Insecurity

I didn’t write this. Google Gemini wrote this. (And created the image.)

“In essence, identity is the foundation upon which security is built. A strong, well-managed identity infrastructure is essential for protecting digital assets and preventing unauthorized access. By understanding the overlaps between identity and security, organizations can implement robust security measures that safeguard both their digital assets and the privacy of their users.”

So now take a moment and think about security WITHOUT identity. 

And shudder.

Will Entities Adopt the SITA-IDEMIA-Indico “Digital Travel Ecosystem”?

Thinking about “de plane” used in the Fantasy Island television series (image CC BY-SA 3.0) makes me think about travel. Mr. Roarke’s and Tattoo’s guests didn’t have to worry about identifying themselves to disembark from the plane and enter the island. But WE certainly do…and different countries and entities need to adopt standards to facilitate this.

I’ve previously observed that standards often don’t emerge, like Athena, from ivory towers. They emerge when a very powerful entity or person (for example, Microsoft or Taylor Swift) says that THIS is the standard, and waits for the world to comply.

Of course, there can be issues when MULTIPLE powerful entities or people try to champion competing standards.

But what if powerful entities band together?

SITA, the global leader in air transport technology, and IDEMIA Public Security, a world leader in digital technologies, biometrics, and security have announced a collaboration to advance interoperability, trust, and data security through a globally recognized Digital Travel Ecosystem.

Add Indico to the partnership, and perhaps the parties may be on to something.

From SITA.

The goal is to create “an open, secure, and interoperable framework that ensures a travelers’ digital identity is trusted globally, without the need for direct integrations between issuers and verifiers.” It is intentionally decentralized, giving the traveler control over their identity.

Perhaps it’s a fantasy to think that others will buy in. Will they?

Or will they instead select Taylor’s version?

CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81523364

Dr. Jones MD, NPE

I have a telehealth appointment next week with a medical professional whom I have previously met. And I assume she will participate in the telehealth appointment.

In the future, of course, she may not.

Way back in April 2013, I wrote a tymshft piece entitled “You will still take a cab to the doctor’s office. For a while.” It speculated about a future 2023 medical appointment in which the patient took a driverless cab to a medical facility. In the office, the patient was examined by remote staff…or so she thought.

“Well, I’m glad you’ve gotten used to the procedure,” replied the friendly voice. “I hope you like me!”

“I do,” said Edith. “You’ve been very helpful. But I’ve always wondered exactly WHERE you were. If you were in Los Angeles, or in Mississippi, or perhaps in India or China, or perhaps even in one of the low-cost places such as Chad. If you don’t mind my asking, exactly where ARE you?”

“I don’t mind answering the question,” replied the friendly voice, “and I hope you don’t take my response the wrong way, but I’m not really a person as you understand the term. I’m actually an application within the software package that runs the medical center. But my programmers want me to tell you that they’re really happy to serve you, and that Stanford sucks.” The voice paused for a moment. “I’m sorry, Edith. You have to forgive the programmers – they’re Berkeley grads.”

“Oh,” said Edith after a moment. “This is something new. I’m used to it in banking, but I didn’t realize that a computer program could run an entire medical center. Well…who picks up the trash?”

“That’s an extra question! Just kidding,” replied the friendly voice. “Much of the trash pickup is automated, but we do have a person to supervise the operation. Ron Hussein. You actually know him – he was your cab driver in 2018 when you came here.”

Re-reading this 2013 piece, I was amused at three things I got wrong.

  • First, Google, Facebook, and Apple did NOT merge to form Gaceapple, “the important merger that saved the tech industry in the United States from extinction.” American tech firms are still powerful…for now.
  • Second, my assumption of cab companies adopting driverless cars assumed the continued existence of cab companies. Ride share services have reduced the presence of traditional companies dramatically.
  • Third, my assumption that medical firms would sink untold sums of money into centralized automated medical examination rooms could be questioned…especially for routine appointments like Edith’s. Why not just let Edith’s smartphone—perhaps with a single attachment—gather the data?

Of course, there are medical ethics questions that underlie this entire discussion of remote telehealth and the use of non-person entities (NPEs). And we are struggling with those right now.

Image of Dr. Jones MD, NPE from Google Gemini.

Yelping About Google Business Listings

The Google Business Listing service sellers are almost as bad as the 17x professional resume writers.

A bit of history: when I started Bredemarket I also set up a Google Business Listing, which also included a free ugly Google website to promote my business. I poured my energies into bredemarket.com instead.

Bredemarket’s geographic market as of April 2021, according to my Google business listing page. The old link now redirects to a general Google search for Bredemarket.

I’d occasionally add content to my Google Business Listing, but sometimes Google would flag the content for some unknown reason, and eventually Google flagged the entire Google Business Listing for some unknown reason. (Google: “You violated our TOS, but we won’t tell you why. You figure out what you did.”) By this point I was happy to be rid of the thing.

But I’m still getting calls at least once a week from companies that want me to get my Google Business Listing properly verified. When I tell these companies that losing my Google Business Listing was the best thing that ever happened to me, they usually hang up.

Usually.

My “Google” review (which wasn’t about me, and wasn’t on Google)

Today the caller was persistent, mentioning at one point that Bredemarket had five star reviews saying “I was blown away with this service”…from a resume writing service. I asked for the date of the review, and the caller couldn’t tell me. And you know how I feel about some resume writing services anyway.

After this caller finally gave up on selling their services, I searched Google for a five-star review of Bredemarket.

I ended up at Bredemarket’s Yelp page…which has no reviews. But if you scroll down, you see sponsored content about OTHER websites…including
KStar Professional Resume Writing Services, for which a reviewer wrote “I was blown away with this service.”

From https://www.yelp.com/biz/bredemarket-ontario as of November 4, 2024.

So instead of a five star Google review of Bredemarket, there is a five star review of a completely separate resume writing service that appears in the sponsored ads for Bredemarket’s Yelp page.

Secure is a Verb

How can you anticipate the unexpected?

  • Such as a plane that isn’t in the sky, but lodged in a skyscraper?
  • Or a pressure cooker that isn’t inside in a kitchen, but outside in a backpack?
  • Or an illness that suddenly appears when no such illness previously existed?
  • Or something that mimics a bodily illness, such as a computer virus or denial of service attack?

To anticipate the unexpected, you need to plan beforehand, assess during, and quickly correct afterwards.

What is on tomorrow’s calendar? And why are you pushing it out to next year?

Treat “secure” as a verb, not an adjective. A critically important verb.

(Pressure cooking image CC BY-SA 2.0)

California Knows How to Party (California mDL)

Well, it took long enough.

In part because when I first tried to get a mobile driver’s license (mDL), I used my OLD physical driver’s license AFTER I had renewed my driver’s license online (but before I received the new physical license). Data mismatch. Rejected.

And in part because I kept on forgetting to perform the additional steps to confirm my identity.

And in part because I didn’t truly NEED the mDL—I haven’t flown anywhere since April 2023, and for some strange reason no vendor of age-controlled products has insisted on carding me.

California mobile driver’s license (mDL).

But I now have a California mDL. After talking about mDLs for years as a former IDEMIA employee.

I’ve previously espoused the benefits of mDLs. For example, when a retailer DOES check my age before I buy a beer, the retailer doesn’t learn my address or my (claimed) height and weight. The retailer only needs to confirm that I am old enough to buy a beer.

Oddly enough, I had to block out certain information on my displayed mDL in the image above. Because MY privacy requirements obviously don’t conform to California’s privacy requirements.

725

While updating my resume today, I discovered that I have now written over 700 blog posts on the Bredemarket site alone. This is number 725, in case you’re keeping score.

And that doesn’t count the myriad of blog posts I’ve written for consulting clients or employers, plus the posts I’ve written for other blogs over the years dating back to 2003.

So in case you’re wondering: yes, I’ve written blog posts before.

And I can augment your company’s resources by writing blog posts (for example, via the Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service) that drive awareness, consideration, and/or conversion.

Talk to me about your needs.

(Town crier image Public Domain)