Tim Higgins (3:30)

Aisha Evans is the company's chief executive and she told you that she takes a bit of a different approach, not just to leadership, but innovation and safety.

Aisha Evans (3:39)

This is a big industry. I try and have some respect and humility. And so I have called them fellow travelers because I was not confused that I was going to be alone or we were going to be alone doing this. That to me would be delusional, at least the way I think. So its fellow travelers were also indirectly in the safety business. What either of us does affects the other, whether we like it or not.

Tim Higgins (4:05)

So, Tim, it seems that she doesn't really buy into this move fast and break things way that things are typically done in Silicon Valley. Is that an accurate depiction?

Christopher Mims (4:13)

Absolutely. It comes from the Zoox that she is running is in a different place than it was when it was created. When you are a startup, you are trying to grab attention, you are trying to grab investment dollars, you are trying to convince people that you can change the world. When she took over, it was a time, though she would lead it to be sold to Amazon, they would have money and she had the luxury of saying, let's think about how we actually deploy this technology. One of the ways that she kind of refers to it as it's not as simple as just deploying one of those roombas in your living room and letting it go to town.

Victoria Craig (4:47)

So after Amazon bought Zoox in 2020 for about a billion dollars, Amazon just sort of let the company operate on its own. How is that partnership evolving?

Christopher Mims (4:56)

The conventional wisdom was that Zoox might pivot towards being a robot taxi for packages, that it might get into the delivery business. She's not talking like that. In fact, she kept true to the original vision of being a robot taxi, that unique toaster like design, she didn't scrap that. She doubled down on it and figured out a way to bring it out to the consumer. And that's part of the differentiation that Zoox has in the marketplace. When you get back to the race between Waymo and Zoox and Tesla, they all have a little bit of a.

Tim Higgins (5:28)

Different that was Wall Street Journal columnist Tim Higgins.

Victoria Craig (5:32)

You can find the full conversation with the CEO of Zoox on the WSJ podcast. Bold names. We've got a link in our show Notes coming up. A sophisticated crime ring harnessed the power of technology and old fashioned bribery to steal thousands of devices from US customers, then sell them in international markets. How you can protect yourself from tech theft after the break.

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Victoria Craig (6:36)

Front porches in multiple states across the US Were the starting point for a sophisticated international crime ring that recently resulted in 13 arrests by federal authorities. Package theft isn't new, but WSJ's Esther Fung found out that those who steal have developed high tech ways to get what they want.

Tim Higgins (6:56)

So Esther, this is not just a story about a few iPhones stolen off of people's porches. This is really a sophisticated, coordinated effort to swipe thousands of devices from people across the US and then sell them abroad.

Victoria Craig (7:10)

How did it work?

Esther Fung (7:11)

This crime ring that was recently busted? They had someone write computer scripts to scrape FedEx's website for tracking numbers. And they also bribed at&t store employees for customer data package data. And what this crime ring did was to put these two data points together to identify packages that contain valuables like iPhones or Apple AirTags or AirPods Samsung devices. The idea was that they wanted to be more targeted in which packages to steal. These tracking numbers were also actually sold on Telegram. Telegram is like a social media chat application, a bit like WhatsApp. So the idea is that someone could just purchase these tracking numbers, the address and the time or the day when a package might be dropped off and you could go to that location, steal the box, and then bring that iPhone to a location and sell that iPhone inside. The prosecutor said that this crime ring stole thousands of shipments and that millions of losses were recorded by AT&T and FedEx. Some victims have told me that even though they managed to bring the package back into their homes, when they were dropped off, the thief still came by, looked around. One of them even pretended to be a FedEx driver and said, we need the box and we need to rescan it. And they grabbed the box and ran. And they wouldn't be able to do this without someone masterminding the entire operation. There were also locations in Brooklyn and in the Bronx where the stolen electronics were bought and then possibly resold abroad. So it worked through old fashioned bribery as well as sophisticated technology.

Victoria Craig (9:18)

So in order to make this successful, there was a person at the center of this who had to create a special code to get around limits on data sharing for FedEx systems. And then he sold that information on telegram along with instructions about how to use it. Is that sort of thing becoming more common for thieves to use?

Esther Fung (9:35)

As more and more logistics companies are trying to digitize their work to make it easier to track packages, Some of this data sometimes is being placed online so that their customers can get easier access to information about where the packages are located, whether or not weather events might impact the date of arrival. So with added convenience of knowing all this information, there are also loopholes. And this is also information that bad actors can use for their advantage.

Tim Higgins (10:14)

So while these companies are trying to.

Victoria Craig (10:15)

Make it easier for you and me.

Tim Higgins (10:16)

To buy our own devices, it's also giving thieves an opportunity too. You spoke to representatives at both FedEx and AT&T.

Victoria Craig (10:25)

What have they said that they can.

Tim Higgins (10:26)

Do to sort of wrap up these loopholes to make these systems more secure?

Esther Fung (10:31)

They didn't want to give away too much information with security stuff. They're always trying to be careful about what they say so that bad actors wouldn't take advantage of the information they shared. They said that they regularly make changes to their processes. In a way, they're also trying to make it so that it wouldn't be as predictable. And the idea is also, if you are a customer and you have a stolen package, report it immediately so that the companies can react more promptly.

Victoria Craig (11:05)

AT&T has said that it's already seen a significant reduction in these kinds of incidents and that they're working with FedEx and law enforcement to try to prevent this. But just talk a little bit more about what consumers can really do to protect themselves from becoming a victim.

Esther Fung (11:21)

My immediate response is if you can pick up a valuable package from the store directly, I would say go ahead and do that. It would be also better if that package requires a signature, although that can sometimes be a bit tricky to handle and arrange when you know that the package is arriving on a certain day, have someone at home. And you could also even leave a note on your door telling the delivery driver, ring my doorbell and alert me to pick it up. Because sometimes a lot of these parcel delivery drivers, they would just leave the package at the doorstep, take a picture and then leave. You might get an email alert on your phone, but you might not get it immediately or you might ignore it because you are distracted. But a doorbell, it might be more immediate.

Victoria Craig (12:11)

That was the Wall Street Journal's Esther Fung. And that's it for the Tech News Briefing. Today's show was produced by Jess Jupiter. I'm your host, Victoria. Additional support this week from Julie Chang, Jessica Fenton and Michael Lavall wrote our theme music. Our supervising producer is Matthew Walls. Our development producer is Aisha Al Muslim. Scott Salloway and Chris Sinsley are the deputy editors. And Falana Patterson is the Wall Street Journal's head of news audio. We'll be back this afternoon with TNB Tech Minute. Thanks for listening.