Investing Thread

[Marquette Gyros]

I know most of you guys are DOGE value investors but hear me out:

I'd be buying the $NET dip today if it is wasn't already such a large part of my portfolio. I've been a happy customer of theirs for years.

NET is already trading at ~50x sales right now, so you should be prepared for price volatility. They're a long-term hold, imo.

Bought at $17. Buying more is in the realm of possibility but of course my average cost base goes way up... still, it’s a great company.

[Skatastrophy]

I got my docs yesterday to vote for the IPOE merger to take SoFi public. Looks like 5/28 is the merger date. The ticker should change from IPOE to SOFI on 6/1.

[MU82]

Is anybody else concerned about how easy it is for hackers -- be they ransom-seekers or geopolitical enemies -- to severely hurt our economy?

Is it impossible to design computer systems that are impervious to these kinds of attacks? If not, then why haven't hackers made off with trillions of dollars from Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab brokerage accounts?

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Is anybody else concerned about how easy it is for hackers -- be they ransom-seekers or geopolitical enemies -- to severely hurt our economy?

Is it impossible to design computer systems that are impervious to these kinds of attacks? If not, then why haven't hackers made off with trillions of dollars from Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab brokerage accounts?

I'm reading a book at the moment and they talked about an "air gapped" computer, i.e. not online, as part of the storyline. 
Is it possible to have a system for the gas pipeline for example that is to itself and not online where outside hackers can attempt to access?  I thought I've read somewhere that some government agency sites are not connected to the outside world so the outside world doesn't have access to them.

[Hards Alumni]

I'm reading a book at the moment and they talked about an "air gapped" computer, i.e. not online, as part of the storyline. 
Is it possible to have a system for the gas pipeline for example that is to itself and not online where outside hackers can attempt to access?  I thought I've read somewhere that some government agency sites are not connected to the outside world so the outside world doesn't have access to them.

A true air gapped computer can never touch the internet, nor anything that has come into contact with the internet... including USBs.

There isn't a good way to build infrastructure without using the internet.  Unless you want to employ a lot more people and remove a lot of remote access... which would be extremely expensive.

[Hards Alumni]

Is anybody else concerned about how easy it is for hackers -- be they ransom-seekers or geopolitical enemies -- to severely hurt our economy?

Is it impossible to design computer systems that are impervious to these kinds of attacks? If not, then why haven't hackers made off with trillions of dollars from Vanguard, Fidelity and Schwab brokerage accounts?

Yes, it is very difficult to design something that is impenetrable.  But the best way to gain access is via the weakest link... which is almost always humans.  Look into the human element being the number one way of exploitation.  There are a ton of internet videos that deal with this topic.  Here is a decent one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpdcVfq2dB8

Changed the link.  This one is much better.

[Skatastrophy]

Yes, it is very difficult to design something that is impenetrable.  But the best way to gain access is via the weakest link... which is almost always humans.  Look into the human element being the number one way of exploitation.  There are a ton of internet videos that deal with this topic.  Here is a decent one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpdcVfq2dB8

Changed the link.  This one is much better.

We paid for 3rd party penetration testing (har har) a few years back. We got owned on day 1 when a guy followed an employee into one of our buildings, set up in a conference room, and plugged into the network. When asked who he was, he said he was waiting for an interview.

A second anecdote: I work closely with an HFT firm here in Chicago that has an extensive crypto team. The challenge there is that there are physical wallets on site. They were discussing with another friend of mine about adding more physical security (hardened walls, windows, ceilings, floors, ducts, etc) to protect their assets and employees. All that it takes is for one employee with a gun to their heads to walk the bad guys through security, there's just not an easy way around it without turning your downtown office building into fort knox.

If a bad guy wants in, they get in. God, if I gave you $30k today would you give me your work laptop & RSA token and tell your work people it got stolen? $100k? People are the problem with security.

[JWags85]

We paid for 3rd party penetration testing (har har) a few years back. We got owned on day 1 when a guy followed an employee into one of our buildings, set up in a conference room, and plugged into the network. When asked who he was, he said he was waiting for an interview.

A second anecdote: I work closely with an HFT firm here in Chicago that has an extensive crypto team. The challenge there is that there are physical wallets on site. They were discussing with another friend of mine about adding more physical security (hardened walls, windows, ceilings, floors, ducts, etc) to protect their assets and employees. All that it takes is for one employee with a gun to their heads to walk the bad guys through security, there's just not an easy way around it without turning your downtown office building into fort knox.

If a bad guy wants in, they get in. God, if I gave you $30k today would you give me your work laptop & RSA token and tell your work people it got stolen? $100k? People are the problem with security.

Bingo.

 I mean hell, you don't even have to be particularly sharp at phishing to make it work.  My company's network and security was compromised about 5 years ago.  Someone blasted our listserv with an email from "our VP" at the time.  His name was in the identifier, but the address was like jdfhsd22387@yahoo.com  or something.  But our former administrative assistant was like "oh its from Kurt!" and complied and swung open the backdoor.  Luckily we had secondary measures in place that stopped true damage, but its that damn easy.

I have a friend who had a coworker get a text from their CEO that told her to go buy a bunch of Visa Gift Cards, wasnt actually the CEO's number, which she had already, and she didn't even pause, she just went right ahead and bought them.  People can be exceptionally daft and thats all someone trying to use social engineering needs.

[MU82]

Pretty scary stuff.

It's actually amazing somebody truly nefarious hasn't poisoned water supplies, killed power to a huge percentage of the country, etc.

Some believe China "weaponized" COVID-19, and who knows, maybe that will eventually have been proven true. But imagine weaponizing attacks on pretty much everything we need to function as a nation.

Sorry for the alarmist stuff, but here we had hackers bring an entire pipeline to its knees.

which would be extremely expensive.

What will be extremely expensive -- probably in American lives, as well as capital -- is if the wrong people get control of our grid.

[Hards Alumni]

Pretty scary stuff.

It's actually amazing somebody truly nefarious hasn't poisoned water supplies, killed power to a huge percentage of the country, etc.

Some believe China "weaponized" COVID-19, and who knows, maybe that will eventually have been proven true. But imagine weaponizing attacks on pretty much everything we need to function as a nation.

Sorry for the alarmist stuff, but here we had hackers bring an entire pipeline to its knees.

What will be extremely expensive -- probably in American lives, as well as capital -- is if the wrong people get control of our grid.

Ain't happening.  You need to come to terms with the human element of all of this.  Nothing is unhackable, nothing is truly safe, and there are easily exploitable, destructive things that are very low tech and impossible to quickly replace.  Hell, if we get a large enough solar flare to fry the transformers in the power grid, the time to repair them is in the order of years.  Meaning, reduced or no power... for years.

Society is a fragile construct.  We've been fortunate to make it this far.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/solar-flare-this-week-illluminated-power-grid-vulnerability/

[jesmu84]

$SHIB

[MU82]

Ain't happening.  You need to come to terms with the human element of all of this.  Nothing is unhackable, nothing is truly safe, and there are easily exploitable, destructive things that are very low tech and impossible to quickly replace.  Hell, if we get a large enough solar flare to fry the transformers in the power grid, the time to repair them is in the order of years.  Meaning, reduced or no power... for years.

Society is a fragile construct.  We've been fortunate to make it this far.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/solar-flare-this-week-illluminated-power-grid-vulnerability/

Great. We can just use this thread to replace the Doom thread.

[StillAWarrior]

Ain't happening.  You need to come to terms with the human element of all of this.  Nothing is unhackable, nothing is truly safe, and there are easily exploitable, destructive things that are very low tech and impossible to quickly replace.  Hell, if we get a large enough solar flare to fry the transformers in the power grid, the time to repair them is in the order of years.  Meaning, reduced or no power... for years.

Society is a fragile construct.  We've been fortunate to make it this far.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/solar-flare-this-week-illluminated-power-grid-vulnerability/

This past weekend I started listening to a new podcast from the BBC called "The Lazarus Heist." The first several episodes were focused on the Sony hack, but the most recent episode focused on a cyber heist from the central bank of Bangladesh. They got away with about $100 million, but it's amazing how close they may have come to getting $1B -- according to the podcast, only a crazy coincidence involving the address of a bank in Manilla prevented it. It also was extremely interesting how they manipulated different time zones, work weeks and holidays to maximize the amount of time that would pass before the hack was discovered.

[jesmu84]

https://youtu.be/x2xIgseFCpc

[Hards Alumni]

https://youtu.be/x2xIgseFCpc

There's a reason Michael Burry caught a visit from the SEC and then stopped using twitter.

[JWags85]

Inflation has arrived

[Goose]

Wags

It is going to get much worse over the short term. Things might get a bit ugly out there.

[pacearrow02]

And how all the eXPerTs were surprised to see the inflation in today’s report is beyond me. 

From what I’m reading this is going to be a wild ride of a summer.  Glad I got all my summer project pricing locked in to already higher then normal pricing but I have a feeling it’ll get worse.

[Hards Alumni]

And how all the eXPerTs were surprised to see the inflation in today’s report is beyond me. 

From what I’m reading this is going to be a wild ride of a summer.  Glad I got all my summer project pricing locked in to already higher then normal pricing but I have a feeling it’ll get worse.

If a dumbass like me could see it coming, I can't fathom how these nerds couldn't!

[pacearrow02]

If a dumbass like me could see it coming, I can't fathom how these nerds couldn't!

Haha, right!!  That’s how I feel, I know nothing about this stuff but had a pretty good sense it was coming

[jesmu84]

Inflation has arrived

The question is what will be worse: the actual inflation or the public panic to it?

Similar to the toilet paper shortage last spring.

[MU82]

Is this the start of something huge ... or a pause ... or a blip ... or nothing?

Tesla suspends Bitcoin transactions on concern over energy usage

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3695654-tesla-suspends-bitcoin-transactions-on-concern-over-energy-usage

"Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin (BTC-USD)," tweets company CEO Elon Musk. "We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel."

He adds that cryptocurrency is a good idea, but its use cannot come at a great cost to the environment.

He further adds that Tesla won't be selling any of its Bitcoin stash, and plans to begin re-using for transactions once mining transitions to more sustainable energy. He also says Tesla is looking into other cryptos that use only a fraction of Bitcoin's energy.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

He further adds that Tesla won't be selling any of its Bitcoin stash until they need to avoid missing earnings again at which time they'll sell enough for a comfortable beat, and plans to begin re-using for transactions once mining transitions to more sustainable energy. He also says Tesla is looking into other cryptos that use only a fraction of Bitcoin's energy.

FIFY, because last quarter would have been a miss without the $0.25/share from Bitcoin cap gains taxes after he took a big position and then talked it up. Not saying that was illegal but it skirts the boundaries.

[rocket surgeon]

If a dumbass like me could see it coming, I can't fathom how these nerds couldn't!

knew it was coming, but didn't think uncle joe could ruin the economy this fast...and he didn't even leave any chocolates.  got gas?

[Uncle Rico]

The question is what will be worse: the actual inflation or the public panic to it?

Similar to the toilet paper shortage last spring.

Public panic.  The average American is too stupid to comprehend economics  and too inconsiderate of their fellow man to not hoard.  We’re a confederacy of dunces