July 11, 2022

Among the thousands of votes received in Friday's poll, October blew out the competition. 27.6% of you voted it the best month, making it twice as popular as silver-medalist September. February, even on a per-day basis, did poorly. Elon Musk cast a vote, but he just offered us $1B to take it back. 

In today's edition:

• Musk pulls out of deal
• Job title inflation
• Iran's wild computer virus

 Key Stories

"Yu-Gi-Oh!" Creator Found Dead

Kazuki Takahashi, creator of the “Yu-Gi-Oh!” manga series and card game, was found dead on Friday

• Since its creation in 1996, “Yu-Gi-Oh!” has become one of the highest-grossing media franchises ever, with an estimated $17.1B in global sales. Billions of its trading cards have been sold globally
• Takahashi, age 60, was found floating off the coast of southwestern Japan. He was wearing snorkeling gear. Police said he may have been attacked by a shark, but they haven’t confirmed a cause of death
• “Yu-Gi-Oh!” is about a teen who solves an ancient puzzle, releasing an alter-ego who fights via games

Sri Lanka's White House Raided

Amid mass unrest, protesters stormed the houses of Sri Lanka’s prime minister and president. Both politicians fled and said they would resign

• Before Covid-19, the island nation of Sri Lanka was relatively prosperous — a democracy with one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies
• Poor economic management combined with higher food and oil prices have since put the country into crisis as blackouts, fuel shortages, and rampant inflation have tanked the economy
• Protesters made tea in the presidential kitchen, swam in the pool, and slept in the president’s bed

• Some analysts have compared Sri Lanka's meltdown to that of Venezuela. The locations of the president and prime minister are currently unknown, and members of Sri Lanka's opposition are meeting to form a new government

Soccer Executives Acquitted

A Swiss court ruled that 2 former world football executives accused of fraud are not guilty

• Prosecutors had accused Sepp Blatter, the former head of soccer’s governing body (FIFA), of paying ~$2M to Michel Platini, the former president of UEFA, Europe’s top soccer organization. Prosecutors alleged the payment was “without a legal basis” and had “unlawfully enriched Platini”
• The executives had said the payment was for consulting work done 10 years prior
• The scandal had disgraced the duo, and led to FIFA banning both men

• In 2015, a US investigation into a series of fraudulent transactions led to "FIFA Gate," a long-term investigation into over a dozen senior executives in many of the world's highest soccer organizations. The scandal forced Sepp Blatter to resign after 17 years as FIFA's president

Musk Kills Twitter Deal; Twitter to Sue

Elon Musk has terminated his deal to purchase Twitter, paving the way for a legal battle

• In April, Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, agreed to purchase Twitter for $44B. Since then, he has repeatedly accused Twitter of withholding data that would allow him to confirm Twitter’s claim that fewer than 5% of its users are bot accounts
• On Friday, Musk announced that Twitter “has not complied with its contractual obligations.” He states that he is legally allowed to back out of the contract
• Twitter has since stated it will sue to force Musk to complete the purchase

Fulton Introduces a Better Way to Walk
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• Holding him back: Pop star Shawn Mendes said he's reached his "breaking point" and will cancel his next 3 weeks of shows
• About Dame time: NBA All-Star Damian Lillard signed a massive 2-year, $122M contract extension with the Portland Trail Blazers
• Very nice verdict: Judges ruled in favor of Sacha Baron Cohen in Roy Moore's $95M "pedophile detector" lawsuit against the Borat star

 What do you think?

See yesterday's results below the Wrap!

 Roca Wrap

In 2010, Iran began experiencing unexpected troubles with its nuclear energy program. Its centrifuges — large, expensive machines used to enrich uranium — were mysteriously breaking.

A few months later, a computer security firm in the Eastern European country of Belarus troubleshooted an Iranian computer that wouldn’t stop crashing. They found nothing wrong with it.

These seemingly unrelated events would prove the first clues of a mysterious revolution in cyberwarfare.

***

In 2009, Iran’s nuclear program was running smoothly. After years of struggling to devise a system that worked, Iran was finally producing large amounts of enriched uranium. At the Natanz uranium enrichment facility — buried deep underground to protect it from attack — upwards of 5,000 centrifuges were set to enrich enough uranium to build 2 bombs within a year.

Iran had secretly begun its nuclear program years before. Its discovery by the international community in 2005 led to fierce condemnations and sanctions, but Iran continued forward anyway. Iran’s leaders claimed that its only goal was to use nuclear power as an energy source.

But many of Iran’s opponents, including the US and Israel, feared that Iran was building bombs. Publicly, they used diplomacy and threats against Iran; privately, they plotted military action.

Per a previous agreement, the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), an international nuclear oversight body, was allowed limited access to Natanz to monitor Iran’s nuclear program. Their goal was to ensure that uranium was only being enriched at low, energy-related levels.

But by June 2010, IAEA inspectors began noticing something odd: Centrifuges at Natanz were breaking. By August, 328 centrifuges had broken; by November, 984. Although some breakage was normal — centrifuges are delicate, sensitive machines — these numbers were unusually high.

Iran’s production of enriched uranium, previously at high levels, plummeted by the start of 2011.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, a small computer security company in Belarus received a request from an Iranian client with ties to Iran’s nuclear program. The client told Sergey Ulasen, a computer engineer, that his computer wouldn’t stop rebooting. After running malware detectors over the computer, Sergey found nothing.

Over the next few days, Sergey and his coworkers scoured the computer for any malware, but to no avail. Finally, they found something mysterious: A computer file, supposedly licensed by many respected software companies, that was virtually undetectable to every malware blocker.

The mystery only got stranger: Sergey soon realized that this was unlike any virus he had ever seen before. Its sophistication and complexity told him that he had found something special.

Sergey posted his findings on online forums. Soon, dozens of researchers from around the world were investigating “Stuxnet,” the name given to the mysterious virus. But the sheer size and complexity of the code meant that it would be months before it could be fully understood.

Little did they know, they had discovered a cyberwarfare revolution. 

Part 2 of 2 will be included in tomorrow's newsletter. 

 Roca Clubhouse

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 Final Thoughts

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