Gamers, Here’s Insiders ‘Play by Play’!
What do ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, Gaming and CyberSecurity have in common with NSA-FBI-CIA-DOD and ELECTIONS? Surveillance, Data, D.C. and VCs.
‘Red Dead’ to ‘Red Dawn’, art and games imitate life. But in real life, horse thieves are hung up high!
In game of cybersecurity the “Den of Technocrat Thieves” steal and share Data as easily as passing around stats of players on game cards. But will they too be strung up?
Talent is hard to find, but it doesn’t always ‘take a thief to catch a thief.’ Be forewarned, “Pitchers don’t use Hitters’ bat.”
Playbook? Read my March 15, 2019 paper “America’s Sweetheart Deals? Social Networks and Manufacturers, Angel Investors and Intelligence Agencies”:
Remember when as children we’d collect team player’s cards from our favorite baseball teams. If you recall, the cards gave the player’s photo and stats. Seems naive to throw around terms like privacy, control, and regulation in our surveillance state.
Yes, the public is aware that their information has been collected. My point? Why would Congress want to regulate and interfere with users who are indirectly helping government agencies build public portfolios? It appears that as intelligence agencies are keeping their eyes on Russia and China, they’ve asked tech companies to keep their eyes on the public by following their data.
Forcepoint and ZeroFox, speaking of data and hack jobs, did you see how “Hackers Have Already Started to Weaponize Artificial Intelligence”, by George Dvorsky in Gizmodo? His ‘bystander effect’ comes to mind:
“Computer security firms will likewise lean on AI in a never ending effort to keep up. Eventually, these tools will escape human comprehension and control…A consequence of AI is that humans are increasingly being kept out of the loop.”
Fpoint, on the subject of loops and links, your invitation to subscribe to Forcepoint X-Labs newsletter on LinkedIn was rejected but not ignored. Of course, it’s a great way to monitor post feeds.
You speak of going after those ‘stealing user data.’ But it’s ok if you ‘buy it.’ What’s up with Watson?
Pal, BTW, did Fpoint take your place in Qatar? Looks like their monitoring helped the CIA in Hamas’ exit.
Trumped Truths or White Lies?
So how do we get to the truth? According to Sherlock Holmes, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?” But whose truth?
On the subject of truth, a brilliant man whom I had the pleasure of meeting comes to mind, the late Philip Zimbardo, Faculty, Psy.D. Consortium at Palo Alto University.
On “Challenging the Truth” Dr. Zimbardo states:
“There seems to be powerful silent barriers to dealing with new truths emanating from psychological laboratories and field experiments that tell us things about how the mind works, which challenge our basic assumptions. We want to believe our decisions are wisely informed, that our actions are rational, that our personal conscience buffers us against tyrannical authorities…”
Let’s take Elections. Friscos, weren’t you cheating the public by robbing Peter to PAY his old PAL Elon who now works for Uncle Sam?
Yes, I’m referring to PR Newswire of March 2019: “New Forcepoint X-Labs Delivers World’s First Security Lab Dedicated to Behavioral-Intelligence Innovations.”
Dickheads, idea of security and behavioral science is not new. Heard of labs for hire experimenting with data before the 2016 election? The Observer pointed to the:
“Plan to harvest the Facebook profiles of millions of people in the US, and to use their private and personal information to create sophisticated psychological and political profiles. And then target them with political ads designed to work on their particular psychological makeup.”
Investigations included “Cambridge Analytica and its links to …the UK and Team Trump in the US presidential election…”
Late in the game, nations speak of partnerships and sharing lessons to manage the reality of those like U.S. who continue to be outpaced. I remind you, you’re only ‘as strong as your weakest link.’
A.I.? “Mercer is a…computer scientist…in early artificial intelligence…” How?
Says The Guardian, “The key to understanding how a motivated and determined billionaire could bypass our electoral laws rests on AggregateIQ, an obscure web analytics company based in an office above a shop in Victoria, British Columbia.”
Damn Canadians and Brits, an ocean between them they still managed together to pull off their scheme even though they’re as lost in cyber space as their alLIES!
But there are new and old boys on the political block. Hmm, who fits that profile today other than a key investor in Facebook? Hint: get paid to vote for Trump?
Forcepoint reportedly has “World-leading specialists in security research, data science, psychology and counter-intelligence.” Sounds a lot like Palantir’s software for cops to ‘protect and serve.’ Protect you or serve them?
Now, if your goal is “understanding human behavior and build risk-adaptive cybersecurity solutions” then you’re simply policing the net. Not new.
Need I remind you of the 1971 study when Philip Zimbardo, “lead a team of researchers at Stanford University to determine the psychological effects of being a guard or a prisoner.”
Fpoint, some may find your ‘research’ fails by comparison calling it ludicrous at best and counterintuitive.
Consider the work of experts Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Or better still, ask the distinguished American Economist David Hirshleifer whose main field is Behavioral Economics. I did. I assisted him.
Also worked with the Marketing Genius and Distinguished Professor Imran Currim. As well as brilliant computer engineers and scientists.
You see Fpoint, no matter how many ‘specialists,’ “I think there are certain crimes which the law [or YOU] cannot touch…”
It’s like Compliance Officers hiring Economists to understand and build risk-adaptive consumer overconsumption solutions. Right, COMMERCE or TRADE wouldn’t like it.
Nor China. Read the 2006 book The Coming China Wars by Peter Navarro, President Donald Trump’s former Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy? I did and assisted him too.
Naturally, I made the connection early between Markets, Technology and Statecraft.
FBI, Got ‘ZeroFucked’?
FBI, Hoover having the goods on Politicians, Mob, and Communists meant they were fucked. G-Men, I hear you were ‘ZeroFucked’ at ‘ground zero’ on Sep 11th 2001 and attack on Jan 6th 2021.
Reports NBC that you “signed a $14 million contract with a “threat intelligence” company called ZeroFox “to proactively identify threats.” Damn crazy or ‘crazy like a fox.’
But according to the Washington Post, “agencies failed to effectively harness the security and intelligence infrastructure.” What say you?
“It wasn’t that we were blind, it just turned out to be a bad time to have less visibility into what was happening online, because we were changing systems and a lot of people didn’t really know the new system.”
Appears the FBI couldn’t afford the top surveillance contractor miner of data and dropped them taking the lowest bid. But reportedly when this miner warned them, FBI still didn’t take action concerned about ‘right to protest’?
Chris, who ya kidding? Liken to corrupt construction contractors, it turned out to be a ‘mickey mouse’ operation of ‘putting lipstick on the pig.’
Scared shitless of hearing the Commander say, ‘You’re Fired!’ especially after what happened last summer? Explains recent reports of deterring a ‘murder plot.’ Sure.
Look, most know the Feds hire ‘private dicks’ to monitor the web. Just like advertisers who pay social media. And most don’t care. Except those who have something to lose, like threat to their life or an election opportunity to win.
But be reminded Chris, not everyone can be monitored online. Truth or Lie, will you miss another Butler or ‘knick it in the Butt’?
Ask CIA about “true lies.’
CIA Cube ‘Dots’ or Moles?
The ‘Inside Plan’ imitates ‘Escape Plan.’ But there are no ‘Goodfellas’ here. The ‘alphabet’ agencies like the CIA got a ‘pulse’ on Americans and the world. CIA, but who’s got their eye on you?
Agents and Actors, like art, imitate life. Liken to Stallone’s role as a security expert playing a prisoner in “Escape Plan” in a ‘top-secret, high-tech’ maximum security prison. But unlike an ‘Alcatraz’, social media is a prison of its own making.
Contracted by Outside agencies, ‘Private Dicks’ learn the layout of the Web and its Weaknesses (Social Media) monitoring the Routine of People, in the name of ‘security.’
Peter, speaking of ‘private dicks’ it sure PAYS to have PALS in High and Low places. Army and Navy victory over what? Of course, having a ‘connected’ muscle like Schwarzenegger’s Manheim doesn’t hurt.
CIA and Forcepoint in Qatar Halloween weekend! Negotiate hostage problem and looking to make connections in Qatar while getting them to subscribe to your feed? Did you get a trick or treat? 🙂
My Sensei shares that Son is the rare Rainmaker to the King. But who is the Kingmaker? In between a Kingdom and an Empire, you have no way out. Serve one or the other.
Still, if ‘data is the new oil’ then it’s a great selling point to a Prince. But you’re late. Prince already has a ‘Golden Boy.’
Forget ‘Augustine’s Law XXXVIII’? – “The early bird gets the worm. The early worm…gets eaten.”
Of course, as an ‘investment’ of In-Q-Tel (IQT) ‘private dicks’ function is ‘independent’ of the CIA.
CIA, Enemies lay within your systems. Holding the ‘Ace of Hearts’ who will be next to smile back at death? Do you trust your informers?
NSA, Intel in Snowden’s cube made it out after serving it one hand to another. I remind you, “Pitchers don’t use Hitters’ bat.”
Just a matter of time before the square is cubed. Until you find you too are but a small dot in a square of the cube… 🙂
DATA: Problem or Solution?
In “The Final Problem”, Sherlock Holmes and mastermind Professor Moriarty fall to their deaths. For Holmes, the problem of a ‘threat’ appears to present itself before the ‘solution.’
Not unlike problem of ‘security threats.’ All to ‘protect’ the intangible, IP of DATA.
Initial goal of ‘private dicks’? Bleed the People dry of data. For without it, systems or techniques would not be possible and you’d be in Holmes position:
“I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”
And it is a capital offense to play with people’s lives. Yet, liken to Holmes “I think there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge.”
And now I’m serving it cold to you! 🙂
Hidden ‘High Hand’ of True Kingmaker
An old Brit would say of his friendly boys, ‘New dogs, Old tricks.’
Yes, and some grow up from playing cards to playing poker. Or what Cassius Coolidge calls, “A Friend in Need” aka Cheating Dogs Playing Poker!
Idea of ‘boys will be boys’ ignores that we ‘girls will be girls.’ Yes, I too “have a strange language” as Rita Hayworth playing ‘Gilda’.
And as Gilda tells her husband Munson, a ‘Casino King’ in Argentina running the gambling house as a front for his cartel, “Boys have the darnedest way of growing up.”
Yes, but the Woman playing Men and the Game holding the High Hand is the true Kingmaker! 🙂
