Enterprise Heads in the Sand on Data Loss Prevention
February 16, 2017
Enterprises could be doing so much more to protect themselves from cyber attacks, asserts Auriga Technical Manager James Parry in his piece, “The Dark Side: Mining the Dark Web for Cyber Intelligence” at Information Security Buzz. Parry informs us that most businesses fail to do even the bare minimum they should to protect against hackers. This minimum, as he sees it, includes monitoring social media and underground chat forums for chatter about their company. After all, hackers are not known for their modesty, and many do boast about their exploits in the relative open. Most companies just aren’t bothering to look that direction. Such an effort can also reveal those impersonating a business by co-opting its slogans and trademarks.
Companies who wish to go beyond the bare minimum will need to expand their monitoring to the dark web (and expand their data-processing capacity). From “shady” social media to black markets to hacker libraries, the dark web can reveal much about compromised data to those who know how to look. Parry writes:
Yet extrapolating this information into a meaningful form that can be used for threat intelligence is no mean feat. The complexity of accessing the dark web combined with the sheer amount of data involved, correlation of events, and interpretation of patterns is an enormous undertaking, particularly when you then consider that time is the determining factor here. Processing needs to be done fast and in real-time. Algorithms also need to be used which are able to identify and flag threats and vulnerabilities. Therefore, automated event collection and interrogation is required and for that you need the services of a Security Operations Centre (SOC).
The next generation SOC is able to perform this type of processing and detect patterns, from disparate data sources, real-time, historical data etc. These events can then be threat assessed and interpreted by security analysts to determine the level of risk posed to the enterprise. Forewarned, the enterprise can then align resources to reduce the impact of the attack. For instance, in the event of an emerging DoS attack, protection mechanisms can be switched from monitoring to mitigation mode and network capacity adjusted to weather the attack.
Note that Parry’s company, Auriga, supplies a variety of software and R&D services, including a Security Operations Center platform, so he might be a tad biased. Still, he has some good points. The article notes SOC insights can also be used to predict future attacks and to prioritize security spending. Typically, SOC users have been big businesses, but, Parry advocates, scalable and entry-level packages are making such tools available to smaller companies.
From monitoring mainstream social media to setting up an SOC to comb through dark web data, tools exist to combat hackers. The question, Parry observes, is whether companies will face the growing need to embrace those methods.
Cynthia Murrell, February 16, 2017
Creating a Product Taxonomy Just Got a Whole Lot Easier
February 16, 2017
The article on PRWeb titled WAND, Inc. Announces the Launch of the WAND eCommerce Taxonomy Portal discusses the breakthrough in classification technology from WAND. WAND Inc. is a Denver-based company that has been around since 1938 and holds a tight grip on industry vertical taxonomies, business taxonomies, and specialty domain taxonomies.
Users of the WAND eCommerce Taxonomy Portal can select from a content library of more than 44,000 hierarchical categories, 70,000 attributes, and over 260,000 attribute values to jump-start a taxonomy. Tools to customize the category hierarchy and attribute templates are simple to use and the pre-defined content can be augmented with new categories and attributes to efficiently build a custom taxonomy. The resulting custom product taxonomy can be exported into any common data format for import into product information management software or ecommerce platforms.
Perfect for retail, ecommerce, procurement, MDM, and manufacturing companies, the eCommerce Taxonomy Portal provides a foundation to build on, and averts the painstaking process of building classifications up from scratch. Mark Leher, WAND’s COO, is quoted in the article defining the web-based applications place in the master data management arena. He explains that it can be used to speed up taxonomy projects by empowering users to simply edit, rather than start from the very beginning.
Chelsea Kerwin, February 16, 2017
Canada: Right to Be Forgotten
February 15, 2017
I found this interesting. According to “Did a Canadian Court Just Establish a New Right to Be Forgotten Online?”
the Federal Court of Canada issued a landmark ruling that paves the way for a Canadian version of the right to be forgotten that would allow courts to issue orders with the removal of Google search results on a global basis very much in mind. The case – A.T. v. Globe24H.com – involves a Romanian-based website that downloaded thousands of Canadian judicial and tribunal decisions, posted them online and demanded fees for their swift removal. The decisions are all public documents and available through the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII), a website maintained by the legal profession in support of open access to legal materials
I find the logic interesting. I believe that Thomson Reuters processes public legal documents and charges a fee to access them and the “value add” that WestLaw and its sister outfits impose. Maybe I am addled like the goose in Harrod’s Creek, but it seems that what’s good for one gander is not so good for the Google.
Poor Romanian entrepreneur! Come up with an original idea and learn that a country wants the data removed. No word on the views of Reed Elsevier which operates LexisNexis. Thomson Reuters, anything to add?
The removal of links is a hassle at best and a real pain at the worst for the Google. For researchers, hey, find the information another way.
Stephen E Arnold, February 15, 2017
Trendy Smart Software Companies
February 15, 2017
I read “Winton Labs Names Cohort of European AI and Data Science Startups.” Winton Labs has hooked up with the Alan Turing Institute. Here are the companies that one interested in smart software may want to watch:
- Alterest
- Cognitiv+. I am not too keen on companies with characters in their name. The firm’s Web site is www.cognitivplus.com. Is this smart?
- SMAP Entergy
- Terrabotics
- Warwick Analytics.
Previous smart software outfits pipped by Winton included IntelligentX and CheckRecipient.
Stephen E Arnold, February 15, 2017
Investment Group Acquires Lexmark
February 15, 2017
We read with some trepidation the Kansas City Business Journal’s article, “Former Perceptive’s Parent Gets Acquired for $3.6B in Cash.” The parent company referred to here is Lexmark, which bought up one of our favorite search systems, ISYS Search, in 2012 and placed it under its Perceptive subsidiary, based in Lenexa, Kentucky. We do hope this valuable tool is not lost in the shuffle.
Reporter Dora Grote specifies:
A few months after announcing that it was exploring ‘strategic alternatives,’ Lexmark International Inc. has agreed to be acquired by a consortium of investors led by Apex Technology Co. Ltd. and PAG Asia Capital for $3.6 billion cash, or $40.50 a share. Legend Capital Management Co. Ltd. is also a member of the consortium.
Lexmark Enterprise Software in Lenexa, formerly known as Perceptive Software, is expected to ‘continue unaffected and benefit strategically and financially from the transaction’ the company wrote in a release. The Lenexa operation — which makes enterprise content management software that helps digitize paper records — dropped the Perceptive Software name for the parent’s brand in 2014. Lexmark, which acquired Perceptive for $280 million in cash in 2010, is a $3.7 billion global technology company.
If the Lexmark Enterprise Software (formerly known as Perceptive) division will be unaffected, it seems they will be the lucky ones. Grote notes that Lexmark has announced that more than a thousand jobs are to be cut amid restructuring. She also observes that the company’s buildings in Lenexa have considerable space up for rent. Lexmark CEO Paul Rooke is expected to keep his job, and headquarters should remain in Lexington, Kentucky.
Cynthia Murrell, February 15, 2017
The Pros and Cons of Human Developed Rules for Indexing Metadata
February 15, 2017
The article on Smartlogic titled The Future Is Happening Now puts forth the Semaphore platform as the technology filling the gap between NLP and AI when it comes to conversation. The article posits that in spite of the great strides in AI in the past 20 years, human speech is one area where AI still falls short. The article explains,
The reason for this, according to the article, is that “words often have meaning based on context and the appearance of the letters and words.” It’s not enough to be able to identify a concept represented by a bunch of letters strung together. There are many rules that need to be put in place that affect the meaning of the word; from its placement in a sentence, to grammar and to the words around – all of these things are important.
Advocating human developed rules for indexing is certainly interesting, and the author compares this logic to the process of raising her children to be multi-lingual. Semaphore is a model-driven, rules-based platform that allows us to auto-generate usage rules in order to expand the guidelines for a machine as it learns. The issue here is cost. Indexing large amounts of data is extremely cost-prohibitive, and that it before the maintenance of the rules even becomes part of the equation. In sum, this is a very old school approach to AI that may make many people uncomfortable.
Chelsea Kerwin, February 15, 2017
HonkinNews for 14 February 2017 Now Available
February 14, 2017
Want some tax love? HonkinNews explains that you can visit an H&R Block store front and “touch” IBM Watson. Sounds inviting, doesn’t it? You will also learn about the fate of Lexmark’s search and content businesses under the firm’s new ownership. Denmark has appointed an ambassador to Sillycon Valley. Perhaps Apple, Facebook, and Google really are nation states? Google’s cloud wizard has some job advice for the newly terminated. Perhaps dog training collars are a breakthrough for those eager to acquire news skills. Lucid Imagination became Lucidworks. Now the company has positioned itself to deliver Exalead style search based applications. The play did not work too well for Exalead, which wrote the book about SBAs. Will Lucidworks make the me-too strategy pay off for the company’s backers and their tens of millions of dollars? We also catalog the many ways to search using the Pixel phone. Whatever happened to universal search? We reveal where to live if you want easy access to old fashioned book stores. No, it is not Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky. You can view the video at this link.
Kenny Toth, February 14, 2017
Metropolitan Museum of Arts: Images There but Findability Not
February 14, 2017
I recall the Google Life Magazine image collection. I noted the BBC archive of programs. I checked out the Internet Archive’s rich media collection. Years ago I worked on the Library of Congress’ American Memory project. These have a unifying thread:
The content is essentially unfindable.
I read “Metropolitan Museum of Art Puts 375,000 Public Domain Images in Creative Commons.” The write up explains:
As part of a new initiative it’s calling Open Access, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has placed 375,000 images of public-domain works in the Creative Commons. This major, though not unprecedented, move by one of the world’s most important museums means that users can now access pictures of many of the Met’s holdings on Wikimedia…
You can try out the search system at this link. Good luck finding images. Remember Caravaggio is spelled with two g’s. Oh, the query returned a number of false drops.
The way to find images is to browse. Fun. Time consuming. Not good.
Stephen E Arnold, February 14, 2017
Denmark: Companies May Be Countries
February 14, 2017
For years I have mentioned that some companies conduct themselves as if they were companies. If not countries, other outfits operate like the Sforzas in Milan or the Medici family in Florence. In college, one of my French language professors was “related” to the Medicis. I learned that one should not forget the rights that accrue thereto.
I read “Denmark to Appoint a ‘Silicon Valley Ambassador’ As If Tech Was Its Own Country.” Denmark is definitely getting with the program. I did a small project in Denmark before I kicked back to enjoy the sweet life in rural Kentucky. One insurance company was surprised to learn that 98 percent of its Web traffic came from the world’s greatest online advertising outfit, the Google. Does Google trumpet its dominance of European search? Nah, Google is fearful of Qwant and maybe when fatigued Exalead search.
According to the write up:
Denmark recently said that it would appoint a new digital ambassador to work with some of the world’s biggest tech companies, like Microsoft, Apple, and Google. The Scandinavian country said at the time that these companies have just as much of an influence and impact on the nation as other countries..
My thought is that the tech companies viewed as a country will want to add to their corporate air fleet some fighter jets. Why not set up a border control operation? A taxing authority is a possibility.
Yikes, wait. Many Sillycon Valley tech companies already have these things. Big companies are indeed countries. Political evolution is alive and well. Why not search for that? What country’s system should I use?
Stephen E Arnold, February 14, 2017
Why Do We Care More About Smaller Concerns? How Quantitative Numbing Impacts Emotional Response
February 14, 2017
The affecting article on Visual Business Intelligence titled When More is Less: Quantitative Numbing explains the phenomenon that many of us have probably witnessed on the news, in our friends and family, and even personally experienced in ourselves. A local news story about the death of an individual might provoke a stronger emotional response than news of a mass tragedy involving hundreds or thousands of deaths. Scott Slovic and Paul Slovic explore this in their book Numbers and Nerves. According to the article, this response is “built into our brains.” Another example explains the Donald Trump effect,
Because he exhibits so many examples of bad behavior, those behaviors are having relatively little impact on us. The sheer number of incidents creates a numbing effect. Any one of Trump’s greedy, racist, sexist, vulgar, discriminatory, anti-intellectual, and dishonest acts, if considered alone, would concern us more than the huge number of examples that now confront us. The larger the number, the lesser the impact…This tendency… is automatic, immediate, and unconscious.
The article suggests that the only reason to overcome this tendency is to engage with large quantities in a slower, more thoughtful way. An Abel Hertzberg quote helps convey this approach when considering the large-scale tragedy of the Holocaust: “There were not six million Jews murdered: there was one murder, six million times.” The difference between that consideration of individual murders vs. the total number is stark, and it needs to enter into the way we process daily events that are happening all over the world if we want to hold on to any semblance of compassion and humanity.
Chelsea Kerwin, February 14, 2017
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