Mobile Phone: Tips for Addicts
May 28, 2019
Metro, a UK tabloid, reported about a study conducted at the University of Washington. The idea the researchers probed related to “triggers” which keep a person glued to his or her mobile device. “How to Resist the Four Triggers Which Keep You Addicted to Your Smartphone” reveals the tricks. The sample was 39 people aged from 14 to 64. Now I don’t want to get mathy, but the sample would get some frowns from an online Statistics 101 adjunct professor from a no name school in North Carolina. At a juicier institution, like the University of Washington, the sample is right sized.
With this cutting edge research, the secrets have been revealed; to wit:
- An unoccupied moment, the smartphone is there for you and me.
- As a break when one is working on a difficult task such as calculating or looking up in a table the sample size for a research project into “hooks” used to addict a person to a mobile phone.
- As a deflection action when an actual human who has taken several classes in statistics wants to engage a person like a researcher in a conversation about sample sizes.
- When one anticipates an email or other communication from an academic institution eager to hire a cracker jack researcher and data wrangler.
From my reading, I have gleaned some other information about the ways to make a person 14 to 64 become an addict. I offer these to suggest that the Metro’s summary of the research does not capture the scope of the subject. Here are some other addictive tricks:
- Approval from perceived “friends” or “persons whom one wishes to be a pal”
- Sex hook ups, images, etc.
- Rewards delivered via gameification
- Sex hook ups, images, etc.
- Desire to expand one’s contacts when looking for a job in statistics.
- Sex hook ups, images, etc.
Perhaps the team form the University of Washington will expand their research. On the other hand, why bother? A sample of 39 is just so right.
Oh, and the secret to breaking the addiction? Turn off the gizmo.
Stephen E Arnold, May 28, 2019
DarkCyber for May 28, 2019, Now Available
May 28, 2019
DarkCyber for May 28, 2019, is now available at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress and on Vimeo at https://www.vimeo.com/338518927. The program is a production of Stephen E Arnold. It is the only weekly video news shows focusing on the Dark Web, cybercrime, and lesser known Internet services.
This week’s story line up includes: The Offensive Community hacking Web site; malware requires no user action to seize mobile phone data; Dutch police deal with prisoner monitoring failure; a snapshot of Cobwebs Technologies’ investigative software; and China’s Great Firewall burns Wikipedia.
This week’s feature provides information about hackers for hire on the regular Internet, no Dark Web surfing required. The Offensive Community Web sites offers a classified advertising service. Hackers can post their capabilities in order to attract customers. The information on the site references a range of exploits which can be used for positive as well as illegal activities. Forums provide information and sources for botnets, keyloggers, remote access controls, specialized scripts, and related functions.
Other stories covered in the May 21, 2019, DarkCyber video include:
First, malware, allegedly developed by a specialist vendor supporting government customers, can compromise a mobile phone. What makes this alleged exploit notable is that the standard way of placing malware on a user’s device is to require that the user click a link or take some other action. That action allows the attacker to place the exploit on the user’s phone. The new approach requires only that the target has Facebook’s WhatsApp installed. The attacker places an in app voice call to the target. The exploit automatically uses a programming error in WhatsApp to compromise the target’s phone. The method was allegedly used to track the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The fact that this method is no longer secret provides sufficient information to ensure that other bad actors will seek to emulate this technique.
Second, a botched software update in the Netherlands disabled prisoner ankle bracelets. These devices are used to monitor prisoners under house confinement. When these devices go offline, the monitored individual can flee the country or return to his or her pre-arrest activities. The Dutch police experienced a similar outage in 2018 when the mobile phone system used to transmit data went down. The modern ankle bracelet includes the tracking technology, but can also include two-way communications, alcohol level monitoring, and anti-removal technology. There are videos allegedly showing how one removes these devices, but tampering with the devices typically leads to additional charges.
Third, DarkCyber provides a profile of the basic functions available in the investigative software developed by Cobwebs Technologies. This is an Israeli startup which allows a user to extract actionable information from open source content. The tools available include a search and retrieval system and analytics. Data can be displayed in a visual format, including maps. DarkCyber’s overview includes examples of the interface and analytic reports.
Finally, China’s Great Firewall has blocked Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. The online information service publishes content in numerous languages, and China has blocked every version of the digital encyclopedia. China’s approach to information control is part of a larger effort to maintain order and ensure government control of citizen activity. The process is called “Chinafication,” and the censorship method is influencing other governments’ approach to ensuring civil order.
DarkCyber appears each Tuesday and is available on YouTube, Vimeo, and directly from the DarkCyber news service.
Kenny Toth, May 28, 2019
Google Disintermediates Apps
May 27, 2019
Do you really want to find, download, and use a separate app when you order food or anything for that matter? No, of course not. Companies developing apps may push back a little, but there are other ways to make a living. Uber? Amazon delivery person until the robot driven vehicles arrive?
“Hey, Google Bring Me a Chalupa!” explains that Google has sucked into its system functions once the domain of the independent app. Yes, disintermediation has arrived for startups. The write up states:
Now thanks to the clever folks at Google, hangry [editor’s note: this slang appeared in the original article] people everywhere can order food delivery directly from Google Search, Maps, and Google Assistant. That doesn’t mean that a Google intern is going to show up at your door with your White Castle Crave Case or pineapple pizza. Instead the tech giant is partnering with companies that are already in the delivery game—like DoorDash, Postmates, Delivery.com, Slice, ChowNow, and more on the way.
I am not sure what “partnering” means in the thrilling world of Alphabet Google. I will leave that to you to figure out.
What seems important here in Harrod’s Creek are these issues:
- What’s the branding? Google or the oddball service absorbed into the Google environment?
- How will Google prioritize information about the services playing ball with the online advertising company? Maybe buy advertising to get pride of place for that Chalupa?
- Will Google set up sweet heart deals or buy a company which is getting traction via the Google service? How will the disintermediated service feel about that? Probably the disintermediated will bond. App developer and start up service company together again?
Convenience may come at a price? Do you think Google will send the person who orders chalupas ads for related products?
Does disintermediation lead to unemployment or underemployment? That’s a positive, right?
Stephen E Arnold, May 27, 2019
Books and Learning: Go Mobile, Stay Clueless
May 27, 2019
I read “The Books of College Libraries Are Turning into Wallpaper.” The main idea is that today’s students are not using libraries to locate books which are then read, thought about, and analyzed in order to:
- Learn
- Find useful facts
- Exploit serendipity
- Figure out which source or sources is relevant to a particular issue or topic.
The Atlantic states about Yale University:
There has been a 64 percent decline in the number of books checked out by undergraduates from Bass Library over the past decade.
News flash.
Once online information systems found their way into libraries in the 1980s, the shift from books to online information access was underway. How do I know? I worked at the database unit of the Courier Journal & Louisville Times. Greg Payne and Dennis Auld acquired the Abstracted Business Information product and converted it to an online research source for those interested in the major journal articles about commercial enterprises. The Courier Journal acquired the database product and marketed ABI/INFORM to university libraries with some success. Many people rowed the boat that raced to become one of the most widely accessed business information databases in the world in the period from 1980 to 1986 when other online products nibbled into ABI/INFORM’s position.
The point is that 1980 to 2019 is the period in which the shift from journals and books to online for certain types of research has been chugging along.
Net net: The decline in the use of books has been underway for more than 39 years. The consequence is less informed people who routinely tell me, “I am an expert researcher.” What these individuals lost in a cloud of unknowing do not comprehend is that someone is deciding for them what is relevant and important. You may call atrophied thinking an oddity. I call it “deep stupid.” In a well stocked library one can become deeply informed.
Stephen E Arnold, May 27, 2019
Amazonia, May 27, 2019
May 27, 2019
DarkCyber’s review of the Amazon news in the last seven days reveals an uptick in the critical tone in some of the open source commentary about the company. In addition to watching what Amazon says, DarkCyber will note what those writing about the company highlight. Note that the Amazonia for Monday, June 3, 2019, will be an abbreviated run down. Most of teh DarkCyber team will be at the TechnoSecurity conference.
Senator Questions Amazon Privacy
CNet reported that Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware and member of the judiciary committee, has asked Amazon for information about the privacy methods for Amazon’s Echo. As information about alleged data retention and use of recorded conversations swirls through open source channels, Amazon may find itself subject to “Facebook think.” Is Amazon a data analysis company in addition to an online bookstore? Amazon has been able to dodge some of the scrutiny directed at certain social media companies. The Bezos bulldozer could be mired in investigations and subject to fines in the US and elsewhere if these “questions” morph into hearings, investigations, and other legal mechanisms.
You may want to download US 20190156818, a patent which allows Alexa to record before a customer says the “Alexa” word. Privacy?
AWS Share Prices Dip, Prices for AWS Seem to Go Down Too
There is probably no correlation between a dip in Amazon’s share price and the price changes explained in “Announcing the New Pricing Plan for AWS Config Rules.” The blog post said:
Effective August 1st, 2019, AWS Config rules will switch to a new pay-per-use pricing model, lowering the bill for almost all existing AWS Config rules customers. AWS Config helps you assess and maintain compliance over your AWS resource configurations.
The pay per use approach appears to be a benefit in the form of a cost reduction. DarkCyber wants to point out that AWS pricing can be complicated. What appears to be a deal may turn out that for a certain class of customers, the new pricing may add to some costs.
Business2Community has published tips for reducing AWS costs.
Amazon Pushes Forward with Facial Recognition Technology
Criticism of facial recognition continues in the US. TechCrunch reported that Amazon shareholders have voted down two proposals to terminate its sale of Rekognition to government customers.
TechCrunch said:
The resolutions failed despite an effort by the ACLU to back the measures, which the civil liberties group accused the tech giant of being “non-responsive” to privacy concerns.
Unless management actions can curtail employee and shareholder grousing about the direction of Amazon’s policeware initiatives, Amazon could find itself at risk from push back from those upon whom the company depends.
Business Insider provides some information about the Amazon complaints related to the sales of services and products to what is called “big oil.”
Amazon’s management actions may curtail the growth of the company despite the lax regulatory environment in which the firm thrives.
The Kindle Support Chinese
Engadget reports that the Amazon book reading and “baby tablet” Kindle devices now su9pport “traditional Chinese books.” We learned:
Amazon has launched a portal in the Kindle store with 20,000 Traditional Chinese titles you can download, including translations of popular books like George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series. You can now also self-publish eBooks written in the characters through Kindle Direct Publishing.
The service is supported worldwide.
Amazon Satellites
If you need tips to use Amazon satellites, you may not be the informed customers the online bookstore seeks. Nevertheless, information appears in the 247 Wall Street write up “Why Amazon Is Now Giving AWS Users Access to Its Satellites.” DarkCyber thought the idea was revenue and getting customers to pay part of Amazon’s increasing infrastructure and technical debt costs. The write up states:
sing AWS Ground Station, customers can save up to 80% of their ground station costs by paying for antenna access time on demand, and they can rely on AWS Ground Station’s growing global footprint of ground stations to downlink data when and where they need it.
An Amazon official is quoted as saying:
The goal of AWS Ground Station is to make space communications ubiquitous and to make ground stations simple and easy to use, so that more organizations can derive insights from satellite data to help improve life on Earth and embark on deeper exploration and discovery in space.
At this time DarkCyber understands that two ground stations are now active. DarkCyber sticks with the cost and revenue interpretation of Amazon satellites.
Amazon AWS Is Ready for Bigger Data
Geekwire reports that an Amazon AWS executive revealed that the online bookstore is ready for bigger data. The write up quotes the Amazon professional as saying:
“The explosion of data is going to be beyond what we’ve ever seen before…cloud customers really need new and powerful tools to unlock the potential of that data.”
Not many details, but it is good to know that Amazon can handle the JEDI contract if the firms wins that deal.
Partners and Resellers
More remarkable vendor names as the roster of AWS specialists continues to swell.
- Advertity says that it “has achieved Amazon Web Services competency for digital customer experience. Source: Yahoo
- Agilisium says that it is now okayed to sell Amazon’s QuickSight Service. (QuickSight is Amazon speak for analytics.) Source: Yahoo
- BAE Systems, operator of NetReveal (Detica) has been deemed “competent” for creating applications for US government clouds. This is important because BAE is one of the go-to providers of intelware in the UK, US, and elsewhere. Source: Marketwatch
- CapGemini, a consulting firm, is actively selling engagements to move SAP installations to the AWS cloud. Source: Yahoo
- Informatica wants to apply smart software to the task of moving large amounts of data to the AWS cloud. The line up of Information services is available at this AWS Marketplace location. Informatica has a similar capability with the Google Cloud. Betting on more than one horse? Yes.
- modelizeIT is now an Amazon Advanced Tier Technology Partner. Source: Marketsinsider
- Northwest Vista College has become the first Amazon Web Services academy in South Central Texas. The idea is to train future Amazon savvy coders. Source: Yahoo
Stephen E Arnold, May 27, 2019
Chain of Failure: A Reminder about Logic
May 26, 2019
I spotted a reference to a blog post on Yodaiken. It’s title is “Von Neumann’s Critique of Automata Theory and Logic in Computer Science.” Do we live in a Von Neumann world? I was delighted to be reminded of the observations in this passage. Here’s the snippet I circled in yellow highlighter:
In a sufficiently long chain of operations the cumulative effect of these individual probabilities of failure may (if unchecked) reach the order of magnitude of unity-at which point it produces, in effect, complete unreliability.
Interesting. Perhaps failure is part of the DNA of smart software?
Stephen E Arnold, May 26, 2019
Department of Defense: Learning from Social Media Posts
May 25, 2019
A solicitation request dated May 13, 2019, “A–Global Social Media Archive, 350 billion digital data records” is an interesting public message. Analysis of social media allegedly has been a task within other projects handled by firms specializing in content analytic. These data mining efforts are, based on DarkCyber’s understanding of open source information from specialist vendors, are nothing new. The solicitation offers some interesting insights which may warrant some consideration.
First, the scope of the task is 350 billion digital records. It is not clear what a “digital record” constitutes, but the 350 billion number represents about two or three months of Facebook posts. It is not clear if the content comes from one service like Twitter or is drawn from a range of messaging and content sources.
Second, the content pool must include 60 languages. The most used languages on the public Internet are English, Chinese, and Spanish. The other 57 languages contribute a small volume of content, and this fact may create a challenge for the vendors responding to the solicitation. The document states:
Data includes messages from at least 200 million unique users in at least 100 countries, with no single country accounting for more than 30% of users.
Third, the text content and the metadata must be included in the content bundle.
The exclusion of photographs and videos is interesting. These are important content mechanisms. Are commercial enterprises operating without connections to nation states operating large-scale content aggregation systems likely to be able to comply? Worth watching to find out who lands this project.
Stephen E Arnold, May 25, 2019
Data Science Book: Free for Now
May 24, 2019
We spotted a post by Capri Granville which points to a free data science book. The post also provides a link to other free books. The Microsoft Research India book is “Foundations of Data Science” by Ravi Kannan. You can as of May 24, 2019, download the book without charge at this link: https://www.cs.cornell.edu/jeh/book.pdf. Cornell charges students about $55,188 for an academic year. DarkCyber believes that “free” may not be an operative word where the Theory Center used to love those big IBM computers. No, they were not painted Azure.
Stephen E Arnold, May 24, 2019
Silicon Valley Digital Protest: Another Challenge to Modern Management Methods?
May 24, 2019
One thing you never want to do, and I highly stress never, is anger a tech savvy individual. One famous example is Seth Rogen’s 2011 film, The Interview. The film was about an American talk show host tasked with assassinating North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. North Koran was not happy about The Interview. Although they denied involvement, North Korea hackers were the alleged culprits hacking the inventor of the Walkman.
Gizmodo tells another allegedly true story in the article, “Palantir’s Github Page Is The New Battleground In The Fight Against ICE.” Tech activists support hot button issues, such as immigration, global warming, and abortion. Palantir has garnered tech activists’ attention, because mom activities dubbed nefarious. Under the Freedom of Information Act, tech activists have learned that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) used Palantir’s technology. Many people do not like ICE, among them are tech activists.
Palantir’s case management app was used by ICE on apprehended people at the Mexican-US border. Tech activists want Palantir employees to be aware of how there products are used. We noted this statement:
“Raising an issue on the collaborative software repositories of Github is an option open to any user, and is usually for the purpose of reporting a bug or requesting a feature. ‘The issue we are planning to raise is obvious a moral issue and an ethical issue with Palantir’s ties to ICE,’ TWC’s Noah Gordon told Gizmodo. ‘This is an appeal from tech workers to tech workers to take a principled stand against family separation and deportation.’
And we circled this passage as well:
‘We believe Palantir has certain policies when it comes to maintenance of their open-source repositories, so Palantir employees will have to manually review these issues,’ Gordon continued, ‘Our belief is if we put the honest facts of the situation directly in the face of Palantir workers they will follow up by making the right decision at work and organizing against ICE.’”
Does tech activism does work. Its impact may be increased when an initial public offering is the subject of speculation. Worth monitoring this particular example of employee action and Palantir management’s response.
Whitney Grace, May 24, 2019
Google: Whom Does One Believe?
May 24, 2019
Apparently, what is good for China is situational for Google. The Intercept declares, “Google’s Censored Search Would Help China ‘Be More Open,’ Said Ex-CEO Eric Schmidt.” Writer Ryan Gallagher points to a recent BBC News interview with Eric Schmidt in which the former Google CEO, and current board member, seemed to defend his company’s choice to build a censored search platform just for China. To be fair, Schmidt’s opinion is a bit more nuanced than the above headline suggests: the theory seems to be that, by cozying up to China, Google might influence that country to embrace internet freedom. Seems reasonable? Gallagher writes:
“During Schmidt’s tenure as CEO, in 2006, Google launched a search engine in China but pulled out of the country in 2010, due to concerns about Chinese government interference. At that time, [co-founder Sergey] Brin said the decision to stop operating search in the country was mainly about ‘opposing censorship and speaking out for the freedom of political dissent.’ Schmidt revealed in his BBC interview that he had argued against Brin — believing that the company should remain in China, despite the censorship requirements. He said he felt that it was better ‘to stay in China and help change China to be more open.’
We also noted this passage:
“Brin has previously said that he felt the same way for a period of time — that Google could help China embrace greater internet freedom. But he watched as the company, over a number of years, faced increasing censorship requests from the Chinese government. ‘Things started going downhill, especially after the Olympics [in Beijing in 2008],’ Brin said in a 2010 interview. ‘And there’s been a lot more blocking going on since then. … [S]o the situation really took a turn for the worse.’”
At least Google’s workers understand that cooperating with China’s censorship efforts will do nothing to dampen China’s enthusiasm for censorship. Once word of the search platform tailor-made for China, code named Dragonfly, got out, workers protested. Many of them were unhappy to learn they had unwittingly supported censorship through their work, and called for more transparency and employee input. In that BBC interview, Schmidt says Google is “no longer pursuing Dragonfly,” but could not rule out a return to the project in the future.
Meanwhile, censorship has only gotten worse in China since Brin’s 2010 concerns; according to the Human Rights Watch, a 2016 cybersecurity law has brought internet control to “new heights.”
Now Google has complied with the US government’s directive about Huawei. Compliance and an apparent leadership position. Google’s diplomacy may be tested, and the firm’s leadership will have opportunities to craft other statements.
But whom does one believe when it comes to reading tea leaves about Google and its intentions?
Cynthia Murrell, May 24, 2019
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
