Factualities for July 10, 2019
July 10, 2019
Ah, those numbers. Quite a range of mostly unsubstantiated, unverified, and marketing confections. Here’s a post holiday selection.
Forever. The amount of time Amazon retains Alexa data. Source: TechShout
2. Number of Apple iCloud outages in 2019. Source: The Verge
5. The percentage of revenue participating publishers receive from Apple News Plus. Source: Mac Rumors
8. Number of correct matches between persons of interest and surveillance and mug shot photos. How many suspects did the automated system suggest? 42. Engadget says that the error rate is only 81 percent. Sources: The Register and Engadget
8. Number of Hong Kong protestors arrested. How many potential arrestees were there? A couple of million. Source: Security Week
10. Number of years D-Link will be subject to US government audits. Source: The Verge
11. Number of hours Facebook and some of its services were not online on July 3, 2019. Source: The Verge
25 percent. Percentage of people in a sample of 10,000 who want the government to be responsible for cyber security. Source: Info Security Magazine
27. Number of months a bad actor will spend for launching denial of service attacks on online game services. Source: ZDNet
50 percent. Percentage of enterprises which believe security cannot keep up with cloud adoption. Source: Symantec
80. Number of app takedown requests for 770 Apple app store applications. in the second half of 2018. Source: Engdget
84 percent. Percentage of “respondents” in an NPR IBM survey who are more angry today than one generation ago. Love those IBM Watson outputs. Source: A Tweet
200. Multiply the dose of radiation that would kill a humanoid by this number. Mold survives. Man doesn’t. Source: Sciencemag.org
219. Years a UCLA professor will spend in jail for selling China US secrets. Source: Newsweek
2,176. Number of miles a “young Arctic fox” walked from Norway’s Svalbard Islands to northern Canada. Source: BBC
8,500. Number of patents Intel is auctioning off after stepping away from its 5G modem business. Source: Biz Journals (This is a begging for dollars site.)
25,000. Number of engineers Microsoft has working on github. Source: Jeff Wilcox Blog
550,000. The number of faults at the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport. Source: BBC
$1 billion. TikTok’s advertising spend in 2018. Source: Wall Street Journal (pay wall in place)
2 billion. The number of “records” exposed in a smart home breach. Source: SEC Alerts
Stephen E Arnold, July 10, 2019
Factualities for July 3, 2019
July 3, 2019
The rush toward the end of a numerically thrilling year is upon us. Some of the rock solid, outstanding numbers the DarkCyber team noted and believed by golly. Statistics 101 has not failed the productive and creative thinkers providing us real factualities, particularly some interesting pairs from different research wizards.
$1. Amount DoorDash pays for a trip. Source: Forbes
7. Number of years hackers have been stealing data from global cell networks. Source: TechDirt
11. The percentage of enterprise search users which find the technology “effective.” Source: CMSWire (Content management? What’s that?)
11. Number of steps required to reset a GE “smart” light bulb. Source: General Electric
20. The percent of IBM revenue which comes from “Asia.” Source: SCMP
22. The number of megatons (a megaton is equal to 1,000,000 tons) of carbon dioxide emissions produced by “Bitcoin”. Source: Eurekalert
22. The number of third party companies which provide technology to create dark patterns (that is, ways to trick site visitors) and be funneled to deceptive messages. Source: Princeton University
46. The percentage of those in a global study prefer a physical store. Source: Computer Weekly
46. The percentage of US adults who never use voice assistants. Source: Ecommerce Daily News
48.96. The quite precise percentage of Google search searches which ended with zero clicks. [ DarkCyber question: Does this mean the results were irrelevant?] Source: Sparktoo
66. Percent of those in a US sample want social networks to police offensive content. 69 percent have little or no confidence that social networks can correctly identify such content. Note that a leading legal eagle believe that he could spot offensive content when he could see it. Ah, the benefits of a legal education versus engineering expertise.
69. Number of police agencies using the zapping product once known as Taser. Source: New York Times
70. The percentage of unicorns (startups worth more than $1 billion) which are actually old products. Source: SaaSTR
110. The decibels produced by Dyson and Xcelerator hair and hand driers manufactured by these firms. Source: CBC
300. The percentage increase in the number of US taxi drivers since 2008.
300. The percentage increase in environmental “damage” jet contrails will do by 2050. Source: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
15,000. Number of users a for fee email service has. $33 million. The amount the company raised in venture capital. Source: New York Times
50,000. A nice round number reporting the number of plastic particles that you, gentle reader, consume each year. Source: The Guardian
432,000. Another nice round number representing the number of Macbook laptops recalled by Apple. Source: CBS News
$600,000. The amount a Florida city paid cyber criminals to regain access to its computer systems. Source: AP
11 million. The exact number of fake business listings in Google’s business listings. Source: Wall Street Journal
12.9 billion. The size of the threat intelligence market in 2023 or 48 months, whichever arrives first. Source: WAtech
Stephen E Arnold, July 3, 2019
Factualities for June 19, 2019
June 19, 2019
I must congratulate the purveyors of “real” news. Even though my screen time was limited for various, unexciting reasons, I did spot some fantastic numbers. Herewith I present some of the more fascinating data generated by the great minds fiddling with Excel and soon Salesforce with Tableau analytics. I am looking forward to those numerical confections. Let’s go, Salesforce.
-20. The percent decrease in cash flow if a British company does not implement artificial intelligence. (Note: There was no definition of artificial intelligence in the write which makes the number more special.) Source: Telegraph
10. The percentage of graphic liners in a UK nuclear plant reactor which have cracked; that is, failed. Source: BBC
13. Percentage of UK adults who trust big tech firms handling health data. Source: Techerati
18. The number of minutes it takes a New York Times’ reporter to read Facebook’s privacy policy. Source: New York Times
46. Age in years of the Department of Education’s computer system. Source: GAO
60. Percentage of “meat” which will come in 2040 from laboratories, not formerly alive animals. Source: Big Think
67. The percentage of UK doctors who find patient feedback negative. Source: Health Care IT News
94.5. Percentage of software vulnerabilities not exploited by bad actors. Source: ZDNet
2,300 to 12,594. Number of nitrite attributable cancers, possibly due to US drinking water. Note: Maybe a year, maybe more time. Source: Science Direct
$10,000. Cost of repairing a MacBook Pro screen which was not broken. (Software setting issue). Source: The Register
187,000. The number of users from whom Facebook collected data via an app Apple banned. Source: Techcrunch
7.7 million. Number of Lab Corp customers who experienced data loss due to the collection firm’s failed security system. Source: Krebs
$39 million. The cost of a gallon of scorpion venom healing compound. Source: Stanford
2.4 billion. Number of online game players worldwide. Source: Vox
$47 billion. The amount of money Google earned from news. Source: Free Press Journal
$52 million. Cost of a trip to the International Space Station. Source: Wired
Stephen E Arnold, June 19, 2019
Factualities for June 12, 2019
June 12, 2019
Lots of crazy, mostly mushy numbers last week. Fascinating what one can accomplish with Excel, RedBull, and an incentive plan which requires outputs.
$38.2 billion. Projected size of the cyber security market by 2026. Source: ReportLinker, an award winning number producer.
$2.85 billion in 2019. The size of the global cognitive security market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 36.7% the forecast period of 2018 to 2025, which works out to about $20 billion. It is that “point 7” which adds precision. Source: Data Bridge
2.3 billion. Number of files exposed online since GDPR. Source: IT Pro Portal
67%. Percentage of Facebook shareholders who want Mr. Zuckerberg to exit his chairperson role. Mr. Zuckerberg votes no. He stays. Reason? He planned ahead. Source: Marketwatch
73%. Percentage of organizations failing to meet users’ demands. Source: IT News Africa
15. Range of the buzzing Amazon delivery drone. Source: Techcrunch
$18 million. Cost of the Baltimore malware incident. Source: Ars Technica
440 million. Number of Google Play apps installed which can impair Android mobile devices. Source: Arts Technica
4 percent. Average increase in ad effectiveness when using whiz bang personal information for ad targeting. Source: Boing Boing
$1,000. Cost to subscribe to a Hertz rental car. Source: Verge
$19 million. Value of iPhones stolen from Apple retail stores. Source: Apple Insider
1.2 million. The number of birds allegedly killed to stop a virus. Source: Los Angeles Times
Stephen E Arnold, June 12, 2019
Stephen E Arnold, June 12, 2019
Factualities for June 5, 2019
June 5, 2019
Numbers are fascinating. DarkCyber is impressed with percentages, digits, and outputs from smart analytics systems. Here’s a selection of the juicy bits from the past week.
2019. Year in which the famous Google PageRank patent expired. Is this significant? Nope. Partially funded by the NSF, the “clever” patent has been a happy hunting ground for innovators for years. Source: Google Patents
1 million. Number of older Windows devices vulnerable to a known exploit. Seems a bit low, doesn’t it? Source: Security Week
3. The number of six second ads which generate a higher purchase rate. Source: The Media Online (South Africa)
350 billion. The desired size of the US Navy’s social media archive for about 24 months. Source: Bleeping Computer
Minus 3. The decline in daily time spent of Facebook by US users in 2018. Source: Mashable
4. The number of triggers required to addict a person to a smartphone. Source: Metro Newspaper
$5.5 billion. The amount spent on artificial intelligence in the Asia Pacific region in the last 12 months. Source: IDC
11. The number of cross border GDPR violations involving Facebook now underway. Source: BBC
93 percent. Percentage of organization committed to smart software but a skills shortage holds these outfit back. Source: The Money Cloud
90 percent. Probability that an artificial intelligence system will catch you. Source: Phys.org
2.2 billion. Number of fake Facebook accounts terminated so far in 2019. Source: Yahoo
1. Rank of Huawei as America’s technology enemy. Source: Quartz
$4.6 billion. Cost each year of physician burnout. Source: Time
Minus 7.1 percent. Decline in eBook sales in Germany in the first quarter of 2019. Source: Digital Reader
1 billion. Number of bubble gum cards Recorded Future has available. Source: Recorded Future
5 percent. Percentage of people between 15 and 120 who do not have a mobile phone. Source: Ben Evans (No, DarkCyber does not know this expert.)
Stephen E Arnold, June 6, 2019
Factualities for May 29, 2019
May 29, 2019
Numbers, particularly nice round ones, have been zipping around the interwebs in the last seven days. Here’s a tasty selection of some which caught our attention.
8. Number of people with whom a Google Duo user can chat simultaneously on one mobile phone screen. Source: Esquire
2,000. Number of Mannequin Challenge videos Google used to train its smart software. Source: Igyhaan
14. Number of years Google stored some customers’ passwords in plain text. Source: Next Web
3. Number of years to elapse before IBM commercializes quantum computing. Source: Interesting Engineering
$30 million. Palantir Technologies’ losses in 2018. Note: The company was founded in 2003. Source: Bloomberg
885 million. Number of customer records “exposed” online by a Fortune 500 insurance company named First American Financial. Source: Krebs on Security
71 percent. Percentage of student who would buy an Apple Mac computer if the students could afford the Apple product. Source: Tech Radar
50 percent. Percentage of businesses unable to handle cloud computing security. Source: IT Pro Portal
$425 million. How much money Google will not capture due to the Huawei ban. Source: Mr. Top Step
$2.5 billion. Dollar size of the cloud game market (aka online games) in 24 months. Source: IHS
120 minutes. The length of Microsoft’s E3 2019 press conference. Source: Game Rant
Stephen E Arnold, May 29, 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
Factualities for May 15, 2019
May 15, 2019
At DarkCyber, we love data and numbers. Some of these gatherings of digits are amusing, and others remind us that some people slept through Statistics 101. Sample size? Not important. Verifiability? Are you kidding? Notice how many nice, round numbers appear. Remarkable. Ponder these factualities:
-18. The percentage decrease in smartphone sales in North America in Jan-Feb-Mar 2019, a five year low. Source: Canalys
One. Number of drones with knives, not kinetics. Source: Australia’s News.com
One. The number of head injuries per 5,000 electric scooter rides. Source: BoingBoing
4 percent. The accuracy of the facial recognition system used by British law enforcement. Source: Techdirt
10. The number of psychological tactics available to push people in a particular direction. Source: Science Focus
40 percent. Percentage of Amazon merchants based in China. Source: Marketplace Pulse
60 percent. The percentage of smartphone users who play games on their devices. Source: Apple Insider
90 percent. The percentage of online content which is “crap.” Source: Next Web
90 percent. Percentage of blockchain supply chain initiative which will “go nowhere.” Source: IT Wire
700. The number of orders packed each hour by an Amazon robot boxing robot. The inefficient human can manage just 175 an hour for a human. A human, however, has to take breaks for personal needs, eat, and think about the rich benefits a packager receives from the world’s largest online book store. This means that the “average” warehouse human boxing orders outputs at the rate of about one box 29.17 seconds. Its a factuality without verification, of course. Source: Reuters
1,059. The number of fraud cases related to defense contracting between 2013 and 2017. Source: FAS.org
$100,000. The individual royalties earned by 1,000 authors on Amazon. Source: Digital Reader
600,000. Number of private contractors employed by the Department of Defense. Source: TruthDig.com
100 million. Number of bad online advertisements generated by one operation. Source: Naked Security
$618 million. The first day loss on paper for investors who bought into Uber on its first day of trading. Source: Daily Mail
825 million. Number of computers running Windows 10. Source: Thurrott.com
2.5 billion. Number of users of devices equipped with Android. Source: Techcrunch
$500 billion. Dollar amount spent on prescription medicines each year in the US. Source: CNBC
Stephen E Arnold, May 15, 2019
Factualities for May 8, 2019
May 8, 2019
I marvel at the hard data produced by numerical wizards and wizardettes. Here’s a selection of facts which I absolutely, positively believe.
2X. The number of Huawei phones sold compared to the number of mobile phones Apple sold in the first quarter of 2019. Source: Thurrott
$5. The amount of money Amazon will pay you to place your first order via the Amazon mobile application. Source: Lifehacker
7. Number of pregnant Amazon workers allegedly fired for being with child. Source: CNet
10. Number of years in which Amazon will reach fully automated warehouses. Source: Digital Journal
10 percent. Number of Twitter users creating 80 percent of the service’s tweets. Source: Search Engine Journal
30 percent. The amount of the productivity and efficiency increase when an employee uses an enterprise search system is used. Source: Market Talk News
50 percent. The percentage of US college students who go hungry. Source: New York Times
$3,500. Cost of a Microsoft development kit for the HoloLens 2. Upon paying, one gets a “hat”. Source: The Inquirer
6,000. The number of languages in the world. Source via IBM: Medium
15,000. Number of sub domains GoDaddy removed for spammy activities. Source: Wired
50,000. Number of companies vulnerable to a security issue in SAP software. Source: Reuters
50,000. Number of vulnerable Bitcoin nodes. Source: The Next Web
277,000. Number of drones registered with the FAA. Note: There are an estimated 1.25 million personal drones in the US. Source: Engadget
1 million. The number of terrorist videos YouTube has “reviewed” in 2019. Source: CNet
137 million. Number of US adults suffering medical financial hardship in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Source: EurekAlet
250 million. Number of hours YouTubers watch each day. Source: Variety
$300 million. Amount of money invested in the Star Citizen video game which may never be completed. Source: Forbes
$356 million. Amount of digital money stolen from exchanges in the first 90 days of 2019. Source: The Next Web
968 million. The number of Playstation 4s Sony has shipped. Source: Neoseeker
2 billion. Number of monthly YouTube users. Source: Variety
4.9 billion. Number of deceased persons in the Facebook database by 2100. Source: Guardian
Stephen E Arnold, May 8, 2019
Factualities for May 1, 2019
May 1, 2019
May Day data. The folks with spreadsheet fever are beginning to bloom. Numbers are sprouting in the most unlikely places. Here’s this week’s bouquet from the discount grocery of numerical sprouts.
Two. The number of times US government officials considered grounding the Boeing 737 Max. These deliberations and decisions to let ‘em fly took place prior to the two crashes. The airplane has semi-smart software. The government officials are humans and also prone to error. Source: Business Insider (pay wall, gentle reader)
Three. Number of years a biodegradable plastic bags survives in the ocean. After 36 months the bags can hold groceries. Source: Guardian
Four. Number of people killed when a crane fell off a Google building. The crane wreck took place prior to Google’s announcement of its revenue crash. Source: Irish Independent
32. The number of gigabytes required for the forthcoming Windows 10 1903. This is twice the space required for 1809. Source Digital Trends
50. The annual alleged rate at which the Dark Web is “increasing” every year. This is quite a number because other data suggest the Dark Web is holding steady at about 4,500 sites and services. Source: Techworld
50. The number of hours people work who say, “I work 75 hours a week.” Source: New York Magazine
200. A Comcast’s customer monthly data usage. Source: Ars Technica
4,000. Number of technology companies based in Singapore. Source: Tech Asia
$10,000. Amount some Amazon sellers pay to get their product boosted to the top of an Amazon results page. Source: Buzzfeed
13 percent. Percentage of homes in Japan which are abandoned. Source: Quartz
70 percent. Only 30 percent of an ad’s effectiveness depends on the channel and other factors. Source: Google via Business World India
$32 million. The amount Hertz wants Arthur Andersen (oops, Accenture) to pay for an Enron-esque Web site which is problematic. This is a nice way of saying, “Enron-grade financial performance. Source: The Register
40 million. Number of PayPal users. Source: CNBC
102 million. Number of Americans without a job. Source: Christian Journal
350 million. Number of times open source Elasticsearch has been downloaded. Source: Elastic’s Hannah Kerber’s email to DarkCyber
$2.7 billion. The amount lost to cyber crime in 2018. Source: Government Computer News
$13 billion. The amount the fortunes of five billionaires increased in the week of April 27, 2019. Source: Forbes
One trillion or $1,000,000,000,000. The market cap of Microsoft. Source: Gamespot
Spreadsheet fever may be incurable.
Stephen E Arnold, May 1, 2019
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