Neglect Exposes Private Medical Files
October 28, 2015
Data such as financial information and medical files are supposed to be protected behind secure firewalls and barriers that ensure people’s information does not fall into the wrong hands. While digital security is at the best it has ever been, sometimes a hacker does not to rely on his/her skills to get sensitive information. Sometimes all they need to do is wait for an idiotic mistake, such as what happened on Amazon Web Services wrote Gizmodo in “Error Exposes 1.5 Million People’s Private Records On Amazon Web Services.”
Tech junkie Chris Vickery heard a rumor that “strange data dumps” could appear on Amazon Web Services, so he decided to go looking for some. He hunted through AWS, found one such dump, and it was a huge haul or it would have been if Vickery was a hacker. Vickery discovered it was medical information belonging to 1.5 million people and from these organizations: Kansas’ State Self Insurance Fund, CSAC Excess Insurance Authority, and the Salt Lake County Database.
“The data came from Systema Software, a small company that manages insurance claims. It still isn’t clear how the data ended up on the site, but the company did confirm to Vickery that it happened. Shortly after Vickery made contact with the affected organizations, the database disappeared from the Amazon subdomain.”
The 1.5 million people should be thanking Vickery, because he alerted these organizations and the data was immediately removed from the Amazon cloud. It turns out that Vickery was the only one to access the data, but it begs the question what would happen if a malicious hacker had gotten hold of the data? You can count on that the medical information would have been sold to the highest bidder.
Vickery’s discovery is not isolated. Other organizations are bound to be negligent in data and your personal information could be posted in an unsecure area. How can you get organizations to better protect your information? Good question.
Whitney Grace, October 28, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
RAVN Pipeline Coupled with ElasticSearch to Improve Indexing Capabilities
October 28, 2015
The article on PR Newswire titled RAVN Systems Releases its Enterprise Search Indexing Platform, RAVN Pipeline, to Ingest Enterprise Content Into ElasticSearch unpacks the decision to improve the ElasticSearch platform by supplying the indexing platform of the RAVN Pipeline. RAVN Systems is a UK company with expertise in processing unstructured data founded by consultants and developers. Their stated goal is to discover new lands in the world of information technology. The article states,
“RAVN Pipeline delivers a platform approach to all your Extraction, Transformation and Load (ETL) needs. A wide variety of source repositories including, but not limited to, File systems, e-mail systems, DMS platforms, CRM systems and hosted platforms can be connected while maintaining document level security when indexing the content into Elasticsearch. Also, compressed archives and other complex data types are supported out of the box, with the ability to retain nested hierarchical structures.”
The added indexing ability is very important, especially for users trying to index from from or into cloud-based repositories. Even a single instance of any type of data can be indexed with the Pipeline, which also enriches data during indexing with auto-tagging and classifications. The article also promises that non-specialists (by which I assume they mean people) will be able to use the new systems due to their being GUI driven and intuitive.
Chelsea Kerwin, October 28, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
EasyAsk Crowdfunder Campaign
October 27, 2015
In June 2015, EasyAsk kicked off a program to elicit investment funds. The EasyAsk approach is not one I usually see in the search and content processing sector.
“Mobile Commerce Company EasyAsk Seeks $2.5M on Crowdfunder” reported:
With over 400 pre-eminent customers already under their belt, EasyAsk has a proven track record of providing this valuable service to companies including The North Face, JJill and others, and is looking to expand its reach into an even broader base. EasyAsk, ranked just behind Oracle and Adobe in e-commerce search, has committed to dedicating sales and marketing resources on the Magento and IBM WebSphere platforms, to attract retailers and engage partners to ensure a high growth and return on investment for our investors.
A quick check of the EasyAsk News Web page did not include any information about the Crowdfunder campaign. I noted that the most recent news posts was a June 5, 2015, announcement that Tacoma Screw Products, an EasyAsk customer, was nominated for an Internet Retailer Excellence Aware.
With the economic pressures building across the search and content processing sector, we will keep you posted on EasyAsk’s trajectory.
Stephen E Arnold, October 27, 2015
The Lack of Digital Diversity
October 27, 2015
Tech companies and their products run our lives. Companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft have made it impossible to function in developed nations without them. They have taken over everything from communication to how we entertain ourselves. While these companies offer a variety of different products and services, they are more similar than different. The Verge explains that “Apple, Google, And Microsoft Are All Solving The Same Problem.”
Google, Apple, and Microsoft are offering similar services and products in their present options with zero to little diversity among them. For example, there are the personal assistants Cortana vs. Google Now vs. Siri, options for entertainment in the car like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and seamless accessibility across devices with Chrome browser, Continuity, and Continuum. There are more comparisons between the three tech giants and their business plans for the future, but it is not only them. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are starting to resemble each other more too.
Technology companies have borrowed from each and have had healthy competition for years spurring more innovation, but these companies are operating on such similar principles that it is stifling creativity and startups are taking more risks:
“Without the dual pressures of both the consumer and the stock market, and without a historic reputation to uphold, small startups are now the best engine for generating truly new and groundbreaking innovations. Uber and Airbnb are fundamentally altering the economics of renting things, while hardware designers like Pebble and Oculus are inventing cool new technology that isn’t bound to any particular company’s ecosystem. Startups can see a broader range of problems to address because they don’t have to wear the same economic blinkers as established, monolithic companies.”
The article ends on positive thoughts, however. The present is beating along at a consistent pace, but in order to have more diversity companies should not be copying each other on every little item. Tech companies should borrow ideas from the future to create more original ideas.
Whitney Grace, October 27, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Apple May Open up on Open Source
October 27, 2015
Is Apple ready to openly embrace open source? MacRumors reports, “Apple Building Unified Cloud Platform for iCloud, iTunes, Siri and More.” Writer Joe Rossignol cites a new report from the Information that indicates the famously secret company may be opening up to keep up with the cloudy times. He writes:
“The new platform is based on Siri, which itself is powered by open source infrastructure software called Mesos on the backend, according to the report. Apple is reportedly placing more emphasis on open source software in an attempt to attract open source engineers that can help improve its web services, but it remains to be seen how far the company shifts away from its deep culture of secrecy.
“The paywalled report explains how Apple is slowly embracing the open source community and becoming more transparent about its open source projects. It also lists some of the open source technologies that Apple uses, including Hadoop, HBase, Elasticsearch, Reak, Kafka, Azkaban and Voldemort.”
Rossignol goes on to note that, according to Bloomberg, Apple is working on a high-speed content delivery network and upgrading data centers to better compete with its rivals in the cloud, like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Will adjusting its stance on open-source allow it to keep up?
Cynthia Murrell, October 27, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The Alphabet Google Thing with Yahoo
October 26, 2015
The Xoogler, Marissa Mayer, has embraced the Alphabet Google thing.
Bittersweet?
Nah, a need to generate some real revenue. The Alphabet Google thing has Yahooligans in its thrall. Microsoft? Well, who knows? An outsider to the Googlers again it appears.
I read “Yahoo Signs Ad Pact with Google; Earnings and Revenue Miss.” The Yahoo financial picture is no longer fuzzy. I see the crisp, clear lines of the sharp revenue downturn. According to the write up:
Mayer, in her fourth year as chief executive, said the forecast was “not indicative of the performance we want.” “We are also experiencing continued revenue headwinds in our core (advertising) business, especially in the legacy portions,” Mayer said on a call with analysts.
I like the “we” and the “headwinds.”
With AOL in the pride of the Verizon lion king, Yahoo may need more than a deal with the Alphabet Google thing to deal with the financial storm. The questions I have include:
- When will an acceptable purchaser of Yahoo surface?
- What line of business at Yahoo will the leader of the pack identify as the growth engine?
- What steps can be taken to produce organic revenue from the most promising Yahoo businesses?
The answers to these questions may be spelled out in the months ahead.
Stephen E Arnold, October 26, 2015
dtSearch Offers Three Search Tips
October 26, 2015
Most users key in 2.8 words and let the system do the heavy lifting. What millennial has time to do old fashioned research? Apparently lots. I read “Top 3 Tips to Improve Document Search.” The source of the information is a wizard at dtSearch, a vendor which offers a solution to SharePoint search woes.
Here are the tips. Note that these are useful when using the dtSearch system.
- Use Boolean AND, OR, and NOT operators. Yes, even millennials can learn about George Boole’s better idea
- Use quotation marks around phrases. Note: This still sort of works on Google too.
- “Store OCR output in searchable PDF format.” Raise your hand if you know how to create a searchable PDF. The remainder of the folks answering this question may find this link helpful.
See how easy it is to improve one’s ability to search.
Stephen E Arnold, October 26, 2015
Beyond LinkedIn
October 26, 2015
Though LinkedIn remains the largest professional networking site, it may be time to augment its hobnobbing potential with one or more others. Search Engine Journal gives us many to choose from in “12 Professional Networking Alternatives to LinkedIn.” Like LinkedIn, some are free, but others offer special features for a fee. Some even focus on local connections. Reporter Albert Costill writes:
“While LinkedIn has proven to be an incredible assist for anyone looking to make professional connections or find employment, there have been some concerns. For starters, the company has been forced to reduce the number of emails it sends out because of complaints. There have also been allegations of the company hacking into member’s emails and a concern that activity on LinkedIn groups are declining.
“That doesn’t mean that you should give up on LinkedIn. Despite any concerns with the network, it still remains one of the best locations to network professionally. It just means that in addition to LinkedIn you should also start networking on other professional sites to cast that wide net that was previously mentioned. I previously shared eight alternatives to LinkedIn like Twylah, Opprtunity, PartnerUp, VisualCV, Meetup, Zerply, AngelList, and BranchOut, but here are twelve more networking sites that you should also consider using in no particular order.”
So between Costill’s lists, there are 20 sites to check out. A few notable entries from this second list: Makerbase is specifically for software creators, and is free to any Twitter users; LunchMeet connects LinkedIn users who would like to network over lunch; Plaxo automatically keeps your cloud-based contact list up-to-date; and the European Xing is the place to go for a job overseas. See the article for many more network-boosting options.
Cynthia Murrell, October 26, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Braiding Big Data
October 26, 2015
An apt metaphor to explain big data is the act of braiding. Braiding requires person to take three or more locks of hair and alternating weaving them together. The end result is clean, pretty hairstyle that keeps a person’s hair in place and off the face. Big data is like braiding, because specially tailored software takes an unruly mess of data, including the combed and uncombed strands, and organizes them into a legible format. Perhaps this is why TopQuadrant named its popular big data software TopBraid, read more about its software upgrade in “TopQuadrant Launches TopBraid 5.0.”
TopBraid Suite is an enterprise Web-based solution set that simplifies the development and management of standards-based, model driven solutions focused on taxonomy, ontology, metadata management, reference data governance, and data virtualization. The newest upgrade for TopBraid builds on the current enterprise information management solutions and adds new options:
“ ‘It continues to be our goal to improve ways for users to harness the full potential of their data,’ said Irene Polikoff, CEO and co-founder of TopQuadrant. ‘This latest release of 5.0 includes an exciting new feature, AutoClassifier. While our TopBraid Enterprise Vocabulary Net (EVN) Tagger has let users manually tag content with concepts from their vocabularies for several years, AutoClassifier completely automates that process.’ “
The AutoClassifer makes it easier to add and edit tags before making them a part of the production tag set. Other new features are for TopBraid Enterprise Vocabulary Net (TopBraid EVN), TopBraid Reference Data Manager (RDM), TopBraid Insight, and the TopBraid platform, including improvements in internationalization and a new component for increasing system availability in enterprise environments, TopBraid DataCache.
TopBraid might be the solution an enterprise system needs to braid its data into style.
Whitney Grace, October 26, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Maginfo: An Unlisted Enterprise Search Video
October 25, 2015
Somehow a link to a video found its way to me. The video is produced by Maginfo. You may or may not be able to view the program at this link. The content of the video was familiar to me. I did not know about Maginfo.
Some highlights:
- The company has a blog post which points to the unlisted video. You can check out that link only blog post at this link.
- Maginfo says it is “a leading provider of technology development services and solutions to small, medium, and large enterprises.”
- The company is a consulting firm in Boulder, Colorado, and it has been in business since 2001, presumably working in the search and retrieval field for search vendor Inforbix (now a mostly invisible unit of Autodesk) and Systap.
- The company has a semantic technologies capability.
I learned that Maginfo has identified five ways can drive a firm’s competitive advantage; to wit:
- Save time. This benefit is one of those specious assertions based on a pulled-from-the-air consulting reports about how finding information takes time. Yep, with search systems delivering lousy precision and recall, locating information to answer a specific question often takes time.
- Get maximum value from existing resources. I assume this means digital content in an organization. The notion of “maximum value” begs the question, “What is value?” No explanation of the benefit has been provided to me after decades of prodding search marketers to explain the “value” of search and retrieval.
- Improve productive of all workers. Yikes, another categorical statement. I have a number of workers involved in my research and publishing activities. One of the workers sprays my office every eight weeks to keep insects in Harrod’s Creek at bay. I am not sure information search is going to make Irving more productivity. But there is that silly “all” assertion. One exception. Poof. There goes the argument.
- Improve customer support and lower associated cost. Really? I am not sure how much more cost cutting outfits offering customer service can do. If there are costs to be reduced, I am not sure search and retrieval will be the drum major for the band and the parade. A Weebly Web site and no inbound phone number coupled with an info@company.xxx will do the trick.
- Improve support for telecommuters. I am on record saying that telework cannot proceed unless the worker can locate the digital object upon which one works. However, enterprise search may not do the trick; for example, for certain legal activities, the “content” will not be included in an enterprise search system. If the workers on site and off premises are engaged in a work task which is classified, my hunch is that the enterprise search system may be the last place the workers want the content.
If you want more information about Maginfo, navigate to the firm’s Web site at http://maginfo.com. A fellow named Darren says, “Maginfo has been a joy to work with.” Darren appears to have hired Maginfo to work on a social network with artificial intelligence. No word about search from Darren. Did I mention that Darren found Maginfo a joy. To me, this suggests that Maginfo’s competitors are not a joy. I have no information about what other search consultants’ joy factor is. Maybe someday.
Stephen E Arnold, October 25, 2015
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