topic AI ChatBot as Research Assistant in Tech Talk

AI ChatBot as Research Assistant

CraginS — Mon, 08 Oct 2018 18:18:38 GMT

Some weeks back, Grandpa Rob @rslade flagged two Community accounts that are almost definitely chatbots, @nancy_perez and @crystal_waston. Both accounts have posted innocuous statements in ongoing threads that do not really add to the conversation, but simply make a statement or define a term related to the thread.

In the thread on BlockChain Security in Industry News (https://community.isc2.org/t5/Industry-News/BlockChain-Security/td-p/10550)

each of those accounts played their game again, but this time I found the original articles online that the bots plagiarized from. You can see my notes in that thread. Here is the interesting part: Had nancy-BOT and crystal-BOT actually cited the articles they used, that information would have been quite useful to the original questioner, @Adesoji. Both full articles are quite relevant to the questions he asked about blockchains.

So, we are led to wondering if the underlying AI programming for both nancy-BOT and crystal-BOT could be slightly modified to change them from minor annoyances in the Community to actually useful research assistants.

Amanda @amandavanceISC2 let us know the (ISC)2 staff is trying to find out who is running the two bot accounts. If we can get the operators to fess up. maybe we can help turn their research into something to "use their powers for good."

Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Re: AI ChatBot as Research Assistant

Shannon — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 11:55:42 GMT

@amandavanceISC2, will (ISC)2 attempt to look into these accounts, to confirm whether or not they're being used by ChatBots? If they are, what action will be taken?

To mention a similar issue, albeit it not with (ISC)2, I was recently getting tons of spam from strange domains. I usually set up filters to directly delete spam, so that I don't have to wade through the bin to check for emails that don't belong there. This time, it wasn't practical, coz multiple email addresses at the same domains were being used. I tried filtering the domains, but more spam from other domains kept coming.

Finally, I proceeded to identify the hosting organization as Robosapiens Technologies Pvt and the registrar as GoDaddy. I reported the issue to the latter at spam@godaddy.com & abuse@godaddy.com, & asked them to investigate it, but apparently nothing was done --- I got no feedback from them, & continue to get emails from the reported domains...

(Needless to say, I've lost faith in the support from GoDaddy, but that's still holding when it comes to (ISC)2...)

Re: AI ChatBot as Research Assistant

amandavanceISC2 — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 14:39:02 GMT

@Shannon To confirm, management is looking into the two profiles and will take action depending on the outcome of the investigation. Unfortunately, I am not positive on the actions they will take.

Best Regards,
Amanda Vance

Re: AI ChatBot as Research Assistant

rslade — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 18:39:00 GMT

> Shannon (Contributor II) posted a new reply in Tech Talk on 10-09-2018 07:55 AM

> Needless to say, I've lost faith in the support from
> GoDaddy

Why did you ever *have* any faith in them?

====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca rslade@computercrime.org
Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be
much writing, much arguing, many opinions; for opinion in good
persons is but knowledge in the making. - John Milton
victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm http://twitter.com/rslade
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/author/p1/
https://is.gd/RotlWB

Re: AI ChatBot as Research Assistant

Shannon — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 18:53:55 GMT

@rslade wrote:

Why did you ever *have* any faith in them?

I took a 'leap of good faith' when when I registered a domain with them some time ago...

Re: AI ChatBot as Research Assistant

rslade — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 19:14:00 GMT

> Shannon (Contributor II) posted a new reply in Tech Talk on 10-09-2018 02:53 PM

> I took a 'leap
> of good faith' when when I registered a domain with them some time ago...

Their Super Bowl ads weren't enough of a warning? 🙂

====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca rslade@computercrime.org
The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon
the business known as gambling. - Ambrose Bierce
victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm http://twitter.com/rslade
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/author/p1/
https://is.gd/RotlWB

Re: AI ChatBot as Research Assistant

Shannon — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 19:23:31 GMT

@rslade wrote:

Their Super Bowl ads weren't enough of a warning? 🙂

I wish... The only hint of customer support --- if we can call it that --- was when the domain was going to expire, and they kept urging me to renew it.

Re: AI ChatBot as Research Assistant

CraginS — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 11:47:28 GMT

@rslade wrote:
> Shannon @Shannon (Contributor II) posted a new reply in Tech Talk on 10-09-2018 07:55 AM
> Needless to say, I've lost faith in the support from GoDaddy
Why did you ever *have* any faith in them?

I do not know if this is still their practice, but years ago I read several complaints of GoDaddy as a domain registrar. When customers set up a new site and domain with GoDaddy as both host and registrar, GoDaddy registered themselves as the domain name owner, not the site owner as the domain owner. When the customer wanted to move to a different hosting company, GoDaddy held them hostage by refusing to allow changes to the domain registry.

Yeah, faith in them?

Re: AI ChatBot as Research Assistant

Shannon — Sat, 20 Oct 2018 06:39:20 GMT

To update everyone, the outcome of notifying GoDaddy was that they unregistered the domains, but that had no effect --- the emails kept coming it, checking the domain info showed the same hosting provider, while GoDaddy stated that the domains were open for registration!

I contacted the hosting provider --- Robosapiens Technologies --- to get them to look into it, but got no feedback.

Finally, I made a complain about them with a review, after which the emails stopped... I guess I should have put up the review at the start.

Re: AI ChatBot as Research Assistant

Shannon — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 19:03:22 GMT

@amandavanceISC2 wrote:
@Shannon To confirm, management is looking into the two profiles and will take action depending on the outcome of the investigation. Unfortunately, I am not positive on the actions they will take.

Best Regards,
Amanda Vance

@amandavanceISC2, I'm curious to know what the final outcome of this was, assuming the investigation is over...

Re: AI ChatBot as Research Assistant

SamanthaO_isc2 — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 19:21:20 GMT

Hello @Shannon,

These accounts have been handled by the Administrators of the Community. In order to keep our internal policies and procedures secure, we can not share anything further than this. We do want to thank you and all Community members who brought this to our attention and encourage you to continue to report suspect accounts and content in the Community for the Admins to handle.

Re: AI ChatBot as Research Assistant

Shannon — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 23:12:27 GMT

@SamanthaO_isc2 wrote:
Hello @Shannon,

These accounts have been handled by the Administrators of the Community. In order to keep our internal policies and procedures secure, we can not share anything further than this. We do want to thank you and all Community members who brought this to our attention and encourage you to continue to report suspect accounts and content in the Community for the Admins to handle.

Thanks for confirming that, @SamanthaO_isc2

Re: AI ChatBot as Research Assistant

rslade — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 01:33:00 GMT

> Shannon (Contributor II) posted a new reply in Tech Talk on 10-24-2018 03:03 PM in the (ISC)Â² Community :

> I'm curious to know
> what the final outcome of this was, assuming the investigation is over...

I can't, of course, speak for what the final outcome was, and I'd be interested as
well. But I note that crystal posted a couple of days ago, and that post no longer
shows up on searches. I think we can safely infer that the Powers-That-Be have
determined that nancy and crystal are somehow non-legit, and are manually taking
down their posts from here on in. (I'm not sure why they are leaving the old posts
up ...)

====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca rslade@computercrime.org
Politics for the age of cable TV. Fleeting impressions, an
illusion of meaning floating over a sea of undefined emotions.
We're talking about a virtual politics unconnected to any
reality, one which redefines reality as itself.
- `Kingdom Come', J. G. Ballard
victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm http://twitter.com/rslade
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/author/p1/
https://is.gd/RotlWB

Re: AI ChatBot as Research Assistant

rslade — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 07:22:52 GMT

> SamanthaO_isc2 (Community Manager) posted a new reply in Tech Talk on 10-24-2018 03:21 PM in the (ISC)Â² Community :

> In order to keep our internal policies and procedures
> secure, we can not share anything further than this.

Yeah, that's taking "security by obscurity" just a tad too far ...