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© 2019 All Rights Reserved
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About Cookies OKWhat is Competitive Intelligence
This is a extract from a lecture we gave to MBAs, business school students & graduates at the University of Westminster in London. Contact us if you would also like us to talk to your employees or students on competitive intelligence. Watch for a taste or watch the full lecture.
79% of businesses admit that their organization is adopting emerging technologies faster than they can address related cybersecurity issues - Accenture #Strategy Survey 2019.
Accenture's report on how to survive #DigitalTransformation & related #change states that:
“Relentless change is the new normal. And digital technologies are redefining the way the world works and lives.
Technology is increasingly indivisible from the business, and frictionless interactions, pace and security must be the everyday currency.
Business and government leaders must transform their organizations to ensure relevance, efficiency and competitive advantage.” ... See MoreSee Less
Business Transformation Management | Accenture
accenture.com
Accenture's report explains how an effective business transformation management can help organizations to reduce decision making risk. Read more.19 hours ago ·
Social Media competitor research - how to monitor competitor activity e.g. Facebook adverts for brand / company #competitiveIntelligence
When monitoring competitor activity it should now be standard to look at social media activity. This includes what (& where) competitors advertise, and what they (and their employees) say. Monitoring Facebook, Twitter, etc. are starting points. This SearchEngineLand article gives ideas on some of the things that can be monitored although it misses out lots of more advanced approaches e.g. keyword popularity, site popularity and it ignores sites like spyfu.com and ispionage.com. ... See MoreSee Less
Welcome to the Golden Age of competitive research - Search Engine Land
searchengineland.com
One of the largest opportunities we have as PPC marketers is to seize the moment when competitors have stopped paying attention.3 days ago ·
Want to post something in secret to the #CIA or apply to become an agent when living in a hostile area. Now you can - as the CIA has launched itself on Tor, the Anonymous Internet buff.ly/2VHHWQj
Tor was largely created through funding from the United States government in the 1990s and early 2000s, including from the Naval Research Lab and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and so has always had a US Government involvement. The anonymity service has been open source since its public release in 2002, and it transitioned to being overseen by a nonprofit, dubbed the Tor Project, in 2006. It guarantees anonymity and so is a the tool of choice for #cybercrime, porn, cryptocurrency shopping and getting around China's firewall.
The CIA's involvement shows a recognition in TOR's potential for secret communications - one reason it was created in the first place. ... See MoreSee Less
The CIA Sets Up Shop on Tor, the Anonymous Internet
wired.com
Even the Central Intelligence Agency has a so-called onion service now.4 days ago ·
OSINT Collection Tools for Pastebin (Source: @JakeCreps blog) buff.ly/2JsY5m8 #OSINT
[Note: Pastebin.com is a useful too to store text and items for cutting / pasting e.g. computer code and much more.] ... See MoreSee Less
OSINT Collection Tools for Pastebin
jakecreps.com
The internet is vast and the amount of content published on it every day, every second, is unfathomable. As an OSINT investigator, collector, or analyst, you need to find a way to cut through the c…5 days ago ·
A review of @ICI2019 - the Institute for Competitive Intelligence's (@Institute_CI) annual conference.
Please add in bits I missed or comment on other talks.
It was a great conference & Luxembourg was a great venue. (Back to Bad Nauheim for 2020 :))
www.linkedin.com/pulse/institute-competitive-intelligence-2019-annual-conference-weiss ... See MoreSee Less
The Institute for Competitive Intelligence 2019 Annual Conference in Luxembourg: a review
linkedin.com
It’s been just around a week since ICI’s 2019 annual conference and I’m still buzzed at what I learned and discussed and experienced. For those who have never attended, every year – usually in May but occasionally late April or early June, the Institute for Competitive Intelligence (www.1 week ago ·
Google appears to be experimenting with an option to show less relevant search results when it finds only limited results.
This appears to be a way to ensure users get results - although the search results precision has been changing for years. For example, a search for two terms which should be an "AND" may only show one term (with an option to force the other term - as Google states that one term is missing beneath the results). Most users won't appreciate this and so this appears to be a way of ensuring that users are made aware of problems. However it's another reason to look at alternative search options e.g. Bing, DuckDuckGo or even Yandex.
Search skills are becoming even more important as #Google plays around with what it shows to users. Of course the aim is still to keep people - and get them to click on ads (i.e. how Google gets its money). If this is rolled out, it should help drive more cash to Google's door. buff.ly/2vHRg81a (Source: SearchEngineLand) ... See MoreSee Less
searchengineland.com
Google experiments with a message in search that reads, "Hmm... the results for your search don't seem very relevant."1 week ago ·
Tracking a Hacker with OSINT buff.ly/2E9NXuQ
An #OSINT case study exercise showing approaches to tracking a website hacker. (Note: this is not a real case - but shows techniques & approaches that could work). It looks at clues in the hacked landing page, and basic searches to identify the probably culprit. ... See MoreSee Less
keyfindings.blog
My blog has been hacked! Someone defaced the page and looking into the technical details didn’t provide any leads to the culprit. Maybe OSINT can help in this case. Today’s article will look into c…1 week ago ·
Google's tracking of users by location, app usage, web-activity is a boon to crime investigators - as it can show where an individual was at any time from their phone. It's also a threat to individual privacy and at last, Google has decided to allow auto-deletion for location, Web activity, and app usage data. The new option, launching soon, promises to auto-delete usage data but it won't cover all activity.
It's been possible to switch off location tracking. The new option allows for a rolling 3 or 18 month deletion of the data.
buff.ly/2ZQAIsj and buff.ly/2J6N8Gx #Google ... See MoreSee Less
Google unveils auto-delete for location, Web activity, and app usage data
arstechnica.com
New option coming soon auto-deletes usage data but doesn't cover all activity.1 week ago ·
Google is giving users back some control over their data & is introducing a feature in account settings that will allow users to delete location, web and app activity data automatically. The tools will become available in a few weeks
buff.ly/30fWK84 #Google ... See MoreSee Less
Internet users can now set limits to what Google can store on them – Daily Trust
dailytrust.com.ng
Google is giving users back some control over their data. The internet giant is introducing a new feature in account settings that will allow users to delete location, web and app activity data automatically. The tools will become available in the coming weeks, according to Google.ADVERTISEMENT Now,...2 weeks ago ·
A Guide to all Google options and related sites from Search Engine Land ... See MoreSee Less
Search Engine Land's Guide To Google - Search Engine Land
searchengineland.com
By multiple measures, Google is the internet’s most popular search engine. But Google’s not only a web search engine. Images, videos, mobile content — even Google TV! Major Google Services Google releases a dizzying array of new products and product updates on a regular basis, and Search Engin...2 weeks ago ·
5 Myths About Strategy buff.ly/2KOSgBF
A Harvard Business Review article presenting 5 strategy myths, why they are plausible and why they are wrong. For example:
1) Strategy is about the long-term. Sounds plausible but the reality is that if your strategy doesn't change you have problems. Strategy needs to reflect change.
2) Disruptors change strategy all the time. That's common "wisdom" used to explain Amazon and other tech giant's dominance. In fact, Bruce Henderson,BCG's founder, explained the ‘Cut price and add capacity’ approach to business used to by the tech giants in the 1960s.
3) Competitive Advantage is dead. Sounds plausible when leading companies keep getting beaten. In reality competitive advantage should not be about one all-powerful advantage, especially if not sustainable in the long-term Instead you need to build multiple advantages...
And then there is a myth relating to not even needing a strategy - just needing to be agile, or a myth emphasising the importance of a digital strategy above all else...
A thought-provoking read whether or not you agree with all the conclusions.
#CompetitiveIntelligence #CI #Strategy ... See MoreSee Less
1 month ago ·
The Opera browser has created a very interesting (and disturbing) promotional video they call Escape.
The theme is a science fictional world and focuses on us taking control. As an ad, it's interesting as Opera is only overtly mentioned at the end. However circles - Opera's logo - appear throughout, as an almost subliminal reminder that Opera takes a different approach to Google's Chrome for browsing.
Opera is currently my default browser - I like many of its features, e.g. the inbuilt VPN. I've used the Opera VPN in China - to look at items blocked by the Chinese Firewall (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc.). You can also use Chrome plugins so there is little to lose by using it - and a lot to gain (plus some tools e.g. Whatsapp and Messenger browsing are built in).This is "Opera - Escape" by Fort on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them. ... See MoreSee Less
1 month ago ·
LinkedIn adds celebrate, love, insightful and curious reactions to spur more engagement buff.ly/2UhcyDi
The move makes LinkedIn more Facebook like but also is a real plus in making #LinkedIn an even better business #SocialMedia platform.
The new options allow more meaningful business responses - asking for more information (curious) or praising in a way a Like cannot do (insightful). ... See MoreSee Less
LinkedIn adds celebrate, love, insightful and curious reactions to spur more engagement
social.techcrunch.com
Sometimes a “like” in social media doesn’t give the full picture, or you’re just not inspired enough to write a fuller response. Today, LinkedIn addressed that issue on its own platform, with the introduction of four new reactions people can use in response to posts in their…1 month ago ·
Google Adds Two New Syntax for Date Search?
Google allows date searching via a form on the tools menu. Two new commands - Before:date and After:date make things much easier. #Search #Google #OSINT ... See MoreSee Less
Google Adds Two New Syntax for Date Search
researchbuzz.me
I have been obsessed with searching Google by date for a loooong time. In 2003, shortly after Google released its API documentation, I figured out how to create a date search form and called it Goo…1 month ago ·
How to Be a Better Web Searcher: Secrets from Google Scientists
A basic guide written by Dan Russell and Maria Callegaro of Google. Worth sharing as not every searcher realises that to be a great searcher involves more than just entering a few keywords. #search #research ... See MoreSee Less
How to Be a Better Web Searcher: Secrets from Google Scientists
blogs.scientificamerican.com
Researchers who study how we use search engines share common mistakes, misperceptions and advice2 months ago ·
Many years ago - before Microsoft acquired LinkedIn - Linkedin offered lots of search operators making advanced searching easy. Sadly these disappeared and now searching LinkedIn requires lots of tricks to get the best out of the database.
Making things even harder, many search options are only available to premium members who pay for access to advanced options. Nevertheless there are a number of mostly undocumented operators that allow searchers to find more.
BooleanStrings has created a tip sheet giving mostly undocumented or lesser known operators that can really help for advanced LinkedIn searching.
buff.ly/2rkDrdA
#CompetitiveIntelligence #OSINT ... See MoreSee Less
LinkedIn Operators: One More and a Tip Sheet
booleanstrings.com
Your new undocumented LinkedIn operator (in addition to the ones I covered in a few recent posts) is functions:, with the values from Job Function Codes. Example: functions:4 looks for people in Bu…2 months ago ·
LinkedIn is an invaluable tool for uncovering intelligence on individuals business life. Whether for #CompetitiveIntelligence or #OSINT, knowing how to get the best out of #LinkedIn is crucial.
There are lots of tricks - many of which I've taught in AWARE's Open Source Intelligence workshops (e.g. buff.ly/2Tk5025). Bellingcat has recently brought out an excellent guide for investigators covering lots of tricks for getting more out of Linkedin - from undocumented / hidden operators to using Google to find out more. They also warn about fake profiles (although not my personal favourites at buff.ly/2TqdR29, buff.ly/2TkOjDD, buff.ly/2YfQITJ and a few others that are similar).
@Bellingcat's Investigative Guide To LinkedIn is at. ... See MoreSee Less
bellingcat.com
Whether you’re investigating a company purporting to have damning information on Robert Mueller or conducting research on anti-Islamic State foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria, LinkedIn can serve as a useful resource for online researchers across a wide variety of subjects. This guide aims to prov...2 months ago ·
In recent years disruption has become the battle cry of business. Disruption occurs when an innovation creates a new market and business model that cause established players to fall. We love the ease of taking, sharing, and storing digital photographs — a disruption that led to the demise of both Kodak and the once ubiquitous film market. Millions of us benefit from Uber’s driver-on-demand service, even as it displaces existing taxi companies.
But is this the only way to grow? Another approach is what authors of Blue Ocean Shift, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, call nondisruptive creation. This offers a new way of thinking about what’s possible. It highlights the immense potential for creating new markets where none existed before. This is creation without disruption or destruction. All the demand generated by this kind of innovation is new.
Most companies remain stuck in the mindset that in order to create you must disrupt or destroy. Nondisruptive creation breaks the existing frame on innovation and growth and allows for a much broader view of how they are generated. It expands the conversation about where real opportunities reside.
#Strategy #growth #innovation #disruptiveinnovation ... See MoreSee Less
Nondisruptive Creation: Rethinking Innovation and Growth
sloanreview.mit.edu
It’s time to embrace the idea that companies can create without destroying.3 months ago ·
One of my favourite blogs is the Farnam Street blog - and the latest post is an example of why I like it. It's an explanation on why diversity is so important - and should be encouraged. Although not mentioned, it explains how the USA became the global power that it is, and why Israel looks like bing the 4th country (and smallest) to land a spacecraft on the moon.
When a society encourages a diversity of opinions you get creativity. Creativity is not just needed for the arts but for all life and to solve all problems. The blog starts off with a question: what should mankind do if a large meteor was spotted heading directly for the Earth, that would wipe out life in the same way that a meteor ended the large dinosaurs 65 million years ago? Would it be wise to select only a handful of people from a single organisation to solve the problem or should as many ideas as possible be encouraged. The answer is that mankind is unlikely to be saved if only one or two people look at the problem. It needs a range of ideas and a process to evaluate them to select the best ones.
The same applies for all problems. In the workplace, a business selecting employees that all match a specific template is less likely to be successful in comparison to one that encourages diversity. As Farnam Street write:
"Diversity is necessary in the workplace to generate creativity and innovation. It’s also necessary to get the job done. Teams with members from different backgrounds can attack problems from all angles and identify more possible solutions than teams whose members think alike. Companies also need diverse skills and knowledge to keep a company functioning. Finance superstars may not be the same people who will rock marketing. And the faster things change, the more valuable diversity becomes for allowing us to adapt and seize opportunity."
This also applies in biology. A monoculture is less likely to survive as it becomes more susceptible to disease that will wipe it out. Organisms need diversity so that they have the resilience to survive whatever happens. Some may die but the species will continue.
The trouble today is that diversity is often spoken about but in reality people seek out people who look, think and work like them - rejecting those that don't. We see this in people calling to block immigration, and the move to political extremes. In social media we reject those that write divergent opinions - who then seek peers who agree with them. This then becomes self-fulfilling. (As an example, a recent post from a Brexiteer in the UK claimed that people have all moved to supporting Brexit because this person did not know a single person who would vote to remain in the EU. All they were really saying is that their peers all think and write and speak the same - and (unsaid) if they don't they will be rejected as odd). ... See MoreSee Less
The Stormtrooper Problem: Why Thought Diversity Makes Us Better
fs.blog
Diversity makes us stronger, not weaker. Without diversity we die off as a species. We can no longer adapt to changes in the environment. We need each other to survive.3 months ago ·
US Cyber Command operation disrupted Internet access of Russian troll factory on day of 2018 midterms buff.ly/2tDJwTx
The strike on the Internet Research Agency (IRA) in St. Petersburg was part of the first offensive cyber-campaign against Russia designed to thwart attempts to interfere with a U.S. election. The defensive operation took the IRA offline and marked the first real demonstration of preventative actions to protect US democracy.
#CyberSecurity #CyberAttack #OSINT ... See MoreSee Less
3 months ago ·
Might A.I. Spell The Death Of Search?
A Forbes essay (buff.ly/2tDLjb6) quotes David Seuss of Northern Light as suggesting their new product offers an AI alternative to search. Northern Light was, pre-Google, a major search engine. I was a fan and it offered something different. It was then acquired & the new owner destroyed it. (This has happened to other search engines too). Seuss bought it back but if Forbes is correct, he seriously misunderstands the risks of letting AI find information based on knowledge of the user. All this will do is increase the biases we see already where the average user lives in a "filter bubble" ignoring information that is contrary to what they believe.
Yes! I could see AI helping out for queries such as "Find me the cheapest flight to…" or "Who is the USA President?" However what about if the question is changed to "Who is Venezuela's President?" That will require much more explanation: would a brief summary report really answer the question. Then make it even more complex & ask about the Israel-Palestine conflict, vaccinations, or "Is a vegan diet healthy". A user's pre-conceived view will lead to greater bias & for the professional searcher it spells disaster. #search ... See MoreSee Less
Might A.I. Spell The Death Of Search?
forbes.com
Amazingly the one area of technology central to our lives — search — has has not evolved to keep up with the times. Until now. With the help of machine learning, a day may be coming in which computers will do our searching for us, informing us what we need to know.3 months ago ·
Chrome Plugins that let you find Email Addresses & Phone Numbers in Under 30 Seconds #OSINT ... See MoreSee Less
How to Find Anyone's Email Address & Phone Number in Under 30 Seconds - SourceCon
sourcecon.com
Disclaimer: At the moment, using a scraping tool or an extension on LinkedIn is not permitted, and it is a risk for your account: LinkedIn monitors some extensions and blocks access to their services. If you are planning to test these plugins, check LinkedIn’s Terms of Use to be sure the plugin do...3 months ago ·
How to catch a catfisher - a case study and a great example of #OSINT being used to track down a bad-guy. ... See MoreSee Less
theguardian.com
When Max Benwell found out someone was using his photos to approach women online, he decided to track down the trickster – setting up a fake Instagram account and changing his gender on Tinder along the way3 months ago ·
3 months ago ·
NATO Group Catfished Soldiers to Prove a Point About Privacy.
NATO's Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence tested whether they could manipulate soldiers into divulging intel about a large-scale military exercise. Stage 1 was to uncover as much information as possible using #OSINT - Open Source Data - including participants. Stage 2 was to see if this could be used to influence participant behaviours - including setting up fake Facebook profiles.
The answer was that it was possible to influence behaviour and gather intel - and the cost was trivial.
buff.ly/2GTIKJI
Although the article does not mention it, it is known that malicious third parties have tried to use social media to influence serving soldiers. Seven months ago it was reported that Hamas had set up fake social media profiles to entrap Israeli soldiers - using sports data, dating apps and similar. This shows that the NATO experiment is important in proving how even those supposed to know the risks still can get caught.
buff.ly/2MH5Pz9 ... See MoreSee Less
NATO Group Catfished Soldiers to Prove a Point About Privacy
wired.com
With $60 and a few fake Facebook accounts, researchers were able to identify service members in a military exercise, track their movement, and even persuade them to disobey orders.3 months ago ·
Giving a presentation or telling a story are similar. They both need planning but more than this, they need to motivate so those listening change.
This is how many tell stories - or give presentations. I'll be leading a workshop at the AIIP 2019 conference in Philadelphia on Thursday 11 April.
Register here: www.aiip.org/event-3083564/Registration ... See MoreSee Less
3 months ago ·
Disinformation and ‘fake news’:
The UK Government's report has now been published. It calls for a compulsory ethical code for tech companies, a regulator to police code breaches, requirement to remove harmful & false information & more. #fakenews #ethics ... See MoreSee Less
Disinformation and ‘fake news’: Final Report published - News from Parliament
parliament.uk
DCMS Committee Disinformation fake news3 months ago ·
I've used the Kodak vs Fujifilm story as a case study. It's a really important example showing how to change....
The course advertised is not cheap but Osterwalder is the originator of the Business Model Canvas which is one of the best analytical tools for the last 20-30 years. Especially for looking at new opportunities. ... See MoreSee Less
3 months ago ·
Crowdsourcing images give police the edge for catching criminals.
Europol is posting images from paedophiles, culled from the dark web, and asking for public help to identify them, enabling the police to track the criminals down. ... See MoreSee Less
Picture clue: cops turn to amateur web sleuths to help crack cases
theguardian.com
Europol gets thousands of tips after appealing to public to identify crime scene images4 months ago ·
This about sums up IntelligenceQOTD: "1N73LL1G3NC3 15 7H3 4B1L17Y 70 4D4P7 70 CH2NG3." attr. to 573PH3N H4WK1NG ... See MoreSee Less
4 months ago ·
A great list of #OSINT tools / techniques / tips.
The Best Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Tools and Techniques ... See MoreSee Less
The Best Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) Tools and Techniques
intelligencefusion.co.uk
We’ve trained 100s of analysts with our open source intelligence course and now we're sharing the ultimate list of OSINT tools, techniques and websites available online.4 months ago ·
Strategic Foresight vs. Competitive Intelligence buff.ly/2HANkPi
Both Strategic Foresight & #CompetitiveIntelligence are needed - but is there a difference. Does effective #CI lead to strategic foresight or does it work the other way around?
Although this article states that CI is aimed at short-term forecasts & analyses it gets it wrong by suggesting that you first need a broad understanding of the future - and then CI for tactical reasons. This misunderstands CI. CI is not just about competitors but the overall business environment. Only by having a full understanding of the business environment can you have the intelligence needed to anticipate the future - i.e. to gain strategic foresight. Both are needed - and CI is the first step. ... See MoreSee Less
Strategic Foresight vs. Competitive Intelligence
futuresplatform.com
For many people, including professionals, the difference between strategic foresight and competitive intelligence can be confusing. And understandably so. Both are concerned with an organization's environment, current and future trends, and strategic decision-making. But the two are alike only in th...4 months ago ·
MI6 launches ads on YouTube to recruit new generation of spies - debunking the James Bond stereotype to show that #intelligence is about people and not ejector seats in fast cars.
MI6 launches ads on YouTube to recruit new generation of spies
Britain’s foreign intelligence agency wants to change the macho image of their intelligence officers and reach candidates who would not normally apply. ... See MoreSee Less
4 months ago ·
Identifying fraud through the font usage.
When researching #fraud the writing style, signature, logos used and much more can be clues. An often overlooked element is the font used in the forged document.
In Canada recently a fraudster got found out by preparing fraudulent documents using Microsoft's Calibri font, and dating the documents for a time before this font came into use.
Checking the fonts on a PDF document or actual document can give a clue to when it was actually typed - allowing a document to be dated. There are often other clues too. I frequently look for a 4-point type (or smaller) date indicator on brochures commonly used by companies to date such documents. Most would usually miss such clues - but in an investigation they can be crucial in creating a timeline.
#OSINT #investigation ... See MoreSee Less
Microsoft’s fonts catch out another fraudster—this time in Canada
arstechnica.com
Will these people never learn?4 months ago ·
2019 and the Evolving Role of OSINT buff.ly/2FG0vf1
Recently a highly disturbing video emerged of an atrocity - where armed soldiers executed two blindfolded women with their children. BBC Africa investigated to find out where the murders took place and by whom. The initial suspicion that it was Cameroonian soldiers was denied by the Cameroon government. Multi-faceted #OSINT research looking at background details in the video allowed the identification of precise location and approximate date and time and then the individuals responsible who are now about to go on trial.
The example shows the full power of using open sources in investigations - and demonstrates why such research is necessary in today's world. ... See MoreSee Less
2019 and the Evolving Role of OSINT
oodaloop.com
SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) and OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) are entering a new position within the public sphere in 2019.4 months ago ·
How to Detect Fake News in Real-Time. buff.ly/2VtSrDB
How it happens, why and how to stop it.
The challenge to stopping #FakeNews isn't technical. It's operational willingness by the tech company leadership. Stopping fake news is down partly to cost, partly belief in the importance of free expression and partly fear of getting it wrong i.e. censoring articles. However it looks like the tide is changing and the tech companies are recognising the moral imperatives for blocking fake #information and are looking at solutions. #Facebook #Google ... See MoreSee Less
How to Detect Fake News in Real-Time – NewCo Shift – Medium
medium.com
Fast enough to empower humans to take action5 months ago ·
The OSINT Puppeteer buff.ly/2CJPRSH
For some #OSINT investigations it's better to stay hidden. Here is how - and knowing how can help spot fake profiles too.
There are lots of fake profiles on the web - created for various reasons. Unlike the fake profiles created for investigations, most fakes are not innocent and being able to spot them can be important. This guide gives tips on creating a "sock puppet" - a term used to describe an investigator's false identity. Knowing how to create a good one should also help spot others too. ... See MoreSee Less
osintcurio.us
When doing OSINT research, especially on social networking platforms, it’s important to use a fake profile, or what we like to call a sock puppet for operational security reasons. On this wee…5 months ago ·
We are just starting 2019 and I wonder if it would be possible to create an index of stupidity? Who will be the most stupid people or what will be the most stupid actions taken in 2019. One only needs to look at 2018 for a long list of actions. (Not wishing to be political - but it's hard to avoid - initiating a trade war without thinking about longer term ramifications would be one of them, and the current fall in the stock market is an indicator that suggests that this may be the case. Saying Daesh / ISIS is defeated would be another - when terrorism still occurs globally....)
So what is stupidity. A definition I recently saw (fs.blog/2019/01/how-not-to-be-stupid/) goes like this:
Stupidity is overlooking or dismissing conspicuously crucial information.
Crucial information is information that you need to pay attention to - that is conspicuous i.e. right in front of you. Yet you overlook it or dismiss it. That is stupid!
What causes this?
A magician deliberately misdirects attention - the goal is to make you fail to see something you should have i.e. to make you stupid. Magicians are fun, but fraudsters are not and they do the same thing. Seven factors can lead to such failures:
1) Peer pressure. You don't want to stand out as different.
2) You are outside your comfort-zone so unfamiliar with your surroundings or the environment (or it's changed) so may focus on the wrong thing.
3) Somebody who is or claims to be an expert says something - which may actually be wrong. However as they are the expert you doubt your own wisdom and go with the expert. (You may also be the expert - and reluctant to change a long-held opinion despite new evidence i.e. a reluctance to change)
4) You are in a hurry - so ignore the new information as it will get in the way of what you are rushing for. (You think you are late for a meeting... your phone beeps with a text message saying the meeting is cancelled. Yet as you are in a rush, you ignore reading the message and hurry to the meeting. When you get there to find nobody else is, you check your messages and then you feel really stupid! Especially if the journey was time-consuming).
5) You are really busy so cannot give this crucial information the respect or time it deserves - and so you dismiss it, even when it should be the priority. Perhaps, you need to focus on something else - so only give this crucial information a tangential look and dismiss it.
6) You have too much information so cannot prioritise properly and so miss the crucial information.
7) You are physically or emotionally tired and so make sleep your priority even when it shouldn't be. (Essentially you give up. A predator is about to pounce and although you should run, tiredness prevents it and so you sacrifice yourself, perhaps hoping the predator is also tired. It's why predators chase their prey - they aim to exhaust the prey so they can get dinner).
(Side note: the idea for this - and some of the content came from the Farnam Street Blog which contains excellent posts on how to think - of relevance to anybody working in business, marketing or competitive intelligence). ... See MoreSee Less
fs.blog
Stupidity is overlooking or dismissing conspicuously crucial information. Here are seven situational factors that compromise your cognitive ability and result in increased odds of stupidity.5 months ago ·
OSINT Resources for 2019
An excellent round-up of #OSINT tools, people to follow (e.g. @JakeCreps, @Inteltechniques and more) and techniques for beginners to advanced. #Intelligence ... See MoreSee Less
OSINT Resources for 2019 – Steve Micallef – Medium
medium.com
Let’s take a look at some essential OSINT resources plus recent developments in the areas of data, tooling, content and community.5 months ago ·
How much of the internet is fake?
Studies generally suggest that, year after year, less than 60 percent of web traffic is human. It's not only search engine bots. There's also real fake material out there: people, metrics, news, businesses, politics, content… according to some researchers, a healthy majority of it is bot. For some of 2013, half of YouTube traffic was bots masquerading as people. buff.ly/2Q0oebu
#FakeNews #intelligence ... See MoreSee Less
5 months ago ·
5 Lessons for Reporting in an Age of Disinformation.
How does #fakenews and #disinformation spread - and what can be done stop it or slow it down. Five tips for all involved in gathering and reporting information... buff.ly/2V9Ocx3 #CompetitiveIntelligence #Strategy #News ... See MoreSee Less
5 Lessons for Reporting in an Age of Disinformation
medium.com
Agents of disinformation use anonymous online spaces to seed rumors and fabricated content, hoping to eventually reach professional news…5 months ago ·
Over six months in late 2017 and early 2018, Facebook detected and suspended some 1.3 billion fake accounts. But an estimated 3 to 4 percent of accounts that remain, or approximately 66 million to 88 million profiles, are also fake but haven’t yet been detected. Likewise, estimates are that 9 to 15 percent of Twitter’s 336 million accounts are fake.
Phony profiles for nonexistent people worm their way into the social networks of real people, where they can spread their falsehoods. But neither social media companies nor technological innovations offer reliable ways to identify and remove social media profiles that don’t represent actual authentic people.
Fake profiles aren’t just on Facebook and Twitter, and they’re targeting people in globally. For example,
• In December 2017, German intelligence officials warned that Chinese agents using fake LinkedIn profiles were targeting more than 10,000 German government employees.
• In mid-August, the Israeli military reported that Hamas was using fake profiles on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to entrap Israeli soldiers into downloading malicious software.
Although social media companies have begun hiring more people and using artificial intelligence to detect fake profiles, that won’t be enough to review every profile in time to stop their misuse.
The problem isn’t actually that people – and algorithms – create fake profiles online. What’s really wrong is that other people fall for them.
Research into why so many users have trouble spotting fake profiles has identified some ways people could get better at identifying phony accounts – and highlights some places technology companies could help. ... See MoreSee Less
This study shows why people fall for fake online profiles
thenextweb.com
The first step in online propaganda and misinformation campaigns is a fake social media profile. According to this study, people are too trusting online.5 months ago ·
AWARE wishes all a joyful Christmas and a really successful and prosperous 2019. May it be a year of peace, happiness and health. ... See MoreSee Less
5 months ago ·
The Complete Unauthorized Checklist of How Google Tracks You ... See MoreSee Less
The Complete Unauthorized Checklist of How Google Tracks You
blog.usejournal.com
Make Orwell Fiction Again, Part 1: Gray Surveillance5 months ago ·
Just had my latest article published in JINFO
"Open source intelligence to uncover information on companies, organisations, groups and people" web.jinfo.com/go/sub/article/74449
If you don't have a subscription, you can access the PDF of the article at bit.ly/OSINT-Jinfo ... See MoreSee Less
Open source intelligence to uncover information on companies, organisations, groups and people
web.jinfo.com
Open source intelligence (OSINT) uses publicly available sources to gather intelligence for purposes ranging from basic recruitment checks on an individual to due diligence research for M&A purposes to in-depth fraud investigations and more. Search engines are the starting point, but deep web da...6 months ago ·
I don't normally share items like this - I try and post opinions and news that can help improve marketing.
This however is worth sharing as there is a lot of truth in this parody video (of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody if not familiar with the original source). ... See MoreSee Less
6 months ago ·
Spies Without Borders - A fascinating account of how the FSB appears to Infiltrate the International Visa System to obtain visas for their spies - bellingcat buff.ly/2PwxhFG
A case study on corporate #espionage. #OSINT #Humint.
Lots of breaches of Competitive Intelligence ethics - but then that's one reason why this is espionage and not #CI. The aim was obtaining visas for "dirty deeds" such as the Skripal poisoning. ... See MoreSee Less
Spies Without Borders - How the FSB Infiltrated the International Visa System - bellingcat
bellingcat.com
One of the unanswered questions lingering after Bellingcat’s unmasking of the identities of suspects in the botched-up poisoning of Sergey and Yulia Skripal, is how two (or, likely, more) undercover GRU officers were able to obtain visas to travel to the UK. Securing a visa to the UK – as to mos...6 months ago ·
Research & Critical Thinking in a Post-Fact World. A lecture by Dr Dan Russel of Google on what is truth, what is reality and how do we know what is credible or not.
Some fabulous examples - including fake information from the Library of Congress, and how we aren't teaching critical thinking properly (plus tips on search and more).
Essential viewing - even though it's a 24 minute video. He gives some frightening examples where people accept and assume knowledge that can't be true. If we can't evaluate information properly, how can we tell what is real and what is fake. (One of my favourite examples is of how a US City Council saw the website DHMO.org and believed it so banned DHMO being supplied!)
Unfortunately not all slides clear - but it doesn't matter. It's what Dan Russell says - not his visuals.Research & Critical Thinking in a Post-Fact World Dr. Dan Russell, Uber Tech Lead, Search Quality & User Happiness, Google ... See MoreSee Less
6 months ago ·
Seven Technologies Remaking the World buff.ly/2QiLxye
1) Pervasive computing
2) Wireless mesh networks (WMNs)
3) Biotechnology
4) 3D Printing
5) Machine Learning
6) Nanotechnology
7) Robotics
How many of these are you prepared for as threats or opportunities for your business future? ... See MoreSee Less
Seven Technologies Remaking the World
sloanreview.mit.edu
This MIT SMR executive guide introduces business leaders to the technologies that are reshaping our world.7 months ago ·
The Untold Story of NotPetya, the Most Devastating Cyberattack in History buff.ly/2o1WsQ5
NonPetya was a computer virus, targeting the Ukraine, which spread globally & caused $millions damage. Unlike other computer viruses, the aim was not ransomware but destruction. Without backups everything was lost. The article gives a case study of a major shipping company that thought it had backups but missed out on a key system they thought was safe. They recovered - through luck - as one node only had not been infected.
The lesson is that anybody can be attacked - intentionally or accidentally - and lack of preparation can be be catastrophic. #cybersecurity ... See MoreSee Less
The Untold Story of NotPetya, the Most Devastating Cyberattack in History
wired.com
Crippled ports. Paralyzed corporations. Frozen government agencies. How a single piece of code crashed the world.7 months ago ·
