Amazon and Google Voice Recognition Easily Fooled
January 25, 2018
Voice recognition technology has vastly improved over the past decade, but it still has a long way to go before it responds like a quick-thinking science-fiction computer. CNET shares how funny and harmful voice recognition technology can be in the article, “Fooling Amazon and Googles’ Voice Recognition Isn’t Hard.” What exactly is the problem with voice recognition technology? If someone sounds like you, smart speakers like Google Home or Amazon Echo with Alexa will allow that person to use your credit cards and access your personal information.
The smart speakers can be trained to recognize voices so that they can respond according to an individual. For example, families can program the smart speakers to recognize individual members so each person can access their personal information. It is quite easy to fool Alexa and Googles’ voice recognition. Purchases can be made vocally and personal information can be exposed. There are ways to take precautions, such as disabling voice purchasing and there are features to turn of broadcasting your personal information.
In their defense, Google said voice recognition should not be used as a security feature:
Google warns you when you first set up voice recognition that a similar voice might be able to access your info. In response to this story, Kara Stockton on the Google Assistant team offered the following statement over email: Users shouldn’t rely upon Voice Match as a security feature. It is possible for a user to not be identified, or for a guest to be identified as a connected user. Those cases are rare, but they do exist and we’re continuing to work on making the product better.’
Maybe silence is golden after all. It keeps credit cards and purchases free from vocal stealing.
Whitney Grace, January 25, 2018
Amazon Embraces a Sqrrl
January 24, 2018
I love names with no vowels. I read “Amazon’s Cloud Business Acquires Sqrrl, a Security Start-Up with NSA Roots.” Sqrrl is one of a number of cybersecurity vendors with interesting technology. The article sees the main point of the Amazon deal as part of the online giant’s effort to “pick up business from US intelligence agencies.”
Amazon has a “secret” region of data centers. Keep in mind that Ashburn, Virginia, may be the home to secret data centers. Some government agencies want their data housed in a secure manner.
Is there another angle to the deal?
Here in Harrod’s Creek, we asked: “Has Amazon’s AWS system been the target of individuals or groups looking to harvest data stored with what might be called casual procedures.”
Leaving data on some cloud services publicly accessible servers is a bit like leaving a hot and juicy hamburger on a picnic table on a warm summer day.
Sqrrl, without vowels of course, has some interesting technology which may have more utility than offering a dot point in response to an RFP.
Stephen E Arnold, January 24, 2018
Social Media: Gotta Love It
January 24, 2018
I noted the news story “Facebook Says It Can’t Guarantee Social Media Is Good for Democracy.” I assume that “real” journalism is good for democracy.
I highlighted this passage in the article:
Contrite Facebook executives were already fanning out across Europe this week to address the company’s slow response to abuses on its platform, such as hate speech and foreign influence campaigns.
Yes, contrition. Good.
Now about that user data and the ad revenue?
Stephen E Arnold, January 24, 2018
FNaS Or Fake News As A Service Is Now A Thing
January 24, 2018
The above acronym “FNaS” is our own invention for “fake news as a service”; if you did not catch on it is a play on SaS or software as a service. We never thought that this was a possible job, but someone saw a niche and filled it. According to Unhinged Group in the article, “Fake News ‘As A Service’ Booming Among Cybercrooks” describes how this is a new market for ne’er do wells. It does make sense that fake news would be a booming business because there are many organizations and people who want to take advantage of the public’s gullibility.
This is especially true for political and religious folks, who have a lot of power to sway those in power. Digital Shadows, however, conducted a research survey and discovered that fake news services are hired to damage reputations and cause financial distress for organizations through disinformation campaigns.
How does this work?
The firm’s research stated that these services are often associated with “Pump and Dump” scams, schemes that aggressively promote penny stocks to inflate their prices before the inevitable crash and burn. Scammers buy low, hope that their promotions let the sell high, then flee with their loot and little regard for other investors.
A cryptocurrency variant of the same schemes has evolved and involves gradually purchasing major shares in altcoin (cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin) and drumming up interest in the coin through posts on social media. The tool then trades these coins between multiple accounts, driving the price up, before selling to unsuspecting traders on currency exchanges looking to buy while prices are still rising.
One “Pump and Dump” service analysis discovered that they made an equivalent of $326,000 for ne’er do wells in less than two months. Ever worse is that Digital Shadows found more than ten services that sell social media bot software for as low as $7.
It is not difficult to create a fake “legitimate” news site. All it takes is a fake domain, cloning services, and backlinking to exploit these fake news stories. Real legitimate news outlets and retailers are also targets. Anyone and anything can be a target.
Whitney Grace, January 24, 2018
LinkedIn: Marketing Wackiness or Just Innovative Fishing?
January 23, 2018
I received an email from LinkedIn. This email, like many of the other group discussion topics, caught my attention. Here’s what I received this morning (January 22, 2018):
The idea is for me to click on the link and view the “discussion.”
I did and saw this LinkedIn “posting” in a curated group. I am not sure what “curation” means, but it obviously permits sales pitches.
This looks a bit like a news story. After reading it, I was asked to click a link in order to read the report about next generation search engines. I was curious because in 2015 I wrote “CyberOSINT: Next Generation Information Access” and want to learn.
Click I did. Here’s what Keshab Singa from Transparency Market Research Pvt. Ltd. displayed for me:
Yep, a form. I plugged in data, expecting to see a link to download the report in which I expressed a desire to read.
What did I see? Here you go:
Nothing. I plugged in the words “enterprise search” and again received no report.
Now, I am probably missing something.
But this type of marketing and the failure to deliver the information is something that should be filtered by the moderator of the LinkedIn group.
I guess everyone’s too busy making money and trying to cook up new ways to get the name of a person who is a LinkedIn member of a specific group.
Hey, why not write me an email. I will respond.
Taking this path guarantees that I will make fun of your approach in Beyond Search. Nice work. Lousy marketing.
Little wonder why some enterprise search vendors and “experts” are floundering. Why not label the topic “AI” and “Big Data” and move on?
Stephen E Arnold, January 23, 2018
Google News Says Goodbye to Russian Propaganda
January 23, 2018
The United States is still reeling from possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Every other day has some headline associated with the Trump Administration’s ties with the great bear, but what they still remain unclear. However, one cold, hard fact is that Russia did influence online news outlets and media companies are taking steps to guarantee it does not happen again. Motherboard reports that “Eric Schmidt Says Google News Will ‘Engineer’ Russian Propaganda Out Of News Feed.”
Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has faced criticism that Google News still displays Russian Web sites in news feeds. In response, Schmidt responded that his company is well aware of the problem and have a plan to ferret out Russian propaganda. The top two Russian news outlets that are featured in Google News are Sputnik and RT. Both Sputnik and RT are owned by the Russian government and have ceaselessly argued their legitimacy. Their “legitimacy” allows them to benefit from Google AdSense.
Despite the false legitimacy, Schmidt said Alphabet is aware of Russia’s plans to influence western politics:
Schmidt said the Russian strategy is fairly transparent, and usually involves ‘amplification around a message.’ That information can be “repetitive, exploitative, false, [or] likely to have been weaponized,’ he said. ‘My own view is that these patterns can be detected, and that they can be taken down or deprioritized.’
The problem is that Alphabet has not really outlined their plans to deter Russian influence. Russian propaganda in the news bears some similarities to the Watergate Scandal during the Nixon Administration. We have yet to see the long-term aftermath, but it peeks our curiosity about how it will affect the United States in years to come.
Whitney Grace, January 23, 2018
DarkCyber for January 23, 2018, Now Available
January 23, 2018
The January 23, 2018, DarkCyber program about the Dark Web and related online issues is now available. The program can be viewed at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress and on Vimeo at this link: https://vimeo.com/251980239.
The program address four important news stories related to law enforcement and intelligence work.
A new Dark Web search systems called Candle wants to provide easy, quick access to Dark Web content. The DarkCyber’s research team found that the system was easy to use. However, specific searches often return no results. This week’s program suggests an work around.
Mobile phones can be fingerprinted. Take a picture with a mobile phone, and researchers have discovered that manufacturing defects in sensors make it possible to tie a specific mobile phone to a particular digital image. Although in the research and development stage, the data suggest a new tool for law enforcement when gathering evidence in human trafficking and pornography cases.
The need for anonymous communication is fueling an open source project called Soprani.ca. The idea is that an alternative network will allow untraceable messaging and calling. The challenge of these leapfrog innovations is that established lawful intercept companies may have to develop new systems and methods. The giant Shoghi Communications reveals that its system can struggle when trying to make sense of encrypted communications, including https packets.
Bitcoin is running into regulatory headwinds. The news about China’s actions has overshadowed an equally important development in Australia. DarkCyber explains why Australia’s actions are important.
You can view the program at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress.
Kenny Toth, January 23, 2018
SEO Relevance Killer: Semantic Search
January 22, 2018
I am not sure if this Forbes’ write up is “real” journalism or just a pay-to-play story. Either way, it makes clear that the trajectory of search has been to destroy the once useful methods for determining precision and recall as part of an effort to explain or define relevance.
The write up which made me reach for my bottle of Tum’s is “Why And How Semantic Search Transformed SEO For The Better.”
Here’s a passage I highlighted in bilious yellow:
instead of finding exact matches for keywords, Google looks at the language used by a searcher and analyzes the searcher’s intent. It then uses that intent to find the most relevant search results for that user’s intent. It’s a subtle distinction, but one that demanded a new approach to SEO; rather than focusing on specific, exact-match keywords, you had to start creating content that addressed a user’s needs, using more semantic phrases and synonyms for your primary targets.
So what’s this mean in actual practice.
Navigate to Google and run this query with zero quotes and no additional words or phrases: 4iq Madrid.
Now look at the results:
The information is about the firm’s US office. The company was founded in Madrid and has some R&D facilities in the high-tech section of that city across from what used to be a hunting preserve for a former government leader. No address is Las Rozas, no LinkedIn listings of staff in Madrid, zip.
The world of search as described in the Forbes’ flag waving prose is great for expanding a user’s query. The purpose is not relevance, providing answers, or delivering on point results.
The purpose is to make it possible to broaden a query so more and usually less relevant ads can be displayed.
If you want relevance in search, you have to work very hard.
For example, to get the Spanish information related to 4iq, you set up a proxy in Spain. Google no longer makes it easy to query its index for content in a language different from the one Google decides you speak based on where you are in the world the moment you run your query. Then you enter the query and peruse the Spanish Google index results.
Yeah, that’s something the average eighth grader will do when writing an essay about Madrid. I know lots of adults who cannot perform this workaround.
The Forbes’ essay states:
The SEO community is better off focusing on semantic search optimization, rather than keyword-specific optimization. It’s forcing content producers to produce better, more user-serving content, and relieving some of the pressure of keyword research (which at times is downright annoying).
Why even bother providing results even marginally related to the user’s query. Do what the NFL Sirius Radio Network does. Run ads all the time. Football is a bit of distraction to the real business of pay-to-play information.
Ads, ads, ads.
Stephen E Arnold, January 22, 2018
Google: Deprecation of Web Logs. Is It a Thing?
January 22, 2018
i don’t use Google’s publishing tools. Quite a few people do, but the company’s blogging platform has been lagging behind WordPress and some of the easy Web site builders like Squarespace, which makes blogging reasonably simple.
I noticed a deprecation of blog content when Google hid blog search on its Google News page. One has to run a query and then click to find the blog drop down. My hunch is that most people don’t bother. Some blogs are findable in the main Google Web search index if one uses desktop boat anchors to search Google.com. Mobile doesn’t work that way. Mobile is for crunchy content. Quite a few bloggers pump out write ups that don’t fit the crunchy model.
T0day I read “Please Don’t Kill the Blogs.” The write up strikes me as a good rundown of the steps Google is trying to take on tippy toes.
Why?
Blog content is a legal swamp. Imagine you are a Googler talking with Chinese officials. The officials point out that Blogger has some “interesting” content. What does Google do? Tell the Chinese they have have to mend their ways? Nope. Google wants to make sure it is able to claw back into the Chinese market, hire engineers, do business without waiting for a government agency to flash a green light, and make money. Did I mention make money? Maybe China is not a factor. Plug in your favorite country which is taking steps to control content. Same issue. Same solution.
What’s the fix?
Kill the blogs. Who cares. The Huffington Post is killing their open content. That’s a precedent for the GOOG.
Google may find a way to make its blogs rise again. On the other hand, the liability on some of the “interesting” content may be too great for a fleet of Loon balloons to hoist the service to the heights.
From my vantage point in Harrod’s Creek, Google’s blogs may have outlived their usefulness. Hey, if you can’t find the search system for blog content, who really cares?
Do you miss Tecnorati blog search? Will you miss Google blogs?
Maybe the answer is the same for each question?
Stephen E Arnold, January 22, 2018
Google Busts Fake News
January 22, 2018
Ever since fake news stories swamped the 2016 election and other events in 2017, the powers that be have pressured Google and other news sources to stop all the fake headlines. Soyacincau shares how Google plans to make take down the fall information in the article, “This Is How Google’s Clamping Down On Fake News.” Google has partnered with the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) to ensure that its search results and news stories are accurate.
What exactly is the IFCN?
The IFCN is a nonpartisan organization run by The Poynter Institute that advocates accuracy in online articles, and they hold an annual fact-checking conference, alongside funding fellowships and training for would-be fake news busters. Google has plans to work with them in a handful of ways to help fix the fake news epidemic, one being to offer free fact-checking tools, expanding their code of principles into new regions and generally increasing the number of verified fact-checkers worldwide.
Google is really taking the lead in quashing fake news. They will host workshops, coaching, and financial assistance for new fact-checking organizations. They also plan to translate IFCN’s code of principles into ten languages, provide training sessions, and access to an engineering time bank. Google partnered with Snopes and Politifact in the past, but the fake news keeps coming. Hopefully, this will have an impact.
Whitney Grace, January 22, 2018
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