Digital Currencies: Now You Have It, Now You Do Not
February 2, 2018
We noted an interesting assertion in “Cryptocurrency ICOs: It’s Impossible to Police What You Can’t See.” The passage points attention to the ease with which initial coin offerings and tokens can be converted into “scams.” We noted:
ICOs have paved the way for so-called “exit scams,” in which fake companies launch an ICO and make off with investor proceeds. BitConnect is one of the latest companies which wound up its exchange operations, crashing the price of its BitConnect Coin (BCC) in the process. Investors were promised converted funds in BCC, but as their original investment had to be made in ETH, they have suffered countless losses as BCC’s value crashed and burned, leading many to believe the whole system was a scam — and one, unfortunately, which has cost its investors millions of dollars.
We loved this quote, attributed to Arianne King, managing partner and Solicitor Advocate of Al Bawardi Critchlow:
“It’s hard to police what you can’t even see.”
The Beyond Search DarkCyber research team would like to point out that modest strides have been made in deanonymizing some activities related to digital currencies.
The write up pointed out:
Investor cryptocurrency funds can be whisked away to multiple wallets and potentially “washed” through Dark Web services to become extremely difficult to track, and without cold, hard currency in a scammer’s bank account, little can be done.
Online is an interesting “environment,” fostering fake news, teen anxiety, and good old fashioned fraud.
Stephen E Arnold, February 2, 2018
Casetext: A Disrupter
January 21, 2018
Legal information is of interest to legal eagles. However, a business move by Casetext may cause pain at professional publishing shops operated by LexisNexis and Westlaw. Both companies pride themselves on their technology savvy. But a four year old company may have become the little engine that could run over executives napping on the train tracks.
According to a company statement:
Casetext’s new Holdings feature is the largest searchable collection of concise case summaries ever assembled. To create Holdings, Casetext applied a tactic they call “judicial language processing,” exploiting patterns within the case law corpus to excerpt summaries directly from judicial opinions. Holdings is invaluable for any attorney looking to quickly familiarize herself with the crux of a judicial opinion and nimbly compare and contrast similar holdings across a particular area of law.
To add to the competitive thrust, Casetext uses smart software which seems to be a competitive advantage.
Founded in 2013, Casetext has attracted more than $20 million in venture funding.
Worth watching how this battle of legal eagles plays out.
Stephen E Arnold, January 21, 2018
Online: Welcome to 1981 and 2018
January 8, 2018
I have been thinking about online. I met with a long-time friend and owner of a consumer-centric Web site. For many years (since 1993, in fact), the site grew and generated a solid stream of revenue.
At lunch, the site owner told me that in the last three years, the revenue was falling. As I listened to this sharp businessperson, I realized that his site had shifted from ads which he and his partners sold to ads provided by automated systems.
From direct control to the ease of automated ad provision created the current predicament: Falling revenue. At the same time, the mechanisms for selling ads directly evolved as well. The shift from many industry events to a handful of large business sector conferences took place. There were more potential customers at these shows, but the attendance shifted from hands-on marketers to people who wanted to make use of online automated sales and marketing systems began to dominate.
He said, “In the good old days of 1996, I could go to a trade show and meet people who made advertising and marketing decisions based on experience with print and TV advertising, dealer promotions, and ideas.”
“Now,” he continued, “I meet smart people who want to use methods which rely on automated advertising. When I talk about buying an ad on our site or sponsoring a section of our content, the new generation look at me like I’m crazy. What’s that?”
I listened. What could I say.
The good, old days maybe never existed.
I read “Facebook and Google Are Free. They Shouldn’t Be.” The write up has a simple premise: Users should pay for information.
I am not certain if the write up realizes that paying for online information was the only way to generate revenue from digital content in the past. I know that partners in law firms realize that running queries on LexisNexis and Westlaw have to allocate cash to pay for the digital information about laws, decisions, and cases. For the technical information in Chemical Abstracts, researchers and chemists have to pay as well. Financial data for traders costs money as well.
Internet Wake Up: You Have Overslept
December 27, 2017
On a call yesterday, I agreed to do three talks for a law enforcement and intelligence conference company. On that call, one of the individual’s said:
The Internet has become a problem for investigators.
No disagreement from the ArnoldIT contingent who has been engaged for many years in tracking cyberOSINT, the Dark Web, the tools for thwarting Fullz, etc. I don’t think the “problem” will become easier to solve in the coming months.
Electronic data is tough to contain even when a nation state clamps down on telcos, ISPs, users, and Web site owners.
I found “My Internet Mea Culpa” a bit surprising because I assumed that most people had figured out that digital information is not exactly the happy grandmother viewing her daughter’s second birthday party on a mobile phone.
I noted this passage:
For the last twenty years, I believed the internet prophets of old. I worshipped at the altar of Stewart Brand and Kevin Kelly. I believed that the world would be a better place if everyone had a voice. I believed that the world would be a better place if we all had no secrets. But so far, the evidence points to an escapable conclusion: we were all wrong.
Yep, but today’s Internet has been around for a long time.
Read the full “mea culpa.”
Enjoy the implications of this statement:
What if Silicon Valley’s core beliefs — even the benign ones — are wrong?
Science club methods are not for grandmothers. Never will be.
How many artists were in my high school science club?
Exactly zero.
And there was a reason. When “Revenge of the Nerds” was a thing, I for one thought, “Now we’re talking.” Grandmothers did not get it. Never will.
In my experience, the Google-types “got it” from the git-go.
Stephen E Arnold, December 27, 2017
Internet Routing: Worth Noting
December 13, 2017
Short honk: I read “Major Traffic Destinations Rerouted to Russia.” The main idea is that an event routed traffic to Russia. Worth noting if you are interested in cyber operations. Monitoring is practiced in many locations and countries. Traffic flow routes are important for some operations.
Stephen E Arnold, December 13, 2017
Mitsubishi: Careless Salarymen or Spreadsheet Fever?
November 27, 2017
I read “Mitsubishi Materials Says Over 200 Customers Could be Affected by Data Falsification.” Source of the story is Thomson Reuters, a real news outfit, in my opinion.
The main point of the story is to reveal that allegedly false data were used to obfuscate the fact that 200 customers may have parts which do not meet requirements for load bearing, safety, or durability.
When I was in college, I worked in the Keystone Steel & Wire Company’s mill in Illinois. I learned that the superintendent enforced on going checks for steel grades. I learned that there is a big difference between the melt used for coat hanger wire and the melt for more robust austenitic steel. Think weapons or nuclear reactor components made of coat hanger steel.
Mislabeling industrial components is dangerous. Planes can fall from the sky. Bridges can collapse. Nuclear powered submarines can explode. Or back flipping robots to crush Softbank/Boston Dynamic cheerleaders and an awed kindergarten class.
Reuters calls this a “quality assurance and compliance scandal.” That’s a nicer way to explain the risks of fake data, but not even Reuters’ olive oil based soft soap can disguise the fact that distortion is not confined to bogus information in intelligence agency blog posts.
Online credibility is a single tile in a larger mosaic of what once was assumed to be the norm: Ethical behavior.
Without common values regarding what’s accurate and what’s fake, the real world and its online corollary are little more than video game or Hollywood comic book films.
Silicon Valley mavens chatter about smart software which will recognize fake news. How is that working out? Now about the crashworthiness of the 2018 automobiles?
I think the problem is salarymen, their bosses, and twiddling with outputs from databases and Excel in order to make the numbers “flow.”
Stephen E Arnold, November 27, 2017
KFC: Colonel Faraday Sanders Is Not Online
November 26, 2017
I am proud to live in Kentucky. We have the University of Louisville occupying investigators’ time and energy. We have the exciting West End, which generates quite a bit of news each week. We have the Kentucky Fried Chicken (yum, yum, yum) Faraday cage milestone.
Here in Harrod’s Creek, the gang of geriatric squirrel hunters usually talks about Senator Mitch McConnell’s struggles or the Rand Paul fight with his neighbor. This morning, one of the tobacco chewing professionals drew my attention to “KFC Offering $10K ‘Internet Escape Pod’ Ahead of Cyber Monday.”
I am okay with the notion of Faraday cages, bags, and rooms. I have a Faraday bag myself. I stick my mobile phone in the bag and enjoy annoyance free drives to and from Lexington. (I use the UK library, gentle reader. The U of L makes me nervous when I think of the late, lamented president, the most wonderful basketball coach in the world, and an athletic director whose income makes some investment bankers envious.)
The write up informed me:
KFC’s Escape Pod is just one of several items the chicken chain made available on its new KFC Ltd. online shopping platform, which launched in July. Another collection of merchandise will reportedly be made available in early December, when it will become even more apparent that the executives at KFC have lost all interest in selling us chicken anymore.
What’s this $10,000 item look like? Here you go:
Kentucky deserves its reputation as an innovation center.
Nothing like a Faraday tent to make your chicken eating free of mobile phone calls. It also prevents an owner from uploading a picture of this odd ball product to Facebook.
Well, maybe not. KFC is making Kentucky great again!
Stephen E Arnold, November 26, 2017
Amazon: The New Old AT&T
November 22, 2017
I read “AWS Launches a Secret Region for the U.S. Intelligence Community.” The write up does a reasonable job of explaining that Amazon has become a feisty pup in the Big Dog in the upscale Potomac Fever Kennels.
The main idea, as I understand it, is that Amazon is offering online services tailored to agencies with requirements for extra security. Google is trying to play in this dog park as well, but Amazon seems to have the moxie to make headway.
I would point out that there are some facets to the story which a “real” journalist or a curious investor may want to explore; specifically:
- AT&T of Ashburn fame may be feeling that the attitude of the Amazon youthful puppy AWS is bad news. AT&T with its attention focused on the bright lights of big media may be unable to deal with Amazon’s speed, agility, and reflexes. If this is accurate, this seemingly innocuous announcement with terms like “air gap” may presage a change in the fortunes of AT&T.
- IBM Federal Systems, the traffic disaster in Gaithersburg, may feel the pinch as well. What happens if the young pup begins to take kibble from that Beltway player? A few acquisitions here and few acquisitions there and suddenly Amazon can have its way because the others in the kennel know that an alpha dog with tech savvy can be a problem?
- The consulting environment may also change. For decades, outfits like my former employer, the Boozer, have geared up to bathe, groom, and keep healthy the old school online giants like AT&T, Verizon, et al. Now new skills sets may be required for the possible Big Dog. Where will Amazon “experts” come from? Like right now, gentle reader.
In short, this article states facts. But like many “real” news stories, there are deeper and possibly quite significant changes taking place. I wonder if anyone cares about these downstream changes.
Leftover telecom turkey anyone?
Stephen E Arnold, November 22, 2017
The Underside of the Internet, Just Slightly Off Base
October 11, 2017
Deutsche Welle ran a story about the Dark Web called “Darknet, The Shady Internet.” I found the approach interesting. Let me mention that I am the author of Dark Web Notebook, a guide for law enforcement and intelligence professionals. (Information about the Notebook is at this link.) I don’t want to work pedantically through the write up, pointing out issues I have with some of the assertions. I do want to highlight the conclusion of the article. DW points out that LE and intel professionals have to use methods which seem to be less than elegant. Here’s the passage I highlighted:
So what can police, federal law enforcement officials, secret police and international crime-fighting networks do to combat the darknet? Some tactics are surprisingly old fashioned. One is to purchase an illegal item from a darknet marketplace and then analyze the package and its contents when it comes in the mail. With enough data, police can hone in on the package’s source. Another tactic is to build rapport with the site’s owner, say a drug dealer, and to request a real-life meeting to exchange the goods.
I would point out that there are a number of companies which offer specialized products and services to assist LE and intel professionals with Dark Web investigations. These range from the Google and In-Q-Tel funded Recorded Future to the less well known Terbium Labs. There are other companies as well, and I profile a number of them in Dark Web Notebook.
I am surprised that the DW invested modest effort in its write up. Dark Web content is a tiny fraction of data available online. Nevertheless, as censorship in countries and at such firms as Facebook, Google, and Twitter-type companies increases, the Dark Web will experience some growth despite the hurdles the Dark Web puts in front of users.
I would point out that in the Dark Web Notebook we recount an anecdote involving a German policeman who explored the Dark Web and found himself caught in a digital bear trap. Thus, knowledge of the sophisticated tools available to LE and intel professionals is important. Leaving these out of an article from a respected “news” organization underscores the need for a bit more attention to detail and context.
Stephen E Arnold, October 11, 2017
Search and Privacy: A Quick Update
October 3, 2017
In my files, I had a copy of “Duck Duck Go: Illusion of Privacy.” This document comments on the hurdles a public Web search system must jump over in order to deliver privacy. You can find the write up at this link. If you want to test some privacy-oriented search systems, there are some DuckDuckGo.com alternatives. I am not endorsing these outfits; I am passing along some links because within the last couple of years I learned that privacy is part of the marketing for these systems: [a] Ixquick which is now Startpage at www.startpage.com. This is a metasearch engine which means that the user’s query is passed (in theory anonymously to Bing, Google, Yandex, et al). [b] Unbubble.com (Note that this European service asserts “strong privacy.” The link is www.unbubble.eu [c] Gibiru service (www.gibiru.com) emphasizes anonymous search. Gibiru provides a link to the Firefox Anonymox plug in. But the most recent version of Firefox has been tricky for us, however. My personal view on search anonymization is that when I research my books about cyberosint, the Dark Web, and eDiscovery for cyber intelligence, I assume that I have a number of individuals thrilled with the sites we uncover, write up, and describe in our lectures and webinars. In short, I avoid trying to be “tricky” because I can explain the thousands of queries we run about many exciting topics. See www.xenky.com/darkwebnotebook for a sampler.
Stephen E Arnold, October 3, 2017
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