DarkCyber for December 29, 2020, Is Now Available
December 29, 2020
DarkCyber for December 29, 2020, is now available on YouTube at this link or on the Beyond Search blog at this link. This week’s program includes seven stories. These are:
A Chinese consulting firm publishes a report about the low profile companies indexing the Dark Web. The report is about 114 pages long and does not include Chinese companies engaged in this business.
A Dark Web site easily accessible with a standard Internet browser promises something that DarkCyber finds difficult to believe. The Web site contains what are called “always” links to Dark Web sites; that is, those with Dot Onion addresses.
Some pundits have criticized the FBI and Interpol for their alleged failure to take down Jokerstash. This Dark Web site sells access to “live” credit cards and other financial data. Among those suggesting that the two law enforcement organizations are falling short of the mark are four cyber security firms. DarkCyber explains one reason for this alleged failure.
NSO Group, a specialized services company, has been identified as the company providing technology to “operators” surveilling dozens of Al Jazeera journalists. DarkCyber points out that a commercial firm is not in a position to approve or disapprove the use of its technology by the countries which license the Pegasus platform.
Facebook has escalated its dispute with Apple regarding tracking. Now the social media company has alleged that contractors to the French military are using Facebook in Africa via false accounts. What’s interesting is that Russia is allegedly engaged in a disinformation campaign in Africa as well.
The drone news this week contaisn two DJI items. DJI is one of the world’s largest vendors of consumer and commercial drones. The US government has told DJI that it may no longer sell its drones in the US. DJI products remain available in the US. DJI drones have been equipped with flame throwers to destroy wasp nests. The flame throwing drones appear formidable.
DarkCyber is a twice a month video news program reporting on the Dark Web, lesser known Internet services, and cyber crime. The program is produced by Stephen E Arnold and does not accept advertising or sponsorships.
Kenny Toth, December 29, 2020
Another Xoogler Explains Algorithmic Manipulation
December 25, 2020
I don’t want to make a big deal about a former Google engineer talking about algorithmic manipulation. I know what happened to the Google AI expert who pointed out that training data can and does bias how numerical recipes make decisions.
I spotted this 2019 statement in an ancient write up called “‘YouTube Recommendations Are Toxic,’ Says Dev Who Worked on the Algorithm.” The speaker is a Xoogler (the semi official name for someone who worked at the Google) who allegedly worked on the YouTube recommendation algorithm. Now keep in mind that the Google is a pretty chaotic outfit, and it is possible for people to “work on” something and the outside world will have zero idea whether the contribution was a quality test or something substantive like fiddling thresholds to meet a harried superior’s goal. (Bonus time causes some interesting activities I have heard.)
Here’s the quote, and I have put in bold face the important statement which I found important and possibly accurate:
“It isn’t inherently awful that YouTube uses AI to recommend video for you, because if the AI is well tuned it can help you get what you want. This would be amazing,” Chaslot told TNW. “But the problem is that the AI isn’t built to help you get what you want — it’s built to get you addicted to YouTube. Recommendations were designed to waste your time.”
The write up does not dig into wasting time. I want to share my perception of the time wasting angle. In the good old days, Web sites wanted to be sticky. That’s why mere search engines became portals and eventually massive one stop shops with everything in one “experience.”
For YouTube, the more time a person invests in watching videos on YouTube, the more ads Google can slam into the video. If you think there are a lot of ads for a video now, just wait until the “game plan” is rolled out to the Googlers in the Spring of 2021.
Therefore, the purpose of the YouTube algorithm is to create opportunities to display ads. Are these relevant or irrelevant. I must say that I am quite adept at clicking past blandishments for Grammarly, Liberty Mutual, and many other hapless companies dumping cash into the coffers of the world’s most wonderfulest Web search system. Grammarly, isn’t “wonderfulest” a real word when used with “Google”? Maybe I should as DeepMind? Oh, right. DeepMind is busy doing healthy things and losing hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
Burn that ad inventory. Absolutely.
Stephen E Arnold, December 25, 2020
DarkCyber Video News Link Fixed for 12-15-20 Video
December 22, 2020
Maybe it was I? Maybe it was AMP? Google knows, of course. If you were trying to locate the December 15, 2020, DarkCyber video news program, the malformed url has been fixed. No more “Video not found” messages, at least for now. Since I was fully responsible and those AMP messages are ever so helpful, I was able to reform myself, obtain another copy of the video url from the ever reliable Google, and make this change. I’m off to don a hair shirt and a barbed wire undergarment to remind myself to improve. Oh, both garments have a Google logo. Inspiration at hand.
Stephen E Arnold, December 22, 2020
DarkCyber for December 15, 2020, Now Available
December 15, 2020
The DarkCyber video news program for December 15, 2020, is now available at this link. This week’s program includes:
- Fact or fiction: Work around iCloud security for an iPad
- Germany opens backdoor to one encrypted email system
- The Dark Web and Covid is a thing
- Smart weapons and surgical strikes: The future of war
- NSO Group in the spotlight again
- Current information about beam weapons.
You may also view the program via the embedded player on the Beyond Search Web site at this link. Plus, no begging for dollars and no advertising.
Kenny Toth, December 15, 2020
Cisco Webex: An Amazing Assertion
December 9, 2020
I am not a fan of video meetings. I am not thrilled with video in general. I did, however, read “Webex Could Finally Be Catching Up to Zoom and Microsoft Teams.” Cisco acquired Webex in 2007. So that’s 13 years ago. At the time WebEx was better than previous solutions. Hey, anyone remember Databeam? The article, not surprisingly, focuses on what Cisco WebEx is now going to do in the zooming 2020s. Put that aside. This is the passage in the write up which caught my attention:
This is why we are driven to deliver a Webex experience that is 10x better than in-person—and at the same time make in-person interactions 10x better too.
Now most in person meetings I have attended were generally awful. Years ago a lawyer and Washington, DC, big wig named Manning Muntzing could run good meetings: Started on time, agenda, and a time limit. Dick Cheney, the Halliburton executive who accidentally shot his attorney, also ran a good meeting. I won’t comment on how disagreements were handled.
But Silicon Valley meetings in venture backed companies were not good experiences when revenue goals were not met. Often there were wizards toying with mobile phones, coming and going, occasional smirking, and a lot of fidgeting.
Now Webex is going to make a meeting 10x better. Okay. And the interaction thing. Yeah, that works well in the Rona era. Yep, 10x. Now. After 13 years. Got it.
Stephen E Arnold, December 9, 2020
Venture Outfit Explains Obsolescence to Main Stream Media, Amazon Twitch, and Google YouTube
December 8, 2020
I am delighted to admit that I am not involved with TikTok or other whizzy video confections. Ever try Neverthink? The name explains the service. I did, however, read “Live, Social, and Shoppable: The Future of Video.” This is a breezy, MBA, venture firm style report. More remarkable, the document appears to be available without registration hoops, crazy pop ups, or blandishments to call us for investment advice.
What the write up does do is make the poobahs stunned with the announcement that Wonder Woman is headed to streaming get another gut shot. You can work through the report, the jazzy graphics, and the little icon forests yourself.
I want to focus on a single section called “The Video First Future,” specifically, the education statements. The main idea is, in my opinion,
… video can enhance the excitement of mastering a subject and the motivation to learn.
What’s this mean? First, hasta la vista to the traditional textbook publishers, a group already tethered to revenue with a thin cotton cord. Second, YouTube variants like Udacity and its compatriots must confront change. Third, the TikTok thing is a harbinger of the future of learning.
Yep, TikTok. The write up points out:
These types of platforms take academic curriculum and mix it with fun. The resulting edutainment is a hit for both kids and parents. How can a customer churn when their kid likes their class as much as Saturday morning cartoons and video games? In these kid-friendly entertaining education platforms, kids get that immediate feedback and virtual rewards whenever they get an answer right.
The anigif example requires a knowledge of Chinese and a certain youthful spirit to appreciate.
Several observations:
- Cultural differences in managing hungry young minds play no part in the write up
- The issue of controlling the information generated from these platforms is not considered
- The future suggests that game-ification, psychological strokes and slaps, and fragmented attention are the new big thing.
Perfect for generating interest in new investment funds and for sending shock waves of fear through organizations not into the TikTok-ization of information. Perhaps there is an existential question which YouTube must answer, “Can we avoid the fate of the media our service has disrupted?”
Focus may be a challenge for thumbtypers, regardless of their age and Fortnite skills.
Stephen E Arnold, December 8, 2020
Shocker: Online Learning Teaches Little
December 1, 2020
I may be misunderstanding “Failing Grades Spike in Virginia’s Largest School System as Online Learning Gap Emerges Nationwide,” but I think the main idea is that online learning does not teach the way students-teachers in an old-fashioned class do. You will have to pay to read this most recent report from a Captain Obvious “real news” outfit.
Back to the “news” flash.
The write up states:
But one Fairfax high school teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from the school system, said he is doing all of these things — and still, 50 to 70 percent of his 150 students are achieving D’s and F’s, whereas before they had earned B’s and C’s.
There you go. We’re teaching students something, just not what the school hopes will be learned. What subject do students learn? Inattention perhaps.
Another factoid. Sit down and take a deep meditative breath before reading:
Younger Fairfax students are struggling more than older ones: The percentage of middle-schoolers receiving at least two F’s quadrupled, while the percentage of high-schoolers scoring at least two F’s increased by 50 percent. The percentage of students with disabilities earning at least two F’s, meanwhile, more than doubled, while the percentage of children for whom English is a second language receiving at least two F’s rose by 106 percent to account for 35 percent of all children in this group. Among racial groups, Hispanic students were most affected: The percentage of these students with at least two F’s jumped from 13 to 25 percent. Comparing grades achieved in past years with grades this year showed that the drop in passing grades is significant and unprecedented.
Had enough? I haven’t. Several observations:
- Traditional educational methods evolved toward a human “teacher” presenting information.
- Students were monitored and tested.
- Peer pressure operated in a social setting like an old-fashioned school room.
- Peer mediated instruction took place in non-class settings; for example, at a lunch table or talking with a friend at a school locker.
- Old-fashioned family structures often reinforced “learning.” Example: Consequences if lessons were not completed.
Thumb typers now have to face up to a reality in which their expertise at inattention creates a false sense of knowledge.
The problem is that moving learning to Zoom or some other online platform has a shallow experiential pool. Traditional education benefits from a long history. Maybe online will catch up, but if the students are ill prepared, inattentive, and unable to draw upon a knowledge framework — not likely.
Anyone ready for the new Dark Ages? Whoops. News flash. We are in them. Plague, social unrest, and students who are not acquiring equipment for reading.
Hey, everyone has a smartphone. What could go wrong? TikTok and YouTube autosuggest are just super.
Stephen E Arnold, December 1, 2020
DarkCyber for December 1, 2020, Now Available
December 1, 2020
DarkCyber reports about Maltrail, an open source cyber tool for detecting malicious traffic. Crime as a Service matures. Now anyone can point-and-click through a ransomware attack. Bad actors helpfully make cyber crime less of a hassle. Insider threats — what DarkCyber calls “the Snowden play” — are becoming more prevalent. Why? A need for money, revenge, or a dose of that old Silicon Valley attitude.
The feature in this episode is a summary of the next-generation in entity recognition from videos and still images. Face recognition is not the most reliable technology in the world; however, researchers from China and Japan have figured out how to match a person’s gait to an individual. Ergo gait recognition. A link to the technical details appears in the program.
The program features a brief extract from a conversation between Robert David Steele, a former CIA professional, and Stephen E Arnold (owner of Dark Cyber). Arnold describes some of the less appreciated reasons why digital information creates new challenges for law enforcement and intelligence professionals. Good news? Not really.
The final story in the program addresses the urgent need for counter unmanned aerial systems by local, county, and statement law enforcement agencies. Individuals are ramming drones into police helicopters. The DarkCyber discussion of this problem includes a link to a series of recommendations promulgated by the British government to address this kinetic use of drones.
DarkCyber is produced by Beyond Search. The video program appears every two weeks. The third season of DarkCyber begins in January 2021. The program is non-commercial, does not accept advertising, and does not beg for dollars. How is this possible? DarkCyber is not sure.
You can view the program at this link.
Kenny Toth, December 1, 2020
DarkCyber for November 17, 2020, Now Available
November 17, 2020
The DarkCyber video news program for November 17, 2020, is now available at this link. This week’s program includes stories and links to information about the legal risks hacking and cracking pose to researchers. The October US Congressional report about the intelligence community’s need for innovation describes the challenges technology presents to more than a dozen agencies. You will also learn about how the former CEO of Google has “diversified his citizenship.” Allegedly a passport granting access to the European Union has been acquired by a member of the US Defense Innovation Board. Fourth, reports of security breaches decreased in 2020. Yet the number of personal data records has surged. Why the mismatch. DarkCyber explains that keeping quiet can present better optics for the organization which remains silent. Also, DarkCyber highlights a dated US electronic warfare diagram which is now circulating via Twitter and other online services as “new.” It presents a view of EW two or more years old. Finally, DarkCyber reports about a consumer drone which can perform surveillance and other actions underwater. With six thrusters, the drone can maneuver like its aerial cousins and deploy a robotic arm available on Amazon’s eCommerce site. More information related to cyber technologies is available in the blog at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress.
Kenny Toth, November 17, 2020
DarkCyber for November 3, 2020, Now Available
November 3, 2020
The November 3, 2020, DarkCyber video news program contains five stories. You are able to view the program at this YouTube location. The first is a report about the FinFisher raids conducted by German and other European enforcement officials. FinFisher allegedly produces and sells policeware to government agencies. An alleged failure in following German government procedures contributed to the multi-country action. The second story describes the free services of Social Search. This online service allows a user to obtain information gleaned from a number of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Test queries run by the DarkCyber research team revealed that interesting information can be obtained from this free service. Also referenced is a consumer mobile phone surveillance tool. Used together, the type of insights available from specialized services developers becomes evident. The third story points to a new book by a Harvard professor. The book reveals the origin of the concept of investigative software, what DarkCyber calls policeware. The fourth story provides additional information about the diffusion of digital currencies into the “regular” Web. What was just two years ago a specialized payment mechanism has moved into the mainstream. No Tor or other obfuscation software required. The final story mentions a Chinese innovation. The truck-mounted tube launcher can release a swarm of drones simultaneously. How does one deal with a swarm of drones? DarkCyber answers this question with information about the Drone Bullet. DarkCyber is produced by Stephen E Arnold, publisher of Beyond Search, a free Web log, and the author of Dark Web Notebook and CyberOSINT.
Kenny Toth, November 3, 2020
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