Thailand Does Not Want Frightening Content
August 6, 2021
The prime minister of Thailand is Prayut Chan-o-cha. He is a retired Royal Thai Army officer, and he is not into scary content. What’s the fix? “PM Orders Internet Blocked For Anyone Spreading Info That Might Frighten People” reported:
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered internet service providers to immediately block the internet access of anyone who propagates information that may frighten people. The order, issued under the emergency situation decree, was published in the Royal Gazette on Thursday night and takes effect on Friday. It prohibits anyone from “reporting news or disseminating information that may frighten people or intentionally distorting information to cause a misunderstanding about the emergency situation, which may eventually affect state security, order or good morality of the people.”
So what’s “frightening?” I for one find the idea of having access to the Internet blocked. Why not just put the creator of frightening content in one of Thailand’s exemplary and humane prisons? These, as I understand the situation, feature ample space, generous prisoner care services, and healthful food. With an occupancy level of 300 percent, what’s not to like?
Frightening so take PrisonStudies.org offline I guess.
Stephen E Arnold, August 6, 2021
Facebook, Booze, Youngsters, and Australia: Shaken and Stirred
August 6, 2021
Quite a mixologist’s concoction: Facebook, booze, young people, and the Australian government. The country seems to be uncomfortable with some of Facebook’s alleged practices. I would assume that some Australian citizens who hold shares in the social media outfit are pleased as punch with the company’s financial results.
Others are not amused. “Facebook to Limit Ads Children See after revelations Australian Alcohol Companies Can Reach Teens” reports:
Facebook will impose more control on the types of ads that children as young as 13 are exposed to on Instagram and other platforms, as new research finds Australian alcohol companies are not restricting their social media content from reaching younger users.
How many companies targeted the youngsters down under? The write up asserts:
The paper examined the use of social media age-restriction controls by 195 leading alcohol brands on Instagram and Facebook, and found large numbers were not shielding their content from children. The 195 brands were owned by nine companies, and the research identified 153 Facebook accounts, including 84 based in Australia, and 151 Instagram accounts, of which 77 were Australian-based. The authors found 28% of the Instagram accounts and 5% of Facebook accounts had not activated age-restriction controls.
I did spot a quote attributed to one of the experts doing the research about Facebook, Booze, Youngsters, and Australia; to wit:
it was clear that companies were not complying with the code. “The alcohol industry has demonstrated that it is unable to effectively control its own marketing…
Shocking that about self regulation. Has anyone alerted the US financial sector?
Stephen E Arnold, August 6, 2021
Tit for Tat, Not TikTok, Spurs Chinese Innovation
August 5, 2021
I don’t think of Foreign Affairs magazine as a hot technology read. Its articles conjure memories of political science. Yeah, that’s right “science” in politics.
However, I did read an interesting essay called “China’s Sputnik Moment?” (Get your credit card, gentle reader, the information may be behind a paywall.)
The main point is that the humiliation of a Chinese Go expert sounded the alert to Chinese technologists. The result is that the Middle Kingdom shifted gears and started “innovating.” The idea that China was losing to a group of Westerners was unpalatable.
You may want to check out the original essay. I want to highlight one passage from the write up as characteristic of the article:
China’s industrial policy has failed.
Well, there you have it. And what’s China beavering away at?
Beijing is pushing hard for technological self-sufficiency.
And how is that working out? The article asserts:
The combined efforts of China’s state drive and its innovative industry will accelerate the country’s technological advancement.
What’s the outlook for China with regard to US policies?
The author concludes:At this point, no effort on behalf of the U.S. government can deter China’s state from its end goal of industrial self-sufficiency.
Those US teens’ clicks of TikTok are count downs it seems.
Stephen E Arnold, August 5, 2021
NSO Group and France: Planning a Trip to Grenoble? Travel Advisory Maybe?
August 3, 2021
The PR poster kid for intelware captured more attention from the Guardian. “Pegasus Spyware Found on Journalists’ Phones, French Intelligence Confirms” reports in “real news” fashion:
French intelligence investigators have confirmed that Pegasus spyware has been found on the phones of three journalists, including a senior member of staff at the country’s international television station France 24. It is the first time an independent and official authority has corroborated the findings of an international investigation by the Pegasus project – a consortium of 17 media outlets, including the Guardian.
The consistently wonderful and objective, media hip newspaper provided a counter argument to this interesting finding:
NSO said Macron was not and never had been a “target” of any of its customers, meaning the company denies he was selected for surveillance or was surveilled using Pegasus. The company added that the fact that a number appeared on the list was in no way indicative of whether that number was selected for surveillance using Pegasus.
Is NSO Group adopting a Facebook- or Google-type of posture? I think response to implied criticism is to say stuff and nod in a reassuring manner? I don’t know. The Guardian, ever new media savvy, wraps up the PR grenade with this comment:
The investigation suggests widespread and continuing abuse of Pegasus, which NSO insists is only intended for use against criminals and terrorists.
Should NSO Group professionals consider a visit to France and a side trip to Grenoble in order to ride Les Bulles?
Stephen E Arnold, August 3, 2021
China: Pointing a Way to Technology Solution That Sort of Works?
August 3, 2021
China is reasonably good in technology. China is also okay with facial recognition, facial recognition, and exploiting security vulnerabilities despite the best efforts of US cyber threat defense vendors.
China also may have figured out a way to jerk on the halter of the fast-moving technology stallions. How is this possible that a country many people think of as a producer of the inflatable unicorns favored by some Twitch influencers.
China may have a test underway to determine the efficacy of keeping digital services from altering the course of the good old ship of state in the Middle Kingdom.
“China Cracks Down on Its Tech Giants. Sound Familiar?” reports as only a “real news” outfit can just note that the url available to me could go dead. Not much I can do, gentle reader. Because Microsoft… :
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced a six-month campaign on Monday to regulate internet companies, particularly practices that “disrupt market order, damage consumer rights, or threaten data security.” That followed repeated fines against tech giants including Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent for violating antitrust laws, and a new plan to restrict overseas listings by Chinese companies.
It certainly appears from my vantage point in rural Kentucky that China wants to prevent the social complexities visible to anyone with a TikTok account. Heavy handed? Many may find Chinese regulators’ actions at odds with US methods.
That may be the point. If the crackdown works, China is making clear that the “Pacific century” is indeed the path forward. The interesting behavior of some people in the US, France, and other Western nation states suggests that a fresh or different approach should be tested.
This crackdown is, in my opinion, pretty significant. Will Russia hop on board the repression maglev? Oh, right, Russia boarded at an earlier stop.
Times and policies are changing and in real time.
Stephen E Arnold, August 3, 2021
NSO Group: Now the Women Allegedly Harmed Gain Media Traction. Wowza!
August 2, 2021
I read “I Will Not Be Silenced: Women Targeted in Hack and Leak Attacks Speak Out about Spyware.” My first reaction to the story was, “How many college sociology and poli-sci classes will make NSO Group, its product Pegasus, and the implications of “targeting” a subject for a case study, discussion groups, and papers? My second thought was, “NSO Group has been able to watch the ripples of intelware crashing against the awareness of the naïve, the clueless, and the mobile phone addicts.”
I don’t know if the peacock’s news report is accurate or just one of those weird bird noises made by the species. That probably doesn’t matter because the write up pulls in women and hooks intelware to a quite magnetic topic: The treatment of women.
The peacock squawked:
Female journalists and activists say they had their private photos shared on social media by governments seeking to intimidate and silence them.
Now that’s a heck of an assertion. True or not, the idea of “personal” pix nestling in distributed and local storage devices is not something that most people want to have happen.
Here’s a quote from the write up, and it will be interesting to watch how the crisis management advisors to NSO Group tap dance across this allegedly true statement:
“I am used to being harassed online. But this was different,” she added. “It was as if someone had entered my home, my bedroom, my bathroom. I felt so unsafe and traumatized.”
That’s a whiz bang statement which drags in nuances of privacy invasion and personal safety. Let’s call a meeting and maybe issue another feel good, make streets safer story. Yeah, how’s that working out?
The write up has another quote that glues NSO Group to the notion of freedom. Hello, Israel?
“Pegasus is a spyware tool and a weapon used against freedom of the press, freedom of expression, human rights activism and journalism,” said Rasha Abdul Rahim, director of Amnesty Tech, a division of Amnesty International focused on technology and surveillance tools. “Women’s freedom of expression is abused and targeted in a very specific way both online and offline. “The focus is on silencing them, putting the attention on their bodies or what they should be wearing or saying,” she added.
I have noticed that more people are aware of intelware as a result of this NSO Group toe stubbing.
What about those intelligence conference organizers? How about those experts pitching intel-related conferences on LinkedIn? What about those nifty white papers on intelware vendors’ Web sites?
My thought is that as more content is downloaded and more of the journalists chasing NSO Group info punch their searches into the Google, the more those ripples will be agitated.
Yikes. No easy fix it seems. Chasing revenues and making intelware into a household word are problematic. Many entities are likely to be suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. PR is good until it is not.
Stephen E Arnold, August 2, 2021
NSO Group: Talking and Not Talking Is Quite a Trick
July 30, 2021
I read “A Tech Firm Has Blocked Some Governments from Using Its Spyware over Misuse Claims.” First, let’s consider the headline. If the headline is factual, the message I get is that NSO Group operates one or more servers through which Pegasus traffic flows. Thus, the Pegasus system includes one or more servers which have log files, uptime monitoring, and administrative tools which permit operations like filtering, updating, and the like. Thus, a systems administrator with authorized access to one or a fleet of NSO Group servers supporting Pegasus can do what some system administrators do: Check out what’s shakin’ with the distributed system. Is the headline accurate? I sure don’t know, but the implication of the headline (assuming it is not a Google SEO ploy to snag traffic) is that NSO Group is in a position to know — perhaps in real time via a nifty AWS-type dashboard — who is doing what, when, where, for how long, and other helpful details about which a curious observer finds interesting, noteworthy, or suitable for assessing an upcharge. Money is important in zippy modern online systems in my experience.
My goodness. That headline was inspirational.
What about the write up itself from the real news outfit National Public Radio or NPR, once home to Bob Edwards, who was from Louisville, not far from the shack next to a mine run off pond outside my door. Ah, Louisville, mine drainage, and a person who finds this passage suggestive:
“There is an investigation into some clients. Some of those clients have been temporarily suspended,” said the source in the company, who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity because company policy states that NSO “will no longer be responding to media inquiries on this matter and it will not play along with the vicious and slanderous campaign.”
So the company won’t talk to the media, but does talk to the media, specifically NPR. What do I think about that? Gee, I just don’t know. Perhaps I don’t understand the logic of NSO Group. But I don’t grasp what “unlimited” means when a US wireless provider assures customers that they have unlimited bandwidth. I am just stupid.
Next, I noted:
NSO says it has 60 customers in 40 countries, all of them intelligence agencies, law enforcement bodies and militaries. It says in recent years, before the media reports, it blocked its software from five governmental agencies, including two in the past year, after finding evidence of misuse. The Washington Post reported the clients suspended include Saudi Arabia, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and some public agencies in Mexico. The company says it only sells its spyware to countries for the purpose of fighting terrorism and crime, but the recent reports claim NSO dealt with countries known to engage in surveillance of their citizens and that dozens of smartphones were found to be infected with its spyware.
Okay, if the headline is on the beam, then NSO Group, maybe some unnamed Israeli government agencies like the unit issuing export licenses for NSO Group-type software, and possibly some “trusted” third parties are going to prowl through the data about the usage of Pegasus by entities. Some of these agencies may be quite secretive. Imagine the meetings going on in which those in these secret agencies. What will the top dogs in these secret outfits about the risks of having NSO Group’s data sifted, filtered, and processed by Fancy Dan analytics’ systems tell their bosses? Yeah, that will test the efficacy of advanced degrees, political acumen, and possible fear.
And what’s NSO Group’s position. The information does not come from an NSO Group professional who does not talk to the media but sort of does. Here’s the word from the NSO Group’s lawyer:
Shmuel Sunray, who serves as general counsel to NSO Group, said the intense scrutiny facing the company was unfair considering its own vetting efforts.
“What we are doing is, what I think today is, the best standard that can be done,” Sunray told NPR. “We’re on the one hand, I think, the world leaders in our human rights compliance, and the other hand we’re the poster child of human rights abuse.”
I like this. We have the notion of NSO Group doing what it can do to the “best standard.” How many times has this situation faced an outfit in the intelware game, based in Herliya, and under the scrutiny of an Israeli agency which says yes or no to an export license for a Pegasus type system. Is this a new situation? Might be. If true, what NSO Group does will define the trajectory of intelware going forward, won’t it?
Next, I like the “world leaders” and “Human rights compliance.” This line creates opportunities for some what I would call Comedy Central comments. I will refrain and just ask you to consider the phrase in the context of the core functions and instrumentality of intelware. (If you want to talk in detail, write benkent2020 at yahoo dot com and one of my team will get back to you with terms and fees. If not, I am retired, so I don’t care.)
Exciting stuff and the NSO Group ice cream melt is getting stickier by the day. And in Herzliya, the temperature is 29 C. “C” is the grade I would assign to this allegedly accurate statement from the article that NSO Group does not talk to the media. Get that story straight is my advice.
And, gentle NPR news professional, why not ask the lawyer about log file retention and access to data in Pegasus by an NSO system administrator?
Stephen E Arnold, July 30, 2021
Digital Kudzu: Constant Gardeners Arrive at the NSO Group Orangerie
July 29, 2021
Is this a line from a motion picture? “Hello, we’re from the government and we’re here to help you.” I can’t remember. But constant gardeners do make visits to places where stuff grows, even in 2021 in the midst of a spike in respiratory diseases and quite toasty 31 C weather with some inclement weather expected.
I read “Israel Begins Investigation into NSO Group Spyware Abuse.” I am never sure about the accuracy of information when the source is one of Jeffrey Epstein’s sources of academic inspiration. (Wasn’t there some fancy wordsmithing about MIT’s interactions with this high water mark of human interaction?) As M. Macron might say, “Petits pois.” So shall we assume that the “Israel Begins…” article is in the capable hands of an honest vendeur de fruits, shall we?
The write up asserts:
The Ministry of Defense did not specify which government agencies were involved in the investigation, but Israeli media previously reported that the foreign ministry, justice ministry, Mossad, and military intelligence were also looking into the company following the report. NSO Group CEO Shalev Hulio confirmed to MIT Technology Review that the visit had taken place but continued the company’s denials that the list published by reporters was linked to Pegasus.
Ah, a coincidence. There are so many in the modern world. Example, you want? Less driving during Covid, more traffic deaths? See coincidence.
The write up notes:
NSO is not the only Israeli hacking company in the news lately. Microsoft and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab also recently reported on hacking tools developed by Candiru that were subsequently used to target civil society groups.
Yep, Candiru. But are there other specialized software firms which the Israeli government might call, text, email, or Facetime? I don’t know from nothing because the Epstein-fave MIT “real” journalists did not mention any other firms. Am I to conclude that NSO Group and the Candiru outfit are rare birds, almost one of a kind?
Is it possible that NSO Group’s comments, the government’s alleged visit, and the grousing from the land of a couple of hundred different types of cheese are like the complaints of irritated customers of the orangerie’s delicate comestibles? If you got money, you can buy what the French call fruits mystérieux, right?
Observations:
- A visit in itself is surprising in the midst of a surge in Israel
- There indeed other firms providing specialized services, but these have been fortunate enough or wise enough to remain in the shed at rear of the orangeries in Herzliya
- The MIT Review is saddled with that Epstein thing; thus, it is difficult to do much more than ask, “Is this the rest of the story?”
Worth watching. Because fruits mystérieux. The care of constant gardeners may be needed. Could it be too late? Could the blight migrate to haricots verts, tomates allongées, and petit avocats.
Avocats? Fruits or conseillers juridique?
Stephen E Arnold, July 29, 2021
China Squeezes Tech Companies for Love, Not Money
July 29, 2021
China has always kept its tech companies on a short leash, but it has recently been especially vigorous about keeping them under control. The Conversation reports, “Facial Recognition for Gamers, App Store Bans for Didi: What’s Behind China’s Recent Crackdown on Big Tech?” We learn companies that had been getting away with certain infractions for years are suddenly facing regulators’ ire. There is also the recent rebuke of social-media platform Xiaohongshu for enabling “wealth-flaunting” when, apparently, such online immodesty is nothing new. And fresh regulations were swiftly implemented last year that just happened to frustrate Ant Group’s plans to go public after that company’s founder criticized regulators. Oops.
The article takes a special look at DiDi, an Uber clone that achieved its goal of debuting on the New York Stock Exchange. It raised enough to position it as the second-largest US IPO by a Chinese company. (Alibaba ranks first.) Normally that would be a point of pride for China, but regulators responded to the news by pulling it and 25 related apps from China’s app stores. DiDi’s value took a nosedive, and now the company faces a lawsuit by investors. Officials claim the company violated security regulations, but it is suspected China was (understandably) concerned that data on riders might end up in US government hands.
Writer Barney Tan puts these developments in perspective:
“To understand the rationale behind the Chinese government’s recent moves, we must first understand the parallel universe that is China’s technological landscape. In China, technology must never be harnessed solely for an individual or organization’s gain. Social good is always emphasized, as defined and enforced by the Chinese government. DiDi’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange would have undoubtedly fueled the company’s global expansion. But in the eyes of the Chinese government, it could have also hurt the nation’s collective interests. It remains to be seen whether this apparent contradiction can be resolved. China’s collectivist approach to technology consumption is also evident in its regulation of mobile games. … In 2019, the Chinese government imposed a video game curfew on minors, banning them from playing between 10pm and 8am — allegedly to curb gaming addiction. South Korea is the only other country with such a curfew.”
This is where facial recognition comes in. Gaming giant Tencent has been rolling out “Midnight Patrol,” a feature that will use that technology to catch underaged gamers logged in after hours on an adult’s account. The company reports the tool is now part of 60 games with more on the way. Tan continues:
“From a Western point of view, such measures may seem a draconian violation of privacy and freedom. In China, however, they are generally lauded and welcomed. The prevailing view is tech firms may profit commercially from the exploitation of technology, but not at the expense of social good.”
Yes, that is a difficult mindset for many of us to wrap our heads around. Chinese companies understand this, often using different versions of their products for foreign customers. That is why we have TikTok and Chinese citizens have the more restrictive Douyin, for example. To each their own, I suppose, but investors may want to reconsider before plonking down a lot of money on the next big Chinese tech firm’s IPO.
Cynthia Murrell, July 29, 2021
Putin Has Kill Switch
July 26, 2021
“Russia Disconnected Itself from the Global Internet in Tests” shares an intriguing factoid. Mr. Putin can disconnected the country from the potato fields near Estonia to the fecund lands where gulags once bloomed. The write up reports:
State communications regulator Roskomnadzor said the tests were aimed at improving the integrity, stability and security of Russia’s Internet infrastructure…
If a pesky cyber gang shuts down the Moscow subway from Lichtenstein, it’s pull the plug time. The idea is that Russia will not have to look outside of its territory to locate the malefactors. If outfits like Twitter refuse to conform to Russian law, the socially responsible company may lose some of its Russian content creators.
What other countries will be interested in emulating Russia’s action or licensing the technology? I can think of a few. The Splinter Net is starting to gain momentum. Those ideals about information wanting to be free and the value of distributed systems seem out of step with Mr. Putin’s kill switch.
Stephen E Arnold, July 26, 2021
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