Russian Drug Trade Likes That Cryptocurrency
January 3, 2025
No smart software involved. Just a dinobaby’s work.
High tech innovation meets traditional thuggery in Russia’s expanding drug trade. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime summarizes its recent report in, “Breaking Klad: Russia’s Dead Drop Drug Revolution.” The write-up includes links to download the report and a related press release. First up, the innovation:
“There has been a groundbreaking shift in the global drug trade, pioneered in Russia and now spreading globally. Unlike traditional drug trafficking models, this system leverages darknet markets and cryptocurrency for anonymous transactions, allowing buyers to retrieve drugs from hidden physical locations, or ‘dead drops,’ rather than direct exchanges. Driven by large platforms such as Kraken, Mega, and Blacksprut [sic], Russian darknet markets control 93% of the global share, generating approximately $1.5 billion in revenue in 2023 alone. This dominance marks a new era for organized crime, with Russia’s digital drug economy vastly surpassing traditional Western darknet markets in scope and influence.”
We are told this digital shift was prompted by several factors. Increasingly restrictive anti-drug policies and strained trade relations with the West contribute. Also, drug dealers now have the technology to give their clients (and themselves) the convenience and anonymity they desire. Wonderful. The writeup mentions that, within Russia, trade in cheap-to-make synthetic drugs like mephedrone is overtaking traditional imports like cocaine and heroin. Which leads us to the thuggery:
“Youth are drawn into this high-tech drug economy, often working as couriers or ‘kladmen’ for online shops—a job that comes with high risks, including violence, criminal charges, and addiction. Violence has become endemic in the system, with enforcers, known as ‘sportsmen,’ meting out harsh punishments for couriers suspected of theft or negligence. This pervasive violence, combined with the easy availability of highly addictive synthetic drugs, is fueling a public health crisis and contributing to rising incarceration rates among young Russians.”
These young people may find miserable company in a growing number of countries; the report warns this model is spreading beyond Russia’s borders. Authorities must adapt to the new reality. Understanding Russia’s darknet markets will help, advises the report.
Cynthia Murrell, January 3 , 2025
Marketing Milestone 2024: Whither VM?
January 3, 2025
When a vendor jacks up prices tenfold, customers tend to look elsewhere. If VMware‘s new leadership thought its clients had no other options, it was mistaken. Ars Technica reports, “Company Claims 1.000 Percent Price Hike Drove it from VMware to Open Source Rival.” We knew some were unhappy with changes Broadcom made since it bought VMware in November, 2023. For example, nixing perpetual license sales sent costs soaring for many. (Broadcom claims that move was planned before it bought VMware.) Now, one firm that had enough has come forward. Writer Scharon Harding tells us:
“According to a report from The Register today, Beeks Group, a cloud operator headquartered in the United Kingdom, has moved most of its 20,000-plus virtual machines (VMs) off VMware and to OpenNebula, an open source cloud and edge computing platform. Beeks Group sells virtual private servers and bare metal servers to financial service providers. It still has some VMware VMs, but ‘the majority’ of its machines are currently on OpenNebula, The Register reported. Beeks’ head of production management, Matthew Cretney, said that one of the reasons for Beeks’ migration was a VMware bill for ’10 times the sum it previously paid for software licenses,’ per The Register. According to Beeks, OpenNebula has enabled the company to dedicate more of its 3,000 bare metal server fleet to client loads instead of to VM management, as it had to with VMware. With OpenNebula purportedly requiring less management overhead, Beeks is reporting a 200 percent increase in VM efficiency since it now has more VMs on each server.”
Less expensive and more efficient? That is a no-brainer. OpenNebula‘s CEO says other organizations that are making the switch, though he declined to name them. Though Broadcom knows some customers are jumping ship, it may believe its changes are lucrative enough to make up for their absence. At the same time, it is offering an olive branch to small and medium-sized businesses with a less pricy subscription tier designed for them. Will it stem the exodus, or is it already too late?
Cynthia Murrell, January 3, 2024
Code Graveyards: Welcome, Bad Actors
January 3, 2025
Did you know that the siloes housing nuclear missiles are still run on systems from the 1950s-1960s? These systems use analog computers and code more ancient than some people’s grandparents. The manuals for these codes are outdated and hard to find, except in archives and libraries that haven’t deaccessioned items for decades. There’s actually money to be made in these old systems and the Datosh Blog explains how: “The Hidden Risks of High-Quality Code.”
There are haunted graveyards of code in more than nuclear siloes. They exist in enterprise systems and came into existence in many ways: created by former IT employees, made for a specific project, or out-of-the-box code that no one wants to touch in case it causes system implosion. Bureaucratic layers and indecisive mentalities trap these codebases in limbo and they become the haunted graveyards. Not only are they haunted by ghosts of coding projects past, the graveyards pose existential risks.
The existential risks are magnified when red tape and attitudes prevent companies from progressing. Haunted graveyards are the root causes of technical debt, such as accumulated inefficiencies, expensive rewrites, and prevention from adapting to change.
Tech developers can avoid technical debt by prioritizing simplicity, especially matching a team’s skill level. Being active in knowledge transfer is important, because it means system information is shared between developers beyond basic SOP. Also use self-documenting code, understandable patterns for technology, don’t underestimate the value of team work and feedback. Haunted graveyards can be avoided:
“A haunted graveyard is not always an issue of code quality, but may as well be a mismatch between code complexity and the team’s ability to grapple with it. As a consultant, your goal is to avoid these scenarios by aligning your work with the team’s capabilities, transferring knowledge effectively, and ensuring the team can confidently take ownership of your contributions.”
Haunted graveyards are also huge opportunities for IT code consultants. Anyone with versatile knowledge, the right education/credentials, and chutzpah could establish themselves in this niche field. It’s perfect for a young 20-something with youthful optimism and capital to start a business in consulting for haunted graveyard systems. They will encounter data hoarders, though.
Whitney Grace, January 3, 2024
FOGINT: What Do the Most Recent Telegram Function Enhancements Portend for 2025?
January 2, 2025
This is a report from the FOGINT research team.
For a company without a permanent office with staff who show up everyday, Telegram has been busy in December 2024. One good example is Telegram’s chopping up the video stream from its Gateway Conference held in early November 2024. The individual talks with their unique Telegram / TON Foundation quirkiness are available on YouTube at this link. One can mostly parse some speakers’ content using the Google caption function.
Also, a “real” news service has collected several other Telegram and its ecosystem announcement in “Telegram Rolls Out Third-Party Account Verification, Filters.” For those unfamiliar with Telegram, the service offered a verification process. That service remains, and “has now launched a new project to let already-verified third-party authorities, such as food quality regulators or educational consortiums, verify an account.” The article also points out that Telegram has added “filters” to the baked in search and retrieval service. FOGINT wants to point out that the search service is not very good. Retrieval remains spotty. The only way to find certain content is to monitor specific public and private groups. The content from these groups can then be downloaded or sucked from the service with a well-crafted script tuned to observe Telegram’s quite specific blocks on bulk downloading. According to the cited article, Telegram has added:
- Emoji reactions
- Sending gifts (this is a money generating angle)
- Search filters for private chats, group chats, and channels.
The write up does not ask the question, “What is the direction these features suggest Telegram and its associated entities are heading in 2025?”
Here’s FOGINT’s take on the path Telegram is likely to follow:
- Freeing Pavel will be a top priority
- Amping up Telegram and the TON Foundation’s crypto activities. (Telegram is the platform for TON Foundation; the Foundation is the marketing and developer magnet for the TONcoin.)
- Provide functions and services like third party verification to show the French judiciary and others that Telegram does have “real” users and can provide investigators with some useful information maybe.
But the big priority after the “Free Pavel” action is crypto; specifically, making the Telegram platform the hub for crypto gaming and possibly some allied services like automating the movement of crypto from one coin and wallet to other wallets and coins. Tie ups with the Ku Group and other organizations providing crypto alternatives to traditional and regulated financial systems are on board and rolling out integrated services at this time.
Stephen E Arnold, January 2, 2025
Google, the Modern Samurai, Becomes a Ronin. Banzai!
January 2, 2025
Written by a dinobaby, not an over-achieving, unexplainable AI system.
I read “Google to Fight Japan’s Claims That It Harms Rivals in Search.” This paywalled Bloomberg story explains that Google is going to fight Japan’s allegations about hampering its competitors. Would Google do that?
A brave online advertising samurai reduces arguments to tiny flakes of paper. Arguments don’t stand a chance when a modern samurai fights injustice. Thanks, ChatGPT. Good enough.
The write up reports:
Alphabet Inc. is preparing to counter Japanese government allegations that it engages in anticompetitive practices such as forcing smartphone makers to give priority to Google Search in default screen placement.
Google’s position is a blend of smarm and lawyer lingo. As reported by Bloomberg:
“We have continued to work closely with the Japanese government to demonstrate how we are supporting the Android ecosystem and expanding user choice in Japan,” Google said in a statement without providing details of the allegations. “We will present our arguments in the hearing process,” it said, adding it was “disappointed” and the FTC didn’t give enough consideration of the company’s proposed solution. The company didn’t elaborate.
With Google explaining how the US government should respond to the shocking decision that Google was a monopoly, the company seems to bounce from one legal matter to the next.
What’s interesting is that Bloomberg characterized Google’s approach as a “fight.” I don’t know too much about Japanese culture. I have watched a Akira Kurosawa film and I recall John Belushi’s interpretation of a modern samurai warrior. Google definitely can send throngs of legal warriors into court. For PR purposes, I think adopting Mr. Kurosawa’s use of color for different groups of brave fighters would contribute some high impact imagery to YouTube videos.
However, with some EU losses and the twist of Googzilla’s tail by the US legal system, the innocent-until-proven-guilty company is likely to become a Saturday Night Live skit. Maybe Joe Koy will slip the Belushi-type of samurai into a set about how Google helps everyone, 24×7, and embodies the quaint motto “Do no evil.”
Stephen E Arnold, January 2, 2024
Paywalls: New Angles for Bad Actors
January 2, 2025
Information literacy is more important now than ever, especially as people become more polarized in their views. This is due to multiple factors such as the news media chasing profits, bad actors purposefully spreading ignorance, and algorithms that feed people confirmation biased information. Thankfully there are people like Isabella Bruno, who leads the Smithsonian’s Learning and Community department, part of the Office of Digital Transformation. She’s dedicated to learning and on her Notion she brags…er…shares that she has access to journals and resources that are otherwise locked behind paywalls.
For her job, Bruno uses a lot of academic resources, but she knows that everyone doesn’t have the same access as her. She wrote the following resource to help her fellow learning enthusiasts and researchers: How Can I Access Research Resources When Not Attached To An Academic Institution?
Bruno shares a flow chart that explains how to locate resources. If the item is a book, she recommends using LibGen, Z-Library, and BookSC. She forgets to try the Internet Archive and inter-library loans. If the source is a book, she points towards OA.mg and trying PaperPanda. It is a Chrome extension that accesses papers. She also suggests Unpaywall, another Chrome extension, that searches for the desired paper.
When in further doubt, Bruno recommends Sci-Hub or the subreddit /r/Scholar, where users exchange papers. Her best advice is directly emailing the author, but
“Sometimes you might not get a response. This is because early-career researchers (who do most of the hard work) are the most likely to reply, but the corresponding author (i.e. the author with the email address on the paper) is most likely faculty and their inboxes will often be far too full to respond to these requests. The sad reality is that you’re probably not going to get a response if you’re emailing a senior academic. 100% agree. Also, unless the paper just dropped, there’s no guarantee that any of the authors are still at that institution. Academic job security is a fantasy and researchers change institutions often, so a lot of those emails are going off into the aether.”
Bruno needs to tell people to go to their local university or visit a public library! They know how to legally get around copyright.
Whitney Grace, January 2, 2025
A Better Database of SEC Filings?
January 2, 2025
DocDelta is a new database that says it is, “revolutionizing investment research by harnessing the power of AI to decode complex financial documents at scale.” In plain speak that means it’s an AI-powered platform that analyzes financial documents. The AI studies terabytes of SEC filings, earning calls, and market data to reveal insights.
DocDelta wants its users to have an edge that other investors are missing. The DocDelta team explain the advanced language combined with financial expertise tracks subtle changes and locates patterns. The platform includes 10-K & 10-Q analysis, real time alerts, and insider trading tracker. As part of its smart monitoring, automated tools, DocDelta has risk assessments, financial metrics, and language analysis.
This platform was designed specifically for investment professionals. It notifies investors when companies update their risk factors and disclose materials through *-K filings. It also analyzes annual and quarterly earnings and compares them against past quarters, identifies material changes in risk factors, financial metrics, and management discussions. There’s also a portfolio management tool and a research feature.
DocDelta sums itself up like this:
“Detect critical changes in SEC filings before the market reacts. Get instant alerts and AI-powered analysis of risk factors, management discussion, and financial metrics.”
This could be a new tool to help the SEC track bad actors and keep the stock market clean. Is that oxymoronic?
Whitney Grace, January 2, 2024
A New Year Alert: Americans Cannot Read
January 1, 2025
The United States is a large country with a self-contained nature. Because of its monolith status, the United States is very isolated. The rest of the world views the US as a stupid country and NBC News shares evidence to that statement: “Survey: Growing Number Of U.S. Adults Lack Literacy Skills.” The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported that the gap between high-skilled readers and kid-skilled immensely increased from 19% in 2017 to 28% in 2023.
The substantial difference doesn’t bode well for the US, but when it is compared to the countries the US faired well. The US’s scores stayed even according to the Survey of Adult Skills. This test surveyed over two dozen countries and many of them are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The survey measures the working-age population’s literacy, number, and problem-solving skills. Most of the countries, including European and Asian countries, had comparable results to the US.
The greatest surprises were that Japan saw a 4% increase from 5% to 9%, England remained the same at 17%, Singapore jumped from 26% to 30%, Germany saw a spike from 18% to 20%. The biggest changes were in South Korea and Lithuania. Both countries went from the teens to thirty percent or higher.
This doesn’t mean the US and other nations are idiots (arguably):
“Low scores don’t equal illiteracy, [NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr] said — the closest the survey comes to that is measuring those who could be called functionally illiterate, which is the inability to read or write at a level at which you’re able to handle basic living and workplace tasks.
Asked what could be causing the adult literacy decline in the U.S., Carr said, ’It is difficult to say.’”
The Internet and lack of reading is the cause, dingbat!
Whitney Grace, January 1, 2025
WhatsApp: Chasing More Money
January 1, 2025
Meta aims to make WhatsApp indispensable to businesses around the world. The app is currently responsible for just a fraction of the company’s revenue, but Zuckerberg seems to have high hopes for the messaging platform. Rest of World‘s thorough piece, “How WhatsApp Ate the World,” describes the plan. Writer Issie Lapowsky details the app’s evolution since Facebook (now Meta) bought it and examines where the company plans to take it from here. We learn:
“WhatsApp initially achieved that global dominance in large part by doing just one thing very well: enabling cheap, private, and reliable messaging on almost any phone, almost anywhere in the world. But in the decade since Meta acquired WhatsApp for an eye-watering $22 billion in 2014, the app has been transformed from a narrowly focused utilitarian tool into a sort of ‘everything app.’ In countries like India, Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia, WhatsApp is now also a place for scheduling doctor’s appointments and conducting real estate deals — and buying Sabharwal’s ceramic ducks. In Brazil, the beauty juggernaut L’Oréal now makes an average of 25% of its online direct-to-consumer sales on WhatsApp. The shift has been driven, of course, by money. WhatsApp has never been much of a moneymaker. While Meta makes billions off mining people’s personal data to sell more ads, WhatsApp is an encrypted app, whose founders once very publicly swore off advertising altogether. Lately, however, WhatsApp has been aggressively luring big businesses to its suite of paid messaging products for businesses, and openly flirting with the possibility of introducing ads in the not-too-distant future.”
Because of course it is. Meta insists it respects WhatsApp’s original mission of privacy, pledging to keep its end-to-end encryption intact. The company has even added privacy tools that remind us of the old Telegram: disappearing messages, encrypting backups, and shielding IP addresses in calls. Is Meta attempting to move forward by stepping into the past? Even with these privacy promises, Lapowsky notes:
“And yet, with each new revenue-boosting feature, WhatsApp has added a little asterisk to its core privacy promises, according to Nathalie Maréchal, co-director of the privacy and data program at the Center for Democracy & Technology in Washington, D.C. ‘It’s not necessarily that those asterisks are illegitimate. It’s that they’re complicated,’ she told Rest of World, ‘and many users are either not going to take the time, or aren’t going to prioritize, fully understanding it.'”
Ah, details. Another key part of Zuck’s vision is no surprise—generative AI. Meta’s chatbot is now a standard part of the app’s search bar, while a customer-service version and AI marketing tools are now available to businesses. Will all these changes turn WhatsApp into the moneymaker the tech mogul envisions?
Cynthia Murrell, January 1, 2025
The US and Math: Not So Hot
January 1, 2025
In recent decades, the US educational system has increasingly emphasized teaching to the test over niceties like critical thinking and deep understanding. How is that working out for us? Not well. Education news site Chalkbeat reports, "U.S. Math Scores Drop on Major International Test."
Last year, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study assessed over 650,000 fourth and eighth graders in 64 countries. The test is performed every four years, and its emphasis is on foundational skills in those subjects. Crucial knowledge for our young people to have, not just for themselves but for the future of the country. That future is not looking so good. The write-up includes a chart of the rankings, with the U.S. now squarely in the middle. We learn:
"U.S. fourth graders saw their math scores drop steeply between 2019 and 2023 on a key international test even as more than a dozen other countries saw their scores improve. Scores dropped even more steeply for American eighth graders, a grade where only three countries saw increases. The declines in fourth grade mathematics in the U.S. were among the largest in the participating countries, though American students are still in the middle of the pack internationally. The extent of the decline seems to be driven by the lowest performing students losing more ground, a worrying trend that predates the pandemic."
So we can’t just blame this on the pandemic, when schools were shuttered and students "attended" classes remotely. A pity. The results are no surprise to many who have been sounding alarm bells for years. So why not just drop perpetual testing and return to more effective instruction? It couldn’t have anything to do with corporate interests, could it? Naw, even the jaded and powerful must know the education of our youth is too important to put behind profits.
Cynthia Murrell, January 1, 2024
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