Search Engine Optimization: Content Misinformation Is the New Norm
May 5, 2020
Jacque Ellul wrote Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes in the early 1960s. Ellul was a theologian and a close observer of social behavior. Propaganda remains an important book, and it is more important than ever in our era of fake news. I am not sure that the Global Disinformation Index will be sufficient to deal with today’s content realities.
Ellul did not live to experience the wonders of free Web search engines, funded by advertisers. However, his insights provide a number of useful touchstones for anyone trying to determine if there are ways to remediate the present situation in the era of technology monopolies.
He observed:
When there is propaganda, we are no longer able to evaluate certain questions or even to discuss them.
Today content engines generate massive amounts of information. The volume of Facebook posts, Tweets, live streams, and other digital emissions are so massive, that the numbers used to convey the scale of the content flows are meaningless. Are you able to convert the estimate for the the World Economic Forum explains the data in terms of zettabytes and 2020 will output 44 zettabytes of information. Here’s a zettabyte in plain old numbers:
1000000000000000000000
Yottabytes are next.
The options for publishing and disseminating digital content continue to expand. Unhappy with Facebook, there’s Mastodon. Don’t like Google Blogger. There’s WordPress. Don’t like Twitch. There’s Periscope.
Not surprisingly search engine optimization experts have seized upon these rich, real time digital distribution systems to create “content marketing.”
The idea is simple. Write, podcast, or video a statement, fictional tale, or “news” program and distribute the information. The single story can be diffused with Tweets, Instagram posts, updates to a Facebook page, and maybe a 30 second TikTok video.
In the world of SEO, there are some individuals who operate with a moral compass aimed at verifiable information, facts, and what might be called “old fashioned ethical behavior.” With the tools plentiful and almost no editorial control, other individuals find a way to use content to deliver “shaped” information. This “shaping” has long been a part of public relations and marketing.
DarkCyber has been exploring the world of digital propaganda, and there are numerous examples. These range from Covid19 information to less high profile manipulations; for example, a member of Nextdoor, a local information service, pitching used dining room chairs; for example, “perfect, no scratches.” Of course, perfect.
One interesting explanation of content marketing appears in the YouTube video called “How to Generate Leads Through Content Marketing – How We Get 300+ Leads Every Month.” The video appeared as part of a YouTube channel called “Hustle.” Content was discontinued one year ago. The reasons are not clear, but it appears that the content marketing expert lost interest or the methods set forth in the programs failed.
Let’s take a look at the content marketing information conveyed by a person (Christian Arriola), a self-professed SEO expert (SEO is the acronym search engine optimization experts created for the propaganda mechanism.
The video begins with the question, “How does one get leads from content marketing?” The idea is that if one generates one’s own leads, the leads are not shared with anyone else. Control is a strong idea in sales. At about the 45 second mark, the “content” of the YouTube video is information about Mr. Arriola’s consulting business. Thus, the initial message is: “This is an infomercial.” After the commercial the video states, “I am not trying to get anything out of this video…. I am not looking to do anything in particular with you. I am just trying to help you.” At the 90 second mark, Mr. Arriola defines content as “all this information you create that provides value to someone.” The content captures attention and builds a relationship when someone needs the content. Content marketing means a person does not have to buy advertising. Content marketing can give you a strategy, asserts Mr. Arriloa. At the 2.42 mark, Mr. Arriola hopes his video has helped.
This is an example of content marketing, and I think it reveals several characteristics of content marketing:
- It is propaganda. Talking about content marketing becomes difficult as Ellul pointed out decades ago.
- The “content” of content marketing does not have to have substance. Writing something is what’s important and then writing more. Quantity equals quantity seems to be the message.
- The free Web indexing systems ingest “content marketing” and match ads to key words. Clicks are what matter.
To sum up, content marketing is public relations, marketing, sales, and messages. Hustle is an excellent way to describe Mr. Arriola’s approach to faux information value.
SEO is a unregulated discipline. Fraud is highly likely. The quest for clicks is now essential to the survival of a business. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Content marketing is tailor made for today’s business climate. For more on this subject, see “SEO: Let Us Hustle Everyone.”
Stephen E Arnold, May 5, 2020
SEO: Let Us Hustle, Everyone
May 4, 2020
I was horrified in 2013 when I read “Google Semantic Search: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques That Get Your Company More Traffic, Increase Brand Impact, and Amplify Your Online Presence.” I assume Ramanathan Guha, one of the semantic sparkplugs, may have to breathe deeply and do Zen things when he ponders how his semantic inventions have been applied.
One idea for “semantic” was to deal with ambiguity and provide improved recall for Web content. I am not to thrash around in the Semantic Web kiddy pool with over inflated natural language processing methods, the sprites of SPARQL, and Watson-esque methods that can figure out “meaning” in human utterances. No, no.
I want to point out that crazy suggestions for fooling Google’s bastardized relevance methods into presenting a user with increasingly less and less relevant information. Here’s an example: A query for “Peruvian Machu Picchu stone masonry.” Pretty specific. Here’s what the GOOG delivers:
The top hit is from a travel agency. Number two is a Wikipedia article. Number three is a collection of pictures.
I don’t know about you, but I am not confident in a travel agency’s take on Mesolithic quarrying. The Wikipedia entry raises the question, “Says who?” And the pictures. I don’t need pictures, I need data about quarrying: Where, chemical composition of stone, tools, etc.
But that’s the search engine optimization world at work. Travel agencies are experts because they put a word in their sales material. Notice that the wondrous Google ad matching algorithm did NOT generate explicit travel advertisements. This begs the question, “What’s the problem, Google smart software ad matching thing?”
The goal of search engine optimization is to outfox an increasingly mixed up Google and the clueless user who wants information on a specific topic; for example, Peruvian Machu Picchu stone masonry,” NOT a pitch for a tours. The sacred valley gateway to Machu Picchu becomes under ham fisted SEO manipulations, the Valley of Tricked Customers, populated with users wondering, “I meant masonry information, not a tour.”
Let’s put David Amerland and his ilk aside. At least, the almost respectable SEO bilkadoodles (a cross between a street savvy fox and pink miniature poodle) write books and contribute to Search Engine Journal, one of the advocates of helping Google display unrelated content.
No, let’s take a quick look at an outfit which is a breed of interest to SEO veterinarians: Woobound.com.
Woobound.com came across my lidar when I received this email on Friday, May 1, 2020. Note that the text is unedited:
Hi ,
My name is Christian from Woobound, Helping you get through remote work challenges!I’ve been looking up content related to Seo, Digital Marketing & Lead Generation for Finance topic and noticed that you published one on your site http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2016/04/06/nasdaq-joins-the-party-for-investing-in-intelligence/
I liked what I have read so far, and I think we can agree on all your points. In fact, we have written and published similar content on the same topic which also touches on some of the Seo, Digital Marketing & Lead Generation for Finance tips/topics featured in your article.
We thought your readers might find it as a useful resource, and you can find it here: https://woobound.com/seo-financial-advisor/
Think it would make a nice addition to your page? I’m also keen to know your feedback or thoughts on our writing as well.We also have a blog manukakitchen.com and we’re happy to give you a link in return.
Keep up the great work at arnoldit.com and stay safe
Best
Christian
I noted several issues which this spam email poked in my face:
- The email is signed Christian, but the email address is for jeffrey@woobound.com. A fake name is a flashing yellow light.
The warning light is now pulsing. - The Christian Arriola / Jeffrey entity is following what is a trend in getting useless content in order to pump up a loser blog. (I receive these “please, take my content and link to me” requests frequently. As I was assembling this post, an entity called andreea.sauciuc@cognitiveseo.com begged me to respond to her earlier requests for me to talk to her. No, doesn’t work with these thoughtless, clueless individuals.) The Christian Jeffrey entity called my attention to a story from 2016 about finance, and it seems to Christian Jeffrey that a story related to “seo-financial-advisor” and Manuka Kitchen. The entities are either stupid humans or stupid software bots. The common denominator is “stupid.”
- The Christian Arriola / Jeffrey entity is confident that the entity and I agree. Wrong. The fake praise is even more obtuse than the links to subjects of zero interest to me and the DarkCyber team. What’s most inept? Assuming that I am going to agree with this Christian Arriola / Jeffrey or that I will craft a five star review of the Amerland SEO book?
What’s up with this Christian Arriola / Jeffrey entity, please?
Curious I did some checking of open source content. What do you know? The Christian Arriola / Jeffrey reinvented himself in 2018. Here’s a before behavioral modification in the food aisle and the fashion forward Christian Arriola / Jeffrey of the here and now. The image comes from Facebook. Of course, this Christian possibly named Arriola is a Facebooker and an Instagramer to boot:
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The “less pizza” diet seems to have had zero impact on the fashion sense of the entity Christian Jeffrey. You can check out the girl friends (numerous), the dog, the favorite cities, and the entity’s most loved pizza restaurants at this link.
A little more exploration revealed a cornucopia of search engine optimization rubbish presented in a series of YouTube videos. You can experience these discharges (effluent, not prison) by clicking on this image:
The Christian Jeffrey program does not present the name of the top hustler who operates the program.
Compared to the Poland China output in the Amerland book, the content in these videos might challenge a trippe of hungry pygmy goats.
Let’s look at an example:
The image is similar to those my team has reviewed as part of our work for a tribunal focused on human trafficking and child sex crime.
The program is part of the “show” — now mercifully discontinued — called The Hustle. This particular video features images of hot flames, a visage with what seems to be a Hustle smirk, a VW sedan, footage in a bar, and includes the statement “My life is proving my mom and dad wrong.”
With some trepidation, I asked some of my team to “watch” videos prepared by the Christian Arriola / Jeffrey entity.
Here’s the scorecard I received for three of the eight videos my team viewed. Please, note that each person watched two videos because as one of the DarkCyber team said, “I can’t stand this vlogger and the content. Two’s the limit for me.” I listen, so I said, “Okay, team two shows.”
Programs were rated on a scale of one to 10. One is an F or failure; 10 is a great program with solid content. Here we go:
Show 1: How to Be a Podcaster. Score: 2. Comment: Mostly correct but geared to a person who cannot read. On the Hustle Web site, the link to this program and the free series of which it is allegedly a part does not resolve. Dead links are not what SEO experts report as helpful.
Show 2: Best Keywords for Massage Therapist. Score 1. Comment: Distasteful subject. Seems like a way to build traffic for in call and outcall prostitution services.
Show 3: Make Money with SEMrush. Score 1. Comment: Superficial. Seems to suggest that anyone — even a person with zero education and a questionable reputation — can become a search engine optimization expert.
DarkCyber provided the Christian Arriola / Jeffrey entity with some questions, a routine part of our data collection process. Here are the questions Christian Jeffrey declined to answer:
Would you be kind enough to explain the use of dual names?
One of the team took a gander at the LinkedIn profile associated with one of the names the “Hustle” expert used in his communications to me. Here’s what one of the DarkCyber team learned:
- One job at the present time: “Associate Director of SEO” for Nexstar Digital. This is a full time position. Engaged for one year.
- Another job at the present time: “Search Engine Optimization SEO Consultant”. Engaged for nine years.
- A third job at the present time: Podcast Host and content marketing strategy. Engaged for three years. Note that the video podcast went into what seems to be permanent hiatus “one year ago.”
- Education: Five years to get a BA degree in “business administration, marketing, and computer information systems.”
- An entity named Carlos Rosado said, “One of the most complete SEO managers I have ever worked with.”
- Christian Jeffrey is interested in AT&T and the Hotel Group, among others.
The DarkCyber team member’s opinion based on viewing the Hustle programs and the LinkedIn profile:
The fact that the person Christian Arriola / Jeffrey uses one name for LinkedIn and omits his name from the “Hustle” podcast raises red flags. Also, the information presented in the LinkedIn biography makes clear that this individual presents three “jobs” of which two are his own endeavors. This is another warning light. Multiple gigs are understandable today, but to list one’s own projects as full time jobs leads me to believe that this individual is one with a bit of professional fluidity or “stretch.”
Net Net: SEO is a discipline which plays a cat-and-mouse game with Google. Making a Web page appear when the content of that Web page is not germane to the user’s query is in some ways beyond marketing. The practice edges into intellectual dishonesty. Maybe the behavior is not in the same class as illegal weapons dealing, contraband, human trafficking, and child sex crime? But the facts presented in open source support these conclusions:
- SEO practitioners do shade or shape what Google displays.
- Individual practitioners may embrace methods associated with criminal behavior; that is, the use of aliases in a professional setting like LinkedIn and email to entities like ArnoldIT.
- The expertise required to deliver for fee SEO services may depend on the use of questionable software tools developed by other SEO “experts” and may not work. (Alexa Ranking reports that the Woobound.com site ranks at 7,313,183. DarkCyber finds it peculiar that an SEO expert cannot generate traffic or YouTube views for that matter.)
If you have to decide between the Amerland book’s advice and the “expertise” peddled by Christian Arriola / Jeffrey, look further. You’ll probably save time and money and avoid the “hustle.”
Stephen E Arnold, May 4, 2020
Schmidt Versus Thiel May Be a Proxy for Google Trying Catch Up with Palantir
May 3, 2020
You will need to read the very, very long PR fest in the New York Times. I won’t do much with this story, so you will have to find the dead tree edition or pay to play to read “I Could Solve Most of Your Problems: Eric Schmidt’s Pentagon Offensive.” Yeah, hubris.
The headline does the job. But what’s with the PR push from the former CEO of Novell and then a similar job at Google.
But Google fired the Department of Defense. The current administration left Mr. Schmidt in his committee roles as the administration of Mr. Trump raced forward. Who accompanied him on his technology sprint? The Google, nope. The driver of the Bezos bulldozer? Not a chance.
Who then? Peter Thiel, the high profile Silicon Valley whiz, investor in Palantir Technologies and, probably as interesting, Anduril, a forward-leaning outfit engaged in primary data capture and action-oriented outputs for operators. Anduril, you say? Yes, I say.
Several items to keep in mind as this story wends its way through the pundit-verse:
- Mr. Trump is president, and he seems comfortable with the Palantir Technologies’ solutions
- Mr. Trump seems okay with Mr. Thiel
- Google dumped Maven and has been Googley in numerous US government endeavors. (This is nothing new because the behavior surfaced in the early days of the Mountain View tornado. Remember the objection regarding the FirstGov.gov contract award? Remember Mr. Brin’s wearing sparkly sneakers and a sporty T shirt to meetings with elected officials?)
Net net: Big PR coup and “real news” from the New York Times. The reality is that the the “real news” story is about Googler and the Google appear to be trying to regain traction—Traction lost with certain interesting behaviors. The problem is that the road to the White House has been subjected to abuse by the dozer tracks of other companies trying to reach the Valhalla of big money, multi year contracts. Googzilla my struggle for purchase where it counts. The NYT’s “real news” story may not be what Mr. Schmidt needs.
Stephen E Arnold, May 3, 2020
Banjo: Pressured into Playing a Sad Tune
May 1, 2020
DarkCyber has noted NSO Group’s PR challenge. That low profile provider of policeware is tangled in litigation with Facebook. Years ago Geofeedia made headlines and never quite bounced back.
Policeware and intelware vendors traditionally have operated with a low profile. Most of the vendors offer a “contact” option, but the vendors respond only if the person wanting contact is a “legitimate” actor.
Banjo was no different. Two inquiries DarkCyber made were ignored. Now information about Banjo is plentiful. Deseret News reports that Banjo has ceased operations. The New York Post (hardly a bellwether for the policeware/intelware sector) reports “Banjo App CEO Damien Patton Reportedly Has KKK Past, Helped in Synagogue Shooting”. This article recycles the original report from Medium on April 28, 2020. Even the “real news” outfit Boing Boing jumped on the story.
What’s interesting is that SoftBank invested $100 million in the Banjo outfit. Its due diligence failed to make a connection between Mr. Patton’s past and his role as a policeware/intelware startup. Did SoftBank rely on the same professionals which assisted Hewlett Packard in its assessment of Autonomy?
Several observations:
- PR can have a major impact on a policeware/intelware vendor. This is an important point because dozens of specialist vendors primarily chasing LE and intel contracts are doing more marketing. Is Madison Avenue the right street to take.
- SoftBank has to figure out what to do with Banjo. DarkCyber assumes that other investors will be doing some thinking as well. Is there a way forward for the company.
- The “reason” for missing the bus with regard to Mr. Patton’s biography is a misspelling. That’s quite an interesting assertion. Shouldn’t an investigator, analyst, or researcher note that court documents still have Mr. Patton’s last name spelled correctly. Is “good enough” research the new normal?
Net net: There is good PR and bad PR. Which category does the tale of the misspelling tell?
Stephen E Arnold, May 1, 2020
Enterprise Search Craziness: Destiny Adjacency
May 1, 2020
The enterprise search vendors are not to blame. The finger of ineptitude writes boldly:
Enterprise Search Market each qualitative and quantitative records analysis to provide an overview of the destiny adjacency around Enterprise Search Market for the forecast duration, 2020-2025.
You can read the original at this link. Enterprise search has tried a number of snappy phrases to make a utility the potent heart of a 21st century enterprise; for example:
- Semantic meaning
- Natural language processing
- Artificial intelligence
- Precision, recall, and relevance. Yikes, delete those loser words.
DarkCyber believes that “destiny adjacency” is the all-time leader in the meaningless baloney fest that is pulled into the orbit of enterprise search.
Yep, “destiny adjacency”. Maybe a T shirt? A tattoo?
Stephen E Arnold, May 1, 2020
Policeware and Intelware: Change Underway, Pushback Likely
April 29, 2020
Law enforcement and intelligence are tricky subjects. For decades, the work of government employees and the specialized firms supporting sensitive operations have worked to stay out of the headlines. The spotlight was for rock stars and movie icons, not for investigators, security, and intelligence professionals.
Most of the companies in what I call the policeware and intelware markets have to and prefer to work with people who have been in their foxhole. The result has been the equivalent of a stealth market sector. The clients — traditionally government agencies — like the low profile approach as well. Many of the activities of these professionals and the firms supporting their operations are in a position of considerable risk.
But that seems to be changing. Recent examples include:
Cellebrite’s Covid campaign. The idea is that specialized mobile phone analysis tools can assist with the pandemic. You can read about this in “Cellebrite Pitching iPhone Hacking Tools As a Way to Stop COVID-19.”
A lone wolf employee. You can learn that the NSO Group finds itself in the middle of another PR issue. You can read about this challenge in “NSO Employee Abused Phone Hacking Tech to Target a Love Interest.”
A little known past of a high profile innovator. The somewhat unusual company Banjo finds itself in the spotlight over the allegations made about the firm’s founder. You can read about this in “CEO of Surveillance Firm Banjo Once Helped KKK Leader Shoot Up a Synagogue.”
These examples — if accurate and verifiable — suggest that Silicon Valley attitudes have penetrated the developers of policeware and intelware.
The majority of the companies providing specialized services are probably operating in a reasonably responsible way. Today policeware and intelware have become a multi billion dollar a year market. Most people will never encounter outfits with names like Elbit, Gamma or iCarbon X, and hundreds of others.
The fact is that the behaviors of a small number of companies is causing the policeware and intelware vendors to become the stuff of the talking heads on televised news programs, the launch pad for tweets and blog posts, and a source of embarrassment for the government entities relying on these companies and their products.
What troubles DarkCyber is that an increasing number of vendors of specialized services have realized that many government functions cannot operate without their expertise, products, and engineering. Consequently, what I call “high school science club management” has pushed aside the traditional methods of generating revenue.
Now policeware and intelware vendors offer podcasts, assuming that investigators and intelligence professionals have the time and interest to listen to marketing information about the latest and greatest in graph generation, analytics, and visualization.
There are experts who want to build their own book and training businesses. In the last three days, I have received a half dozen email blandishments to attend this free webinar or download that list of OSINT tools.
What’s next?
Google online advertising to get me to license Blackdot, Qwarie, and Vesper technology?
Here’s the problem:
There are too many companies chasing available policeware and intelware dollars. Established vendors capture the significant projects; for example, Darpa awarded a hefty machine learning contract to BAE Systems, one of the go-to vendors of advanced technology to defense, law enforcement, and intelligence entities.
But every dominant vendor like BAE Systems, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of smaller firms vying to contract. These smaller firms usually work within the procedures which began taking shape in World War II, largely influenced by countries like Britain and several others.
The new companies appear to support the Facebook- and Google-type approach to business. From move fast and break things to digital misdirection, the approach to generating revenue from LE and intel related products and services is shifting. Forget the low profile, off the radar approach. Today it is big trade show booths, podcasts, videos, webinars, and increasingly Madison Avenue style marketing.
Not surprisingly, the three examples cited in this essay are quite different. Cellebrite is virtue signaling. NSO Group is struggling with a lone wolf action. Banjo is dealing with a founder’s youthful dalliance with distasteful activities.
It is indeed risky to generalize. Nevertheless, something is happening within the policeware and intelware market sector. I cannot recall a cluster of news events about LE and intel service providers which startle and surprise in a triple tap moment.
Is there a fix? I want to be positive. Other firms in this sector have an opportunity to assess what their staff are doing with products and services of a quite special nature. Like the nuclear industry, great management effort is needed on an ongoing basis to ensure that secrets remain secret.
The nuclear industry may not be perfect. But at this moment in time, policeware and intelware vendors may want to examine the hiring, management, and institutional approaches in use for decades.
Regulation may be useful, but policeware and intelware is a global activity. Self-control, ethical behavior, and tight management controls are necessary. Easy to say but tough to do because of the revenue pressure many of these vendors face. Plus, outsourcing means that government agencies often cannot do their work without third party support. There is a weird symbiosis visible today: Funding sources, technologists, enforcement officers, procurement professionals, and managers with an MBA.
Bad actors love these revelations. Each item of information that reveals capabilities, weaknesses, and methodologies helps those who would undertake criminal or deleterious activities.
Unless the vendors themselves button up, the unmentionables will be exposed and flap in the wind.
Stephen E Arnold, April 29, 2020
IBM and Ethical AI: Are Wrong Answers Acceptable? But What Is Incorrect?
April 28, 2020
IBM can be surprising. A new president, the fizzle of IBM Watson’s Houston cancer initiative, and the blaming of the firm’s financial woes on Covid19.
Have these issues dampened IBM’s taste for grandstanding?
“IBM’s Pandemic Plan: Supercomputing, New Inventions and Tracking Employees” illustrates what may be the company’s fresh, new approach to becoming really, really relevant.
According to the write up, IBM signed the Pope’s call for AI Ethics. The IBM executive tapped to be the thought leader for ethics, a murky, contentious Philosophy 101 concept, is John Kelly III, an executive charged with making the IBM Watson Health unit perform like a Seal Team 6 professional.
Here are a couple of observations Mr. Kelly made in an interview, which comprise the core of the article cited above:
Here’s one about the value of AI, supercomputing, and great leadership:
We said, “Here’s more compute power than anybody’s ever had access to, for free: Go find solutions to the problems.” They told us that the rate of discovery is just off the charts.
The only hitch in the git along is that none of the AI wizards, including IBM’s and its computing power, has delivered a fix for the virus. In fact, the lack of tangible results makes the virtue signaling claims of IBM and others look silly.
How about this statement?
The trouble is that when you lift the hood, everybody’s reporting it in a different way. We used artificial intelligence two to four times a day to scrape all of their data, which is in different formats — sometimes it’s an Excel file, sometimes it’s a PDF, sometimes it’s a handwritten piece of paper — we scrape it, and then we post it, just like we post a weather map. We post a coronavirus map by county in the U.S.
The problem is that one of the more useful methods of displaying virus-related data comes from Avi Schiffmann, a teenager in Seattle, developed NCoV2019.live. Also the founders of Instagram have delivered Rt Covid 19, which is quite useful. Neither service has supercomputers, Watson, or the Weather Channel to help. Maybe IBM should hire these people? The bottom-line is that IBM can do sort of what social media innovators and a high school junior did. Come on, IBM.
I circled this IBM statement in yellow:
We’ve taken the position that it has to be an opt-in. We should not — based on those ethical principles from the Vatican — track people’s locations, and I should not try to find out that you were next to Adam last Tuesday night, for example. It’s not ethical.
Maybe Mr. Kelly has not read the email about IBM’s cyber division, checked out the Analyst Notebook feature set, or probed into the IBM CyberTap system? DarkCyber wonders, “Are there different definitions of ethics for each unit of IBM?”
And, finally, this statement is intriguing:
The coronavirus, as bad as it is, it’s not Ebola, as an example.
With research data in flux, it is interesting to consider why an IBM VP would offer this clear differentiation. What other distinctions can IBM draw between Covid19 and Ebola? In fact, what did IBM do in the midst of the Ebola outbreaks?
Is IBM ethical? Just ask one of the professionals over 55 RIFFed in the last few years? Is Watson ethical if it outputs incorrect or misleading information about a cancer protocol? Is it ethical to buy back stock to put a shine on a pick up truck designed to deliver mainframes?
Let’s go back to the teen in Seattle. Maybe he could be hired to put IBM Watson to work?
Stephen E Arnold, April 28, 2020
Another Low Profile, Specialized Services Firm Goes for Mad Ave Marketing
April 25, 2020
Investigative software firm ShadowDragon looks beyond traditional cyber-attacks in its latest podcast, “Cyber Cyber Bang Bang—Attacks Exploiting Risks Within the Physical and Cyber Universe.” The four-and-a-half-minute podcast is the fourth in a series that was launched on April second. The description tells us:
“Truly Advanced Persistent attacks where physical exploitation and even death are rarely discussed. We cover some of this along with security within the Healthcare and Government space. Security Within Healthcare and government is always hard. Tensions between information security and the business make this harder. Hospitals hit in fall of 2019 had a taste of exploitation. Similarly, state governments have had issues with cartel related attackers. CISO’s that enable assessment, and security design around systems that cannot be fully hardened can kill two birds with one stone. Weighing authority versus influence, FDA approved equipment, 0day discovery within applications. Designing security around systems is a must when unpatchable vulnerabilities exist.”
Hosts Daniel Clemens and Brian Dykstra begin by answering some questions from the previous podcast then catch up on industry developments. The get into security challenges for hospitals and government agencies not quite halfway through.
A company of fewer than 50 workers, ShadowDragon keeps a low profile. Created “by investigators for investigators,” its cyber security tools include AliasDB, MalNet, OIMonitor, SocialNet, and Spotter. The firm also supports their clients with training, integration, conversion, and customization. ShadowDragon was launched in 2015 and is based in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Cynthia Murrell, April 13, 2020
Virus-Inspired Virtue Signaling by Attention Hungry AI Developers
April 22, 2020
An article at HackerNoon describes several uses of AI that have an impact on society—some that went very wrong and some that are going quite right. It ponders “The Future of Artificial Intelligence: To Kill or To Heal?” The article covers the issue of biased AI, using the example of the US criminal justice system. It also discusses the resistance in most countries to governments’ use of facial recognition software. While China’s use of the technology to control its citizens has been largely (and rightly) decried, the write-up asserts it has been very useful in containing the spread of the novel coronavirus in that country. See the article for details. AI has also been helping address the pandemic through the use of machine learning to track disease around the globe. We’re told:
“BlueDot is an AI platform that uses NLP and machine learning to track infectious diseases across the globe. It does this by employing algorithms that rapidly browse a multitude of sources. The algorithms are designed to flag early signs of epidemics. In the last weeks of December 2019, the platform recognized a cluster of ‘unusual pneumonia’ diagnoses in Wuhan, China. A little over a week later, the World Health Organization (WHO) came out with an official statement on the existence of a ‘novel coronavirus’ in a patient in Wuhan. BlueDot isn’t the only AI that can flag areas of concern across thousands of sources. Alibaba, a global E-commerce powerhouse, created StructBERT, which is powered by NLP models. The models are capable of processing viral gene-sequences at a fast rate, as well as screening proteins. Alibaba has put the platform to use in the fight against COVID-19. It is freely available to researchers and scientists who can use the information and technology to speed the development of vaccines.”
Then there is the search for a cure. One recent paper describes a machine learning model from Deargen, a firm out of South Korea. The model has identified four possible antiviral meds that might just mitigate COVID-19. Another paper, this one from Hong Kong’s Insilico Medicine, reveals that firm’s AI platform is busy modeling thousands of novel molecules in the hope of turning up one that can disrupt the virus’ replication.
Keep in mind that there are more AI solutions solving virus problems than DarkCyber can monitor. It is easier to count wonky infection data than get AI to deliver more than lists of probables to investigate.
Cynthia Murrell, April 22, 2020
Virtue Signaling in a Difficult Time
April 21, 2020
I have noticed a number of stories about companies working to keep the current virus at bay. Some are interesting; for example, Johns Hopkins University rolled out its dashboard early in the game. Interesting, right? The approach illustrates how dashboards of data deliver a bird’s eye view of a data set. The Johns Hopkins’ approach omits some data; for example, the rate of doubling per sector, demographic data, and controls to present the data in different graphs. DarkCyber has some questions about the service, but let’s set those aside. The Johns Hopkins’ dashboard scores a 7 on the virtue signaling scale created by the DarkCyber team in a 10 minute Zoom call. DarkCyber is thorough.
How do other virtue signaling services stack up on our scale, with 1 being the most limited and 10 representing a home run data service.
- Elon Musk and his ventilators. According to the Sacramento Bee, the ventilators never arrived. The PR did, however. Mr. Musk asserts he has delivered. The score is 1.
- Google stepped forward and offered virus donations. Sounds good, and Vox reported the generous offer. But wait! Millions in cash? Nope, ad credits. Virtue signaling score: 2.
- IBM created a variation on the Johns Hopkins’ dashboard. The twist to the IBM service was that as one clicked down to a state and then a country, the Big Blue service does not make it easy to back out and look at other data. There’s a work around, of course, but the mainframe crowd seems to shine when it comes to usability and medical information. Virtue signaling score: 2.
What outfit gets a 10? None so far.
There are other examples of virtue signaling, but the message is clear: Seize an opportunity to promote one’s company.
Here’s a virus test quiz:
- What service provides demographic data about those diagnosed with the virus?
- What service breaks down the demographics of those who died from the subsequent downstream effects of the virus?
- Within clusters of deaths, what are the zip codes of the deceased?
Give up. The big dashboard producers are following Elon Musk’s approach: Don’t do the work.
Virtue signaling is a big PR and marketing trend. Good enough as some say.
Stephen E Arnold, April 21, 2020
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