intelligence services, have accused the far left of fueling the protest and the ensuing violence. During the protest, what I saw, even though the demands have been over school conditions, I've seen mostly far-left chants like revolution, down with the cops, the state and the fascists, we are all anti-fascist, everyone hates the police. These are very common far-left slogans. And on October 17, we reached a whole other level. What I saw were, frankly, very apocalyptic scenes. The stores were looted, the cars were burned, the streets were in a complete state of chaos. You were able to see the protesters insulting, attacking the police. And we have seen this all across France, even the city hall of Limoges, as the world has been able to see, whether on the media or on social media, has been set on fire. And the next day, the Plaza de la Republic, where the protest started, really felt like a war zone. And the shop owners I've spoken with were in complete dismay and, yeah, frankly, in a state of despair. Wow. So let's look a little closer and pick this apart. Who's doing the rioting now? Not only students now. Yeah, it's not only students. It's a lot of far left protesters. So you have on October 17th protest, you had basically two main groups. You had far left groups. Like I said, the government and the French intelligence services have pointed out the responsibility of France and both and what it described as its ultra left proxies. um so you had many protesters from the far left i was able to see many anti-fascist activists wearing the usual uh black uh garments um among the groups that were named by the intelligence services you had the usual suspects let's call them that uh like uh Révolution Permanente permanent revolution the young communist revolutionaries antifa groups etc and you also had another group a group that was constituted many uh mostly of people of immigrant origins or foreign nationals i was able to see many individuals who were originally or had an origin or coming from North Africa or sub-saharan africa this has actually led president trump to say that France had been looted and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists, and communists. This is actually an analysis that has been endorsed and shared by many on the French right as well. President Emmanuel Macron has taken issue with that assessment yesterday while he was in Doha, Qatar. But personally, this is what I was able to see when I was looking at who was doing the looting. So obviously you had many far left protesters, but you also had this category of the population. And while I was in court yesterday, all the people were either of immigrant origin or they were foreign nationals coming from North Africa or Sub-Saharan Africa. Wow. So we have just about one minute left. What's the final insight that you'd like to deliver about this for people watching today? OK. So, yeah, France is really bracing for another round of protests on Saturday. So it's going to be probably hectic. The government is going to put to test the government's resolve to ensure safety in the street, which it has been accused of not doing so. until now so yeah everybody is bracing for that the majority of the French people is a bit scared and unconvinced the government will be able to achieve that so yeah to this Saturday is going to be a real test for the government so we are going to see what happens next right and France is six months out from a presidential election so we'll be watching it closely and hope to get more insights from you as things proceed thank you so much Etienne Foucher Thank you, Stefania. Thank you very much. Such a fascinating insight into what's actually happening there. And you can see how it enters this vicious cycle because if you're a shopkeeper, your livelihood is to be open. But if you open, then you run the risk of getting everything lost. So, you know, a weekend, a Saturday is when shopkeepers do the most business for the entire week. So it really puts the middle class and the working class in quite a predicament. We will be bringing you that news on the scene and as much as we can. Thank you so much. Let's turn next to the midterm season entering its final stretch with President Trump and Vice President Vance rallying voters in two key states. Stay with us, folks. We've got takeaways from both rallies. And a polling company admits it fabricated entire surveys on the midterm races. The company says that the fake data was then reported by multiple prominent media outlets. Performance that truly matters for each and every one of us. This is what you've been waiting for. See it at least once in your lifetime. Shen Yun. Get tickets now at ShenYun.com. I think building kindness in children from a very young age is foundational to their growth, to building their character. to allow them to share with each other in the classroom and in a space that is safe like in the Ganjing World platform. 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And I am so proud to call you my son. Welcome back to NTD Good Morning. Steph and Carrie here. Early voting continues across the country. And we keep seeing that high voter turnout. That's right. With less than two weeks to go until November 3rd, Senate nominees in competitive races are going toe-to-toe to get out the vote. Here we have NTD's Fiona Gee. According to the Michigan Voting Dashboard, which is operated by the Michigan Secretary of State, over 11% of Michiganders who are registered voters have already cast their ballots. With nearly 7.5 million registered voters, This means that over 850,000 ballots have been cast so far. Michigan is a closely watched swing state, especially when it comes to its Senate race. Remember, that's where Republican nominee Mike Rogers is going toe-to-toe with Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed. A key topic that has emerged in that race is each nominee's stance on Israel and Iran. I support just staunchly their right to exist, the right to exist for the Jewish state, and the right to defend itself in a very difficult neighborhood. Who do you think's a bigger threat to the United States, Israel or Iran? You have 60 seconds. And again, Rick, I'm just gonna say that that's a ridiculous hypothetical, because here's what's happening right now. Our ostensible ally in Israel has lobbied us to go to war with Iran. Georgia is another competitive state with a hotly contested Senate race. That's where GOP Congressman Mike Collins is running against incumbent Democratic Senator John Ossoff. According to election data, Georgia saw a 40 percent increase in voter turnout on its first day of early voting in 2026 in comparison to back in 2022. And same thing with Texas, another state with a competitive Senate race. This one between GOP nominee Ken Paxton and Democratic nominee James Talarico. We saw record-breaking voter turnout there, too, in many counties. Are we going to vote for lower taxes, a closed border, and safe streets in two weeks? Historically, we see higher Democrat turnout for early voting, but Republican voters often make up for that on Election Day itself. We're now less than two weeks away from Election Day, which will determine the balance of power on Capitol Hill. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Fiona Gee, NTD News. Midterm push enters the home stretch. That's right, President Trump, as we just saw there, rallying in South Carolina yesterday for Senator Darlene Graham, while Vice President J.D. Vance, he's campaigned in Ohio for Senator John Husted and gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy. And to these, Daniel Monahan brings us the key takeaways. President Trump in South Carolina stumping for Senator Darlene Graham. Graham discussed growing up in the back of a bar and liquor store with her brother, Lindsey. That's where we learn the value of a dollar and a strong work ethic. We also learn that if you want something in life, you work hard for it. Nothing is given to you. Darlene Graham's parents both died when she was 11. The president taking aim at Graham's Democratic challenger, pediatrician Annie Andrews, saying she has supported cross-sex procedures for minors. Annie Andrews should have her medical license revoked. Take it away. And she should not be allowed to run for office. Andrews has been vocal in the past on trans issues, including supporting puberty blockers, but says she doesn't support cross-sex surgeries for those under 18. The president contrasted his record with that of the previous administration. The last time the radical Democrats had power, they gave us the worst inflation in American history, the highest energy prices in American history. He pointed to his administration's efforts to clean up the nation's capital. And now it's one of the safest cities, one of the most beautiful cities, one of the cleanest. The parks, the new grass, the graffiti's all been removed. And touted his economic record. So I signed the largest tax cuts in American history with a great big beautiful bill. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security for our great seniors. President Trump also saying U.S. manufacturing has seen its biggest increase in history. Meanwhile, Vice President J.D. Vance was in Ohio campaigning for Senator John Husted and gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy. I'm on a moral mission to turn that American dream into an American reality for every family in this state, and we're going to fight for you. The governor's race has drawn attention over an ad against Democrat Amy Acton that features her mother calling her a liar. Acton and her brother have condemned that ad. Acton's campaign responded with its own ad featuring her brother, Philip Stearns, who describes the abuse they say they suffered as children and says Amy bore the brunt of it. Vance urged voters to focus on Acton's record. Amy Acton was the woman who said that my three-year-old kid could not go to school without wearing a ridiculous face mask. The vice president also urged supporters to help Republicans keep control of the House and Senate. On November the 3rd, join me in voting for those who are going to fight for you, not for the far left. America belongs to those who love it, not those who hate it. Let's get it done, Ohio. We got two weeks to go. Thank you. With Election Day less than two weeks away, both parties are making their final push. Daniel Monahan, NTD News. All right. Thanks to Daniel for that report. Staying with election news, do you trust the polls for this midterm election? Well, it turns out that one polling company cited by multiple media outlets is actually fake. The firm now calling itself a social experiment. That's right. Wedgwood Polls saying in a statement Tuesday that all but one of its surveys had been entirely fabricated. Now, prominent media outlets and polling aggregators, including The New York Times, MSNBC, and 50 Plus One, had reported on or included the polls in their databases as legitimate. Wedgwood Polls says it had no history, no credentials, and no real data. It says the fake polls were part of an experimental project to, quote, demonstrate the vulnerabilities, lack of insight, and overall low barrier to entry in the modern political polling industry. And according to Newsweek, the polling company had released the statement after being confronted by election analysis website 50 Plus One with evidence that its data was fake. The chair of the FCC commented on the fake polls yesterday, writing, The FCC takes these issues seriously. Broadcasters are prohibited by the terms of their federal licenses from engaging in news distortion or promoting broadcast hoaxes. It's important, it says, that broadcasters comply with their public interest obligations. And I think one thing to point out with this story, I had an interview last night, is that they only claim to be a social experiment after they got caught. So it doesn't look like they had the intentions of revealing that they were doing a social experiment. It seems like maybe the actual intent was something else. So, well, I don't think it's going to be the end of that story, but it probably won't come out until fully after the midterms. What actually was at play there? Yeah. Reader beware. Viewer beware. OK, with Election Day just around the corner, how much do voters also trust the polls? Probably not too much after that. So we sent out NDD Sam Wong to the National Mall in D.C. to talk with people. Have a look. When news media cite a poll, do you guys trust them? No, I don't trust it one way or the other. So I just make sure I go vote, encourage my family to vote, my kids, make sure they're registered to vote. Recently, you've been proven in the past Senate races in the last few months that those polls have gigantic errors in them. I do follow the polls. Not that I believe them because they have been wrong way too many times. Because you can't forecast what somebody's going to actually do on election. I don't think that they really poll enough people, honestly. I mean, I think they poll like 1,000 people out of 15,000 or whatever, and you can't get a good pick on that. I kind of look at them, but how true are they? Because in the past elections, they've showed certain polls, and they didn't turn out clear. Like she said, you don't know who to trust or what to trust. You just need to go with your own instincts. In New Mexico, too, we have a problem with our polls and our news being very biased. If it wasn't that way, it would be different. Do you think polls can sometimes be manipulated to steer public opinions or public perception of certain things? Oh, definitely. Yes, that's why I don't pay attention to them. At least where I'm from, we have some of our channels that are very liberal, and they are not reporting the absolute truth that's out there. I think maybe they try that, but I don't, if you're really, you know, on your beliefs and you stay with your beliefs, I don't think it can change that. You shouldn't listen to social media, these polls or nothing. You should just go out and vote, not rely on the polls to tell you what's, oh, that's what's going to happen. So I'm not going to, my vote doesn't matter. Every vote matters. Now to New York, where court officers say staffing shortages and state policies are making it harder to keep the justice system running safely and effectively. Now, they're taking the very unusual step of actually endorsing a candidate for governor. They're putting their support behind Republican Bruce Blakeman. And these Nikki Bonney reports. Here outside the Manhattan criminal court, New York court officers are making an unusual political move. For the first time in decades, they are publicly endorsing a candidate for governor. On behalf of the dedicated men and women of the New York State Supreme Court officers, who I'm so proud to represent and proud to lend our support and endorsement for Bruce Blakeman for governor of New York. New York State Supreme Court Officers Association, one of three unions endorsing Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman, saying they want stronger support for court security, increased staffing, and meaningful pension reform they say they have not received under Governor Kathy Hochul. Court officers are armed peace officers responsible for law enforcement security security and maintaining order in courthouses across New York State. We see the impact of cashless bail policies and concerns surrounding what many describe as a revolving door of criminal justice where individuals are arrested, released, and then returned to our courts facing new charges while out without bail. The failure to deliver meaningful, comprehensive pension reform for uniformed court officers has made it harder to attract new candidates, retain experienced personnel, and build the stable workforce this system needs. Blakeman saying he would use a layered approach to address the issues. The most important thing is we have to have enough personnel. We have to have enough court officers. We have to make sure that we protect our communities by investing in law enforcement, changing the laws like cashless bail. NTD reached out to Governor Hochul's office for response to the news. A spokesperson replied saying Governor Hochul would put her law enforcement record up against Bruce Blakeman's any time, adding that she's invested $4 billion in public safety, cracked down on ghost guns, and got 26,000 illegal guns off New York streets. Blakeman has emphasized his own record throughout the campaign. As I've demonstrated in my county, by hiring new law enforcement professionals and increasing their numbers, we are now the safest county in America, according to U.S. News & World Report. Also saying this record is what earned the court officers confidence and trust. Nico Boni, NTD News, New York. Thanks to Nico for that report. Next, Meta is facing a $25 billion judgment in New Mexico. It comes after a jury found that Facebook misled users about the collection of personal data. Yeah, and this case actually stems all the way back from the Cambridge Analytica scandal. And that was when user data was harvested to generate targeted political ads going back to the 2016 election. A state judge handed down the penalty yesterday after jurors in September found Meta liable for over 43 million violations of New Mexico consumer protection laws. Now, the state says Facebook deceived users about a data breach that stemmed from a third-party personality quiz. The quiz harvested data from roughly 87 million profiles, then sold that data to a political consulting firm, which, of course, was Cambridge Analytica, and then they generated those targeted political ads during the 2016 election. Facebook argues that the state failed to prove whether people were actually harmed by these deceiving statements. It said earlier it will appeal the September verdict. And New Mexico is the only state to pursue a trial around this Cambridge Analytica scandal. 48 other states, they settled with Meta for $18 billion in August. New Mexico says all money awarded will go into a fund for the state's education system. State Attorney General Raul Torres describes it as, quote, one of the largest, if not the single largest, state verdict against a company in American history, adding, quote, this judgment should be a signal, an unambiguous message to Silicon Valley. And Steltercom, a Chinese pastor who was detained by the Chinese Communist Party, speaks out about religious persecution in the country. That's right. Pastor Ezra Jin speaking at the Ronald Reagan Institute's Center for Freedom and Democracy. Plus, critical flaws in a program used by two-thirds of websites worldwide could leave them exposed to cyberattacks. Cybersecurity agencies issuing urgent updates. My biggest fear in the middle of my addiction was that I would never be able to get over it and that my kids wouldn't have a father. I overdosed on heroin and I lived. And I started thinking, you know what, this isn't my story. 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On smartphones everywhere. at doihaveprediabetes.org. My graduation was something I will never forget. People like you and me sometimes may have doubts in ourselves, but I feel that everything's possible. Find free adult education classes near you at finishyourdiploma.org. If you need to do something to feel okay to drive, you're not okay to drive. Don't drive buzzed. Welcome back to NTD Good Morning. I'm Cary Dunst. The U.S. is under increased cybersecurity threats from China across all areas of society. Joining us now to discuss is Chris Tam. He's president of the NASDAQ-listed BTQ Technologies, which is an encryption security company. Thank you so much for joining us, Chris. So early, we hear every day about these cyber risks. Why do advances in tech like AI and quantum computing change the threat assessment? Morning, Kerry. Thank you for having me here. So it's an interesting time right now. We're obviously going through a period of technological change where things are advancing very, very rapidly. And we're at a confluence of technological intersections. We have, on one hand, developments in AI, which have obviously unlocked a tremendous amount of capabilities for not only governments, but also individuals worldwide. And we're also at the precipice of encountering this quantum revolution. For the past several decades, there have been a number of both countries and and large companies who've been working on building these large, capable quantum computers. And it just so happens that one of their lowest hanging fruit, one of the landing applications of these quantum computers, encryption. And what we mean by encryption is the encrypting and decrypting of sensitive data over the Internet. So anytime you send a message over the Internet to a loved one, every time you make a request to your bank, all of that information is encrypted. And what this confluence and intersection of technologies means is that this very encryption that we take for granted on an everyday basis is now at risk. Yeah, it's very interesting to point out things that people take for granted. They don't recognize like maybe they're doing banking on their phone and what goes into making that secure. And I want to put that on the side for a moment, just so we have a baseline. Can you just briefly, I think we all know AI because we're starting to use that instead of a search engine, you know, for everyday tasks. But what is quantum computing referred to and how should people understand that so that we can continue to discuss the security threats from it? So quantum computers are obviously computing devices, but they use a different set of rules and mechanics than the computers that we use today. Our classical computers rely on classical physics to compute over information, and quantum computers rely on quantum physics to compute over information. And while that might sound abstract and complicated, really what it means is that it's able to solve certain problems much more quickly. And when we mean much more quickly, we mean exponentially more quickly. and the risk of that pose well that could be great for a great number of things it also comes with its consequences which means that certain problems that we thought were previously unbreakable have now become breakable and it again it happens to be that these problems that we thought were unbreakable we applied to our information sort of like a layer of armor around your sensitive information. We thought it was unpenetrable. And with these quantum computers being able to perform computations at several orders of magnitude faster than the classical devices that we have, this armor around our information is no longer as secure as we thought it would be. That's super helpful. So we know that the data munch is becoming much, much, much more powerful. And on the other side, we know that there's this automation that AI provides as kind of a layer on top of that. So then when we turn that now to the security threat assessment, we know China is stealing tons of data. If things like banking data, voter data, health data, if all that stuff is encrypted, is it safe? So this is a complicated question, but we're going to make it very simple, which is that today it may be safe, but tomorrow it is very unlikely that it will not be. And when we consider the shelf life of data, how long we would like data to remain secure. It's not that we want our data to remain secure today, or for the week, or just for the year. We want it to remain secure for decades, if not centuries into the future. And so while data today may be secure, because again, we don't have, at least to our knowledge, any quantum computers that can plausibly break the encryption that we've used to secure our information, by the end of the next decade or so, it is very likely that we will have such a capable quantum computer. And when that time arrives, it will be able to break all of the encrypted information that we previously had stored. And so there's this pattern, this sort of threat that we're dealing with today. It's called harvest now and decrypt later, which is the very simple premise that our data is being harvested and collected by several governments around the world, both friends and foe, I would imagine. And while they may not be able to break that data today, when their governments are equipped with quantum computers in the future, they will be able to reveal and expose all that data and this goes you know as high up as government level information critical uh critical networks information energy networks financial networks information all the way down to you know personal identifiable information uh and this pattern of harvest now decrypt later is a serious threat that really all every individual and government is taking seriously well you've definitely outlined the problem very uh very clearly chris in our last 30 seconds what are the solutions? What's BTQ working on? So the solution to quantum computers is to combat quantum with quantum. And for the past 10 years, the US government has been standardizing post-quantum cryptography. Our job at BTQ is to get that post-quantum cryptography out into the world, out into your phones, out into your devices, and to secure every mission-critical network with this post-quantum cryptography. And we're making great strides doing so so far, and we look forward to continuing our mission. All right. Well, yeah, fight fire with fire. Appreciate you explaining all that to us and helping us understand the risk from small actors to our largest adversaries. Chris Tam, such a pleasure to speak to you. Thank you. Thank you. Critical cybersecurity flaws are putting two-thirds of the world's websites at risk. Government websites in Europe are being taken offline as agencies race to update their systems. NTD's David Lam has that report. Developers and cybersecurity experts are urging organizations to update their websites due to security flaws in the programming language PHP which is used in much of the web including MediaWiki and WordPress and many others Wiz, a cyber security company owned by Alphabet discovered the flaw using artificial intelligence it was testing to exploit vulnerabilities in the popular scripting language PHP Cybersecurity expert Paulo Cardoso do Amaral shares his thoughts. Sometimes we are aware that bad things happen, and then it is too late. And in this case, it's exactly the opposite. We found prior to the attacks that the vulnerability exists. Developers say the language PHP, which initially stood for Personal HomePage, has two critical risks. They released urgent new fixes on Wednesday. Wiz says attackers could potentially read sensitive data from the PHP process's memory, including passwords and more. The White House said it was aware of the risk last Friday, adding, quote, This discovery demonstrates exactly why American leadership in AI is so critical. This is American innovation strengthening our national security. And this warning was about, or is about, a vulnerability that was found on a system that is used by many websites. And it's a good thing that we know about it, so we can up-to-date all the code underneath. Two-thirds of all websites on the Internet are estimated to use PHP. Dutch, French, Danish, and Finnish governments have taken their sites offline. David Lamb, NTD News. All right, ahead of the holiday season, let's get you well set up to protect yourselves online amid that rise in AI-driven cyber attacks trying to capitalize on retail and travel activity at this time of year. 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