{"id":4113334,"date":"2026-01-06T14:05:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/podcast\/4113334\/ransomware-guilty-pleas-cheaper-ai-meta-deal-ep-31.html"},"modified":"2026-01-06T14:05:37","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T19:05:37","slug":"ransomware-guilty-pleas-cheaper-ai-meta-deal-ep-31","status":"publish","type":"podcast_episodes","link":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/podcast\/4113334\/ransomware-guilty-pleas-cheaper-ai-meta-deal-ep-31.html","title":{"rendered":"Ransomware Guilty Pleas, Cheaper AI, Meta Deal | Ep. 31"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"remove_no_follow\">\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div class=\"transcript\" id=\"transcript\" role=\"region\" aria-label=\"Transcript\" data-transcript-blocks=\"1\">\n            <h2 class=\"transcript__title\" id=\"transcript\">Transcript<\/h2>\n            <div class=\"transcript__text\">\n                <div class=\"transcript__list\" role=\"list\"><div class=\"transcript__item\" role=\"listitem\"><div class=\"transcript__content\" data-paragraphs=\"9\" data-readmore=\"Show more\" data-readless=\"Show less\"><p class=\"transcript__paragraph\">Hello and welcome to a 2-Minute Tech Briefing from Computerworld. I'm your host. Arnold Davick, reporting from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Here are the top IT stories you need to know for Tuesday, January 6th.<\/p><p class=\"transcript__paragraph\">Up first, from CSO online, the US Department of Justice says two cyber security experts have pleaded guilty, accused of running a ransomware operation. Ryan Goldberg and Kevin Martin were charged with using the Black Cat ransomware against multiple victims in the US between April and December of 2023.<\/p><p class=\"transcript__paragraph\">The Justice Department accuses the pair, along with an unnamed third person, of conspiring to extort companies using black cat, also known as ALF be court records say the attacks caused losses exceeding $9.5 million though only about $324,000 was traced to them.<\/p><p class=\"transcript__paragraph\">They face a maximum sentence of 20 years, and sentencing is set for March 12 of this year.<\/p><p class=\"transcript__paragraph\">From Computer World, Deepseek says it's found a cheaper way to train big AI models, the AI company unveiled manifold constrained hyper connections, or MHC, which reports say could train large language models more efficiently and at lower cost. That's according to the South China Morning Post.<\/p><p class=\"transcript__paragraph\">Deepseek says MHC stays stable and scalable without increasing computational costs. Researchers have tested the technology on models with up to 27 billion parameters with positive results. And finally, Meta is buying the viral AI startup Manus.<\/p><p class=\"transcript__paragraph\">TechCrunch reports the deal will cost about $2 billion Manus went viral after a demo showed an AI agent handling everything from job interviews to stock analysis. Manus says it's topped $100 million in recurring annual revenue.<\/p><p class=\"transcript__paragraph\">Meta will let the company continue to operate independently, but will integrate its AI agents into Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The company also says there will be no Chinese owners or operations in China after the deal.<\/p><p class=\"transcript__paragraph\">For more enterprise tech news, visit Computerworld, CIO, NetworkWorld and CSO online, and don't forget to like and subscribe on the TechTalk YouTube channel.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11853,"featured_media":100071990,"template":"","meta":{"__idg_published_ids":[],"__idg_published_status":"draft","embargo_date":"","multi_title":"[]","old_id_in_onecms":"","_idg_updated_flag":false,"_idg_updated_date":"","hreflang_xdefault":0,"content_type":"","suppress_html_meta":"{}","byline":"","featured_video_id":0,"supress_floating_video":false,"prevent_index":0,"has_duration":0,"teaser_paragraphs":"","is_translated_post":0,"idg_original_post_id":0,"idg_translated_post_ids":[],"idg_original_post_publication":"","idg_original_post_language":"","idg_original_post_brand":"","apple_podcast_url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/2-minute-tech-briefing\/id1844876566","google_play_url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PL7D2RMSmRO9ILy-BYlyvs4T8jDbIOh52-","spotify_podcast_link":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/6zIyoRDw0VlbqE2dcedNWs?si=3-LHFcIASNOSOhuXV5euxQ","is_hosts_enabled":true,"is_guests_enabled":false,"video_episode_id":4113331,"sound_cloud_url":"","featured_image_16_9":100071991,"megaphone_episode_id":"IDG7177541899","episode_duration":2.21,"episode_ordering":31,"right_panel_heading":"","suppress_monetization":"{}","external_post_link":""},"categories":[1885,2492,2504],"tags":[],"languages":[21],"editions":[12],"publication":[9,10],"sponsorships":[],"podcast_series":[24685],"coauthors":[25469],"class_list":{"0":"post-4113334","1":"podcast_episodes","2":"type-podcast_episodes","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"category-artificial-intelligence","7":"category-cybercrime","8":"category-ransomware","9":"languages-en","10":"editions-global","11":"publication-computerworld","12":"publication-us-default","13":"podcast_series-2-minute-tech-briefing"},"eyebrow":{"eyebrow":"Podcast","eyebrow_style":"default","eyebrow_feed_title":"Podcast","eyebrow_feed_style":"default"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcast_episodes\/4113334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcast_episodes"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/podcast_episodes"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100071990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4113334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4113334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4113334"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=4113334"},{"taxonomy":"editions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editions?post=4113334"},{"taxonomy":"publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication?post=4113334"},{"taxonomy":"sponsorships","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsorships?post=4113334"},{"taxonomy":"podcast_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/podcast_series?post=4113334"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.computerworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4113334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}