Facebook: Unified Messaging Comin’ Down the Pike
August 17, 2020
What does a monopoly do when regulators thinking about breaking up a big company do? That’s easy. The big company “integrates” its features, infrastructure, and services. If the big company does this “integration” in a clever way, going back to the pre-integration days is possible, but time consuming, expensive, and probably a job that will take more than a couple of days or a week.
“Facebook Is Sliding Into Instagram’s DMs. Literally” reports:
Facebook apparently began rolling out an update that integrates its Instagram and Facebook Messenger chat systems in the U.S. The new integration was announced quietly via a cheerful pop-up message that appeared to users when they opened Instagram on their phones on iOS and Android.
The article points out:
Allowing cross-messaging between Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp has been part of Zuckerberg’s master plan for some time. Although each of apps will remain standalone, Facebook is working on integrating their underlying technical infrastructure. This means that people who only use one of Facebook’s apps could communicate with others in its empire, even if they don’t use the same app.
That’s a good point; however, it is not the main point in DarkCyber’s opinion. The goal of Facebook is to be impervious to break up. Integration is Job One. The fact that Facebook can add to Apple’s woes is like a hot fudge ice cream treat with a cherry or small fruit on top.
Life for Facebook was easier before its methods made headline news and caught the attention of usually sleepy government officials. So, heigh ho, heigh ho, to integration we go.
Stephen E Arnold, August 17, 2020
Amazon: A Burr under a Presidential Saddle?
August 14, 2020
This may just be an example of how a national scheme plays out on the local level. The Portland Press Herald reports, “Amazon Gets Priority While Mail Gets Delayed, Say Letter Carriers.” Mark Seitz, a Portland postal service veteran and president of the Maine State Association of Letter Carriers and the National Association of Letter Carriers Local 92, filed a complaint on July 13 with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General. Corroborated by two colleagues, Seitz alleges Portland’s Postmaster James Thornton deliberately delayed first-, second-, and third-class mail by ordering Amazon’s fourth-class packages be sorted first. Willfully delaying mail, it turns out, is a federal offense. Interesting.
Reporter Reuben Schafir informs us:
“Seitz’s complaint says that Thornton had done so on June 29, July 6 and July 13, all Mondays when the volume of mail is especially challenging. Two other carriers say it happens even more frequently. … According to three letter carriers working out of the Portland office, enough mail to fill four to five ‘shark cages’ – 4-by-5-foot bins containing mail – have been left in each of the office’s five units overnight multiple days per week. Carriers estimated that 1,500 to 2,000 first-class and priority packages were delivered late each time this happened. Typically, letter carriers sort a small amount of mail in the morning before they begin their routes. If mail isn’t sorted by the time carriers leave, they return midday to collect it or an assistant carrier would step in and ensure that all the mail is delivered on time. Now, according to letter carriers inside the Portland post office, clerks are told to stop sorting by 8:30 a.m., an hour and a half before most carriers leave for their routes, and are then sent home to cut costs, leaving first-class parcels unsorted in the office overnight.”
See the article for more details. Could this be part of a national effort to slow down the mail for political gain? Some believe so. The agency is already struggling with staff shortages accompanied by delayed route reviews, meaning fewer workers are expected to deliver more and more mail. Another factor is Amazon’s 2013 lopsided contract with the USPS. Through rain, sleet, and bureaucracy, the Amazon packages get through. Will Thornton be held accountable? Will anyone? Will the burr be barred?
Cynthia Murrell, August 14, 2020
China: Getting Serious about Chips?
August 14, 2020
DarkCyber spotted a write up that suggests greater intention in chip design and fabrication. “China Hires over 100 TSMC Engineers in Push for Chip Leadership” reports:
The hirings are aimed at helping Beijing achieve its goal of fostering a domestic chip industry in order to cut China’s reliance on foreign suppliers, the sources said. Quanxin Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (Jinan), better known as QXIC, and Wuhan Hongxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or HSMC, along with their various associate and affiliate companies, are little-known outside the industry. But in addition to employing more than 50 former TSMC employees each, both are also led by ex-TSMC executives with established reputations in the chip world. The two projects are aiming to develop 14-nanometer and 12-nanometer chip process technologies, which are two to three generations behind TSMC but still the most cutting-edge in China.
Two observations:
China’s industrialized training of electrical engineers, material scientists, and physicists is humming along. However, more is needed, and China wants that more to be supplied by hiring professionals from TSMC.
Second, the write up makes clear that China appears to be hiring those who are okay Chinese. Does that mean that employees who say one thing and do another may not realize that when a good opportunity arises, those individuals will seize upon it?
Interesting and significant action underway it seems by China’s big picture thinkers.
Stephen E Arnold, August 14, 2020
Google and the US: Winning Friends in China Not
August 7, 2020
DarkCyber spotted this weak beacon of adulting: “YouTube Bans Over 2,000 Chinese Accounts for Coordinated Influence Operations.” The write up states:
Between April and June this year, the company’s division responsible for combating government-backed attacks, Threat Analysis Group (TAG) took down about 2,600 YouTube accounts, significantly up from the 277 channels it blocked in the first three months of 2020. Most of these channels posted “spammy, non-political content”, Google said in a blog post, but some of them were actively participating in a spam network and uploaded political content primarily in Chinese.
Interesting. In an unrelated action DarkCyber wants to thank a reader for sending us a link to this story: “Pompeo Offers $10 Million Reward For Information On Foreign Election Interference.” The article reports:
In his latest speech excoriating China and the American tech industry for helping to enable untrustworthy Chinese companies by including their apps in various app stores, the Secretary of State warned Wednesday that the US was working to rein in Chinese cloud providers, while encouraging US tech firms to drop certain Chinese-run apps from their app stores. Pompeo also revealed the state department would offer $10 million reward for the identity or location of “any person who acting at the direction of a foreign government interferes with US. elections by engaging in certain criminal cyber activities.”
If these reports are accurate, Google and the US are unlikely to be perceived as positive factors in China’s effort to thrive globally.
Stephen E Arnold, August 7, 2020
Facebook and Google Get the Scoop in Australia
August 6, 2020
I read “Forcing Tech Giants to the Table.” The write up explains how the pay Australian publishers scheme will function. The article quoted Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg making the framework crystal clear:
We want Google and Facebook to continue to provide these services to the Australian community, which are so much loved and used by Australians. But we want it to be on our terms.
Those high school science club managers are not likely to find the phrase “on our terms” what is required to sit at the physicists’ and mathematicians’ table in the cafeteria.
The services required to deliver cash are summarized this way:
The range of Facebook services subject to arbitration includes Facebook News Feed, Instagram and the Facebook News Tab. The Google services are Google Search, Google News and Google Discover.
That defeats the whole purpose of the “free” services Google provides. On the other hand, if Google does pay for news in an above board manner, maybe the online ad giant can run sponsored messages, really tasteful ads, and present news in a logical order determined by black box algorithmic magic?
The write up adds:
A breach of the code by Facebook or Google could have a few potential outcomes. The first is an infringement notice which has a penalty of $A133,200 for each breach. If the ACCC takes one of the tech giants to court, the maximum penalty is the higher of $A10million, 10% of the digital platform’s turnover in Australia in the past 12 months, or three times the benefit obtained by the tech giant as a result of the breach (if this can be calculated).
Net net: The science club crowd is likely to pout and be forced to fork out real money to legal eagles. These advisers will say, “This Australian thing will not fly.”
In the meantime, Facebook and Google will keep on doing stuff like selling ads, buying market share, and innovating to solve problems like death.
Stephen E Arnold, August 6, 2020
TikTok: Our Way or the Huawei
August 4, 2020
Excitement ahead. There’s nothing like the Rona and a financial crisis to catch attention. But these may be also ran topics if the trade tension between China and the US is cranked up.
“China Accuses US of Outright Bullying over TikTok” reports that Wang Wenbin (Chinese official) allegedly said:
“The US, without providing any evidence, has been using an abused concept of national security… unjustifiably suppressing certain non-US companies.”
To add some zest, President Trump wants Microsoft to know that its okay to buy TikTok comes with a price tag? The figures are not available. Whatever the amount, a piece of the action goes to the US government.
That angle is likely to put some on edge. Yep, it seems that the US wants one way or its the Huawei for the only app in several years which may have a chance to generate traction in the wonderlands of Facebook and YouTube.
Stephen E Arnold, August 4, 2020
European Union: Yes, Russia Warrants Some Attention
August 4, 2020
With so many smart people wrestling with the Google and cage fighting with England, I was surprised to read “EU, in First Ever Cyber Sanctions, Hits Russian Intelligence.” The allegedly accurate write up states:
Four members of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency were singled out. The EU accuses them of trying to hack the wifi network of the Netherlands-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which has probed the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The 2018 attack was foiled by Dutch authorities.
In addition, two individuals described as “Chinese nationals” found themselves in the sanction target area.
There are several ways to look at this action. First, the Google is a bigger deal than the EU’s friend to the East. Second, the Brexit fishing rights thing distracted EU officials from mere intelligence and trans-national security matters. Third, maybe someone realized that cyber espionage and cyber attacks are something to think about. A couple of years or more seems pretty snappy compared to other EU projects.
Stephen E Arnold, August 3, 2020
European Union Tries Panenka to Score Against Encrypted Data
July 31, 2020
Let’s assume this write up is accurate: “EU Plans to Use Supercomputers to Break Encryption But Also Wants Platforms to Create Opportunities to Snoop on End-to-End Communications.”
The “going dark” argument is not moving fast enough for European Union regulators. The fix is a “decryption platform.” The idea is to decrypt certain messages. The interesting part of the tactic is summarized in this passage:
Internet service providers such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft are to create opportunities to read end-to-end encrypted communications. If criminal content is found, it should be reported to the relevant law enforcement authorities. To this end, the Commission has initiated an “expert process” with the companies in the framework of the EU Internet Forum, which is to make proposals in a study. This process could later result in a regulation or directive that would force companies to cooperate.
The article points out:
There’s no way to “create opportunities” to read end-to-end encrypted communications without weakening the latter.
Worth monitoring the idea and its implementation and its opportunities.
Stephen E Arnold, July 31, 2020
Stunning NIST Report: Who Knew?
July 30, 2020
Years ago I did some work for the US government. Nothing much. In the course of the work, I learned about some interesting US government reports; for example, some Library of Congress public documents which are not available to the public and a couple of studies whose subjects baffled me.
Kid Durango as a masked bank robber. Who knew that a mask would make it difficult to recognize the bad hombre?
I read “NIST Launches Investigation of Face Masks’ Effect on Face Recognition Software.” The write up reports:
Now that so many of us are covering our faces to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, how well do face recognition algorithms identify people wearing masks? The answer, according to a preliminary study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is with great difficulty. Even the best of the 89 commercial facial recognition algorithms tested had error rates between 5% and 50% in matching digitally applied face masks with photos of the same person without a mask.
Facial recognition works in a couple of basic ways. A system can convert a face to ovals, take calculations of the eye areas, the snoot, and the mouth. Measurements are made and the system looks for matches. As some may know, recognition accuracy can vary widely. When an artificial intelligence, super duper program is used, the oval idea is supplemented with pattern recognition. Most of the systems with which I have modest familiarity use both methods and then display possible to an investigator.
What did the NIST study conclude? Face masks reduce accuracy. Face masks cause FR systems to not recognize the face as a face. The nose plays a big part in accuracy. No nose, reduced accuracy.
The study seems well intentioned. But didn’t bank robbers in the 1840s wear masks? From my point of view, the study validates what most people already know. A person wearing a mask is harder to identify.
What’s that error rate and false positive rate again, partner?
Stephen E Arnold, July 30, 2020
IBM Discloses Iranian Hacking: Was Watson on the Job?
July 30, 2020
We spotted an interesting nugget of information in “Iran-Linked Hackers Mistakenly Leak Videos of Their Operations in Action: Report.”
The story reveals that:
IBM’s X-Force security team acquired about five hours of video footage of hacking operations by APT35, a hacking group linked to the Iranian government…
Where did the video originate? The answer: Iran.
The IBM researchers got a hold of the footage due to “a misconfiguration of security settings on a virtual private cloud server they’d observed in previous APT35 activity,” the report said, adding that the files were uploaded to the exposed server over a few days in May, just as IBM was monitoring the machine. The APT35 hackers recorded their operations to demonstrate to junior team members how to handle hacked accounts, according to the report. The videos show the hackers how to download the contents of compromised Gmail and Yahoo Mail accounts.
The report does not mention Watson. Interesting.
Stephen E Arnold, July 29, 2020
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
