News of the Cyber World

[kyonides]

Twitter Seeks to Subpoena Sen. Warren
After She Called SEC to Investigate Elon Musk, Tesla

Twitter filed a request to subpoena communications between Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC), escalating a legal battle surrounding the social media company’s human resource practices after Elon Musk bought out the company.

Twitter’s subpoena request comes as a response to a letter Ms. Warren sent to the SEC on Monday, July 17, asking it to investigate another business entity owned by Mr. Musk, the Tesla electric car company. Ms. Warren wrote that Mr. Musk’s control over Twitter and Tesla “raised concerns about conflicts of interest, misappropriation of corporate assets, and other negative impacts to Tesla shareholders.”

“Despite recent and repeated calls from investors to address these actions, the [Tesla Board of Directors] appears to have failed to uphold its legal duty to ensure that Mr. Musk act in the best interest of Tesla,” Ms. Warren’s letter to the SEC continues. “The Board also does not appear to have adequately disclosed concerns about these issues to investors, undermining shareholders’ ability to make informed voting and investing decisions and to hold their fiduciaries accountable.”

On Thursday, Twitter’s legal representatives filed a request before the federal court for California’s Northern District, asking for copies of all communications between the Democrat senator and the two regulatory agencies after Mr. Musk bought out Twitter on Oct. 27, 2022. The subpoena notice seeks all documents relating to Ms. Warren’s July 17 letter to the SEC, including draft versions of the SEC letter and further communications between the senator and the FTC.

It’s not clear exactly what Twitter expects to find among Ms. Warren’s communications with the SEC and FTC. The documents could provide context as to the Democrat’s efforts to bring investigations against Mr. Musk’s businesses after he took over one of the most widely used social media platforms.

US Appeals Court to Reconsider Decision
on Elon Musk’s Tweet About Unions

A federal appeals court on Friday said it will reconsider its recent decision that Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk violated federal labor law by posting on Twitter that employees would lose stock options if they joined a union.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans granted Tesla’s request to revisit the case “en banc,” meaning that its 16 active judges will take part.

A three-judge panel of the same court had in March upheld a National Labor Relations Board ruling that Mr. Musk’s May 20, 2018 tweet was an unlawful threat that could discourage unionization at his electric car company, and must be deleted.

Mr. Musk issued the tweet as the United Auto Workers sought to organize employees at Tesla’s plant in Fremont, California.

“Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so [tomorrow] if they wanted,” he wrote. “But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing?”

The appeals court panel found “substantial evidence” that the tweet was “an implied threat to end stock options as retaliation for unionization.”

In seeking reconsideration, Tesla cited free speech concerns, and said the NLRB ignored that no employees claimed that Mr. Musk was threatening them, that Mr. Musk did not intend to threaten anyone, and that Mr. Musk later clarified his tweet was not a threat.

Vulnerabilities in Solar Panels Could Be Exposed
by Chinese Hackers: Australian Senator

The rush to net zero could leave gaping holes for Chinese-backed hackers to disrupt Australia’s energy grid, warns Senator James Paterson.

Solar power is a key pillar in the march towards reducing emissions with Australia estimated to need 2.7 billion solar panels to reach net zero by 2050, according to estimates from the University of Queensland and Circular PV Alliance (pdf).

An intrinsic part of using solar power is the installation of “smart inverters,” which connect panels to the electricity grid that can be controlled remotely over the internet.

Currently, 60 percent of Australia’s smart inverters are supplied by Chinese manufacturers Sungrow, Goodwe, and Huawei, which was banned from supplying 5G equipment to the country’s future telecommunications network.

All three firms are also subject to Beijing’s National Intelligence Laws, which require all Chinese companies to “support, assist, and cooperate” with the espionage and intelligence-gathering efforts of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Senator Paterson says the smart inverters supplied by Beijing contain “exploitable flaws which are vulnerable to cyber-attacks.”
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Similar concerns have also been raised about the United States’ energy grid, with U.S. utility companies importing 171 million inverters from China between 2002 to 2021.

While software can often be blocked and patched, hardware vulnerabilities are more difficult to deal with.

Chinese-built components can often have “back doors” built into the computer chips that can then be exploited by CCP-backed hackers.

Under the Trump presidency, the import of Chinese equipment for use in the country’s power grid was banned, however, this executive order was rescinded almost immediately under the Biden administration.