The Paradox of Marketing and Anonymity
June 22, 2016
While Dark Web users understand the perks of anonymity, especially for those those involved with illicit activity, consistency in maintaining that anonymity appears to be challenging. Geek.com published an article that showcases how one drug dealer revealed his identity while trying to promote his brand: Drug dealer busted after trying to trademark his dark web username. David Ryan Burchard of Merced, California reportedly made $1.25 million by selling marijuana and cocaine on the Dark Web before he trademarked the username he used to sell drugs, “caliconnect”. The article summarizes,
“He started out on Silk Road and moved on to other shady marketplaces in the wake of its highly-publicized shutdown. Burchard wound up on Homeland Security’s list of top sellers, though they were having trouble establishing a rock-solid connection between him and his online persona. They knew that Burchard was accumulating a large Bitcoin stash and that there didn’t appear to be a legitimate source. Then, finally, investigators got the break they were looking for. It seems that Burchard decided that his personal brand was worth protecting, and he filed paperwork to trademark “caliconnect.””
Whether this points to the proclivity of human nature to self-promote or the egoism of one person in a specific situation, it seems that all covering the story are drawing attention to this foiling move as a preventable mistake on Burchard’s part. Look no farther than the title of a recent Motherboard article: Pro-Tip: If You’re a Suspected Dark Web Drug Dealer, Don’t Trademark Your #Brand. The nature of promotions and marketing on the Dark Web will be an interesting area to see unfold.
Megan Feil, June 22, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Savanna 4.7 for External Content Links
June 22, 2016
The latest version of Savanna, the collaborative data-visualization platform from Thetus Corporation, has an important new feature—it can now link to external content. The press release at PR Newswire, “Savanna 4.7 Introduces Plugins, Opening ‘A World of New Content’ to Visual Analysis Software,” tells us:
“With Savanna, users can visualize data to document insights mined from complexity and analyze relationships. New in this release are Savanna Plugins. Plugins do more than allow users to import data. The game changer is in the ability to link to external content, leaving the data in its original source. Data lives in many places. Analyzing data from many sources often means full data transformation and migration into a new program. This process is daunting and exactly what Savanna 4.7 Plugins address. Whether on databases or on the web, users can search all of their sources from one application to enrich a living knowledge base. Plugins also enable Savanna to receive streams of information from sources like RSS, Twitter, geolocators, and others.”
Thetus’ CTO is excited about this release, calling the new feature “truly transformative.” The write-up notes that Plugins opens new opportunities for Thetus to partner with other organizations. For example, the company is working with the natural language processing firm Basis Technology to boost translation and text mining capacities. Founded in 2003, Thetus is based in Portland, Oregon.
Cynthia Murrell, June 22, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Digital Censorship: The Dartmouth Solution
June 21, 2016
I love the Ivy League. Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, et al. I read “New Tool to Take Down Terrorism Images Online Spurs Debate on What Constitutes Extremist Content.” The source is the Bezos owned newspaper, which may or may not make a difference when applying the filters.
Here’s the method I circled in Hawthorne A red:
It [censoring mechanism] works by creating a distinct digital signature or “hash” for each image, video or audio track. The idea is to create a database of hashed content that Internet firms can use in automated fashion to vet images uploaded to their platforms. If there’s a match, the company can determine whether it violates its terms of service and should be taken down.
The write up brings up the challenge of defining what should and should not be filtered. If you are interested in automated filtering, check out the write up and the Dartmouth wizard who has created what he thinks may be a “game changer.”
What could go wrong with an Ivy League created system? If one cannot find information online, it does not exist. Is non existence a net good?
Stephen E Arnold, June 21, 2016
IBM Watson: Me Too, Me Too with Olli Smart Transport
June 21, 2016
I read “IBM’s Watson AI Powers IoT Services In Self-Driven Mini Bus.” Lots of outfits are pushing the self driving vehicle. Why is the news that IBM has Olli, a smart bus thing not too surprising? IBM Watson can do anything those upstarts can do, that’s why. IBM is the cognitive king.
The write up states:
IBM today announced that Watson, its AI platform, will be powering a range of services in a new self-driving bus concept named Olli. Designed by Local Motors, Olli is electric-powered, caries up to 12 people and will start operating in Washington DC…
Yep, DC, the city which has distinguished itself with excellent management of its existing subway system. My recollection is that riders have an opportunity to be trapped underground when parts of the electrical subsystem burst into flames. Exciting.
Olli will be above ground. That’s one Metro problem solved. The write up asserts:
Local Motor’s Olli will be the world’s first self-driven public transportation vehicle and will benefit from four APIs that will come with Watson, namely Speech to Text, Natural Language Classifier, Entity Extraction and Text to Speech. Olli will be riddled with a number of Watson-enabled sensors using which it will be able to perform a range of functions like interacting with commuters about routes and destinations as well as analyzing transportation data. It will also be able to help passengers with information about local landmarks and will also offer suggestions on nearby restaurants…
Sounds great, but then so did the Metro.
Stephen E Arnold, June 21, 2016
Digital Currencies: More Excitement
June 21, 2016
An “attacker” explains the legal perception he has. You can read this argument at this link. I do not have a horse in this race. In my recent lecture at a security conference in Myrtle Beach, SC, I pointed out that digital currencies work reasonably well for what I call small scale transactions. Putting one’s life savings into a digital currency is a step some bad actors are reluctant to take. Traditional non digital money laundering and tax evasion methods will slowly yield to Fancy Dan types of “money.” But if you are adventurous, have a go.
Stephen E Arnold, June 21, 2106
Microsoft Makes Fresh Effort to Position Bing
June 21, 2016
Microsoft is gearing up for a fresh challenge to Google, with a Bing rebranding effort centered on the new “Bing Network.” This marks a different approach to leveraging the MS search platform, we learn from the piece, “Microsoft Rebrands Bing, Challenges Google” at SearchMarketingDaily. The incorporation of Yahoo has a lot to do with it. Reporter Laurie Sullivan writes:
“Microsoft’s message says the network pulls together in-the-moment data from across its mobile, global and local partners to support products that people use daily. And that network continues to grow. With the transition of all U.S. accounts, people and account management from Yahoo to Bing, the network represents an expanding set of partnerships such as AOL, and The Wall Street Journal, which adds more searches and clicks to the network daily, wrote Stephen Sirich, GM of advertising and consumer monetization group at Microsoft, in a post.”
Sullivan later reminds us:
“The shift in brand strategy also marks an end to the Yahoo-Bing Network. The renegotiated search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo in April 2015, five years into the 10-year deal, has ad sales and account management returning to their respective companies.”
The article discusses reasons Microsoft has struggled so to position Bing as an alternative to Google. For example, says one professional, Bing should not have tried to change the model Google had set up, and users had grown accustomed to, for Internet search. Also, Bing’s brand recognition has always lagged behind that of Google. Perhaps that is about to change with this renewed effort. See the article for some more background and stats on Bing’s performance.
Cynthia Murrell, June 21, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Luciad Data Visualization and Situational Awareness Is Like an Over Stimulated Google Maps
June 21, 2016
The promotional article on Luciad titled Luciad V2016 Puts Users at the Center of Technical Innovation discusses the data fusion product from the global software company emphasizing situational awareness systems for Aviation, Defense and Security markets. 50,000+ people have viewed the 3D browser technology via the web app launched in 2015 that shows the breathtaking capacity to track and visualize moving data in the form of 35,000 international flights. The article states,
“Luciad’s software components are designed for the creation of applications that tackle a range of tasks, from top-level strategy to tactical detail and mission planning to operations debriefing. By connecting directly to data sources, Luciad’s software not only analyzes and visualizes what is happening now, but also helps predict what will happen next – allowing users to act quickly and safely. “Connect, visualize, analyze, act” is both our method and our motto.”
The LuciadFusion technology product features include the ability to fuse and serve multi-dimensional and multi-layered formats as well as multi-dimensional raster data, which applies to weather data. If you thought Google Maps was cool, this technology will blow you away. The developers were very interested in the aesthetic quality of the technology, and richness of the imaging makes that focus crystal clear.
Chelsea Kerwin, June 21, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Bzzz. Bzzz, Hello, Ms. Android, It Is Time to Wake Up.
June 20, 2016
Here in rural Kentucky, I thought the Alphabet Google thing had no chinks in its digital armor. Search. Bingo. Loon balloons. Bingo. YouTube videos of cats. Bingo, bingo.
Then I read an allegedly accurate write up called “Huawei Hedges Bet on Google’s Android, Plans In-House OS.” The subtitle hinted as a fork, not a benign open source fork, but a rootin’, tootin’ go-our-own-way change of direction:
Like Samsung before it, Huawei hopes to have a “Plan B” should Android terms go bad.
China has a way of keeping some people alert. There is the communications dust up with Taiwan. There is the island in the sea thing. Then there is the Apple hassle. The middle kingdom seems to be front and center is food fairs too.
The write up reported:
To spearhead the development of an in-house operating system—and improve its Android skin—Huawei has hired former Apple designer Abigail Brody. The report says that the non-Android OS “isn’t far along” and is a “contingency measure” in case Google’s current Android terms become undesirable to Huawei.
Huawei is the number three smartphone OEM, behind Samsung and Apple. The Chinese company isn’t a huge deal in the West, though—a big portion of those sales come from Huawei’s home turf. Huawei is often seen as being in a position similar to Samsung’s, just at an earlier stage of development. Like Samsung, Huawei is a massive company. It’s the world’s largest telecom equipment manufacturer, and it designs its own SoCs. Now Huawei is taking another page from the Samsung playbook and is trying to develop an Android alternative.
The Alphabet Google thing now has to worry about another outfit nosing into the phone operating system business.
My thought is that South Korea is a bit more business friendly to the US than its neighbors to the north.
I am hoping the Alphabet Google thing does not suffer a challenge to its hegemony. After all, what’s the big deal when a US company suggests to a foreign government that it changes its ways. Look at the big picture, not a mere detail.
Stephen E Arnold, June 29, 2016
From Whence the Loon Balloon?
June 20, 2016
I read “This Company Claims Google Stole the Balloon Wi-Fi Tech behind Project Loon.” I learned:
a company called Space Data Corporation is claiming it developed that technology more than a decade earlier — and Google’s moonshot was based in part on its proprietary trade secrets.
The information was news to me. Google has been poking around wireless for years. I did a presentation which included a profile of Google providing wireless connectivity with gizmos mounted on top of a pizza delivery auto. I wrote a for fee column for a dead tree outfit about Google’s stake in Meraki. I even read some of Google’s wireless patents. Exciting stuff.
The write up states:
In a complaint filed earlier this week in Northern California District Court, Space Data cites two patents that Loon allegedly infringes on — one dealing with providing connectivity through a network of balloons (filed in 1999) and another dealing with the termination and recovery of those balloons (filed in 2001). Both patents predate Loon and the company does not appear to have licensed either one. Google holds a number of its own patents on Loon’s technology, granted without reference to Space Data’s technology. Space Data currently offers two products — SkySat and SkySite — both of which aim to provide balloon-based connectivity in a similar way to Project Loon. The system does not appear to be in wide use, although the company does hold FCC licenses to provide broadband spectrum services in remote areas of Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.
I have a nagging thought that the Google before its IPO got some push back regarding Yahoo’s Overture/GoTo technology. Since that time, hasn’t Google’s innovation mavens been inventing original stuff?
Stephen E Arnold, June 20, 2016
Palantir Technologies: Maybe the US Army Should Be Skeptical?
June 20, 2016
I read “How Hired Hackers Got “Complete Control” Of Palantir.” On one hand, Palantir surfed on secrecy as its Hyptokrypto for marketing. The idea that Palantir’s internal network would become a party wave was not part of the 2003-2004 plan. The write up is by a Sillycon Valley observer who may not be invited to a Palantir algorithms meet up.
I am confident that the write up is spot on. If it is not accurate, my hunch is that the Gotham crowd may emulate the feistiness of one of the Palantir founders. Think Hulk Hogan and the estimable publication Gawker.
I noted this passage:
the cybersecurity firm Veris Group concluded that even a low-level breach would allow hackers to gain wide-ranging and privileged access to the Palantir network, likely leading to the “compromise of critical systems and sensitive data, including customer-specific information.”
I circled this statement in true blue:
Their presence [the penetration testers] was finally discovered, the report says, after they broke into the laptops of information security employees — but even then, the intruders were able to monitor the employees’ countermoves in real time, shifting tactics to evade them.
A Hobbit is quoted as saying:
“The findings from the October 2015 report are old and have long since been resolved,” Lisa Gordon, a Palantir spokesperson, said in an emailed statement. “Our systems and our customers’ information were never at risk. As part of our best practices, we conduct regular reviews and tests of our systems, like every other technology company does.”
Gnarly. Palantir seems to have hired a penetration testing outfit. Somehow the report leaked. Secure outfits often try to limit leaks.
Stephen E Arnold, June 20, 2016
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