>> live from bloomberg's world headquarters, welcome to "bloomberg west," where we focus on innovation, technology and the future of business. top headlines, russian president putin comes out swinging in the annual press conference. he blamed the west for the economic crisis that has gripped his country. >> what you can be sure of is we will overcome this difficult period. we'll find a way out of this difficult situation. i'm sure we will be stronger in the international arena and the global economy. >> the ruble steadied after his

comments where he said this week's emergency rise in interest rates is appropriate, but they are not going to spend all of their money on it. is a merger coming between two of europe's largest networking companies? a newspaper said there are talks to combine with nokia. it is flush with cash after selling the mobile phone business for $7 billion. oracle shares rose as the company saw a 4% gain. oracle is making the transition to the cloud with revenue from the cloud business up 45% from a year ago. and amazon has launched a new one-hour delivery service available in certain areas of manhattan only, but amazon plans expansion soon and called prime

now and delivers products to customers in less than one hour. now to the lead, the u.s. will officially blame north korea for the massive cyber attack against sony pictures entertainment. a person with knowledge of the investigation said u.s. officials have enough evidence to determine that the north korean government is to blame. this news comes after sony scrapped a christmas day release of "the interview" and movie chains decided not to show the movie against threats of violence. "the interview" is about a couple of news guys who go off to kill kim jung un. we know this announcement is coming. >> what we are going to hear as soon as today from u.s. officials. investigators from the f.b.i. have determined that they have

been able to tie the government and north korea to this hack. there has been a big question. they are solid enough. >> it sounded awhile like a p.r. stunt from sony and people found it hard to believe that they were capable of such high-tech maneuvering. >> they are very capable on this front. there are couple of tracks and why they are doing it today, it is a public shaming mechanism. most recently in may with chinese hackers. so there will be the law enforcement side of things. the big question that is riling up the white house is what do you do to respond? do you go back at them from cyber avenues, diplomatic means. that is a big question. you are setting precedence with everything you do and how do you want to set them?

>> we have seen an outpouring from the hollywood artists decrying this as a big fail and giving in to terrorist demands, this is not the way america is supposed to work. how do you hear the response coming out of washington? >> it is viewed on the administration side in terms of what sony chose to do. the company is in a very bad place right now. justice department officials made clear throughout the course of the investigation sony has been very helpful and forthcoming. you heard the president last night in an interview with abc before sony pulled it saying americans should go to the movies. there is no indication that the threat of some type of terrorist attack was valid or real. they were wary of it. i think when it comes to negotiating with terrorists in this case, the administration's policies have been firm, don't do it. but sony is an independent company and can operate on their

own grounds. >> was there an official white house response to the discussion? >> there was. this came up in the next day. the white house press secretary said to quote home, something that made everybody cringe. they weren't going to way in on the executives but the white house has been confronted with these issues. but they try and spin this as a way to say this wasn't a good idea and this is recognition of something that needs to change. try to turn it into a positive way. >> thank you very much. now, this is obviously a major victory for the north korean hackers. the first time that any hackers have successfully canceled the release of a major film. sony's decision to pull "the interview" has the financial and

creative consequences, losses north of $200 million and the creative community up in arms about the decision. what will sony do next? we have a security strategist and an entertainment expert. katherine, let me ask you, has the response been uniform? is everyone booing sony for giving in to these terrorist demands? >> everybody is up in arms. this is hitting us exactly where america stands from a cultural perspective, freedom of speech and creative expression is what we're made of. the question is not only is this a horrific situation but how is it going to affect movies going forward, books, magazines, comedy and tv shows. everybody is disturbed because we don't know where it will end.

>> if the north koreans can do this, anyone can. hugh, does it surprise you that they had these capabilities? is it something widely known in the security community? >> yeah. thanks for having me. it's amazing, the last three, four years, almost every developed nation building this capability, capability on the defensive side but the cyber offense capability and training people and getting tools and we see it on full display in the sony hack. >> if all they have to do is call in a 911 threat to get a film canceled, can we expect every country around the world getting every film canceled? >> it is a double-edged sword when you expose your capabilities. there is a lot of uncertainty still in the sony hack. who was it really that launched

the attack? was it folks that were just sympathetic, was it folks from the government. there are a still of pieces of this that we will be finding out over the weeks and months. >> katherine, obviously, now if iran doesn't like a movemovie, they can hack a studio. the implications -- obviously, it's a slippery slope. >> people in hollywood wished they would continue on with the release of the film, in the theaters or dvd or netflix or amazon and sony will have to work with their cybersecurity units and find a way to put up -- this is not my area, -- could work on how to get these movies out and not bow down to terrorism that could come from any country. these are people that are cultural fanatics and trying to censor the united states.

>> let me ask you about something in your area of expertise, how come we didn't see other studios rally around sony? why didn't the hollywood community get behind this company and say, if you can shut them down, you can shut us down, too? >> that's a good question. we are in unchartered territory, people didn't want to make the first move because it sets a dangerous precedent. the other studios are rallying around saying we support your creative expression but i don't think anybody wanted to make the first move and god forbid something happened, they would be part of the liability as well. everyone is watching closely. >> hugh, what if a studio said, look we had these threats of violence but going to go ahead

and put this film out because that's what we do in this country? how do you prepare for that sort of thing? >> it's challenging. we have already seen on display the capabilities this group has, but you can achieve some level of security and recovery. you go back in and do a full forensic investigation, how did they get in, what kinds of tools did they use and it's a wake-up call for a bunch of different industries that haven't historically focused on security to say that those industries are potentially at risk. there is a lot we can learn from this attack and certainly there is great cybersecurity capabilities out there in the marketplace. it's a call to the companies to bring those in-house. >> how do you see those cybersecurity threats cross over into real physical violence?

i read a couple around the silk road case and i was surprised to see it come from the internet to a gun shop. >> if you think what's happening online now outside of the sony case, we are connecting all of these devices now to a network connection and have moving parts that can do things. it's becoming a very serious issue of how do we get those things, those devices, these companies secure online. and i think we are making a lot of progress, but with this attack and several others over the last year, to be quite frank, have shown us we have a lot of work to do. >> thanks for joining us. hugh and katherine, we appreciate you joining us. couple of headlines, white house press person is saying the hack is still under investigation.

he is saying the white house is holding a daily meeting and this mater is being treated as a national security matter. the white house taking fairly seriously and we will bring you headlines. more questions about the way uber screens its drivers. one driver is accused of raping a woman. you can watch us streaming on your tablet, phone or at bloomberg.com. we are all over the place. ♪ >> a boston man who works as an

uber driver is charged with taking a passenger to a secluded area and raping her. they say, quote, this is a despicable crime and our thoughts and prayers are with the victim.

they have been working closely with law enforcement and will do everything they can to assist in the investigation. it comes as they say will do more background checks on their drivers. the former chairman of the new york city taxi and limo commission. matt, thanks for joining us. we were talking about -- i was asking, uber drivers here in new york are vetted by the t.l.c., right? >> when i was working for the mayor, we put in great reforms in the 1980's, where you get within 24-48 hours, a criminal history which is better and more accurate than the others they are doing in cities and states. which is just a name check. >> uber has different regulations for its drivers in different cities around the world.

>> the chairman of the public utilities commission in california just resigned. he and the commission were responsible for allowing this thing called ride sharing. this is hitchhiking. my parents said you shouldn't do it, it's dangerous. you are using an app. what they are doing and i encourage all the legislators, whether new jersey, illinois, california, they are starting to revisit these laws in colorado, too. they have been lobbying and spending millions of dollars to have less background checks to do it themselves when every other taxi and limo is going through a fingerprint, which is more accurate and will catch fraud that is occurring with fake names and identities. it's good that uber finally acknowledged -- >> uber has announced, even before today's case came to

light, they are going to do more background checks. deeper background checks, but also kind of weird things like a lie detector test, right? >> the expense they will go through on their own to do this is crazy. the government can do it. it doesn't go far enough. the government needs to do it. they are trying to have a special exemption in the different states to do it themselves. only costs about $50 to $70 for the drivers to be vetted. our hearts go out to these people. >> to be clear, even a yellow cab driver could commit and have committed horrible crimes. people from all walks of life, regardless of any background check, sometimes do commit horrible crimes. it's not just an uber driver and there was a ride-sharing attack

this weekend that may have been a different company. >> consumers need to know there is a greater risk with uber because they are doing checks that are not as accurate. the u.s. attorney general years ago did a study that looked at florida employees as well as license applicants and over 10% of them, name check versus biometrics, you aren't going to catch everybody. people have right to rehabilitation, but d.u.i., rape, murder, they should not be behind the wheel. i call it control, alternate delete. we have control over our destiny. other legal licensed apps that do government background checks and we have the option to delete this app and also the cybersecurity issues, we talked about sony. senator franken is really

questioning what the alleged, not just the alleged rapes and stuff, but the alleged spying and tracking and use of data by uber. i don't know what's going on there. hopefully we will know in the future what the deal is. when i put the g.p.s. in the new york city yellow cabs years ago under mayor bloomberg, we cut a deal with the new york civil liberties union where we said that we, by law, have to have security provisions of that data and any cab driver will not know and any owner where you are going in a new york city cab right now. do they have the ability to? we have laws that say it's illegal for the new york city taxi cab vendors that run the system to know where you are going. it's illegal and do the same thing for uber and the ride shares. >> maybe they will call you up and ask for your advice. i want to read a statement from uber.

they say in november, uber's safety team began a global review to assess the areas where greatest investment is required. as we look at 2015, we will build new safety programs and intensify others. >> if they call me, i will talk to them. >> hopefully 2015 is a better year. matt, thanks for joining us, talking about uber. now, coming up, a venture capitalist thinks he can live to the ripe old age of 120. find out how, coming up next. >> peter thiel is known for

building paypal and outside investor of facebook.

he is hoping to live to the age of 120. emily sat down with him. >> i know you thought a lot about the extension of human life. you think you may live to 120. >> i certainly hope to, yes. >> what are you doing differently, taking immortality pills? >> i'm investing in a lot of companies. on the nutrition side, there are some basic things that can be done. you should not eat sugar. >> do you not eat sugar? >> some. but not as much as i used to. >> what do you eat more of? >> a paleo-type diet. you will need new technology and new innovation to have longer and healthier lives. >> like what?

>> cures for cancer and alzheimer's and restore organs when they're falling apart, go through the different ways that people's bodies break down. i'm on hdh human growth hormone on a daily basis. >> what of the benefit is that supposed to be? >> it helps maintain muscle mass. so you are much less likely to get like bone injuries, arthritis as you get older. and there is an increased cancer risk. >> you're not concerned about that? >> i'm hopeful that we'll get cancer cured in the next decade. the other nutrition thing that is happening is the biome, where you have about as many bacteria inside of you as you have cells. and so i think one of the things that's going to happen in the

next few years is people figure out ways to reset your ecosystem. you figure out what healthy people's ecosystem and replace yours with theirs. ♪ >> he has been called the king

of techtopia. peter thiel made his name founding paypal and funding facebook, and now is backing rocket ships and starting islands off the coast. he paid kids to skip college and started companies instead. i know there will be flying cars along the way, joining me is the bold and controversial venture