Enterprise Risk Management Israel data + Google cloud = STUPIDITY

ISRAEL JUST MADE A DEAL WITH Amazon and Google to store all ministries data in a “cloud.” ^{1, 2, 3}

As an Enterprise Risk Management practitioner I am against commercial “cloud” storage, especially when the”cloud” is owned by someone else. The data in the cloud is at risk: the vendor could fail, the vendor’s security may be lax; the vendor may simply hold the data for ransom.

The REAL concern for this scrivener about Israel using any commercial “cloud” — but especially Google’s — is the number of anti-Israel employees at all levels at Google ^{4, 5, 6} — who might use their access to share Israel's data with others of their ilk?

 

ACCORDING TO NEWS stories,

Israel has selected Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud as the winners of a $1 billion-plus project to deliver a public cloud infrastructure for the country’s government ministries and defense forces.

AWS and Google edged out IBM, Microsoft and Oracle in the bidding for the “Project Nimbus” contract and will develop cloud data center sites within Israel under an initial 4 billion-shekel investment -- the equivalent of $1.22 billion, Reuters reported today, citing an announcement from Israel’s finance ministry. The cloud sites will keep the government and military data within Israel’s borders to adhere to strict data security regulations, the report said. ¹

Anti-Semite heads Diversity team

Google is the company that named Kamau Bobb, global lead for diversity strategy and research in 2018. Apparently Google failed to google it’s employee.

Bobb wrote in a now-deleted 2007 blog post that if he were Jewish, he “would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing in defense of myself,” and referred to Jews’ “increasing insensitivity to the suffering (of) others.”⁷

According to a Google puff piece,

"These writings are unquestionably hurtful. The author acknowledges this and has apologised. He will no longer be part of our diversity team... and will focus on his Stem [science, technology, engineering and maths] work.” ⁸

Secure data regs?

Amazon and Google are to “adhere to strict data security regulations.”

If U.S. government data on U.S. government computers can be hacked, imagine how easy it will be for someone from inside Google (or Amazon) to access Israeli data in the “cloud.”

Right: Al Capp's Joe Bfstplk and his cloud

Data security regulations are, as Napoleon is alleged to have said about treaties, “just a piece of paper.”

Who is going to enforce the regulations? Who will assure that the BDSers inside Google — and if news reports are true, there are several hundred BDSers at Google HQ alone ^{4, 5, 6} — abide by Israel's "strict data security regulations?”

Is anyone foolish enough to think that even in Israel there are no anti-Israel Jews (and non-Jews)?

Is Israel so technologically backward that it must job out “cloud” services to vendors over which it has little or no “absolute” control?

Once data is in the “cloud,” the data’s owner no longer has control of the data and who accesses the data, regardless of “ strict data security regulations”.

”Civilian” data also at risk

All Israeli adult citizens have a national ID number, similar to Social Security in the United States.

Almost everything an Israeli citizen does — buy a home, a car, get a loan, see a doctor, go to the hospital, go to school — is linked to that ID number.

Not only does the number identify an individual, it also identifies members of the person’s family: spouse, children.

How can I trust anyone with my data? I don’t.

Why should Israel trust anyone with its general information, let alone military secrets.

There are enough Israeli — Jewish and non-Jewish — “Kim” Philby’s ⁹ who gladly will steal and share state (and personal) secrets for money or belief that making it easier to access by renting space from Google, in particular, borders not only on “foolish,” but, IMO, “unmitigated stupidity.”

Call me paranoid, but as an Enterprise Risk Management practitioner, I don’t trust “clouds.” If I cannot control access to my data, that data won’t be mine for long.

Final thought We all learned in elementary school that clouds are water vapor. Water is sent heavenward by heat (evaporation). What goes up, must come down. Where is goes up and where it comes down may be distant from one another.

Likewise data to the cloud.

I send data to the cloud and someone else — perhaps someone who should not have access to my data — beings it down.

A cloud is permeable; it leaks.

That’s not a good thing for secrets.

---

Sources

1. CRN: https://tinyurl.com/b2z4ceey **

2. Globes: https://tinyurl.com/9jjakx

3. Cloudtech: https://tinyurl.com/3sv46fwp

4. The Verge: https://tinyurl.com/yye35ss5

5. Israel HaYom: https://tinyurl.com/pcrxmu8k

6. DCD: https://tinyurl.com/34dwcud3

7. Forbes: https://tinyurl.com/vfs3cs

8. BBC: https://tinyurl.com/74xzp9et

9. "Kim" Philby: https://tinyurl.com/53r2wajh

 

 

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

Comment on Cloud

Engineering faux pas Canon PIXMA MX920 An inconvenient printer

 

I AM A CANON loyalist. I have Canon cameras (F-1, FtB, SD30, and SD1100) and Canon multi-function printers (PIXMA MP560 and PIXMA MX920). I also had a Canon camcorder that failed when most needed.

I just bought/installed the PIXMA MX920.

The installation went "OK." First time installs always have user-generated hiccups.

But then came the use - and the surprises.

BIGGEST, NASTIEST SURPRISE

In order to print an envelope with the MX920 all the document paper (8.5*11, A, etc.) has to be removed from the lower feeder tray to load in envelopes.

The printer has two trays. The top tray is for photo paper; it will NOT accept standard #10 envelopes. (I tried.) By comparison, the much older MP560 has a pop-up "tray" in back for envelopes, cards, photo paper, and "other size documents not suitable for the paper tray." I'm normally the only one who actually sends snail mail with other than pre-addressed envelopes, having the "envelope machine" next to my computer makes keeping the old machine worthwhile.

Both trays are plastic and while they are relatively thick plastic, I don't have any confidence that it is sturdy plastic, especially the movable parts. The MP560 trays have held up, but they have fewer moving parts.

The MX920 has an integral fax, but to SEND a fax, the user has to

1. Create the copy on a computer or with pen and paper
2. If on the computer, print out the document
3. Load the document into the MX920
4. Dial the destination number from the computer
5. Send the fax from the MX920

Turns out, and unbeknown to me, my wife's Windows 8 machine has a "fax from the computer" option. Sans a telco connector, I don't know how that could work, but that's for another day.

The manual, which has to be downloaded - nothing's in paper anymore, tells me that I have the option to set the system to essentially "sleep" between print jobs. The manual must be for the entire series of MX machines because my MX920 lacks the feature. I CAN turn the device OFF from the computer, but despite having a "Start" icon, the only way to turn the device on is top walk over and push a button. Given that it is a networked device and the other computers are distant, someone has to walk to the office to (wo)manually turn ON the unit.

All-in-all, I am NOT a happy camper and now understand why this unit was less expensive than the older MP560 despite the addition of the ADF and fax function.

Having bought the new machine I am beginning to suspect that the MP560's color problem is NOT the machine but the cheap mail order ink I bought for it. Still, it - like me - is making age-related noises. I may spring for some Canon ink and see if it's the ink or the machine.

The new machine has some features I appreciate - the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) and the fax function. It is quiet and it supposedly is power efficient sufficient that it can be left ON for most of the time.

In my not at all humble opinion, Canon's hardware engineers failed, and failed on a grand scale, with the MX920.

Printers should first be easy to use; the MX920 is not.

Canon tried to make replacing ink cartridges easy and failed at that.

The old MP560 took two steps to access the easy in/easy out cartridges.

The new MX920 takes an additional step and the cartridges are hard to insert.

Both printers have 5 individual cartridges; if one is empty, replace that cartridge. More economical than replacing an "all-colors-in-one" cartridge - but still not "low cost."

To be fair, set up was relatively easy; the most difficult part was getting the printer and modem/router to recognize each other. Once physically configured I ran the the accompanying CD in each networked computer; that may not have been necessary except for the first machine.

I ordered the MX920 from Amazon on Tuesday, 24 NOV and was promised delivery between December 1 and 7. It was waiting for me when I returned from an overnight Thanksgiving trip - fast delivery. Tip of the hat to Amazon.

The MP920 seems to print first pages faster than the older MP560, and the noise factor in Quiet Mode is minimal.

Documentation, downloaded in PDF from http://support-th.canon-asia.com/contents/TH/EN/0301024801.html comes down as an executable (.exe) file that contains 5 user documents. The documents are, based on a quick overview, useful and provide information in text and graphics.

Mechanical engineering - the engineering that designs hardware - is in some respects like my old job in that, to be good, the engineers need to think "outside the box."

I once worked for a mainframe company - that shall remain nameless - that built a computer enclosure that everyone thought was perfect . . . until someone tried to cable the components; no room for the cables. A different company made a nice machine that had a pull-out unit. The only problem was when the unit was pulled out, the ribbon cable was disconnected from the backplane. Oops.

Canon would be well served by asking the customers what they want and how they want it presented. That top tray would be great if I could put envelopes in it as well as photo paper. Alternatively, copy the MP560 "pop-up in back" tray (see photo, above).

Software engineers need to get with the mechanical engineers so the unit can be turned off AND on from the computer.

The MX920 is close, "but no cigar."