Dark Web Hacking Site Changes Hands
June 29, 2016
Navigating the Dark Web can be a hassle, because many of the Web sites are shut down before you have the chance to learn what nefarious content, services, or goods are available. Some of these sites go down on their own, but law enforcement had a part in dismantling them as well. Some Dark Web sites are too big and encrypted to be taken down and sometimes they exchange hands, such as Silk Road and now Hell. Motherboard explains that “Dark Web Hacking Forum ‘Hell’ Appears To Have New Owners.”
The Real Deal, a computer exploit market, claimed to take ownership of Hell, the hacking forum known for spreading large data dumps and stolen data. Real Deal said of their acquisition:
“ ‘We will be removing the invite-only system for at least a week, and leave the “vetting” forum for new users,’ one of The Real Deal admins, who also used the handle The Real Deal, told Motherboard in an encrypted chat. ‘It’s always nice to have a professional community that meets our market’s original niche, hopefully it will bring some more talent both to the market and to the forums,’ the admin continued. ‘And it’s no secret that we as admins would enjoy the benefit of ‘first dibs’ on buying fresh data, resources, tools, etc.’”
The only part of Hell that has new administrators is the forum due to the old head had personal reasons that required more attention. Hell is one of the “steadier” Dark Web sites and it played a role in the Adult FriendFinder hack, was the trading place for Mate1 passwords, and hosted breaches from a car breathalyzer maker.
Standard news for the Dark Web, until the next shutdown and relaunch.
Whitney Grace, June 29, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google Search: Retrievers Lose. Smart Software Wins
June 28, 2016
I scanned a number of write ups about Google’s embrace of machine learning and smart software. I supplement my Google queries with the results of other systems. Some of these have their own index; for example, Yandex.ru and Exalead. Others are metasearch engines will suck in results and do some post processing to help answer the users’ questions. Others are disappointing and I check them out when I have a client who is willing to pay for stone flipping; for example, DuckDuckGo, iSeek, or the estimable Qwant. (I love quirky spelling too.)
I read “RankBrain Third Most Important Factor Determining Google Search Results.” Here’s the quote I noted:
Google is characteristically fuzzy on exactly how it improves search (something to do with the long tail? Better interpretation of ambiguous requests?) but Jeff Dean [former AltaVista wizard] says that RankBrain is “involved in every query,” and affects the actual rankings “probably not in every query but in a lot of queries.” What’s more, it’s hugely effective. Of the hundreds of “signals” Google search uses when it calculates its rankings (a signal might be the user’s geographical location, or whether the headline on a page matches the text in the query), RankBrain is now rated as the third most useful. “It was significant to the company that we were successful in making search better with machine learning,” says John Giannandrea. “That caused a lot of people to pay attention.”Pedro Domingos, the University of Washington professor who wrote The Master Algorithm, puts it a different way: “There was always this battle between the retrievers and the machine learning people,” he says. “The machine learners have finally won the battle.”
I have noticed in the last year, that I am unable to locate certain documents when I use the words and phrases which had served me well before smart software became the cat’s pajamas.
One recent example was my need to locate a case example about a German policeman’s trials and tribulations with the Dark Web. When I first located this document, I was trying to verify an anecdote shared with me after one of my intelligence community lectures.
I had the document in my file and I pulled it up on my monitor. The document in question is the work of an outfit and person labeled “Lars Hilse.” The title of the write up is “Dark Web & Bitcoin: Global Terrorism “Threat Assessment. The document was published in April 2013 with an update issued in November 2013. (That document was the source or maybe confirmed the anecdote about the German policeman and his Dark Web research.)
For my amusement, I wondered if I could use the new and improved Google Web search to locate the document. I display section 4.8 on my screen. The heading of the section is “Extortion (of Law Enforcement Personnel).
I entered the phrase into Google without quotes. Here’s the first page of results:
None of the hits points to the document with the five word phrase.
Enterprise Search Vendors: A Partial List
June 24, 2016
I spoke with a confused and unbudgeted worker bee at a giant outfit this weekend. The stellar professional was involved in figuring out what to do about enterprise search. The story is one I have heard many times in the last 40 years. The system doesn’t meet the needs of the users. The system is over budget. The system does not index in real time. Yadda yadda yadda.
The big question was, “What are the enterprise search vendors offering a system which actually works, does not experience downtime, cost overruns, and user outrage. Note that this is not the word “outage.” The word is “outrage”.
I don’t know of such a system. As a helpful 72 year old, I rattled off a list of vendors who purport to offer Big Data capable, next generation semantic-linguistic-NLP systems. True to form, I repeated the list twice. I thought he would cry.
For those of you who want to know the vendors I plucked from my list of outfits in the search and content processing game, I reproduce the list. If you want upsides, downsides, license fees, gotchas, and other assorted details, I will provide the information. But since you are not likely to buy me dinner this evening, you will have to pay for my thoughts.
Here’s the selected list. Reader, start your browser:
- Attivio
- Coveo
- dtSearch
- Elasticsearch (Lucene)
- Fabasoft Mindbreeze
- IBM Omnifind
- IHS Goldfire
- Lookeen
- Lucid Works (Solr)
- Marklogic
- Maxxcat
- Polyspot
- Sinequa
- Solcara
- Squiz Funnelback
- Thunderstone
- X1
- Yippy
There are quite a few outfits whose systems do search like Palantir, but I trimmed the list to companies for my worried pal.
What’s interesting is that most of these outfits explain that their systems are much, much more than search and retrieval. Believe it or not as Mr. Ripley used to say.
Factoid: Most of these outfits have been around for quite a few years. Only Elasticsearch has managed to become a “brand” in the search space. What happened to Autonomy, Convera, Endeca, Fast Search & Transfer, and Verity since I wrote the first three editions of the Enterprise Search Report between 2003 and 2007? Ugly for some.
Search is a tough problem and has yet to deliver what users expect. Remember Google killed its search appliance. Ads are a better business because they spell money for Alphabet.
Stephen E Arnold, June 24, 2016
Microsoft Makes Fresh Effort to Position Bing
June 21, 2016
Microsoft is gearing up for a fresh challenge to Google, with a Bing rebranding effort centered on the new “Bing Network.” This marks a different approach to leveraging the MS search platform, we learn from the piece, “Microsoft Rebrands Bing, Challenges Google” at SearchMarketingDaily. The incorporation of Yahoo has a lot to do with it. Reporter Laurie Sullivan writes:
“Microsoft’s message says the network pulls together in-the-moment data from across its mobile, global and local partners to support products that people use daily. And that network continues to grow. With the transition of all U.S. accounts, people and account management from Yahoo to Bing, the network represents an expanding set of partnerships such as AOL, and The Wall Street Journal, which adds more searches and clicks to the network daily, wrote Stephen Sirich, GM of advertising and consumer monetization group at Microsoft, in a post.”
Sullivan later reminds us:
“The shift in brand strategy also marks an end to the Yahoo-Bing Network. The renegotiated search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo in April 2015, five years into the 10-year deal, has ad sales and account management returning to their respective companies.”
The article discusses reasons Microsoft has struggled so to position Bing as an alternative to Google. For example, says one professional, Bing should not have tried to change the model Google had set up, and users had grown accustomed to, for Internet search. Also, Bing’s brand recognition has always lagged behind that of Google. Perhaps that is about to change with this renewed effort. See the article for some more background and stats on Bing’s performance.
Cynthia Murrell, June 21, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google Springboard: The Shadow of Verity and Yahoo
June 17, 2016
I read “Google Launches Springboard Enterprise Search Tool, Revamps Sites.” Ah, thoughts flowed when I learned that a Google customer can search Google Docs and Google Drive soon.
Anyone remember Verity? What about Yahoo semantic search? No. The wizard influencing both of these outstanding services (well, outstanding might be too strong a word) is a person who has cast a shadow over information access for many years. I recall one great idea floated about 25 years ago. Users of the Verity system would pay for each cell of structured data a query “touched.” Yep, taxi meter pricing. Another great thought was offered when the individual told a BearStearns’ professional and me in no uncertain terms that Yahoo’s semantic search methods were better than Ramanathan Guha’s. Okay. Good assertion. Where are those thoughts now? Yes, searching Google services for one’s own content. Einstein, you have been aced.
The answer is Google Springboard. Yep, a service from the Alphabet Google thing which allows a Google services user to — hand on to your information access hat, gentle reader — to “will help them search more easily through and find information from Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Drive, Groups and other applications.”
I know that Alphabet Google is doing a bang up job in many technical disciplines. There is the “solving death” thing. There are the Loon balloons. There are self driving cars with sticky hoods. Oh, so much innovation.
The notion that the search function in Gmail will be extended to the goodies tucked into other Google cloud services is a bold move. For an advertising company, the shadow of Verity and Yahoo falls over precision and recall at Google.
Oh, wait. Google has not yet solved death. When the new service becomes available, perhaps finding an item in calendar or in a Google Doc will become a reality. Innovation never rests at the Alphabet Google thing.
Stephen E Arnold, June 18, 2016
Public Opinion of Dark Web May Match Media Coverage
June 17, 2016
A new survey about the Dark Web was released recently. Wired published an article centered around the research, called Dark Web’s Got a Bad Rep: 7 in 10 People Want It Shut Down, Study Shows. Canada’s Center for International Governance Innovation surveyed 24,000 people in 24 countries about their opinion of the Dark Web. The majority of respondents, 71 percent across all countries and 72 percent of Americans, said they believed the “dark net” should be shut down. The article states,
“CIGI’s Jardine argues that recent media coverage, focusing on law enforcement takedowns of child porn sites and bitcoin drug markets like the Silk Road, haven’t improved public perception of the dark web. But he also points out that an immediate aversion to crimes like child abuse overrides mentions of how the dark web’s anonymity also has human rights applications. ‘There’s a knee-jerk reaction. You hear things about crime and its being used for that purpose, and you say, ‘let’s get rid of it,’’ Jardine says.”
We certainly can attest to the media coverage zoning in on the criminal connections with the Dark Web. We cast a wide net tracking what has been published in regards to the darknet but many stories, especially those in mainstream sources emphasize cybercrime. Don’t journalists have something to gain from also publishing features revealing the aspects the Dark Web that benefit investigation and circumvent censorship?
Megan Feil, June 17, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Behind the Google Search Algorithm
June 16, 2016
Trying to reveal the secrets behind Google’s search algorithm is almost harder than breaking into Fort Knox. Google keeps the 200 ranking factors a secret, what we do know is that keywords do not play the same role that they used to and social media does play some sort of undisclosed factor. Search Engine Journal shares that “Google Released The Top 3 ranking Factors” that offers a little information to help SEO.
Google Search Quality Senior Strategist Andrey Lipattsev shared that the three factors are links, content, and RankBrain-in no particular order. RankBrain is an artificial intelligence system that relies on machine learning to help Google process search results to push the more relevant search results to the top of the list. SEO experts are trying to figure out how this will affect their jobs, but the article shares that:
“We’ve known for a long time that content and links matter, though the importance of links has come into question in recent years. For most SEOs, this should not change anything about their day-to-day strategies. It does give us another piece of the ranking factor puzzle and provides content marketers with more ammo to defend their practice and push for growth.”
In reality, there is not much difference, except that few will be able to explain how artificial intelligence ranks particular sites. Nifty play, Google.
Whitney Grace, June 15, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
SLI Systems Hopeful as Losses Narrow and Revenue Grows
June 14, 2016
The article titled SLI Systems Narrows First-Half Loss on Scoop reports revenue growth and plans to mitigate losses. SLI Systems is a New Zealand-based software as a service (SaaS) business that provides cloud-based search resources to online retailers. Founded in 2001, SLI Systems has already weathered a great deal of storms in the form of the dot-com crash that threatened to stall the core technology (developed at GlobalBrain.) According to a statement from the company, last year’s loss of $502K was an improvement from the loss of $4.1M in 2014. The article states,
“SLI shares have dropped 18 percent in the past 12 months, to trade recently at 76 cents, about half the level of the 2013 initial public offering price of $1.50. The software developer missed its sales forecast for the second half of the 2015 year but is optimistic new chief executive Chris Brennan and Martin Onofrio as chief revenue officer, both Silicon Valley veterans, can drive growth in revenue and earnings.”
The SLI of SLI stands for Search, Learn and (appropriately) Improve. The company hopes to achieve sustainable growth without raising additional capital by continuing to focus on innovation and customer retention rates, which slipped from 90% to 87% recently. Major clients include Lenovo, David Jones, Harvey Norman, and Paul Smith.
Chelsea Kerwin, June 14, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Websites Found to Be Blocking Tor Traffic
June 8, 2016
Discrimination or wise precaution? Perhaps both? MakeUseOf tells us, “This Is Why Tor Users Are Being Blocked by Major Websites.” A recent study (PDF) by the University of Cambridge; University of California, Berkeley; University College London; and International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley confirms that many sites are actively blocking users who approach through a known Tor exit node. Writer Philip Bates explains:
“Users are finding that they’re faced with a substandard service from some websites, CAPTCHAs and other such nuisances from others, and in further cases, are denied access completely. The researchers argue that this: ‘Degraded service [results in Tor users] effectively being relegated to the role of second-class citizens on the Internet.’ Two good examples of prejudice hosting and content delivery firms are CloudFlare and Akamai — the latter of which either blocks Tor users or, in the case of Macys.com, infinitely redirects. CloudFlare, meanwhile, presents CAPTCHA to prove the user isn’t a malicious bot. It identifies large amounts of traffic from an exit node, then assigns a score to an IP address that determines whether the server has a good or bad reputation. This means that innocent users are treated the same way as those with negative intentions, just because they happen to use the same exit node.”
The article goes on to discuss legitimate reasons users might want the privacy Tor provides, as well as reasons companies feel they must protect their Websites from anonymous users. Bates notes that there is not much one can do about such measures. He does point to Tor’s own Don’t Block Me project, which is working to convince sites to stop blocking people just for using Tor. It is also developing a list of best practices that concerned sites can follow, instead. One site, GameFAQs, has reportedly lifted its block, and CloudFlare may be considering a similar move. Will the momentum build, or must those who protect their online privacy resign themselves to being treated with suspicion?
Cynthia Murrell, June 8, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Google Voice Search: An Optimistic View
June 7, 2016
I read “Google Voice Search Records and Keeps Conversations People Haver Around their Phones but You Can Delete the Files.” I like the “you can delete the files. How does one know what has or has not been deleted in this era of real time cloud goodness?
I assume that the information in the write up is accurate.
The write up states:
The feature works as a way of letting people search with their voice, and storing those recordings presumably lets Google improve its language recognition tools as well as the results that it gives to people.
If you want to “delete” these recordings, the write up asserts:
It’s found by heading to Google’s history page and looking at the long list of recordings. The company has a specific audio page and another for activity on the web, which will show you everywhere Google has a record of you being on the internet.
Optimism is good. One presidential hopeful believed certain emails had been deleted. I am not sure that the FSB agrees. It seems that the Independent’s “real journalist” was not aware of “Your Data Is Forever.”
Stephen E Arnold, June 7, 2016
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