The ownership structure is designed to make sure the “god group” has a say in things Palantirian. The term appears to be forever. That seems reasonable when climate change, financial pressure, and the Rona are rampant.
Mobile Data Costs Around the World
September 7, 2020
Sometimes it takes looking at the cost of certain services in other countries before we decide whether our situation is acceptable. No, I am not talking about healthcare—Cable.co.uk has published “Worldwide Mobile Data Pricing: The Cost of 1GB of Mobile Data in 228 Countries.” The interactive map makes it clear that the US is making it difficult for some to afford acceptable Internet access.
Anyone who cares to compare should navigate to the map, where one can hover over each country to see highest, lowest, and average prices. The creators have also assigned a rank to each country and note how many plans were sampled and when. Tabs at the top take the curious to “highlights” of the study, regional data, and researcher comments. The description tells us:
“Countries are color-coded by the average price of one gigabyte (1GB) of mobile data. As you can see, this paints an interesting picture, with a lot of the countries where mobile data is cheapest in and around the former USSR, and with some of the most expensive in North America, Africa and Western Europe. …
“Why some countries are missing data: Unlike our measurements of worldwide broadband speed and worldwide broadband pricing, where lack of fixed-line infrastructure meant significant gaps, mobile data provision is near-ubiquitous. However, there are still some countries or territories where either no provision exists, there exists only 2G infrastructure, providing only calls and/or SMS texts, or the data simply isn’t available. And there are countries and regions where problems with the currency do not allow for useful comparison.”
We particularly took note of three enlightening cost comparisons—The US average (in US dollars) of $12.55/GB versus $3.91 in Japan, $1.39 in the UK, and $0.81 in France. Hmm.
Cynthia Murrell, September 07, 2020
Hello, Apple. Did You Read This?
September 3, 2020
One of the DarkCyber research team called my attention to a paragraph in “Is MacOS Becoming Unmaintainable?” The author has been explaining thing Mac for decades. I think this person qualifies as an individual who is or was part of the Apple faithful. Here’s the paragraph:
From all that I hear about Big Sur’s new Sealed System Volume, MacOS 11.0 isn’t intended to improve the situation. If every time your car had a problem you had to replace its engine, wouldn’t you consider that abysmal engineering? It might be acceptable for an iPhone, but surely not for a proper computer.From all that I hear about Big Sur’s new Sealed System Volume, macOS 11.0 isn’t intended to improve the situation. If every time your car had a problem you had to replace its engine, wouldn’t you consider that abysmal engineering? It might be acceptable for an iPhone, but surely not for a proper computer.
I wonder if anyone at Apple noted this statement. My hunch is that someone did. Does anyone care? Not any more. The notion of “too complicated, time consuming, and expensive to fix” combined with millennial wisdom guarantees deterioration it seems.
Stephen E Arnold, September 3, 2020
Dark Patterns: Is the Future of Free Video Editing Software Duplicity, Carelessness, and Indifference?
August 31, 2020
One of the DarkCyber team suggested a run down of three free video editing software solutions. We had just finished a couple of our for-fee write ups about technology related to warfighting, and I concluded that the group wanted a break from million watt beam weapons.
I said, “Okay, just use a machine we don’t rely on for real work.” Stephanie was thrilled when Ben said he would help. The three “free” software solutions these two set about installing were:
DaVinci Resolve, allegedly “the standard for high end post production and finishing on more Hollywood feature films, television shows and commercials than any other software.” You can get a free copy at this link. (There is a $300 version too.)
HitFilm Express, allegedly “a free video editing software with professional-grade VFX tools and everything you need to make awesome content, films or gaming videos.” You can get a free copy at this link.
Shotcut, a free, open source, cross platform video editor. You can get a copy at this link.
We never got to the review. We were trapped in what sure looks like the FXHome / HitFilm Express dark pattern. It was a swamp populated by creatures dependent on auto reply email, bizarre instructions, and names like “Dibs” and “Joe.” So wholesome, yet so frustrating despite the friendly monikers.
This blog post is about dark patterns, not the video editing software. Sorry, Stephanie (the team member who cooked up the idea for the story.) Read on to find out why DarkCyber cares about a single firm and its enthusiastic pursuit of dark patterns.
The illustration below is a depiction of Dante’s Inferno. About eight layers down is the Dark Pattern of FXHome. That’s better than spending every day, all day with Beelzebub and the gang.
What’s a dark pattern?
The phrase means, according to the ever reliable Wikipedia, “A user interface that has been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things, such as buying insurance with their purchase or signing up for recurring bills.”
Stephanie tried to install the software and was greeted with a Web page presenting her with options to upgrade the free software by purchasing $25 to $50 dollar bundles of macros and pre-sets. Puzzled, she retrieved the details for the accounts we use to purchase software, pay for subscriptions, and buy crap from Amazon.
I ignored her grumbling, but I noticed when two of my engineers were standing behind her staring at the screen and getting that weird look in their eyes when something does not compute. I walked over to the group and said, “When will you finish your reviews of these three tools?”
Stephanie said, “I am running behind. I spent yesterday and today trying to get the software to work. Apparently someone installed a version of HitFilm Express last year, and now FXHome took the money, sent a series of steps, and nothing works.”
I said, “Okay, write the company. Explain what happened and get help to install the software.”
My two engineers nodded and walked away. This, in my experience, meant that the HitFilm Express software was something that presented numerous challenges. Researching and analyzing EMP technology was more appealing than not-so-free software.
I told Stephanie to give me the user name and password she used to buy the software. I happily logged in from a different machine, created a user name and password, saw the same difficult to evade plea to buy add-in packs, and I bought a $39 pack. The video editor came up but no add in software.
Now I was intrigued. Two installations. Almost $80US down a rat hole and no special add in packs. I told my engineers to log in, get the install information, and see if each could get the software to work.
Nope. FXHome has a system to take money. FXHome does not have a functional, reliable system to deliver what the customer purchased.
Now I am thinking cyber fraud. Call me silly, but I am a suspicious person, and when we write about next generation weapons, what type of customers do we have? Certainly not the Vatican or Green Peace.
I found a customer support email which is managed by “smart” software. The email to which I was directed is support@fxhome.com and along the line of a series of email exchanges over the span of nine days a human included his/her name. That individual identified himself/herself as Dibs McCallum.
The dark patterns we believe the user interface implements for the free software includes these elements:
- Blandishments to purchase upgrades before allowing downloads
- Instructions for installing software which do not install software
- Customer service interfaces intended to frustrate those seeking information; for example, the FXHome system strips attachments even though people or bots like Dibs McCallum request them and your truly attaches them. Even more dutifully I resend the attachments and receive zero acknowledgement or information about the failure.
Where am I? Well, definitely there is no review of FXHome. It is tough to write about software which does not function. The upside is that I have an anecdote for my next cyber crime lecture. As we were editing this story, PayPal reported a refund of $39. FXHome still has $39 and we have no functioning software.
When I step back and look at this series of events involving three of my team and the ever helpful Dibs McCallum, who insisted that attachments showing the unhelpful error messages HitFilm Express displayed, did not arrive.
Then there was this email:
Allow me to explain. You buy from us. If you want a refund within 14 days you get one.
That is why I have refunded both your order 0000000000000 for $39 that you made by credit card under the email seaky2000@yahoo.com and also your order 0000000000000 for $39 that you made via PayPal that you made under the email 00@arnoldit.com. Both amounts will appear in your prospective credit card and PayPal statements within the next 5-10 working days. Though most likely far sooner. This does mean your software packs will no longer work of course. Those effects will be deactivated and you are left with the free HitFilm Express without the extra content. It is always best to remember what email you use for purchases as it can be confusing if you habitually use more than one email. We are always dealing with this confusion with customers. Very common.
Best Regards, Joe Gould, Business Coordinator
Notice the phrase “We are always dealing with this confusion”.
Yeah, Joe said, “Always.” What’s that old saw about doing the same thing over and over? Was it ground hog day or one of Dante’s circles of Hell?
The dark pattern is apparently accidental. A situation exists which creates an “always” situation. Why not figure out changes to the system to eliminate an “always” problem. Why not think through making the interface work with a customer, not against the customer. Why not skip the “buy more add in packs”? Just charge people money.
What’s free mean? Upsells, confusing purchase options, and a “system” designed to make the craziness of Microsoft customer support for non-installable $0.99 HEVC codecs look like a paragon of lucidity.
One answer is that it earned this write up in Beyond Search and DarkCyber. It has converted sweet Stephanie into a termagant and HitFilm Express hater. (Good work that.)
Observations:
- Generating sustainable revenue is difficult. If a product is “good,” people will pay for it. If a product is not so good, carelessness, indifference, or laziness generates “buy this, then that” solutions. Helpful? Not so much. Suggestion for FXHome: Less weird orange color and more begging for dollar options like Indiegogo or Patreon, among others?
- Competing against Adobe, Apple, Magix, and other for-fee video editing programs is difficult. Yes, DarkCyber understands that FXHome needs revenue. Suggestion: Why not sell a subscription to upgrades?
- Relying on an interface and the people who conceived it may not be a winning tactic. Staff changes and additional inputs may provide the creative spark that moves beyond what sure look like dark patterns. Suggestion: Skip the hear, speak, and see no evil approach to your current upgrade interface. Listen and fix the problem. “Always”. Wow, that’s an endorsement of clear thinking.
Is DarkCyber suspicious? Yep. FXHome could be a YouTube video titled UXMoan.
Stephen E Arnold, August 31, 2020
Technical Debt: Nope, It Exists and That Debt Means Operational Poverty, Then Death
August 28, 2020
“Technical Debt Doesn’t Exist” is an interesting view of software. The problem is that “technology” is not just software. The weird behavior of an Adobe application like Framemaker can be traced to the program’s Unix roots. But why, one asks, is it so darned difficult to manage colors in a program intended to print documents with some parts in color? What about the mysterious behavior of Windows 10 when a legal installation collects $0.99 cents for an HEVC codec only to report that the codec cannot be installed? What about the enterprise application from OpenText cannot display a document recently displayed to the user of the content management system? Are these problems due to careless programming?
According to the article:
There is no such thing as technical debt. There is work to do, that we can agree on, but it’s not debt payment.
The punch line for the write up is that technical debt is just maintenance.
Let’s think about this.
The constraints of Framemaker result from its Unix roots. Now decades later, those roots still exist. Like the original i2 Analyst’s Notebook (a policeware system), some functions were constrained by the lovely interaction of the hardware, the operating system, and the code. The Unix touches remain today: Enter Escape O P C and the list of styles pop up. Yep, commands from 40 years ago are still working and remain inscrutable to anyone trying to learn the program. Why aren’t there changes? Adobe tried and ended up with InDesign. I would suggest that the cost of “fixing up” Framemaker were too high if Adobe could corral engineers who could do the job. Framemaker, therefore, is still around, but it is an orphan and a problematic one at that.
What about Microsoft and a codec? The fact that Microsoft makes a free version available for a person willing to put in the time to locate the HEVC download is one thing. Charging $0.99 for a codec which cannot be installed is another. Figuring out the unknown and unanticipated interactions among video hardware, software in the Windows 10 fun house, and third-party software is too expensive. What’s the fix? Ignore the problem. Put out some marketing baloney and tell the human doing customer support to advise the person with the failed codec to reinstall Windows. Yeah, right. A problem exists that will be around for exactly as long as there is Windows 10.
What about the OpenText content management system? We encountered this problem when trying to figure out why users of the system could not locate a file which had been saved the previous day. We poked around the hardware; we poked around the content management system; we poked around the search system which turned out to be an Autonomy stub. Yep, Autonomy search was “in” the OpenText system. The issue was the interaction of the Autonomy search system first crafted in the late 1990s, the content management system which OpenText bought from a vendor, and the hardware used to run the system. Did OpenText care? Nope, not at all. Open a file and wait 15 minutes. And what about the missing file? Updates sat in a queue and usually took place a couple of days after the Save command was issued. The fix? Ho ho ho.
Let me be clear: When a system is coded and it sort of works, that system is deployed. If a problem surfaces quickly, the vendor will have someone fix it. If it is a big problem, maybe two or three people will work on the issue. Whatever must be done to get the phone to stop ringing, the email to stop arriving, and angry customers to stop having their lawyers write nasty grams will be done. Then it is over. No one will go back and figure out what went wrong, make fixes, and dutifully put the ship in proper shape. The mistake is embedded in digital amber and the “fix” is part of the woodwork. How often do you look at the plumbing connections from the outside water line to your hot water heater. What happens when there’s a leak? A fix is made and then forget it.
What about technical debt? The behaviors I have described mean that systems persist through time. The systems are not refactored or “fixed”. The systems are just patched. Amazon enshrines this process in its two pizza teams. And how about the documentation for the fixes made on Saturday morning at 3 am? Ho ho ho.
Let me offer some observations:
- Significant changes to software today are mostly cosmetic, what I call wrappers. The problems remain but their pointy parts are blunted.
- The cost of making fundamental changes are beyond the reach of even the largest and most resource rich organizations.
- The humans required to figure out where the problem is and make structural changes are almost impossible for most technologies.
The article calls this maintenance. I think that’s an okay word, but the reality is that today’s software, particular software based on recycled libraries, existing systems accessed via application programming interfaces, and hardware with components with checkered or unknown pasts are not going to be “fixed.”
We live in an era of “good enough.”
The technical debt is going to catch up to those who sell and develop products. Users are already paying the price.
What happens if one pushes technical debt into tomorrow or next week?
That’s an easy question to answer. The vaunted “user experience” becomes more like a carnival act while the behind the scenes activity is less and less savory. How about those mandatory updates which delete photos, kill a Mac desktop, or allow a mobile phone to go dead because of a bug? The new normal.
It’s just maintenance. We know how much bean counters like to allocate cash for maintenance. Operational poverty, then the death of innovation.
Stephen E Arnold, August 28, 2020
Free As a Dark Pattern
August 27, 2020
A number of online services offer free products. DarkCyber has spotted a semi clever play used by a developer of “free” video editing software. Three-dimensional models were not on our radar. The “free” software constructs are now identified and monitored by our steam-powered intelligence system. (We operate from rural Kentucky. What did you expect? Reinforcement learning?)
“3D Printering: The World of Non-Free 3D Models Is Buyer Beware” contains some information. Let’s take a quick look at a couple of revelations which caught the DarkCyber team’s attention:
First, a company has developed what appears to be a fresh approach to direct sales. The write up explains:
A standout success is a site like Hero Forge, which allows users to create custom tabletop gaming miniatures with a web-based interface. Users can pay to download the STL of their creation, or pay for a printed version. Hero Forge is a proprietary system, but a highly successful one judging by their recent Kickstarter campaign.
Second, you can acquire 3D models via “begging for dollars.” The article explains that these are requests for money paid via Patreon. I assume PayPal may work too.
Third is a kit. The customer gets a 3D model when buying some physical good. The write up points out electrical parts, fasteners, or a “kit,” which DarkCyber assumes is a plastic bag with stuff in it.
The problem?
According to the write up, the problems are:
- Vendors don’t offer “test drives, fitting rooms, or refunds”
- Models have lousy design for manufacture. (DarkCyber assumes this means whatever emerges from the 3D printer is not going to carry water. Nice 3D printed thermos you have there, Wally.)
These two problems boil down to “quality.”
After reading the article, DarkCyber thinks that one could interpret the word “quality” as a synonym for “fraud.”
Dark patterns are becoming increasingly common. Let’s blame it on an error, an oversight, or, best of all, the pandemic.
Stephen E Arnold, August 27, 2020
Palantir: Stakeholders May Know Whom to Blame If Money Does Not Flow
August 25, 2020
Another Palantir technologies item. Is it accurate? Who knows. But I found “Palantir Targeting 3 Class Voting Structure According to Leaked S-1, Giving Founders 49.999999% Control in Perpetuity” fun reading. The write up states:
Wow, this is a really complicated ownership structure.
Okay, I understand. Just as in the Great Chain of Being, there is “god” or in this case a “god group” at the top. In the middle are the people who do knowledge work for the “god group.” At the bottom are the worker bees.
The ownership structure is designed to make sure the “god group” has a say in things Palantirian.
Observations:
- Investors know whom to invite to a meeting if the Palantirians’ numbers don’t materialize. Will the “god group” show up for that chit chat? Unlikely. Their lawyers, for sure.
- Who leaked this document? Why? Under what circumstances? Is anyone “looking” into this referenced confidential S-1 filing? Peter Thiel, a big dog, must be really thrilled with the leaker, the leaked info, and the outfit disseminating confidential information.
- Will the complicated structure work as well as Mark Zuckerberg’s set up? Mr. Zuckerberg has more customers, multiple revenue opportunities, and billions of people. So, probably not as the Palentirians hope.
It is worth monitoring the situation.
Stephen E Arnold, August 25, 2020
Palantir Technologies: Maybe Stealth Is Better for Specialized Services Companies?
August 24, 2020
I, like many other Palantir watchers, read “Leaked S-1 Screenshots Show Palantir Losing $579M in 2019.” My hunch is that this going public thing is not going to be the cake walk some envision. Palantir Technologies is a specialized services company. In my lingo, that means the firm’s principal technology was developed for and influenced directly by the needs of intelligence, law enforcement, and similar enforcement agencies. I am not going to dwell on some facts which informed Palantir observers should know; for example:
- The company was founded in 2003. That is just about 17 years ago. In that time, the technology for intel and LE professionals has advanced. Anyone who has been in the “enterprise software game” knows one thing: Keeping the 2003 Buick running is not getting easier, nor is it getting cheaper to keep that four-door sedan humming. What’s this mean? First, the built in costs for a 17 year old engineering structure are not likely to decrease. Second, massive investment is needed to keep pace with upstarts like Datawalk. Third, some of the new specialized services solutions are quite easy to use and very, very slick.
- Palantir has ingested about $2.6 billion from about three dozen, Type A, usually impatient, and generally attitude choked, entitled people. That’s a big price tag on a company losing about $600 million per year. Real estate should be less expensive in Denver, but the traffic? Yeah, about the same as Sillycon Valley.
- The number of customers for high end specialized software is small compared to the number of people who happily consume TikTok videos. That’s a big, big problem. The number of vendors selling more modern systems outnumbers the number of intel and LE entities able to purchase, training professionals, babysit, and then — in a crisis situation — actually use the Fancy Dan software.
But these are facts which I have written and lectured about, and I have not done much with Palantir’s approach to sales, its exciting interactions related to the i2 Analyst’s Notebook AND file format, and the changing economics for LE and intel agencies. Let me just say that this “downsizing” movement is not new and it is not going to make selling big ticket software easier. One former Swedish intel professional asked me for a recommendation for investigative software or what I call intelware. I told him, but the fellow said, “Nope, we’re going with a low cost Israeli solution. It’s good enough.” That’s a potential problem for specialized services firm with gigantic cash burning systems. Better is not going to be “good enough” to make the sale.
Let me hit my main point: Stealth. I have long been an advocate that specialized software companies avoid the public spotlight. There are many reasons. Going public is a very public action, and it exposes the financial weaknesses in a way which is ultimately either a home run or a strike out.
Consider Voyager Labs. What is this company? What does it do? Getting info is difficult. The firm is a vendor of specialized software, but it keeps a low profile or distracts with some wacky marketing play for (heaven forbid!) advertising companies. What about Nice? What’s it do? Customer experience. Yeah, CX. And there are hundreds of other companies in the specialized services business. Only a few have gone public, and these outfits are very skilled at making sure their businesses are positioned in a way that seems logical to those unfamiliar with some of the more interesting facets of their business. One example is Verint. Another is BAE Systems. Will Palantir emerge as a BAE Systems-type outfit with shares chugging along in a range that does not excite Robinhood investors? With the losses reported from a somewhat mysterious source, it’s hard to say. But on the surface, assuming the “leaked” financial data are accurate, it seem like a long shot.
The IPO, the investors and stakeholders hope, will get them some cash. Will the payoff be one of those pre-Rona 17X jobs? You will have to noodle that question as you ponder 17 years and losing half a billion a year. Just getting one’s money back might be a realistic scenario to ponder. On the other hand, there is the possibility of losing money. Not a happy thought. Stealth may be a better option for some specialized services firms.
Stephen E Arnold, August 24, 2020
Apple Learns: There Can Be Knock Ons from Zoomified Congressional Hearings
August 21, 2020
What happens when high school science club “on the fly”, “we can do what we want” decision making is revealed in Zoomified Congressional hearings? “News Publishers Join Epic Games in Asking Apple for Lower App Store Fees” is an example of the strong reaction to special deals. Now Apple’s partners want the same “deal” extended to the Bezos bulldozer. Here’s the key statement from an online news service:
publishers including the New York Times, the Washington Post and CNET parent company ViacomCBS, want that 30% fee dropped to 15%.
Thus, it seems Apple and Amazon worked out a deal different from the one imposed on lesser Apple partners.
Digital Content Next offers this observation in a letter to Apple’s management:
Sometime in 2017, Apple and Amazon, two giant platform companies, struck a deal where Amazon Prime Video would be available on Apple TV and Apple products would be available on Amazon. As part of the terms of that deal, Apple would reduce its fee for consumers who subscribed to Prime Video from 30% to 15%. For existing Prime Video subscribers, Apple agreed to completely waive its normal 15% fee. The cherry on top for Amazon was that they could use other payment systems outside of Apple.
Apple now has to fancy dance its way around what looks like a problem.
Apple wants to do what it wants. Don’t like the changes in our operating systems? Well, that’s Apple doing its thing. Don’t like the fees? Well, that’s the way we operate. Take it or leave it. Don’t like the deal we worked out with Amazon? Well, too bad.
Despite the love many have for the Apple ecosystem, the time has arrived for those with different views to grouse out loud.
So what? This looks like another example of situational decision making. A deal with the Bezos bulldozer may grind slowly around and start rolling back to the digital orchard.
To sum up: High school science club are now playing Fortnite in real life or IRL. Battle royale? Yep. Those Zoomified hearings make it clear that the democratic processes generate useful information and cause an action-reaction demonstration. The game, however, is not a digital fantasy.
Stephen E Arnold, August 21, 2020
Alphabet Spells Out Actions for YouTubers to Take
August 20, 2020
Coercion is interesting because it can take many forms. An online publication called Digital Journal published “Google Rallies YouTubers Against Australian News Payment Plan.” Let’s assume the information in the write up is accurate. The pivot point for the article is:
Google has urged YouTubers around the world to complain to Australian authorities as it ratchets up its campaign against a plan to force digital giants to pay for news content. Alongside pop-ups warning “the way Aussies use Google is at risk”, which began appearing for Australian Google users on Monday, the tech titan also urged YouTube creators worldwide to complain to the nation’s consumer watchdog.
The idea, viewed from a company’s point of view, seems to be that users can voice their concern about an Australian government decision. The company believes that email grousing will alter a government decision. The assumption is that protest equals an increased likelihood of change. Is this coercion? Let’s assume that encouraging consumer push back against a government is.
The action, viewed from a government’s point of view, may be that email supporting a US company’s desire to index content and provide it to whomever, is harming the information sector in a country.
The point of friction is that Alphabet Google is a company which operates as if it were a country. The only major difference is that Alphabet Google does not have its own military force, and it operates in a fascinating dimension in which its actions are important, maybe vital, to some government agencies and, therefore, its corporate actions are endorsed or somehow made more important in other spheres of activity.
DarkCyber is interested in monitoring these issues:
- How will YouTube data consumers and enablers of Google ad revenue react to their corporate-directed coercive role?
- How will the Australian government react to and then accommodate such coercion if it becomes significant?
- How will other countries — for example, France, Germany, and the UK — learn from the YouTube coercion initiative?
- How will Alphabet Google mutate its coercive tactics to make them more effective?
Of course, the Google letter referenced in the Digital Journal may be a hoax or a bit of adolescent humor. Who pays attention to a super bright person’s high school antics? These can be explained away or deflected with “Gee, I am sorry.”
The real issue is a collision of corporatism and government. The coercion angle, if the write up is accurate, draws attention to a gap between what’s good for the company and what’s good for a country.
The issue may be the responsibility of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, but the implications reach to other Australian government entities and to other countries as well. The US regulatory entities have allowed a handful of companies to dominate the digital environment. Coercion may the an upgrade to these monopolies’ toolkits.
But the whole matter may be high school humor, easily dismissed with “it’s a joke” and “we’re sorry. Really, really sorry.”
Stephen E Arnold, August 20, 2020
Quantexa: Awash in Cash
August 13, 2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, crime has not stopped. Instead of illegal activities taking place in person, bad actors have moved their activities online. Cybersecurity experts discovered that the pandemic has also made bad actors more desperate and are willing to take more risks online. Inventiva explains with the rise of risky cyber crimes, cybersecurity companies are seeing huge investments such as: “Quantexa Raises $64.7M To Bring Big Data Intelligence To Risk Analysis And Investigations.”
Quantexa is a UK-based company that designed a Contextual Decision Intelligence. Machine learning platform that analyzes data points to track criminal activity and build better profiles of companies’ customer base. Quantexa recently raised $64.7 million in Series C fundraising. The funds will be used to develop further tools for cybersecurity and expand Quantexa into other continents.
Quantexa has done work for banks and other businesses in the financial industry. The company hopes the fundraising infusion will set them up with work in the government/public sector and insurance companies.
Quantexa founder and CEO Vishal Marria said he created the company, because he encountered many challenges with investigations while he was an Ernst & Young executive director. He noticed that when potential bad actors were investigated, only small pieces of information were used. Marria thought of a better way, so he designed AL algorithms and used big data to find the bigger picture:
“As an example, typically, an investigation needs to do significantly more than just track the activity of one individual or one shell company, and you need to seek out the most unlikely connections between a number of actions in order to build up an accurate picture. When you think about it, trying to identify, track, shut down and catch a large money launderer (a typical use case for Quantexa’s software) is a classic big data problem.”
This sector of cybersecurity continues to grow and similar companies to Quantexa are also fundraising with investors.
Pieces of information always point to a larger puzzle. It begs the question how bad actors were caught in the past.
Whitney Grace, August 13, 2020
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