AI ChatBot as Research Assistant

[CraginS]

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.

[Shannon]

@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...)

[amandavanceISC2]

@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

[rslade]

> 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

[Shannon]

---

@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...

[rslade]

> 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

[Shannon]

---

@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.

[CraginS]

---

@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?

[Shannon]

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. 

[Shannon]

---

@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...