Hi, it's Bridget. Welcome to Above Life Channel. The purpose here is to inspire your spirit and to fill you with hope today. I'm popping in for a live stream. I told you I was going to do that. I had some surprises up my sleeves for the month of December. Things a little bit different than maybe what we normally do. Today is Monday, December 23rd. You can watch this particular live stream at any point in time and it will be applicable to you. It's not just for the holidays, but the topic today, I actually chose a topic to channel in and fill in the energy of and to share that with you, hopefully to give you some inspiration for your spirit today and a bit of a booster. Pick me up if you need that. The topic is being empty. That's what we're going to have a chat about. Being empty and finding hope. So I'm going to tell you right away that I'm going to be clear in my throat in this video because I have a bit of a cold. There you go. So if that annoys you, then don't watch. Don't listen. So I'm drinking my hot water with my awesome Elvis mug that I got from one of you. So thank you for that. Cheers. All right, we're going to try to bring in some positive energy for all of us to enjoy, to wrap ourselves in. We're going to have a nice conversation, hopefully today here. Let's see. I'm going to just update my channel. I'm going to watch on my laptop so that I can chat with you eventually. So let's see. Let's give a few moments here for those of you who are jumping into the live stream. I think I'm right on time. Oh yeah, I'm just about right on time. All right. So speaking of gifts, I mentioned my beautiful Elvis mug. I love those two guys. This is like so awesome. I mean, really check it out. It's actually from Graceland. So one of you sent it to me. Thank you. I actually just got this in a mail the other day from a really wonderful Disney princess friend of mine. It's the mini bows. I love it. I'm super jacked out though for Christmas. I love the holiday and so I have like a whole bunch of attire that's holiday wear. So when I went to Disney recently for my vacation, I bought these awesome leggings. You see them there like Mickey Mouse leggings. And then I got these great socks too, which I'm not going to show you my socks because I'm not a contortionist. I got these great socks for my husband in this like gift box thing. It's the yummiest time of year 12 days of socks from Disney. So we were there. He snuck this in his suitcase and he brought it home and gave it to me. So I've been every day I've been ripping open socks. I've had a new pair of socks every day that I have to do with Disney World and treats and that's kind of been helping me stay sane. Something fun for me to do because I'm a mom of four. I got a busy household and everybody's home now. Yeah, everybody's home. I got two kids, two teenagers, a sleep and one at the ski slopes and one elementary schooler who is playing video games right now. So yeah, it's a full it's a full time. All right. So let me just take a peek here. I'm going to click in being empty and finding hope. All right. Oh, I'm seeing you guys pop up here already. Going to say hi to some of you. Hi, Trish. Oh, Tish. I'm sorry. Hi, Tish. Nice to see you. Mariah, Mackie, Alyssa. Hi, you guys. Nice to see you. Okay. So let's have a conversation, shall we? I thought it was a really good idea to jump in, especially tomorrow's Christmas Eve. Next day is Christmas. You guys, I'm sure some of you are stuck at work. Some of you are probably putting off grocery shopping.  Because I had so many paper cuts from wrapping gifts, and usually I don't wrap the gifts. Usually my husband does. But as you may have seen in one of my vlogs on my fairy grasshopper channel, I was wrapping the gifts this year. So kind of pacing myself. So I don't have a bunch now. So that's good. No last minute stuff here. But you might. So if you are, I hope this surprise live stream finds you well, or maybe gives you something else to focus on or think about besides, did I get enough of those pretzel mix things that I need? Or oh, geez, did I remember? Where did I put that gift card? I know I have a gift card. Kind of crazy and chaotic. Okay. Hoping there's some more of you popping in. Hi, Linda. Nice to see you. And let's see who else do I have. Leah is in here. Or Leah. I think it's Leigh. Christine. Sweet, strong woman. Nice to see you. Ailee. Good morning. Out to get stocking stuff. Or is Alyssa? Yeah, totally relate. Uh-huh. All right, exactly. All right, you guys. All right. I'm going to kind of connect and then just share some positive energy with you. Share this talk topic with you and use the energy of spirit to help share some insight, some hope to perhaps shift some of our perspectives. Okay. Because this time of year, like we just had solstice and where I live in the northern hemisphere, it's winter. It was the first day of winter. And I really had an avoidance to it, you guys. Like I didn't do my solstice stuff that I usually do. It's the day of the year that's really for introspection or for, how do I describe this? It's really a day usually that's really slow, has a lot of rest energy, a lot of fatigue, tiredness for me. Anyway, this is how I experience it. You might experience it differently. And it's a push for me to unplug, disconnect and go within. Not because I need to get some insight or get some guidance or get some clarity for myself, but just for the very matter of fact of unplugging from other people's energy and needs and even my work and just being with myself, that's what it is. That's what the solstice energy means to me, be with myself. And it's hard for me to do that because it means calming down, quieting down and not running to the store to get that extra stocking stuff or not stressing out about wrapping gifts, not stressing out about people coming over and how clean the house is. And if my kid isn't going to clean his room, so what? Really? In the grand scheme of things, so what? We have a roof over our heads, we have food on our table. If the room isn't clean, is that the end of the world? No. No. So it's like misguided stress, right? Which detracts or distracts us from this beautiful gift of this time because the time is the point. It's a pause. It's a pause. So right before Christmas and right into the new year, there's like this pause energy and you can choose to plug into it, to go with the flow of that pausing energy, the rhythm of this energy where there's times when you can be productive and there's times when you simply can't that you're just pushing a rock up the hill. And when you're pushing the rock up the hill, that's when you are allowing this energy of emptiness to create friction or more stress in your life. You're pushing against the natural flow. So you create this feeling of a void or emptiness of running low on your fuel. So you're almost on empty, man.   I remember when the kids were little and we had to wrap the gifts and hide the gifts and it was this whole big thing and things had to be equal because if one kid didn't get this and one kid got that it was like they were comparing and it was so much stress and pressure. It was like the whole culture of society was judging you because of this deep inadequacy that you have.  So this time, this solstice time, I usually I push against it. I push against it. And so I start to notice myself feeling not satisfied with life. I start to notice that there's an alternate rhythm that's happening that if I'm pushing against this need to not be attached to all these things, I can still do things. I can still be productive.  I can still show up for the relatives. But if I feel an attachment, like I need something from that experience and out front outcome, like I'm trying to control it or manage it in a way that's completely ridiculous, setting myself up for failure and disappointment, then I notice that I what really needs to happen here is for me to find this ability to settle into the rhythm that's happening of just allowing things to be. Even if we're not, we don't think they're perfect. We think they could be better. We have these opinions about things. We have these expectations. We have these expectations of ourselves. If we are pushing against this stream of being, then what happens is we get frazzled and stressed out and we get to a point where no matter what we do or no matter who we're with, we can't enjoy it. We create our own resistance if we're flowing against the stream. And I did it for two days. I did it for Saturday. Totally ignored this hostess because I didn't want to go deep, man.  Let's find out what I have to clear. Oh my gosh, I need to do some deep self-work. Oh, I got to do some deep self-work. I need to go. No, oh please, oh please. I did not have time for that. That is like old school spirituality with judgment and elitism attached to it. Okay. But I was ignoring the natural rhythm of the light and the balance of the darkness. I was pushing away the darkness because of resistance. And even yesterday on Sunday, I just hit the wall. I was exhausted. I took a nap, which I haven't done in weeks, months. And I walked, I did my walk that I normally do. And I was pushing. I was pushing, you guys trying to be active still pushing. I was pushing. I was pushing, pushing. I did my walk on my treadmill for about a mile and that was it. And I was like, I'm done with this. I'm done. I can't do this anymore. I must be coming down with something because I am so tired. I'm just so tired on the new excuses, excuses, excuses. It was about me pushing against the fact that I wasn't willing to feel into the natural rhythm of life, the natural rhythm of life, which connects me to this time of year, which I know is a gift from God. It is. It's not just Jesus. That's the gift from God, my friends. It is the timing, the rhythmic cycle of things, natural energy, the changing of the seasons, the flow state of energy, the time that opens for us between the ending of one year and the start of another is a time for us to just be not to create and set goals, which is contradictory to what we're taught in self development in being a productive member of society, being super ultra successful in our careers and our lives. We've got to be super ultra organized. Well, now is not the time to do that. Now is the time to allow for the natural rhythm to give us a break from the stressors that we put upon ourselves that we accept and receive for ourselves. And we play that game of distraction, stress and tension and judgment. We're trying to outrun the judgment or get ahead of any problems that could possibly go wrong on the holidays or in our lives in general. And we're trying to get ahead of that. Get ahead of that and plan for that and think about that. And we're wasting precious time. The energy of the timing of the flow of the rhythm of the changing of the seasons and the energy of the solstice is it is about dark energy because there's not for us here. It is for it is for more rest. It is about dark time. It's about a time to allow yourself not to be overstimulated. It is a time to have less stimulation external to allow for quieting that darkness as a blanket. It's a quiet space. It's a room with the curtains drawn and cozyed up in that in your comfortable bed. And if that's all you have is a bed and a blanket to cozy up in that's a gift. That's a gift. Okay. So I want to talk a little bit about the energy of feeling empty or feeling alone. Okay. So there's a difference here. I want you guys to think about and shift the energy perspective of a loneliness or being alone feeling alone into the energy of empty. And I want you to think about empty as in an empty glass an empty cup which means you build yourself up with the abundance of whatever the goodness was in this cup.  So I want you to turn the feeling or emotion of loneliness this fear of disconnection into the emptiness of the opportunity to be without judgment without expectation and just to simply be be empty be the empty cup and you can fill with whatever you choose to fill. So you choose the energy. All right. I know that for many people during this time it can be a very difficult time if you've experienced a loss of loved ones of your beloved pets or a loss in a grief state as far as like change goes like maybe you had a job loss or a move or something just totally that rocked your world. The energy of grief and loss is very very powerful and this concept of emptiness and loneliness isn't to negate the fact that you may be doing some much needed healing at this time and the emptiness may be a safe and sacred container for you for which to do that but during that time of chosen disconnection or of embracing simply what is for your life. I want you to give yourself the opportunity to start to notice to be an awareness of the power of the choices that you have the simple choices like what are you going to watch on tv what movies are you going to watch they're going to fill you up with hope if you need to cry your way through it's a wonderful life then you do that okay you do that you do what you need to do or if you want to giggle and laugh your way through one of my favorite movies elf oh my gosh you guys am let's wear my elf t-shirt for this and I thought well it's kind of a serious topic maybe I shouldn't be so elping it up you know but my point is you choose you get to choose the inputs that you have you get to choose the energy that you have so let's let's transmute which is take this energy of feeling alone or disconnected or maybe it's misunderstood maybe you're angry or frustrated maybe you got some conflict energy here oh let's choose to shift that into a state of emptiness let's allow this sacred container to be around us to encompass us and unfold us creating a safe and sacred space for us at this time to give ourselves permission to not go go go go go look at how great I am I'm planning every aspect of my holiday and if that candy cane breaks I'm going to be devastated you're like one candy cane breaking away from having to break down it's not worth it you guys all it is is a big distraction from you being able to fully participate in your life being in a state where you can receive is important and emptiness is a natural part of that process so this is not a go go go time even if externally you need to do that you got to find balance you got to find balance I am grateful that this morning I found some of it I actually did a meditation and it allowed me the opportunity which I haven't done a full-on meditation for at least three weeks now it allowed me the opportunity to just be in this space to slow down and just sit to be still just be still it was like 5 15 a.m. by the way but we do what we need to do to take care of ourselves so put yourself in the ability to notice choice choose the energy to convert the energy from loneliness or disconnection into emptiness to allow yourself the opportunity to connect them in ways that you are at choice of positive inputs like fun movies or writing in your journal or going for a walk or being with your dog doing something that helps you not feel like you can't do something in this state to prove your worthiness or you're not going to gain anything from external expression in this point it's about the receivership in the empty state if you're not in a place where you can receive in the empty state and being present for the moment to moment to moment and you're jumping ahead you're trying to get ahead of it you're going to miss this time and then when it comes january like january 12th or january 15th they're going to be really like wait a minute what what now I need to rest it's like no now everybody's running you over because you didn't do the rest time when the rest time was present for you you missed the opportunity for the rest time so jump in to the natural rhythm of things even if it's frustrating and your mind is telling you know you have to be busy no you have to do this no you have to do that give yourself permission to be in the emptiness and to recognize that you have choice and that positive inputs are extremely important if you watched my work before you know that I totally tout positive inputs and that could be something as simple as since you're watching this on youtube it could be other youtube channels that not the drama ones not people fighting or arguing and not something that's like trying to tell you how you should be which there are a lot of how-to's let's be honest a lot of how-to's out there as a last thing system needs right now you don't need anybody else getting in your head telling you how your life should be right now and how perfect your wreath should be and how perfect your your turkey should turn out or whatever it is oh please but you could watch something that gives you hope and inspiration or something that helps you connect just really connect with just the simpleness of life the simpleness the humanity the humanity okay the simple humanity all right I am going to also recognize that I did this in my last video as well um we're actually ended up talking to Archangels I'm going to recognize that Archangel Michael is present I also have Archangel Raphael stepping in Archangel Michael has a beautiful light blue energy like the sky sometimes he shows up differently sometimes he has gold sometimes he has like a dark blue it just depends on who you are and what the energy vibes are this light blue energy is all about openness like expanded expanding your thinking no don't buy into the crap of the old patterns of the pressures that we're putting on ourselves I was doing the same thing you guys I was doing the same thing and then I'm like um wait wait wait wait a minute I am not going to be any good to anybody else unless I am good to myself remember that remember that so Archangel Michael steps and he's one of my lead guides he is non-denominational and he often steps in for protection but in this case he's like truth and that's one of the things that he shows up for me like he will when he shows up I'm like whoa okay I need to pay attention some true here some true in this message okay all right so that's Archangel Michael and Archangel Raphael also steps in and planks him shoulder to shoulder Michael and Raphael Raphael is a beautiful green energy that green vibrational energy is connected to growth possibility opportunity future you don't have to worry about your future it's already being taken care of the seeds the grass that is below the ground right now outside my house the grass is like kind of this icky brown color and there's a bunch of snow covering it and yet I know that eventually in the springtime when it's time when it's time when the season changes the grass will be beautifully green and lush and perfect and right now if we were out there watering the grass trying to get rid of the snow we'd be what what would we be doing wasting our energy and our time so following the rhythm of the natural flow so Archangel Raphael serves as like my doctor angel or he's like a healing angel but when Michael and Raphael are together that creates a balance of energy a balance of energy they are fabulous a dynamic duo like Batman and Robin for clearing if you want clearing if you are feeling crappy if you are feeling alone if you don't have family around you if you're sitting in your little apartment all by yourself invite Raphael Raphael and Michael in to be with you to clear the energy that you might feel that feels depressed or heavy or like life is not worth it anymore or like I am so oh poor me let them clear that poor me that self-sabotaging energy to help you find some light because there is light and the days will be lighter and lighter moving on that's what the solstice is about that's what the end of the year is about and this beautiful time this time is supposed to be a gift to us and a gift of the energy of peace and we have forgotten that we have forgotten the connection to our spirit to the light of God the source the creator and the universe that is that is with us we are running away from the support that we have we are running away or turning away from the beautiful value of our golden glorious spirit all right my friends so thank you Archangel Raphael Archangel Michael showing up today to chat with us as well or to just show up and be present for you okay so I did not bring my glasses so this will be fun trying to read the live stream feed we'll try that okay guys all right let's see oh we got some more ladies and gents joining us let's just see oh remember too if there's anything negativity in this stream just ignore ignore ignore that's your choice all right so we also have gg hi merry christmas hey chris merry christmas to you my friend uh pushpa nar nair i'm sorry if i totally butchered your name but pushpa uh sasha hi lovely louisiana lady rachel nice to see hi rachel julie jim good morning from atlanta oh hi drunatic nice to see you again on this live stream hey d betz nice to see you again haven't seen you for a while hi mariah again i already said hello to you valerie hi Irene hi oh thank you i love you back synthia hi hi nice to see you hey nicky nice to see you from the uk some chill time for you your seven-year-old daughter is chilling too lucky for you my ten-year-old's chilling right now too which is a good thing christine hi merry christmas to you and happy holidays to all okay my friends whoop let's just see all right so i am going to tell you that today hi jerry nice to see you hey tesh again um i shared a video where i read i was reading through the comments about the suggestions that you guys had about who i should talk to and you choose the channel remember that video you choose the channel i shared last monday well i did a video where i read through the comments and initially like right away and there's a more many many many many many more which is awesome but i chose one right away so now after this live stream i am going to make that video live of a channeling session that i did with paul newan and that was from michelle in michigan i think it was so awesome so i'm going to do more you guys in the new year but i am going to try to flow with the energy like i said like practice my own medicine here you know that i share and i am going to try to take uh some time to be with my family and let things flow usually when i do that i get these great ideas for stuff and then i just can't help but create because i love to create and i'm so creative such a creator creative oh that is such my joy i'd love to make videos if all i could do was sit around and make videos and make oodles of money doing that that would be like my dream it would be so great but i'm not a youtuber like that's not how i consider myself that's not my um career choice or my entrepreneurial focus so i can't really just do that um but i could do it in my own way and so i'm going to work on that in the new year i'm looking forward to doing some group stuff online so having some service offerings that involve smaller groups for you guys like one-time things where we jump into a group together and we work on something or we have a talk or we do interactive stuff um and then some long-term stuff as well so i'm working on a series for hope in the new year and different ways to interact and connect with you so i'm not saying that i'm not going to be back and doing a live stream because i might if i feel like it i might just pop on and do one probably not today though i should probably chill maybe do some journaling finish cleaning up the house a little bit and you know i'm gonna have to do some eating i mean testing of the the cookies that i got from the bakery i'm gonna have to do some testing to make sure there's quality control here so all right my friends thank you so much i appreciate you showing up here and supporting the above-life channel on youtube if you are interested and need to binge on stuff you can go check out fairy grasshopper which was my original youtube channel by the way you guys like a hundred years ago i created fairy grasshopper and so i use it kind of just as my vlog channel my casual kind of thing i don't know how long that's going to last into the new year it depends on kind of what happens with youtube and stuff but um we'll see time will tell so i got some changes planned and i'm gonna allow that to kind of gradually just unfold and happen so we'll see let's see how things go i'm wishing you the very very best the very best um with you your family your four-legged family as well i know so many of you have pets the beloved pets that you love so much and us too i do too so sending you guys just so so much love and gratitude thanks for being such an awesome part of my year and hopefully i'll be able to check in with you before the end of the year again all right remember i'll always post videos on mondays so i will post one again next week too so okay so watch for the palm new moon i'll put it live right after this all right hi hailey nice to see you all right you guys have a great day have a great couple of days all right take care of yourselves please bye guys oh goodness oh such a joy


Hi and welcome to the session. I am Shashi. Let us do one question. Question is, for each binary operation defined below, determine whether star is commutative or associative. Sixth part is on, on minus minus one, where r is the set of all real numbers, define a star b is equal to a upon b plus 1. First of all, let us understand the key idea to solve the given question. A binary operation star on set a is commutative if a star b is equal to b star a for every a b belonging to a. A binary operation star from a cross a to a is said to be associative if a star b star c is equal to a star bracket b star c for every a b c belonging to set a. Let us now start with the solution. We know on set r minus minus one, where r is the set of all real numbers.  First of all, let us check if star is commutative. We know a star b is equal to a upon b plus one.  Now, we know a plus one is not equal to b upon a plus one.  Now, we can write binary operation star is not commutative on set r minus minus one, where r is the set of all real numbers. Now, let us find if star is associative. First of all, we will find a star b star c we know it is equal to a upon b plus one star c. For every a b c belonging to minus minus one, this is counter equal to a upon b plus one upon c plus one. We know this is bracket is our a and this is our b. We know a star b is equal to a upon b plus one. So, this is our a and this is our b. So, a upon b plus one. Now, this is called the equal to a upon b plus one multiplied by c plus one. So, we can write a star b star c is equal to a upon b plus one upon c plus one. Let us now find out a star bracket b star c. It is further equal to a star b upon c plus one right. Now, this is our a and this bracket is our b. So, we will write a upon this is b b plus one. So, b upon c plus one plus one. Now, simplifying we get multiplied by c plus one upon b plus c plus one.  So, we know a upon b plus one multiplied by c plus one is not equal to a multiplied by c plus one upon b plus c plus one. For every a b c belonging to r minus minus one where r is the set of all clear numbers. Now, we know a upon b plus one multiplied by c plus one is equal to a star b star c. So, we substitute a star b star c in place of a upon b plus one multiplied by c plus one right and we know a multiplied by c plus one upon b plus c plus one is equal to a star b star c.   Therefore, we can write binary operations star is not associative on r minus minus one where r is the set of all real numbers. So, our final answer is star is neither commutative nor associative. This completes the session. Hope you understood the session. Take care and goodbye.


Welcome to Powers of Ten, the proper use of symbols. Electronics involves a wide range of numbers. The size of the numbers prohibits their use on electrical drawings, so the numerals are replaced by a term that represents a specific power of ten. The six common terms used to represent powers of ten in the field of electronics are mega, kilo, milli, micro, nano, and pico. The terms are represented by symbols when used to describe an electrical unit. Micro and pico are represented by the Greek letters mu and rho, while the rest are normal letters. Here is an example of each symbol being used. The units shown are one mega ohm, one kilo ohm, one milliamp, one microamp, one nanofarad, and one picofarad. Now, let's see if you can match the symbol with the correct term. Pause the video if you need more time. Next, try to match the symbol with the correct decimal value. Finally, see if you can match the symbol to the correct power of ten. Electronics involves a wide range of numbers. The size of the numbers prohibits their use on electrical drawings, so the numerals are replaced by a term that represents a specific power of ten. Write down the list below for your reference. You have completed this video, powers of ten, the proper use of symbols.


We are helping and providing financial inclusion to those people and helping them connect to modern economy if there is not a way for them to do it. We found out that verified local Bitcoin accounts are being sold on Hydra, which is Russia's dark network place. Are you aware of that and what are you doing to address this issue? Well, striving to eliminate fraud is like a game of wake-up ball. You can never win the battle. What's up YouTube? I'm your host Giovanni. Today I'm joined by Elena Tonoyan, CEO at LocalBitcoins. How are you doing Elena? Good. Thank you Giovanni and thank you for having me. LocalBitcoins is a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange based in Helsinki, Finland. Founded in 2012, it is one of the earliest crypto marketplaces. Its revenue for 2019 amounted to over 29 million dollars. What are the main characteristics that set aside the experience of buying and selling Bitcoin and LocalBitcoins from the same experience on traditional crypto exchanges? Good question. I mean, the main, I think, difference between us and centralized exchanges is in the fact that we are more serving the developing countries and centralized exchanges are serving developed countries. Except that, of course, in LocalBitcoins we support a lot of local and regional payment methods. While the situation is a bit different with centralized exchanges, they're mainly supporting bank transfers as a form of payment method.  So it's Elena buying from Giovanni, which creates a trust on certain level, actually the majority of our users and to be precise over 85% of our users during surveys they say that the reason they're using LocalBitcoins is because it's very intuitive and easy to use. Even for people who are not very tech savvy, it is a really easy thing to do to buy and sell Bitcoins. So you mentioned the fact that you are serving the developing countries while centralized exchanges are serving developed countries. But why do you think is that so? Do you think it's because the centralized exchanges require people to have some access to traditional banking services while you don't require that? I think that's one of the reasons, of course. Obviously bank transfers are one of the main payment methods on LocalBitcoins as well, but along with that we offer many others and people who are unbanked or have limited access to those, let's say to traditional banking, they have much easier time to actually trade on LocalBitcoins because we have a lot of mobile payments, a lot of online payments, so it's a lot easier, it's a lot faster. I suppose that's one of the reasons. Now I would like to talk about your geographical position. So what are the advantages and disadvantages of being a Finland based crypto exchange? There are a lot of positive sides obviously because Finland is a relatively safe and stable country like politically and economically to run a business in. Many administrative processes are very transparent like company registration and taxation. Overall, I think in Finland we have quite high level of education which puts us in a good position when making hiring decisions and getting talents. Besides that, I think the Bitcoin scene has been developed in Finland for quite early years. So we have a lot of Bitcoin enthusiasts and people with knowledge and even experience which once again puts us in a good position to hire good talents to our team. This has been the case with us. We also find it increasingly more easy to hire nowadays two Finland from abroad and currently we have over 20 nationalities.  So I think all of those are pretty positive things. On the negative side, you probably know that Finland is not very centrally located. So we're far away from everything. Well, if we compare it to London and New York, you are in the middle of all the happenings, all the events. So it's quite a lot easier for you to be in the center of it. But from Finland it's a bit more harder for us. Though after Corona, things might be shifted to a different direction and we might be attending probably a lot of things remotely. But this remains to be seen on the negative side. Probably the fact that Finland is generally not very cheap country to run a business. Yeah, I've been there. I haven't I didn't have the feeling it was a cheap country in general. That is true. That is true. So that's another curiosity they have. Why are you not supporting any other cryptocurrency apart from Bitcoin? Well, to be entirely honest with you, I don't think there is a specific reason why we are not supporting any other coins. It's just that initially the company's focus has been on Bitcoin. And this is what we have been putting all our focus and efforts to actually serve the Bitcoin users as well as we can. Though I'm not sure if you know, but currently and for I think last two, three years we're supporting altcoins as a payment method to buy and sell Bitcoins. So that is one of the available options. And in the future, we are also considering that we might actually provide full support for other coins. But this remains to be seen. According to a report by Cypher Trace, LocalBitcoins is the number one platform for the amount of criminal crypto funds received in 2019. That was the third year in a row that you were ranked first in the ranking. What have you been doing to address this issue? LocalBitcoins has always been proactively seeking ways to fight illicit activities happening on the platform. And as you know, in September 2019, we implemented the AML and KYC procedures, which actually had direct and significant effect on this issue. So on transactions sent to dark markets to give you more numbers, I think in December, 2019, the volumes sent to dark market transact like dark markets have dropped by 50 percent. And by spring 2020, if I'm not mistaken, it was already by May. Volumes sent to dark markets have dropped by over 70 percent. So while we have no means to validate the third party reports, we do definitely acknowledge the fact that prior to implementation of AML, KYC procedures, those volumes of transactions sent to dark markets were a lot higher. But we are doing continuous work and putting a lot of efforts into solving this issue. And we expect the dark market transaction volumes to drop even more within time. So to answer your question, the outcome for 2020 is expected to be a lot different. Clear. So last year, as you said, you implemented this KYC and AML procedures in order to comply with the EU regulation. So don't you think that for the sake of compliance, local bitcoins lost a major competitive advantage compared to other crypto exchanges, which is customers' privacy? Well, we did lose some competitive advantage that is a fact. But then again, we are a Finnish company operating under Finnish jurisdiction and. Finland was one of the first pioneering countries to implement FIFA and MLB.  And also in the future, we expect more and more regulation to come, for example, the travel rule, which is going to affect probably all the exchanges. And maybe since we are already regulated and we already have more or less developed processes, these will actually give us competitive edge in the future. I would like to point out also that in the early days, people use local bitcoins because it was anonymous. But nowadays they use local bitcoins because they need Bitcoin and want safe and legit service to buy bitcoins. And this also reflects a change in the profile of a Bitcoin user. And also last few months, we were seeing positive growth across all regions and people like obviously, we still remain profitable, which is a great thing. And people have more trust in our service. So yes, we did lose some competitive advantage, but nothing that we couldn't overcome. Right. But still, as far as I know, the trading volume on local bitcoins dropped by around 50% from June 2019 to January 2020. So do you think that the new verification procedures are somehow related to this drop? And if not, what is the cause for this drop? So local bitcoins implemented AML and KYC processes in September 2019. After that, we definitely saw a decline in our trade volume, finding its bottom in February 2020. There are a few possible reasons for that. First of all, we were, as I mentioned, pioneer is to implement 5th MLD. Our processes were not developed. It was there was a lot of uncertainty. We went through a lot of complications. We have done a lot of hard work. But the point I'm trying to make is that it was expected that some of the things will not go very smoothly for us. For example, customer onboarding and verification processes in the beginning have had some delays. And unfortunately, this is one of the reasons we lost some of our customers who were trying very actively to gain back. Some people did not want to lose their anonymity and dropped naturally. And something about our fraud rates that might be interesting as well, compared to the amount of successful trades and overall volumes that are happening on local Bitcoins, the fraud rates have been always low for us. However, after implementing ML and KYC, these numbers have gone even lower, which means that we actually got rid of the bad actors. Yes, this is probably those reasons that affected on the drop of trade volume. But we would like to think that us being a regulated entity also is creating and will create more trust in the future for more Bitcoin curious people to join. And evidence of trust actually creation can be our, for example, trust pilot reviews, which are almost five stars from 20 plus thousand people. I think this is good indication that actually there is a lot of trust in our service. Not sure if this answered the question, but yeah, to say once again that now looking at the last two, three months, we can see growth happening almost across all regions, not just one single region across all regions, which is indicating a wide and healthy growth and in demand for Bitcoin. Clear. So talking about this new verification procedure that you put in place, we found out that verified local Bitcoin accounts are being sold on Hydra, which is Russia's dark net marketplace. Are you aware of that? And what are you doing to address this issue? Yes, we're very well aware of the problem and we already have pretty solid measures in place to detect, identify those accounts as soon as possible. Currently, we block those accounts as soon as we are able to identify that they have been sold or hacked, but obviously more has to be done in that regards. And well, striving to eliminate fraud is like a game of wake of war. You can never win the battle, but every now and then new problem pops up and you just have to minimize the risks and deal with the problems as they come. Also, well, I would like to say something about our Bitcoin community because especially our user community, they are being very active players in keeping the platform clean because the moment there is any suspicious activity detected by them on the platform or like you said, some accounts are being sold, we get actually reports quite quickly from them and hopefully react as soon as possible in order to take measures and block those accounts. So thank you to our Bitcoin community and our users for helping us keep the platform clean. Sounds good. So this year, local Bitcoins registered a spike of transaction volumes, mainly from Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela. How do you explain the geographical concentration of volume in these Latin American countries? Yeah, so our volumes in Venezuela increased because there is a real use case for Bitcoin there due to their collapsed financial system. Well, I would say that it's pretty common thing that when market grows, this big market can push the trading volumes in neighboring countries as well. And we believe that this might be the case for Colombia and Argentina due to Venezuelan migration. Well, with Argentina, it's also separately that it has faced its own economical difficulties and capital control restrictions. So we believe the country has a huge potential for Bitcoin due to its, well, first of all, well-educated population and a culture of storing value and other assets in their own currency. But generally speaking, we tend to see growth in those markets for us where the economic and political situation is not very stable. And as to Argentina and Venezuela, obviously we're very happy to be in those countries where there is actually a need for us, where we are helping and providing financial inclusion to those people and helping them connect to modern economy if there is no other way for them to do it. That was Elena Tonoyan, COO at LocalBitcoins. If you like the interviews, smash the like button and subscribe to our channel. See you next time.


This is lecture nine. In this lecture, we'll be talking about group processes. And of course, we talked about groups before. We actually talked about groups a lot already. But we primarily focused up to this point on the human tendency to conform to others in our surroundings. So if a group acts in a certain way, we have this tendency to conform to that group. But groups impact us on so many other levels. And today we're going to see many examples of the various ways in which groups impact the individual. And also how groups by itself behave. So in the first part of this lecture, we're going to be talking about group performance. So what is the effect of being in a group on our performance? So let's start by looking at the definition of groups. It's very straightforward, but of course it's psychology, we want to have definitions as well. So when are you in a group? Are you in a group, for example, if you're entering an elevator and everybody is in that elevator and you're just, do you then become part of that group of people in an elevator? No, not really. This is a group of people standing together, but they do not form a group. They can start forming a group, though, when the situation changes. So when they, for example, get stuck in an elevator, then all of a sudden group processes start occurring. Because there's a dependency going on. People start looking at each other, they start interacting and they can form a group. So the definition of a group is that it's two or more individuals. So already with two people you can form a group, two or more individuals that interact with each other and also influence each other.  Because one person that, for example, completely panics in the elevator, could have been me, that person is impacting the entire group. And also the person taking the lead, maybe getting on the phone, trying to call the technicians. That's group behavior going on, coordination, problem-solving in that situation. So this was the definition of groups to begin with. It's also the definition that's used in the book. But later on the definition of groups changed a little bit and the identity part of groups also started to become part of the definition of a group. So sometimes, or some researchers claim that groups do not even necessarily have to interact with each other, but they have to perceive themselves as us, like part of the in-group. So that can also be a group so that you don't even interact with each other, but that you know I am part of this group because it's part of my identity, it's part of who I am and it's us. Oftentimes us versus them. So the effect of groups has been studied for a long time, for ages. Actually the very first, you can argue, the very first social psychological experiment ever has been conducted on groups and especially on the impact of groups on our individual behavior. It was a study conducted by Norman Triplett and he studied the effect of groups on performance and he did so with Cyclist. So it's actually basically the start of sports psychology. So here you see the official graph of this experiment conducted in 1898. So it's really, really like more than a century ago. Here you see the graph and in this experiment that Triplett conducted, Cyclist had to race as fast as they could and they had to race either alone or in competition against someone else. And here you see the graph and the lowest line that's actually the slowest. So the Cyclist went the slowest when the Cyclist was racing him or herself. So I think this was only male participants. So it was the Cyclist alone was the slowest. The performance started increasing so better performance when the Cyclist raced against others. And this is actually one of the reasons why during, for example, the Olympics, we see races from people against each other because we know performance increases gets better when we compete against others. We feel much greater sense of urgency. At least that's what Triplett thought in 1989, that's 98, so that it was always a better performance when others were watching us. But quite suddenly over the century we got new information. We got information with studies, psychological studies on human beings, right? We're social psychologists interested in human behavior, but interestingly sometimes interesting insights come from experiments with animals and in this case very interesting animals, namely cockroaches. So cockroaches are actually also impacted by the presence of other cockroaches. So here you see basically the setup of an experiment conducted in 1969 with cockroaches. And here there were various conditions. This cockroach could reach a piece of food, a food item, and he could access the food item through a maze. And sometimes this maze was really simple, so you can see that over here, cockroaches can immediately already see the food item and easily access it. And if this cockroach was going through the maze, getting the food item by himself, you see that the performance was pretty good 41 seconds for this cockroach to reach the food item. But then there was another condition in which there were, ah, joy, more cockroaches. And then you see what happens if the cockroach wants to reach a food item in the presence of other cockroaches. And you see that the performance gets better. Just like the first experiment done by triplet, when more cockroaches are present, performance, he speeds up. Of course, he's in a hurry. He wants to reach the food item before the others do. So then all of a sudden he can reach the food item in 33 seconds. But now let's look at the other conditions, the complex conditions. So here you see the maze is a bit trickier. It's not tricky for human beings, but it is tricky for a cockroach. Then if a cockroach alone has to reach the food item, it will take him 110 seconds. But if other cockroaches are present, then all of a sudden the performance impairs, gets worse. So he's actually slower with other cockroaches present with reaching the food item in a complex maze. And this is basically the summary of the theory on social facilitation. So social facilitation bear with me here. So it's the mere presence of others. So other people are present or other cockroaches. You can also, you know, it's also a theory applicable to cockroaches. So if you have to perform with others present, arousal increases.  Our blood starts flowing and it can have two consequences. On the one hand, we see it increase our performance on well-learned tasks or simple tasks. Things that we can easily do by going through a very simple maze. But it impairs our performance on poorly learned or difficult tasks. So whether or not other people or other cockroaches impair or improve our behavior really depends on how difficult it is what we have to do. But before we zoom into the difficulty, let me point your attention to this part of the model. It increases our arousal. Basically, the presence of others leads us to feel, you know, excited, to feel, you know, a bit nervous. But why is that? Why do we feel nervous when others are around us? So where does this arousal come from? There's various theories on that. So let me now just continue talking about humans instead of cockroaches. So the first theory states that we often feel evaluated when others are present. And sometimes we are actually evaluated by others. For example, during jury sports, then you have to perform, and others are watching you and they're also determining your outcome, whether or not you win a prize. So according to the evaluation apprehension perspective, if you evaluate it, then we get a little bit nervous. Right? Makes sense. Second theory is that we get distracted. Because if other people are there and we have to perform even if they're not evaluating us, they're still looking at us. And I can assure you that I experienced this as well.  That's distracting. You know, you have basically two tasks then. You have the task of presenting, telling your story. And at the same time, you're also having the task of monitoring the audience, monitoring what is everybody else doing? How are they responding to what I'm doing? So that's the conflict distraction theory. So because you experience a conflict between doing the task and also, you know, watching the audience. So this distraction can also lead to a feeling of arousal because it just becomes more difficult, right? If you have to do something and other people are there watching at you, it's difficult because you have to monitor them as well. Final theory states that we become more alert if other people are present. So even if they're not watching us, not evaluating us, just knowing that other people are there makes our body become a bit vigilant, a bit alert, our blood starts flowing more, and that can have impact on, you know, also our bodily movements. For example, when soccer players take penalty kicks, I think especially Dutch soccer players, we are not very good at it like historically speaking, then they start over-analyzing their bodily movements also because they know everybody's watching and there's so much pressure on that moment and that actually leads them to a higher chance of them missing the goal. So these are the three theories that help us explain that we become aroused, basically, the moment that others are watching us. And when we become aroused, we get better at things that we can easily do and we get worse at things that we are, you know, having a difficulty with doing. Okay, so keep this in mind the next time you have to perform, do something, invite others if it's very simple for you and please do not invite others if it's still very difficult for you. Okay, that will definitely impact your performance. So let's now move to another topic. We now know that the presence of others influences our individual performance. But what if we have to work together? You could, you know, logically think when you do things together, it's less work and with all the skills of the individuals in the group combined, the end result will definitely be better, right? Well, of course not. It's social psychology, nothing is straightforward. So no, it's not the case that we always perform better the moment that we are in groups and we have to work together. And this was demonstrated already in 1930 by a French agricultural engineer, so not a psychologist, an agricultural engineer, Maximilian Ringelman, and he showed that the productivity of groups is often reduced when the size of the group increases. And he demonstrated this in a very, very clever way. What he did was he, you know, made this, you know, quite complicated apparatus. It's an engineer, so he could just make this. And it was a sort of a rope pooling device. So participants could take place in this rope pooling device on places one, two, three, four, five, or six. And they were instructed to pull the rope as hard as they could. Okay, so pull as hard as you can. And these participants were actually blindfolded while they were in this apparatus. And there were lets to believe that others were present as well. Sometimes they were told there's one other person also standing before you.  And Ringelman wanted to know what the effect is of making participants believe that there's other people present and whether that impacted participants' performance. So how hard they were pooling the rope. And he already showed this very interesting effect coined as the Ringelman effect in 1930 that the potential, if you combine all the forces of all the people, that's a red line, you would think with every other person that is present, we start pooling, you know, you have more force, you can pool harder. But in fact that's not the case. So people start decreasing their efforts the moment they start believing that others are there. And the more people are there, the less hard people start pooling the rope. Okay, and this experiment has been replicated many times. For example, I think this is a very cool study conducted in 1979 in which the assignments, the instructions to the participants was, again these participants were blindfolded. They also had earphones on their heads. They were placed in a certain room and they were told, please make as much sound as you can. Make as much noise as you can do. And you can do that either by cheering or clapping, so two different conditions here. And they were also misled to believe that there were other people present in the room, which was in fact not the case. So the moment participants thought that there was no one in the room, they made the loudest noise. So whether it was cheering or clapping, they really put in all their effort when they thought they were alone in the room. And the moment they start believing that there was another person or even more people there, then you see that their sound, the volume basically goes down. And what is interesting to point out here is that it's, you know, they don't really have an excuse. It's not like they have to coordinate something. The instructions were very clear. Just make as much noise as you can. So it's not a coordination problem. It's really a motivation problem. The moment others are there, we just apparently become less motivated to perform and to really put in our efforts. And this is called social loathing. So the moment that our efforts basically, our motivation to perform goes down when other people are present. This is called social loathing. And this is also one of these social psychological phenomena that has been replicated over and over again. Here you see the results of a meta-analysis of different studies on social loathing. Here are the results. There are 49 studies in total involving more than 4,000 participants. And here it revealed that the efforts that people put in goes down. So loathing increases basically. The effort goes down as the size of the group increases. So the more people are present, the less motivated we are to work hard. And here you see something that we call a floor effect. So in the last lecture, we also saw a ceiling effect. Here's a floor effect. So from the moment that there are approximately six people there, we just lose our motivation and we don't really perform to the best of our capacities anymore. And it doesn't really matter if it's 10 people in the room or 15 or 16. Basically, we just lost our motivation and we don't really perform well anymore. So social loathing is something that happens. Often, I bet that you've also been in situations in which you experience social loathing from yourself or maybe from other classmates that you feel like we're now in the group and nobody's really working hard to perform well in the group. So that's due to social loathing. So to summarize this part, what is the effect of others on our performance? Do others increase our performance or impair our performance? Well, it really depends. So here you see this very complicated model, but it's basically a summary of everything I just told you. So when others are present, the first thing we have to ask ourselves is, do we see our individual efforts being evaluated? So are other people watching us? If this is the case, we go to the upper part of this model. Individual efforts can be evaluated. Then we experience arousal. So that's because of alertness, evaluation, apprehension, distraction, conflict, leads all to arousal. And then our performance on simple task is improved and our performance on complex task is impaired. Then the lower part of the model is basically what happens if we don't feel evaluated, if we feel basically invisible in the group, then something completely different occurs. We don't experience evaluation apprehension. We don't feel like someone is watching us. We are relaxed. We are not aroused at all. We're totally chill. And then we see that we actually start performing worse on very simple tasks, but we become better at complex tasks because we are relaxed and we can actually perform better if we have to do something difficult by ourselves. Okay. So, yeah, this is basically the summary of this graph. So the key elements here, that's something that you have to keep in mind. What are really important parts of impact of others on our performance? It's whether or not we are being evaluated, whether or not we feel arousal, and how complex the task is. Before I close, I want to give you some key advice on how to do with social loathing because especially in student life, you often have to work together with groups.  They are not really putting in the work. So what can you do then? How can we still, how can we prevent social loathing and motivate people? There's basically three things that we can do. First of all, it really matters what the nature basically of the task that you're working on. If the task is really fun, super challenging, then people are naturally, intrinsically motivated to do well because we just like doing it, right? So make sure that the task that you're doing is enjoyable for the whole group. So make sure it's an interesting topic, something that you really are interested in figuring out. It really matters to prevent social loathing. Secondly, group cohesiveness. There's less loathing if you work together with a cohesive team, so with people that you know and that you like. Of course, you cannot always choose this, but then you can sort of work on ways to make the group more cohesive and try to come up with some sort of group identity to increase group cohesiveness. And finally, identifiable contributions. That's basically, I think, definitely the best advice I can give you. Make contributions identifiable. So if you have to work together, divide the task, say you are responsible for this part, you are responsible for that part, and then you can also really make sure that you can address people if something went wrong, you know where it went wrong, and then you cannot really slack anymore and you still can evaluate others on their performance. So keep this in mind. The next time you have a group assignment to work on.


Good afternoon everyone, and I hope that you're having a great day. A special greeting to the specialists who participated in the previous panels. I'm Isabella Rose, the communications officer for the Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism of the Organization of American States, CICTA and OAS. It's an honor for the OAS to attend and share our experiences during DEF CON 31 this year, with over 15 years of experience. Our program is a regional leader in helping OAS member states develop cybersecurity capabilities at the technical and public policy levels. Its initiatives and activities aim to ensure an open, secure and resilient cyberspace throughout the Western Hemisphere. The program's three main objectives are, first, to support the OAS member states in developing technical and political capabilities to successfully prevent, identify, respond to, and recover from cyber incidents. Second, to enhance strong, effective, and timely information sharing, cooperation and coordination among cybersecurity stakeholders at the national, regional, and international levels. And third, to increase access to knowledge and information on cyber threats and risks to public, private, civil society stakeholders and internet users. Beyond the breach, exploring cybersecurity policies with hacker perspectives will be a discussion that explores the role of cybersecurity policy hackers in responding to cyber policy challenges that governments and organizations face in the current rapidly evolving landscape. We'll focus on the importance of cybersecurity policy hackers in shaping and advancing cybersecurity policy, the challenges in developing effective cybersecurity policies, and the need for collaboration and innovation in the field. A special thank you to the panelists for taking the time to share their valuable perspectives at this event. Today, we are joined by three professionals with excellent international projection. First, Mauro Vicciatti, advisor in digital technologies of warfare at the International Committee of the Red Cross. Second, Orlando Garces, cybersecurity officer of the Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism of the OAS. And finally, Andrés Velázquez, cybersecurity expert and the founder of President of Mática. So, the field of cybersecurity policy is constantly evolving, and as such, the need to think innovatively and critically about policy solutions to address new and emerging threats. But when we talk about cyber policy, we can do it from the organizational, governmental, or international levels. Andrés, let's begin with you. Tell us a little bit about yourself and from your experience, share with us the following. How can Latin America and the Caribbean, private and public organizations, foster a cooperative and trust-based environment to encourage hackers' participation and initiatives to enhance cybersecurity policies? Thank you very much, Sevilla. It's a great honor to be here. Because actually, I attended one of the first, well, at least six, one of the six first DEF CONs. And when I started working after that with law enforcement, I wasn't able to come here again. If you're familiar with DEF CON, there was something called Spot the Fed. So, probably people that were intended on working with government were not actually kind of allowed here. This has changed, and I'm very pleased that that has happened. So, pretty much what I have done in the last 20 years is create specifically the cybersecurity and most of the law enforcement agencies in terms of digital forensics, digital intelligence, some of the most important cases in Latin America. So, even that I'm in the private sector, I have been working a lot with government in terms of bringing new technology, new ways of looking and how to find out where are the people that are attacking us, trying to be as clear as possible. So, one of the biggest things and the challenges that you mentioned is I think that something that we should be talking about is mistrust. Mistrust between government, hackers, and sometimes academia. So, that's mistrust. It's probably one of the first things that we're having a big challenge and we have to do a paradigm shift. Specifically, if we see the great value that we can have on education, on cybersecurity, and how can we can work all together. Back in the days, one of my first tutors, the agent Lugo from the US Secret Service, showed me a book called The Cuckoo Sec. I don't know if you have heard about it, Cliff Stoll. It talks about an astronomer that back in the 80s from Berkeley, here in California, was able to, using whatever he had, a way to find out who and when his server was hacked. So, pretty much it's a story about hacking and intrusion and how he was able to figure out where they were doing it. Long story short, and no spoilers around, he was able to find out that was not in the US. That was the first time that I learned about jurisdiction. Something that hackers and policy makers don't really understand. And that's one of the biggest challenges that we have right now in Latin America. Because most of the time, everything when we talk technology-oriented is based in the US. Considering that, every single time that we need information from the states, we need to go through mutual treaties in order to get the information. And that can take five, six years just to arrive to the states and then another five years in order to get back through the normal processes. So, if we look at this context, what we can start, you know, trying to put some ideas in the table, I think that another challenge is how we report vulnerabilities in Latin America. In comparison to the states, we do not have any policy. We do not have any regular way of doing it. If you hacker, report a vulnerability into a Mexican, Colombian, Argentinian company, probably they will try to sue you and start a criminal case. Why? Because we don't know what to do. And that's the real reason of that. In the other side, we have these legal protections that we need to figure out how to make it happen. You know, clear frameworks on how to report and how to work together. And that's most, or gets into the point that we need to understand as Latin American countries that the hacker is not the bad guy. And that's one of the most important things that I can share with you. We could do, and I expect to do a lot of collaborative workshops, recognition and incentives that will motivate us to start working together. The reality, and at the end, I will finish with that, right now our biggest challenge is that we do not work together. That's really interesting, Andres. Thank you so much. Now, Orlando, you have been involved in several OAS technical assistance projects for the formulation and implementation of national cybersecurity strategies and policies in multiple countries in Latin America and the Caribbean region. What challenges do Latin America and the Caribbean region governments face in engaging the hacker community during the life cycle of national cybersecurity policies or strategies? So, thank you. Hi, everybody. My name is Orlando. Hi, Andres. Hi, Mauro. Hi, Isabella. Well, I work for the OAS, this Organization of American States. We have an Inter-American Committee against Terrorism there. And over the last eight years, I've been, you know, involved in some technical projects regarding formulation and implementation of national cybersecurity strategies in the region. So, let me, I have to apologize to Mauro and Andres because I just want to share to the audience, you know, the Latin American experience regarding this type of, you know, exercises that we have done there. So, the OAS-60 cybersecurity program has been, you know, the regional leader in Latin America and the Caribbean in providing, you know, technical and policy levels, cybersecurity capacities. These initiatives aim to ensure an open, secure, stable, resilient cyberspace throughout the Western sphere. Out of the 35 member states of the OAS, 19 more than a half have formulated a national cybersecurity policy or a national cybersecurity strategy. 11 of them with OAS assistance. Colombia, for example, have formulated three national policies. Chile has formulated two national cyber strategies, cyber policies. The Dominican Republic and Panama, two national cyber strategies. Currently in the region, there are four countries, most of them in the Caribbean, Barbados, Guyana, the Bahamas, and Uruguay that are formulating their first national cybersecurity strategy. And there are four countries formulating their second one. Argentina, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Tenerife. I have to highlight, you know, the experience in Costa Rica because last year the country has faced some major cyber attacks. So, even though, you know, this is very important for policy action in the region, even though OAS has been around for about 15 years helping the member states, nowadays more and more international community actors are getting involved in cyber policy making in the region. So we have other global international organizations such as the United States through the ITU. We have regional organizations such as the European Union that are very interesting in the region. We have CARICOM in the Caribbean region. Multilateral development organizations such as the World Bank and the IDB, the Inter-American Development Bank. Other independent states, for example, you know, the United States are providing a lot of help in our countries and a lot of private sector companies. So, you know, the policy making processes in the region has a lot of, you know, actors trying to get involved. So there are, you know, the capacities, there are like intermediate level capacity and the cyber capacity maturity is in the intermediate level. So multi-stakeholder approach is like, it's been using since 2015 and right now the current generations of policies are working on most of the time in governance models and also working on trying to get involved, you know, all the multi-stakeholders in the ecosystem, in cybersecurity ecosystems. So that's what is going on in the region. We are a very small team trying to do a lot of things in Latin America. And what Andres just said, you know, there's lack of trust and, you know, the main challenge in the region right now is that, you know, the authorities that are in charge of formulating a policy or a national strategy lack of technical understanding of what cybersecurity vulnerability research entails and sometimes our countries, you know, present only the malicious hacking point of view and sometimes, you know, they have this narrative that this type of research should be penalized. So the region has facing a lot of challenges involving technical communities like the hacker community because there are like fear and hostile reaction from the authorities and legal sanctions. We have a lot of legal barriers and absence of a safe legal framework and lack of coordination between public officers and who are dealing with policymaking with, you know, the hacker communities and the technical communities. So that's what I'm about to say. Thank you so much, Orlando. Mauro, you have been working for a while in cyber policy at the international level. Please talk to us about your expertise. How can hacker perspectives contribute to balancing cybersecurity measures and preserving online privacy and civil liberties in developing and implementing cybersecurity policies for global organizations like the ICRC? Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. I think I'm the only non-AOS panelist here, so the goal here would be to expand the view from an international perspective. So I'm working for the International Committee of the Red Cross. You probably know the ICRC, so we are based in Geneva. It's probably the largest humanitarian organization worldwide. We have operations in more than one of the countries, and we mainly work in a situation of armed conflict. So those are very challenging situations, very challenging work we have there, and we are facing situations that are requesting a very important response. So in this regard, also in the digital space, we are confronting with such challenges. And there are two main aspects in this regard when we operate in the digital space. First, because also the ICRC has to digitalize its operations to provide services to our beneficiaries, and as you may know, the beneficiaries of the ICRC are people that are suffering from the consequences of armed conflict. So we have to digitalize our operation to be able to reach out to them to be more performant and because the society is digitalizing, and also the armed conflict are digitalizing, so our response must be also at this level. And the second one is because we are facing an increasing politicization and polarization of the digital technologies. So we know that there are companies taking stand for one part of the conflict or the other, and the ICRC is a neutral and impartial organization. So we have to be able to provide the services respecting our independence and our neutrality. So that said, I would like to bring you a couple of examples on how we engage the Accords community and how we work with them. So the first one, you probably may know the emblem of the Red Cross. It's a Red Cross with a white background, so we use these to signal the protection of assets during armed conflict. So we put the emblem, for instance, on the rooftop of our warehouse not to be bombed, or we use these to put on our vehicles that we use to transport goods and people. So this is a signal of protection, so we say to the parties of the conflict do not shoot this because it belongs to an international organization. So we are trying to transform this and translate this into the digital space. So we are in a project where we are digitalizing the emblem of the Red Cross. How to signal operations that are on cyberspace and say, hey, those assets are protected, please do not attack those servers, those networks, and so on. So how we do this? So we engage with the hacker communities last year and we suggested a couple of technical requirements that they have to take into account and we asked them to help us to provide some prototype of how to digitalize the emblem of the Red Cross. And they come up with some ideas, they criticize our ideas, they put new ideas in, and so we are developing this. We published our first report in November on the digitalization of the emblem and this is how we engage with the hackers. We saw a very interesting response because probably it's one of the first time they can work without thinking about there is money in place, or the goal is a humanitarian goal, it's completely different from Bagbante or other situations. So this is one first example of how we engage with the hacker communities. Another one is because of the respect of our neutrality and dependence from digital technologies of the private sector. So we opened a delegation for cyberspace in Luxembourg last year and one of the main goal of the delegation is to engage the hacker community to help us to develop open source tools that are independent from the commercial one to be able to have a backup or situation where we cannot use commercial services, commercial product with also to respect the information and the protection of information that our beneficiaries provided to us so we have a duty of respect those information so we are developing with the hacker communities and we're going to come in 2024 asking more from the hacker communities to help us to identify venues to be able to produce and develop such independent tools that we're going to use in our daily work. Thank you so much. Now Orlando, given this international overview what are the national policy approaches in the Latin American and Caribbean region to promote ethical hacking by enabling professionals to use their skills to identify and fix vulnerabilities in computer systems? Well as I mentioned before the Latin American is a very special region in terms of maturity level we are at the intermediate level of course each country is totally different but we could think about three approaches the first one would be creating legal frameworks that's very hard because it's not only the executive branch dealing with that it's talking with the legislative branch because we need to modify or try to create a law to try to deal with this situation so I could brought here one example it's the experience in Chile right now Chile is working, there's a law on sub-security and critical information infrastructure that is about to be approved by the National Assembly or Congress and there is one article there that exempts from criminal sanctions ethical hackers who have for example committed acts classified as computer crimes but carry on for example investigation working computer security so they exempt these type of actions as long as they comply with certain conditions for example immediate notifications among others so that's one thing that in Latin America is going on but Chile is the best example the second one, the second approach is that promoting ethical hacking but through the national cybersecurity strategies or the national cybersecurity policies for example the Dominican Republic government issue last year the brand new national cybersecurity strategy and they included responsible vulnerabilities disclosure as a guiding principle of this strategy in order to create a more secure digital environment to promote the use of ethical hacking techniques so of course we have other countries but for example the Colombian and the Ecuadorian NCS they just mentioned the establishment of procedures for the promotion and dissemination of a model of vulnerability disclosure but they have to comply with the law and that is just told us before in Colombia and in Ecuador it's totally penalized these type of actions so they are trying to work from the executive branch to work on that and finally some countries that don't have policies or cybersecurity policies but they are working on national guides but just for information sharing and just responsible disclosure but not very well framed so that's what is going on right now in the region Perfect, very interesting Mauro, a couple of years ago you were tasked to create a vulnerability management unit within the national cybersecurity center in Switzerland leading several projects among them the first bug bounty program of the Swiss government what are some successful European examples of collaboration between hackers and governments or organizations in shaping cyber policies and what was the key to success? Yeah, thank you for the question so prior to my engagement with the ICRC I was working for the national cybersecurity center in Switzerland and we decided it was time to have a bug bounty program inside the vulnerability management for the Swiss government network so we built up these but it was not just using hackers to find bugs but we developed the program with them so we gave them our necessity and they come up with an idea on how to build a bug bounty program for the national government so as you have to understand Switzerland is a confederation so it's like we have 27 canton it's like the US with the states so we have the same situation the federal government and then the canton government so this was a little bit challenging so how to build a program that has to incorporate all the party of the country so we come up with the idea of having a central platform paid by the government and then having the different canton pay the bunties to have them testing several canton assets so the same idea we would like also to implement for the ICRC so this is something that we can replicate also in other context for other countries so having a central platform for the ICRC for instance but the ICRC is not just alone we have an entire movement composed also by the national societies so the American Red Cross is one of them we have in every country a society so one of the idea could be to have a central platform for the ICRC but having also bug bounty programs for the national societies of Red Cross that can join this effort so having the hackers community working for also for the national societies not just for the ICRC Thank you Now Andres an essential dimension in national cybersecurity strategies or policies in the region is the fight against cyber crime could you talk to us about the role of cybersecurity policy hackers in the ongoing evolving landscape of digital investigations and the associated challenges in Mexico and the rest of the Latin American and the Caribbean region So as I mentioned you know the cyber crime is a big thing in Latin America and if we try to understand why first of all we have to say that there is not enough awareness on cybersecurity in most of our countries and I'm not talking about the technical people we're talking about you know the people that are on the streets and even the government the other thing that is starting to happen is that government knows that there's a threat but they don't know how to stop it so they're trying to create these national strategies that most of them are on a preventive side but they're not including you know how you prosecute how you investigate how you and there's a little thing here that is probably what I'm more concerned of is how we interact how we do cross-border access in order to get evidence from other countries and then where it comes something that is kind of different from what we're used here in the States the States is based on an English system so it's precedence so things move faster than what happens in our countries we're based on codes so in order to change the law that could take more than six years so we're not doing everything in the speed that we should in the other hand the malicious actors are finding out that that's an advantage why? because right now organized crime is using people from Mexico and in other countries in order to hack from Mexico or to Mexico knowing that nothing is going to happen so we put everything together I think that the policy hackers have to be the frontline defenders you know right now it's our only option on how we can work together in order to identify those vulnerabilities and weaknesses before the malicious attackers are finding them the issue here is if we build something in each one of the countries if we make a collaboration in between these hackers and we try to get to the government we need them to trust us as we were mentioning and then we need to build the way we can work together and will be legally correct again the reason that some countries are going against policy hackers is because that's the way the law is coded so we have to change that then we need to understand that there are some challenges outside the technical side limited resources in terms of the governments and how we can do that that limited resources I'm not talking about just money lack of a standardized cybersecurity policies and that we need more legal frameworks in order to combat cyber crime if we combine this with the training like the one that the OAS is doing in Latin America as well as the Council of Europe so you can tell that most of the training that is done in Latin American countries is not made by Latin American countries we're actually getting people from other countries in order to help and I think that what we should be doing in the near future is try to standardize the cybersecurity strategies all around the region and when I'm talking about the region I'm not just talking about Latin America and the Caribbean so we need to do all Americas you know how we can work together to make this happen Great now it's time for the audience to ask a question so we have time for one question Yes The future that I foresee is not very good the thing is what we can do right now in order to not get into that future the experience that I had in Brazil was amazing Brazil actually found out that there was so much corruption inside the federal police that what they did is pretty much they created a new entity specifically with academics and people from the private sector that were willing to change that and when they did that everything changed at least on the federal side they were not able to do it on the state side but that helped a lot talking about cybersecurity is even worse because as you know there are not enough cybersecurity experts in the region so the last report from ISCE is that we need 130,000 specialists this year in Latin America so I don't know I don't know how to answer that specifically at least I can tell you that Orlando and myself were trying to do stuff in order to make people understand my personal experience is if I train the DA if I train the expert witness in each one of the Latin American countries at least they're going to start doing their job correctly but I cannot change the legal system and that's kind of coded well I work for a political organization we are, you know, the OAS as member states and we work by their mandates for the whole Americas but one thing that, you know what you're saying is something that is happening in the region that, you know, cybersecurity is not a state problem but it's a governmental problem so, you know, there's a lot of countries that as soon as they switch government they change everything and that's very costly for the region and for the country what, you know, the OAS is focusing right now is trying to work on robust governance models in the countries because lack of leadership and lack of coordination and collaboration mechanisms could lead you into that type of problem so that's one of the main problems in our countries that we don't have a robust governance model we don't have that type of expertise so we are working right now with trying to help the countries in order to bring everybody to the table everybody to discuss even if it's, you know the international community and, you know, the international community is very broad and it covers the whole globe so each country is independent, well for example we have to take into account best practices in the region for example, the Dominican Republic has a very, very, very good, you know governance structure there they have a cybersecurity agent it's one of the I think it's one out of five countries in the region that has, you know, a cybersecurity agency right now there are some countries such as Chile and Colombia that are trying to pass bills, you know, cybersecurity bills trying to design these type of agencies so what I have to say is that we look forward as an OIS we look forward to bring the discussion including everybody, all these multi-stakeholders and that could build, you know, strong national cybersecurity strategies and policies. We have time for one more, yes. My name is Ira Victor, I'm an ambassador for the Center for Internet Security Controls we've, the CIS controls have been used in the United States to create a legal incentive for public and private entities to adopt information security and privacy best practices have you or the people in your in your world been looking at an incentive-based approach for public and private sector to adopt an international standard for information security either the CIS standard or one of the other ones? Well, of course we encourage the member states to be involved in these type of initiatives when we go to the countries to the member states in Latin America we try to invite people with a lot of expertise on the subject so we try to bring, you know, as much as we could, you know, technical people organizations who have worked on those type of standards and procedures and what we try to do is try to open the discussion, try to debate bring everybody to the region and of course we are going to take a look at what you're saying and try to show it to the region. Well, Argentina actually saw into that and actually Claudio is around here he's part of the group but it didn't go through so it's a matter also on how things are presented to the decision makers the government and how we can make it happen most of the ways that in Latin America works it will work after they have a catastrophe you know something that affected not a company but really the government so we're talking about you know if we're talking about Mexico it should be Pemex or the CFE that is the electrical grid so until we don't have that and probably I'm going to say something that I didn't want to say it but I'll say it most of the times it's a matter on they are thinking like this it's that electric grid connected to the internet why I should bother you know and we know it's an issue but it's boring in terms of we need to generate so much awareness on those levels that probably one of the best ways of doing it is waiting when the new generation start getting into the decision making inside the companies so we can change that thank you


US F-35s over Ukraine. Pentagon made a statement. The US has denied flying F-35s over Ukraine after Singapore's Defence Minister Ng Nghen claimed that the advanced fighter jets were being used to monitor Russian troops in the region. Ng Nghen made the remarks last Wednesday while speaking in the National Parliament about the importance of long-term planning in the defence industry. He in particular mentioned that Singapore was closely evaluating the US-made F-35 especially when it comes to its use in real-world conditions. He noted that the US has used the F-35 not only to target Islamic State terrorists in the Middle East but also to locate and identify surface-to-air missile sites of Russian units in Ukraine adding that this reconnaissance was later shared with NATO members. He did not say whether an F-35 ever entered Ukrainian airspace or if flights were carried out over NATO territory. A spokesperson for the Pentagon declined to comment on the Minister's remarks but stressed that, I can confirm that the US does not fly F-35s in Ukraine. Last March, the website C4ISRNet reported, citing Colonel Craig Andrell, the commander of the 388th Fighter Wing that the US used F-35 to gather reconnaissance on threats in Ukraine and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. The fighters were able to locate and identify surface-to-air missile sites and pass that information to the rest of the coalition, the article said. However, while Andrell stressed that F-35 could be a formidable war asset, without firing a single shot due to its intelligence-gathering capabilities, it sometimes struggled to snoop on Russian positions. The Colonel recalled that the F-35 had failed to identify a Russian S-300 missile system because it was potentially operating in a war reserve mode that we haven't seen before. Since the Ukraine conflict began in February 2022, NATO has increased its air presence in Eastern Europe, deploying additional fighters and surveillance aircraft. Putin to interfere in presidential elections in US. Russian President Vladimir Putin will interfere in the 2024 US presidential election states Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Olexi Danilov. According to him, artificial intelligence has allowed Russia to significantly intensify its disinformation campaigns, which is a huge step forward for Moscow. The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council is convinced that the scale of information interference will be much larger than before. Russia now has special units dedicated to every country where elections are taking place. The network of informants and agents of Moscow around the world is so large that removing Russian interference is impossible. The FSB continues to contract with European criminal groups. Danilov noted, the Times states that Russian agents spread 166 million pieces of disinformation about Ukraine weekly on various platforms. The presidential election in the US is scheduled for November 5, 2024. According to forecasts, the main candidate for the Democrats will be the incumbent American leader Joe Biden. The Republicans will nominate either Donald Trump or former US ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan recently stated that the White House is concerned about possible Russian interference in the 2024 presidential election. NBC News reported that Russia is already spreading disinformation ahead of this year's US elections. Fake accounts and bots are being used to harm President Joe Biden and his Democratic colleagues. Putin responded to Biden's insult, calling it a great shame for the US. President Joe Biden called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a crazy SOB at a public fundraising event in California. We have a crazy SOB like that guy Putin and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict, but the existential threat to humanity is climate. Biden said in a brief speech at the event in San Francisco that was attended by a small group of reporters.  Biden's burst of strong language follows other occasions in which he has called the Russian president who ordered the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 a butcher and a war criminal. The Kremlin slammed Joe Biden's use of shameful language. This is a huge shame for the country itself. For the US, if a president uses that kind of language, it's shameful. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he remarked that Biden's statement was a poor attempt to appear like a Hollywood cowboy. A brief report on the Russian state news agency TASS website quoted Peskov as saying Biden's words about Putin cannot hurt the Russian president, but they are a disgrace to the United States itself. Peskov said the use of such language against the head of another state by the president of the United States is unlikely to infringe on our president, President Putin, but it debases those who use such vocabulary. Peskov said the remark was probably some kind of attempt to look like a Hollywood cowboy, but honestly, I don't think it's possible. Has Putin ever used one crude word to address you? This has never happened. Therefore, I think that such vocabulary debases America itself. Peskov said he later added in comments to a state television reporter, this is a disgrace for the country itself. I mean the United States.


Now the Nigeria Customs Service says it is committed to fostering relationships with compliance stakeholders in 2024. The Comptroller General of the Service, Bashir Adewaleh Deney, said this, during the International Customs Day celebration at the Customs Training College, Ikeja Lagas. Speaking at the conference, the CGC noted that choosing the theme for this year's celebration, customs, engaging traditional and new partners with a purpose, aligns with the service's core objectives as outlined in the three-point agenda of consolidation, innovation and collaboration. The recent seizures, a direct result of effective collaboration between agencies is a testament to the potential of interagency partnerships. It showcases the success achievable when government agencies collaborate and highlight the significant impact we can achieve by fostering more partnerships going forward. More so, at the recent Comptroller General of Customs Conference in December 2023, it stands a testament to the success of this approach, resulting in substantial achievements through in-depth interactions with our valued stakeholders. In his keynote address, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Avigbo Yaga Oyayetala, emphasized the importance of collaboration in facilitating trade and improving revenue generation. With unwavering commitment, I assure you of my ministry support for collaborative engagement with stakeholders in the international trade community aiming for a more sustainable use of ocean and coastal resources for economy growth. I therefore urge each one of you to carry forward the spirit of today's event.