So, I'm going to talk about Bluetooth Blue Energy 5 PRNG today for fun and jamming and maybe more. So for those who don't know me, I am a security evangelist and also a senior security researcher, a digital security, a French IT security company specialized in the IOT. And I'm also the main developer of BTAD Jack, or BTAD Jack, which is a BLE Swiss Army knife. So, we are going to talk about BLE 5 and especially what's new in BLE 5 specifications and I will go through some specific features and also some interesting stuff in this protocol. So first of all, I'm going to recap what BLE is for those who are not familiar with this protocol. So this protocol has been introduced in 2010 as a Bluetooth smart, so this is the first name of this protocol in Bluetooth code specification, version 4.0. And it has evolved since then, version 4.1 in 2013, 4.2 in 2014, version 5 in 2016, and last version 5.1 this year, at the beginning of this year. So it's evolving very quickly as a protocol and it's designed to be very effective. So I'm going to go through some of the things that are very effective. So people behind this protocol produces a lot of, produce a lot of different versions, but the industry, it's difficult for the industry to keep up with this evolution. This protocol provides some security mechanisms such as pairing, so you can exchange keys between two devices before to be able to encrypt communications. And this pairing mechanism can be done with the PIN code, so this is something very easy. You just exchange a six digit PIN code between two devices and you derive some keys from this. Also from out of the data, and also edit some, edit the curve, defend the negotiation. So this is something provided by this protocol and it's cool. Some version of this pairing are not very secure as it was demonstrated before, years before, but some of them are pretty strong such as the elliptic curves. This protocol also provides secure connections, so that means you can secure connection between two devices. And this is very interesting because this secure connection, BAD secure connection is pretty strong when it's correctly implemented in the, in the applications. And this secure connection provides encryption and authentication. That means nobody can tap into an existing connection or even inject some malicious packets in this, in a specific connections. And last but not least, there is also what we call the channel selection algorithm. So to make things clear, clear this Bluetooth low-energy protocol uses channel hopping to ensure, to make these connections reliable. And this channel hopping mechanism is very simple. When two devices create a connection, they're going to jump from one channel to another in order to avoid packet collisions. So this allows the connection to be steady, you know, even if there are a lot of devices in the same room. And this channel selection algorithm is not a security mechanism, but when it comes to sniffing, when you are trying to sniff a BAD connection, this can make, this can be an issue because you need to know what this algorithm is and how to recover these hopping sequence in order to follow an existing connection. So this makes sniffing complicated. There are also well-known attacks, especially on BAD4, which is the first one, sniffing. You can easily sniff BAD connections. So this is pretty straightforward. Even secure BAD connection when the pairing is not so secure. You can also jam an existing connection. This is what I showed last year at DefCon with BTLE Jack. So it's possible to disconnect two devices and once the device is disconnected, then it advertises again and you can connect to it and take control of it. But you can also hijack a connection. That means you can force a disconnection from one device to another and then exploit this connection without the other device notising the disconnection. So it's possible to take complete control over a device this way. So again, you can do this with a lot of different virus hardware. So on the left of the screen, there is the Ubertooth, which is a well-known device used to sniff BAD connections. In the middle, the other fruit, blue friend, LA sniffer, which is the one of the first alien Bluetooth known as a sniffer available on the market. It costs around 40 bucks. And on the right of the screen, there is the micro bit, which is a British broadcasting company sponsored board developed or designed to teach UK students how to code. And BTLE Jack uses this last board, this micro bit to allow attackers to sniff, jam and hijack some connections. Let's go back to the new features introduced in BAD 5. BAD 5 introduces a better throughput up to 2 megabits per second, a better range, up to 800 feet or 240 meters, and an improved coexistence. I'll go very shortly for these first two, better throughput, a better range. Basically, it adds two new files to the Bluetooth low-energy protocol. The 2 megabit per second uncoded file that doubles the speed of the any BAD connection, so you can send more data in the same amount of time. And also the AD coded file, which here improved the range, four times the actual run for BAD 4, but at 125 kilobit per second speed and two times the same range at 500 kilobit per second. So this is some kind of trade-off you're going to do between range and speed. If you have a look at the packets sent over these two new files, there is the AD coded file, which is a new file introduced in BAD 5, and there is another file, the AD uncoded file, which is the actual, the BAD 4 file. And in these packets, you will find an access address, which is a 32-bit value, identifying a connection between two devices. But the problem is that the hardware we're using, such as the micro-bit or even the Adafruit booth and Elie Sniper, this hardware cannot cope with these new files. And that's pretty much the issue here. So our hardware may be useful, but for these new files, this can be a problem. So we're going to cover this later. The main point here is that the BAD 5 protocol introduces a new channel selection algorithm. So the old one is mentioned here. This is a very simple sequence generator based on some modulo. And the new channel selection algorithm introduces a PRNG based random generator, PRNG based channel selection algorithm. So this is based on the random number generator. This is a problem for us because as Mike Ryan showed in 2013, it was very easy to recover a key value of the first channel selection algorithm, which is the up-ink value mentioned in this slide. But with the PRNG, the task is much harder because you need to break this random number generator to be able to sniff, hijack and jam an existing connection. Luckily, the device is implementing this channel selection algorithm, advertise a very specific bit. And if this bit is set, the CH cell bit, then this device supports this new channel selection algorithm. So, basically, what are the consequences regarding known attacks on BAD 5? First of all, there is a completely different new hopping pattern used. So, basically, the old version, the first channel selection algorithm generates a 37 channel sequence. And this new channel selection algorithm generates a 65,500 and 36 channel sequence. And basically, the device will loop over the sequence. So this is more complicated. And our first approach we got when we were developing the BAD 4 tools couldn't work here. So sniffing new connection is still possible because you only need some software able to follow this new channel selection algorithm. Because at the beginning of the connection, you get everything you need to synchronize with this connection and follow packets. But as an attacker, we won't be able to jam or hijack BAD 5 devices because the connection is always already established. And we don't have these values used to compute the sequence of channels. We need to go to synchronize and follow the connection. So, we also need a new hardware that supports BAD 5 new files, but that's another question. It's just like some guys at BTC decided to introduce this PRNG in order to mess up with the actual tools. Well, this is what I believed when I started this research. So, let's see. Let's have a look at the random number generator. First of all, it uses a channel identifier value, some kind of value as a seed, which is a 16 bit value. This random number generator relies on basic operations, some add, multiply, XOR, bit permutation and so on. And it also uses some channel remapping, but this is what's the same with BLE4. This channel identifier value is computed from access address. So, this is the 32 bit value identifying your link between two devices. So, basically identifying your connection. And the computation is the following. You take the access address, bit 0 to 15, and your XOR, this value, 16 bit value with the access address, bit 16 to 31. So, you get a 16 bit value. And then we are going to use a lot of computation and a specific wording called MAM for multiply, add, mod. And basically, this is what performs some computations. And takes two values, A and B, 16 bit values, and produces a 16 bit output. And this is just three times in a row. These are some other computations in between to create a random number. Based on this random number, then we compute the actual channel for a given counter, a given value of the counter used here. So, when this, when this channel selection algorithm generates a sequence, it goes from a counter from 0 to 4K. And then generates every possible channel. And this, this creates a sequence of channels and the devices will go over, loop over this sequence. So, when I saw this, I was like, whoa, what's this stuff?  And I wasn't alone. I found some people on Twitter also complaining about this specification and especially this PRNG. Well, maybe there's something to do. If you have a look at this generator, then you may have noticed that the channel identifier, which is a 16 bit value, is computed from the access address, which is basically public. So, we need this to sniff in connection. So, this is a non-value. And also, the next value is generated from a counter, next random value generated from a counter. So, not from some kind of internal state that usually PRNG is used to, to create another random value. So, since access address is public, then we can go from 32 unknown bits to 16 unknown bits. So, this is quite easy. And this PRNG, well, is it really a PRNG? If you, if you look at the specific specification, then we know that the channel identifier is constant since it's derived from the access address. And what this function does, it generates a fixed sequence of 65,000 values indexed by a counter. Normally, this counter bears random number generators are used to parallelize, sorry, in French. This is a very easy excuse, but anyway. Yeah. So, this, this generates a fixed sequence of values. And then, um, this is very interesting for us for, you know, leading the attack. But what this function does, in fact, just monomize some kind of channels and that's it. So, what do we need to break it? If we consider the channel, just consider the channel identifier as known, you know, since this is derived from the access address, we are left with a 16-bit unknown value, which is a counter. And if we can figure out where we are in the sequence of this 65,000 and 566 values, then we would find out what this counter value is. And once we get this value, it's done, you can synchronize with a connection and then follow a connection and then jam, hijack, and do whatever you want. So, how to get the counter value? As an attacker, we can only monitor, uh, some events. Um, and these events are the following. We can determine when the packet is received on a specific channel. And based on this, you can also determine when, uh, the time between two packets received on two different channels. So, basically, we can deduce some thing from, uh, some measures we can do on this, uh, on a specific connection. If all 37 data channels are used, then the, uh, channel selection algorithm uses a very simple equation, a simple computation to, to derive the channel for a specific counter. Uh, but if not, if this, uh, if these channels are not all used, then this is more complex. But in fact, this, uh, it doesn't make things more complicated, uh, in the, in this way. But I, I will focus on the first case. Uh, the first case is that we are going to use all the 37 data channels to make things simpler. My first approach was to, uh, use a sieve. Uh, I'm quite sure you'll, you know, but it was a sense to, sieve used to find prime numbers. We are basically doing the same. Our goal is to eliminate every possible candidate in multiple rounds and in the smallest number of rounds to be more precise. The prerequisite here to do this is to be able to, uh, to, is to know the hop interval value, which is basically the time between two hops in the, uh, hopping mechanism. So, how it works, we are going to consider a counter of zero. So, just say that it's, it's zero, it's uh, hypothetical. It's not the real value we are looking for. And we compute, uh, channel C zero from this, uh, period function with this candidate counter and, uh, based on the, uh, channel identifier of course. And we wait for a valid packet. So we got a packet at time T zero on channel zero, on channel C zero. And we do the same on the next channel. So we increase the counter with the counter of one. We compute the next channel and then we wait for a valid packet and we got a packet at time T one. So, we, then we measure the, the time spent in between. So data T equals T one minus T zero. And since we know the hop interval, the time between two hops, then we can deduce the number of hops between these two packets. So, by doing this, we can create a pattern that, uh, will be very useful to, to sieve the sequence. So basically we're just, uh, going through the sequence and looking for a specific pattern composed of two channels. Channel C zero at, uh, uh, say index 200 for instance and at index 200 plus N channel C one. By doing this, you will get between 200 and 400 candidate values for this counter. So remember we are, we are looking for the, uh, counter used at T zero. And we do it, uh, we repeat the operations. We take the first candidate out of the, the remaining candidates and we compute C zero C one. We wait a packet on channel C zero, then C one. We deduce the number of hops and then we apply or sieve again. We are going to filter these, the, all these candidate, and keep only the matching ones. And you do this until one candidate left. And this candidate is the, your, the value of the counter at T zero. So, since I had no BLE5 devices at this time, I decided to implement, uh, to simulate this, uh, this attack. So, I will show you the result of this, uh, simulation. So, I, uh, I wrote my, everything in Python, Python 3, and I create this script, CSA 2 simulated by. So basically, at the start, there is a, a, a counter randomly generated, which is a 13,600. And I will go through every candidate, uh, each round reducing the number of candidates. So it's here 21, 11, 6, 3, 2, until we get, uh, a single candidate. And this candidate is 3,600, which is in fact the value we are looking for for T zero. So that's good. Yeah, I, I love when a plan comes together. The problem here is that we need to know the, what this hop interval value is. Uh, I suppose this, uh, value was known during my first simulation, but in fact I don't know this value. So how to guess this value? Well, it's, uh, some basic math you have to do. Since we are going to measure, uh, time differences between packets received on various channels, then we can, uh, do so. We can compute the GCD, the greatest common divisor of all these measures. And since these, these times are normally multiples of the value we are looking for, we will get this value. So again, I simulated this, uh, this computation. Well, it's very quick, so I have no video for this one. But, uh, by doing only 10 measures, I was able to recover the hop interval. And I performed a lot of tests, and this test showed that, um, if you perform only 5 measures, if you compute 5 measures, then you get an approximate success rate of 95% of success. So this is pretty good. If you, you should get 10 measures, then you are quite sure to get the correct value. But that's cool. So, basically what I got here is that a way to recover the hop interval value and another way to get the, uh, counter value, uh, the value of the counter, sorry, uh, at, uh, a specific time. So, let's do it in practice with a real device. Uh, there is a problem in fact, is that this, uh, version of the protocol has been released, uh, in 2016. And still, there is no compatible devices, uh, in the market. So, I wasn't about to find something to buy that implements this, uh, this, this protocol. So, uh, I'm sorry, there is, there is, uh, there is no video of a sex toy hack this time or a drone hack, um, but anyway. So, um, based on my first research, uh, I decided to, to try to, to apply this, uh, this attacks on, uh, some BLD5 devices. So, since there are no BLD5 devices, I'm going to make some. Uh, I ordered on, uh, uh, on a site, on a website on the internet, the two development boards from Nordic, uh, which support this new protocol with, uh, the correct SDK and the correct stack. And, uh, uh, just program this, uh, this, uh, boards with very basic examples. Uh, one making a, a LED blink and providing a BLD5 compatible device and another, uh, able to connect to the first one. So, basically, two devices that can create a connection in between and transfer data. And I also decided to improve my beta jack tool by, um, implementing some, some features, new features for BLD5. So, um, beta, beta jack can do the job, but only for the legacy file, which is the one megabit password uncoded file. But doesn't matter, my development boards, uh, are compatible with this file. So, it's okay. And I modified beta jack to compute this open interval while, uh, this, uh, this tool was mapping channels because usually when you're, uh, attacking, uh, an existing BLD connection, you need to know what channels are unused. You remember, I suppose that all 37 channels are used, but this is not always the case. So, by doing this, uh, I modified the other code to, to be able to, to get this, uh, this open, this, uh, open interval while mapping. But I first, uh, first problem, um, this problem is that normally when you are using CSA number one, the first channel selection algorithm, this is a 37 channel sequence and you loop over this, this sequence. But there is no doubles, you know, the, uh, each channel only appears once in this sequence. So, it's very easy to determine this open interval value and you measure, uh, time span between two packets received on the same channel and then you divide it by 37 and it gives you the, the value you want. But this is not the case with this random number generator, since, uh, um, a channel can appear twice or maybe more during the sequence. So, I had to compute automatically the, uh, time out to be sure that, uh, uh, a channel is correctly used. Anyway. And I, I tested this, uh, GCD based technique for recovering the open interval and it works pretty well. In fact, once you, uh, smash, uh, when, when, once you solved all the, all the issues but on time out. So, this is an example output of what I gave, what I get, uh, when I, uh, tried this open interval recovery system on this, uh, this connection. So, I got a open interval of 160 which is, uh, uh, pretty much it. So, that's good. Great success for the first time. But the main part is to be able to recover the counter used, uh, at a specific time during the connection. So, I implemented this algorithm, the sieve algorithm and I started trying this, uh, this algorithm. So, the first round, uh, went pretty well. I, I went from 65,000, uh, candidates to about 250 candidates, which is what I showed you, uh, a few minutes ago. So, that was pretty cool. But the next round is completely messed up. Uh, I wasn't able to get any data. So, I was a bit puzzled.  And it induces a delay and I, I get lost in the connection. So, uh, this is a, um, simple algorithm problem. So, yeah, I was a bit pissed at this time. Uh, so, I decided to redesign my attack and to solve this problem I moved from a sieve to a pattern machine algorithm which is basically what I was also using. So, normally during my sieve attack, um, perform a measure, um, a measure and then, um, I filter all the candidates. This time, I'm going to do all the measures in, uh, during the first part of the attack and then filter all the candidates just at the end. And by doing this, I get, uh, a more complex pattern but in fact, uh, I'm quite sure to get the correct value. And by doing this, you end up with ten delta t values. So, some times difference between packets received in various channels. And based on this, we look for this hopping pattern in our sequence and we deduce the counter exactly as we did before. And, yeah, that worked. I was able to guess the counter value. Uh, so, uh, we'll show, I will show you, uh, an example of this later. So, that was pretty cool. So, from this, uh, uh, I told myself, yeah, that's good. You get the up interval, you get, uh, the counter value. Now, this is easy peasy. Uh, everything you need to do is just to synchronize with the existing connection. Well, good. So, I developed my, uh, the firmware in order to synchronize with the connection and, um, yeah. There was some kind of issue here. Um, didn't work at all. So, I got the, uh, correct up interval value. I got the correct, uh, counter, but I wasn't able to synchronize.  And I stumbled upon this part of the code. So, this is the filtering routine. What this code does is just going through all the candidates and filter these, uh, these candidates. So, uh, this is the second version of the approach. So, I need to, to go through the 65,000, uh, and, uh, and 536 candidates and it takes a hell of a time again. And by doing this, I was just, uh, 13 hops away of the correct value at the moment I was trying to synchronize. So, by doing this, just adding 13 to the, uh, counter value, I was able to synchronize to an existing connection. And that's pretty much it for the, this, uh, recovery. I will show you, uh, now a video of, uh, everything working with this, uh, this firmware. So, uh, for the video purpose of the video, I just provide the channel map and the hop interval value. So, as we can see, uh, this, uh, this, uh, tool is trying to recover the PRNG internal counter which is the, an unknown value, 16 bit. It takes sometimes, uh, generally less than a minute to, to deduce this, uh, this value. So it's pretty cool because, uh, if you are trying to attack a, a real life device, you have to be next, near to the device to, to, to attack it. So, uh, if it takes a less than a minute, it's okay. Should be very short. And once the, uh, counter has been recovered, then we capture data sent over these devices. So, by doing this, we got the correct value for the hop interval and then we get the correct value for the counter. So, that's pretty much it. You, you get a way to sniff, sorry, you get a way to sniff, uh, data over a BLE5 connection. But remember, it's only on the 1 megabit per second, uh, uncoded file. And you can also try to jam a connection. So, basically, once you, you are synchronized with this, uh, this connection, you can, you can inject packets as well.  And this can also be done with my BLE5 devices. Well, it's sort of, hard to say. This is, yeah, uh, something very special because, um, I got my device on, on the screen here. So, I'm going to, to recover the, the pure engine on the counter. And you can see some LEDs, uh, normally at the, uh, bottom, uh, bottom right of the screen. Uh, this LED, which when it's the LED 2 that is, uh, uh, lit, then it means the connection is still active. I'm going to jam this, uh, this connection and be, be, pay attention. This is, this will be very quick. There is, uh, uh, some LED blinking, uh, telling, uh, telling us that the connection has been lost and disconnected. So here, uh, uh, I successfully jammed an existing connection, BLE5 connection, by using BTL Jack. Back to the slides. So, um, since, uh, everything went smooth with this, uh, this attack, I decided to, to release a new version of this tool, of BTL Jack, version 2, including this, uh, all this research I made on this, uh, channel selection algorithm number 2. So, it's, uh, it's working, uh, but I tested it on very few devices. I only got two of them. So, uh, I don't know what, uh, if this tool will work with, with any type of devices, BTL 5 compatible devices. So, um, I give you the code, I give you all the, the tools. Uh, this, uh, version of the software has not been published on PIP, uh, just not to mess with, uh, the actual version, because I, I'm not sure, uh, since I made a lot of modifications in the firmware, I'm not sure that the, uh, this version may, uh, alter the, you know, the behavior of, uh, the actual BTL, BTL Jack version. So, just to make things, things clear, you can, uh, clone this, uh, repository and then, uh, install the device by using some, uh, Python auto magic installer, uh, Python setup by, and that's it. So, uh, all the code is available, open source as usual. So, to, to conclude, uh, not so quickly, but, uh, anyway, um, what this talk demonstrated is that the BTL 5 CSA number 2, so the second channel, second algorithm, PRNG is weak. Um, but there was a reason for that. Remember, at the, uh, at the beginning of this research, I was, uh, just thinking, thinking that, uh, this PRNG has been introduced in this version of BAD to PIS hackers, uh, trying to attack, uh, BAD devices. But in fact, uh, after, I thought, um, uh, I, uh, I had some other thought about this, uh, this, uh, this PRNG, but, um, well, it, it's not really a PRNG, uh, as it's used here. And, of course, 16 bits out of 32 can be easy to guess. And the last 16 bit is a counter, so this is very easy to, to recover. But in fact, this PRNG has been designed to improve coexistence, not security. The goal of the, uh, guys who designed this protocol, or this protocol, this, uh, channel solution algorithm and this PRNG, uh, in particular, was to improve the coexistence of devices in the same, say, same space. By doing this, yeah, it works. You can get a lot of BAD 5 devices and with this system, you can get a lot more devices that we, uh, used to, to have in, uh, with the BAD 4 version. And also, the counter based random number generators are easier to implement and consumes formless, uh, power and memory. Uh, so, in, uh, in the IoT world, this is something that makes sense. So, is it a, a vulnerability? Well, I, I don't think so. I, I don't think it's a vulnerability, but in fact, it doesn't stop, uh, hackers, uh, to jam or hijack, uh, existing connections. Future work will include, uh, some, uh, a lot of development for BTAD Jack. Uh, as I said, there are, there are two new files introduced in this BAD 5 version, BAD 5, uh, protocol. And this, uh, new files are supported by a new Nordic system on chip called the, uh, NRF 52840. And this, uh, this chip is, uh, very interesting because it, uh, implements all the, uh, files natively. So we don't have to do some, uh, some, uh, SDR stuff or anything. We can just use the features of this, uh, of this chip to be able to decode and anchor the data packet over there. So this is, uh, quite interesting. But the fact is that it, uh, demands a lot of work to put BTAD Jack to this new platform because, uh, um, both of them, uh, are made by Nordic, but there are some, um, some differences in the way this chip handles the BAD protocol. But luckily someone called Marcus Mengs made some research, uh, recently on, uh, logitech unifying devices. And this, this guy, this dude made a lot of, uh, uh, of code compatible with this chip. And I talked with the, with him, uh, we exchanged a lot of mails. And this, uh, this guy had, uh, uh, some piece of code we need to use to implement this. So, uh, I think, uh, I'm, if he, if he's kind enough to share with me some, uh, some tricks he did on this, uh, on this chip, I will be able to port BTAD Jack to this new platform and get rid of the microbit stuff. So, this is, uh, this is it. Um, I think I, I said every, almost everything I wanted to say. Um, the resource materials, all the notes, scripts, I wrote, everything I showed you with the Python scripts is also, uh, also available on the, on the GitHub repository, which, uh, which is the following, BAD5 dash with the research on GitHub. So, you can get everything, uh, I developed and try it, insert me if the code is, uh, you know, dirty and, uh, and not that clear. But in fact, you can, uh, simulate, uh, everything the way I did and test it against, uh, some, uh, I don't know, maybe some new attacks you're, uh, looking for. So, thank you very much for attending this talk. And, uh, I hope it was, uh, yeah, cool.


my whole life I've never been able to correctly make an omelet until this past weekend I figured out how to do it so how I do it I'm gonna start out with some butter and then I'm gonna add my vegetables while our vegetables are cooking let's mix up three eggs get them whipped up real good all right our vegetables are done set them off to the side another tablespoon of butter now we add in our eggs now we simply just pick up the side of the egg and let it just kind of seep around the edge just like that all right it hadn't even been a minute now you just simply give it a flip oh add your vegetables add your cheese flip it over and there is your omelet you gotta add the dano's original that's the green top and then we're also gonna add the cheese in there that's the cream top now let's go in for a bite that right there my friends is how you make the perfect omelet


it's another day in the neighborhood get him come on Chevy you're bigger than him fight back don't go easy on him because he's old he started it he gets so angry diesel obviously used to dominate him and now Chevy's gotten so big that he can't beat him anymore and it makes diesel so mad so good morning it's another new day one came around again right on time right when we expected it to here it is overcast again but that's winter you know manitoba actually has a lot of sunshiney days someone was asking me if canada is overcast all the time first of all canada is the second largest landmass on the planet's way of many different climates within our borders but here in manitoba i can speak for us here we actually have about 300 days of sunlight a day a year 300 a day whoa i'm still waking up i haven't had my coffee yet over 300 days of sunlight and sunshine i gotta say that right again no we have sunlight 365 and a quarter days a year we have sunshine clear skies approximately 300 of those days does that make sense so we do get a lot of sunshine it's just this time of year this is pretty much what we're left with to deal with so it gets kind of gloomy but hey at least we're not the west coast right all they get is this all year round and rain and it's not even that cold though i guess it looks kind of cold some of you who aren't used to snow uh this isn't this isn't i'm out here without a face mask on uh because my face won't freeze off i mean like a balaclava not one of those face masks you need to wear into stores i wouldn't wear one of those in my own yard that'd be weird but uh no gloves if this was winter time i wouldn't be out here without gloves anyways welcome to the vlog let's have some fun today see what we can get up to there it is isn't that great isn't that great it's a great part of the day winter acting more like yourself today it's even coughing at all let's get down to your level way down here how's the weather down here bud there's a weather down here i can't even reach into the toy basket it's such a shame they usually tell me when they want to come in there we go look at him he's all into toys now he's getting better hey what do you want what do you want what do you want oh always the bone right always the bone yeah he's gonna carry it in his mouth wow he's gonna try good for you weiner he's feeling a lot better today so that's good we got a couple of errands to run around town today and then we're gonna go see some baby piglets at cousin chris and tanya's farm apparently uh is it a sow a female pig one of their pigs had babies yeah miss massie the pot belly last time it was kathleen's piglets now it's miss massie they were a little early too right uh yeah four days early before we go anywhere need to put a hat on have i told you guys that my hairdresser screwed up badly that's not an actual natural bald spot that is some mistake it's actually it it is thinning but she cut it shorter there by accident right where it was thinning so it looks like I'm balding faster than I am and she said nothing about it yeah and she said nothing yeah and then she forgot a sideburn she was new yeah well all right so we have some errands to run like I've got everything oh we got to move the vehicles around they're flipping around we can only fit our vehicles in single file in our driveway so trying to use the pickup every day for all the errands and stuff if we don't have to got everything you need move this beast out of the way hey I remember to turn the heat up this time I'm in the passenger seat I feel so out of control good thing she's a good driver some people I don't trust as much but her I trust her yeah I married her for her driving skills mostly just because I can cook no it's all for you no it's just your driving skills look at all these little houses here that looks like grandma grandpa's house growing up but it was a different one it was close by though I think it was on the street over our house like goes long back and then if you took it and reversed it and put it lengthwise that was how most houses were built back in the day yeah and they started with these bungalows like these bungalows they're nice pretty standard standard house well that's an 80 bitty one it's about the same size as ours it's true yeah less is more and now they're coming up with all these condos steinback is huge into these condos now I don't think I would be I get the point that you don't have to take care of the yard but you're paying for an apartment it makes sense for like older people with a lot of money but it's expensive as you get older and you want to still own it and like have equity and you know because you can sell it for more than you bought it I get it you don't have a yard to take care of but there's condo fees I don't know much about it honestly I have no idea what's going on I get that but they're really pricey like for basically a glorified apartment yeah like on top of condo fees I don't feel that it's right I feel that people who build condos are gouging people but that's yeah and you can't have pets either well you can and some I believe all right who's going in I just want to give you a little more room even though you're not getting out I'm going in okay get some stamps some coffee filters she's braver than me I never parked between vehicles like this so I'm scared they're going to ding my doors oh you're sitting in here to watch so she's a trusting woman she trusts our neighbors see she got out she just about hit our door but she didn't that's close though excuse me there how to get me a mask found one barely any dog hair bonus that's almost unheard of on anything that we own so other than going to see the piglets this afternoon we don't really have anything planned I do have to drop off a Christmas card with mom that she's going to she's going to get it to grandpa remember a couple of days ago we were wondering if we could bring them a Christmas card mom's gonna bring them I guess all of ours at once I guess it's just easier that way less people have to go into the hospital at the time we still can't go into his room or anything but the nurses I'm guessing will we'll get it to him at least you'll have a friendly face to look at and a little bit of Christmas cheer because this Christmas is going to be really depressing and everybody can use a little bit of a pick me up I think she put me back in the driver's seat people are crazy along this stretch of highway so we're at mom and dad's house right now mom brit is just going to drop off the card for mom she's dropping it off here for mom so that mom can laminate it because when you laminate it you can disinfect it and then bring it in there I don't think she was home so I'll just message her and let it let her know it's in the mailbox okay her isolation is over now yep she must be grocery shopping or who knows exploring enjoying the outdoors yeah it's uh pretty awesome she was in direct contact with grandpa when he had his covid 19 and she didn't she she was careful like I said she was being careful and she didn't pick it up so that's good and grandpa's still on the mend he's uh just recovering a little slower than we'd like him to but he's getting there now at least you'll have some smiling faces some familiar faces to put on his walls I guess something to motivate him to get better because having a bit of a rough time yeah he's always he's older just takes his body longer to fight stuff off I couldn't help it trucker josh has truck withdrawal I had to come look look at this one this one looks fun I'm gonna pull him beside it I'd like to turn this one into a big giant pickup you see there's the front of the cab and you put a big box on the back it's a big giant pickup creative the trucker josh mobile should we do it no we don't have room in the driveway anymore I'm gonna go take a look at it there's a glp enterprises oh yeah they built our fence pretty good yeah it's pretty good service look at this beautiful Chevrolet hey that's gorgeous we have to stop and take a look at this thing windows are so dirty I don't want to touch it right now but classic eh ph phrase cleafelt huh and the sign that says pretty good service is facing the shop so I guess it has to it's to remind them it's not to tell the people on the highway that they got pretty good service it's to remind the people in the shop hey we got pretty good service this is actually a really good shop I'm just messing around with them but martin diesel here this is where my dad takes his truck to get fixed I've had my truck fixed here several times they do really good work this their sign here is a little funny pretty good pretty good not great pretty good and glp fencing I never saw this sign here yet but they are the ones who built our fence around our yard so if you want to get your own fence done there you go they did really good work for us oh it's got an old school manor double plate on it too 92 oh this thing was last registered on the road in 92 that's actually not too long ago for this thing huh oh they got another one over there on the flatbed no sign on that one though I know take a look at it we'll take a look at it real quick real quick this one's a mercury oh that is truly a classic they don't even make them anymore look how narrow these trucks were this was the pickup truck of the past how narrow they were back then eh that's awesome put the steering wheel that's amazing good tiny that cab is I would love to own that fix it up use it as my sunday cruiser but for now this one comes with a wife I like those signs they got on there the Texaco and Chevrolet it's a nice old Tahoe too and what is that Yukon an old Yukon there it's classics I like these old internationals nice looking truck just looks like a beast from here right that grille is just massive that's awesome good not myself I have to come take a look we do do some trucking still uh on my other channel TJV gaming you guys haven't checked that out yet there's a link down below in the description of my video I still want to turn that into a big pickup maybe someday honey hey diesel you were looking at trucks weren't you I can smell them on you they smell diesel man Chevy got his favorite frog can you sit show everybody your favorite toy you sit no not right now no you'll get it you'll get it all right we always get a welcome like a rock star welcome when we come home can you smell the semi trucks on dad yeah I like you can sense it he's got his frog I got my frog unpacked let's go this is kind of a big deal quite the uh quite the stack here got a lot of a lot of cars oh man so look at that all Christmas Christmas so today's the big day when we mail them off meant to do it much sooner but we kept saying tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow it's been on a theme this whole week let's do tomorrow do it tomorrow and then Christmas started cards started to arrive in the mail for us from other people and then she got upset I was very upset I can't believe people beat me to the punch so we got cards going to the US we got cards going all over Canada all the way from Ontario to BC I don't think anyone passed Ontario no we don't have any family in Quebec or east no but uh yeah big time of the year when we mail those off when I was single before I met her I never bothered but it's become a tradition that she mostly takes care of thank god mostly she completely takes care of the whole thing from start to finish but I show up for the picture all we do is take a selfie this year last year we took some pictures on our phone we haven't shown them yet have we oh I don't think we're wrong I don't know I got one right here this is our Christmas card this year that we're sending out spoiler alert for those that we're sending oh yeah spoiler alert that's okay doesn't matter sure that not doesn't matter doesn't matter okay well you know what you're getting surprise surprise yeah so uh next year we don't have a p.o box open uh several of you have asked me if we have a p.o box for you to send us Christmas cards and stuff we don't have any place for you to send that to this year we're gonna probably you know we're gonna probably open one up in spring or next year and that'll be our public p.o box and uh we'll let you guys know just uh make sure you're subscribed to the channel here and hit that bell so you get notified for every video because in one of those videos we don't know which one but one of those videos we're gonna be revealing our new p.o box in the new year hopefully soon hopefully soon yes so on a little behind the scenes tidbit here I've got to re-render my vlog that you guys watched yesterday for me I'm just I just had it ready to know it's about to release it and the audio didn't come through on it so I have to redo it and that takes about an hour and a half for it to render and then I have to upload it and put the thumbnail on it and release it to you so yesterday's vlog got up a little late for you guys if you're wondering why that's why something on my computer here messed up I mean it was probably me but I'm gonna blame the computer either way it was the computer's fault the vlog was late yesterday Frank what's your title gonna be for today I mean you're moving through the ranks like crazy man you don't want to talk about it doesn't want to talk to me lowly peasant yesterday you were frank the great you've been commander-in-chief I don't know man I don't know about you his stories keep getting wilder and wilder I don't know if I can believe all of them you have a lot of stories from the war man it's crazy he's in the great milk bone war he's a seasoned veteran several deployments from what I've heard I mean every day he has a new story for us but starting to think he might be making them up all right guys we're gonna go see some little baby pigs okay Chevy you're in charge I put Chevy in charge that's probably wise he's the most mature out of all of them ain't that the truth I'm probably gonna need this too so I'm gonna bring that just in case just in case it's an outdoors event all right knock the door let's go see some piglets at the farm we're just gonna call it the farm rocking kettle acres don't forget to go check out country chris on youtube I'll try to remember to make sure to add that link down below in the description again I did in the last video but I did it a little late darn it Josh I know I know but rocking kettle acres on youtube country chris that's my cousin this is his farm they are some of our favoritist people the favoritist people yes I don't use that word lightly it's a big it's a big term to throw around let's go see some goats piglets and piglets yes oh oh oh oh I'm gonna need this hat I'm gonna need this hat it's very important oh there they are they're there are they're going Elvis mine don't look good look at me look at this side you're looking you're looking a lot now look at this side look at the back oh it's okay it's okay it's okay don't be scared she I thought she this one's a look how tiny it is we don't know we have to wait for it to decide 2020 piglets it's okay stop squirming I don't want you to fall no it's okay look at that oh you're so warm you were obviously snuggling with mom okay stop it you're fine there's a mama down there it's a big mama well looks big compared to the piglets but sexy pretty small still hello hello can I touch you yeah this is cowboy Budweiser's the dark brown one right this one's Budweiser yeah he looks like let's look at if you pour Budweiser in a mug oh you get the white frothy top and you get that that that blonde body yeah right there that is a Budweiser right there yeah it's like a mug of beer why are you being a snob budweiser turn around so this is country chris cousin chris rocking kettle acres i'll i'll leave the link down below in the description he has a few videos up on youtube i hear he's putting up another one soon yes hopefully tonight this is their uh their farm here and that was galaxy okay that's galaxy that that i thought was budweiser last time we were here yeah she's not okay i just take care of her she's just boarded here okay you're good looking though look at you guys yeah i just got cowboy like two months ago and he's 15 pretty much untrained this here it's cowboy untrained yeah so he's he's passed his prime he's got no training on him wow well he's pretty well behaved i mean he's not breaking stuff down yeah i know he's pretty good i i've done some work with him since he got here but he needs a lot of work he's got very he's got huge trust issues oh yeah oh budweiser otherwise it's trying to hog all the attention all right so we just returned does anybody care that i'm home or are you just excited that she's home i think they just care that i got pooped on by a baby piglet that's me oh yeah piggy poo hey frankie hey man good to see you no hey diesel hey did you miss me you missed me oh you missed me thanks thanks for the acknowledgement i'm here to good boy hey waiter how you doing buddy oh you're acknowledging me that was nice thank you well just because you were coming this way i see pretty much chevy hey have you noticed i'm here yet chevy look i'm here hi no i'm important too i know you are thanks frank i appreciate that got a little sniff wonder what we're gonna name you tomorrow got any more stories for us you were frank the magnificent yesterday were you happy with that title he's never quite happy he always wants more it's never enough before you know what you'll be claiming to be god emperor of the solar system and galaxy and i know his stories keep getting wilder and wilder he's a good boy so it's fun going out to see the little piglets we buy our eggs from them there they got a whole bunch of free range hens because you'd call them laying chickens laying hens right laying hens and so we get farm fresh eggs all the time it's nice to be able to go pretty much just down the road and pick those up and fresher than anything you get at the supermarket and much better too anyways i'm gonna end this here if you want to check out their channel he hasn't uh posted much to his channel uh recently it's called rocking kettle acres i'll leave the link down below in the description for you he says that he has plans in the near future to start adding more content to it but they own that farm there and i'm sure they would love to have you as company in their channel as well if you want to go subscribe to them there i also have a link to my second channel if you're into gaming and stuff down below in the description of this video as well go check me out there and subscribe there if you want to you know the deal don't forget to subscribe to this channel the most important one this is my main channel i make daily vlogs on here and we'll see you again here tomorrow make sure you subscribe so you don't miss it who knows what we'll get up to and who knows what this guy is going to claim he is tomorrow


My presentation is just seeking to highlight some of the issues that are probably relevant to this session, which is taxing the digital economy, what does the future hold? It builds on a number of the earlier presentations and comments that are made. As has been outlined, the current tax environment for the digital economy is one of immense scrutiny. It's a major element of all economies, and given the immense scrutiny, it's clear that the current tax rules may not be adequate to address the tax matters that arise in the digital economy. In particular, how activities carried on in the remote fashion are taxed, and how indirect taxes on principally business to consumers are dealt with in particular areas or matters of concern. So the future, what does the future hold? It's clear that there's going to be a change in the tax environment that applies to the digital economy going forward. At present, there's uncertainty as to the extent and impact of the change. As we've seen earlier, the BIP project is ongoing, and it will be the end of next year before we have the final reports, and even then there will be a question of how those are going to be implemented. It, based on the comments that have been made so far, it looks as if new approaches will be taken in particular in relation to taxing the digital business in a number of areas. And these are likely to have an impact on how business may be undertaken in the digital economy. Clearly, the current environment we're dealing with is going to change, how that impacts on how people will actually engage in business is something that remains open. It looks as if there will be a potential for a higher tax burden. The reason for that is it's clear that some of the changes that are proposed will result in profits being allocated in different places, and thus higher tax rates may very well apply. In addition, as you've heard before, the key issue in relation to profits not being taxed is one which has been focused on, and that is likely going to increase the tax burden for some of the businesses in this space. In addition, some of the proposals as have been highlighted will result in additional administration being undertaken by companies to provide additional information to tax authorities so that they can fully consider the way businesses are structured. The current rules that apply in international tax, which rely on the tax treaties based on the OECD model convention, typically do not result in tax being paid where a person doesn't have a physical presence in the country in which they're dealing with. And thus the current definition of PE as has been outlined may not be fully appropriate for the digital economy. It is possible for companies to seek to minimize the taxable presence in which they operate in, and the media focus that we've seen recently is tended to be on operations which have been structured to facilitate that. So very often you'll see comments being made of how particular businesses that have operations in Ireland book most of their profits here, because very often the other markets they're dealing, they do not have physical presences there. And under the terms of the double tax agreements, they're not liable to tax those jurisdictions. In addition, a major part of the profit that now arises in the digital economy and in the wider economy relates to intellectual property. An intellectual property is an asset that can be moved. It doesn't necessarily have to be located in a particular jurisdiction. And by moving the intellectual property, people can seek to achieve a particular tax result. In addition, as we've seen with the way e-commerce has evolved, there can be a difficulty in determining where people are actually acquiring goods, and according to how value-added tax or general sales taxes have to be dealt with. An interesting comment from one of the reports that I'll be referring to later on the digital economy notes that the digital economy itself doesn't create unique BEPS issues. But some of its features can exacerbate the BEPS risks themselves. So of itself, the digital economy is not something that's a direct focus for BEPS. But just the nature of some of the activities that are carried out means that some of the other matters that are a focus of BEPS are of particular relevance to businesses in the digital economy. I think when we're looking at this particular space, it is worth noting, and this has been referred to before, that a lot of the structures that are in place have come about because of domestic tax rules and particular jurisdictions. And it is the case that most countries, if they have a domestic tax regime that will confer some benefit, are quite happy for that tax regime to be used. Notwithstanding the impact it may have on other countries. I think one of the interesting things in the whole BEPS project and the approach that's now being undertaken is that most countries or all the countries that are partaking have had to come to the table on the basis that they are all going to address particular issues in their own tax regime and rules going forward. And it will be interesting to see when BEPS is adopted, to what extent the domestic rules in particular countries will end up being changed. So the BEPS, as people will be aware, is the main driver to change in this particular area. Having said that, it is interesting again to note from the document in the digital economy the following comments. And that is that they do acknowledge that the ability to maintain some level of business connection with a country without being subject to tax on business profits earned from sources within that country is a result of particular policy choices reflected in domestic laws and relevant double tax treaties and is not in and of itself a BEPS issue. So a lot of the structures that are subject to criticism about present don't derive from BEPS per se. It arises from the existing tax treaty and the domestic rules that are applied in a particular country. And then in relation to a local subsidiary or a permit establishment that generates little profits, where these structures accurately reflect the functions performed in each jurisdiction, the mere fact that business functions needed to conduct business in a particular country may be more limited in one type of business than in another does not raise BEPS in and of itself. And the key message here is that even after BEPS is finished, it is still likely that for certain jurisdictions, they may not be looking at a situation where there's a major amount of additional profit that would be allocated to those jurisdictions. That the key issue that is still accepted is that there must be real economic activity carried out in the jurisdiction to justify profits being allocated there. So as people, I'm sure aware, BEPS action plan provides for 15 actions to be finalized in three phases. We've already had the first set of reports in 2014, another set due in 2015, and final set in December 2015. These are some of the recommendations from the first set of reports that the key ones to the digital economy are primarily to do with recommendations regarding design of domestic tax treaty measures to prevent abusive treaties, changes in the transfer pricing rules in relation to intangibles, and changes to transfer pricing rules in relation to documentation requirements. The other reports have some impact, but they're the main ones. In relation to 2015 reports, a number of these are additional reports on similar areas. Again, the key again is to do with the permit establishment status, and also in relation to the transfer pricing rules in relation to risks and capital and other high risk transactions. And the final set of reports, again, focus in on transfer pricing rules to limit base erosion, the interest deductions, and other financial payments, and revision of existing criteria to counter harmful tax practices more effectively. So the initial action number one on BEPS was to have a report carried out addressing the tax challenges of the digital economy, and as I mentioned, Mary was part of the panel that prepared that report. The conclusions of that report did not recommend a separate digital economy tax regime. The expectation is that the digital economy is part of the normal economic activities that are carried out, and so it should be taxed under the existing tax regime that would apply to other activities. The report does acknowledge that digital economy does not generate unique BEPS issues, but some of its key features exacerbate BEPS risks, and BEPS risk will be addressed in the context of the BEPS project itself. It notes the intention to restore taxing rights at a level of both market jurisdiction and the jurisdiction of the ultimate payment apparent. It also identifies a number of specific issues that arise from the digital economy that warrant attention from a tax perspective. The key one is probably that core activities cannot inappropriately benefit from an exception to PE status or artificial arrangements in relation to sale of goods and services. And this is a key issue that's likely to come up in the context of the digital economy where businesses that currently are able to successfully trade in other countries without having a taxable presence there, the expectation is that that will change. It also identifies the importance of intangibles, the use of data and the spread of global value chains and their impact on transfer pricing. Possibly the possible need to adapt CFC rules for the digital economy. CFC rules, which are controlled foreign company rules, typically are applied at the jurisdiction of a parent entity to attribute back profits, which may be earned elsewhere. So again, in relation to some of these proposals, they do come back to domestic rules in home country jurisdictions being adopted or applied in order to bring about a particular tax result. And finally, it's noted that there can be particular issues to do at VAT in relation to either end consumers or bodies that are exempt where VAT is a cost, that there can be issues arise from the provision of services to such entities in the digital economy space. So the report also notes that there are broader tax challenges that need to be considered in a wider forum. Issues related to the nexus, what should a company's connection to a particular country or market be? Data, how should data be treated in the context of tax? Is the acquisition of data, should that be looked on as an activity even if it's not subject to a payment? Characterization of particular matters for direct tax purposes? That on business to consumer issues. And there is going to be a supplementary report due in these issues by December 2015. So as I've indicated, the report suggests that taxation in the market jurisdiction should be restored by preventing treaty abuse and preventing artificial avoidance of the PE status. Taxation in the ultimate residence jurisdiction should be restored by strengthening CFC rules. Market and residence taxation should be restored by neutralizing the effects of hybrid mismatch arrangements and by limiting base erosion via interest deductions and other financial payments and by countering harmful tax practices more effectively. And then seek to have transfer pricing outcomes in line with value creation. As an overall summary, people can see that there's a focus here on changing the permit establishment rules that are in the treaty so that they more effectively apply to the digital economy. Having a greater focus on transfer pricing to ensure that profits are correctly allocated. And finally then considering abuse of tax treaties to ensure that tax treaties cannot result in no tax arising in particular circumstances. In addition to the matters identified in the report in the digital economy, the other matters that are included in the BEPS reports which may impact our measures to counter a harmful tax practices, tax treaty measures to prevent abuse of tax treaties. And as people may be aware, there's a proposal that a limitation of benefit laws similar to those used in most U.S. treaties should be introduced into the general OECD treaties. Changes to transfer pricing rules in relation to intangibles in relation to documentation requirements. Again, as was noted earlier, in order to try to ensure that particular tax practices are identified by tax authorities, there's proposals that there should be ongoing information provision to all jurisdictions that companies may be engaged in in relation to transfer pricing, what the structures are and what they actually do in those particular countries. And new rules to limit base erosion. That's new rules to deal with the allocation of profits away from particular jurisdictions. So the position going forward which will be relevant to digital economy is that there are major changes on the way. So for existing businesses, it is likely that their tax profile will change as and when these measures are adopted. Based on the reports, we can see the direction things are moving in, but where we'll end up is not clear. Because again, as has been indicated, while these measures may be adopted at OECD level, the question will then be how they'll be implemented in particular countries. The core challenge will be the resolution of how taxing rights are allocated to resident countries and source market countries. There's uncertainty in how profits related to intellectual property may be impacted. As has been indicated, it's a very difficult area. And how much profit should relate to intellectual property or some of the arrangements that are currently in place as to who carries risks, whether they're acceptable, is something that's still open to discussion in the base. And there's clearly going to be an increase in the administrative burden for businesses in this space. Where are we going to end up? As I said, it's uncertain. The reports give a fairly good indication as to the direction we're going in. It's likely that resident countries will be allocated corporate taxing rights with source countries having a local taxable presence recognized for certain core activities and for collecting VAT. It's not clear what the impact of the limitation of benefit clause will be. Like where people have encountered this dealing with the US, you tend to have to deal with the rules that are present in the US and whatever country you're dealing with. Here, it's likely that you'll have to deal with the particular provisions in the context of every country you deal with, where there may be different meanings attributed to matters such as active conduct of business in order to determine whether you can avail of a treaty or not. As I say, the key will be how matters will be addressed by individual countries. What issues will arise for existing operators? Because as we've noted, we've been quite successful in this space. So for existing companies that are facing these matters, what issues arise? Well, there could be a possible requirement to alter existing arrangements to minimize the increased administrative or tax burden. The existing arrangements that people have put in place have been by reference to what the current rules are. To the extent the rules change, there are likely to be economic drivers as to why people might seek to change some of their arrangements. There may be tax and other costs associated with the alterations. So there may be direct tax where existing contractual arrangements have to be altered. There may be direct tax costs where operations need to be transferred. And there may be an impact on in-country operations that people actually have. People may actually form a view as to whether they may actually want to increase the presence in a country or may actually want to reduce the presence in the country. There would be a requirement for new systems to address the increased administrative burden that it looks likely to arise. What will be the impact of this in Ireland? Well, it's clear that there would be some impact because for some of the companies here, their tax profile is clearly going to change. As I say, the key is going to be in what will ultimately be agreed. As a small open economy, you wouldn't anticipate this having a major impact on the domestic base. However, for Irish companies that are looking to engage in international markets, these new rules and presence and requirements will increase both the administrative burden and also increase the likelihood that they'll end up with profits being taxed elsewhere. There is quite likely to be an impact on the existing supply chains the way people do business and an increase in administrative burden for both revenue and for business because there's going to be a lot more information provided. In the context of Ireland, recent budget, we have had the minister set out the roadmap, which is clearly showing, if you like, what Ireland itself expects to have on the table going forward, that the key elements there were a reputation, the regime and rate. And as Mark has indicated, the fact that the rate is being reaffirmed is something that's positive. Businesses don't like dealing with change. They like to have a certainty as to what the position is going forward. The proposed introduction of the knowledge box is likely to be key in relation to the offering that's going forward. Risks and concerns. There's a concern that the outcome of BEPS project may go further than addressing the issue of profit shifting based on erosion. As was mentioned earlier, if one looks at some of the other comments that have been made, that the project is very often one gets the impression that the project is not so much about addressing these particular issues as potentially changing where people end up having to pay tax. So there's an acknowledgement in the papers that the digital economy, IP can be responsible for mostly economic value created. And the whole issue as to how IP will be taxed going forward is an open issue, so it's a risk and concern for businesses. As has been flagged earlier, the whole issue as to how return and capital should be taxed and how it should be reflected in international operations is an issue that is still open and gives rise to risks and concerns. And there's going to be a major increase in the administrative burden to be carried out by existing entities in relation to information to be provided. But all of this is in the context of, if you like, the same profit pool. So we have all these additional costs arising. It's the same profit pool. So in relation to the comment made earlier as to whether treasures will be net beneficiaries under this, clearly there's going to be some losers in the context of everything. So that's just to lead into our conversation. Thank you.


Welcome back. I am Jason Leduc from evil genius leadership consultants This is geeks are sexy fourth fried in a month talking about business and how to be successful here in Las Vegas We're back with Emily Emily Wilson of Emily Wilson photography. We've talked about all kinds of things We were talking about drones before it turns out producer Nick knows a little bit about drones So he was given a given some advice and they were swapping some stories Well, we were on the break before I before I throw it out to you guys from now I'm gonna ask producer Nick for some help so so but that's that's my mistake that I should have done that myself so Really what your job is about in my opinion is about sharing stories and sharing Experiences what are the kinds your kinds of things? You're thinking about when you're behind the camera about how you're gonna share this experience and make this experience connect with People you may not even know we're gonna see it, right? So I'm always looking for the moment of why would somebody care about this so I'm trying to find that and Then why somebody would care about it and then You know is this is this perspective into this person this window of this world Yeah, I don't know, you know, I with the whether it's boxers or racers or Justice Diglett who I Was profiling her at work, you know, I just you just have a feeling about it's an intuition Intuition you develop over time. It's not it's not something you're born with I would guess it's something you develop over time of There's something special about this person there. There's a There's a why would someone care about this and and and it's hard to describe You know given given some time and and a couple of drinks You probably sit down and write out a list of these are really like if I really had to think about it These are the things I'm looking for right if you have if someone said you got to teach a class on this You could do it, but but it's something you develop over time as a photographer as an artist It's not something that that not very many people are born with I would say I would guess well and you have to be a good listener So, you know, you're a good listener and then patient so You have to get somebody's build that trust so that You can kind of see that deeper story and you can photograph You know in places where they are where they just think it's mundane but it's actually a moment that You're seeing in a different way and that you realize other people can connect to it and Right, and you just it's just sort of that like oh wow. Okay. Yeah. I'm I'm not the only one you know that is you know Doing it this way making these choices and you know this person is It's It's been successful at it and you know, okay, let me just stay the course So cool, um, I Thought of a question while you were talking about that We talked about lighting a little bit earlier. We talked about trying to capture that perfect moment, right?  We've had to say it's not right today. We got to come back tomorrow Well, unfortunately because I have photographed people and their schedules are The the main thing that I'm working around No, I can't go back, but I can you know what I will say and I think about every shoot is Okay, I'm just gonna take a couple more and then I take and then we're like working 10 more minutes Like when I say, okay, we're about done like just gonna take it like no, we're actually not Because I have a lot more work to do.  What have we covered? We covered everything You know, if if I'm able to I'll check the notes that I've made about what I want to you know what I want to capture in this shoot and You know, I always want to go above and beyond what an assignment is what a job is and So I just really will keep shooting until either the lights gone You know or are they just can't do anymore or right right or it's just Yeah, or the moment is gone. Okay. Do you ever have trouble? Because we're all conscious for ourselves and as you ever have trouble with your subjects Especially like portraiture kind of stuff getting them to relax and really be themselves. How do you deal with that? Absolutely? So my favorite thing to do is to you know, when I walk in to To a location For a shoot, you know, I never walk in with my camera. I never I just I walk in I'm not holding anything and I really try to just engage with the person on a human level You know, not necessarily talking about the weather, but you know, just really just putting aside any sort of big personality or Whether it's a big personality or whether it's somebody that's really nervous, you know If I just if I walk in not as somebody who's gonna immediately start taking pictures But it's just another person who is like Down to earth. I'm easy to talk to I really do, you know, and and with the stuff that I do I really do care about meeting the people that I do and Whether that is an assignment that's or or a personal project. So Yeah, I always want my You know my genuine interest in What we're doing to come out Very cool. I imagine sometimes the person paying you to take the pictures is not the person You're taking the picture of and that that can lead to some of that sometimes. Yeah Yeah, I mean, I just yeah, I always just try to connect Very cool, let's shift into a little bit of a business mode since this is a business show after all What's a tough decision you had to make with your business and how did you work your way through that? Well, you know Like you said how we met we met At our friends that Steve's hi Steve and Alex. I saw you I didn't forget I didn't forget about you there See we met at a think global event and you know, so think global really helped me Edit out the stuff that I didn't want to shoot which meant Pushing to the side clients that were making a request that I didn't want to do I get it I've been there. Yeah, and so yeah, I think you know some of the hardest stuff is is just is not Doing the things that are You know that happened every day in Las Vegas, you know, you could be You know, you could be such, you know a So busy doing all kinds of stuff that you don't want to do For sure. Yeah, so so really honing in on what it is That drives you What keeps you passionate? in in those moments where It's a 10-hour day and then you have to turn around a quick edit for the client that night You know when you get home, it's a 15-hour day Yeah, you have to write you have to love what you do That's awesome So speaking of pushing the things to the side that we don't want to do and bring it in the things you do want to do What's coming up for you? What are the projects you're excited about working on for the next few months? So I've got some stuff going on with the boxing some some friends that have Where amateurs are turning pro and they're having some big fights So I'm gonna try and just really work and get those shots outside of the gym We've got some really cool stuff coming first of the year With meow wolf. Do you know meow? I don't They're out of Santa Fe. They do immersive art Okay experiences and so they're gonna be bringing something to Las Vegas next year and they've contacted me about Documenting a lot of the artists that could they're gonna commission and their process and their community Engagement that they're gonna have so super excited about that sounds exciting. Yeah Yeah, and then I've got I've got my list of entrepreneurs that I'm gonna tell their stories. That's great out there. We need that here in Las Vegas Yeah, so and all of that just keeps me moving in the direction that then assignments come that Compliment that all right. So before we go we're wrapping it up But who are you looking to connect to in the Las Vegas community? Oh my goodness. I told you I don't always use the ones in the sheet. I come up with stuff as we go So I did a few months ago. I started it did some behind-the-scenes stuff for UFC Okay, and that was incredible. So I want to do more of it I think they just haven't figured out what to do with it. Okay. I'm like I want to do everything But when they're in the octagon, okay All right, Dana White if you're watching yeah, or somebody who knows him because I don't yeah I just you know what it really is anybody who is looking to get that Behind-the-scenes look one of the things that I love about that work is my ability to sort of You know chameleon into the environment and that they forget that I'm there So it's very cool. That's a that's not always the case. So so it's great So tell us one more time tell UFC how they can find you so you can come do this behind-the-scenes stuff for them That's right. So Emily Wilson photography comm and on Instagram EW photo All right, great. Well, thank you so much for being here today Emily Thank you for rolling with the punches and doing the whole show with me today So it was my pleasure as well. This was a lot of fun. I'm Jason Laduke. This is geeks are sexy I'm from evil genius leadership consultant. So check us out and we will see you next month I don't remember the date look it up. Be back here for Friday next month. The future is out there


The Linux Foundation has come out with its latest open source jobs report. This report plays a very important role in understanding the demand for open source talent and trends among open source professionals. To deep dive into this 2020 report today we have with us once again, Clyde C. Prasad, SVP and GM of Training and Certification at the Linux Foundation. Clyde, it's nice to have you again on the show. Very soft, no thanks for having me. As I was saying, this report plays a very important role but I want to hear your perspective because you lead this effort. What is the importance of this report? Not only for the open source ecosystem but companies outside of the open source ecosystem because today almost everybody is leveraging open source in one capacity or the other. Yes, one of the things that we realized several years ago is that there's a lot of data around general employment reports and a fair few around IT and technology in general but there was really this gap when it comes to what's happening on open source talent and we kept hearing anecdotally that people can't hire, can't find enough talent. And so what we wanted to do was put a really clear spotlight on what's going on specifically when it comes to the talent pool around open source to be able to share with the market a sort of non anecdotal state of the word but also to be able to inform our own strategy and our own mission which is to try to ensure not just that there's fantastic code coming out of open source projects but also that there is enough talent to implement and use it as code. What are some of the key highlights of this report? A couple of things. One is the rise of DevOps skills. I think everybody knows cloud is hot. It's been that way for a while but you know the companion piece to that around DevOps and the importance of understanding CI CD pipelines and also the cultural difference of working in that sort of continuous delivery. The rise of that I think is something that maybe most people are not quite as aware of. The second thing I would highlight is that there was a lot of questions about what's happening to tech hiring in response to the COVID pandemic. We have some answers for that that says that although hiring slowed down it did not slow down nearly as much as people might have worried at the outset and in fact is now accelerating. And the top level thing which is continuing to be the case is just we still don't have enough open source talent so the urgency of finding new ways to bring talent into the market continues to be something that should be front and center for all of us. What are the skills that are kind of not only most in demand but also hardest to find? So that is like a chicken and egg solution right? Yeah you know there are obviously cloud skills right so there are a lot of companies smaller companies more conservative companies the pandemic has pushed them to be much more active on the cloud and what that's done is raise the stakes in terms of people who are familiar with cloud native development, active architecture, Kubernetes orchestration and then what does the ICT pipelines look like in a cloud world because obviously there are some changes there when you're running that sort of infrastructure. So those interwoven skill sets right and of course sitting underneath all of that is what operating system does the cloud run on and I think we all know now that the vast vast 98 plus percent of instances are running on Linux and so you have this tiered approach where understanding some basic Linux competence is a baseline and then you're building on top of that with looking for cloud native development, cloud native orchestration and then what does the ICT pipelines look like to bring that to life? In addition to just coming out with this report do you have any kind of advice or suggestions to the hiring managers what can they do to attract top developers or talent to their organizations because there is heavy demands everybody wants them so. Right well you know so some of the things actually have happened in response to the pandemic right so one of the trends we saw last year was people wanting the flexibility to be able to work from home and of course now we all work from home so that helps but what came out in the report that was really interesting is that more and more talent managers are realizing that you don't just have to go externally for talent that you can in fact upscale people who are currently in your organization so we are seeing the data suggests that a lot more people are waking up and realizing that cloning LinkedIn for your next hire is a zero-sum game because other people are doing the same and they're starting to invest more in training especially online training they're starting to invest more in certifications for their employees and just in general they're starting to be much more proactive in looking at the existing internal talent pool and finding ways to provide new opportunities for development and of course that also comes with new job opportunities for the existing employee base and I just want to talk a little more about COVID-19 as well a couple of things are happening with COVID-19 of course it is also a lot of companies are scaling down they don't you know they are cutting budgets and everything at the same time since people are able to work remotely you don't have to relocate yourself or you don't have to find talent in the same area you know you have access to almost everybody wherever they are so how has COVID-19 affected the the hiring process itself in terms of while they do have to scale down some to some extent the beauty is I mean I should not say that but the beauty is that the word that we are living in is all powered by cloud eddy technology without that we would not be getting food to or I mean all the services or all the purchase that I was making even my Indian grocery they are they now have a website I can just go and place or it was not the case earlier so cloud is actually enabled companies to stay in business so that also means that you do need developer and all those talents to keep those businesses running at the same time you have advantage of not having to relocate so talk a bit about it yeah that's true I think they and it all does tie together right so as people have been forced to use the cloud more I had the same experience you did right my local Chinese restaurant suddenly developed a website and ordering kids but it is that they did not previously have so you have this broader footprint of businesses you know the old saw about every business is now an e-commerce business it is true right so there is this broader footprint and on the flip side of it you also have people who are now having to work from home where they maybe didn't use to either for practical or maybe cultural reasons within the company and that also then intersects with the the sort of cultural change and the cultural norms of CICD and DevOps right and so this idea that you have to be in person together versus this idea that you have a well documented pipeline and everybody can contribute to that pipeline and do their commits and do their polls that whole tooling ecosystem of cloud native and DevOps has actually made it easier and I would argue possible to do what's happened and what we've seen over the past several months which is people being productive working from home working with people they haven't worked with before onboarding new team members and being able to get them provisioned with the right access and upscaled on the right systems yeah it's all already come together there's you know we have in my view we have been lucky that we've got the technology infrastructure that we have today because I don't know that we would have been able to stay as productive and focused in a shift to certain shifts to remote work if we were trying to do this even five years ago and I'm a good example of that because I have been working from home ever since you know I moved out of India what I realized was that I work when I feel that I'm most productive instead of hey you know I have clocked at 9am and I have to clock out at 5pm I have to sit there and do something it doesn't matter how I feel and then sometimes you know a lot of personal issues also somebody is sick in the family so your mind is there but you have to come to office but with you know remote working you just you know I think remote working offers the best you know balance between work and life it is actually more challenging because you may end up working all the time but still it offers a better balance now earlier you're talking about that you don't have to go out to hire people you can also internally you can train people so when we look at organizations and they look at all these new you know cloud native technologies and they want to retain or prepare their own workforce what resources are available there especially from the Linux foundation because you know the training is their certification is there so that they can better equip their own workforce when there is already a shortage of a lot of talent yeah it's a good question Swapna you know from a practical perspective the portfolio that we have provided which is very heavily focused on self-paced e-learning that you take online but at the same time very skills based right so very lab intensive online training because ultimately what do you care about as a colleague or as a hiring manager it's not whether they check the box and they have a certificate saying they completed a course what you care about is the skills right they actually develop those skills and so we've got a pretty big portfolio a very hands-on e-learning self-paced e-learning programs to help people develop the skills and then we've continued to build our portfolio of performance based certification exams so this is not your grandad's it can answer out of our lineup right these are live systems with variable questions and you have to demonstrate your skills under the pressure of time under the pressure of being propped by an independent person I think that one-two punch of really focusing on skills you know I joke with people all the time we get you know we get feedback sometimes that our courses aren't don't have enough video and I say well true because we're not trying to entertain you we're trying to develop skills and the way you develop skills is not by staring at a screen and listening to a video the way you develop skills is by doing a lab and so we've got a very lab centric mindset in terms of the training side of it and that carries on into the certification side of it where it's all about performance like show that you can do the work take the time to develop the skills because that's what your colleagues are going to be looking for that's what your employers are going to be looking for and that's what's going to benefit you as an individual is to be able to have that broader skillset and to be able to do that in a remote way and not have to rely on a senior trainer coming on the site and working with you I think that's going to be the new normal so now the advantage is that you know because of this crisis is that people are realizing that they don't have to move they can actually they can move to the place ideal place that we wanted to live it could be a big ranch it could be a beach and they can work for companies who are operating in Silicon Valley which also means you can also cross national boundaries you can get the the whole idea of open source is the best and the brightest people from around the globe so how do you enable these people because people come from different cultural background different educational background different languages so do you also help them in respect of where they're coming from so whether it's internationalizing or supporting different languages so people can get trained so yes as LF training we do that so we have obviously the online format helps right because it's truly available 24-7 globally in nights and weekends so that really has expanded the footprint of what we're able to do and who we are able to reach we've also done some translations particularly for the certification exams to make those available in languages that we know folks may not otherwise be comfortable with so for Japan and for China for instance what we're trying to do is mirror what we're seeing in the workforce the shift towards more remote work has actually opened up the pipeline when you think about hiring and talent management if you think about somebody who's in the US or in Western Europe your pool is not as limited you really can reach out to this global pool of talent in non-traditional markets and so we've seen sectors get hard right obviously India was hard for a lot of work shifted there, there's a ton of stuff happening in Eastern Europe now but it really is global right we've got folks on our team in South America being super productive in this new remote way of working and I think that's becoming more and more typical which is that folks are able because of the rise of cloud native because of the rise of this sort of collaborative DevOps mindset are able to collaborate with regions across countries across time zones much more effectively than they ever have before awesome, Clyde thank you so much for talking to me today about not only this report but also how to help you know hiring managers not only get more talent but also you know retrain their own employees and I look forward to talking to you again thank you it's always a pleasure to be with you Swap thank you