The capitalist tool suggesting capitalism does not work as desired. Remarkable.
Amazon Investigates Bribery Allegations in India
September 30, 2021
If it did happen, Amazon had nothing to do with it. That is presumably the message the company would like us to take from its investigation. TechCrunch reports, “Amazon Starts Probe Over Bribe to Gov’t Officials by its Lawyers in India, Report Says.” Writer Manish Singh tells us:
“Amazon has launched an investigation into the conduct of its legal representatives in India following a complaint from a whistleblower who alleged that one or more of the company’s reps had bribed government officials, Indian news and analysis outlet the Morning Context reported on Monday. The company is investigating whether legal fees financed by it was used for bribing government officials, the report said, which cited unnamed sources and didn’t identify the government officials. Amazon has placed Rahul Sundaram, a senior corporate counsel, on leave, the report (paywalled) added. In a statement to TechCrunch, an Amazon spokesperson said the company has ‘zero tolerance’ for corruption, but didn’t comment on the investigation.”
Singh reminds us that India is an important market for Amazon, where the company has invested billions of dollars and has been expanding aggressively. All is not going smoothly. The company is currently under an antitrust investigation in that country and Reuters recently reported it had misrepresented its relationships with major vendors and worked to circumvent India’s foreign investment regulations. To literally add insult to injury, Singh writes:
“A top-level executive at the company … was summoned and questioned earlier this year by local police over allegations that one of its political dramas on Prime Video hurt religious sentiments and caused public anger. The company later issued a rare apology to users in India over the nine-part mini series.”
An apology, no matter how rare, might not be enough to get Amazon out of this. But not to worry. We are sure the company will be able to pay any fines levied against it without breaking a sweat.
Cynthia Murrell, September 30, 2021
Bad Apps: Will There Be a YouTube Video?
September 30, 2021
I read “Fraudulent Mobile Apps Growing in Numbers.” This is another “Who knew?” write up. After app removals, malware app, and apps that phone home, suddenly “real” news. The write up states:
A new report from payment fraud protection specialists Outseer claims that out of all fraudulent attacks that happened in Q2 2021 (of which there were more than 49,000), rogue mobile apps accounted for almost a third (30%).
I like that: Outseer. Very similar to Outsell. I don’t understand that name either.
How does mobile app fraud work? Here’s the explanation:
The process is relatively simple. Fraudsters would create an app that looks almost identical to a genuine mobile app belonging to a bank, and have it placed on a mobile app store (or distribute it via its website, email, or any other means).
Interested in crating a mobile app? There are a number of sites which allow a person to create a mobile app with no coding required. To make it “mal,” more work is required. Microsoft Github has examples to help you on your quest.
News? Nope.
Stephen E Arnold, September 30, 2021
How Much Growth in Ransomware in 12 Weeks? A Lot
September 30, 2021
I read “Security Experts Witnessed a 55,239% Increase in Ransomware Activity in Q2.” Now that’s a nifty percentage. Not even the Google nails 12 week figures like that one. I learned:
In Q2 2021, Nuspire security experts witnessed a 55,239% increase in ransomware activity just a few weeks prior to the Colonial Pipeline Ransomware attack conducted by DarkSide Ransomware group. The reason for the increase is not known and it may not be related to Colonial Pipeline, but one can speculate that the increase could be from the same campaign with Colonial Pipeline.
Hmmm.
Other items of note are:
- Malware up
- Microsoft software involved
- Botnets less popular due to enforcement activity.
Stephen E Arnold, September 28, 2021
The Benefits of Offices with People
September 29, 2021
One result of the pandemic is likely to be with us for a while. Many workers find they prefer working remotely for a number of reasons, and a hefty percentage insist they be allowed to continue doing so. That may not be best for employers, though, at least in the IT field. The journal Nature Human Behavior shares a study on “The Effects of Remote Work on Collaboration Among Information Workers.” A team of researchers from Microsoft, MIT, and the University of California, Berkeley, examined the internal communications of Microsoft employees during the first half of 2020. They analyzed patterns in emails, calendars, instant messages, video and audio calls, and work hours. The conclusion—remote work has a detrimental effect on collaboration and information sharing. The paper states:
“Our results suggest that shifting to firm-wide remote work caused the collaboration network to become more heavily siloed—with fewer ties that cut across formal business units or bridge structural holes in Microsoft’s informal collaboration network—and that those silos became more densely connected. Furthermore, the network became more static, with fewer ties added and deleted per month. Previous research suggests that these changes in collaboration patterns may impede the transfer of knowledge and reduce the quality of workers’ output. Our results also indicate that the shift to firm-wide remote work caused synchronous communication to decrease and asynchronous communication to increase. Not only were the communication media that workers used less synchronous, but they were also less ‘rich’ (for example, email and IM). These changes in communication media may have made it more difficult for workers to convey and process complex information. We expect that the effects we observe on workers’ collaboration and communication patterns will impact productivity and, in the long-term, innovation.”
It does make sense that communicating face to face would be more effective than any other method. That is primarily how humans have been doing it for thousands of years, after all. We note, though, the study focuses on a period early in the pandemic—perhaps some of these inefficiencies have improved since then. The researchers acknowledge their scope is limited to that time period at that corporation and suggest further study is needed once the pandemic is (finally!) over. The paper suggests large organizations that can collect communications data consider performing their own analysis and sharing those results with the rest of us. See the paper for the many details of the study’s methods, results, conclusions, recommendations, and references.
Cynthia Murrell, September 29, 2021
India: Offensive Cyber Activity or a Swipe at Specialized Software and Threat Intelligence
September 29, 2021
I read “Exclusive: An American Company Fears Its Windows Hacks Helped India Spy On China And Pakistan.” The write up reports:
A U.S. company’s tech was abused by the Indian government, amidst warnings Americans are contributing to a spyware industry already under fire for being out of control.
The write up’s emphasis is on an intriguing point; to wit:
Sometimes American companies aren’t the victims, but the ones fueling costly digital espionage.
The named firm is Exodus. Forbes presents this factoid, which I assume is “true”:
“They’re significant because the size of the market is relatively small, and the skill set required [to find zero days] is in possession of just a few thousand people worldwide at any given time,” says Katie Moussouris, founder of Luta Security and creator of Microsoft’s bug bounty program to reward hackers for vulnerability disclosures.
Okay, the market is small. And the expert? From another low profile outfit called Luta. But the story is not straight forward.
Exodus pumped out a report of an exploit. India’s technology professionals (presumably one of the few thousand in the world) recognized the value of the information. Then hunted around for another vulnerability its cyber fighters could employ.
The Forbes’s report says:
Any such zero-day spill would be especially concerning coming from a company that tries to keep a lid on around 50 zero days a year, covering the world’s most popular operating systems, from Windows to Android to Apple’s iOS. And Brown isn’t alone in seeing his creation used in ways he didn’t intend.
Exodus cut off India from its threat information. The write up concludes:
With the supply there, American government is hungry for hacks of all kinds of technologies.
Several observations:
- How many companies pump out threat intelligence? Are there other examples of “customers” using threat intelligence to develop cyber weapons?
- Why is Microsoft opining about security; specifically, NSO Group? The reasons exploits exist may be in part due to the security posture of Microsoft itself. No, Windows 11 did not distract me from noticing the Redmond giant’s magnetism for bad actors.
- What’s the agenda for this story? A lack of regulation? The behavior of the many, many outfits engaged in generating alerts, notices of exploitable flaws, or the damage done by leaking once secret specialized software into the public spotlight?
Stephen E Arnold, September 29, 2021
Facebook Brings People Together: A Different Spin
September 29, 2021
I read “Lawmakers Ask Zuckerberg to Drop ‘Instagram for Kids’ After Report Says App Made Kids Suicidal.” The write up reports about more concern and hand wringing about the impact of social media. Finally an anonymous but brave Facebook whistleblower has awakened the somnambulant US elected officials from their summer siesta. Here’s a quote from the write up:
“Children and teens are uniquely vulnerable populations online, and these findings paint a clear and devastating picture of Instagram as an app that poses significant threats to young people’s wellbeing,” the lawmakers said.
Facebook was founded in 2004. Let’s see that works out to about eight days in the timescape of US elected officials, doesn’t it. Why rush?
Stephen E Arnold, September 29, 2021
Cambridge: We Do It Huawei
September 28, 2021
Intelligence agencies are aware China has been ramping up its foreign espionage efforts, largely through civilian operatives. Now The Statesman reports, “Huawei Infiltrates Cambridge University.” We wonder what other universities have also been targeted. Perhaps our neighbor, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville? That institution not too far from an interesting government operation.
Huawei is China’s mammoth technology company and is largely viewed as a security threat, operating on behalf of the Chinese government. The U.S. maintains sanctions against the company and several countries have banned Huawei’s 5G technology over security concerns. The article tells us:
“Huawei has been accused of ‘infiltrating’ a Cambridge University research centre after most of its academics were found to have ties with the Chinese company, The Times, UK reported. Three out of four of the directors at the Cambridge Centre for Chinese Management (CCCM) have ties to the company, and its so-called chief representative is a former senior Huawei vice-president who has been paid by the Chinese government. The university insists that one former Huawei executive has never delivered services to the centre while the firm itself has said any suggestion of impropriety is absurd. Daily Mail reported that critics have claimed that the Huawei ties are a demonstration that the university has allowed the CCCM to be infiltrated by the Chinese company which has been banned from joining Britain’s 5G network. Johnny Patterson, policy director of the Hong Kong campaign group, told the newspaper the university should investigate the relationship between Huawei and the CCCM.”
Not surprisingly, money appears to be a factor. British politician Iain Duncan Smith asserts Cambridge has become reliant on Chinese funding in recent years. He proposes an inquiry into the role of Chinese funding throughout UK institutions and companies. We wonder how many other countries are seeing a similar pattern. It China trying to buy its way into world dominance? Is it working?
Cynthia Murrell, September 28, 2021
Great Moments in Modern Management: The Mailchimp Move
September 28, 2021
I like the phrase “high school science club management methods.” No one else seems to care. I spotted a exemplary management maneuver. “Mailchimp Employees Are Furious After the Company’s Founders Promised to Never Sell, Withheld Equity, and Then Sold It for $12 Billion.” The “it” refers to the company, not “the equity,” but, hey, what does one expect from a mash up of Silicon Valley “real” news and German quality control. You will have to pay to read the original story. Money is needed for copy editors or a BMW lease.
I noted this passage:
The founders told anyone who would listen they would own Mailchimp until they died and bragged about turning down multiple offers. “It was part of the company lore that they would never sell,” said a former Mailchimp employee, who like others interviewed for this story were granted anonymity because they were unauthorized to discuss sensitive internal matters. “Employees were indoctrinated with this narrative.”
The two founders did sell.
Well, what do you know? A high flying online email marketing outfit said one thing and did another. Gee, that rarely happens.
I wish the HSSCMM would catch on. The methods are proliferating like snorts in the high school lunch room when someone mentions “the prom.” Oh, those mail monkeys all grown up!
Stephen E Arnold, September 28, 2021
Life Long Learning or Else
September 28, 2021
Everyone wants to reduce stress, have “quality time”, and do the hybrid work thing with as much flexibility possibility. There’s something to fill the void. Navigate to “The Future of Work: Can You Adapt Fast Enough Before Becoming Unemployed?” The answer is, “Sure, there’s plenty of time in between Zooms, thumbtyping, and doom scrolling.
The write up states:
AI will also impact the future of your employment. A future where AI might give rise to market segregation of low-skill, low pay, and high-skill, high pay. The author Martin Ford predicts a growing inequality based on the hollowing out of job skills.
The expert offering this delightful vision for the Gen Xers is Martin Ford, who is a futurist, a TED talker, and the author of Architects of Intelligence (2018). He is quoted as saying:
Also, inequality can greatly increase as essentially what’s happening with artificial intelligence is that capital is displacing labor and of course capital is owned by very few people; wealthy people tend to own lots of capital, and most other people do not own much. Over time it makes our whole society more unequal. I think this is going to be a real challenge for us in the coming decades.
How does one get ahead of this eight ball? Easy pick a hot field like analytics and become an expert. Don’t like big data or smart software? You can become a management consultant.
Easy. Stress free. Lots of time for mobile device fiddling at a coffee shop.
Stephen E Arnold, September 27, 2021
Google: Is Duplicity THE Game Plan?
September 27, 2021
I read “Google CEO Sought to Keep Incognito Mode Issues Out of Spotlight, Lawsuit Alleges.” Keep in mind that this is an allegation. The write up reports:
Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai in 2019 was warned that describing the company’s Incognito browsing mode as “private” was problematic, yet it stayed the course because he did not want the feature “under the spotlight,” according to a new court filing. Google spokesman José Castañeda told Reuters that the filing “mischaracterizes emails referencing unrelated second and third-hand accounts.”
Like the word “unlimited” in “unlimited downloads”, my hunch is that “incognito” has a special meaning to Googlers. Those who are not Googley will not understand that “incognito” is a flag which makes it possible to pay attention to such actions within that browser function.
I am not Googley; therefore, I inferred that incognito meant:
with one’s identity concealed
There you go. A simple error caused because I, like some other people, assume that definitions matter. They do. What’s left out is that super smart executives at some high tech companies speak their own language. Like “diversity” and “Timnit Gebru.”
The Googley don’t make mistakes with words.
Stephen E Arnold, September 27, 2021
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
