Early this morning, millions of Americans were unable to log onto websites such as X, Spotify, and ChatGPT due to a widespread Cloudflare outage. This is just a few weeks after the major AWS outage that took a major chunk of the internet out of commission. Glenn warns that because everything is so consolidated, should the wrong hands gain control over our online infrastructure, we could have MAJOR issues...
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Let me explain the internet. You know, the internet is not some magic cloud. It's really a house of clouds, that's built on the back bone And, you know, built on a handful of companies. Cloud Fare is probably a company that you've never ever heard of. It is the front door and the alarm system, if you will, for the entire internet.
It protects websites from attacks and security problems. So the internet flows through Cloud Fare.
STU: Not flare, Glenn?
GLENN: To -- Cardflare [sic], yes. Cloudflare. Sorry. To the websites. Okay? When they go down, traffic to the entire website can stop.
And most of the internet uses Cloudflare. Without them, the internet would be really, really vulnerable to cyber. Okay?
They filter are all the traffic goes. They filter it. Make sure that there's no -- nobody trying to attack, before it goes to a company's website. So the filter is blocked when they go down.
So traffic can't get through to anybody. All right?
It's a really complex service. One of the most highly valued companies in technology companies. And, I mean, it's -- it's almost irreplaceable.
They have the capacity to absorb massive attacks that will take down companies, as large as Amazon and Microsoft.
This is the -- this is the first line of defense. And it's a great line of defense!
They filter out all the attacks, so Amazon, Microsoft, all the way down GlennBeck.com. All of them -- are -- are hacked into it and don't have cyber attacks. Okay? That's Cloudflare. AWS now, that is the foundation and the plumbing. That's the Amazon. And it is the plumbing, for another third of the internet.
One glitch, not even a hack, just the stupid software bug like what happened in October, and poof, Netflix stops. Your terror bell camera goes blind.
Hospitals can't access records. Et cetera, et cetera. And we saw it last month with AWS. Today, we're seeing it with Cloudflare.
What happens when the bad guys flip the switch on purpose?
Because we're understanding now that this is just a glitch. Just -- you know, there's a wrinkle in the get along.
And we just couldn't get that hitch and glitch out of the get along. And so you know what happens when that happens?
No. I -- I really don't.
The bad guys in this scenario, one of the bad guys is communist China. Because they just launched. We found this out last week, they just launched the world's first AI agent army.
This is unbelievable. This is not sci-fi.
This is real.
In September, the -- the hackers, you know, didn't sit in darkrooms, typing, and trying to get out. They turned an American AI. Claude, which is Amazon, is it not?
Claude.
STU: It's Grok, I believe.
GLENN: Is that Google? It's anthropic. You're right. You're right. Anthropic.
They turned Claude into a Terminator.
What they did is they got into Claude, and they said, hey, pretend you're a good guy, doing security tests. Then gather this information. And put some problems into the system. They scan the networks. They wrote exploits.
They stole secrets from big tech companies. From banks. Even from our government!
Okay?
Because humans just -- when it's in there, and you see that it's, you know, anthropic. You're like, oh, yeah.
Approve!
Four breaches were confirmed.
And that's just what we caught.
There was no human involved in this. Okay?
Now, the computer is on wheels.
Tesla. One software update that goes wrong, and you're -- your Tesla becomes a brick at 90 miles an hour. The internet is exactly the same.
We've handled our -- we've handed our entire lives over to the internet. And to automation. Banking. Shopping. Voting. Talking.
These are all really fragile digital pipes. And now, the AI super soldiers. The agents. Without anyone behind them, just one guy typing in, in China, you know, go in and cause disruption and pretend that you're a friend.
And it does! So what does this mean to you? Well, it means we need redundancy for one thing. I mean, are you safe with your power?
Are you safe with your heating? Are you safe with some of the things that are going on.
Your 401(k). Hacked by a robot that never, ever sleeps. Your kid's school records, gone. Your power grid. Remember Texas, a few years back, when the power grid was overwhelmed? Imagine that being done by AI robotics.
We keep centralizing everything. This is the problem. This is the problem with our government and everything else.
Instead of getting smaller, we keep getting larger. You remember what they said in '08. The banks, they're just too big to fail. Instead of breaking them up and strengthening the smaller banks, they put the smaller banks out of business and rolled them into the bigger banks. So made the bigger banks even bigger than they were.
Centralization is a bull's-eye for chaos. And everything is being centralized right now. And the outage starves the system.
This is a wake-up call. If you're trying to get onto ChatGPT or anything else today, your banks, whatever, and there's a glitch, and it's down for a while.
We need a redundancy yesterday. Decentralize! Again, it's like bringing manufacturing home again. Bringing the chips home again.
Build AI defenses, that don't let Chinese agents waltz right this, through the back door. Harden our grid, harden our data. Or lose your freedom.
So that's what's happening today. Now, let me get to one of the distractions, quickly. The Epstein files. President Trump has said, release the damn Epstein files. But he also said at the same time, it's not going to be enough. It's never enough!
We've released the JFK files and everything else.
Yes! And you know why? It has nothing to do with Donald Trump or Joe Biden or anybody else.
It has everything to do with the United States people lying to its people over and over and over and over again.
Overclassifying absolutely he went. So we never feel like we get the truth.
And then on top of it, never holding anyone accountable for their actions.
Did you see the judge said at a -- because the government made a mistake on gathering some of the evidence that looks like that Comey case may just have to be thrown out. You're not going to be able to try Comey.
What a surprise!
What a freaking surprise!
So he's releasing the Epstein files, but says, they're just -- they're not going to be enough. But they vote on the Epstein files being released. And I hope everybody in Washington votes to release them.
You know, what changed his mind?
I'll tell you what changed his mind. He saw what the Democrats were doing, in selectively releasing things.
Just dump them all out there. Then they're out.
And anybody thinks he's in the Epstein files.
Why?
Just ask yourself this one simple question. Why wouldn't the Democrats have used it between 2020 and 2024?
Why would they have not released that evidence? It would have been the easiest way to make sure he wasn't president of the United States. If you think he's hiding something for him, you're out of your ever loving mind!
Now, that's my opinion. I have a strong, forceful opinion.
I know. I've done a lot of critical thinking on this one.
But that doesn't mean that all of his buddies and everything else, is safe. Larry Summers has just announced he will step back from public life. I mean, he's the former Democratic Treasury Secretary.
He said, he's going to -- he's going to step back. Summer's emails with Epstein, show that the former cabinet official saw late night. Or the late financiers Streisand.
On pursuing a woman he refers to as his mentee.
And he referred to himself in this email as Epstein's wing man. Oh, boy.
He said, I'm deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain I've caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decisions to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein. While continuing to fill my teaching obligations. So we've got a guy who is hanging out with Epstein.
Because where does he teach? I think he teaches in Harvard, doesn't he? Oh, good, yeah, let's have him hang out with the young kids. I'll be stepping back for my public commitments as part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair a relationship with the people closest to me.
Like, maybe, I don't know, your wife.
He hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing. But he was, you know -- you know, hanging out with Epstein. And writing him for love advice. And how can you -- hey. I need a wing man!
I'm trying to get this young mentee to sleep with me.
How do you think I can get it done.
I don't know. Nothing illegal. But nothing really non-sleazy about that.