Plus, I found the name “fulfilled action” fulfilling.
AWS Panorama: Such a Happy Name!
December 2, 2020
“AWS Announces Panorama, a Device That Adds Machine Learning Technology to Any Camera” caught my attention. (Now don’t think I ignored Amazon’s work monitoring system called Monitron, a wonderful name, very Robo Cop like. I have not.) I noted the word “all” in the title. Very wide in scope. Appropriate in an era of data harvesting. Also, I quite liked the “appliance” moniker. What could me more appropriate for a company with more than one million employees, oodles of government contracts with assorted nation states, and customers hungry to know as much as possible about humanoids and other entities of interest? A toaster, a data Hoover, a device to exploit the info-pressure differential between those with the gizmo and those monitored by the gizmo.
The write up states:
…enterprises continue to clamor for new machine learning-enabled video recognition technologies for security, safety and quality control. Indeed, as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, new protocols around building use and occupancy are being adopted to not only adapt to the current epidemic, but plan ahead for spaces and protocols that can help mitigate the severity of the next one.
And law enforcement and intelligence applications? Whoops. Not included in the write up nor in the AWS blog post. Amazon is not in the policeware and intelware business. At least, that’s what I have been told.
Stephen E Arnold, December 2, 2020
Virtual Private Networks: Are These Private?
November 30, 2020
About a month ago, Google rolled out its own virtual private network. The timing was mostly in sync with Facebook’s expansion of encrypted services for its chat apps. Is encryption good for users, good for large technology companies, and good for law enforcement.
The story “Google One VPN: Everything You Need To Know” is representative of the coverage of Google’s VPN. I noted:
Google isn’t new to the world of VPNs. It actually has used one for its customers on Google Fi for many years now. Essentially with Google Fi, whenever you connected to a public WiFi network, you would automatically be connected through Google Fi’s VPN. As mentioned before, this is because Public WiFi networks are not secure. So while keeping you from using a lot of data, since Fi charges per gigabyte, it also kept you protected. Now, Google is just moving its VPN to where everyone can use it. Whether they are a Fi customer or not.
The write up does not answer the question about the “goodness” of the Google service. The write up asserts:
Google has said numerous times that it will not use the VPN connection to track, log or sell your browsing activity. But then again, how will we know that Google is not doing that? We won’t. And that goes for any other company too. It’s up to you, whether you trust Google not to collect this data when you’re using its VPN. But don’t forget, that if Google really wanted that data, it could easily get it from your Android smartphone too.
As I said in response to questions posed to me by a former CIA professional (view full 20 minute video here):
Online services are inherently surveillance mechanisms.
Many will not agree with this Arnold Law. That’s okay, but VPNs are particularly interesting because the user agreeing to participate in an allegedly secure and private man in the middle service. How secure is a man in the middle service?
Another good question just like “Are VPNs private?”
Stephen E Arnold, November 30, 2020
Amazon Policeware: Despite Low Profile It Exists
November 25, 2020
Navigate to the trustworthy Berkshire Hathaway Company Businesswire. Read “IPR Center, Amazon Launch ‘Operation Fulfilled Action’ to Stop Counterfeits.” Note that IPR means U.S. government’s National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center. Here’s a passage I found interesting:
“Amazon conducts investigations and sidelines inventory if we suspect a product may be counterfeit, ensuring our customers are protected,” said Dharmesh Mehta, vice president, Customer Trust and Partner Support, Amazon. “But we also know that counterfeiters don’t just attempt to offer their wares in one store, they attempt to offer them in multiple places. Now, by combining intelligence from Amazon, the IPR Center, and other agencies, we’re able to stop counterfeits at the border, regardless of where bad actors were intending to offer them. We appreciate the partnership from the IPR Center and other agencies to protect American consumers and prosecute bad actors.”
Investigations? Yep. Read on.
In an effort to protect consumers, this joint operation will analyze data and conduct targeted inspections aimed at preventing counterfeit products from entering the U.S. supply chain. The IPR Center and Amazon will leverage evidence obtained during the operation to expand on-going investigations, with the goal of holding bad actors accountable to the fullest extent of the law. This operation will be led by Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit, which was created earlier this year to support law enforcement investigations and to initiate civil litigation against counterfeiters.
To learn more about Amazon policeware and intelware, write benkent2020 at yahoo dot com. The DarkCyber research team offers a one hour, for fee Zoom lecture about this interesting and now quite public Amazon capability.
Stephen E Arnold, November 25, 2020
Soros: Just in Time 20-20 Hindsight
November 18, 2020
Here’s an interesting quote (if it is indeed accurate):
SFM [a George Soros financial structure] made this investment [in Palantir Technologies] at a time when the negative social consequences of big data were less understood,” the firm said in a statement Tuesday. SFM would not make an investment in Palantir today.
The investment concerns Palantir Technologies. George Soros, who is 90 years young, according to “Soros Regrets Early Investment in Peter Thiel’s Palantir,” includes this statement:
Soros has sold all the shares it’s permitted to sell at this time and will keep selling, according to the statement. “SFM does not approve of Palantir’s business practices,” the firm said.
Hindsight is 20-20. Or is it?
Hindsight bias can cause memory distortion. Because the event happened like you thought it would, you go back and revise your memory of what you were thinking right before the event. You re-write history, so to speak, and revise the probability in hindsight. Going forward, you use that new, higher probability to make future decisions. When in fact, the probabilities haven’t changed at all. That leads to poor judgment.—“Innovators: Beware the Hindsight Bias”
Stephen E Arnold, November 18, 2020
Palantir Technologies: Once Secretive Company Explains What It Is Not
November 17, 2020
I enjoy once-secretive companies explaining what they are not. A good example of this type of re-formation is “Palantir Is Not a Data Company (Palantir Explained, #1).” The headline makes it clear to me that there will be additional “we are not” essays coming down the intelware pike. The first installment of what a stealth company communicated incorrectly it seems is:
Palantir is not a data company and not a data aggregator.
The write up wants to differentiate from a company like Datminr or Oracle BlueKai and similar firms. These outfits suck up information and then sell access to those data.
Palantir Technologies is not in that “data” business. The company processes the data its clients have, license, or to which the clients link in an appropriate manner.
The essay makes clear that Palantir is a “software company.” That’s true. Much of the software is open source or crafted to perform specific functions which customers pay Palantir to effectuate. (There are partners and integrators who perform other work for Palantir licensees. Most of these companies keep a low profile and do not advertise their Palantir goodness.
Several observations:
- Palantir is a hybrid outfit; that is, it combines open source software, custom code, and consulting to generate revenue
- Partners and integrators contribute expertise and software shims to allow a licensee obtain a desire output from the Palantir system
- Much of Palantir “runs” on cloud services; for example, Amazon Web Services.
Now that Palantir is a publicly traded company, the once stealthy firm which operated as a start up for more than a decade has to demonstrate that it is avoiding some of the public relations pitfalls for intelware and policeware vendors in the public eye.
How difficult is this task? Quite challenging in my opinion.
I am looking forward to the second installment of explaining Palantir.
Stephen E Arnold, November 17, 2020
Germany Raids Spyware Firm FinFisher
November 3, 2020
Authorities in Germany have acted on suspicions that spyware firm FinFisher, based in Munich, illegally sold its software to the Turkish government. It is believed that regime used the tools to spy on anti-government protesters in 2017. The independent Turkish news site Ahval summarizes the raid and the accusations in, “Spyware Company that Allegedly Sold Spyware to Turkey Raided by German Police.” We’re told:
“Germany’s Customs Investigation Bureau (ZKA) searched 15 properties last week, both in Germany and other countries. Public prosecutors told German media that directors and employees of FinFisher and other companies were being investigated. The investigation follows complaints filed by NGOs Reporters Without Borders, Netzpolitik.org, the Society for Civil Rights (Gesellschafft für Freiheitsrechte, GFF) and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. The NGOs believe that a spyware product used in 2017 to target anti-government protesters in Turkey was FinFisher’s FinSpy. Germany’s Economy Ministry has issued no new permits for spyware since 2015, while the software in question was written in 2016, meaning that if it was used, it must have been exported in violation of government license restrictions.”
Activist group CitizenLab asserts the Turkish government spread the spyware to protesters through Twitter accounts. These accounts, we’re told, masqueraded as sources of information about upcoming protests. As far back as 2011, FinFisher was suspected of supplying regimes in the Middle East with spyware to track Arab Spring protestors. The software has since been found in use by several authoritarian governments, including Bahrain, Ethiopia, and he UAE. Just this September, Amnesty International reported FinFisher’s spyware was being used by Egypt. For its part, of course, the company denies making any sales to countries not approved by German law. We shall see what the investigation turns up.
Cynthia Murrell, November 3, 2020
Contact Tracing Apps: A Road Map to Next Generation Methods
October 30, 2020
I read “Why Contact-Tracing Apps Haven’t Lived Up to Expectations.” The article explains that the idea of using a mobile phone and some software to figure out who has been exposed to Covid is not exactly a home run. The reasons range from people not trusting the app or the authorities pushing the app, crappy technology, and an implicit message that some humans don’t bother due to being human: Sloth, gluttony, etc.
The write up appears to overlook the lessons which have been learned from contact tracing applications.
- The tracers have to be baked into the devices
- The software has to be undetectable
- The operation has to be secure
- The monitoring has to be 24×7 unless the phone is destroyed or the power source cut off.
These lessons are not lost on some government officials.
What’s this mean? For some mobile phone operations, the insertion of tracers is chugging right along. Other countries may balk, but the trajectory of disease and other social activities indicated that these “beacon” and “transmit” functions are of considerable interest in certain circles.
Stephen E Arnold, October 30, 2020
France: No Palantir Gotham Clone. Really?
October 29, 2020
DarkCyber noted “A French Alternative to Palantir Would Take Two Years to Make, Thales CEO Says.” The Reuters news story contains information which allegedly originated with Patrice Caine, the CEO of Thales, a rough equivalent to a large US defense contractor like Raytheon or the British outfit BAE Systems.
Factoids which appear in the write up:
- DGSI, the French equivalent of a mash up of the FBI and NSA, said there was no comparable product available from a French company
- France wants to achieve digital sovereignty in the intelware and policeware markets; that is, use French products
- The time required to clone Gotham is 24 months; however, the assistance of the French government would be needed.
DarkCyber observations:
First, the perception that no French company can deliver this type of system may come as a surprise to some French companies. Firms like Sinequa have marketed intelligence capabilities for many years. Some policeware and intelware is just enterprise search gussied up with a stage costume and some eye liner. Plus, there are other companies as well who might interpret the “no comparable product” comment as an affront; for example, hot ticket Datanami or the quite functional Amesys Eagle and Shadow technology.
Second, the desire to use French products is important. However, the French government has not moved with sufficient purpose to cultivate the type of innovation in intelware evident in the UK, for example. The UK is a policeware and intelware hot spot; for instance, the Gamma Group among others. The deanonymization of digital currencies revolution has been chugging along for a number of years because one university moved forward.
Third, the idea that two years are needed before France has a system comparable to Palantir Gotham is either wildly optimistic or an understatement about the time required. Fast ramping is possible with a French nucleus, supplemented with strategic acquisitions. For example, tap Dassault Exalead, provide funding, and recommend that innovative companies be identified and moved lock, stock, and barrel to Montpellier or Toulouse.
DarkCyber’s team can identify what to buy and what to do to assemble a French solution to the need for a Palantir-type system. It is important to remember that Palantir Gotham is “old” in Internet years. There are innovators and talent to create what France wants more in step with the modern era, not the emulation of a i2 Ltd’s late 1990’s thinking.
And where did the phrase “red tape” originate? Yep, France.
Stephen E Arnold, October 29, 2020
Amazon: Emulating GeoSpark?
October 28, 2020
Despite pandemic-related networking challenges, analytics database firm GeoSpock is making its move. Tech in Asia reveals, “UK-Based Database GeoSpock Bags $5.4m to Expand Further into Asia.” Lead by nChain and Cambridge Innovation Capital, this investment round brings GeoSpock to over $32 million in capital raised to date. It seems these and other investors see merit in the company’s claim to offer “the most advanced analytics database,” tailor-made to provide analytics, visualization, and insights for today’s ultra-connected world. Reporter Doris Yu writes:
“The company plans to use the new funds to improve its product and technical capabilities, as well as accelerate the development and adoption of its database in the market, according to a statement. What problem is it solving? ‘With the emergence of connected vehicles, smart cities, and the deployment of internet of things (IoT) sensors, the amount of data produced globally has exploded,’ the company told Tech in Asia, adding that traditional databases are ‘too slow and cumbersome.’ GeoSpock said it aims to produce a ‘cost-efficient, scalable, and fast database.’ … GeoSpock CEO Richard Baker said the company aims to disrupt the US$386 billion IoT big data analytics market. It works with customers on a subscription basis and charges for compute nodes that are available for use. With the increasing adoption of digitization throughout Asia, the company said its expansion plans will initially focus on Singapore and Japan as it develops teams and partnerships across the region.”
GeoSpock already has footholds in Asia, where it is working with both public and private organizations on smart city, automotive, maritime, and telecommunications projects. Launched in 2013, the company is based in Cambridge. GeoSpock now employs about 40 folks worldwide, but expects to hire more technical and customer-service staff in Singapore and Japan within the next year.
What’s interesting is that there is a company called GeoSpark Analytics. Coincidence?
Cynthia Murrell, October 19, 2020
Palantir Round Up: The Beyond Search Commentary
October 27, 2020
I received a request for the links to my Palantir Technologies coverage. Here’s a hot linked list to the 17 essays, news items, and analyses which appeared in Beyond Search / Dark Cyber from March to October 2020. Stories prior to this year’s may be located using the search function on the Beyond Search / Dark Cyber blog.
- “Two Palantir Profiles: Some Peculiar Omissions.” This essay identifies several Palantir activities not included in the September 2020 New York Magazine profile of the company and the October 2020 New York Times Magazine article. Why were this events ignored or overlooked by the respective publishing companies?
- “Palantir Technologies: Minor Questions Remain.” A list of nine questions which have not been answered comprehensively. This article appeared in early October 2020.
- “Palantir Technologies: A Problem for Intelware Competitors?” This essay compares Palantir Technologies to Autonomy. Both companies have something in common: Revenue. But Autonomy had generated more revenue than Palantir, and Autonomy chose to sell itself to Hewlett Packard. This essay appeared in September 2020 and included the names of the five prime movers at the company.
- “Palantir: Will Investors Embrace Intelware Outfit Generating Consistent, Substantial Losses for More Than a Decade?” This article appeared in September 2020 and focuses on Palantir’s consistent record of losing money in a boom market for policeware.
- “Palantir Has Only Unicorn Scorn for Fellow Travelers.” The essay identifies Palantir’s signal that it is different from other unicorns. The story appeared on September 7, 2020.
- “Palantir: Planning Ahead.” This is a September 4, 2020, essay about the company’s desire to have a special type of control after the initial public offering.
- “Palantir: Stakeholders May Know Whom to Blame If Money Does Not Flow.” This August 2020 essay considers founder control in perpetuity.
- “Palantir Technologies: Maybe Stealth Is Better for Specialized Services Companies?” This essay explores the upside and downside of a policeware company which goes public, thus exposing more of its information to outsiders. This article appeared on August 24, 2020.
- “Palantir Technologies and Semi Hard Numbers.” A short item about Palantir’s revenues. The story appeared on July 10, 2020.
- “A Peek into Google and Palantir Contracts: The UK National Health Service Versions.” This article provided links to Palantir’s agreements with the UK NHS and was published in June 2020.
- “Palantir Technologies: A Very Unusual Emission from a Specialized Services Firm.” This May 26, 2020, essay points to challenges NSO Group faces and raises the question, “Will Palantir face similar scrutiny when it goes public?”
- “Schmidt Versus Thiel May Be a Proxy for Google Trying Catch Up with Palantir.” This May 2020 article touches on the relationship between Palantir and the current administration in Washington, DC.
- “Palantir to Help HHS Track Coronavirus.” This April 2020 news item points to Palantir’s contract with the US Department of Health and Human Services.
- “Palantir Technologies: Getting the NSO Treatment.” This April 24, 2020, essay points out that Palantir is getting more attention from publications like the Wall Street Journal.
- “Palantir Technologies: Evidence That Making Big Money Comes from a Financial Play, Not a Product.” This April 12, 2020, article raises the question, “Is Palantir a financial play, not a viable company?”
- “MiningLamp Technology: Another Palantir?” This March 30, 2020, article draws attention to a Chinese company which appears to have duplicated some of Palantir’s functionality.
- “DCGS: Palantir and BAE Seem to Be Winners.” This March 9, 2020, article considers the demise of DCGS as a viable wartime information and the pivot to BAE Systems and Palantir as alternatives.
There are other, earlier stories. These provide a snapshot of the Beyond Search and Dark Cyber coverage of the company. Remember. Each of these articles is anchored to an open source news story.
Stephen E Arnold, October 27, 2020
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