Google, TikTok, and Seriousness
July 15, 2020
Short form video is in the news. TikTok captivates millions of eyeballs. Many of these eyeballs belong to Americans. Most of these Americans choose not to understand several nuances of “free” 30 second videos created, transmitted, viewed, and forwarded via a mobile device; to wit:
- Software for mobile phones can covertly or overtly suck up data and send those data to a control node
- Those data can be cross correlated in order to yield useful insights about the activities, preferences, and information flowing into and out of a mobile device equipped with an application. Maybe TikTok does this too?
- Those digital data can be made available to third parties; for example, advertising analytics vendors and possibly, just maybe, a country’s intelligence services.
The Information published one of those “we can’t tell you where we got these data but by golly this stuff is rock solid” stories. This one is called “TikTok Agreed to Buy More Than $800 Million in Cloud Services From Google.” Let’s assume that this story about the Google TikTok deal is indeed accurate. We learn:
Last week, though, word surfaced of a buzzy new customer for Google Cloud—TikTok, the app for sharing short videos that is the year’s runaway social media hit. The deal is a lucrative one for Google Cloud, The Information has learned. In a three-year agreement signed in May 2019, TikTok committed to buying more than $800 million of cloud services from Google over that period…
What’s with the Google? Great or lousy business judgment? Does Google’s approach to a juicy deal include substantial discounts in order to get cash in the door? Is the deal another attempt by the Google to get at least some of the China market which it masterfully mishandled by advising the Chinese government to change its ways?
Nope. The new Google wants to grow by locking down multi year contracts. The belief is that these “big deals” will give the Google Cloud the protein shake muscles needed to deal with the Microsofties and the Bezos bulldozer.
New management, new thinking at the GOOG, and there will be more of the newness revealed with each tweak of a two decades old “system.”
At the same time as the Information “real” news story arrived in the DarkCyber news center, a pundit published MBA type write up popped into our “real news” folder. This write up is “The TikTok War.”
Unlike the Information’s story, the Stratechery essay is MBA consultant speak, which is different from “real news.” The point of the 3,900 word consultant report is:
I believe it is time to take China seriously and literally…
There you go: An MBA consulting revelation. One should take China seriously and literally.
Okay. Insight. Timely. Incisive.
From this conclusion, TikTok’s service is no longer appropriate in the US. Banning is probably a super duper idea if I understand the TikTok War. (How does one fight a war by banning digital information? Oh, well, irrelevant question. What’s that truism about ostriches putting their heads in the sand? Also irrelevant.)
Let’s step back and put these two different TikTok articles in a larger context.
The Information wants everyone to know that a mysterious “source” has said that Google has a three year deal with TikTok. This is a surprise? Nope. Google is on the hunt for cash because after Google’s own missteps, it is faced with hard to control costs and some real live “just like Google” competitors; namely, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Netflix. There’s also the mounting challenges of political and social annoyances to add some spice to the Googlers’ day.
The MBA consultant analysis points out that China has to be taken seriously. Prior to TikTok, China was not taken seriously? I suppose TikTok is the catalyst for seriousness. More likely, the TikTok thing evokes MBA consultant outputs to confirm what many people sort of intuit but have not been able to sum up with a “now is the time” utterance.
In my lecture yesterday for the National Cyber Crime Conference, I presented a diagram of how Chinese telecommunications and software systems can exfiltrate information with or without TikTok.
Banning an app is another one of those “Wow, the barn burned and Alibaba built a giant data center where the Milking Shorthorns once stood” moments.
Sourceless revelations about Google’s willingness to offer a deal to a China centric TikTok and MBA consultant revelations that one should take China seriously warrants one response: The ship sailed, returned, built a giant digital port, and has refueled for a return journey. Ban away.
Stephen E Arnold, July 15, 2020
Germany Is Getting Serious about Content
July 13, 2020
If accurate, Germany is moving ahead of the Five Eyes’ group in terms of access to online data. “New German Law Would Force ISPs to Allow Secret Service to Install Trojans on User Devices” reports:
A new law being proposed in Germany would see all 19 federal state intelligence agencies in Germany granted the power to spy on German citizens through the use of Trojans. The new law would force internet service providers (ISPs) to install government hardware at their data centers which would reroute data to law enforcement, and then on to its intended destination so the target is blissfully unaware that their communications and even software updates are being proxied.
If accurate, this is an important law. Germany’s experience with this type of legislation will put some oomph in the Five Eyes’ partners efforts as well as influence other European entities.
Stephen E Arnold, July 13, 2020
Intelligence Agencies and Covid
July 11, 2020
Ever since (probably before) China unleashed the COVID-19 virus on the world, countries have prepped their intelligence agencies one how to gather information about a vaccine. Ekathimerini spoke with retired CIA operative Marc Polymeropoulos about gathering intelligence in, “The Key Role Of Intelligence In The Corona Virus Battle.” Polymeropoulos stated he would have deployed agents around the world to not only gather information, but potentially recruit people to assist the CIA. He also said:
“ ‘The first matter of business for the secret service in the pandemic is not looking for ventilators or diagnostic tests, as Israel’s Mossad did. It’s checking whether the scientific data being reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by China, for example, is accurate or not. To do this, they recruit whistleblowers, tap communications between civil servants, and mine information from open sources,’ says Polymeropoulos. ‘Their second mission is to evaluate whether the spread of the virus and the reactions of the public in the places that are being hit the hardest are affecting the stability of their governments…”
Whoever had the latest scientific information related to the virus would mean billions of dollars for the winning country. Polymeropoulous, however, explained that the US secret services were warned about COVID-19 back in January, but dropped the ball. He believes once the pandemic is over, Congress will investigate why it got out of control.
VOA News has a similar story: “COVID-19 Offers ‘World Of Opportunity’ For Spies, Terrorists Australians Spy Boss Says.” Australia’s spy chief and Australian Security Intelligence Organization warned that the world is going to face more cyber-crime, extremist propaganda, and espionage during the pandemic. The panic associated with the pandemic makes people ripe for exploitation.
“It believes that extremist groups have spread their ideology and tried to radicalize Australians. Other common scams include phishing for personal information, online shopping fraud and the theft of pension funds, as well as fake crypto currency and celebrity endorsements. There are also allegations that foreign governments have used the pandemic to covertly gather sensitive information online.”
The pandemic has promoted fear, which makes people more susceptible to disinformation, cyber attacks, and scams. Some politicians even use it as an excuse to spy on their citizens and restrict their privacy rights online.
Maintaining order and safety is paramount during crises, but no one has found the right balance between citizens’ rights and government power.
One thing intelligence agencies know is that human behaviors have changed based on past emergencies.
Whitney Grace, July 11, 2020
Huawei and Its Sci-Fi Convenience Vision
July 9, 2020
One of the DarkCyber research team spotted what looked like a content marketing, rah rah article called “Huawei’s 1+8+N Strategy Will Be a Big Success in China As It Has No Competitors.”
We talked about the article this morning and dismissed its words as less helpful than most recycled PR. The gem in the write up is this diagram which was tough to read in the original. We poked around and came across a Huawei video which you can view on the Sparrow News Web site.
Here’s a version of the 1+8+N diagram. If you are trying to read the word “sphygmomanometer” means blood pressure gizmo. The term is shorthand for “smart medical devices”.
The idea is that the smartphone is the de facto surveillance device. It provides tags for the device itself and a “phone number” for the device owner. Burner phones registered to smart puppets require extra hoops, and government authorities are going to come calling when the identify of the burner phone’s owner is determined via cross correlation of metadata.
The diagram has three parts, right? Sort of. First, the “plus” sign in the 1+8+N is Huawei itself. Think of Huawei as the Ma Bell, just definitely very cozy with the Chinese government. The “plus” means glue. The glue unites or fuses the data from the little icons.
The focal point of the strategy is the individual.
From the individual, the diagram shows no phone computing devices. There are nine devices identified, but more can be added. These nine devices connected to an individual are all smart; that is, Internet of things, mobile aware, surveillance centric, and related network connected products.
The 1
The “1” refers to the smartphone.
The 8
The eight refers to the smart devices an individual uses. (The smartphone is interacting with these eight devices either directly or indirectly as long as there is battery and electrical power.)
Augmented / virtual reality “glasses”
Earphones
Personal computers
Speakers
Tablets
Televisions
Watches
Vehicles
The connection between and among the devices is enabled by Huawei HiLink or mobile WiFi, although Bluetooth and other wireless technologies are an option.
The N
The N like the math symbol refers to any number of ecologies. An ecology could be a person riding in a vehicle, watching a presentation displayed by a connected projector, a smart printer, a separate but modern smart camera, a Chinese Roomba type robot, a smart scale for weighing a mobile phone owner, a medical device connected or embedded in an individual, a device streaming a video, a video game played on a device or online, a digital map.
These use cases cluster; for example, mobile, smart home, physical health, entertainment, and travel. Other categories can, of course, be added.
Is 1+8+N the 21st Century E=MC^2?
Possibly. What is clear is that Huawei has done a very good job of mapping out the details of the Chinese intelligence and surveillance strategy. By extension, one can view the diagram as one that could be similar to those developed by the governments of Iran, North Korea, Russia, and a number of other nation states.
The smartphone delivers on its potential in the 1+8+N diagram, if the Huawei vision gets traction.
Observations
The 1+8+N equation has been around since 2019. Its resurfacing may have more to do with Huawei’s desire to be quite clear about what its phones and other products and services can deliver.
The company uses the phrase “full scene” instead of the American jargon of a 360 degree view.
Neither phrase captures the import of data in multiple dimensions. Tracking and analyzing data through time enables a number of interesting dependent features, services, and functions.
The 1+8+N may be less about math and more about intelligence than some of the write ups about the diagram discuss.
Stephen E Arnold, July 9, 2020
Consumers As Unwitting Data Conduits as Cyberware Flames
June 30, 2020
India and China are not friending one another. The issue I noted today concerns social media services designed — maybe targeted is a more appropriate word — at consumers.
Most users of apps like TikTok of 30 second video renown are not aware and do not want to know about data surveillance, known to some as data sucking or data hoovering. (A Hoover was a vacuum cleaner for DarkCyber readers unfamiliar with such a device.)
Information has been floating around that TikTok and other “authorized” apps available from the Google and from the would-be Intel-killer Apple allow the basic social media function to take place while the app gobbles a range of data. Put something on your clipboard? Those data are now in a server in Wuhan.
“India Bans TikTok As Tensions with China Escalate” reports:
India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in a statement Monday that it had received many complaints about misuse and transmission of user data by some mobile apps to servers outside India.
Yes, another Captain Obvious insight. Is Captain Obvious working for one of India’s government services?
For those who have wandered the aisles of some interesting conferences, TikTok data is only the tip of the data iceberg.
In fact, I told one hip real news person that chasing some of the smaller data resellers was like understanding the global nature of agribusiness by talking to a quinoa farmer 20 miles from Cusco.
The information is interesting to DarkCyber for three reasons:
- The insight light bulb is flashing in some government units. That’s a start.
- India is recognizing that consumers going about their daily lives are providing an intelligence windfall of reasonably good size. Consumers use their mobile phones, consumers talk, and consumers enter secure facilities and check out craze dances in the break room.
- Cyber warfare is not just chewing away at juicy servers in Australia or Canada. Cyber warfare is wrapped up in those low cost, feature packed hardware devices which, according to the sticker on the box, are “smart.”
The current time period is one filled with interesting activities. What do you think, Captain Obvious?
Stephen E Arnold, June 30, 2020
App Store Curation: Hey, the Method Is a Marvel
June 29, 2020
I don’t think about app store curation policies. One of the DarkCyber researchers was excited about Hey. At lunch, this individual groused about Apple’s editorial review process or what I call curation. Newspapers in the good old days used to do curation. Not so much any more. I still have a headache after my talk with a New York based big time real journalist.
I read “Another 53 iOS Apps Besides TikTok Are Grabbing Clipboard Data.” The write up, if accurate, illustrates how a company can create its own myth from Olympus. Then do exactly what most Silicon Valley companies do; that is, anything that is easy and good for them.
The write up states:
ikTok may be ending its nosy clipboard reading on iOS, but that doesn’t mean other app developers are mending their ways. Security researcher Tommy Mysk told Ars Technica in an interview that an additional 53 apps identified in March are still indiscriminately capturing universal clipboard data when they open, potentially sharing sensitive data with other nearby devices using the same Apple ID. The apps are major titles, too — they’d normally be trustworthy. The behavior is visible in news apps for Fox News, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. You’ll also find it in games like Bejeweled, Fruit Ninja and PUBG Mobile.
Did Aristotle cover this type of mental glitch in his Nicomachean Ethics?
Of course he did.
Stephen E Arnold, June 29, 2020
Facebook: Trust Crisis? You Must Be Joking, Never
June 26, 2020
I read “Facebook Faces Trust Crisis As Ad boycott Grows.” The lovable college drop out who founded Facebook seems to be in pickle. The write up reveals that the company Facebook has to mend some fences with advertisers.
Specifically:
In a call with over 200 advertisers Tuesday, Facebook’s head of trust and safety policy Neil Potts “acknowledged that the company suffered from a trust deficit,” according to the Financial Times. A source familiar with the meeting confirmed the comment. The conversation occurred amid a growing boycott of Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram’s ad platform by roughly a dozen brands.
In a moment of insight, the author of the write up states:
The political and social pressure on Facebook is ramping up, but the tech giant doesn’t show any signs of seriously changing its policies in response to the mounting pressure, as most politicians and marketers seem to benefit too much from Facebook advertising to really give it up long-term.
What’s this mean? There are some good reasons to allow Facebook to just keep being Facebook. One of them is the data Facebook gathers has value to some individuals in government agencies. Losing Backpage was a set back, but losing Facebook, hey, let’s talk about this.
Second, where there are eyeballs, there are advertisers. The ethical compass of advertisers spins toward selling and making money. That pull is strong enough to light up some folks’ Faraday effect.
Stephen E Arnold, June 26, 2020
Lucky Ukraine: A Data Bomb Test Site
June 26, 2020
Russia surprised the world when Putin ordered his soldiers to invade Ukraine and annex Crimea. Putin’s actions against the Ukraine are not the only modern war stories circling Russia. The Small Wars Journal examines how the Great Bear could be conducting a futuristic warfare using technology: “Russia In Ukraine 2013-2016: The Application Of New Type Warfare Maximizing The Exploitation Of Cyber, IO, and Media.”
Russia could be masters of cyber and information warfare tp support militaristic/political objectives against domestic and international enemies. The thesis study reads logically, but also Russia’s recent actions support it:
“The Russians were able to use Ukraine operations as a test for New Generation Warfare (NGW) to enhance the deep battle concept. Russia has adeptly executed deep battle, creating time and space to effectively employ limited ground forces and special operations to achieve desired effects. The employment of the cyber domain created windows of opportunity for success and simultaneous execution of offensive and defensive tasks across the strategic and operational levels and other domains. Additionally, the cyber capabilities employed allowed the Russians to achieve three critical strategic effects; 1) troop levels were minimized through integrated cyber operations and operational advantage gained; 2) Russian leadership maintained plausible deniability through effective cyber and information operations delaying international intervention; 3) cyber operations achieved desired effects and kept the threshold for violence below an international outcry for intervention or interference allowing the Russians to achieve the strategic objective to control key terrain in Ukraine.”
While Russia remains the punch line for jokes about international affairs, the country is not a laughing matter as history shows. Under Putin’s leadership, Russia proves to be masterful at manipulating multiple information sources: TV, Internet, radio, etc. to cover their rears while executing desired. Russia has invested capital in homegrown technology, instead of relying on foreign made.
Russia used its cyber forces to overwhelm the Ukraine with malware and disinformation through media channels to annex the Crimean territory. It was a brilliant, mostly bloodless tactic, because Ukraine does not have the technology nor physical forces to fend off the Great Bear. Smaller countries, especially in Eastern Europe and Asia, remain sitting ducks if the enter Russia’s crosshairs.
The biggest issue is proving Russia’s culpability and whether the country will be held accountable. Russia’s more militaristic past still casts shadows on its current society, but Russian citizens are not in favor of being a military power again. Like the rest of the world, they want to live a steady, peaceful life.
Whitney Grace, June 26, 2020
JEDI Winner Continues to Excel in Software Updates
June 25, 2020
Will the US Department of Defense be happy with updates to a JEDI system that cause crashes? Probably slightly unhappy. “New Windows 10 Update Fail Breaks Some of Its Best Features” reports:
people have been complaining that after installing the Windows 10 May 2020 Update (also known as Windows 10 version 2004), they cannot access files synced to OneDrive – even if they can be seen in Windows 10.
The write up adds:
Even more embarrassingly for Microsoft, it seems this bug has been around for months in early versions of Windows 10 May 2020 Update, with Windows Insiders, who can try out versions of Windows 10 before other people in order to spot bugs like this, complaining that OneDrive no longer works.
Visualize this. You are in a fire zone. You need cloud data. Bad actors ranging rounds are getting closer.
Take a deep breath and follow this procedure:
Press Windows Key RKey this string: %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\onedrive.exe /resetAccess needed data.
No problemo. Microsofties may ponder this when they grab a carry out lunch at Bai Tong’s. Stephen E Arnold, June 25, 2020Geospatial: Context and Opinions
June 24, 2020
DarkCyber spotted a sequence of tweets published by that well managed, completely coherent, and remarkable outfit Twitter. Twitter disseminated brief emissions from Joe Morrison who uses the handle “mouth of Morrison.” Love that Twitter thing!
The write up in Quibi style chunks is about geospatial technology. As it turns out, mobile devices and smart gizmos output geographic coordinates. These are useful to many.
The observations in the stream of tweets explain that geospatial is mostly a bad idea. DarkCyber says, “Ho, ho, ho.”
Two warrant highlighting, but you may find other faves in the list.
Let’s begin:
The most successful and ambitious mapping project of all time, Google Maps, is an advertising platform. There is no “geospatial industry,” only industries with spatial problems.
Yep, the Google. Nevertheless, one must give the GOOG credit for buying Keyhole, morphing an intelligence operation into a cog in ad sales, and then building a large scale geospatial data vacuum cleaner. Remember the comment about capturing Wi-Fi data: “Wow, no idea how that happened.” Does that help you jog down memory lane.
The second emission we noted is:
In geo, you either die a hero or live long enough to make the majority of your revenue from defense and intelligence.
This is sort of accurate. Including law enforcement might be a more accurate characterization of where the money is, however.
These earthworm emissions are amusing; for example, “ESRI is a petty, anti competitive bully”. Are any lawyers paying attention? Also, big companies use open source software and don’t give back. No kidding? Ever hear of code cost reduction?
Worth a look. More context, explanation, and details would add some muscle to the tweeter bones.
Stephen E Arnold, June 24, 2020
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