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© כל הזכויות שמורות 2018
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About Cookies OKWhat is Competitive Intelligence
This is an extract from a lecture we gave to MBAs, business school students & graduates at the University of Westminster in London. Watch for a taste or click here for the full lecture.
Contact us if you would also like us to talk to your employees or students on any aspect of competitive or marketing intelligence.
What is leadership?
There are 100s of courses that aim to promote leadership - showing it's not straightforward. Are people born leaders - or is it something you can train for and learn?
Do leaders go first?
Or is leadership about motivating others to be first?
Today's Dilbert highlights the two options. ... See MoreSee Less
3 weeks ago ·
Are you a non-financial professional who often needs to look over financial reports? Do you need to know how a P&L or Balance Sheet works - and how to interpret them? What about cash flow? Does your childhood fear of mathematics mean that you fail to grasp the numbers behind company accounts? Or maybe you just want to understand more about the magic your accountant does to prepare your accounts for the tax people.
Join me for a 2-hour (intensive but fun / easy) $125 workshop on financial analysis for non-financial information professionals (i.e. any professional that needs to use financial information including lawyers, surveyors, medics, competitive & marketing researchers) on 20 January 2021 at 11.00am-1.00pm EST / 4.00-6.00pm GMT / 5.00-7.00pm CET.
Register at www.aiip.org/event-4092977
#AIIP #finance #workshop #training #SLA ... See MoreSee Less
aiip.org
Equipping members for ongoing business success, the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) is a global community of business owners who support one another through learning and expertise exchange.2 months ago ·
Worth watching.... We all have a propensity to bias. The key is awareness and to try and recognise when you are biased.
I think this also makes a point about science and the wilful ignorance on science - and worse.
www.ted.com/talks/j_marshall_shepherd_3_kinds_of_bias_that_shape_your_worldview ... See MoreSee Less
3 kinds of bias that shape your worldview
ted.com
What shapes our perceptions (and misperceptions) about science? In an eye-opening talk, meteorologist J. Marshall Shepherd explains how confirmation bias, the Dunning-Kruger effect and cognitive dissonance impact what we think we know -- and shares ideas for how we can replace them with something mu...2 months ago ·
Worth reading. Its a 3-year old article but what is written is increasingly relevant.
hbr.org/2017/09/managing-our-hub-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=facebook&t... ... See MoreSee Less
Competition in the Age of Online Giants
hbr.org
Strategy, ethics, and network competition in the age of digital superpowers3 months ago ·
Bias is pervasive and impacts all aspects of life - how you see people and relate to them. This ad from Heinekin shows how we get it wrong....
The lesson: be careful about your biases - but also be polite when you encounter somebody else's biases.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO99AwJXDIo ... See MoreSee Less
youtube.com
Credits: bit.ly/2uzrk1g Join Us: Facebook: www.facebook.com/aobpage/ Twitter: twitter.com/adsofbrands Pinterest: www.pinteres...3 months ago ·
GAN images (Generative Adversarial Netowrks) are becoming better and harder to detect. Such images are no longer experimental and they are entering the mainstream - on sites such as LinkedIn. They can be used to con people that a contact is real. Last year, an attractive red-head, Katie Jones, persuaded several senior Washington figures to link to her - except she didn't exist and her aim was espionage. (buff.ly/2X7ro4N).
From a business perspective it's important to trust people and know that the person you are talking to is real. However as the technology improves we may need to go back to meeting physically again. This NY Times article shows how the technology works and how it can create a range of images - plus the sorts of things to look out for. Although over time, GANs will improve. Will our ability to spot the fakes also improve. You can test yourself at whichfaceisreal.com or choose your own fake persona at thispersondoesnotexist.com. ... See MoreSee Less
Designed to Deceive: Do These People Look Real to You?
nytimes.com
The people in this story may look familiar, like ones you’ve seen on Facebook or Twitter or Tinder. But they don’t exist. They were born from the mind of a computer, and the technology behind them is improving at a startling pace.3 months ago ·
Win-Loss analysis is a great tool to understand you are satisfying customers.
Here's a great story on measuring customer satisfaction.
The story takes place at a time before mobile phones and before even many people had house phones. To make a phone call you went to a public phone.
The story takes place in Jerusalem. 40 or so years ago, to use a public phone, you had to purchase a token. It meant that if phone prices went up, all you needed to do was increase the price of the token but didn't need to change the payphones at all. Same token, same time, same everything except that the tokens had to be purchased.
There was a professional gardener in Jerusalem who used to buy twenty tokens from the local general store every Friday. He would then proceed to use the payphone outside the general store for an hour or so.
This repeated itself week after week, with the store owner increasingly curious as to what these regular phone calls were. The store owner’s curiosity got the better of him, and one Friday he stationed himself quite close to the payphone so he could hear the conversation.
It turned out that the gardener was making calls to prospective clients offering his services as a gardener. As the store-owner continued to hear, each time the gardener was rejected. Each person told the gardener that they had no need for a new gardener – they already have an excellent gardener.
But week after week the gardener was unperturbed – he kept making the calls and kept getting rejected each time. Feeling sorry for the man, the storeowner decided to try and step in and help the sorry gardener. Approaching his best token client, the storeowner sheepishly made the gardener an offer: I have a balcony with a small garden on it – can I employ you to do the gardening there.
Surprisingly, the gardener spurned his offer: I’m sorry, but I don’t have time – I have enough clients and gardens to look after, thank you. The storeowner couldn’t help but admit he had overheard the conversations each week and that the gardener clearly needed the business.
The response he got was not what the store owner had expected.
"You don’t understand," said the gardener.
"I am a specialist gardener, and I work for the wealthy – those who have lovely, large beautiful gardens. But I never actually meet my clients – they give money to the maid or workers to pay me. I don’t actually know whether they appreciate my work or whether I’m doing a good job. So each Friday I call my clients pretending to be a different gardener and I offer them my services. One by one they refuse, saying that they already have a great gardener. That way, I know I am doing a great job!" ... See MoreSee Less
4 months ago ·
The first ever web-page is still around. It's over 25 years old but has been kept as a museum archive record so people can see how things have changed.... ... See MoreSee Less
info.cern.ch
Everything there is online about W3 is linked directly or indirectly to this document, including an executive summary of the project, Mailing lists , Policy , November's W3 news , Frequently Asked Questions .4 months ago ·
This is an incredibly prescient Interview.
twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/1321753647147933697
David Bowie talks about the Internet to Jeremy Paxman in 1999. Bowie gets it. Paxman doesn't. Bowie explains how it will change content creation and how we see the world.
Between 1996 and 2008, the number of websites exploded from 100,000 to over 162 million. We, at AWARE, are proud to have been at the forefront of the changes. Arthur Weiss, our founder, first started looking at the potential of the web in 1993. In 1995, when AWARE was founded, one of the first things done was to create a website and by 1997 we'd launched marketing-intelligence.co.uk. (Our original site is still findable at web.archive.org/web/19990302054432/http://dspace.dial.pipex.com:80/aware/aware.shtml - although this is dated from March 1999 - the earlier pages were not archived at archive.org. By 1999 we'd moved everything to our current marketing-intelligence.co.uk domain). In 1995 when we started, we were one of the first 50,000 websites created.
BBC Archive on Twitter
“Today is #InternetDay… To mark this auspicious occasion, here’s David Bowie speaking to Jeremy Paxman in 1999 about the "unimaginable" effects on society it was going to have. t.co/JVBry1m3Pk” ... See MoreSee Less
4 months ago ·
Counter-Intelligence is important. It's not just high-tech cyber-hacking that is a risk (and it is). It's also low-tech carelessness as this recent Daily Telegraph cartoon illustrates. The situation it shows is real. I've sat next to somebody on a train who was working on a spreadsheet for the company I was then working with. The information was confidential - which does raise questions of ethics. In this case I told my client to warn their finance people NOT to work on train journeys on confidential material. This was also not the first time I've seen or overheard people discussing their business strategies, although previously I didn't have a connection to the companies involved.
When in public places, remember to keep your information private - as during the 2nd World War saying "Loose lips sink ships". In the business world "Loose lips and open laptops leak strategies".
alexcartoon.s3.amazonaws.com/7761_23.09.20_2000px_web.jpg ... See MoreSee Less
4 months ago ·
I've been watching and learning from journalismcourses.org/course/digital-investigations-for-journalists/ which has a great new MOOC.
Although I knew most of the tips, I'd not carried out research of the types investigative journalists regularly do and so haven't used them. Some great websites mentioned e.g. namechk.com plus old favorites such as tweetbeaver. (And I should start using twint - at github.com/twintproject/twint) ... See MoreSee Less
journalismcourses.org
Welcome to the Knight Center's new MOOC, "Digital investigations for journalists: How to follow the digital trail of people and entities."5 months ago ·
The current pandemic is likely to impact all our future lives.
This flowchart gives an idea of the ways it may lead to change.
app.thebrain.com/brains/3d80058c-14d8-5361-0b61-a061f89baf87/thoughts/e4e4494b-fb42-4d23-a478-7f0... ... See MoreSee Less
app.thebrain.com
Intelligent note-taking. Non-linear file management. Ideas and relationships visualized. TheBrain visualizes networks of knowledge like you’ve never seen before.6 months ago ·
We all grow up listening to stories - they are part of most of our childhoods. Many have hidden lessons - optimism (Jack & the Beanstalk), success, warnings about danger (Little Red Riding Hood), being cunning and overcoming obstacles (3 Little Pigs). However as we age, we look for reality - and as teenagers dismiss our childhood fantasies. But stories are still there influencing us - rumours about this teacher or that person.
In fact, stories never leave us and in business they are a great way of making a point. Case studies are stories - about a business or industry and how it can be changed. Learning to tell stories is a key skill - especially for presenters. Stories need to be simple, clear & understandable, and for business, have a lesson that can be applied. They are a type of metaphor - and so should create pictures and ideas that can move conversations forward. However to get it right, you need to know your audience (is a joke the right story), define the message, and end with a call to action. Succeed - and the story will have impact, and be shared. Fail, and it will be forgotten and the lesson ignored.
buff.ly/3d4E1Br ... See MoreSee Less
What is Storytelling? Defintion, types, examples and more | toolshero
toolshero.com
Storytelling in is mainly used in marketing. Among other things, it enables the organization to gain emotional access to the consumer.9 months ago ·
The current pandemic is likely to change how people interact and business is done. Aftershocks & Opportunities - Scenarios for a post-pandemic future is a new book exploring these issues. The E-book was published on 1st June and as a paperback 2 weeks later.
fastfuture.com/shop/aftershocks-and-opportunities-scenarios-for-a-post-pandemic-future/
This is the first volume - a 2nd volume exploring different areas is coming out in January 2021 including a chapter I've written. ... See MoreSee Less
Aftershocks and Opportunities – Scenarios for a Post-Pandemic Future | Fast Future Publishing
fastfuture.com
While the world grapples with the current unfolding crisis, as futurists we know how important it is to also be thinking about the next horizon and beyond. This can help ensure that the decisions we make today do not simply lay the foundation for a new set of problems over the horizon. Equally, unde...9 months ago ·
What makes a good Analyst - whether for competitive intelligence, strategy, OSINT or anything similar? Can this be taught or does it depend on something more. A key factor is being inquisitive. You can teach tools but that's not enough. You also need to ask questions that take you to key insights that answer the problem and take you further.
This can be summarised by the 5Ws and the H i.e. asking and finding answers to Who, What, When, Where, Why and How (i.e. in what way and by what means). So ask:
Who is the target (competitor, customer, threat, opportunity)?
What do they want to do?
When?
Where will they target / should we target?
Why (i.e. what's the purpose)?
How will this be done - what process is needed?
Answering these questions can help guide what we need to know and research so these questions link to and guide the collection effort and then how this is evaluated i.e. has gathered intelligence allowed the questions to be answered.
Use the gathered intelligence to develop a hypothesis, and then check this and understand what it means. Only then can you make the strategies and decisions needed. However you also need to watch for bias - and learn from prior experience.
"Practice and time will ultimately be the only way to learn to trust our gut in the development of a theory. A major pitfall to be aware of when relying on intuition is having a cognitive bias. Being aware of our potential biases during investigations will make the information more actionable because it will be based on facts."
#OSINT #CompetitiveIntelligence #Strategy ... See MoreSee Less
Training Yourself to be an Analytical Thinker
medium.com
What makes a good OSINT Analyst? To me, the most important asset an OSINT Analyst can possess is an inquisitive mind. A person can be…11 months ago ·
How Disinformation Works buff.ly/2JA6XoT
It's easier to believe what somebody says than to be sceptical and work to disprove them. Human beings like the easy life so most don't make the effort and unless blatantly obvious, believe disinformation especially if it fits with pre-existing prejudices and biases. Disinformation also often uses language that is emotive and so triggers responses leading to belief. This is especially the case when people are unhappy and searching for good news or explanations for their discontent. Friends also falling for false information is an added factor and so social media supports the spread of disinformation Even where there is some scepticism, doubt will have been raised and this can be played upon. Over time the doubt may reduce and this can be encouraged. Russia Today uses a motto "Question More" to encourage doubt and questioning.
The real danger is that disinformation is pervasive in that it lingers and damages the truth longterm about the past and so how the future sees the past. It can even kill - some of the false information about Covid-19 has led to deaths with people taking so-called miracle cures. It also motivates extremists who then act out their false beliefs in terrorist actions. #FakeNews ... See MoreSee Less
pulsemedia.org
An edited version of this article first appeared in the Centre of Global Policy’s The Navigator. Friendly Sirens and Deadly Shores By Muhammad Idrees Ahmad As the US prepares for another hig…11 months ago ·
Searching for tables, graphs and similar is tough. This sort of information is often stored on web-pages as images - and is structured in the sense it is not an image but a representation of actual data. Zanran.com was a search engine that was brilliant at searching for such data. As such it was unique and for the last decade was an invaluable aid for advanced searching. Zanran was also unusual in that it was based in Europe (in the UK) and not Silicon valley in the USA.
A couple of years ago, they started adding other options and the search engine moved to a separate page - buff.ly/2yrMoZo - but that's now gone.
RIP Zanran Search.
#Search #zanran ... See MoreSee Less
11 months ago ·
The New Normal: CI/MI after Covid-19
#competitiveintelligence #strategy #covid-19
www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-normal-cimi-after-covid-19-arthur-weiss via @LinkedIn ... See MoreSee Less
The New Normal: CI/MI after Covid-19
linkedin.com
The Coronavirus crisis has had a global impact. Draconian restrictions on movement and behaviour have been imposed on citizens of most countries.11 months ago ·
We are currently in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. It's important for business to consider what happens after the restrictions drop and business gets back to normal. The problem is that business won't get back to what was normal. There will be a new normal - and only those businesses that can anticipate and prepare for this will flourish. Those that think that life will carry on as before will soon learn - as they either rapidly adapt to the new normal or fail.
#competitiveintelligence #marketingintelligence #strategy #OSINT #scenarios ... See MoreSee Less
The New Normal: CI/MI after Covid-19
linkedin.com
The Coronavirus crisis has had a global impact. Draconian restrictions on movement and behaviour have been imposed on citizens of most countries.11 months ago ·
Just after the second world war, the CIA got together with the BND - Germany's spy agency and acquired a Swiss company to make encryption devices for countries globally. These included a backdoor that enabled the CIA and BND listen in. They continued listening for 50+ years - and as an intelligence coup it stands alone, as not only were the two agencies able to plant devices that gave them large amounts of intelligence on both friend and foe alike but they also got these countries to pay for the devices.
Traditionally the highest form of "spycraft" was known as Humint where you get human beings to pass on secrets. The Crypto AG story shows that in fact Sigint is more valuable as you get continual transmissions of intelligence. The catch is sifting it - but as the sources are known it is more reliable than Humint where the human operatives can get things wrong. ... See MoreSee Less
Crypto AG backdooring rumours were true, say German and Swiss news orgs after explosive docs leaked
theregister.co.uk
One for the Cold War infosec veterans: CIA and BND literally owned the firm1 years ago ·
Fluff filters, and why you want to read with them turned on.
When analysing or searching for material, using simple terms can often give better results (unless you want the precise text). Simplifying the terms is a first step in doing this - or as Dan Russell of the SearchResearch blog terms it - removing the fluff.
Russell is not the only person to highlight the importance of removing "fluff". It's also one of the indicators of a bad strategy - as described in Richard Rumelt's book "Good Strategy Bad Strategy" (buff.ly/2UEzXCB / buff.ly/2Hb00t0)
buff.ly/38nnuqQ ... See MoreSee Less
1 years ago ·
10 Intelligence Analysis Commandments | Intelligence 101
1) Ask Questions
2) Prioritise
3) Become an information fighter
4) Use your and others' experience
5) Don't seek perfection - it doesn't exist.
6) Make a decision - don't shirk making a call
7) Back up & own your analyses. Have confidence.
8) Never make up stuff. If it ain't there then leave it out.
9) Build networks - who do you know who can help you out
10) Get feedback. Check & confirm your work. ... See MoreSee Less
10 Intelligence Analysis Commandments | Intelligence 101
intelligence101.com
Intelligence Analysis has a set of rules – rules that will guide your skills, ability rapport and ability to make a difference in the world of Intelligence and to your organisation.1 years ago ·
As more people use spoken search results via Alexa, Siri & mobiles, the temptation is to trust the spoken result. The problem is this can be wrong & so using such results continues the spread of false information.
Mary Ellen Bates gives one example for Abraham Lincoln - there are many more. When searching, never trust only the first result. It is essential to verify results and check the source. The example Mary Ellen uses came from BrainyQuote.com which is packed full of quotes claiming to be from famous people. In fact, often the quote is from somebody else, and BrainQuote is sufficiently unreliable that I'd always verify any quote from this site. (Another example is the famous quote "There are lies, damned lies and statistics." which BrainyQuote attributes to Mark Twain. This is certainly wrong although the originator is less certain (See buff.ly/2SZtwZZ and buff.ly/2QSrB6T for more on this).
The need to check and verify sources is a general problem - especially in a time of rumour and mis/disinformation. Relying on faulty intelligence leads to business mistakes & failure, and even long-term intelligence practitioners can be caught out. That's why Mary Ellen has got it right.
Why I don't trust zero-click results - Bates InfoTips buff.ly/2T0Zrcg @Mebs #Search #Intelligence ... See MoreSee Less
Why I don't trust zero-click results - Bates InfoTips
batesinfo.com
Google has succeeded because, like it or not, it tends to deliver better results than other search engines. And Google’s efforts to provide “zero-click” results with its Knowledge Panel, Featured Snippets and other rich results, have accustomed us to seeing the result in a easy-to-read box wit...1 years ago ·
Really honoured and proud to be listed among the 32 Best Competitive Intelligence Companies buff.ly/37vNkIi
Congratulations also to the other colleagues named and to @improvadoio for compiling the list.
#competitiveintelligence #CI #marketingstrategy ... See MoreSee Less
The 32 Best Competitive Intelligence Companies
improvado.io
The 32 Best Competitive Intelligence Companies. These 32 best competitive intelligence companies will uncover your competitors’ strategies. You can beat them at their own game, and identify amazing opportunities they haven’t even thought of yet. Competitive Intelligence (CI) is the collection an...1 years ago ·
Wishing all a great 2020 and a fantastic new decade. I've tried to do a round-up of the last 10 years for CI/MI - albeit from the perspective of @AwareCI. I'm sure I've missed out lots but my aim was not to be 100% comprehensive but to highlight key points. What have I missed out or do you agree (and if so, retweet). www.linkedin.com/pulse/wishing-all-great-2020-new-decade-arthur-weiss ... See MoreSee Less
Wishing all a great 2020 and new decade
linkedin.com
Tonight is New Years Eve, and the start of a new decade. I’d like to wish you a really great 2020 and beyond that.1 years ago ·
What is Competitive Intelligence? 10 Terms and Concepts that can help you understand what is involved.
buff.ly/2LPdxsX #competitiveintelligence ... See MoreSee Less
What is Competitive Intelligence? 10 Terms and Concepts You Need to Know
crayon.co
Competitive Intelligence can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be. Here are the top 10 terms you need to know for competitive intelligence success.1 years ago ·
Do you read every book you get from beginning to end. What about boring books?
What about if there was a way to score books on the likelihood of it being sufficiently readable to finish? This isn't just how easy it would be to read - books with complex words and ideas are always going to be harder. It should also include how engaging the book is - especially for fiction books, but also for a lot of non-fiction. Why are non-fiction authors such as Malcolm Gladwell so popular for example with multiple best-sellers while other authors covering similar topics fail to get the same reader engagement?
The Hawking Index Is a Mathematical Measure of When People Give Up on Books buff.ly/34cRxi3 #books #library ... See MoreSee Less
The Hawking Index Is a Mathematical Measure of When People Give Up on Books
curiosity.com
How many times can one person start to read "Moby Dick" and stop halfway through? Or "Infinite Jest," for that matter? And what about Stephen Hawking's "A ...1 years ago ·
Survivorship Bias: The Tale of Forgotten Failures buff.ly/2LeQasn
There are many types of bias, confirmation bias, over-optimism, being overly pessimistic - and multiple others. It's a topic I've covered in workshops and lectures. However one of my favourites as it is so pervasive is survivorship bias. It plays out in so much of our lives - from those who buy a ticket every week in the lottery (as Mr X won £50,000 or £50m - it could be me) to how companies manage their businesses. It's also one of the most dangerous as it becomes easy to justify a strategy based on the small proportion that succeed - ignoring that the majority fail with the same approaches.
The Farnam Street blog is one of my favourites for looking at strategies and this is another master-tale - covering, this time, survivorship bias. #strategy #competitiveintelligence ... See MoreSee Less
Survivorship Bias: The Tale of Forgotten Failures
fs.blog
Survivorship bias is a common logical error that distorts our understanding of the world. It happens when we assume that success tells the whole story and when we don’t adequately consider past failures.1 years ago ·
The World in 50 Years - Quartz magazine - a magazine aimed at business leaders - asked some top thinkers to consider the world in 2070.
It's really a case of optimists rule and we have a glorious future. Virtually none of the thinkers gave a negative view - and essentially all today's problems will be solved. But will they be right. Looking at today's conflicts I'd question their wisdom - and none of the questions looked at issues such as the rise of fundamentalism in religion, the continuation of global conflict, the forms of government that will rule over people or even types of trade. Climate change will be solved - but nothing on rising sea levels and what they may cause. (Presumably sea levels won't rise).
I'm an optimist - but not to this extent. It's important for businesses to plan for the future, and futurists play a crucial role. 50 years is not that far away - a significant proportion of the global population is currently under 30 and so there is a likelihood that they will witness the world in 2070. Responsible futurism means that you also consider what can go wrong and how to work on this. I don't get any idea of that from these "experts" - the assumption is it will all be done by then - and there is no look at what problems will be continuing or new.
So what do you think?
buff.ly/347lvER #Futures #futureofwork #futureisnow #Strategy ... See MoreSee Less
qz.com
We asked some of the boldest thinkers what the world will be like in 50 years. Here’s what their answers tell us about the future.1 years ago ·
Incognito Mode Won’t Keep Your Browsing Private. You can still be tracked.
Instead use a privacy browser like TOR (or potentially the Brave browser). Also compartmentalise your browsing so nothing gets linked to you by name by using one browser for visiting sites which you have to log into - and use regularly - and other browsers where you want to keep your identity secret (and ideally mask your IP address and location too with a VPN, for example).
#OSINT #CyberSecurity ... See MoreSee Less
Incognito Mode Won’t Keep Your Browsing Private. Do This Instead.
medium.com
Browser compartmentalization can help you escape the clutches of the data-gathering machine1 years ago ·
"bUt iT hAS pReTty cOlOrs aND grApHS!"
Just because PowerPoint (or Word or whatever) lets you is not a reason to mix up fonts, colours and font sizes. Consistency of look and feel works better.
#Presentations #design #MarketingStrategy ... See MoreSee Less
1 years ago ·
This is why we don't promise the world. There are some red lines we won't cross!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55AqvgSubscribe for more short comedy sketches & films: bit.ly/laurisb Funny business meeting illustrating how hard it is for an engineer to fit into the co... ... See MoreSee Less
1 years ago ·
Keeping it simple is crucial for effective research and hypothesis testing - whether for competitive intelligence or any other research discipline where the inputs can be complex. When you hear hoofbeats, think horses - not zebras (unless you are on safari in the Serengeti).
Occam's razor is one technique that can help. It's not foolproof, but it can allow you to test hypotheses more quickly and easily. If, after testing, the simple hypothesis falls over, consider adding complexity. This tends to work better than doing things in reverse i.e. starting with complex and convoluted explanations that can never be proven (or disproved). The problem with the complexity approach is that you can make decisions based on something false and only find out too late.
A good example is to test any conspiracy theory - most start with the most complex answers imaginable and then spend time gathering evidence to justify it, ignoring the much simpler explanations. (Try this on 911-truthers, climate change deniers and anti-vac proponents. Each tries to show their "truth" via complexity rather than the simpler explanations that have been tested as true).
buff.ly/2qVvC17
#CompetitiveIntelligence #OSINT ... See MoreSee Less
How to Use Occam’s Razor Without Getting Cut
fs.blog
Occam’s razor is one of the most useful, (yet misunderstood,) models in your mental toolbox to solve problems more quickly and efficiently. Here’s how to use it.1 years ago ·
How to Ace Public Speaking ... See MoreSee Less
lifehacker.com
This week we’re improving our public speaking skills with the help of expert Carmine Gallo, author of Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds, who tells us about the importance of story and emotion when it comes to presenting. Then hear Lifehacker’s Food Editor, C...1 years ago ·
UK Energy Company CEO tricked into wiring €200,000 to scammer thinking it was his German company boss, via an #AI deep fake that mimicked the boss's voice and email. buff.ly/2O7NYFo
Although the energy companies were not named by Euler Hermes the insurer who described the case in the WSJ and Washington Post (buff.ly/2HKvw1E) there are only a small number of UK energy companies owned by German companies. They include E.On, and NPower, ultimately owned by RWE.
The case shows how companies need to have systems in place to protect against fraud, espionage, cybercrime and similar attempts to damage their businesses - and that even the largest companies can get caught with a clever enough scam.
(We recently led a Counter-Competitive Intelligence workshop in Barcelona for the Institute for Competitive Intelligence. Things are getting harder and more sophisticated and if you don't currently have a protection programme in place, now would be a good time to start one).
#cybercrime #fraud ... See MoreSee Less
Thieves are now using AI deepfakes to trick companies into sending them money
theverge.com
So AI crimes are a thing now.1 years ago ·
UK Chief of Defence Intelligence looks to #OSINT
James Hockenhull said "Publicly available data is the future backbone of situational awareness…. We need significant change in the way we do business," discussing current challenges compared to past ones. buff.ly/2AxNS1Q
Hockenhull pointed to how machine learning and artificial intelligence were proliferating, describing the technologies as potentially the "difference between winning or losing future conflicts". Defence Intelligence is looking to build new types of partnership with OSINT providers in industry and academia, with Hockenhull talking about his organisation working on an enterprise basis with the UK armed services, civilian intelligence agencies, its Five Eyes allies (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States), the collection industry, and academia.
According to Hockenhull, the outsourcing of some of Defence Intelligence's functions was needed to meet the demands of the future. ... See MoreSee Less
UK Chief of Defence Intelligence looks to OSINT | Jane's 360
janes.com
Publicly available data will be the backbone of the UK military’s situational awareness in future conflicts and crises, according to the country’s Chief of Defence Intelligence (CDI), Lieutenant-General James Hockenhull. Speaking at a briefing at the Defence & Security Equipment1 years ago ·
“Whether you’re searching Google, CV databases or social media…”
A how-to-guide on how NOT to search Google for anything or anyone (including job candidates). As a description of #Boolean - passable (although still wrong). As a guide to Google #search: TOTALLY wrong. Boolean doesn't work on #Google. You do NOT need this guide in your life.
As some examples:
1) Wildcards - there is no ? wildcard on any current search engine. The * exists in Google and Yandex but for words, not characters.
2) AND is the default - not OR (and on Google it's now a soft AND). && is not a synonym for AND (although was used slightly differently on Yandex but has now been discontinued)
3) Google does not support parentheses (brackets) - although Bing does.
4) Proximity searching - the "guide" suggests the use of the a ~ character. NOPE. This was NEVER a proximity search option on any online search engine. (It used to be used for synonym search on Google). Proximity search sort of exists (sometimes but not well and not recommended) using the AROUND() operator on Google or the * wildcard, and on many professional databases (e.g. Factiva) - but nobody used a ~ (tilde) and especially not as shown.
I cannot recall reading such total nonsense in a long time. Do NOT use this as a guide for search.
buff.ly/2NhQnhr #FAIL ... See MoreSee Less
Searching For Candidates? You NEED This Boolean Search Guide In Your Life
weare.guru
Stop wasting your time with poor search techniques. This Boolean ... Read More…1 years ago ·
How to Do a Win / Loss Analysis (with Examples and Resource Links) buff.ly/2UV7ZAx
Why are we winning or losing? How often do we win against competitors? The answers to questions like this are crucial to understand how to build a successful business and improve across sales, marketing, product, and services. How do you gather and analyze this data?
Learn what a win / loss analysis is, how to calculate your win / loss ratios, and best practices for cutting the data to discover insights for improving those win rates. ... See MoreSee Less
How to Do a Win / Loss Analysis (with Examples and Resource Links)
crayon.co
What is a win / loss analysis, how do you calculate it, and what are the steps to measuring and sharing win / loss results? Learn win / loss best practices and review examples of data and graphs.1 years ago ·
Illicit Trade in the Dark Web - a brief overview of the dark web, how it works and the illicit trade that takes place there with case studies and attempts to regulate it. buff.ly/2Lv2KEC #OSINT #cybercrime ... See MoreSee Less
medium.com
The Dark Web is, by its nature, anonymous and incapable of discriminating between criminals and ordinary users. The new headache for LE.1 years ago ·
12 Israeli Infosec Startup Companies To Notice - with descriptions on what they each do:
• Guardicore (@Guardicore) - internal data center security / breach detection
• Biocatch (@Biocatch) - behavioral biometrics
• NeuraLegion (@NeuraLegion) - automatic solution for detecting software vulnerabilities
• Perimeter 81 (@Perimeter81)- cyber-security-focused SaaS solution offering VPN services
• Cognigo (@CognigoAI) - data governance, security, & compliance via AI
• SecBI (@SecBIi) - machine learning to uncover the scope of cyberattacks
• Cymulate (@CymulateLtd) - develops cyberattack simulations to safeguard businesses
• SCADAfence (@SCADAfence) - cybersecurity and visibility solutions for industrial networks
• Sixgill (@CyberSixgill) -provides prioritized / automated real time alerts when threats are detected
• Cynerio (@Cynerio) - solutions for healthcare providers combining device-behavior learning with medical workflow analysis
• PlainID (@plainID_authZ) - an authorization solution that secures digital assets
• Cyabra (@TheCyabra) - protects brands and governmental institutions from fakenews
buff.ly/2LT9774 #Infosec ... See MoreSee Less
12 Israeli Infosec Startup Companies To Notice
peerlyst.com
We have decided to list a dozen of Infosec startup companies to notice from Israel (the "Start-up Nation"): * GuardiCore * BioCatch * NeuraLegion * Perimeter 81 * Cognigo * SecBI * Cymulate * SCADAfence * Sixgill * Cynerio * PlainID *1 years ago ·
Ask a busy person
You might know one.
The busy person has a bias for action, the ability to ship, and a willingness to contribute more than is required. The busy person is wrong more than most people (if you get up to bat more often, you’re going to have more hits and more strike outs, right?). Those errors are dwarfed by the impact they create.
Being a busy person is a choice.
It might not work for you, but you could try it out for a while.
We need more busy people. ... See MoreSee Less
seths.blog
You might know one. The busy person has a bias for action, the ability to ship, and a willingness to contribute more than is required. The busy person is wrong more than most people (if you get up …2 years ago ·
Israeli Cybersecurity Firm Aims For More Secure Future By Eliminating Passwords | Technology News buff.ly/2Z5uPdi #OSINT #cybersecurity ... See MoreSee Less
Israeli Cybersecurity Firm Aims For More Secure Future By Eliminating Passwords | Technology News
nocamels.com
From hardware tokens to biometric methods, Israel's alternative authentication solutions are pushing weak passwords out of style.2 years ago ·
7 tips to better monitor competitors.
The way we operate today is usually not the same as how we operated a year or two ago – so why should a competitor be different? Effective #CompetitiveIntelligence can make the difference between success & failure.
Babette Bensoussan of Mindshifts is a well-known author on competitive intelligence - with several excellent and best-selling books. Here she gives 7 tips on discovering more about competitors - from mystery shopping their products and website, to outsourcing research to specialists (like AWARE in the UK/Europe, Mindshifts in Australia and many others). She also includes a download link to an excellent free e-book giving tips and ideas gathered over almost 2 decades of practice. ... See MoreSee Less
Do you understand your competitors? | MindShifts
mindshifts.com.au
You can’t make a sound business decision about your future intentions based on what has occurred in the past. Understand your competitors and plan for the future.2 years ago ·
6 Key Resources for Company Information buff.ly/2TAdTWU
Tracking down #corporate information can feel like searching for a needle in a large haystack, especially if dealing with a small private firm… Here's 6 sites to help #competitiveintelligence #OSINT novices get started. The list misses out several - and that's where a professional company like AWARE (buff.ly/2J3px7J) can help out. However the suggestions listed are also on our go-to list - especially for US companies. ... See MoreSee Less
6 Key Resources for Company Information
blog.marketresearch.com
Company information can be tricky to find, and even trickier to verify. Here are a few key sources to help you along in your quest for corporate research.2 years ago ·
Why it’s important to not have repeating passwords buff.ly/2YQNrNT #cybersecurity is becoming ever more important. Here's a cautionary tale. (And yes - most people are guilty).
There are several systems to make a secure password. The problem is remembering them - especially if you aim to use different passwords for each site / application.
For myself, I have a 3-level password system. Lowest level - I don't care if I'm hacked and won't lose anything. My password just gives me access and I can always log in again with a new ID. The site really just wants to know who is visiting and repeat visitors. The 2nd level is more secure - with a mix of letters and numbers and often special characters. The 3rd level requires a phrase and is longer.
Choosing a password should not be something guessable. Password or 123456 are not good (and even my 1st level is better than this). Choose something memorable with a code to link it to the website e.g. H-letters&number-mix-B-special-charcter where H and B could be the code for the site. Use a phrase that's not guessable (My favourite teacher in 1989 was John Stokes in 3rd grade - could become Mfti89wJSi3g!E - a 13 word mix of capitals, letters numbers and a special character. Not a perfect password but memorable and fairly secure - with the final E indicating Email. Another option could be HMfti89wJSi3g!B could be for HSBC - the final B being for Bank. The catch is that the middle letters are always the same, so try different phrases for different types of site or requirement.
And to find out if your password has been hacked, check with buff.ly/1uJvkAX which looks at databases of passwords from data breaches. If you are on the list for a particular email, your password is available to hackers, phishers and spammers ! ... See MoreSee Less
2 years ago ·
How to Spot a Fake Review on Amazon buff.ly/2Mmw29t
E-commerce websites are flooded with bogus reviews. Tools such as FakeSpot and ReviewMeta can help identify false recommendations. Also ignore 5* (and often 1*) reviews and look for genuine purchasers and wording.
Always check the review was from a verified purchaser - and for some products you'll see lots of 5* and 1* reviews as fake reviewers try and praise or rubbish a product. (Contentious topics e.g. books defending the anti-vaccination movement are typical here). To offset this see what the 2-4* reviews say also and whether the 1 and 5* reviews make sense.
There are two sorts of fake review. The ones that are important - before purchasing a product aim to influence. The second sort aim to amuse and there are lots - for example at buff.ly/2SDPeQM - with the number one (BIC for Her) being a favourite. (We purchased a bird feeder claiming to be squirrel proof and the descriptions of how most weren't were also funny). ... See MoreSee Less
How to Spot a Fake Review on Amazon
uk.pcmag.com
Amazon and other e-commerce websites are flooded with bogus reviews. These online tools will help you identify a fake review on the internet and keep you from spending cash on a terrible product.2 years ago ·
Money Laundering is a global problem - facilitated by dodgy or non-existent companies. The United Kingdom is now the number 1 location for setting up such "off shore" companies. This Guardian article shows how easy it is now to set up fake companies - and defraud people out of millions or hide money or worse.
How Britain can help you get away with stealing millions: a five-step guide buff.ly/2LSHJ7p
A couple of years ago, I was researching a company. One of the two shareholders was a company named Hughes Ltd - which doesn't exist in the UK. When the change requiring the naming of "Persons of Significant Control" was enacted, Hughes disappeared and the real "director" was named. (In fact even this was not true. The person named had changed it as he had narrowly escaped prosecution for a £1m fraud involving car sales. Presumably he wanted a clean start although his son, working for the same company, used the original surname - and also liked cars with photos of him alongside fast ones.
I reported the company - which I strongly suspect to be involved in a Ponzi scheme defrauding the elderly. Sadly, as no crime had YET been committed nothing could be done or has been done (although one director has managed to get himself a £2m dividend on reported sales of £7m - and much lower profits - probably by taking from money put in trust by clients. So until people realise they cannot use the service they think they have purchased nothing will be done.
#fraud #OSINT ... See MoreSee Less
How Britain can help you get away with stealing millions: a five-step guide
theguardian.com
The long read: Dirty money needs laundering if it’s to be of any use – and the UK is the best place in the world to do it2 years ago ·
TapClicks Acquires Marketing Intelligence Provider iSpionage buff.ly/2xHsupK #competitiveintelligence
iSpionage is a key tool for monitoring online advertising along with Spyfu, Buzzsumo and other related tools. ... See MoreSee Less
TapClicks Acquires Marketing Intelligence Provider iSpionage - TapClicks
tapclicks.com
Read the latest TapClicks Press Releases posts on the TapClicks Marketing Reporting blog.2 years ago ·
Forecasting isn't easy. Why it’s worth reading crazy-sounding scenarios about the future. Even if they don't come true, they can shape thoughts and so business strategies. The Economist discusses 3 approaches to anticipating the future (buff.ly/2LbDUux) with scenario planning - including a possible view of Europe in 2024 after the USA walks out of NATO. ... See MoreSee Less
Why it’s worth reading crazy-sounding scenarios about the future
economist.com
Speculating about the future can make it easier to respond to unexpected events2 years ago ·
Do a search on Arthur Weiss and you may find information on a hairdresser, teacher, endocrinologist or the director of Mission Impossible films. That's legitimate - we all share the same name. However it also shows how search results can be manipulated by pushing one Arthur Weiss higher than the others for any particular search. Just make one Arthur Weiss site more search engine optimised and that one will appear above the others.
This approach is being used to hide unsavoury and criminal reputations online. Reputation repair consultants create fake profiles / sites pushing negative client information to the bottom of search results. Overcoming such SEO exercises is crucial for #OSINT. You can do this through targeted key words e.g. including a town or country or profession or associated names so that more specific results appear. It's much harder to hide a name completely for such targeted searches. The example given for a currently jailed payday loan scammer shows how this works and why a targeted search would avoid the reputation repair attempts. ... See MoreSee Less
How Google Search Results Are Being Manipulated By Shady Online Reputation Consultants
buzzfeednews.com
Google-savvy reputation consultants will cover up arrests, poor customer reviews, and other image-killing content for the right price.2 years ago ·
