Ireland and Google: The Privacy Man Versus Data Man
May 23, 2019
I read “EU Regulator Launches Probe into Google over Data Privacy.” My initial reaction is that the country known for its writers is going where the money is. Then I realized this might be a more interesting dust up.
I recalled a line allegedly inked by George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, or maybe a person named Cyrus Ching; to wit:
I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.
I am not sure which is which or who is who in the forthcoming cage match. From the CNBC business font I learned:
Ireland’s data privacy watchdog on Wednesday announced the launch of an inquiry into Google over the tech giant’s collection of data when it comes to online advertising.
The write up adds:
The Data Protection Commission, which acts as the lead supervisory authority for Google in the European Union, said its probe would examine whether Google’s processing of data in advertising transactions breaches the bloc’s privacy rule.
Let’s get ready to rumble. The location? A country which offered modest incentives to high technology outfits. Snort.
Stephen E Arnold, May 23, 2019
When Know How Gets Loose: Excitement Ensues
May 23, 2019
Bad actor hackers are pains in the rear, especially when they steal personal information. They are even worse when they steal from the government and use the stolen information for nefarious purposes. From The Trenches World Report explains the how and why about the hackers in that “China Used NSA Cyber weapon To Hack Targets, Symantec Says.”
The NSA developed a hacking tool dubbed “Double Pulsar” that can secretly download malware onto Windows-based PCs. Chinese hackers stole it, put their stamp on it, and used it on unsuspecting victims back in 2016. There was evidence that the altered Black Pulsar paired with another Chinese hacking tool were used in attacks in Belgium and Hong Kong. What is even worse is that the Chinese hacking tool could only hack 32-bit systems, but was revamped to attack 64-bit systems with newer Windows versions.
It is unknown how the alleged Chinese hackers obtained Double Pulsar. The possible theories are that an NSA server with bad security or a NSA employee went rogue. Another idea is that the hackers collected some NSA traffic that contained Double Pulsar..
“Whatever the case may be, the findings underscore the risks of NSA cyber weapons falling into the wrong hands. Double Pulsar, itself, is no longer a secret. In April 2017, a mysterious party called the Shadow Brokers went online and dumped a cache of NSA hacking tools, which included details on Double Pulsar. A month later, the same NSA hacking tools were used to launch Wannacry, a ransomware attack that hit Windows machines across the world.
Who the Shadows Brokers are remains a mystery. But according to Symantec, the Chinese hacking group that gained access to Double Pulsar no longer appears to be active. In Nov. 2017, the US publicly charged three members of the group with hacking crimes and intellectual property theft.”
One more hacking tool is now an open source piece. DarkCyber is not keen on certain types of technology becoming widely available.
Whitney Grace, May 23, 2018
Google: Old School Advertising Embraced
May 23, 2019
Price is important.
What difference does a little letter “i” make? Not much in one recent ad campaign, because it can be considered implied. “Google Rips iPhone for Being a Rip-Off,” reports ZDNet. Writer Chris Matyszczyk noticed that Google’s ads had been comparing their Pixel 3a, at $399, to “Phone X,” priced at $999—the same cost as a 64GB iPhone X, as it happens. However, he insists, this is about as accurate as comparing a Mini to an Audi A8. The write-up observes:
“In essence, then, Google wants you to believe that its 3a is just as good as an iPhone that’ll cost you more than twice as much. … I don’t dispute for a nanosecond that the Pixel 3a isn’t a very fine phone. Some might say, though, that its specs might bring it closer to an iPhone SE than an iPhone XR. If you buy a 3a, you’ll make so with a single camera for your selfies — the shame of it. You’ll also have a far slower processor. Oh, and you won’t be able to drop it down the toilet or in the swimming pool without ruining it. One more thing. Your wireless charging joy will be extinguished.”
Still, Matyszczyk concedes Google may have a point to make about inflated phone prices. Few people are prepared to pay a grand for their phone, so Android will benefit if Apple is painted as a brand for elites. The author wonders, though, whether some buyers will be disappointed in their Pixel 3a’s in the end. As always, caveat emptor.
DarkCyber believes that super expensive smart phones are likely to face headwinds. Lower cost options may produce revenue volume. Will profits follow? Worth watching this Don Draper moment.
Cynthia Murrell, May 23, 2019
Pavlovian Marketing: The Automated Business Intelligence Engine
May 22, 2019
If you are following the rapid evolution of smart marketing systems, you will want to keep your eye on Trial Run Media. The company offers consumers free trials like toothpaste linked to automatic data collection. The consumer’s behavior informs the monitor what’s of interest. Then the monitor can push ads and similar offers to the consumer.
The approach is explained in “World’s First Automated Business Intelligence Engines That Offer On-Demand Marketing.” The approach is explained this way:
With Trial Run, consumers are in charge of the marketing experience. They choose the ‘content’ – a free sample of the brand they want to try – by entering a campaign URL into the browser of their smartphones. They are then prompted to enter their name and cell phone number, after which, they effortlessly receive a code to enter into ABIE’s keypad to release the sample.
One of Trial Run’s founders allegedly said:
“When someone has chosen to try your brand, they want to hear your brand story and with Trial Run the possibilities are endless – you can share videos, you can chat in real-time, you can invite consumers to events and even direct them to your online store in the moment when they have your brand in their hand.”
Imagine how useful the system would be, assuming it works well, if harnessed to information.The company’s Web site is http://trialrun.media/. Note that there is a “fractal analytics” company with a similar name. These could be easily confused.
Stephen E Arnold, May 22, 2019
Arolsen Archives
May 22, 2019
Documents from concentration camps have been expanded. The Arolsen Archive (the new name of the International Tracing Service) makes available 13 million pertaining to more than two million people, according to the Daily Beast (Newsweek). This is the “the world’s most comprehensive archive on the Holocaust’s victims and survivors.” You can explore the collection at this link.
Stephen E Arnold, May 22, 2019
IBM Watson Studio: Watson, Will It Generate Big Revenue?
May 22, 2019
Despite its troubles, Watson lives on. ZDNet reports, “IBM Updates Watson Studio.” The AI-model-building platform relies on Watson’s famous machine learning technology and can deploy its models to either onsite data centers or in the cloud. Writer Stephanie Condon specifies:
“Watson Studio 2.0 includes a range of new features, starting with data preparation and exploration. For data exploration, IBM is adding 43 data connectors like Dropbox, Salesforce, Tableau and Looker. It’s also adding an Asset Browser experience to navigate through Schemas, Tables and Objects. For refining data, there are new tools for previewing and visualizing data. For running analytics where your data lives and to leverage existing compute, IBM has enhanced Watson Studio’s integrations with Hadoop Distributions (CDH and HDP). Watson Studio 2.0 also now includes built-in batch and evaluation job management for Python/R scripts, SPSS streams and Data Refinery Flows. There’s a new collaborative interface, similar to Slack, to the Jupyter Notebook integration. Version 2.0 also lets scientists import open source packages or libraries.”
We’re also told support for your major GIT frameworks: Github, Github enterprise, Bitbucket and Bitbucket Server. This release is in line with IBM’s goal, stated earlier this year, of making all of its Watson tech available to multiple cloud platforms. These applications, dev tools, and models now make their home under the IBM Cloud Private for Data. Back to the question in the headline. The answer, stakeholders hope, is “Yes.” For those with less optimism, the answer may be, “Probably not.”
Cynthia Murrell, May 22, 2019
Factualities for May 22, 2019
May 22, 2019
Ah, the beauty, the power, the allure of numbers. Remember. Every number has a person behind it. Within that person may be mathematical and other skills. Do round numbers make you suspicious?
$2.5 billion. Size of cloud gaming market in 2023. Source: Venture Beat
414,000,000. Number of pieces of plastic scientists “found” on a remote island. Source: Live Science
95 percent. The decline in activist hacking. Source: Engadget
69 percent. The increase in Web site and hacking. Source: Dark Reading
380. Number of submarine cables. 100. Number of submarine cables in the control of Huawei. Source: Axios
483,300. Number of shares of Amazon Warren Buffet owns. Source: Business Insider
735,000. Number of fraudulently obtained IP addresses revoked. Source: CircleID
4,629. Number of organized crime groups in the UK. Source: The Guardian
2038. The year in which electric vehicles overtake gasoline powered cars. Source: Quartz
51 percent. The percentage of marketers who think they are sending low value content. Source: Search Engine Journal
5. Number of hacker services which actually took action from a pool of 27 black hatters. Source: ZDNet
3 percent. Percentage of Americans who can pass a basic security test. Source: Dark Reading
100 percent. The security of a Google account with an attached mobile phone number. Only bots thwarted. Source: ZDNet
Stephen E Arnold, May 22, 2019
How to Pronounce CLTRe
May 21, 2019
DarkCyber was able to figure out how to say the name “KnowBe4.” This company is in the cyber security business and it obviously offers technology which can let a person “know before” something bad happens and take appropriate remediation steps.
KnowBe4 purchased a company named “CLTRe.” Here’s the question:
How does one pronounce “CLTRe”? The problem is similar to figuring out what the letters of a vanity license plate “mean”.
Here’s an easy one:
What about this?
Okay, back to the problem: CLTRe.
The answer appears in “KnowBe4 to Acquire Norwegian Assessment Company CLTRe.”
The word is “culture.”
The business of CLTRe is to measure clients’ security preparedness.
According to the article:
KnowBe4 currently is integrating the CLTRe assessments into its platform, and does not plan to change its pricing as a result of the deal.
We also noted this statement:
This deal marks only the latest cybersecurity merger or acquisition in an industry that analysts predict will only continue to consolidate. The data backup service Carbonite in February acquired Webroot, and some $3 billion of investors’ dollars has been pumped into the industry so far this year…
Will KnowBe4 retain the name of the company it just acquired?
WDKBWHN. This means “we don’t know but we hope not.
Stephen E Arnold, May 21, 2019
15 Reasons You Need Business Intelligence Software
May 21, 2019
I read StrategyDriven’s “The Importance of Business Intelligence Software and Why It’s Integral for Business Success.” I found the laundry list interesting, but I asked myself, “If BI software is so important, why is it necessary to provide 15 reasons?”
I went through the list of items a couple of times.Some of the reasons struck me as a bit of a stretch. I had a teacher at the University of Illinois who loved the phrase “a bit of a stretch, right” when a graduate student proposed a wild and crazy hypothesis or drew a nutsy conclusion from data.
Let’s look at four of these reasons and see if there’s merit to my skepticism about delivering fish to a busy manager when the person wanted a fish sandwich.
Reason 1: Better business decisions. Really? If a BI system outputs data to a clueless person or uses flawed, incomplete, or stale data to present an output to a bright person, are better business decisions an outcome? In my experience, nope.
Reason 6. Accurate decision making. What the human does with the outputs is likely to result in a decision. That’s true. But accurate? Too many variables exist to create a one to one correlation with the assertion and what happens in a decider’s head or among a group of deciders who get together to figure out what to do. Example: Google has data. Google decided to pay a person accused of improper behavior millions of dollars. Accurate decision making? I suppose it depends on one’s point of view.
Reason 11. Reduced cost. I am confident when I say, “Most companies do not calculate or have the ability to assemble the information needed to produce fully loaded costs.” Consequently, the cost of a BI system is not the license fee. There are the associated directs and indirects. And when a decision from the BI system is wrong, there are some other costs as well. How are Facebook’s eDiscovery systems generating a payback today? Facebook has data, but the costs of its eDiscovery systems are not known, nor does anyone care as the legal hassles continue to flood the company’s executive suite.
Reason 13. High quality data. Whoa, hold your horses. The data cost is an issue in virtually every company with which I have experience. No one wants to invest to make certain that the information is complete, accurate, up to date, and maintained (indexed accurately and put in a consistent format). This is a pretty crazy assertion about BI when there is no guarantee that the data fed into the system is representative, comprehensive, accurate, and fresh.
Business intelligence is a tool. Use of a BI system does not generate guaranteed outcomes.
Stephen E Arnold, May 21, 2019
DarkCyber for May 21, 2019, Now Available
May 21, 2019
DarkCyber for May 21, 2019, is now available at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress and on Vimeo at https://www.vimeo.com/337093968.
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: A new version of Tor; digital bits trigger bombs; highlights from the FBI’s 2018 Cyber Crime Report; more details about the Wall Street Market take down; DeepDotWeb seized; Telegram used to sell weapons; and the size of the Dark Web.
This week’s feature provides more details about the take down of the Dark Web contraband ecommerce site, Wall Street Market. DarkCyber reports that the operation involved law enforcement from several countries, including Germany and the US. One moderator of the site initiated a blackmail scheme as law enforcement prepared to seize the site’s servers and arrest its owners. As part of the takedown, providers of drugs were arrested in the US. The take down revealed millions in cash and digital currency accounts worth more than $14 million. Investigators also seized data and other information, including customer details.
Other stories covered in the May 21, 2019, DarkCyber video include:
First, information about the new release of the Tor software bundle. Firefox is used as the base for the Tor browser. Technical issues with Firefox required some scrambling to address technical issues. The new release is available on the Tor.org Web site. DarkCyber points out that in some countries, downloading Tor is interpreted as an indicator of possible ill intent.
Second, a cyber attack on Israel prompted a kinetic response. The incident marks the first time Israel has responded to an act it regarded as information warfare with a missile strike on the alleged perpetrators’ headquarters. DarkCyber points out that the US may have used force in response to an adversary’s leaking classified and sensitive information on a public Web site. The use of traditional weapons in response to a digital attack is a behavior to monitor.
Third, DarkCyber selects several highlights from the FBI’s report about cyber crime in 2018. Among the key points identified is the data about the most common types of online crime. Most attacks make use of email and use social engineering to obtain personal financial information or user name and password data. The FBI report verifies data from other sources about the risks associated with email, specifically enticing an email recipient into downloading a document with malware or clicking on a link that leads to a spoofed page; for example, a PayPal page operated by the attacker, not the legitimate company. DarkCyber provides information about how to obtain this government report.
Fourth, an international team of law enforcement professionals seized the Sheepdog, an online information service. This site was accessible using a standard browser, no Tor or i2p software was required. The site referred its visitors to Dark Web sites selling drugs and other contraband. The seizure is an indication that Europol, FBI, and other law enforcement agencies are expanding their activities to curtail illegal eCommerce.
Fifth, DarkCyber explains that a story about bad actors using Telegram, an encrypted messaging app, to sell weapons should be viewed with caution. The story originated with a report from MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute. The organization was founded by a former Israeli intelligence offer and has been identified as an organization generating content which may have characteristics of disinformation. DarkCyber provides a link to the MEMRI organization to make it easy for viewers to follow its information stream.
The final story reports that another vendor has sized the scope of the Dark Web. The most recent size estimate comes from Recorded Future. The company reports that it was able to identify 55,000 Dark Web domains. Of that number, only about 8,400 are online. DarkCyber notes that of the active site, a relatively few sites dominate illegal eCommerce, sharing of sensitive information, and other questionable services.
DarkCyber appears each Tuesday and is available on YouTube, Vimeo, and directly from the DarkCyber news service.
Kenny Toth, May 21, 2019
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