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Quest Means Business

Rockets Over Jerusalem, Airstrikes In Gaza; U.K. P.M. Approves Phase Of England's Reopening; Netanyahu: Rocket Fire From Gaza "Crossed A Red Line"; FBI: Russian Group "Darkside" Behind Cyberattack. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired May 10, 2021 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:11]

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: The Dow is on course for a record, but it's a story of two markets as we start the week together.

The Dow is up strongly, or it was -- it has been giving up some of the gains. The NASDAQ and the tech stocks are absolutely dreadful. We will get

into details of exactly who is down and what, but the broader market is higher.

The markets, as they look at the moment, and the main events that everybody is talking about.

Turn to the "Darkside." The F.B.I. has pinned down the group behind the hack on a U.S. oil pipeline. Now, the economic implications need to be

considered.

As England confirms its plans the reopen, Europe's C.D.C. chief tells me the continent isn't ready yet for open travel.

And a new poll in Japan shows a majority want the Tokyo 2020 Olympics canceled.

You and I start our week together live from New York on Monday, 10th of May, I'm Richard Quest, and I mean business.

Good evening. We'll have the day's business news and our business agenda in a moment, but I want to begin with breaking news from Israel where rockets

over Jerusalem and air strikes in Gaza; the escalation is following weeks of Palestinian protests and clashes with Israeli Police.

The tension has been building over the possible eviction of several Palestinian families from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. The

Israel Defense Forces says they targeted Hamas operatives in Gaza after dozens of rockets were fired towards Jerusalem.

Palestinian officials say the Israeli strikes killed nine people that includes three children. The Palestinian Red Crescent says more than 300

have been hurt during last night's clashes with the police.

That's the latest situation. Hadas Gold is in Jerusalem for us this evening, where it is now mid-evening. So what is the current situation,

before we talked about what started it? What's the latest situation?

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Richard, all evening long, sirens have been going off across mostly Southern Israel indicating that rockets are

incoming. Now, we don't have an exact count, but we can say that there are dozens, probably well over 50 rockets have been fired from Gaza into

Israel.

And as you noted earlier today, just a few hours ago, those included rockets were fired towards Jerusalem. We were actually live on air when

that happened, when the sires went off in Jerusalem. Now, that hasn't happened in Jerusalem for several years now and that is seen as a very

clear escalation from the Gaza militants.

The Israeli military is calling this a blatant attacks against Israel and saying that it is their intention to hold Hamas and the Gaza militants

accountable. They confirmed, as you know, they had carried out a strike in the Gaza strip, as you know, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza

says nine people have been killed in Gaza, including three children.

The Ministry of Health is saying that as a result of an Israeli air strike, but the Israeli Army says that it is still investigating the incident. Gaza

militants have said that these rocket attacks are in direct retaliation for what has been happening in Jerusalem over the past several days, over the

past several weeks, rising tensions as you have mentioned.

Now, the U.S. Department is expressing concern on Monday. They are condemning they say, in the strongest form, the barrage of rocket attacks

fired into Israel in recent hours calling it an unacceptable escalation while also expressing concerns for the situation in Jerusalem, the

escalating tensions at the Al-Aqsa Compound, as well as the situation this the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood -- Richard.

QUEST: Okay, so we knew that this was going to be a difficult time. Obviously, this is also the day where many Israelis celebrate getting back

of the east part of Jerusalem. So we knew that this was going to be difficult and it could be -- there could be tensions. What was it that

tipped it over?

GOLD: Well, Richard, tensions have been rising in Jerusalem for several weeks, since the beginning of Ramadan, but really, the latest flashpoint

has, without a question, been the situation in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood where several Palestinian families, some of whom have been

living there for decades are facing possible eviction as part of a long running legal battle.

Now, there was supposed to be a hearing on these evictions today in the Supreme Court, but at the request of the Attorney General, it was delayed

and they are going to set a new date within 30 days.

As you noted, there was also supposed -- today is Jerusalem Day, like you said, that Israel celebrates when they captured the western wall of

Jerusalem. Typically, there is a march of tens of thousands of Israelis through the Old City, and initially this march was supposed to go through

parts of the Muslim parts of the Old City of Jerusalem.

At the last minute, police rerouted that march to go through a different part and yet, at 6:00 p.m., when we heard the sirens and we heard those

rockets, we heard at least seven explosions in Jerusalem shortly after that, police canceled the march entirely and told people to go home,

clearly worried about having tens of thousands of people out on the street.

[15:05:25]

GOLD: Some people just stayed out there, they continued to chant and celebrate and some of them even tried to go towards the Damascus gate

entrance of the Old City, where initially supposed to be where Palestinians had also have been gathering. Really, these has been just days of

escalating tension.

And officials were incredibly worried of what today would bring, and it appears as though we have reached really, a new level here, especially with

the rockets being fired at Jerusalem. And now, the question will be, where will these rockets go next? Will they go towards Tel Aviv and what will the

Israeli military response be over the next few days in Gaza?

QUEST: Thank you. Hadas Gold is in Jerusalem.

Dahlia Scheindlin is a fellow at the Century Foundation, joins me now via skype from Tel Aviv.

Well, the issues at play here, or the issues at the center of this are not new, and are at the heart of the -- any form of negotiations or not as

there may be. But there does seem to have been a massive deterioration of an uneasy status quo which now threatens the region.

DAHLIA SCHEINDLIN, FELLOW, THE CENTURY FOUNDATION: Well, as you pointed out, these are very cyclical tensions for those of us who live here. We are

used to seeing the flashpoint of Jerusalem generally from the area of the Temple Mount or the Al-Aqsa Mosque oftentimes during Ramadan when there are

clashes, but these problems go way back.

The attempts to oust Palestinian families from East Jerusalem neighborhoods in Sheikh Jarrah is a long running problem that generally sparks tensions,

and as you pointed out, there has been no horizon for any sort of political negotiations between the two sides in many, many years, certainly none

meaningful.

And I think we also have to see this against the backgrounds of political crises in a way in both societies. Of course, Israel is facing a long

running two-year long political crisis. The Prime Minister has his back up to the wall, so to speak. He has been unable to form a government and the

opposition parties or the change parties as they are calling themselves are feverishly negotiating to try to form a coalition, which would oust him

from power.

Some say that the escalation and the rising -- the more severe security situation makes that much harder for the opposition parties because

Netanyahu generally portrays that when there is a security threat to Israel, he is the best leader. That is a sort of psychological form of

pressure, but it could be that he simply is benefiting from this.

Of course, if it escalates into full-blown war, many of those coalition building processes could simply be put on hold. They are already causing

tensions in the negotiations.

QUEST: Yes, and the Palestinians, their leadership, too, is hardly a model of stability at the moment, which leaves this is vacuum which Hamas has

traditionally been able to play to its best advantage because it does have many of the social services and necessities that people seek and therefore

does find favor.

SCHEINDLIN: Well, you could look at it like that, but I think there is another angle to the Palestinian political crisis, which is the other side

of this, and that's that the Palestinian authority had called elections that were supposed to be held later this month, and by all accounts, Hamas

wanted those elections at least in part because of the dire situation in Gaza, which has effectively been under a siege because of Hamas's

leadership there for about 14 years. Israel controls everything going in and going out.

Now, Hamas has taken the brunt of the blame for that, and they are -- by some accounts they wanted to have elections so that they could possibly

form a unity government afterwards and not be responsible for the deep economic and social crisis, the disastrous civilian situation in Gaza, of

course, those elections on the 29th of April were postponed, indefinitely.

And some would also look at Hamas's actions as a form of distraction, knowing that they weren't going to be able to distract energy towards

people exercising their right to vote.

QUEST: Not in any way minimizing the death or destruction that's taken place tonight, but with your expertise, is it your feeling, thought,

guidance that this blows itself out relatively quickly, or does it sort of entrench itself and get worse?

SCHEINDLIN: Yes, this is really a trap to try to predict. I mean, we have seen many forms of escalation that looked like this in recent years and

that did eventually blow themselves out. There are many reasons to think that neither side truly wants a full-blown escalation right now.

[15:10:10]

SCHEINDLIN: Having said that, all of the best analysis in the world can crumble sometimes under the weight of simply irrational and un-strategic

decisions of some of the leaders in this region and even if each side does not really want it to escalate into a full-blown war, of course that

happened three times in the past between Israel and Hamas.

I think that we will see -- the next 24 to 48 hours will be critical. There are many things that both sides could do to continue escalating and

signaling an intention to escalate, and sometimes those moves have a dynamic of their own.

QUEST: Thank you. Thank you, Dahlia. Be safe. And we will follow you for more on this. Thank you.

An hour left to go on Wall Street and the major averages are mixed. The Dow is up. Now, about a hundred points, but you see how the Dow has come well

off its better part of the session. It is heading for a record high. However, the NASDAQ is down sharply.

The chip stocks and the FAANG stocks amongst the biggest losers. The NASDAQ has now lost around 500 points so far this month.

To Europe, well, mixed. The Frankfurt and Paris are flat with the FTSE and Zurich both down less than one percent.

In a moment, shining a light on Darkside, the Colonial Pipeline network is -- getting it back up and running is the key. We speak to a leading a

cybersecurity expert about supposed criminals with the code of conduct.

And England can go back to the pubs from next week. Boris Johnson unveils the next phase of his plans for easing lockdown.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Colonial, the company running America's largest fuel pipeline says it hopes to restore service by the end of the week. Now, a massive

cyberattack forced Colonial to close the pipeline as a precautionary measure.

The pipeline says -- look at the size and scale of it -- it is several pipes, more than 5,000 miles long and it transports 45 percent of the fuel

consumed on the East Coast. You can see it has got various sub-pipelines and branch ways that come off it as it wends its way.

It carries, crudes, distillates, jet fuel, diesel, the whole lot.

It remains largely offline after Friday's hack. The F.B.I. has confirmed that Darkside ransomware was responsible. In the past couple of hours, the

U.S. President has said efforts are under way to try to find and prosecute those at blame.

[09:15:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My administration takes issue -- this -- takes this very seriously. We have efforts under way with

the F.B.I. and D.O.J., the Department of Justice to disrupt and prosecute ransomware criminals.

And my administration will be pursuing a global effort of ransomware attacks by transnational criminals who often use global money laundering

networks to carry them out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Josh Campbell is with me in Los Angeles and Natasha Bertrand is with me in Washington. Let's start with you, Josh, first of all. Darkside, what

do they want? This is -- I mean, I hesitate to use this phrase "ethical hacking" because clearly it's not in this case. But what do they want?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: According to them, they want money and that is based on something that we have seen on the Dark Web,

recently a post associated with this group came out, basically a statement saying their purpose in conducting this ransomware attack was in their

words "financial not political."

And that's important because the question was, well, is this a group that is working at the behest of Russian intelligence services or were they

operating on their own? If you listen to them, if you believe them, they say that it was money.

It is also worth pointing out that we heard from President Joe Biden and some other White House officials a short time ago who seemed to confirm

that the U.S. Intelligence community had not seen any indication that the Russian Intelligence Services were behind this.

But of course, the question is out there because if you look at Russia's behavior in the past, they have certainly had this symbiotic relationship,

if you will, with some of these criminal groups including, Richard, using them as proxies at times.

QUEST: Right, now, taking that point, Natasha, the President when he said they believed they were Russian, but not necessarily government, he did

say, "But we hold the Russian government responsible for stopping these sort of attacks." What can he do?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: This is a question, Richard and it remains to be seen whether the administration is going to demand an

answer from the Russian government or some kind of accountability from the Kremlin for essentially allowing these criminal groups to operate and

giving them this tacit approval to operate.

Because as Josh said, it is a symbiotic relationship. The criminal hackers learn things from the government and the government intelligence services

learn things and sometimes, take quote-unquote "talent" from these criminal underground groups.

So, whether or not the Biden administration chooses to confront the Kremlin ahead this planned Summit between President Biden and Russian President

Vladimir Putin this summer is an open question.

Of course, Biden did say that he still plans to meet directly with Vladimir Putin this summer and that this does not change that, while of course

saying, well, they are operating, this group is operating on Russian soil, therefore the Russian government clearly has a responsibility here to take

some kind of action.

QUEST: So, Josh, how -- the owners of Colonial closed it down because they weren't sure of the integrity of the pipeline. How serious -- I don't mean

economic, we will look at that elsewhere. In terms of the ability to close down this important pipeline, is it just embarrassing or is it more

serious?

CAMPBELL: Well, I think it is both. I mean, you showed the map a second ago where you see just how widespread this pipeline is in the United States

spanning from Texas all the way up to the East Coast.

And as you mentioned, this carries nearly half the volume of fuel consumption on the East Coast of the United States, so that alone, to have

that disrupted, is certainly embarrassing. There is obviously large financial costs. But also, we have to keep in mind that this pipeline,

Richard, is more than just a metal.

It has flowing through it a highly flammable fuel, gasoline, jet fuel. And so the question was, if cyber hackers were actually able to move into some

of the switching operations, some of the terminals, could they wreak havoc? That was what concerned this company enough that they took this pipeline

down.

We just got a statement from them a short team ago saying that they are incrementally starting to bring certain systems back on line. They don't

know when they will come back fully on board, but certainly, for this company and indeed, for the F.B.I. and other investigators, it is something

that they have taken very seriously.

I will finish with this, this is a statement just a short time ago we heard from the former chief cyber security person at the U.S. Department of

Homeland Security. Richard, in his words, I wrote this down, he says, "This is the most disruptive cyberattack on U.S. energy infrastructure in

history." A very serious deal.

QUEST: We will get you get on with your duties there, Josh and finish with -- Donald Trump had of course, suffered, under his administration the

attack on U.S. infrastructure through various private companies. And the President -- the current President said that he wouldn't allow that to

happen. He wouldn't allow anything similar to happen. He would be tough.

Well, guess what? It has happened. Now, we find out how tough he is. How much of this is going to be a political, never mind an economic issue?

[15:20:18]

BERTRAND: Well, he is clearly going to be under a lot of pressure to respond here and part of the problem that we are seeing is that the U.S.

government is very limited in how much it can direct the private sector to detect and mitigate these incidents.

Now, the White House said today that it had reached out to Colonial Pipeline to offer assistance, to say we are here for cybersecurity

assistance if you need it, but Colonial Pipeline of course is reluctant to accept any government help in this and that is part of the big issue here

is that how can we move forward in allowing the government to further work with these private sector partners to prevent something catastrophic from

happening to U.S. critical infrastructure that is controlled largely by the private sector while at the same time preserving these companies' abilities

to operate completely independently and have a say in their own cybersecurity practices.

This is one of the big issues that the Biden administration has said it wants to tackle moving forward. How to protect critical infrastructure and

how to -- you know, especially moving forward, make sure that these criminal and ransomware groups cannot attack the power grid or oil and gas

energy systems that could essentially cripple the United States.

QUEST: Natasha, thank you. Keep watching the politics, and come back when there is more.

This is a new, yet highly sophisticated group so says the F.B.I., talking about Darkside, which is the group believed to be behind this attack.

Security firm, Cybereason says Darkside uses a ransomware as a service model, meaning it develops a market hacking tool, sells them to other

criminals.

Darkside claims, it isn't political, it just wants to make money without causing problems for society.

In fact, Darkside of course is keen to stress a supposed moral code claiming attacks on industries such as education and medicine are off

limits and touts donations like this to a children's charity worth about $10,000.00.

Children International insists that they have no intention of keeping the money.

The CEO of Cybereason which has been assessing Darkside's operation is with me. Lior Div is in Tel Aviv. He join me via Skype.

Lior, well, you know, they may dress themselves up in an ethical garb, but they are criminals nonetheless as is witnessed by this fairly dramatic

result of having to close down the Colonial Pipeline.

LIOR DIV, CEO, CYBEREASON: Yes. Absolutely. We are tracking this group from 2020, from August. We believe that they are a very sophisticated group and

we just released in April kind of a long log about them and their doing.

We believe that they are sophisticated. They are after money.

We believe that the source is probably in an area of Russia. We are not sure right now. But according to everything that we managed to collect

until now, this is kind of the link that we managed to see.

Basically, they are hacking everything that has a keyboard that have English with it, and if there is not English, they decide to stop hacking.

This is very interesting piece of information that we managed to collect after analyzing their tools.

QUEST: So, let's take this Colonial hack. Now, Colonial have closed the pipeline themselves because they say they couldn't know -- out of an

abundance of caution. But I am guessing the mere fact that something as strategically important as this pipeline can be hacked, I think many

people, myself certainly one of them, find that somewhat breathtaking.

DIV: Yes, absolutely. So the interesting piece is after we analyzed their tools and not the specific hack, we realized that they are utilizing a lot

of tools that they are leaving off the land, meaning that tools that usually they are regular pieces of software that you can use, collect, and

execute on almost any basically enterprise that exists out there.

We believe that they are not so sophisticated. They are sophisticated, but we started to track them around August last year. And still, at that point,

we managed to develop capabilities in order to stop them.

We see a list of attempts from this group after our customer base, and we managed to prevent and stop them from getting in every time. So while they

are sophisticated, but not using the most sophisticated tool, I believe that there is many things that we can do in order to stop this type of hack

from happening in the future.

QUEST: So, since this cyber hacking again, we have always said well, we just have to be two steps ahead of them, and that's impossible because they

will be one step ahead of us. Is this not a classic example? I mean is the U.S. government able to do anything, do you believe?

[15:25:06]

DIV: Yes, we believe that the government -- with the private sector, with different universities that exist out there can collaborate together, share

information as fast as possible and share techniques.

This is part of the reason that after we discovered that there is a new group hacking out there, we decided to collect as much knowledge as

possible and to release it to everybody and to share it with everybody that we can.

Not just with the government, even with the competitive companies competing with us in the market. But we do not believe that we need to compete when

we are fighting against those hackers that exist out there.

We believe that this is not just criminals, this is almost the terrorists that are coming after us. We believe we have to protect home.

QUEST: Lior, good to talk to you tonight. Thank you, sir. I appreciate your time. We will talk more on Darkside and when you have more to tell us, we

will certainly want to hear it.

It is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS from New York this evening. Vaccine passports have become another thing to remember before you get on a flight.

When we come back, you are going to hear from the executive behind CommonPass about how it is making traveling much easier. In a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: People in England will be able to get together for a pint inside a sub starting next week. Hallelujah.

The British Prime Minister says the country is ready to advance the next stage of a phase three opening. That means people can mix in groups of up

to six indoors, and among other things, Boris Johnson listed ways of life getting back to normal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: From next Monday, you will be able to sit inside a pub and inside a restaurant. You will be able to go to the

cinema, and children will be able to use indoor play areas.

We are reopening hostels, hotels, B&Bs. We will reopen the doors to our theaters. Concert halls, and business conference centers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:30:01]

QUEST: Now, I spoke earlier today with the head of the European CDC in terms of where I think stands on reopening and travel with the continent.

Director Andrea Ammon told me Europe's vaccination rates are not yet high enough for it to open for summer holiday travel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREA AMMON, DIRECTOR, EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR DISEASE PREVENTION AND CONTROL: I think in the current in the current situation, we are not if we look at

the current speed of the vaccination progress, we might get there. If what we discussed at the beginning, there is no a block in the -- in reaching

the coverage due to hesitancy.

QUEST: Do you fear that the political will to -- the political pressure to open up is so great pent-up demand, people have been locked up for a year,

12, 14, 15 months. Do you fear that political pressure may trump magical or sound advice from yourself?

AMMON: It is difficult to predict what the political decisions will be. My impression is though, that decision makers have learned the lesson what it

means if we are opening up too quickly. I mean, we're dealing with the aftermath of this right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: We'll have more on interview tomorrow. But Cyril Vanier is in London. And it's very good news. I mean, my family -- my sisters and family

are all certainly looking forward to it. And I'm starting to wonder just how quickly they'll be able to -- and where they'll be able to go to

travel.

CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, all of us are looking forward to life looking like normal again, starting next Monday. Really, we're going to be

90 percent back there on Monday, Richard. You heard the list from Boris Johnson, you can go inside a pub, inside a restaurant, hotels will reopen,

museums, theaters, et cetera. The list is long. The traveling really -- OK, so the traveling is no longer outlawed. That is a major improvement.

However, when you look at where we're actually allowed to go, there's only a list of 12 countries, Richard, where we can go in that green list when no

-- and don't have to quarantine upon our return. If I remove some of the destinations that are just frankly unrealistic like the sandwich Islands

from those lists, that list gets shorter. If I remove Iceland, for instance, which is not a sunshine destination, OK, the list gets shorter

still.

If I remove Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, which are all sunshine destinations but A, they're far away if you're taking a one week 10-day

holiday, they are far away. And B, if you transit on your way there on your way back, you transit through what we call here in amber country, then you

still have to quarantine on your return.

If you remove all those countries, the countries that are theoretically open to you, meaning that you can travel to them without quarantining on

your return are Israel, Portugal and Gibraltar. So, Richard, that's a pretty short list.

QUEST: Fine destinations though, they are happily take any one of them. Thank you, Cyril. I know -- I know where you're going for the holidays this

year. Thank you, sir.

Now as traveling does open back up and when Cyril is on his way, whether wherever it might be and changing planes and all of that, the digital

vaccine passport or certificate may become the new normal, will become the new normal. A few companies are making it a reality. We've already told you

about CommonPass, we talked about that last year when they're in the middle of just setting it all up.

CommonPass has partnerships with Lufthansa, Delta, Qantas and several other airlines. You've also got cleared health pass which is in use in dozens of

us stadia and venues. New York State is using something called Excelsior as part of its safe reopening program. It shows you a little Q.R. code that

I've been vaccinated. And then the airlines have gotten less including Emirates, Serbia, Virgin Atlantic is going for IATA's travel pass.

And don't forget the E.U. with its digital green certificate, verifying vaccination status up and running in June. Paul Meyer is with me, the CEO

of a commons project responsible for CommonPass. Paul, we talked last year and when we did, it was very much in its infancy. Now we've got a much

better idea of the way this is going to roll out. And it seems to me the difficult part is going to be knitting you all together so that I don't

have to upload it to four or five or six different apps or if I do that at least one does talk to the other.

PAUL MEYER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, THE COMMONS PROJECT: Yes, absolutely. Interoperability is a key to making this possible. The other thing that's

happened since we spoke last year is of course the emergence of vaccinations and vaccination records. And, you know, when we first deployed

CommonPass, it was really focused on getting tested before travel and that's still what we have in production with many airlines today.

[15:35:00]

MEYER: But we spent a lot of the last few months working to get ready to be able to enable initially, the -- hopefully, you know, 100-plus million

Americans who have gotten vaccinated to be able to, you know, soon be able to upload their vaccination records into CommonPass and use those

vaccination records.

QUEST: Now, I don't for a second doubt that this will be the future. What I'm trying to understand is how it all fits together. For instance, I have

common parts here, your people kindly sent me the ability to do it, and vaccines as you're working on the vaccine support, which like everybody

else, but I'm done. That's not a criticism I've resolved. But ensuring that the vaccine record is legitimate and that you're not the result of fraud or

nefarious or whatever.

How are you going to do it? Because at the moment, and for many people, it's just a little piece of paper.

MEYER: Yes. Is -- it -- it's becoming digital and one of the things that we have -- we have led an initiative called the vaccine credential initiative

with most of the key stakeholders, initially in the U.S. healthcare ecosystem. Large technology companies like Microsoft, and Salesforce, and

Epic and Cerner as well as major health institutions. And what we've done is really helped develop the open standards for how vaccination records are

digitized in a secure way that can be relied upon.

Because you're absolutely right, those pieces of paper are easy to -- easy to fake. There -- I think available, you know, on the internet for 20

bucks. What we have done through this initiative is -- standard for digitizing those records so that we've announced some of our partners like

Wal-Mart and the other pharmacy chains that are working on adopting this standard, so that, you know, if you get one of these digital records, it

hasn't been tampered with.

You know that it was Richard Quest and he got vaccinated at Mount Sinai Hospital and it hasn't been tampered with along the way.

QUEST: And indeed, I'm not going to show the screen, but there is my digital vaccination from the New York wallet. And finally, as we look at

this, the difficult thing is we're trying to do it very fast. We're trying to set up a global system of great complexity very fast. When do you think

realistically, it's going to be up and running?

MEYER: I think it's going to vary country by country. I can speak about the U.S. I mean, one of the things that certainly this use case is happening

very quickly. But there's been a lot of work for decades around health data standards and health data interoperability standards. And I think one of

the things that's really shifted with the advent of vaccinations is this is moved from a travel problem and a travel app problem to a healthcare

problem.

And part of the -- part of the way we avoid making mistakes is actually building on existing health data standards and health data interoperability

standards, which is, you know, which are things that have been worked on for a really long time to come -- for a very long time.

QUEST: And your answer that just made me think of the way it works will be one thing. And we are entering a world where the developed world will be

vaccinated to a certain high level. The developing world still has some way to go and may never reach herd immunity status in some cases. And I beg to

ask what happens then? All this digitization, you've got people like you and me sweating the world with our phones and showing it to everything.

Other people will be having to have COVID tests wherever they go, but I'm putting them into CommonPass travel pass or whatever.

MEYER: Well, I can get this reality right now, right? Most of the rules, as you -- as you know, currently our testing rules, right? They're testing

requirements to fly into the United States, for example.

And what we expect is that the countries will start to adopt rules that allow vaccinations to be demonstrated, potentially in addition to or as an

alternative to getting tested but that those rules will include testing and/or vaccination requirements which is how people that have not been

vaccinated will eventually be able to travel.

QUEST: Thank you, sir. We'll talk more Paul. We will as this develops. Thank you. Now an update on our top stories. Israeli's Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu promises country would respond with great force in his words to a barrage of rocket far from Gaza saying the attacks crossed a red

line. Israeli Defense Forces now send 85 rockets were fired across the border. today. Israel says it's responded by targeting Hamas terrorists in

Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister told Israelis that conflict could continue for some time and is speaking it's an aggressive Jerusalem Day ceremony. And that's

a QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for the moment. I'll be back at the top of the hour. You and I have a dash for the closing bell that's after Connecting Africa.

[15:40:02]

This is CNN. There the Dow is back --

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[15:57:37]

QUEST: Hello. I'm Richard Quest. We have a dash to the closing bell. And that's in just over two minutes from now. Markets have been on a wild ride

in a sense. The Dow rose above 35,000 intraday and then fell back and indeed, it was on record for a track for -- it was on track for a record

close. But those gains have just evaporated.

Look at the right end of that chart. It's literally evaporated. And you can see the NASDAQ is off really -- off 2-1/2 percent. Some stocks like

Facebook down four percent, Amazon down 2-1/2 percent. Investors are pulling back from Tech.

At the moment as the NASDAQ is off, the S&P is off by half a point after hitting intraday highs. Shares in 3M and P&G are helping power the Dow but

unfortunately not to the record close that was looking at. And if you look at the Dow 30, Verizon and Johnson & Johnson had performed well, but it's

the losses visa, Apple, Microsoft, Salesforce, Boeing.

They are overwhelming what gains there are. Chip makers are struggling across the board. Intel down more than 2-1/2 percent. Everyone in the Fang

stocks are lower, Facebook off the most worries of inflation. Numbers later this week are weighing on tech, who have been the biggest beneficiaries of

the low rate environment.

The FBI says it suspects the Russian hacker group Darkside behind colonial pipeline attack. Cyber reasons been tracking the group for months. Its CEO

told the government and business must work together to take down hackers. Lior Div says he didn't hesitate to share information.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIOR DIV, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, CYBEREASON: Yes. We believe that the government with the private sector, with different universities that exist

out there can collaborate together, share information as fast as possible and share techniques. This is part of the reason that after we discovered

that there is a new group that hacking out there, we decided to collect as much as knowledge as possible and to release it to everybody and to share

it with everybody that we can.

Not just with the government even with the competitive companies that competing with us in the market but we do not believe that we need to

compete when we're fighting against those hackers that exist out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: And that's the dash to the bell. With the market having turned turtle. The Dow is lower, the NASDAQ sharply down, down 18 points. That is

the lowest points of the day. I'm Richard Quest. Whatever you're up to in the hour ahead, I hope it's profitable. For my (INAUDIBLE) the closing bell

is ringing on Wall Street.

QUEST: "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts now.

END