The Computer Chip Inspired by a Brain

July 6, 2016

Artificial intelligence is humanity’s attempt to replicate the complicated thought processes in their own brains through technology.  IBM is trying to duplicate the human brain and they have been successful in many ways with supercomputer Watson.  The Tech Republic reports that IBM has another success under their belt, except to what end?  Check out the article, “IBM’s Brain-Inspired Chip TrueNorth Changes How Computers ‘Think,’ But Experts Question Its Purpose.”

IBM’s TrueNorth is the first computer chip with an one million neuron architecture.  The chip is a collaboration between Cornell University and IBM with the  BARPA SyNAPSE Program, using $100 million in public funding.  Most computer chips use the Von Neumann architecture, but the TrueNorth chip better replicates the human brain.  TrueNorth is also more energy efficient.

What is the purpose of the TrueNorth chip, however?  IBM created an elaborate ecosystem that uses many state of the art processes, but people are still wondering what the real world applications are:

“ ‘…it provides ‘energy-efficient, always-on content generation for wearables, IoT devices, smartphones.’ It can also give ‘real-time contextual understanding in automobiles, robotics, medical imagers, and cameras.’ And, most importantly, he said, it can ‘provide volume-efficient, unprecedented neural network acceleration capability per unit volume for cloud-based streaming processing and provide volume, energy, and speed efficient multi-modal sensor fusion at an unprecedented neural network scale.’”

Other applications include cyber security, other defense goals, and large scale computing and hardware running on the cloud.  While there might be practical applications, people still want to know why IBM made the chip?

” ‘It would be as if Henry Ford decided in 1920 that since he had managed to efficiently build a car, we would try to design a car that would take us to the moon,’ [said Nir Shavit, a professor at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory]. ‘We know how to fabricate really efficient computer chips. But is this going to move us towards Human quality neural computation?’ Shavit fears that its simply too early to try to build neuromorphic chips. We should instead try much harder to understand how real neural networks compute.’”

Why would a car need to go to the moon?  It would be fun to go to the moon, but it doesn’t solve a practical purpose (unless we build a civilization on the moon, although we are a long way from that).  It continues:

” ‘The problem is,’ Shavit said, ‘that we don’t even know what the problem is. We don’t know what has to happen to a car to make the car go to the moon. It’s perhaps different technology that you need. But this is where neuromorphic computing is.’”

In other words, it is the theoretical physics of computer science.

 

Whitney Grace,  July 6, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph

 

Who Will Connect the Internet of Things to Business

June 23, 2016

Remember when Nest Labs had all the hype a few years ago? An article from BGR reminds us how the tides have turned: Even Google views its Nest acquisition as a disappointment. It was in 2014 that Google purchased Nest Labs for $3.2 billion. Their newly launched products, a wifi smoke alarm and thermostat, at the time seemed to the position the company for greater and greater success. This article offers a look at the current state:

“Two and a half years later and Nest is reportedly in shambles. Recently, there have been no shortage of reports suggesting that Nest CEO Tony Fadell is something of a tyrannical boss cut from the same cloth as Steve Jobs (at his worst). Additionally, the higher-ups at Google are reportedly disappointed that Nest hasn’t been able to churn out more hardware. Piling it on, Re/Code recently published a report indicating that Nest generated $340 million in revenue last year, a figure that Google found disappointing given how much it spent to acquire the company. And looking ahead, particulars from Google’s initial buyout deal with Nest suggest that the pressure for Nest to ramp up sales will only increase.”

Undoubtedly there are challenges when it comes to expectations about acquired companies’ performance. But when it comes to the nitty gritty details of the work happening in those acquisitions, aren’t managers supposed to solve problems, not simply agree the problem exists? How the success of “internet of things” companies will pan out seems to be predicated on their inherent interconnectedness — that seems to apply at both the levels of product and business.

 

Megan Feil, June 23, 2016

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph

The Paradox of Marketing and Anonymity

June 22, 2016

While Dark Web users understand the perks of anonymity, especially for those those involved with illicit activity, consistency in maintaining that anonymity appears to be challenging. Geek.com published an article that showcases how one drug dealer revealed his identity while trying to promote his brand: Drug dealer busted after trying to trademark his dark web username. David Ryan Burchard of Merced, California reportedly made $1.25 million by selling marijuana and cocaine on the Dark Web before he trademarked the username he used to sell drugs, “caliconnect”. The article summarizes,

“He started out on Silk Road and moved on to other shady marketplaces in the wake of its highly-publicized shutdown. Burchard wound up on Homeland Security’s list of top sellers, though they were having trouble establishing a rock-solid connection between him and his online persona. They knew that Burchard was accumulating a large Bitcoin stash and that there didn’t appear to be a legitimate source. Then, finally, investigators got the break they were looking for. It seems that Burchard decided that his personal brand was worth protecting, and he filed paperwork to trademark “caliconnect.””

Whether this points to the proclivity of human nature to self-promote or the egoism of one person in a specific situation, it seems that all covering the story are drawing attention to this foiling move as a preventable mistake on Burchard’s part. Look no farther than the title of a recent Motherboard article: Pro-Tip: If You’re a Suspected Dark Web Drug Dealer, Don’t Trademark Your #Brand. The nature of promotions and marketing on the Dark Web will be an interesting area to see unfold.

 

Megan Feil, June 22, 2016

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph

Next-Generation Business Intelligence Already Used by Risk Analysis Teams

June 1, 2016

Ideas about business intelligence have certainly evolved with emerging technologies. Addressing this, an article, Why machine learning is the new BI from CIO, speaks to this transformation of the concept. The author describes how reactive analytics based on historical data do not optimally assist business decisions. Questions about customer satisfaction are best oriented toward proactive future-proofing, according to the article. The author writes,

“Advanced, predictive analytics are about calculating trends and future possibilities, predicting potential outcomes and making recommendations. That goes beyond the queries and reports in familiar BI tools like SQL Server Reporting Services, Business Objects and Tableau, to more sophisticated methods like statistics, descriptive and predictive data mining, machine learning, simulation and optimization that look for trends and patterns in the data, which is often a mix of structured and unstructured. They’re the kind of tools that are currently used by marketing or risk analysis teams for understanding churn, customer lifetimes, cross-selling opportunities, likelihood of buying, credit scoring and fraud detection.”

Does this mean that traditional business intelligence after much hype and millions in funding is a flop? Or will predictive analytics be a case of polishing up existing technology and presenting it in new packaging? After time — and for some after much money has been spent — we should have a better idea of the true value.

 

Megan Feil, June 1, 2016

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph

Watson Joins the Hilton Family

April 30, 2016

It looks like Paris Hilton might have a new sibling, although the conversations at family gatherings will be lackluster.  No, the hotel-chain family has not adopted Watson, instead a version of the artificial intelligence will work as a concierge.  Ars Technica informs us that “IBM Watson Now Powers A Hilton Hotel Robot Concierge.”

The Hilton McLean hotel in Virginia now has a now concierge dubbed Connie, after Conrad Hilton the chain’s founder.  Connie is housed in a Nao, a French-made android that is an affordable customer relations platform.  Its brain is based on Watson’s program and answers verbal queries from a WayBlazer database.  The little robot assists guests by explaining how to navigate the hotel, find restaurants, and tourist attractions.  It is unable to check in guests yet, but when the concierge station is busy, you do not want to pull out your smartphone, or have any human interaction it is a good substitute.

” ‘This project with Hilton and WayBlazer represents an important shift in human-machine interaction, enabled by the embodiment of Watson’s cognitive computing,’ Rob High, chief technology officer of Watson said in a statement. ‘Watson helps Connie understand and respond naturally to the needs and interests of Hilton’s guests—which is an experience that’s particularly powerful in a hospitality setting, where it can lead to deeper guest engagement.’”

Asia already uses robots in service industries such as hotels and restaurants.  It is worrying that Connie-like robots could replace people in these jobs.  Robots are supposed to augment human life instead of taking jobs away from it.  While Connie-like robots will have a major impact on the industry, there is something to be said for genuine human interaction, which usually is the preference over artificial intelligence.  Maybe team the robots with humans in the service industries for the best all around care?

 

Whitney Grace, April 30, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph

Bold Hackers

April 27, 2016

It looks like some hackers are no longer afraid of the proverbial light, we learn from “Sony Hackers Still Active, ‘Darkhotel’ Checks Out of Hotel Hacking” at InformationWeek. Writer Kelly Jackson Higgins cites Kaspersky security researcher Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade, who observes that those behind the 2014 Sony hack, thought to be based in North Korea, did not vanish from the scene after that infamous attack. Higgins continues:

“There has been a noticeable shift in how some advanced threat groups such as this respond after being publicly outed by security researchers. Historically, cyber espionage gangs would go dark. ‘They would immediately shut down their infrastructure when they were reported on,’ said Kurt Baumgartner, principal security researcher with Kaspersky Lab. ‘You just didn’t see the return of an actor sometimes for years at a time.’

“But Baumgartner says he’s seen a dramatic shift in the past few years in how these groups react to publicity. Take Darkhotel, the Korean-speaking attack group known for hacking into WiFi networks at luxury hotels in order to target corporate and government executives. Darkhotel is no longer waging hotel-targeted attacks — but they aren’t hiding out, either.

“In July, Darkhotel was spotted employing a zero-day Adobe Flash exploit pilfered from the HackingTeam breach. ‘Within 48 hours, they took the Flash exploit down … They left a loosely configured server’ exposed, however, he told Dark Reading. ‘That’s unusual for an APT [advanced persistent threat] group.’”

Seeming to care little about public exposure, Darkhotel has moved on to other projects, like reportedly using Webmail to attack targets in Southeast Asia.

On the other hand, one group which experts had expected to see more of has remained dark for some time. We learn:

“Kaspersky Lab still hasn’t seen any sign of the so-called Equation Group, the nation-state threat actor operation that the security firm exposed early last year and that fell off its radar screen in January of 2014. The Equation Group, which has ties to Stuxnet and Flame as well as clues that point to a US connection, was found with advanced tools and techniques including the ability to hack air gapped computers, and to reprogram victims’ hard drives so its malware can’t be detected nor erased. While Kaspersky Lab stopped short of attributing the group to the National Security Agency (NSA), security experts say all signs indicate that the Equation Group equals the NSA.”

The Kaspersky team doesn’t think for a minute that this group has stopped operating, but believe they’ve changed up their communications. Whether a group continues to lurk in the shadows or walks boldly in the open may be cultural, they say; those in the Far East seem to care less about leaving tracks. Interesting.

 

Cynthia Murrell, April 27, 2016

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph

Google Now Has Dowsing Ability

March 16, 2016

People who claim to be psychic are fakes.  There is not a way to predict the future, instantly locate a lost person or item, or read someone’s aura.  No scientific theory has proven it exists.  One of the abilities psychics purport to have is “dowsing,” the power to sense where water, precious stones or metals, and even people are hiding.  Instead of relying on a suspended crystal or an angular stick, Google now claims it can identify any location based solely on images, says The Technology Review in the article, “Google Unveils Neural Network With ‘Superhuman’ Ability To Determine The Location Of Almost Any Image.”

Using computer algorithms, not magic powers, and Tobias Weyand’s programming prowess and a team of tech savvy people, they developed a way for a Google deep-learning machine to identity location pictures.  Weyand and his team designed PlaNET, the too, and accomplished this by dividing the world into 26,000 square grid (sans ocean and poles) of varying sizes depending on populous areas.

“Next, the team created a database of geolocated images from the Web and used the location data to determine the grid square in which each image was taken. This data set is huge, consisting of 126 million images along with their accompanying Exif location data.

Weyand and co used 91 million of these images to teach a powerful neural network to work out the grid location using only the image itself. Their idea is to input an image into this neural net and get as the output a particular grid location or a set of likely candidates.”

With the remaining 34 million images in the data set, they tested the PlaNET to check its accuracy.  PlaNET can accurately guess 3.6% images at street level, 10.1% on city level, 28.4% country of origin, and 48% of the continent.  These results are very good compared to the limited knowledge that a human keeps in their head.

Weyand believes that PlaNET is able to determine the location, because it has learned new parents to recognize subtle patterns about areas that humans cannot distinguish, as it has arguably been more places than any human.   What is even more amazing is how much memory PlaNET uses: only 377 MB!

When will PlaNET become available as a GPS app?

 

Whitney Grace, March 16, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph

 

US and Europe Split After Much Attensity

February 9, 2016

Most companies that are split across oceans usually have a parent company they remain attached to, however, PR Newswire shares that “IMCap Partners Acquire Attensity Europe.”  Attensity Group Inc. is a leading provider in customer interaction management and its sub-company Attensity Europe headed its solutions across the pond.  Recently, IMCap Partners invested money in a deal for Attensity Europe to split apart from the parent and become an independent company.  Thomas Dreikauss will remain the CEO and also become a new shareholder in the new company.  None of the details related to the purchase price and other details remain private.

Attensity Europe plans to focus on developing its omni-channel customer service and its market-leading product Respond, multilingual and omni-channel response management software.  Respond increases productivity processing customer written requests and ensures better transparency over the service level.

“ ‘The market for CRM solutions is growing by just under 14% a year on average, according to Gartner, and therefore at a much more rapid rate than the overall software market. With Respond Attensity Europe is focusing on the highly attractive and rapid-growth customer interaction management/customer care segment, providing a solution that also fully meets the requirements of very large customer service units. The solution’s analytics, scalability and integration capacity are setting standards in the industry. Respond is a highly flexible, future-proof platform for customer service covering all written communication channels, including social media,” indicated Rolf Menne, operating partner at IMCap. “In cooperation with the highly motivated team at Attensity Europe, we see extremely attractive growth potential.’”

Attensity Europe will be rebranded and already has plans to take off in the coming year.

Whitney Grace, February 9, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph

Data Discrimination Is Real

January 22, 2016

One of the best things about data and numbers is that they do not lie…usually.  According to Slate’s article, “FTC Report Details How Big Data Can Discriminate Against The Poor,” big data does a huge disservice to people of lower socioeconomic status by reinforcing existing negative patterns.  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), academics, and activists have expressed for some time that big data analytics.

“At its worst, big data can reinforce—and perhaps even amplify—existing disparities, partly because predictive technologies tend to recycle existing patterns instead of creating new openings. They can be especially dangerous when they inform decisions about people’s access to healthcare, credit, housing, and more. For instance, some data suggests that those who live close to their workplaces are likely to maintain their employment for longer. If companies decided to take that into account when hiring, it could be accidentally discriminatory because of the radicalized makeup of some neighborhoods.”

The FTC stresses that big data analytics has positive benefits as well.  It can yield information that can create more job opportunities, transform health care delivery, give credit through “non-traditional methods, and more.

The way big data can avoid reinforcing these problems and even improve upon them is to include biases from the beginning.  Large data sets can make these problems invisible or even harder to recognize.  Companies can use prejudiced data to justify the actions they take and even weaken the effectiveness of consumer choice.

Data is supposed to be an objective tool, but the sources behind the data can be questionable.  It becomes important for third parties and the companies themselves to investigate the data sources, run multiple tests, and confirm that the data is truly objective.  Otherwise we will be dealing with social problems and more reinforced by bad data.

Whitney Grace, January 22, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph

Islamic State Is Now a Convenient App

December 28, 2015

It used to be that if you wanted to be an enemy of western civilization you had to have ties to a derelict organization or even visit an enemy nation.  It was difficult, especially with the limits of communication in pre-Internet days.  Western Union and secret radio signals only went so far, but now with the Internet insurgent recruitment is just a few mouse clicks away or even an app download.  The Telegraph reports that the “Islamic State Releases Its Own Smartphone App” to spread propaganda and pollute Islam’s true message.

Islamic State (Isil) released an Android app to disseminate the terrorist group’s radical propaganda.  The app was brought to light by hacktivist Ghost Security Group, who uncovered directions to install the app on the encrypted message service Telegram.  Ghost Security says that the app publishes propaganda from Amaq News Agency, the Islamic State’s propaganda channel, such as beheadings and warnings about terrorist attacks.  It goes to show that despite limited resources, if one is tech savvy and has an Internet connection the possibilities are endless.

” ‘They want to create a broadcast capability that is more secure than just leveraging Twitter and Facebook,’ ” Michael Smith of Kronos Advisory, a company that acts as a conduit between GhostSec and the US government, told CS Monitor.

‘[Isil] has always been looking for a way to provide easy access to all of the material.’ ”

Isil might have the ability to create propaganda and an app, but they do have a limited reach.  In order to find this app, one has to dig within the Internet and find instructions.  Hacktivist organizations like Ghost Security and Anonymous are using their technology skills to combat terrorist organizations with success.  Most terrorist group propaganda will not be found within the first page of search results, one has to work to find them, but not that hard.

 

Whitney Grace, December 28, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph

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