Cybercrime as a Service Drives Cyber Attacks on Uber Accounts and More
January 26, 2016
Several articles lately have shined light on the dynamics at play in the cybercriminal marketplaces of the Dark Web; How much is your Uber account worth?, for example, was recently published on Daily Mail. Summarizing a report from security researchers at Trend Micro for CNBC, the article explains this new information extends the research previously done by Intel Security’s The Hidden Data Economy report. Beyond describing the value hierarchy where Uber and Paypal logins cost more than social security numbers and credit cards, this article shares insights on the bigger picture,
“’Like any unregulated, efficient economy, the cybercrime ecosystem has quickly evolved to deliver many tools and services to anyone aspiring to criminal behavior,’ said Raj Samani, chief technology officer for Intel Security EMEA. ‘This “cybercrime-as-a-service” marketplace has been a primary driver for the explosion in the size, frequency, and severity of cyber attacks.
‘The same can be said for the proliferation of business models established to sell stolen data and make cybercrime pay.’”
Moving past the shock value of the going rates, this article draws our attention to the burgeoning business of cybercrime. Similarly to the idea that Google has expanded the online ecosystem by serving as a connector, it appears marketplaces in the Dark Web may be carving out a similar position. Quite the implications when you consider the size of the Dark Web.
Megan Feil, January 26, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Is Yahoo Going the Way of AOL?
January 25, 2016
Yahoo hired former Googler Marissa Mayer as its new CEO to turn the company around. The company is headed towards stormy waters again, which could leave only the ship’s hull. Yahoo could sell its main operating business and all that would be left is Yahoo Japan, Alibaba shares, and $5 billion in cash. Mayer would then get the boot, says South China Morning Post in the article, “Yahoo Destined For Tech Graveyard Due To Poor Choice In Chief Executive Officer.”
Yahoo has gone through five CEOs in the past decade and its current shares are trading well below value, making the company only worth at an estimated $2 billion.
Yahoo’s current problems began when the company was formed. Founders Jerry Yang and David Filo were great inventors, but they were inexperienced running a company. Yahoo failed to accept Microsoft’s offer and while it floundered, Google stole the search market.
“Determining the right kind of chief executive for a tech company at a particular stage of development represents the most frustrating and critical issue. The weakness of chief executives with a tech start-up or product background like Mayer is that they try to invent and innovate a large corporation out of a problem and into a breakthrough strategy.”
The article explains that Yahoo needed to be knocked down and then rebuilt from the ground up. A huge movement like that requires more from a tech manager who is only used to positive growth, praise, and giving huge benefits to staff.
This points out that people with different talents are needed to manage a company as well as the importance of a diverse team with varied experience. Some people are meant to invent and work in the tech field, others are meant to be business leaders.
Whitney Grace, January 25, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The Total Patent Counts for 2015 Are in, and IBM Wins (Again)
January 21, 2016
The article on Reuters titled IBM Granted Most U.S. Patents in 2015, Study Finds confirms the 23rd consecutive win in this area for IBM. Patents are a key indicator of the direction and focus of a given business, and top companies take these numbers very seriously. Interestingly, 2015 was the first year since 2007 that the total count of U.S. patents fell. Following that trend, Microsoft Corp’s patents were also 31% lower than past totals, and as a result the company took only tenth place on the list. The article provides some other details on patent rankings,
“Among the technology giants notable for their intellectual property, Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google stepped up its patent activity, moving to the fifth position from eighth in 2014, while Apple Inc (AAPL.O) stayed at the 11th position. Patents are sometimes the subject of legal battles, and investors, analysts and enthusiasts alike track patents closely to see what companies are looking to develop next. Following IBM, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) and Canon Inc (7751.T) rounded off the top three spots…”
There are no big surprises here, but one aspect of patents that the article does not cover is whether patents count as revenue? We were under the impression that money did that trick, but the emphasis on patents seems to suggest otherwise.
Chelsea Kerwin, January 21, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Woman Fights Google and Wins
January 21, 2016
Google is one of those big corporations that if you have a problem with it, you might as well let it go. Google is powerful, respected, and has (we suspect) a very good legal department. There are problems with Google, such as the “right to be forgotten” and Australian citizens have a big bone to pick with the search engine. Australian News reports that “SA Court Orders Google Pay Dr. Janice Duffy $115,000 Damages For Defamatory Search Results.”
Duffy filed a lawsuit against Google for displaying her name along with false and defamatory content within its search results. Google claimed no responsibility for the actual content, as it was not the publisher. The Australian Supreme Court felt differently:
“In October, the court rejected Google’s arguments and found it had defamed Dr Duffy due to the way the company’s patented algorithm operated. Justice Malcolm Blue found the search results either published, republished or directed users toward comments harmful to her reputation. On Wednesday, Justice Blue awarded Dr Duffy damages of $100,000 and a $15,000 lump sum to cover interest.”
Duffy was not the only one who was upset with Google. Other Australians filed their own complaints, including Michael Trkulja with a claim search results linked him to crime and Shane Radbone sued to learn the identities of bloggers who wrote negative comments.
It does not seem that Google should be held accountable, but technically they are not responsible for the content. However, Google’s algorithms are wired to bring up the most popular and in-depth results. Should they develop a filter that measures negative and harmful information or is it too subjective?
Whitney Grace, January 21, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Ebay Is Sold Structured Data
January 19, 2016
PayPal and eBay split in 2015 and many people thought it was a poor mistake on eBay’s part. However, eBay has recouped any potential loses by record profits and more than 159 million sellers. Channel Advisor explains that one of the reasons eBay has grown so much is due to its incorporation of structured data and its importance for organic search in the article, “eBay Moves Towards Structured Data-And Why It Matters.”
As an avid eBay buyer and seller, I have been impressed with the new changes in eBay’s demand for structured data. In the past, if you wanted to find anything on eBay you had to go directly to the Web site and dig through results. Sometimes you could find results on Google or another search engine, but these were usually cached auctions. Since the switchover, eBay listings are prominent within Google’s search results. What is even better is how accurate they are!
EBay has turned to structured data as a way to compete with Amazon. While this is beneficial in the long run, it forces sellers to refocus their strategies. The article gives some great tips on how to improve your listings for the best organic search effectiveness. What eBay is demanding now is item specifics so items are placed in the right categories and also helps buyers make more informed decisions. Product identifiers are now very important and mandatory in many categories. These include item specifics such as UPCs, ISBNs, MPNs, GTINs, and more. The goal with all this extra information is to increase visibility in Google and eBay search results.
“In addition to the above benefits, adding identifiers will give you:
- The ability to match your item with a product from the more robust eBay catalogue
- More accurate pricing guidance when you list your items
- Trending price alerts — when your listings are priced lower than the trending price
EBay suggests adding identifiers even if they’re not yet required for your category – doing so will earn you an early competitive edge.”
EBay used to be the one-stop shopping destination online, but Amazon has quickly stolen that title from them. With more detailed listings and visibility in Google, eBay is sure to win back customers.
Whitney Grace, January 19, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Hello, Big Algorithms
January 15, 2016
The year had barely started and it looks lime we already have a new buzzword to nestle into our ears: big algorithms. The term algorithm has been tossed around with big data as one of the driving forces behind powerful analytics. Big data is an encompassing term that refers to privacy, security, search, analytics, organization, and more. The real power, however, lies in the algorithms. Benchtec posted the article, “Forget Big Data-It’s Time For Big Algorithms” to explain how algorithms are stealing the scene.
Data is useless unless you are able to are pull something out of it. The only way get the meat off the bone is to use algorithms. Algorithms might be the powerhouses behind big data, but they are not unique. The individual data belonging to different companies.
“However, not everyone agrees that we’ve entered some kind of age of the algorithm. Today competitive advantage is built on data, not algorithms or technology. The same ideas and tools that are available to, say, Google are freely available to everyone via open source projects like Hadoop or Google’s own TensorFlow…infrastructure can be rented by the minute, and rather inexpensively, by any company in the world. But there is one difference. Google’s data is theirs alone.”
Algorithms are ingrained in our daily lives from the apps run on smartphones to how retailers gather consumer detail. Algorithms are a massive untapped market the article says. One algorithm can be manipulated and implemented for different fields. The article, however, ends on some socially conscious message about using algorithms for good not evil. It is a good sentiment, but kind of forced here, but it does spur some thoughts about how algorithms can be used to study issues related to global epidemics, war, disease, food shortages, and the environment.
Whitney Grace, January 15, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Strong and Loud or Quiet and Weak, Googles Robot Grandkids Fail to Impress the Marines
January 15, 2016
The article titled Why the Marines Don’t Want Google’s Robot Soldiers in Combat on Fortune discusses the downside of the Google-owned company Boston Dynamics’ robots. You might guess, moral concerns, or more realistically, funding. But you would be wrong, since DARPA already shelled out over $30 million for the four-legged battle bots. Instead, the issue is that a single robot, which looks like a huge insect wearing a helmet and knee and elbow pads, emits a noise akin to a motorcycle revving, or a jackhammer drilling, for small movements. The article explains,
“Anyone who’s seen Boston Dynamics’ four-legged robots in action typically is wowed by their speed, strength, and agility, but also note how loud they are. They sound like chainsaws on steroids. And that decibel level is apparently a problem for potential customers, namely the U.S. military.
For Marines who took the robot out for a spin, that noise is apparently a deal breaker. “They took it as it was: a loud robot that’s going to give away their position.”
The reason for all this hullaballoo on the part of the robot is its gas engine, intended for increased robustness. The military was looking for a useful helpmate capable of carrying heavy loads of up to 400 lbs. There has been some back and forth between military representatives and Boston Dynamics, but the current state of affairs seems to be a quieter, and weaker, robot. Not ideal.
Chelsea Kerwin, January 15, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
The Duck Quacks 12 Million Queries
January 14, 2016
DuckDuckGo keeps waddling through its search queries and quacking that it will not track its users information. DuckDuckGo has remained a small search engine, but its privacy services are chipping away at Google and search engines’ user base. TechViral shares that “DuckDuckGo The Anti-Google Search Engine Just Reached A New Milestone” and it is reaching twelve million search queries in one day!
In 2015, DuckDuckGo received 3.25 billion search queries, showing a 74 percent increase compared to the 2014 data. While DuckDuckGo is a private oasis in a sea of tracking cookies, it still uses targeted ads. However, unlike Google DuckDuckGo only uses ads based on the immediate keywords used in a search query and doesn’t store user information. It wipes the search engine clean with each use.
DuckDuckGo’s increase of visitors has attracted partnerships with Mozilla and Apple. The private search engine is a for profit business, but it does have different goals than Google.
“Otherwise, it should be noted that although he refuses to have the same practices as Google, DuckDuckGo already making profits, yes that’s true. And the company’s CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, stop to think it is necessary to collect information about users to monetize a search engine: ‘You type car and you see an advertisement for a car, Google follows you on all these sites because it operates huge advertising networks and other properties. So they need these data for search engines to follow you.’ ”
DuckDuckGo offers a great service for privacy, while it is gaining more users it doesn’t offer the plethora of services Google does. DuckDuckGo, why not try private email, free office programs, and online data storage? Would you still be the same if you offered these services?
Whitney Grace, January 14, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Feeding the Google AI Beast and Keeping in Mind, You Are What You Eat
January 13, 2016
The article titled We are All SkyNet in the Googlesphere on Disinformation refers to the Terminator’s controlling A.I., SkyNet, who determines the beginning of a machine age in the movie, and the conspiracy that Google is taking on that role in reality. Is it easy to understand the fear of Google’s reach, it does sometimes seem like a gigantic arm with a thousand hands groping about in cyberspace, and collecting little pieces of information that on their own seem largely harmless. The article discusses cloud computing and its relationship to the conspiracy,
“When you need your bits of info, your computer gathers them from the cloud again. The cloud is SkyNet’s greatest line of defense, as you can’t kill what is spread out over an entire network. Since the magnificent expose of the NSA and their ability to (at least) access every keystroke, file or phone call and Google’s (at minimum) complicity in managing the data, that is to say, nearly all data being collected, it’s hard to imagine the limitations to what any such Google AI program could learn.”
The article ends philosophically with the suggestion that the nature of a modern day SkyNet will depend on the data that it gathers from us, that we will create the monster in our likeness. This may not be where we expected the article to go, but it does make sense. Google as a company will not determine it, at least if literature has taught us anything.
Chelsea Kerwin, January 13, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
Authors Guild Loses Fair Use Argument, Petitions Supreme Court for Copyright Fee Payment from Google
January 12, 2016
The article on Fortune titled Authors Guild Asks Supreme Court to Hear Google Books Copyright Case continues the 10 year battle over Google’s massive book scanning project. Only recently in October of 2015 the Google project received a ruling in their favor due to the “transformative” nature of the scanning from a unanimous appeals court. Now the Authors Guild, with increasing desperation to claim ownership over their work, takes the fight to the Supreme Court for consideration. The article explains,
“The Authors Guild may be hoping the high profile nature of the case, which at one time transfixed the tech and publishing communities, will tempt the Supreme Court to weigh in on the scope of fair use… “This case represents an unprecedented judicial expansion of the fair-use doctrine that threatens copyright protection in the digital age. The decision below authorizing mass copying, distribution, and display of unaltered content conflicts with this Court’s decisions and the Copyright Act itself.”
In the petition to the Supreme Court, the Authors Guild is now requesting payment of copyright fees rather than a stoppage of the scanning of 20 million books. Perhaps they should have asked for that first, since Google has all but already won this one.
Chelsea Kerwin, January 12, 2016
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, publisher of the CyberOSINT monograph
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