One that Sees from Afar

One that Sees from Afar... Originally published on 10/10/14

Stylometry… stylometry is the way in which a person writes; and that style allows it to be quantified and identified. It is the way in which a person creates a paragraph, the length of sentences, the use of vocabulary… all this contributes to obtain a scientific perspective of the style of writing of any single person using an electronic device. In OPSEC terms (Operations Security), stylometrics are a subject that deserves full attention because it is very difficult to defend and protect ourselves from them.


One of the operational safety measures that Edward Snowden applied involved writing small paragraphs and short sentences, but never full and well-structured texts. The reason for this measure was that regardless of the types of anonymity systems being used, if any kind of spyware or governmental agency were able to extract a plaintext, this action could expose him and relate it to some other documents previously written. The NSA´s repertoire is massive, but Semantic Analysis is by far the scariest.




Any good story must have dreamers and geniuses, villains and visionaries… the first company that came out with this type of software was not the exception to this rule and obtained the whole and undivided attention from governmental agencies, mainly the CIA. 




Palantiri (One that Sees from Afar) is “a fictitious” artifact of the legendarium created by Daddy J.R.R. Tolkien and is a spherical stone that serves to see distant events or places or to communicate with the user of another stone. 




"Reality is stranger than fiction..."

 
  “They're in a scary business”. –Lee Tien, EFF.


 

Palantir, which is very real, was founded back in 2004 by Peter Thiel (PayPal), Alex Karp, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen and Nathan Gettings… with an initial investment of $2 million USD through one of the CIA´s main companies, In-q-Tel. 

 




But it does not stop there because its main clients are the NSA, the CIA, the FBI, NewsCorp and JPMorgan Chase. Their advisers are Condoleezza Rice, George Tenet & General David Petraeus.


 "Any war against humanity is betrayal"


 "I do not expect to see home again¨. –Edward Snowden

In five years Palantir became the company to which “The Dark One” goes when in need of “Massive Data Mining”, and unlike other agencies and companies Palantir realized that the single use of Artificial intelligence would work against an “adaptable adversary”, that´s when they started using teams of human analysts to explore data being originated from different sources, this process is called intelligence augmentation. 



In 2007 The University of Arizona sneaked into blogs, forums and any platform in the Deep Web that allowed them to gather information, the idea was to compile and analyze all that delicious data… obviously using stylometrics.



 "How?”

There are two types of analysis: Supervised and Unsupervised. In Supervised Analysis, there is a text with a totally identifiable author and different "anonymous texts", they compare them and look for matching fingerprints (writing style).  For Unsupervised Analysis, the computer reviews complete blocks of anonymous texts and it piles them up according to different parameters in writing styles: A, B, C…

"Feexit, save us!” 



The document presented by Michael Brennan, Sadia Afroz & Rachel Greenstadt at 28C3 shows 2 ways to avoid “being labeled”:
1.    Obfuscation: To make a text resemble something that is definitely not your style… for example, translate the text to one language and back to the language of origin using google translate.
2.    Imitation: Make your style resemble someone else´s… Donald Trump, you are so screwed!





Anonymouth
Anonymouth is simply beautiful… once you have mastered it. Anonymouth is a Java-based tool, so always keep in mind that requires constant updating. The way it works is by comparing the desired text to other documents written by the same author; the outcome is a neat breakdown of used common words among all texts, sentence structure and proper suggestions for modifications.


 
Stylometrics are this century's version of phrenology.

“Bonus... yes, even in this economy”



PRISM is a government code name for a data-collection effort known officially by the SIGAD US-984XN, PRISM allows the NSA to connect itself directly to the central servers of “The Big 9”: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple… in the meanwhile, Palantir keeps growing.




@Feexitmx
www.feexit.mx
rp@feexit.mx

When we were happy XP

When we were happy XP, originally published on September 22^nd, 2014.

Turns out that after seeing all the "technological advances and miracles (that we enjoy and obviously pay a high price for); people just realized that during a period of several years, these advancements have increased and improved their capabilities, functions and therefore their reach... and grasp.
 

Do you remember when you bought your first computer (if its the case) back in the year 2001? In that year we entered a new era, where we left our beloved Windows 98 and Windows ME. Well, I believe that in that year we started living in a complete technological dependency. We became groupies to Windows XP and then, with the passage of time, Windows Vista... The latter promised a different design and interface, and it was so! but not that many people liked it. We preferred to keep our beloved Windows XP.

Over the years we have consumed many Operating Systems from every single developer. In your computer, in your Tablet, in your mobile... your gaming consoles and even in cars. I have had the opportunity of visiting clients that are not in the technological vogue, but their businesses are working properly with their current computers, even with Pentium 4 processors and Windows XP.

Here's the interesting part. Most of the electronic components have a lifespan of up to 6 years, and even more than that if we are careful. There is something called Planned  Obsolescence, and is nothing more than defining the life span of things. That planned life, may not be accurate for the physical components, but it is precise when it comes to Software.

When you buy a computer, in our case we acquired an Ultrabook with a Core i3 processor, 8GB in RAM, SSD of 120GB with Windows 8. The device works just fine, but we know that its life span is of no more than 3 years (because of its characteristics we know its good to go as far as 2017 or 2018... probably more) because the new Windows versions make you have a more powerful processor, better graphics, and a never ending list of requirements.

This also applies to phones. A few days ago iPhone 6 and iOS8 appeared. I don't know about you, but my iPhone 4* began to experience certain problems... coincidence or planned obsolescence? It is worth mentioning that I have not downloaded any updates. Couldit be true that the conspiracies in which app developers and network carries work along with Apple to "slowdown" the old devices whenever there is a new release?.
 

 
 

 Note. IOS 8 does not work in iPhone 4; and to be honest, we are not amazed. iOS 8 is in fact iPhone 4's deathbed. Although it seems like it was yesterday when they announced the brand new iPhone 4, now Apple announces that the old devices and previous IOSs, won't get any support or updates, matter of fact, as of September 17th, they are discontinued. We saw it last year, iPhone 3GS died when it wasn't able to hold iOS 7, so we are not surprised to see iOS 8 doing the same. 

A few months ago Apple discontinue iPhone 4 in several countries, including India and Brazil. But it has kept sales in developing countries as “a cheap” option of smartphone, while the old versions are disappearing quickly.

P.S. Take a look at “The Lightbulb Conspiracy”by Cosima Dannoritzer.

@feexitmx
www.feexit.mx
id@feexit.mx