Google and Commitment
October 31, 2019
Google may have an uphill battle. Instead of a big rock, the GOOG must move trust from Death Valley to the top of Huascarán in Peru. Google’s TensorFlow comes with a three year commitment. However, Google has a reputation for abandoning projects. Google Groups, Web Accelerator, etc. etc.
New Scientist has some questions about Google too. Navigate to “Will Google Bail If Its Quantum Computer Doesn’t Turn a Quick Profit?”
Oh, and don’t miss the write up’s subtitle:
Google is famous for ditching projects it loses interest in. The road to workable quantum computers will be long, but we must stick with it…
The idea is that Google is spending money on a high school science project. Granted the project has promise, but the reality of the Google is that its costs are becoming more and more difficult to control.
The crazy PR battle with IBM over quantum supremacy makes Google look — how shall I put it? — like a high school math whiz without a date to the homecoming dance. But staying home and playing an online game is way better, right?
Trust? Who needs that. Just climb the mountain or zap it with a nifty digital weapon.
Stephen E Arnold, October 31, 2019
Facebook Kills Accounts of NSO Group
October 31, 2019
Yeah, Facebook is putting its ethical flag down. The problem is that the pointy end of the flag staff may go through Facebook’s foot. “Facebook Permanently Deletes the Accounts of NSO Workers” reports:
A day after Facebook-owned WhatsApp sued NSO Group, the social media platform has permanently deleted the accounts of employees who work at the Israel-based spyware maker…
Facebook can do what it wants.
However, DarkCyber wants to make a few observations:
- Some firms offer services and systems designed to create false personas (sock puppets) so that these identities can be used in various ways; for example, obtain and use Facebook services.
- Irritating a company with specialized services may have unanticipated consequences; for example, friction when Facebook attempts to do business with an NSO partner or an NSO friendly government.
- Facebook’s grandstanding may be one way for the company to mute the fact that it paid a fine for its Cambridge Analytica adventure.
Too little, too late, and too childish may be one way to describe Facebook’s Silicon Valley tactical play.
Stephen E Arnold, October 31, 2019
IBM and the UK Military
October 31, 2019
After trying its hand at everything from recipes to healthcare, Watson branched out into the military a few years ago. Now, IBM is using its AI tech to help out an old ally. NS Tech reports, “Revealed: IBM’s £4m Deal to Build Prototype AI Software Platform for UK Military.” Writer and NS Tech editor Oscar Williams cites a contract notice from the Ministry of Defense (MoD), which considers the forthcoming platform a way to gain an operational advantage. We’re told IBM won the £3.8m (or about $4.9m) contract in September, and has a year to demonstrate its worth. Williams writes:
“The contract notice, identified through Tussell’s procurement database, states that the proof of concept will be cloud-hosted and reliant on a large computer processor to analyze existing commercial data sources. The data sources could include mapping data from Ordinance Survey and weather data from the Met Office, as well as flight paths and navigation channels, said [former MoD IT director Gerry] Cantwell. The deal was struck around six months after the US government awarded an $800m battlefield software contract to Palantir, a big data analytics firm founded by the Paypal billionaire and Trump supporter Peter Thiel. NS Tech revealed in August that Palantir has won nearly £11m [about $14m] of MoD contracts over the last four years. An MOD spokesperson said: ‘We have awarded a contract to IBM to assist with the development of a standalone AI proof of concept, using commercially available data.’”
Not surprisingly, the MOD spokesperson refused to explain the similarities or differences between their upcoming platform to the US battlefield platform. IBM likewise declined to comment.
Cynthia Murrell, October 31, 2019
Microsoft: These People Will Support Warfighters?
October 31, 2019
I read “Microsoft Sends Security Patch to the Wrong Version of Windows 10.”The main point is:
Microsoft released an update to Windows 10 Home users that was meant for Pro and Enterprise only. KB4523786 applies to the most recent Windows 10 build (1903/May 2019), and brings with it “quality improvements to Windows Autopilot configured devices”.
But…
Thing is, it was. In fact, it was sent to Home devices and Pro devices that weren’t registered for Autopilot. The update has since been pulled…
Yep, Department of Defense vendor? Let’s hope those updates work in theater.
Stephen E Arnold, October 31, 2019
Microsoft Github: An Issue for MSFT to Resolve? Yes!
October 30, 2019
Microsoft, the open source champion and all-time wizard of software updates, were served some spoiled digital tapas. You can read the “menu order” at this link. The idea is that Github is hosting an app which allows some individuals in Spain to thwart police actions. The English and Spanish posting states:
Spain is currently facing a series of riots involving serious public disorder and main infrastructure’s sabotage. There is an ongoing investigation being carried out by the National High Court where the movement Tsunami Democratic has been confirmed as a criminal organization driving people to commit terrorist attacks. Tsunami Democratic’s main goal is coordinating these riots and terrorist actions by using any possible mean. Among them, they have developed an app that provides information about those riots and allows their users to communicate between themselves in order to coordinate those actions. This app has been uploaded in GitHub by the user [private] ([private]), where people that want to participate in riots can access his repository ([private]) and install different versions of this app in their devices. Moreover, other repositories with the same information have been created to prevent the content being withheld.
WWMD or What will Microsoft do? Fight for open source goodness, respond to a legitimate request and warrant, or output legal-marketing goodness?
Worth monitoring? Yes. DarkCyber is interested in how activist Microsoft employees respond, both in Spain and in other MSFT office locations.
Stephen E Arnold, October 30, 2019
Facebook Takes on NSO Group
October 30, 2019
Now this is an interesting and possibly inadvisable move. Facebook is big and it has become the one company able to create more negative vibes than an outfit like Boeing (737 Max which allegedly was called “flying coffins”or Johnson & Johnson (the outfit famous for baby powder with a possible secret ingredient).
“Why WhatsApp Is Pushing Back on NSO Group Hacking” provides a Facebook professional’s explanation of the decision to go after the NSO Group, a specialized software and services firm with some government clients:
As we gathered the information that we lay out in our complaint, we learned that the attackers used servers and Internet-hosting services that were previously associated with NSO. In addition, as our complaint notes, we have tied certain WhatsApp accounts used during the attacks back to NSO. While their attack was highly sophisticated, their attempts to cover their tracks were not entirely successful.
I particularly relished this statement by the Facebook professional:
At WhatsApp, we believe people have a fundamental right to privacy and that no one else should have access to your private conversations, not even us. Mobile phones provide us with great utility, but turned against us they can reveal our locations and our private messages, and record sensitive conversations we have with others.
Yeah, yeah, the DarkCyber team hears your voice. Is that voice one that resonates with truth, honor, and “ethical behavior” cranked up on the baloney amplifier?
Several observations:
- It is generally a good idea to understand one’s opponent before getting into a bit of a tussle. Some opponents have special capabilities which are not often understood in the go go, move fast and break things world of Facebook
- Facebook lacks what DarkCyber thinks of as “credibility stature.” In fact, the shadow the firm casts is a long one, but the path the company has followed in its crepuscular journey of those who may be afraid of the light. (Apologies to Plato)
- NSO Group states: “NSO products are used exclusively by government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to fight crime and terror.”
Based on information I glean from my lectures at law enforcement and intelligence conferences, WhatsApp is an encrypted messaging service popular among some bad actors.
Oh, one final question, “Where did some of NSO’s team garner their operational experience?”
Give up. Gentle reader, knowing the answer is probably important. Does Facebook know the answer? Another good question.
Stephen E Arnold, October 30, 2019
Microsoft Buys AnyVision: Why?
October 30, 2019
We noted “Why Did Microsoft Fund an Israeli Firm That Surveils West Bank Palestinians?” The write up stated:
Microsoft has invested in a startup that uses facial recognition to surveil Palestinians throughout the West Bank, in spite of the tech giant’s public pledge to avoid using the technology if it encroaches on democratic freedoms. AnyVision, which is headquartered in Israel but has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore, sells an “advanced tactical surveillance” software system, Better Tomorrow. It lets customers identify individuals and objects in any live camera feed, such as a security camera or a smartphone, and then track targets as they move between different feeds.
The write up covers the functions of the firm’s technology. The contentious subject of facial recognition is raised.
However, one question was not asked, “Why?” Microsoft took action despite employee push back on certain projects.
The answer is, “Possess a technology that gets Microsoft closer to Amazon’s capabilities in this particular technical niche.
Microsoft has to beef up in a number of technical spaces. It may have a demanding client and a major project which requires certain capabilities. Marketing is one thing; delivering is another.
Stephen E Arnold, October 30, 2019
Smart Software and Investigations
October 30, 2019
It should come as no surprise that governments are using AI to boost their surveillance capabilities, but we find some interesting specifics in the piece, “Artificial Intelligence Used for Mass Surveillance in 75 Countries” at WiredFocus. The article shares some details of a recent report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that examined just how different countries are using the technologies. Reporter Steven Feldstein writes:
“A growing number of states are deploying advanced AI surveillance tools to monitor, track, and surveil citizens to accomplish a range of policy objectives—some lawful, others that violate human rights, and many of which fall into a murky middle ground. In order to appropriately address the effects of this technology, it is important to first understand where these tools are being deployed and how they are being used. Unfortunately, such information is scarce. To provide greater clarity, this paper presents an AI Global Surveillance (AIGS) Index—representing one of the first research efforts of its kind. The index compiles empirical data on AI surveillance use for 176 countries around the world. It does not distinguish between legitimate and unlawful uses of AI surveillance. Rather, the purpose of the research is to show how new surveillance capabilities are transforming the ability of governments to monitor and track individuals or systems. It specifically asks:
*Which countries are adopting AI surveillance technology?
*What specific types of AI surveillance are governments deploying?
*Which countries and companies are supplying this technology?”
Navigate to the write-up for key findings. For example, these practices are spreading faster than expected, with at least 75 out of 176 countries now actively using AI tech for surveillance—56 use smart city/safe city platforms, 64 use facial recognition systems, and 52 use “smart policing.” Not surprisingly, China is a major source of AI surveillance technology worldwide, but companies based in democracies also play a large role (including the US). Autocratic governments, of course, are especially prone to abuse these technologies, and counties that spend a lot on their militaries also invest heavily in AI surveillance.
The article closes with some links to more information. The AI Global Surveillance Index itself can be found here, while an interactive map based upon it is at this link. The truly curious should check out the open Zotero library holding all reference source material that researchers used to build the index.
Cynthia Murrell, October 30, 2019
Why Analyzing Amazon EBook Reading Lists Is Useful
October 30, 2019
An intriguing study in machine-learning models suggests human language behaviors may be more affected by what we read than previously thought. Neuroscience News tells us “What 26,000 Books Reveal When it Comes to Learning Language.” Brendan T. Johns, an assistant professor at the University at Buffalo, and Randall K. Jamieson, a professor at the University of Manitoba, created the models. The article tells us:
“The models, called distributional models, serve as analogies to the human language learning process. The 26,000 books that support the analysis of this research come from 3,000 different authors (about 2,000 from the U.S. and roughly 500 from the U.K.) who used over 1.3 billion total words. George Bernard Shaw is often credited with saying Britain and America are two countries separated by a common language. But the languages are not identical, and in order to establish and represent potential cultural differences, the researchers considered where each of the 26,000 books was located in both time (when the author was born) and place (where the book was published). With that information established, the researchers analyzed data from 10 different studies involving more than 1,000 participants, using multiple psycholinguistic tasks. ‘The question this paper tries to answer is, “If we train a model with similar materials that someone in the U.K. might have read versus what someone in the U.S. might have read, will they become more like these people?”’ says Johns. ‘We found that the environment people are embedded in seems to shape their behavior.’”
The researchers have developed what they call their “selective reading hypothesis.” They report that culture-specific and time-specific collections represent different language environments, and different behaviors arise from exposure to these environments. Conversely, they say one could predict what types of things people have read based on their language behavior.
Informed by the results, Johns is now working to build machine-learning frameworks for education that would pinpoint information to enhance each individual’s learning. He also sees a potential here to help people at risk of developing Alzheimer’s—researchers might be able to create exercises and stimuli to help such patients retain semantic associations longer, for example, or at least develop more personalized assessments. It is nice to see machine language models being put to such worthwhile purposes.
Now about that Kindle library some individuals have amassed?
Cynthia Murrell, October 30, 2019
Another Cyber Firm Reports about Impending Doom
October 29, 2019
Identity intelligence firm 4iQ summarizes the results of recent research in the write-up, “Identity Protection & Data Breach Survey.” They polled 2,300 participants regarding data breaches and identity protection issues. You can see a slide show of the results here that presents the results in graph-form.
Researchers found that fewer than half the respondents had been notified they were victims of a breach. Most of them were offered identity protections services as a result, but about half of those felt that fell short of adequately addressing the problem. We also learn:
“*Nearly 40% of respondents believe they have already suffered identity theft and more than half of respondents, 55%, believe that it’s likely their personally identifiable information (PII) is already in the hands of criminals. As a result, 62% of respondents are concerned that their PII could be used by someone to commit fraud.
*More than half, 52%, of respondents said they would expect their own online security error to negatively or very negatively affect their standing with their employer—an additional stress for working Americans—so it’s not surprising then, that 60% of respondents believe there’s a ‘blame-the-victim’ problem with cybercrime.
*A strong majority, 63%, are concerned that prior breaches could lead to future identity fraud, and 37% believe they have already been a victim of fraud as a result of a cybercrime incident.”
As for protecting personal identifiable information, 75% feel their employers are doing a fair to excellent job, but only 42% feel the government is do so effectively. They feel even less confident about their personal efforts, however, with only 15% calling themselves “very effective” (23% rated their employers as “very effective”).
On that last point, 4iQ states it demonstrates that “everyday consumers may feel unprepared to contend with the threats presented by cybercrime,” which is not surprising from a company that sells solutions to that problem. We know there are free and low-cost measures individuals can take to boost their own security, but some will be willing to pay for extra reassurance on top of those precautions. Based in Los Altos, California, 4iQ was founded in 2016.
Cynthia Murrell, October 29, 2019
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