NSO Group: Getting Mostly Fact Free Content Marketing
December 19, 2019
NSO Group is a specialized software and services firm. For years, the company operated off the radar of journalists and other observers. Once again NSO Group is making headlines, and DarkCyber is not sure if this is a good or not so good thing.
“Israeli Spyware Allegedly Used to Target Pakistani Officials’ Phones” reports that “NSO Group malware may have been used to access WhatsApp messages for state on state espionage.” There’s nothing quite like the weasel word “allegedly” and the phrase “may have been used” to raise some questions about this write up in a UK newspaper.
The article focuses on WhatsApp, owned by Facebook. The controversial outfit provides encrypted messaging to millions of people. Facebook is not exactly the world’s most straightforward company because it fancy dances around a number of behaviors.
Is it surprising that specialized firms have developed systems and methods to shine some light on the encrypted messages flowing through a widely used messaging app? DarkCyber thinks that dozens of specialized firms are working on exactly this problem. Do bad actors use Facebook’s and other firms’ encrypted messaging solutions to plan, recruit, and raise money? Yep.
What are governments supposed to do? Ignore the bad actors’ and their low cost, secret communications mechanism?
DarkCyber thinks this is a reasonable question to consider. The write up states, reports, or asserts:
Representatives for NSO declined to comment on questions about whether the company’s software had been used for government espionage.
The company has previously said that it considered it a “misuse” of its product if the software was used for anything other than the prevention of “serious crime and terrorism”. While it is not clear who wanted to target Pakistani government officials, the details are likely to fuel speculation that India could have been using NSO technology for domestic and international surveillance. The government of the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, is facing questions from human rights activists about whether it has bought NSO technology after it emerged that 121 WhatsApp users in India were allegedly targeted earlier this year.
Yep, “not clear”, “speculation”, and another “allegedly.” Plus, NSO Group and others cited in the write up declined to comment.
Reason? The information presented is designed to generate clicks and not provide substantive, verifiable facts about what are ultimately decisions by governments of nation states.
Right? Governments. Nation states. Laws. Policies. Maybe nations should not be allowed to operate according to their precepts.
And NSO Group? Back in the spotlight about systems and methods tailored to governmental entities. Perhaps the newspaper should focus on some of the more interesting specialist firms operating in the UK. There are some, and a few might welcome fact based coverage.
Alleged and speculative writing is marketing from DarkCyber’s point of view. NSO Group has customers; the newspaper begs for money. Relevant? Yes, because sensationalism is not helpful for some important specialist products and services.
Stephen E Arnold, December 19, 2019
The Middle Kingdom and Surveillance Technology: Another Revenue and Influencer Opportunity?
December 19, 2019
China empowers 63 ruling entities with surveillance tech.
We are not surprised to learn that China had become a hub of surveillance technologies for repressive governments. The Japan Times’ article, “AI Surveillance Proliferating, with China Exporting Tech to Over 60 Countries, Report Says,” cites a report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The article specifies:
“Chinese companies have exported artificial intelligence surveillance technology to more than 60 countries including Iran, Myanmar, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and others with dismal human rights records, according to a report by a U.S. think tank. With the technology involving facial recognition systems that the Communist Party uses to crack down on Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in China’s far western Xinjiang region, the report calls Beijing a global driver of ‘authoritarian tech.’ The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace released the report amid concerns that authoritarian regimes would use the technology to boost their power and data could be sent back to China.”
We also learn China often encourages governments to purchase this tech through soft loans, effectively subsidizing high-tech repression throughout the world. To make matters more ominous, over half these countries have opted in to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructure project meant to boost China’s global economic influence.
The report does not stop at China, however. It notes that in Japan the NEC Corporation alone exports AI surveillance tech to 14 countries, IBM does so to 11 countries, and France, Germany, and Israel also proliferate it beyond their borders. According to the report, none of these nations adequately monitor and control the technologies, allowing it to be linked to a “range of violations.”
Cynthia Murrell, December 19, 2019
As the New Year Approach, a Small Reminder for the US Quantum Wizards
December 19, 2019
When it comes to supercomputers, IBM’s Watson is the number one machine. Despite environmental and human rights issues, China wants to be a world leader in quantum research and artificial intelligence. Tech In Asia shares how, “China Quantum Research Team Uses AI To Crack Processing Time In Supercomputer Race.” AI is apparently the key to making supercomputers billions of times faster than they currently are.
China has some of the world’s largest quantum research facilities and they have developed machine learning processes that have cut down on calculation times. The Chinese supercomputers would calculate the ties between subatomic particles. Quantum technology was designed to understand how quantum mechanics work, thus the need for the supercomputers. With the new AI, discovering correlations between subatomic particles faster than anything that has been invented to date. How would it work?
“ ‘It works like the separation of minerals,’ said professor Li Chuanfeng, a lead scientist of the study with the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, Anhui province. ‘The AI tells us whether an ore contains gold, iron, or copper, so we can make use of them for different purposes. This was not possible before,’ Li said.
Until now, quantum researchers have had to measure a complete set of physical properties to determine the type of link between particles. It is a difficult, time-consuming job and, when the number of particles increases, the workload grows exponentially. ‘At the end of the day, we might be able to tell this is not a piece of gold, and that would be it. There is no way to know more,’ Li said. This method will increase the supply of resources for quantum information processing significantly.”
USTC has experimented with quantum mechanics for years and the university has a large amount of data for the AI to learn from. The AI designed to measure particles’ physical properties is 90% accurate and works in less than a second, when before it required over an hour. USTC plans to train the AI with larger data sets and is working on a quantum computer than is predicted to be one trillion times faster than today’s most powerful supercomputer.
Sounds impressive, but not as interesting as the number of engineers the Middle Kingdom possesses.
Whitney Grace, December 19, 2019
5G: Service or Surveillance?
December 16, 2019
A newspaper with an interesting reputation may have revealed surveillance secrets. “5G Can Spy on You” restates assertions by a “vocal 5G critic.” DarkCyber noted these assertions, which if accurate, reveal why the technology has some professionals intrigued and possibly motivated to deploy the technology:
- 5G can listen to private conversations in homes
- The 5G devices now being deployed are “scanners”
- A single car can be subject to “target acquire” functions
- Analysis of microwaves makes it possible to digitalize a voice conversation
- A similar analysis allows an observer to see an image of a person in a home.
A single source article which references pickled vegetables with 5G technology may cause some to sniff. The question is, “Are these assertions accurate?”
Stephen E Arnold, December 16, 2019
Smart Automation
November 30, 2019
Companies the world over are using AI to automate more and more of their business processes. Digital South Africa takes a look at how some companies use the technology in their customer relationship management (CRM) in the article, “How AI Is Helping Brands Manage their Online Reputation.” Reporter Ashleigh Wainstein notes advantages include improved efficiency, error reduction, and detailed performance analyses. She writes:
“Customers are warming to the idea of artificial intelligence because it provides a way to get quick responses. Review responses can be semi-automated through NLP and AI but it is important to always have a human eye to ensure 100% accuracy and personalization. It’s important that there is some customizable wording in the response to the customer, but much of the information can be automated. It’s also important to have strategic keywords and elements in your review responses and software can ensure these elements are dynamically added, making the responses feel personalized and relevant to the rating and review.”
We are cautioned, however, to never automate responses to bad reviews or complaints. Leaving a bot to handle negative comments could easily spiral into a PR nightmare. Wainstein also observes automation must be adapted to business sectors and regions. In South Africa, for example, they have a lot of local slang on top of 11 official languages. She and her team chose the newly open sourced Google Bert, which she says uses a wider range of contextual words and natural language for more accurate results. They have trained it with their own data on South African language quirks.
Third-party APIs can be used to automate reporting, which saves time and reduces human error. We are reminded:
“Reports can be produced on anything from impressions, clicks and calls to reviews, review scores, social media posts and bookings stats. Generally, anything that’s quantifiable and that’s available to analyze, can be aggregated, counted and automated. Any measurable digital marketing stats are generally available through third-party APIs (application programming interfaces). An API is a link between two sites, for example between ours and Facebook, Google or TripAdvisor’s – which allows you to pass information back and forth.”
Wainstein closes by reiterating that, though automation can greatly benefit companies, it is important not to go too far. Maintaining the human touch is important, and not just when fielding criticisms. Each company will have to find its own balance.
Cynthia Murrell, November 30, 2019
Palantir and Sompo: Is a $150 Million Deal Big Enough, Too Small, or Just Right
November 19, 2019
Palantir Technologies has ingested about $2 billion in a couple of dozen investment rounds. Now a $150 million deal is very important to a services firm with a few million in sales. To an outfit like Booz, Allen or Deloitte, $150 million means a partner will keep her job and a handful of MBAs will be making regular flights to wonderful Narita.
“Thiel Marks Palantir’s Asia Push with $150 Million Japan Venture” reports that Sompo Holdings is now Palantir’s partner, noting that the $150 million may be more of an investment. We noted this passage:
The billionaire entrepreneur [Peter Thiel] was in Japan Monday to unveil a $150 million, 50-50 joint venture with local financial services firm Sompo Holdings Inc., Palantir Technologies Japan Co. The new company will target government and public sector customers, emphasizing health and cybersecurity initially. Like IBM Corp. and other providers, Palantir’s software pulls together a range of data provided by its customers, mining it for patterns and displaying connections in easy-to-read spider web-like graphics that might otherwise get overlooked.
Bloomberg reported:
Palantir is very close to breaking even and will end 2019 either slightly in the black or slightly in the red, Thiel said at the briefing. The company will be “significantly in the black” next year, he added.
A few comments from the DarkCyber team:
- The money in the headline is not explained in much detail. There is a difference between setting up a new company and landing a cash deal.
- Bloomberg seems indifferent to the revenue challenge Palantir faces; namely, there are quite a few investors and stakeholders who want their money plus interest. The announcement may not put these individuals’ minds at ease.
- The news story does not mention that new, more agile companies are introducing solutions which make both IBM Analysts Notebook and Gotham look a bit like Vinnie Testaverde or Bart Starr throwing passes at a barbeque.
Singapore is the location of choice for some of the more agile intelware and policeware vendors. Is Japan is a bit 2003?
To sum up, Palantir is to some a start up. To others Palantir is an example of a company that may lose out to upstarts which offer a more intuitive user interface and slicker data analytics. It is possible that an outfit like Amazon and its whiz bang data market place could deliver a painful blow to a firm which opened for business in 2003. That’s more than 15 years ago. But next year? Palantir will be profitable.
Stephen E Arnold, November 19, 2019
Quantum Cryptography: Rain on the Parade
November 11, 2019
I know (not too well, which may be a good thing) who is trying to cash in the quantum gold rush. The angle for this entrepreneur is that quantum computing will allow government entities to break encryption.
The hitch in the git along is that there are bad actors who are involved in quantum computing. There are good actors who are creating quantum-safe cryptography with quantum computers.
Confused? Don’t be. People who need to encrypt gravitate to the high horsepower computers. The people who want to break encryption do what’s necessary to get access to quantum computers. The method used by Saudi Arabia to obtain specific social media data worked like a champ.
That brings me to “Komodo to Lead Blockchain Revolution with Quantum-Safe Cryptography.” The write up says:
As a blockchain platform, Stadelmann said that Komodo is trying to solve the problem and has implemented quantum-safe cryptographic solutions for the past couple of years which will not be able to crack cryptographic signatures. Using an IBM-built technology, known as Dilithium, into its blockchain platform, he said the new digital signature algorithm will create a key which cannot be cracked by a quantum computer.
Sounds good. Just another cat and mouse game. The people working to cash in on this scare tactic may find that organizations face the status quo, not doomsday. Confused? Just the status quo perhaps?
Stephen E Arnold, November 11, 2019
How to Create Solutions in Software: The Cloud and More
November 8, 2019
DarkCyber is working on a white paper. This white paper is about Amazon AWS and its products/services for LE and intel professionals. Don’t worry, the white paper will be free to those affiliated with an enforcement organization.
In that white paper, DarkCyber’s team includes a diagram with layers. One of the reviewers of the paper told a team member:
Layers. What’s AWS? A birthday cake?
We talked about our diagram and the notion of layers. One person talked about “Layers in Software: From Data to Value.” The article included this diagram, which is different from the illustration in the DarkCyber white paper, but it conveys the same message. Here’s the Jessitron image:
The main idea is explained this way:
Feature teams need to do everything, from the old perspective. But that’s too hard for one team — so we make it easier.
This is where Developer Experience (DevEx) teams come in. (a.k.a. Developer Productivity, Platform and Tools, or inaccurately DevOps Teams.) These undergird the feature teams, making their work smoother. Self-service infrastructure, smooth setup of visibility and control for production software. Tools and expertise to help developers learn and do everything necessary to fulfill each team’s purpose. Internal services are supported by external services. Managed services like Kubernetes, databases, queueing, observability, logging: we have outsourced the deep expertise of operating these components. Meanwhile, internal service teams like DevEx have enough understanding of the details, plus enough company-specific context, to mediate between what the outside world provides and what feature teams need. This makes development smoother, and therefore faster and safer. We once layered by serving data to software. Now we layer by serving value to people.
This is a useful explanation. It applies to Amazon’s approach to the LE and intel sector. There is a twist in the Amazon digital river of products and services. That’s to be expected.
What is that twist?
The white paper will be out one the reviewers complete their inputs.
Stephen E Arnold, November 8, 2019
Azure Stability, Bonked Win 10 Updates, and C for Credge
November 4, 2019
Yep, do the ABCs. I spotted “Microsoft’s Edge Browser Gets a New Chromium Logo.” The main point of the story is a log for Microsoft’s version of the Google Chrome browser. Some pundits have dubbed this shotgun marriage of two giants with thoughts of an unassailable market position Credge. Here’s the logo in its swirliness.
Perhaps the effort put into this Credgey logo took away from some other tasks at the new Microsoft; for example, the Fast Search engine “improvements”, making Microsoft Word’s image placement more intuitive after many, many years, and providing clear, simple explanations for common problems?
What’s DarkCyber’s assessment of the Credge logo? It appears that someone (possibly a contractor) knows how to manipulate Adobe Illustrator gradients.
But the logo looks a bit like this antecedent from Deposit Photos, a photo and vector image licensing vendor:
Maybe, just maybe, Azure issues, botched updates, and a possibly derivative logo are more difficult than fiddling with stock art?
Stephen E Arnold, November 4, 2019
What Country Is Number One in AI?
November 4, 2019
China says, “It is not our country.” The US says, “It is not our country.”
“China Experts: US Still Out Front in Tech Race Despite Pentagon Claim” presents the Chinese side of the argument. There’s nothing like the “I’m just a back country AI expert. What do I know?” argument.
Abacus News states:
Chinese experts said China’s progress had been exaggerated and many of its achievements were only partial successes so far.
We noted this statement used to support the “we’re behind” argument:
“The US military wants more budget, more new equipment, more new R&D projects. And the theory of a China threat is, of course, a handy excuse,” Ni [Lexiong, a Shanghai-based military commentator] said.
Whom does one believe?
DarkCyber believes that one need only look at the demographics of computer scientist, engineering, and mathematics students in MA and PhD programs to get a sense of where technology innovation is heading.
What are those data? What’s the demographics in the US and China? What percentage of graduates from each country’s top schools remain in country?
Without these data, the assertions are meaningless. With these data, the Chinese assertion may not reveal the scope of the country’s information efforts.
Stephen E Arnold, November 4, 2019
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