Yandex: Is It Time to Say Hello, Goodbye?
March 9, 2022
For about 80 to 90 percent of the people in North America and Western Europe, “search” means Googzilla’s service. Is it useful? Legions will say, “Google’s search service is the bestest ever.” Others are more comfortable running queries on Exalead Search, Swisscows, and one of the new kids on the block like Kagi or Wecript, among others.
My personal plan of attack, as I shared with the founder of Kagi, is to run specific queries across a group of selected search engines. (Sorry, I don’t provide those in this unloved, and mostly ignored free blog. However, if you attend my 2022 National Cyber Crime Conference lecture on finding information, you will get a list of about 500 useful search/content services.)
Why am I talking about “free” or ad-supported Web search. Three reasons:
- Today’s search “experts” don’t pay much attention to the lack of overlap in results. Hey, reading pages of results and cross checking them is too annoying. Let’s do the TikTok thing is the way to go.
- Web search engines do not disclose what I call the “editorial policy.” How often does Googzilla update results eight links deep on the Department of Energy’s public facing Web site? Or, where does DuckDuckGo get its results? Or, why doesn’t IxQuick/StartPage disclose which search systems generate its results? Or why are Gigablast results for images not really images? If one discloses an editorial policy, then the shallowness, freshness, and bias of the spidering mechanisms is disclosed. Who wants that? Certainly not the Web search outfits.
- Serious or professional Web search systems charge money and deliver high value results simply not obtainable via free Web search systems. Why don’t these outfits market to the users of free Web search systems? These outfits don’t want to end up in an RV at the Israel River Campground in the White Mountains. A low profile is a prudent profile.
I noted this article “Russian Tech Giant Yandex Says Might Default” on Friday, March 3, 2022. I have no idea if the information in the write up is accurate, but it is suggestive. I learned that the Russian Web search engine, which is “free”, may be a goner. I noted this passage:
…the company, often called the “Russian Google” for its size and breadth of services, said that if it is suspended for more than five trading days, owners of certain bonds will legally be able to redeem their debt with interest. “The Yandex group as a whole does not currently have sufficient resources to redeem the notes in full,” the company said.
The language “suspended” and “sufficient resources” are to my way of thinking a flashing yellow light. Could that light go red?
Yandex might be hauled off to the Web search system grave yard. How will this affect Googzilla? Not at all. However, start up Web search outfits may be in a position to hit up funding sources for more cash in order to provide Yandex users with a viable option.
That sounds like a slide deck phrase, doesn’t it.
Stephen E Arnold, March 9, 2022
Palantir May Be the New DCGS
March 9, 2022
It is perhaps more important than ever for our military to reliably, efficiently, and securely relay data to the other side of the world. To that end, the army is putting its faith in a firm we have covered often over the last several years. DefenseNews reports, “Palantir Scores $34M Order for Army Data Platform.” Reporter Colin Demarest writes:
“The Army Intelligence Data Platform deal includes software, training, cybersecurity activities and help with testing and initial standup of the capability, the Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors said in an announcement Feb. 22. The award signals the next step for what was once known as the Distributed Common Ground System Capability Drop 2.”
So DCGS is dead, long live AIDP. According to a statement from the Army’s Project Manager Intelligence Systems and Analytics, the platform acts as that branch’s foundation for internal intelligence and its connection to data from the intelligence community. The write-up continues:
“The Army Acquisition Support Center describes the Distributed Common Ground System as a means to buttress a commander’s understanding of threats and his or her environment. It consists of both hardware, like laptops, and software, like data filters and analytics. The Department of Defense in February 2020 named Palantir and BAE Systems as competitors on a $823 million contract to upgrade the Army’s facet of the Distributed Common Ground System. In March 2018, the Defense Department said Palantir and Raytheon would share a $876 million contract for the Distributed Common Ground System-Army Capability Drop 1.”
Perhaps this announcement will boost the intrepid firm’s stock prices. But will this technology work if the cloud goes south or a laptop fails and a replacement cannot access the data? Of course. High tech always performs as long as there are government agencies with hefty budgets.
Cynthia Murrell, March 9, 2022
NSO Group: Sued by an Outfit with Deep Pockets
March 9, 2022
Now NSO Groups has an opportunity to see how legal eagles flock when Tim Apple says, “Let’s take NSO Group to court.” Tim Apple seems like such a nice person, but appearances can be deceiving.
A short news item from the Thomson Reuters outfit which wants me to trust them published “Apple Files Lawsuit against NSO Group, Saying US Citizens Were Targets.” Is this true? Tim Apple appears to believe that NSO Group took this action, but did NSO Group? NSO Group, like Time Apple’s outfit, makes software. NSO Group then licenses its system and platform to government entities. Following this logic, Tim Apple has to prove that NSO Group did the spying. But I am no lawyer, so maybe Apple’s actual approach is different from what appeared in the news story from the news organization that wants my trust.
I don’t trust too many people, and I certainly don’t trust those in the “real” news game. My point about the Tim Apple story is that once again the NSO Group is in the public eye. More specifically an outfit called OSY Technologies is named and sharing the NSO Spotlight.
I have been clear and consistent that the marketing infused MBA thought processes of some specialized software companies was off base. I long for the good old days when vendors of technology purpose built to meet the needs of intelligence and law enforcement agencies was essentially secret. I remember the good old days of specialist conferences when people from Trovicor would stop talking when an unfamiliar face walked by the booth. No more. If I walk by a booth I could score a baseball cap with a logo or get a T shirt with a cute message and the vendor’s logo.
How about a week without the NSO Group? Unfortunately the knock on effects of hyper active people trying to make big money from a finite customer base has put intelware on the equivalent of a 24 hour Twitter stream, a Telegram public group message, and the billboard in Times Square.
The publicity is bad. The litigation, if it takes place, ensures that intelware will become more well known. I can hardly wait for diagrams showing how the NSO Group platform interacts with its software on a target’s mobile device.
Will bad actors pay attention? Oh, boy, will they. I don’t need synthetic data, a Bayesian engine, and some smart software to understand that more downside exists now than before I read the real news about Tim Apple’s flock of lawyers preparing to circle what might be a possible meal.
Stephen E Arnold, March 9, 2022
Stephen E Arnold
Online Gambling in Brazil: Pinga and Soccer Fun
March 8, 2022
In the 1950s, my family lived in Brazil. Our city was Campinas. At that time, it was an okay, sort of an out-of-the-way place. I recall a couple of things from my childhood. Mr. Ricci, a family friend, pointed out individuals who drank pinga at a tiny bar, took a couple of staggering steps, and leaned against a wall until the shock wave subsided. Pinga (now called cachaça or caninha) was cheap and packed an alcohol content around 38 to 48 percent. I also recall street vendors with stands papered with lottery tickets. The idea was that Brazilians really believed that a big pay day awaited the lucky gambler. Mr. Ricci, as I recall, said, “Own the lottery. Don’t play the lottery.” After watching the pinga lovers and the lottery ticket buyers, I carried away a life long aversion to alcohol and gambling. Pretty silly, right?
If a young child about 11 years old could figure out that many Brazilians liked gambling and distilled sugar cane, one would think others would too. Nope. Just do a couple of carnivals or check out the action outside the stadium when Palmeiras plays Fluminense.
I thought about my memories of Campinas as I read “Brazil’s Move to Legalize Sports Gambling Is Fueling a Digital Gold Rush.” The article states:
With the help of Eccles, the Brazilian startup followed a game plan similar to FanDuel’s and convinced regulators that fantasy gaming should be considered a game of skill, rather than luck. Now, armed with 1.6 million users in Brazil, Rei do Pitaco is ready to move into traditional sports gambling when it becomes fully regulated. [Emphasis added]
Yep, skill. Just like card counting or being James Bond at the baccarat table.
Several observations:
- Digitizing gambling puts Teflon on exploiting some people who bet on many things
- Pinga lubricates decision making for some people
- Organized operators can put a finger on the scales in some athletic contests
Net net: Digitizing lowest common denominator activities is a way for some to demonstrate skill. Sure enough.
Stephen E Arnold, March 7, 2022
Software Bloat: Why Popular Now?
March 8, 2022
I think I spotted four references to a January 2022 write up called “Why (Enterprise) Software Is Bloated.” The write up states:
People are often baffled why enterprise software is slow, uses lots of memory, and is generally a pain to work with.
Those characteristics did in a number of outfits whose marketing assertions were essentially science fiction. Examples? Delphes, Entopia, and Fast Search & Transfer. There are other examples as well, but the companies share a common human failing: Describing the future instead of building a product that delivers the future.
Overall, the article highlights some answers to the big Why?
Among the reasons I remember are:
- It is easier to build and just wait until the low code or no code “revolution” upends one’s organic coffee
- Companies want to start selling, presumably to keep funding sources happy and to get cash to hire people who can write what the art history major in marketing put in a slide deck
- Companies want to sell maintenance contracts which are an attempt to shift to a subscription service for some activities
- Companies have specific needs. With each sale the “enterprise software” becomes a suit tailored for someone with class (maybe Prince Andrew?)
- Partners get the job of making the enterprise software work. That can be exciting.
- Software development as it is practiced today in inherently complex and its DNA includes unexpected issues.
I have a different take on the subject. Let’s be contrarian.
REASON 1: No one cares about the product. The focus is on telling a story, getting cash (either from a funding source or from a customer).
REASON 2: Staff are unable to make the product work in a way that solves a customer problem the customer expected the system to solve.
REASON 3: Shifting responsibility and blame. Yep, integrators, certified partners, college pals looking for something new to sell, and so on.
REASON 4: The short cut technologies (open source, the cloud, and no or low code methods) are too time consuming and costly to make work like that slide deck said they would.
REASON 5: Demand for services may be slowing. See “Service Side of US Economy Grew in February at Alowest Pace in a Year, ISM Shows.”
Is there a way out of this quagmire of enterprise software? Sure, just hire a wizard, attend conferences, and update the slide deck. Alternatively demand more and look for lower cost options.
Now the Why? Enterprise software customers are finally making a feeble attempt to get vendors to do better because money… Will it work? The answer is in the next enterprise software vendor’s slide deck.
Stephen E Arnold, March 7, 2022
Fake-News Spotter AI Boasts 96 Percent Accuracy
March 8, 2022
A platform developed at the University of São Paulo’s Center for Mathematical Sciences Applied to Industry (CeMEAI) could provide a solution to the scourge of online disinformation. ZDNet reports, “Brazilian Academics Create Automated Fake News Detection Platform.” The AI tool analyzes content written in Brazilian Portuguese and has demonstrated an impressive 96% accuracy. Contributing editor Angelica Marl writes:
“In an interview with FAPESP’s news agency, project coordinator and technology transfer director Francisco Louzada Neto said the goal of the project is ‘to offer society an additional tool to identify, not only subjectively, whether a news item is false or not.’ The system uses statistical methods to analyze writing characteristics, such as words used or more frequently used grammatical classes. These are then fed into a machine learning-based classifier, which is able to distinguish patterns of language, vocabulary and semantics of fake and real news, and automatically infer whether the content submitted to the platform is false. The models were trained with a massive database of real and false news and were exposed to the vocabulary used in over 100,000 articles published over the last five years. The researchers will aim to use the false news related to the upcoming presidential elections, as well as content related to the Covid-19 pandemic to further calibrate the models.”
Researchers acknowledge their platform could be used by the writers of fake news to get better at the task, but that is the bane of many tools used to thwart bad actors. Marl tells us the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court just signed agreements with eight of the largest social media platforms to fight disinformation. Perhaps CeMEAI’s creation can help them do just that.
Cynthia Murrell, March 8, 2022
Management: A Flaw of Information Technology Outfits
March 7, 2022
I read “Enterprise IT Finds Itself in a War Zone – With No Script. This is an interesting essay.
One passage about “management” and “leaders” struck me as on the money. Here it is:
the lack of leadership is the most pressing. That’s not the sector’s fault: effective embargoes need coherent and unambiguous governmental and regulatory guidance, neither of which are visible.
The context is the turmoil roiling established business processes. When outfits like McKinsey & Co. of opioid fame pull out, something is up. I don’t think it is leadership. Management wants to avoid more problems.
For large technology companies run by confident wizardly individuals, the statement in the cited article cannot be dismissed. The essay, I believe, is accurate. After all, if one commands billions of dollars and bytes, the political turmoil is not “our” problem.
The failure of management in the information technology sector is what Henry James’ wordy bother said. Each person has a “certain blindness.” I think this means that the companies struggling to respond to the “troubles” are unable to perceive what other see clearly.
With information technology becoming the lubricant for business, a lack of leadership suggests that the digital supercars racing down the information super highway have a higher probability of spinning out of control.
I would suggest the script is a variation of “Fast and Furious.” Just a terrible rewrite with a less happy ending.
Stephen E Arnold, March 7, 2022
Facebook: A Source of Reliable Information.
March 7, 2022
I believe everything I read online. Here’s a good example, which I pulled from the money hungry click addict BBC:
Facebook’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said that “soon millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information“.
I know I thing of Facebook as providing great content for eight and nine year olds. I know Facebook is capable of dogooderness. I know that Facebook is trying really hard to be as wonderful as possible.
But I don’t think of Facebook as a source of “reliable information.”
This extraordinary characterization of Facebook as a source of “reliable information” appears in the BBC article “Facebook Hits Out at Russia Blocking Its Platforms.” Imagine, a country engaged in a special action which terminates with extreme prejudice young and old having the unmitigated gall to block Zuckbook, er, Facebook.
The write up reports:
The statement says the block on Facebook platforms has been introduced “to prevent violations of the key principles of the free flow of information”.
This is a battle of euphemisms and New Speak. Quite a pair of global powers, Facebook and Russia.
I love that “reliable information” angle. I suppose that is what Dozhd TV channel and Ekho Moskvy radio executives said too.
Stephen E Arnold, March 7, 2022
NSO Group: Now US Lawmakers Want Pegasus Information
March 7, 2022
Imagine a hearing in which elected government officials ask questions about NSO Group’s Pegasus. Once that technical information is internalized, the members will want to know if a US government agency and a company wearing a T shirt with the word “Privacy, Security, and China” printed on it use the specialized software.
“US Lawmakers Demand Answers from Apple and the FBI about the Agency’s Alleged Use of Pegasus Spyware” states:
…a pair of lawmakers in the US House are asking for some answers about the situation. The letters were signed by Rep. Jim Jordan, who is a ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Mike Johnson, a ranking member of the subcommittee on civil rights. The letters were seeking information on “the FBI’s acquisition, testing, and use of NSO’s spyware.”, which indicated that the FBI has acquired NSO-developed spyware tools like Pegasus and Phantom.
Will this inquiry end up in a public hearing with breathless real news people infected with Potomac Fever reporting on what once was secret?
I don’t know. But it would be a cause to celebrate if the NSO Group matter would drift into the background. Alas. Now that elected officials “demand” answers, I think I will be subjected to another flow of Pegasus/Phantom talk.
Apple is not dragging its feet in the orchard. The company has sued NSO Group for stuff only lawyers understand in addition to billing.
Will senior officials from Tim Apple’s company and the FBI participate in what will be memorialized on cable TV, YouTube, and possibly the China affiliated TikTok?
I don’t know. What I do know is that knock on effects of the NSO Group’s cowboy approach to the digital Wild West is bigger news that Buffalo Bill’s traveling circus.
Stephen E Arnold, March 7, 2022
Virtual Landscapes Treacherous Terrain for Children
March 7, 2022
Society was not ready. Despite decades of science fiction that predicted the seedy side of the metaverse, those making it a reality are failing to protect minors who wander into its dark corners. BBC News reports, “Metaverse App Allows Kids into Virtual Strip Clubs.” Reporters Angus Crawford and Tony Smith describe the disturbing visit a BBC researcher made to one of those dives. They write:
“A researcher posing as a 13-year-old girl witnessed grooming, sexual material, racist insults and a rape threat in the virtual-reality world. The children’s charity [the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children] said it was ‘shocked and angry’ at the findings. Head of online child safety policy Andy Burrows added the investigation had found ‘a toxic combination of risks’. The BBC News researcher – using an app with a minimum age rating of 13 – visited virtual-reality rooms where avatars were simulating sex. She was shown sex toys and condoms, and approached by numerous adult men.”
The post shares both a video of the researcher describing the experience and her written summary, so navigate there for her alarming account. It is even more disturbing to learn actual children, not just undercover researchers, are confirmed to be subjected to these experiences. We learn:
“BBC News also spoke to a safety campaigner who has spent months investigating VRChat and who now posts his videos on YouTube. He has spoken to children who say they were groomed on the platform and forced to take part in virtual sex. … The safety campaigner explained because VR is so immersive, children actually have to act out sexual movements.”
We also have this distressing detail from Limina Immersive owner Catherine Allen, who was researching virtual reality experiences:
“She described one incident in a Meta-owned app where she encountered a seven-year-old girl. A group of men surrounded them both and joked about raping them. Ms Allen said she had to step between the men and the child to protect her. ‘I shouldn’t have had to do that, but that’s because there’s no moderation, or apparently very little moderation.’”
Some may downplay this problem because it is not “real life,” but the purpose of VR is to make things a realistic as possible. Especially for children, the distinction can be merely academic; the trauma is no doubt real. The write-up criticizes Facebook for making unregulated third-party content available through its Meta Quest app store with absolutely no age verification required. Zuckbook points out it provides tools that allow players to block other users but, considering the risks, that is too little too late. The article suggests parents check what VR apps their kids are using and test drive them for themselves. We also receive this helpful tip:
“Many apps allow users to simultaneously ‘cast’ their experience to a phone or laptop, so a parent can watch what’s going on at the same time as their child plays.”
It is up to parents to be vigilant, since those providing access to the metaverse are more interested in profits than in our children’s safety.
Cynthia Murrell, March 7, 2022
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