DarkCyber Exclusive: Litigation Likely for Naked Short Selling
May 18, 2020
In a conversation with former CIA professional Robert David Steele, DarkCyber learned of an impending legal action. Steele revealed in a video conference information about naked short selling, a Wall Street tactic to make money outside the boundaries of existing rules and regulations. DarkCyber obtained permission to create a summary of Steele’s main points. You can view the six minute exclusive at this link. In the question-and-answer session, Mr. Steele referenced additional information about this matter. You can access some associated information at:
- http://stopnakedshortselling.org
- Task force recommendation here
- Information provided to the White House here
DarkCyber finds the subject, the allegations, and the concept interesting. Financial fancy dancing is not new, and Steele is focused on an activity pushed out of the public eye due to the torrent of pandemic information.
Stephen E Arnold, May 18, 2020
Semantic SEO: Solution or Runway for Google Ads, Formerly AdWords?
May 14, 2020
I participated in a conversation with Robert David Steele, a former CIA professional, and a former Google software engineer named Zack Vorhies. One of the topics touched upon was Google’s relaxing of its relevance thresholds. A video of extracts from the conversation contains some interesting information; for example, the location of a repository of Google company documents Mr. Vorhies publicly released.
My contribution to the discussion focused on how valuable “relaxed” relevance is. The approach allows Google to display more ads per query. The “relaxed” query means that an ad inventory can be worked through more quickly than it would be IF old fashioned Boolean search were the norm for users. Advertisers’ eyes cross when an explanation of Boolean and “relaxing” a semantic method have to be explained.
DarkCyber’s research team prefers Boolean. None of the researchers need training wheels, Mother Google (which seems to emulate Elsa Krebs of James Bond fame) and WFH Googlers bonding with their mobile phones like a fuzzier, semantic Tommy Bahama methods.
The team spotted “The Newbie’s Information to Semantic Search: Examples and Instruments.” Our interpretation of “newbies” is that the collective noun refers to desperate marketers who have to find a way to boost traffic to a Web site BEFORE going to his or her millennial leader and saying, “Um, err, you know, I think we have to start buying Google Ads.”
Yes, there is a link between the SEO rah rah and the Google online advertising system. The idea is simple. When SEO fails, the owner of the Web page has to buy Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords). In a future post, someone on the team will write about this interesting business process. Just not in this post, thank you.
The article triggering this essay includes what looks like simplified semi-technical diagrams. Plus, there are screenshots featuring Yo Yo Ma. And SEOish jargon; for example:
Coding
Elements
Knowledge as in “knowledge of any Web page.” DarkCyber finds categorical affirmatives a crime against logicians living and semantically dead.
Mapping as in “semantic mapping”
Markup
Semantic
Plus, the write up some to be an advertorial weaponized content object for a product called Optimizer. DarkCyber concluded that the system is a word look up tool, sort of a dumbed down thesaurus for hustlers, unemployed business administration junior college drop outs, and earnest art history majors working in the honorable discipline of SEO.
What’s the semantic analysis convey to a reader unfamiliar with the concepts of “semantic,” “mark up,” and “knowledge.”? The answer, in the view of the DarkCyber team, is less and less useful search results. Mr. Vorhies makes this point in the video cited above. In fact, he wants to go back to the “old Google.” Why? Today’s Google outputs frustratingly off point results.
The article’s main points, based on the DarkCyber interpretation of the article, are:
First, statements like this: “…don’t actually recognize how troublesome it’s to elucidate what’s being communicated with out the assistance of all “beyond-words” indicators.” Yeah, what? DarkCyber thinks the tortured words imply that smart software and data can light up the dark spaces of a user’s query. Stated another way: Search results should answer the user’s question with on point results. Yes, that sounds good. A tiny percentage of people using Google want to conduct an internal reference interview to identify what’s needed, select the online indexes to search, formulate the terms required for a query, and then run the query on multiple systems. Very few users of online search systems wants to scan results, analyzed the most useful content, dedupe and verify data, and then capture facts with appropriate bibliographic information. Many times, this type of process is little for than input for a more refined query. Who has time for a systematic, thorough informationizing process. Why? Saying the word “pizza” to a mobile phone is the way to go. If it works for pizza, the simple query will work for Inconel 235 chemical properties, right? This easy approach is called semantic. In reality it is a canned search with results shaped by advertisers who want clicks.
Second, a person desperately seeking traffic to a Web site must index content on a Web page. Today, “index” is a not-so-useful term. Today one “tags” a page with user assigned terms. Controlled vocabularies play almost no role in modern Web search systems. Just make up a term, then to a TikTok video and become a millionaire. Easy, right? To make tags more useful, one must use synonyms. If a page is about pizza, then a semantic tag is one that might offer the tag “vegetarian.” At least one of the DarkCyber team is old enough to remember being taught how to use a thesaurus and a dictionary. Today, one needs smart software to help the art major navigate the many words available in the English language.
Third, to make the best use of related words, the desperate marketer must embrace “semantic mapping.” The idea is to “visualize relationships between ideas and entities.” (The term “entity” is not defined, which the DarkCyber team is perfectly okay for newbies who need help with indexing.) The idea of a semantic map is a Google generated search page — actually a report of allegedly related data — created by Google’s smart software. In grade school decades ago, students were taken to the library, taught about the “catalog”. Then students would gather information from “sources.” The discovered information was then winnowed and assembled into an essay or a report. If something looked or seemed funny, there was a reference librarian or a teacher to inform the student about the method for verifying facts. Now? Just trust Google. To make the idea vivid, the article provides another Google output. Instead of Yo Yo Ma, the topic is “pizza.” There you go.
The write up reminds the reader to use the third party application Text Optimizer for best results. And the bad news is that “semantic codes” must be attached to these semantically related index terms. One example is the command for deleted text. Indeed, helpful. Another tag is to indicate a direct quotation. No link to a source is suggested. Another useful method for the practicing hustler.
Let’s step back.
The article is all too typical of search engine optimization expertise. The intent is wrapped in the wool of jargon. The main point is to sell a third party software which provides training wheels to the thrashing SEO hungry individual. Plus, the content is not designed to help the user who needs specific information.
The focus of SEO is to add fluff to content. When the SEO words don’t do the job, what does the SEO marketer do?
Buy Google Ads. This is “pay to play”, and it is the one thing that Google relies upon for revenue.
Stephen E Arnold, May 14, 2020
JEDI: A Way Out of the Legal Quagmire
May 14, 2020
DarkCyber noted “Bulging Deficits May Threaten Prized Pentagon Arms Projects.” The write up states:
The government’s $3 trillion effort to rescue the economy from the coronavirus crisis is stirring worry at the Pentagon. Bulging federal deficits may force a reversal of years of big defense spending gains and threaten prized projects like the rebuilding of the nation’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.
The cash crunch may be somewhat less problematic than the news report implies. JEDI, the multi-billion JEDI project, has spawned expensive litigation and interesting publicity for the Administration.
The budget crunch sets the stage for a simple, clean resolution: There’s no money to move forward.
Who wins?
Since a reset will create another round of bids, that’s difficult to say.
A reset becomes an option without besmirching the reputations of those involved.
The bean counters did it again.
Stephen E Arnold, May 14, 2020
Google: Responding to the Bezos Bulldozer Just Slowly
May 14, 2020
Bulldozers have a top speed of what 10 kilometers per hour, maybe less if grinding through abandoned retail store fronts? As part of the DarkCyber research for our Amazon blockchain report, we put in our files “Amazon considers Entering Insurtech Market.” The date of this write up was 2017. The bulldozer has been making progress. AWS seems to be making progress. Amazon’s outstanding online marketing and documentation provides a semi-clear picture of what the Bezos bulldozer has accomplished. See, for example, Insurance.
We found the “truth” centric Thomson Reuters’ story “Insurer Brit and Google Cloud to Launch First Digital Lloyd’s Syndicate” intriguing. We learned:
Insurance company Brit and Google Cloud are together launching the first digital Lloyd’s of London syndicate, accessible from anywhere and at any time.
Thomson Reuters’ perceives that insurers are “in a race to team up with tech giants such as Google.”
Several questions:
- Did the Amazon insurance push fizzle and Thomson Reuters miss the two year old story?
- Did Google overlook the Amazon announcements which began flowing in 2017? For instance, “Amazon Is Coming for the Insurance Industry – Should We Be Worried?”
- Will regulators pay more attention to the financial services push from US technology giants?
DarkCyber cannot answer these questions. However, it would be helpful if a time context for Google’s activities were provided. The information makes clear how quickly or slowly Google responds to the slow moving Bezos bulldozer which is chugging along in some interesting financial markets. Are those camels watching the bulldozer moving forward? Nah, the bulldozer is probably delivering groceries.
Stephen E Arnold, May 14, 2020
Google: Trimming Expenses Signals an Abstemious Tremor
May 12, 2020
Times are changing at the Google. Despite being the world’s best and biggest online advertising service, the company is slowly morphing into an MBA centric operation.
CNBC published “Google Tells Employees They Can’t Expense Food or Other Perks When Working from Home.” The write up states:
The company issued an updated policy in the last week that states employees cannot expense perks while working from home, including food, fitness, home office furniture, decoration or gifts… The policy also states that employees cannot use unused budgets to do things like purchase meals for themselves or their teams during virtual meetings or donate to charities of their choice.
What’s interesting is that I saw Googlers living in their vehicles on or near Google properties in Mountain View. These individuals either chose van life to avoid the pre-Covid commute or because they could not afford a house or apartment.
Since these people live in some cases on Google premises, the change in perk policy may be particularly interesting. For Googlers who relied on the company for food face other hurdles. Nuking burritos in a microwave can get old fast.
What other financial tweaks will be forthcoming as the online ad giant tries to deal with the impact of the natural force of Covid and the unnatural force of the Bezos bulldozer scraping product search and advertising dollars from underneath Googzilla’s paws?
Stephen E Arnold, May 12, 2020
JEDI Warriors: Amazon and Microsoft Soldier On for Money
May 11, 2020
DarkCyber noted “Bid High, Lose, Try Again. Amazon Continues to Push for a JEDI Re-Do.” The main point of the write up is to point out that Amazon is not happy with the disposition of the Department of Defense’s decision to award JEDI to Microsoft.
What’s interesting about the article is that Microsoft implies that it is the provider of the “latest and best technology available.” The author is a corporate vice president of communications. The viewpoint is understandable.
The blog post points out:
Amazon has filed yet another protest – this time, out of view of the public and directly with the DoD – about their losing bid for the JEDI cloud contract. Amazon’s complaint is confidential, so we don’t know what it says. However, if their latest complaint mirrors the arguments Amazon made in court , it’s likely yet another attempt to force a re-do because they bid high and lost the first time.
That’s an interesting assertion. If the bid data were available, perhaps some characterization of what “high” means in this context would be helpful.
DarkCyber understood that Amazon lost the procurement because of a combination of factors, not “price.” Factors included alleged interference by the White House, Amazon’s assurances that on premises and cloud systems would work in the security environment required / envisioned by the DoD, and a lack of support for essential applications like PowerPoint. Price is an important factor, but data about the fees is not floating around in the miasma of rural Kentucky.
Microsoft’s PR VP states:
This latest filing – filed with the DoD this time – is another example of Amazon trying to bog down JEDI in complaints, litigation and other delays designed to force a do-over to rescue its failed bid. Think about it: Amazon spent the better part of last month fighting in court to prevent the DoD from taking a 120-day pause to address a concern flagged by the judge and reevaluate the bids. Amazon fought for a complete re-do and more delay. Amazon lost. The judge granted the DoD’s request for a timeout in the litigation to address her concerns. And now Amazon is at it again, trying to grind this process to a halt, keeping vital technology from the men and women in uniform – the very people Amazon says it supports.
The conclusion of the blog post is that Amazon should tip over its king and concede defeat.
DarkCyber finds this procurement to be interesting. Neither side is likely to walk away.
The reason, however, has little to do with technology or concern with the DoD, war fighters, or any other uplifting notion.
There are 10 billion reasons or more plus additional payments as a result of scope changes, engineering change orders, and ancillary tasks.
The battle is less about ideals and more about money, prestige, and the JEDI deal as a Dyson vacuum cleaner for more government work. The best technology? Yeah, right.
Stephen E Arnold, May 11, 2020
Banjo Targets an F Sharp and Breaks a Polyweb String
May 10, 2020
Policeware vendor Banjo continues to make headlines. (This may be welcome news to NSO Group, another low profile firm which has been in the spotlight recently.)
The Banjo story is one of the features in the DarkCyber video news program which becomes available on Tuesday, May 12, 2020.
Mr. Patton graduated from the University of North Carolina Greensboro. NASCAR helped him get a degree after his discharge from the US Navy. He served in an intelligence unit and participated in military activities in the Middle East. He allegedly races trucks.
There’s an update to the interesting revelations about the founder Damien Patton. Mr. Patton started a company sometime between 2011 and 2013 called Banjo. The original idea was a social media app. The function was to ingest Tweets and other content and display who was nearby. After some excitement about privacy, Mr. Patton pivoted and created a policeware company.
The angle was to use real time live video and content from social media sources like Twitter and Facebook to inform law enforcement about events. Unlike some of the policeware companies, Mr. Patton’s spin was that Banjo would be used to save lives and do good.
By 2016, Mr. Patton has wrapped up about $131 million in funding and bundled his past underneath the firm’s PR blitz. The “news” about Banjo and Patton played up a rags to riches story: From Mr. Patton’s homelessness to the US Navy, from a NASCAR grease pit to entrepreneurial clover.
Until… the story emerged about Mr. Patton’s activities in his youth. The allegations included the KKK, shooting up a religious facility, and rubbing elbows with interesting characters.
Where are we now?
“Banjo CEO Steps Down as Fallout from the Revelations of Past Ties to KKK Continues” brings us up to date. The write up states:
Embattled event detection tech firm Banjo announced Friday that the company’s current CEO and founder, Damien Patton, has resigned and the company will transition to a new leadership team with current Chief Technology Officer Justin R. Lindsey taking over the top position.
And the investors?
One of the principal sources of funding for the company is SoftBank, a firm which has the distinction of investing substantial funds in WeWork.
Now the firm has a new president, probably some agitated investors, and the distinction of becoming the first policeware company to hurtle from obscurity to headlines in a matter of a couple of days.
One question: “What did Banjo do with the investment funds obtained from investors?” DarkCyber opines that the patent filings in the last four years indicate inventing and fencing in its real time services consumed time and effort.
Banjo has amassed a number of patents related to its real time analysis of content. One of the early employees (Yann Landrin-Schweitzer) and co inventor of Banjo’s foundational technology said adios after a short stint at the company. Despite the assertions that the company has hundreds of employees in offices in California and Utah, Banjo has kept a low, low profile since 2016. Paying customers have not be enshrined on the company’s Web site at www.banjo.co.
Net net: This is an interesting story, and it does little to build confidence in the vendors providing specialized services to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. At one time, companies like Banjo kept a low profile, tried to avoid problems, and served a tight lipped clientele. NSO Group broke with tradition. But NSO’s legal spat with Facebook has been shoved off state.
Now we have a NASCAR type booth featuring a banjo player. What does it cost to see the show? John Malloy at BlueRun paid a couple of million. But Masayoshi Son put an estimated $100 million to get a piece of the act.
Was it worth it?
The reviews are just starting to come in, and they are a little negative. This could be a new PR challenge for Jennifer Peck, the PR wizard who helped orchestrate the Damien Patton story.
Observations:
- Having skeletons in one’s closet related to the KKK and a drive by shoot up of a synagogue are not useful when selling to law enforcement and intelligence entities
- Losing contracts and having government officials in Utah scrambling to figure out if Banjo’s algorithms are biases poses a challenge to other policeware vendors. Algorithms are indeed biased, but figuring out where the bias creeps in and how it effects the outputs of a smart system is a tar ball. This is probably not a plus for other policeware vendors.
- Agitating SoftBank’s president Masayoshi Son is possibly an unwelcome side effect of this situation. The investment in Banjo is going to require time and probably more money to get the company back on track.
The DarkCyber video segment about Banjo becomes available at www.arnoldit.com/wordpress early Tuesday, May 12, 2020.
Stephen E Arnold, May 10, 2020
SoftBank in the News: The Caldron of Son, Masayoshi Son, That Is
May 8, 2020
Masayoshi Son, the founder of SoftBank, could feature in a new Star Wars movie. Tentative title: Trouble: The Caldron of Son. (A tip of the hat to The Wrath of Khan, of course.)
A short time ago, Banjo’s founder was allegedly involved in some non-high tech activities; for example, a possible drive by synagogue shooting and a KKK event. Why’s this important? SoftBank wrote a check for $100 million in 2016 to help this cyber intelligence firm become a better Palantir Technologies. Banjo’s secret sauce: Real time video alerts about “events” for law enforcement. Palantir does real time, but it is not exactly the TikTok of the investigative software world. Banjo was supposed to achieve that useful goal: Real time intelligence in real time.
That went south.
DarkCyber noted the real and trustworthy news story “WeWork Co-Founder Neumann Sues SoftBank over Failed Tender Offer.” WeWork, like Banjo, appears to have been a questionable investment. Now the very entrepreneur in whom Son had faith has turned around and bitten the hand that once fed him. How much? A significant portion of $9.6 billion to rescue the WeWork outfit.
What do these two investments have in common?
Answer: Due diligence which seemed to leave some issues in the fog. One issue: Damien Patten’s pre-Banjo life activities. Another issue: The interpersonal relationships and personality quirks of Adam Neumann.
These two events could be sufficient to make The Caldron of Son into a possible Quibi 10 part super successful video event. Who knows maybe the litigation will overlap with Quibi’s adventures with Eko?
DarkCyber perceives the due diligence evidenced in the Banjo and WeWork matters illustrate the weaknesses in the good enough approach to investment research.
One thing is clear: Spreadsheet fever may impair vision. That’s no fun(d).
Stephen E Arnold, May 7, 2020
For more coverage of “good enough,” navigate to this special page.
Adulting: Will It Persist?
May 4, 2020
The lure of leasing a flashy vehicle is strong. Will start ups acquire a reputation for financial probity? DarkCyber is not confident that adulting will endure. The Financial Times (remember its Endeca-based search system?) published “Hottest Silicon Valley Start Ups Begin to Sell Themselves at a Discount.” [Note: this is a link generated by the Financial Times’ security system. You may have to do some experimenting to get the write up to render. You will know you are on the right track when the wonky flesh colored background appears.] Furthermore, the write up asserts, “Balance of power shifts back to investors as founders look to bolster balance sheets.”
The write up includes a Captain Obvious quote attributed to a partner at the upscale law firm Fenwick & West:
“It’s bold and risky to be giving a company a term sheet in this really uncertain environment, and to give that investor downside protection does not seem unfair.”
We love the “does not seem unfair.” Too bad the lawyer did not include a “but for.”
DarkCyber concluded, after pondering the write up on a screen tinted the color of some humanoids’ skin:
- Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice phrase : “pound of flesh”
- Handwaving and virtue signaling are popular
- Bros will be bros
- Lawyers win regardless of the “risk” investors face.
Net net: The bubble is losing its heady mix of methane, sulfur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds or VOCs.
Stephen E Arnold, May 4, 2020
Looking for the story about SEO fraud? If so, click here.
Equifax: An Online Celebration of May Day
May 1, 2020
Here in rural Kentucky it is May Day. Some of the dwellers in the hollows wash their faces with dew to beautify their skin. Others erect poles, tie ribbons to the top, and dance. Others, like me, think about spring, the promise of green shoots of corporate responsibility and socially aligned behavior.
How will Equifax celebrate May Day?
If the information in “Over 275 Days Since Equifax’s Data Breach Settlement and No One Has Been Paid” is accurate, the answer is simple. Collect interest.
The write up asserts:
Equifax was rocked by a massive data breach affecting most (56%) Americans. The company agreed to one of the largest settlements of its kind, $700M to be disbursed…
Then the article claims:
Many of you probably read some of these headlines in the summer of 2019, and many more still filled out the forms after promises of up to $125 per afflicted party. There were several deadlines and additional hoops people had to jump through, but 275 days later: no one has been paid yet, and it’s not clear if they ever will be.
How many days have elapsed since the security issue? About 800.
Is this a cause for celebration?
Stephen E Arnold, May 1, 2020
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