Linux Developer Is Unhappy with Amazon
June 17, 2020
Who doesn’t love Amazon? Maybe the person credited with developing Linux? That would be Linus Torvalds, developer of note.
No one pays attention to insults on the Internet unless someone with clout says them. The IT community definitely paid attention to the head of the Linux kernelLinus Torvalds when he said, “Linus Torvalds Rejects ‘Beyond Stupid’ AWS-Made Linux Patch For Intel CPU Snoop Attack” reports ZDNet.
In early 2020, Snoop launched attacks on Intel andCore CPUs and AWS discovered it. The attack causes CPUs to leak data from its L1D cache via bus snooping—a cache-updating operation that happens when the L1D modifies data. AWS developed a patch for the Linux kernel that would allow applications to opt in to flush the L1D cache when a task is switched out. Torvalds thinks the patch would degrade performance in other applications. Torvalds said:
“ ‘Because it looks to me like this basically exports cache flushing instructions to user space, and gives processes a way to just say ‘slow down anybody else I schedule with too’…‘In other words, from what I can tell, this takes the crazy ‘Intel ships buggy CPU’s and it causes problems for virtualization’ code (which I didn’t much care about), and turns it into ‘anybody can opt in to this disease, and now it affects even people and CPU’s that don’t need it and configurations where it’s completely pointless’.
‘I don’t want some application to go ‘Oh, I’m _soo_ special and pretty and such a delicate flower, that I want to flush the L1D on every task switch, regardless of what CPU I am on, and regardless of whether there are errata or not. Because that app isn’t just slowing down itself, it’s slowing down others too.’’
Torvalds also think the patch is crazy because a hack could inhabit another core within the CPU and attack the L1 cache before its flushed. Another fun word he used was pseudo-security.
Usually “pseudo” is reserved for science, but this works too.
Whitney Grace, June 17, 2020
Organic or Paid Search? Answer: Pay Up
June 16, 2020
There is a weird symbiosis. Unlike the sucker fish clamped on a shark, the predator’s fellow travelers operate in the dark digital ocean. “Organic Vs Paid Search: Explained” correctly points out that traffic costs money. This is not 1994, gentle reader. This is 2020 and the costs of running an ad supported search engine are difficult to control.
The write-up ignores a simple fact: Online advertising companies want anyone who wants clicks and traffic to pay. Like the IRS oriented phrase: Death, taxes, and the online traffic levy.
This means that “organic search” — the 1994 style of Web indexing — is dead like dinosaurs. The future is pay to play.
As output devices become smaller and voice creeps forward as a way to explain where to get a pizza, the free loading sucker fish are going to get scraped off the digital shark. The shark will then eat the sucker fish.
What’s this mean for search engine optimization? More baloney, more hand waving, and another lost cause.
Pay to play, the phrase of the future. There’s no cyber Mother Theresa to intervene.
Stephen E Arnold, June 16, 2020
Amazon: Can Money Buy Smooth Sailing?
June 15, 2020
What is the obvious solution when you must not leave home but there are things to purchase? Amazon.com, of course. And where do businesses turn when they must suddenly facilitate remote workers? For many, the solution is Amazon’s AWS. During this pandemic the tech giant has grown even larger, but with this success comes a lot of criticism. Yahoo News tells us, “Amazon Hit from All Sides as Crisis Highlights Growing Power.” One prominent example—New York state Attorney General Letitia James and others were disgusted Amazon fired a worker who had led a protest over covid-19-related safety concerns. The company says the employee was actually fired for refusing to quarantine after testing positive for the disease. Hmm.
AFP reporter Julie Jammot writes:
“As Amazon becomes an increasingly important lifeline in the pandemic crisis, it is being hit with a wave of criticism from activists, politicians and others who question the tech giant’s growing influence. Amazon has become the most scrutinized company during the health emergency. It has boosted its global workforce to nearly one million and dealt with protests over warehouse safety and reported deaths of several employees. But Amazon has also pledged to spend at least $4 billion in the current quarter — its entire expected operating profit — on coronavirus mitigation efforts, including relief contributions and funding research. Amazon’s AWS cloud computing unit, which powers big portions of the internet, is also a key element during the crisis with more people and companies working online. Amazon’s market value has hovered near record levels around $1.2 trillion dollars as it reported rising revenues and lower profits in the past quarter.”
The company’s size alone, say activists, is reason enough for scrutiny. Some are concerned about the way Amazon treats workers, others balk at the financial gain CEO Jeff Bezos has personally enjoyed during this time. Though the company has increased pay above minimum wage during the crisis, to $15 an hour, critics say it could afford to pay much more. There is also concern that, with its popular streaming service on top of everything else, the company just wields too much influence in people’s daily lives.
Amazon seems to have sailed through the biological disturbance. Now comes the legal thunderstorms. Smooth cruising ahead? Unlikely.
Cynthia Murrell, June 15, 2020
Amazon Facial Recognition: Hit Pause for One Year. Is the Button Wired Up?
June 11, 2020
Quite a bit of interest in the announcement from the online bookstore about facial recognition. The story appeared in Dayone (that’s the Amazon official blog). The story’s title was “We Are Implementing a One Year Moratorium on Police Use of Rekognition.” Like IBM’s “we’re not doing facial recognition” announcement, the coverage of the news seems to have ignored some nuances.
First, Amazon has been investing like a wealth crazed MBA on Wall Street to beef up its policeware capabilities. Because bad actors are often humans, the technology required to identify these humans is important. And facial recognition and other types of policeware are expensive to develop. Thus, the word “moratorium” is important.
Second, some of the activities in which the online bookstore is engaged are covered by different types of agreements, contracts, and statements of work. As dramatic and newsy are “From this day forward” statements are, certain projects are likely to continue. Extrication from an underway government project is not just pushing the button. That button has to be connected to the operative system in order to work. Think of this as a dial on a thermostat in a hotel room. The guest thinks the dial works, but the device is a psychological play so the guest “thinks” he or she is in control. Ho, ho, ho.
Third, with infrastructure in place and data being processed, indexed, and stored, government entities have legal tools to obtain access to certain information. Whether one “stops” or not, the legal mechanisms are often deaf to such statements, “We don’t do this anymore.” That works exactly how often?
Net net: DarkCyber believes that more information about the precise meaning of moratorium in the context of Amazon’s usage of the word. Discarding a substantive investment? Maybe. Maybe not.
Stephen E Arnold, June 11, 2020
Amazon: Public Sector Services Attract Attention
June 11, 2020
DarkCyber is not 100 percent certain that the information in “Amazon Urged by Petition to Break Ties with Police.” Petitions can be tricky information gathering mechanisms. With that in mind, consider this statement:
A coalition of racial justice groups on Tuesday launched an online petition calling for Amazon to cut all ties with police and US immigration officials. The petition takes aim at Amazon Web Services cloud computing unit’s “Rekognition” facial recognition technology and Ring surveillance cameras used for home security.
The goal is:
The groups want Amazon to sever ties with police departments and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
How will Amazon respond? The company’s policeware business is not well understood, and it could be poised to become a more significant factor in Amazon’s business strategy. I will be delivering a talk about Amazon’s services and activities for law enforcement at the July 2020 US National Cyber Crime Conference. Interest in the subject is increasing, just slowly.
Stephen E Arnold, June 11, 2020
Amazon Grinds into Teams and Rolls Across Its Playground Cracking the Asphalt
June 5, 2020
Distracted by an inability to deliver packages quickly, Amazon has revved the engine of the Bezos bulldozer. The giant online bookstore and the world’s richest human being is punching the gas pedal and lurching forward. The objective? The Microsoft Teams’ playground. The bulldozer will crunch over the feet of the nimble Zoomers and shove the Google toward the shower room, but the big orange diesel leaves a visible pathway, small creatures unable to avoid the metal treads and assorted debris similar to the storefronts on Main Street USA.
The action is described in “Slack and Amazon partner to take on Microsoft Teams.” DarkCyber does not want to argue which wonky online organizational, communication, and squabbling service is better. Amazon has the technical infrastructure to make almost anything work and to bill people for taking data out of its giant cloud environment.
The write up states:
On Thursday (4 June), it emerged that Slack and Amazon have forged a multi-year agreement, allowing all Amazon employees to use Slack. The news comes at a time when Slack has seen increased competition from Microsoft Teams. In a recent SEC filing, the company said that the Microsoft platform is its “primary competitor”. This is despite the fact Microsoft’s main focus is video and voice calling, while Slack is primarily used for text-based workplace chat. As part of the deal with Amazon, Slack will deepen its partnership with AWS by migrating its voice and video calling functions to Amazon’s Chime platform, in a bid to strengthen its video and voice calling offerings.
DarkCyber thinks this development is important for three reasons:
- The deal makes it clear that Amazon, although late to the game, is going to be trying to be like Zoom on steroids. (A side consideration is that Amazon employees will have a more zippy way to organize the two pizza parties when a fail safe system falls over.)
- The tie up means that Slack is not going away. Amazon can include Slack functions in a wide array of services. Imagine how much easier it will be to chase down knock off product information using a reasonably functional Slack and Chime service? Well, maybe not too aggressively?
- The inclusion of Slack means that Amazon’s oft-ignored policeware services get a useful tool for enforcement and intelligence professionals. DarkCyber thinks this is important, and possibly someone will notice before Amazon jumps out of its hidey hole and reveals that it powers much of the policeware infrastructure for low profile companies.
Worth watching even though the write up is content to point out:
By using Chime technology to run Slack’s video and voice call features, the company hopes to add new features. Armstrong said that the company is looking at bringing video calling to the mobile version of Slack, as it currently does not have this feature. He also said that Slack is looking into transcription.
Hitting the small nail squarely? Yes.
Stephen E Arnold, June 6, 2020
AWS Cost Management
May 29, 2020
I am not sure if Amazon AWS cost management was covered in my Accounting 101 class and in the mindless training programs I enjoyed at Halliburton NUS, Booz Allen & Hamilton, and “lectures I could not escape from” at “secure” intelligence conferences. Come to think of it, Amazon AWS cost management is a new and increasingly important discipline. Ah, if I were 25 and looking for a niche, AACM, shorthand for Amazon Aws cost management might be lured by this digital Peitho.
Why is AACM (among the DarkCyber team we pronounce this acronym ah-shazam) a new big thing?
Navigate to “How We Reduced the AWS Costs of Our Streaming Data Pipeline by 67%.” The write up explains what one outfit did to keep $0.67 from the scraper of the Bezos bulldozer. The procedure involved technical analysis, cross tabulation, and detailed tracking of AWS billing.
Do know a cost accountant up to this work? What about a newly minted CPA? What about a financial analyst working at a Silicon Valley money machine?
I don’t. Thus, gentle reader, here’s a practice for a recent college accounting grad or a with-it MBA.
Stephen E Arnold, May 29, 2020
Amazon AWS Translation Notes
May 26, 2020
DarkCyber wants to say, “Good job” to the person who assembled “Amazon Web Services.” The write up is a list of more than 160 AWS services. Each service is identified by the often wonky Amazon name and followed by a brief description. The list is a medieval gloss for a 21st century cloud vendor’s service, product, frameworks, and features. The monks who compiled Psychomachia of Aurelius Prudentius would be envious.
Amazon wants to offer something for everyone, and as the company has emitted services, coherence has been a casualty. Worth downloading and tucking in one’s “We Want to Be Number One” folder. I assume a mid tier consulting firm or a WFHer will put the list into Excel and indicate which of these AWS offerings are available and mostly working from competitors like Google, IBM, and Facebook.
Stephen E Arnold, May 26, 2020
The Cloud Winner? It Is Definitely the Google Opines InfoWorld
May 19, 2020
I find “real” news interesting. Consider “13 ways Google Cloud beats AWS.” Clouds are becoming more alike. Microsoft is making friends at Oracle. IBM (yep, the Watson wizards) are reaching out to Amazon.
But IBM did not reach out to Google. Maybe HP’s cloud division will be Googley. After reading the objective article, the Googley cloud is the big dog.
Let’s look at some of the 13 reasons, excluding the Firebase reference and the use of predatory pricing to win business. (If it worked for Oracle when fighting for some Zoom love, deep and steep discounts may work again.) DarkCyber calls this the Walmart way.
On to the objective, totally factual statements. Not 12 or 14, exactly 13. Must be a lucky number? There was neither an illustration of a Googler walking under a ladder or a black cat risking death wandering Shoreline Drive.
Google has a health care API. Google’s Deepmind also found itself squabbling publicly about its use of certain health care in the UK. Has Google sanitized its act with soap or ultraviolet light? Some evidence about the value of Google’s health care API would be helpful.
Embedded machine learning. The hyperbole about smart software reaches Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky. The idea that one can use the cloud and plug into pre-crafted, ever flexible, smart machine learning modules is an interesting one. Are Google’s systems and methods “better than” SageMaker and the dozens of other AWS doodads littering the company’s oddly disjointed, sometimes bizarro documentation? No, but at least AWS has documentation.
Custom cloud machines. Are most enterprise cloud vendors touting the thrills and excitement of non-standard “machines”? Is Google “better than” Amazon in this aspect of enterprise cloud computing. A standard engineering practice is not unique without some checklists, benchmarks, and technical feature comparison. I can say that Kentucky bourbon is good for “real” journalists, but that statement requires some “proof” beyond a factless article.
There are 10 more of these Google PRish gems in the original article.
But let’s come back to deep discounts. Buying business is going to be a go to strategy for most cloud vendors. What will people buy? Smart software or security? Price or performance? Commodities or cheerleading?
Yikes, Google is the winner.
Stephen E Arnold, May 19, 2020
Amazon Promises an All Star Sub and Thomson 404s to Source
May 18, 2020
The news item was not a breath taker: “Amazon Says Appropriate Executive to Be Available, As U.S. Panel Calls on Bezos to Testify.”
On May 15, the Bezos bulldozer said no in a nice way to the US government. Mr. Bezos would be driving the bulldozer to a small town where one lone retail store front was operating. Apparently knocking down the building in Farmington, Illinois, required his attention. The US government would be able to speak with “the appropriate Amazon executive.” No surprise.
What was a surprise to some in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky, was the dead link to the Amazon blog post pointing to the full text of Amazon’s response to the US government. This is particularly interesting since the article was written and checked by at least Ismail Shakil and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru and Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Gerry Doyle.
Ah, those trust principles appear to address issues other than verifying links to Amazon documents.
Stephen E Arnold, May 18, 2020
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