Silicon Valley Digital Protest: Another Challenge to Modern Management Methods?
May 24, 2019
One thing you never want to do, and I highly stress never, is anger a tech savvy individual. One famous example is Seth Rogen’s 2011 film, The Interview. The film was about an American talk show host tasked with assassinating North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. North Koran was not happy about The Interview. Although they denied involvement, North Korea hackers were the alleged culprits hacking the inventor of the Walkman.
Gizmodo tells another allegedly true story in the article, “Palantir’s Github Page Is The New Battleground In The Fight Against ICE.” Tech activists support hot button issues, such as immigration, global warming, and abortion. Palantir has garnered tech activists’ attention, because mom activities dubbed nefarious. Under the Freedom of Information Act, tech activists have learned that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) used Palantir’s technology. Many people do not like ICE, among them are tech activists.
Palantir’s case management app was used by ICE on apprehended people at the Mexican-US border. Tech activists want Palantir employees to be aware of how there products are used. We noted this statement:
“Raising an issue on the collaborative software repositories of Github is an option open to any user, and is usually for the purpose of reporting a bug or requesting a feature. ‘The issue we are planning to raise is obvious a moral issue and an ethical issue with Palantir’s ties to ICE,’ TWC’s Noah Gordon told Gizmodo. ‘This is an appeal from tech workers to tech workers to take a principled stand against family separation and deportation.’
And we circled this passage as well:
‘We believe Palantir has certain policies when it comes to maintenance of their open-source repositories, so Palantir employees will have to manually review these issues,’ Gordon continued, ‘Our belief is if we put the honest facts of the situation directly in the face of Palantir workers they will follow up by making the right decision at work and organizing against ICE.’”
Does tech activism does work. Its impact may be increased when an initial public offering is the subject of speculation. Worth monitoring this particular example of employee action and Palantir management’s response.
Whitney Grace, May 24, 2019
DarkCyber for April 23, 2019, Now Available
April 23, 2019
DarkCyber for April 23, 2019, is now available at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress and on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/331645696.
The program is a production of Stephen E Arnold. It is the only weekly video news shows focusing on the Dark Web, cybercrime, and lesser known Internet services.
This week’s story line up includes: Candiru, a vendor of cyber software; ways to obtain open source content for free; a shotgun equipped drone; and a look at the conclusions from the audit of the LAPD data driven policing effort.
This week’s feature looks at the conclusions reported in the audit of the Los Angeles Police Department’s data-driven policing programs. In the final part of this three-part series we look at the major weakness identified by the Inspector General’s team. The challenge will be to introduce workflows which reduce the errors in data provided to the analytic systems. Stephen E Arnold, producer of DarkCyber, said: “Investigators have work procedures in place for tangible evidence. Information streaming from GPS systems or automatic devices may vary from the after action reports filed by law enforcement professionals. With conflicting data, the analytic systems can produce outputs which are less accurate. Training can help, but specialists who review data may play a more important role as data-driven policing increases.” The audit reveals that the software used by LAPD helps reduce criminal activity. Data quality requires attention.
Other stories in the DarkCyber video include:
A low-profile cyber intelligence firm called Candiru develops tools for law enforcement and government agencies. The company markets in the Middle East and in some Asian countries. Candiru is just one of more than 100 firms providing cyber services from Tel Aviv. The company’s name evokes a powerful image of how the firm’s technology works.
Russia’s large defense contractor funded a program to develop weaponized drones. One of the more interesting engineering solutions involved a vertical takeoff and landing drone equipped with a shotgun. The drone flies near a target and a ground operator discharges the shotgun in order to disable the target. The drone makes it clear that autonomous or semi-autonomous technology combined with weapons can yield a potent force multiplier.
Social media content is available from commercial vendors, often at costs that range from $5,000 a month an up. DarkCyber reveals that there are low cost or no cost options available to investigators with technical expertise. There are more than a dozen application programming interfaces available. Each can deliver a stream of near-real time data for analysis in an IBM Analyst’s Notebook- or Palantir Technologies-type system.
Kenny Toth, April 23, 2019
DarkCyber for April 16, 2019, Now Available
April 16, 2019
DarkCyber for April 16, 2019, is now available at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress and on Vimeo at https://www.vimeo.com/330298628 .
The program is a production of Stephen E Arnold. It is the only weekly video news shows focusing on the Dark Web, cybercrime, and lesser known Internet services.
This week’s story line up includes… The LAPD’s review of Palantir Technologies; Australia’s forceful social media crackdown; Russia blocks virtual private networks; and X1 offer social eDiscovery.
This week’s feature continues DarkCyber’s review of the Los Angeles Police Department’s audit of its data-driven policing programs. In the second part of this series we look at the LAPD’s assessment of Palantir Technologies’ platform. The Palantir system provides a platform for integrating and analyzing data for the department’s identification of chronic offenders. The audit revealed that the program provided officers with a useful tool for reducing certain types of crimes. However, the challenge for the department is to provide the Palantir platform with more accurate and consistent data.
Other stories in the DarkCyber video include:
Australia’s crack down on US social media companies continues. In addition to fines, the country proposes mandatory three-year prison terms for offenders. The country, like New Zealand, is a member of the Five Eyes’ intelligence sharing group. Legislation in Australia often provides a model for similar legislation in Canada, Britain, and the United States.
Russia’s government has taken steps to prohibit the use of virtual private networks. This technology makes it more difficult for law enforcement and intelligence professionals to monitor Russian citizens’ communications. More than a half dozen VPN providers have been blocked by Russian Internet Service Providers. Crackdowns on obfuscation technologies is another example of the “Chinafication” of communications and privacy.
Software designed to compromise adults’ and children’s mobile phones is being distributed via the Google Play store. The mechanism Google uses to prevent compromised software or malware from being available on its electronic store for Android users has allowed thousands of individuals to install these programs. One government is alleged to have used the Google Play Store as a way to gain access to personal contacts and confidential information.
X1, a vendor of keyword search and retrieval, has introduced a version of its software tailored to social media eDiscovery. Founded in 2003, X1 allows a lawyer or investigator to search for people, places, events, and other content across a collection of open source data provided by X1 for a starting fee of $2,000. The eDiscovery product joins a growing list of investigative tools, including the personal investigative tool Hunchly which starts at $129 per year.
Kenny Toth, April 16, 2019
Natural Language Processing: Will It Make Government Lingo Understandable
April 11, 2019
I noted a FBO posting for a request for information for natural language processing services. You can find the RFI at this link on the FBO Web site. Here’s a passage I found interesting:
OPM seeks information on how to use artificial intelligence, particularly natural language processing (NLP), to gain insights into statutory and regulatory text to support policy analysis. The NLP capabilities should include topic modeling; text categorization; text clustering; information extraction; named entity resolution; relationship extraction; sentiment analysis; and summarization. The NLP project may include statistical techniques that can provide a general understanding of the statutory and regulatory text as a whole. In addition, OPM seeks to learn more about chatbots and transactional bots that are easy to implement and customize with the goal of extending bot-building capabilities to non-IT employees. (Maximum 4 pages requested.)
The goal is to obtain information about a system that performs the functions associated with an investigative software system; for example, Palantir Technologies, IBM i2, or one of the numerous companies operating from Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.
I am curious about the service provider who assisted in the preparation of this RFI. The time window is responding is measured in days. With advanced text analysis systems abounding in US government agencies from the Department of Justice to the Department of Defense and beyond, I wonder why additional requests for information are required.
Ah, procurement. A process in love with buzzwords so an NLP system can make things more clear. Sounds like a plan.
Stephen E Arnold, April 11, 2019
US Government Slow In Adopting Big Data?
March 13, 2019
We are not sure if this is good news or bad news. But the United States may be slow in adopting new technology and policies. The IRS is one government branch that is leveraging big data with actual results. Mondaq shares the IRS’s data analysis in the article, “United States: States Follow The IRS In Joining The Big Data Revolution.”
The IRS has used data analysis since the 1960s to select taxes to adult. As the technology advanced over the years, it has caught more errors and corrected them without any human involvement. The IRS created a new data analysis projected dubbed the Nationally Coordinated Investigation Unit (NCIU). NCIU will focus on using external data and the IRS to select criminal investigations. They also signed a $99 million deal with Palantir. With Palantir’s technology, the IRS will analyze and search terabytes of data on internal and external data sources on a single platform. The IRS is not only data mining for criminal activities. Big data is also being used for civil audits and predict outcomes on cases referred to the IRS Office of Appeals.
State governments have followed the IRS and implemented their own tax data analysis projects. Many of them have already caught fraudulent returns and so far state governments have saved sizable chunks of cash. These data analysis implementations are great, but there are still limitations. We learned:
“Like the IRS, many state departments of revenue have faced significant budgetary pressure in recent years, as governments have tried to cut down the size and cost of government, and have turned to technology to fill the gap. As powerful as data analytics are, however, there is a limit to the extent they can replace human investigators. In 2016, for example, the Arizona Department of Revenue began to lay off dozens of auditors and tax collectors, citing budget cuts. The result was a catastrophe, as audit collections dropped nearly 47 percent—$82 million—in 2017. The IRS itself has taken a markedly different approach: IRS CI has recently announced a hiring blitz, in the course of which it will hire 250 special agents, a number of data scientists, and over 100 professional staff.”
Big data analysis will become a significant tool in the future for the IRS and local tax offices. Good or bad? Excellent question.
Whitney Grace, March 13, 2019
Predicting Human Nature With AI1
February 22, 2019
A potential leap forward in predicting human behavior through AI is originating in a very unlikely place: The spice aisle of your grocery store. Seriously. AI and data analytics are moving into interesting territory and the results might be of interest to as far reaching places as the intelligence community. We learned more from a recent Engadget story, “How McCormick and IBM Will Use AI to Create the Next Big Spice.”
According to the story:
“IBM Research unveiled a version of this technology the Philyra AI as a tool to accelerate the creation of new and novel scents for the fragrance industry. “It is a system that uses new and advanced machine learning algorithms to sift through hundreds of thousands of formulas and thousands of raw materials…helping identify patterns and novel combinations.”
While this might seem silly to pay attention to, the results could be a bigger sign than simply what we should be sprinkling on our dinner. In fact, if this experiment does yield something customers truly want, it’s a sign of AI’s ability to predict human nature. This doesn’t necessarily make for happy bedfellows, as evidenced by the recent uproar of Palantir partnering with intelligence organizations. Keep an eye on these developments, because we’ll be feeling the aftershocks for years.
And let’s use these tools to spot objectionable content.
Patrick Roland, February 22, 2019
Smart Software: Maybe Not What It Seems
January 27, 2019
Fast computers, memory, and bandwidth can make stupid software look smart. That’s one take away from Big Think’s AI debunker “Why A.I. Is a Big Fat Lie.” Marketers at the likes of IBM, Palantir Technologies, and similar companies are likely to take an opposing view. These firms’ software are magical, reduce the time required to make sense of information, and deliver the “fix” in to the “find, fix, and finish” crowd.
Among the weak spots in the AI defenders’ suit of armor are:
- AI as a buzzword is “BS”. I assume this acronym does not mean Beyond Search
- Machine learning is one thing but it is not autonomous. Humans are needed
- AI won’t terminate me.
The article tackles talking computers and fancy concepts like neural nets.
I learned:
There’s literally no meaningful definition whatsoever. AI poses as a field, but it’s actually just a fanciful brand. As a supposed field, AI has many competing definitions, most of which just boil down to “smart computer.” I must warn you, do not look up “self-referential” in the dictionary. You’ll get stuck in an infinite loop.
The problem is that venture capitalists desperately want a next big thing, lots of money, and opportunities to give talks at Davos. Therefore, smart software is, by golly, going down the bullet train’s rails.
The entrepreneurs who often believe that their innovation has cracked the AI problem have to tell the world. Enter marketers, PR people, biz dev types with actual suits or sport jackets. These folks cheer for the smart software team.
Finally, there are the overwhelmed, confused, and panicked software procurement teams who have to find a way to cut costs and improve efficiency, yada yada yada. The objective is to acquire something new, study it, realign, and repeat the process. Ah, complex smart software. A thing of beauty, right?
Take a look at this Big Think article. Interesting stuff.
Stephen E Arnold, January 27, 2019
Thomson Reuters: Content Slicing and Dicing Chops People
December 6, 2018
A certain database company raked in the dough by pitching XML slicing and dicing as the way to piles of cash, happy customers, and reduced editorial costs. Thomson Reuters was “into” XML inspired slicing and dicing. Now the chopping up has moved from disparate content to staff.
According to a real news organization, the article “Thomson Reuters to cut 3,200 jobs by 2020, offer fewer products” states:
Thomson Reuters said it plans to cut its workforce by 12 percent, or 3,200 positions, by 2020 as part of a push to reduce spending.
Capital outlays as a share of revenue will be down about 30 percent by 2020, Thomson Reuters said Tuesday in a presentation for investors. By that year, Thomson Reuters expects to have about 11 percent fewer products and pare its number of locations by 30 percent. The pullback underscores efforts to exert cost discipline after third-quarter revenue came in 2.3 percent less than analysts had expected.
TR revenues have been less than exciting. Despite management’s heroic efforts, the company has not been able to shake the money tree with the vigor some stakeholders expect.
Thus, slicing and dicing of staff and products is underway. Nothing like a hefty reduction in force or RIF to brighten the individuals who can now look forward to finding their future elsewhere.
The larger question is, “What will TR do if the staff reductions and new points of focus do not generate revenue?” The account, lawyer, and MBA infused senior management may have to look for different sources of inspiration; for example:
- Seeking to pull the company into new markets with must have products and services. Not easy, I know, but TR will have to do more than follow the well worn grooves in the business models which are like the streets of Pompeii
- Selling itself to another large professional publishing outfit. What about a Thomson Elsevier or (perish the thought) an Ebsco Thomson?
- Selling the bits and pieces to investment banks or small companies eager to capitalize on TR’s missed penalty kicks. What would Bloomberg pay for the terminal business and maybe the Palantir inspired services? Perhaps Factset would toss a soccer boot on the pitch?
- Modifying its executive compensation methods so that TR unit managers actually cooperate on certain opportunities and initiatives.
There are, of course, other options, but many of these have been tried before; for instance, new units, new senior managers, new acquisitions, and new technologies.
Net net: TR may have to start thinking about life as a smaller, leaner, less profitable operation. Lord Thomson of Fleet may not be able to return and infuse the company. He’s needed in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, December 6, 2018
Amazon Opens a New Front in the Cloud Wars
November 30, 2018
A Microsoft “expert” has explained why Azure, the Microsoft cloud service, why the Azure cloud failed Thanksgiving week. Like the explanation for the neutralizing of some customers’ Windows 10 machines, three problems arose. You can work through the explanation at this link, but you may, like me, remain skeptical about Microsoft’s ability to keep its cloud sunny. Key point: Microsoft apologizes for its mistakes. Yada yada yada.
At about the same time, Amazon announced that its cloud service uses its own custom designed Arm server processors. How will Microsoft compete with a service that is not without flaws but promises lower costs? The GeekWire write up states:
Vice president of infrastructure Peter DeSantis introduced the AWS Graviton Processor Monday night, adding a third chip option for cloud customers alongside instances that use processors from Intel and AMD. The company did not provide a lot of details about the processor itself, but DeSantis said that it was designed for scale-out workloads that benefit from a lot of servers chipping away at a problem.
From our vantage point in Harrod’s Creek, the Amazon approach seems useful for certain types of data mining and data analytics tasks. Could these be the type of tasks which are common when using systems like Palantir Gotham’s?
The key point, however, is “low cost.”
But the important strategic move is that Amazon is now in the chip business. What other hardware are the folks at the ecommerce site exploring? Amazon network hardware?
Microsoft makes fuzzy tablet-laptops, right?
Stephen E Arnold, November 30, 2018
Amazon: Making the Fuzzy Laptop Maker Look Silly
November 29, 2018
In an upcoming DarkCyber and in my new series of lectures for LE and intel professionals, I will be exploring the implications of Amazon’s public admissions that the company is the beastie in the policeware kennel. The “few words are better” Jeff Barr has summarized some of the more public announcements in “AWS launches, Previews, and Pre-Announcements” which is a useful, if incomplete, checklist of what’s happening at the Zon. (Where is that policeware info by the way?)
But for Beyond Search and its handful of very gentle readers I want to point out that Microsoft’s furry laptop, Azure outages, and the ineptitude of updating Windows 10 looks bad.
Consider what Amazon has been doing for the past five years or so: Developing not one but two different custom chips, building a range of machine learning tools including free for now training programs, and rolling out features and function to keep the often creaky Amazon Web Services engine chugging along.
Microsoft has the furry laptop thing. Oh, I almost forgot. Microsoft brought back the Microsoft “IntelliMouse Explorer.” Plus Microsoft continues to play more nicely with Amazon Alexa as it tries to make sure it can be Number Two in the big cloud game. Google, HP, IBM, and a number of companies whose names I struggle to remember want to knock of the big dog. The breed is a Bezos I believe.
Net net: Amazon seems to be taking bits and pieces from the Google, Palantir, and IBM playbook. Chef Bezos mixes the ingredients and rolls out a mind boggling array of new stuff.
But which company looks a little behind the times? Here in Harrod’s Creek we see Microsoft and its fuzzy laptop tablet thing. By the way, how does one keep fuzzy stuff free from dirt, bacteria, and burrito juice?
Amazon probably sells some type of cleaner. Why not do a product search on Amazon. Product searches account for a hefty chuck of online search action. Perhaps there is an Amazon Basics to clean the furry gizmo? Better yet, there are ads on Amazon. Ads which once were the exclusive domain of the Google.
Google. That’s another story one can research on a furry Microsoft device using an “old is new mouse” too.
Stephen E Arnold, November 29, 2018
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