Telstra Names Erez Yarkoni as new CIO

CW Staff

February 2, 2015

Congress is investigating deepfakes after an altered video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went viral on Facebook, according to a CNN report. The video was uploaded on May 23 and appeared to be Pelosi drunkenly slurring her words. At that time, Facebook refused to take down the false clip. Mysteriously, the Pelosi videos disappeared, but Facebook denied removing them. By the time they were taken down, one of the videos had been viewed over 1.4 million times and shared over 30,000 times. In response to Facebook not taking the false media down, Pelosi slammed Facebook in an interview with KQED News. She said: “We have said all along, poor Facebook, they were unwittingly exploited by the Russians. I think wittingly, because right now they are putting up something that they know is false. I think it’s wrong… I think they have proven -- by not taking down something they know is false -- that they were willing enablers of the Russian interference in our election.” The reason why Congress is so concerned -- other than that it is false content about Pelosi -- is that the deepfake technology had many viewers fooled into believing that Pelosi was actually drunk and slurring. Deepfakes are “video forgeries” that manipulate visual and audio data in order to make people look like they are doing and saying things they have not done or said. Deepfakes can manipulate videos to the point where viewers may not honestly be able to tell when what they’re watching is real or not. Many people are concerned about what deepfakes could do during elections. House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA) noted that fake news campaigns may escalate for the 2020 presidential race thanks to deepfakes. For example, Schiff notes that “the most severe escalation might be the introduction of a deepfake -- a video of one of the candidates saying something they never said.”

Telstra has named Erez Yarkoni as the new CIO. Yarkoni has been with Telstra since 2013 where he was brought in as an executive director. The promotion takes place as Telstra looks to continue to expand its cloud products outside of the Asian Pacific rim and gain market share in Europe and the Americas.
Yarkoni has a diverse background in software development within the telecommunications industry. Yarkoni brings over 20 years of experience to the table. Yarkoni has held positions with startup ventures but he has most notably worked with T-Mobile in the past. Telstra’s top brass applauded the promotion as Yarkoni is brought in to help navigate Telstra’s telecom and cloud endeavors.
Kate McKenzie, the Chief Operating Officer of Telstra, is quoted as saying, “In keeping with Telstra’s global aspirations, I am pleased to appoint a truly global and highly regarded IT executive. Erez will share his time between Sydney and the west coast of the United States, which will provide a unique opportunity for him to lead our team in Australia, while working even more closely with Telstra’s global teams and partners.”
In Yarkoni’s previous role, he was the top cloud guy for Telstra. With the new role, it’s being reported that Yarkoni will still continue to oversee Telstra’s cloud division in addition to his responsibilities as CIO. Telstra’s cloud push isn’t going unnoticed as Telstra Global seems to be catching on with internationally based businesses. Although Telstra is traditionally associated with being an Aussie provider, Telstra Global has access to 2,000 point of presences in over 230 countries.
Telstra Global features a robust global network of cloud offerings such as IaaS and cloud collaboration software. Telstra’s cloud collaboration suite is built for enterprises and it offers voice, instant messaging, presence, web and video conferencing. Telstra’s Unified Communications suite is also available on mobile devices as an app. Telstra Cloud UC platform is built using the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution. More information about Telstra’s cloud services can be found on its website.