Tech Unicorns May Soon Disappear as Fast as They Appeared
March 15, 2016
Silicon Valley “unicorns”, private companies valued at one billion or more, may not see the magic last. The article Palantir co-founder Lonsdale calls LinkedIn plunge a bad sign for unicorns from Airline Industry Today questions the future for companies like LinkedIn whose true value has yet to result in ever-increasing profits. After disappointing Wall Street with lower earnings and revenue, investors devalued LinkedIn by about $10 billion. Joe Lonsdale, the Formation 8 venture investor who co-founded Palantir Technologies is quoted stating,
“A lot of LinkedIn’s value, according to how many of us think about it, is tied to what it will achieve in the next five to 10 years,” Lonsdale said in an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Alley” on Friday. “It is very similar to a unicorn in that way. Yes, it is making a few billion in revenue and it’s a public company but it has these really big long-term plans as well and is very similar to how you see these other companies.” He added a lot of people who have been willing to suspend disbelief aren’t doing that anymore. “At this point, people are asking, ‘Are you actually going to be able to keep growing?’ And they’re punishing the unicorns and punishing the public companies the same way.”
Lonsdale understands why many private companies postpone an IPO for as long as possible, given these circumstances. Regardless of the pros and cons of when a company should go public, the LinkedIn devaluation seems as if it will send a message. Whether that message is one that fearmongers similar companies into staying private for longer or one that changes profitability norms for younger tech companies remains to be seen.
Megan Feil, March 15, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
How Sony Was Hacked
March 15, 2016
Remember when Sony was gearing up to release the controversial flick The Interview starring James Franco and Seth Rogen and how the CIA recruited them to kill Kim Jong-un, when suddenly their system was hacked? The people who hacked Sony called themselves “God’sApstls” and demanded the production company pay them an undisclosed amount of money or else they would “be bombarded as a whole.” Sony Pictures ignored the threat and the studio was taken offline for weeks, resulting in $35 million IT damages.
Motherboard investigated the current status of the Sony attack, it took place in 2014, which the company is still reeling from, “These Are The Cyberweapons Used To Hack Sony.” The FBI officially stated that the hackers were on the North Korean pay roll and still going about their business. A security researcher coalition thinks they can expose the hackers’ extensive malware arsenal.
“Andre Ludwig, the senior technical director at Novetta Research and Interdiction Group, said that the investigation started from four hashes (values that uniquely identify a file) that the Department of Homeland security published after the attack. With those few identifying strings, and after months of sleuthing, the researchers found 2,000 malware samples, both from online malware portal VirusTotal, as well as from antivirus companies. Of those, they manually reviewed and catalogued 1,000, and were able to identify 45 unique malware strains, revealing that the Sony hackers had an arsenal more sophisticated and varied than previously thought.”
The goal is to disrupt the hacker group often enough that they have to use their time, resources, and energy to rebuild their defenses and even lose some of their capabilities. They also might lose access to their past victims. There is good suspicion, however, to believe the hackers were not North Koreans:
“As it turns out, the hackers’ arsenal contains not only malware capable of wiping and destroying files on a hard disk like the Sony hack, but also Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) tools, tools that allow for remotely eavesdropping on a victim’s computer, and more, according to the report. The researchers tracked some of this tools in cyberattacks and espionage operations that go as far as back as 2009, perhaps even 2007, showing the hackers that hit Sony have a long history.”
What the data reveals is that the hackers have been around for a long, long time (perhaps the North Korean government simply hired them?) and have had years to build up their arsenal. The counteroffensive, however, has built up its own and learned from the Sony hack job, pitting the hackers’ tools against them in hopes they will not be as effective in the future.
Warriors…er…coders, hackers, developers, etc. learn from each other to build stronger and better tools. The old adage, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” so who is the hackers’ enemy-other than the obvious USA?
Whitney Grace, March 15, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
More Hacked US Voter Data Appears on the Dark Web
February 25, 2016
From HackRead comes a piece called More US Voters Data Circulating on the Dark Net, which points to the lack of protection surrounding data on US voters. This data was leaked on the site The Hell on Dark Web. No reports yet suggest how this data was hacked. While no social security numbers or highly sensitive information was released, records include name, date of birth, voter registration dates, voting records, political affiliation and address. Continuing the explanation of implications, the article’s author writes,
“However, it provides any professional hacker substantial information to initiate and plan a phishing attack in the next election which takes place in the US. Recent discoveries, news and speculations have exposed the role of nation-state actors and cyber criminals in planning, instigating and initiating hacking attacks aimed at maligning the upcoming US elections. While social media has emerged as one of the leading platforms adopted by politicians when they wish to spread a certain message or image, cyber criminals and non-state actors are also utilizing the online platform to plan and initiate their hacking attacks on the US election.”
As the article reminds us, this is the not first instance of voter records leaking. Such leaks call into question how this keeps happening and makes us wonder about any preventative measures. The last thing needed surrounding public perception of voting is that it puts one at risk for cyber attacks. Aren’t there already enough barriers in place to keep individuals from voting?
Megan Feil, February 25, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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Metadata Could Play Integral Role in Data Security
February 2, 2016
A friend recently told me how they can go months avoiding suspicious emails, spyware, and Web sites on her computer, but the moment she hands her laptop over to her father he downloads a virus within an hour. Despite the technology gap existing between generations, the story goes to show how easy it is to deceive and steal information these days. ExpertClick thinks that metadata might hold the future means for cyber security in “What Metadata And Data Analytics Mean For Data Security-And Beyond.”
The article uses biological analogy to explain metadata’s importance: “One of my favorite analogies is that of data as proteins or molecules, coursing through the corporate body and sustaining its interrelated functions. This analogy has a special relevance to the topic of using metadata to detect data leakage and minimize information risk — but more about that in a minute.”
This plays into new companies like, Ayasdi, using data to reveal new correlations using different methods than the standard statistical ones. The article compares this to getting to the data atomic level, where data scientists will be able to separate data into different elements and increase the analysis complexity.
“The truly exciting news is that this concept is ripe for being developed to enable an even deeper type of data analytics. By taking the ‘Shape of Data’ concept and applying to a single character of data, and then capturing that shape as metadata, one could gain the ability to analyze data at an atomic level, revealing a new and unexplored frontier. Doing so could bring advanced predictive analytics to cyber security, data valuation, and counter- and anti-terrorism efforts — but I see this area of data analytics as having enormous implications in other areas as well.”
There are more devices connected to the Internet than ever before and 2016 could be the year we see a significant rise in cyber attacks. New ways to interpret data will leverage predictive and proactive analytics to create new ways to fight security breaches.
Whitney Grace, February 2, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Many Companies Worldwide Underprepared for Cyber Attacks
January 19, 2016
A recent survey from KPMG Capital suggests that only about half the world’s CEOs feel their companies are “fully prepared” to counter a cyber breach in the next three years. One notable exception: businesses in the U.S., where about ninety percent of CEOs feel their companies are ready to fend off hackers. We are not surprised that KPMG is gathering information on in the subject, since it recently took an equity stake in cyber-intelligence firm Norse Corp.
KPMG Australia comments on the survey’s results in its post, “Cyber Security: A Failure of Imagination.” The write-up relates:
“According to the 2015 KPMG CEO Outlook Study [PDF] of more than 1,200 CEOs, one out of five indicated that information security is the risk they are most concerned about. ‘Collectively we sleepwalked into a position of vulnerability when it comes to cyber,’ said Malcolm Marshall, Global Head of Cyber Security at KPMG. ‘This combination of lack of preparedness and concern, from those organizations that are among the best equipped to deal with risks of this magnitude, clearly illustrates cyber security challenges remain severely unaddressed.’”
A lack of skilled cyber-security workers seems to be a large part of the problem, particularly ones who also have management or social-science skills. However, we’re told the root cause here is the “failure to imagine” what hackers can do and might try before they’ve tried it. Clearly, many executives would do well to get themselves up to speed on the subject, before their companies fall victim.
Cynthia Murrell, January 19, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
New and Improved Hacker Methods in China
December 30, 2015
We learn from an article at Yahoo News that, “On China’s Fringes, Cyber Spies Raise Their Game.” Reporters Clare Baldwin, James Pomfret, and Jeremy Wagstaff report that hackers backed by China are using some unique methods, according to Western security experts. Search is but a tiny part of this approach but, perhaps not surprisingly, cloud storage is a factor. The article relates:
“Hackers have expanded their attacks to parking malware on popular file-sharing services including Dropbox and Google Drive to trap victims into downloading infected files and compromising sensitive information. They also use more sophisticated tactics, honing in on specific targets through so-called ‘white lists’ that only infect certain visitors to compromised websites. Security experts say such techniques are only used by sophisticated hackers from China and Russia, usually for surveillance and information extraction. The level of hacking is a sign, they say, of how important China views Hong Kong, where 79 days of protests late last year brought parts of the territory, a major regional financial hub, to a standstill. The scale of the protests raised concerns in Beijing about political unrest on China’s periphery. ‘We’re the most co-ordinated opposition group on Chinese soil, (and) have a reasonable assumption that Beijing is behind the hacking,’ said Lam Cheuk-ting, chief executive of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, which says it has been a victim of cyber attacks on its website and some members’ email accounts.”
Officially, China’s Defense Ministry denies any connection to the attacks, but that is nothing new. The adaptation of new hacking techniques is part of a continuing cycle; as journalists, scholars, and activists improve their security, hackers adapt. See the article for specifics on some attacks attributed to China-backed hackers, as well as some ways activists are trying to stay ahead.
Cynthia Murrell, December 30, 2015
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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