IO Impotency – Page 172 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/12/232013/12/29

Steve Aftergood: Orgs ask DNI to Preserve Access to World News Connection — Comment on OSC in AF by Robert Steele

Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Impotency

ORGS ASK DNI TO PRESERVE ACCESS TO WORLD NEWS CONNECTION

More than a dozen professional societies and public interest groups wrote to the Director of National Intelligence last week to ask him to preserve public access to foreign news reports gathered, translated and published by the Open Source Center and marketed to subscribers through the NTIS World News Connection.

The CIA, which manages the Open Source Center for the intelligence community, intends to terminate public access to the World News Connection at the end of this month. (CIA Halts Public Access to Open Source Service, Secrecy News, October 8.)

Among other things, the groups said that this move is inconsistent with the President's Open Government National Action Plan.

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2013/12/232013/12/23

Stephen E. Arnold: Big Data Falls Down…Way Down…

Commerce, Idiocy, IO Impotency

Big Data Fans: The Nitty Gritty

Love talking about Big Data? I recommend doing a bit of reading. I found “What I Learned from 2 Years of Data Sciencing” refreshing. Quotes I noted were:

With reference to Big Data projects where the author worked: “None of these projects gained traction within the company and became abandoned.”
With reference to the work required: “Much of the efforts spent for those projects were in getting the right data into the right shape.”
“Little did I know that we’ll be cleaning and shaping data for most of my second year at uSwitch.”
“In practice, I was just cleaning and shaping data.”
“Figuring out the right work to do is one of the most difficult tasks for a data science team. It doesn’t help with the fact that the data science role is so vague.”
“Figuring out where to devote our time and effort is not as easy as it sounds.”
“Unless someone or something can act on the data, results can only satisfy intellectual curiosity. A business can’t survive on funding people to carry out academic studies forever.”
“If cleaning vast amount of data, being clueless as to what to do, and debating with colleagues sound like a challenge that you want to take on, I know a company in London that’s looking for a data scientist!”

Is there a message about the nuts and bolts of data? Is analytics repeating the sins of the first enterprise search vendors? It is so much easier to sell sizzle than focus on the basics like figuring out what’s important and getting valid data. Let’s just take the easy path seems to be one risk for analytics cheerleaders.

Stephen E Arnold, December 22, 2013

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2013/12/222013/12/22

References on Intelligence Reform

Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Government, IO Impotency

Table of references with links (mostly free) below the line.

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2013/12/222013/12/22

Mini-Me: NSA-RSA Debacle Gets Worse

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military, Officers Call

Huh?

Researchers Break RSA 4096 Encryption With Just A Microphone And A Couple Of Emails

As if it wasn’t enough that the NSA paid RSA $10 million to adopt an algorithm that wasn’t entirely secure, researchers have now demonstrated that they can break even RSA 4096 bit encryption with little more than a few emails and a microphone. And that microphone can indeed just be one in a smartphone sitting on the desk.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute of Science discovered that they could steal even the largest, most secure RSA 4,096-bit encryption keys simply by listening to a laptop as it decrypts data.

To accomplish the trick, the researchers used a microphone to record the noises made by the computer, then ran that audio through filters to isolate the vibrations made by the electronic internals during the decryption process. With that accomplished, some cryptanalysis revealed the encryption key in around an hour.

Well, no, pace Engadget it is a little more complex than that. You can’t just listen to a computer and break the algos just like that.

Read full article with how they did it.

Full paper.

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2013/12/222013/12/22

OSINT Literature Review, Name Association, Lessons Learned

IO Impotency

Tough love, this is.

Lessons Learned from a 22 Year Fight:

01 Steele’s biggest mistake was in not ensuring OSS conference presentations were indexed in Conference Proceedings. Core value of presentation at International Studies Association (Intelligence) is that papers presented there are indexed and visible.

02 International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence, American Intelligence Review, and SIGNAL not indexed. Materials published there are not visible.

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2013/12/222013/12/22

Stephen E. Arnold: IBM’s Watch Goes Shopping — Big Data Heuristics Hit a New Low

IO Impotency, IO Sense-Making, IO Tools

IBM Watson Apps Due Next Year

December 22, 2013

To what pressing issue is IBM now applying Watson’s superior (artificial) intellect? Why, to shopping, of course. Business Insider reports, “IBM’s Jeopardy-Winning Supercomputer Will Power a ‘Cognitive, Expert Personal Shopper’ App Next Year.” Writer Dylan Love was especially taken by one app on the horizon from a firm called Fluid Retail.

He quotes IBM Watson Solutions VP Stephen Gold:

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2013/12/212013/12/21

Penguin: NSA Paid RSA for an Embedded Back Door Into Products Sold — Time to Indict Hayden & Alexander — and File RICO Charges Against RSA

03 Economy, 10 Security, 11 Society, Commerce, Ethics, Government, IO Impotency, IO Privacy, Military, Officers Call

Can you spell treason? How about racketeering? This would seem to call for the indictment, conviction, and loss of pensions for the top NSA deciders, and enough RICO lawsuits to put RSA out of business. Shame!

Exclusive: Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer

EXTRACT:

Documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show that the NSA created and promulgated a flawed formula for generating random numbers to create a “back door” in encryption products, the New York Times reported in September. Reuters later reported that RSA became the most important distributor of that formula by rolling it into a software tool called Bsafe that is used to enhance security in personal computers and many other products.

Read full article.

Continue reading “Penguin: NSA Paid RSA for an Embedded Back Door Into Products Sold — Time to Indict Hayden & Alexander — and File RICO Charges Against RSA”