On Quantum Related Risk

 Good overview of the risks to be considered regarding.

Quantum Computing Is for Tomorrow, But Quantum-Related Risk Is Here Today   

By Kevin Townsend on January 03, 2022  in Security Week

Booz Allen Hamilton has analyzed the quantum computing arms race to determine China’s current and future capabilities, and to understand the likely use of China’s cyber capabilities within that race. It concludes, “Risk management must start now.”

The report is really in two halves. The first describes the cybersecurity threat inherent in the quantum arms race, while the second is a primer on the complexities of quantum computing. While this is worth reading, only the cybersecurity threats are relevant to us here.

The two cybersecurity threats

Theft of quantum-relevant research

The background is China’s avowed intention to lead the world in technology and economy. The former is key to the latter; and being first to achieve quantum computing will be a major fillip. For now, China is behind the U.S. and Europe in quantum research but claims it will achieve at least parity by the mid-2020s.

Booz Allen is not convinced this will happen, but believes that China may be the first to achieve limited use cases in quantum computing. The first practical benefits from quantum are likely to come from quantum simulators rather than general purpose quantum computing. These are sometimes called ‘noisy intermediate scale quantum’ (NISQ) computers, so named by John Preskill, a quantum physics researcher at Caltech. 

They will be able to outperform classical computers in areas that include quantum properties – such as drug research. Booz Allen sees this area as providing the earliest quantum computing benefit. In the shorter term, the best quantum simulators will provide the greatest economic benefit.

This is not a cybersecurity threat. But western research in this area will be a primary target for Chinese threat groups seeking to ensure that Chinese capabilities remain at the forefront.

Quantum decryption

The most direct cybersecurity threat will come from quantum-assisted asymmetric decryption – that is, the ability to crack the public key encryption ubiquitous in communications. A quantum asymmetric decryption algorithm was developed by mathematician Peter Shor as long ago as 1994. Although still largely theoretical, it is believed that this algorithm will crack asymmetric encryption at usable speeds as soon as a sufficiently powerful quantum computer is developed. The report suggests this could be achieved as early as 2027, but is more likely to be impossible before 2030

Booz Allen alludes to this threat in three of its five ‘anticipated quantum computing threats from China’: theft of encrypted data with an expectation of future quantum-assisted decryption; adversarial development of quantum-assisted decryption sooner than quantum-resistant encryption can be deployed; and unobservable adversarial development of quantum-assisted decryption. .... ' 

Kirk Borne on AI and Human Nature

Have met Kirk, he has an astrophysics background similar to mine.  Here a podcast with him by Byron Reese.

On Episode 108 of Voices in AI, Byron and Kirk Borne discuss the intersection between human nature and artificial intelligence.

Listen to this episode or read the full transcript at    www.VoicesinAI.com

Transcript Excerpt

Byron Reese: This is Voices in AI brought to you by GigaOm, and I’m Byron Reese. Today my guest is Kirk Borne. He is Principal Data Scientist and executive advisor at Booz Allen Hamilton. He holds a BS in Physics from Louisiana State and a PhD in Astronomy from Caltech. His background covers all kinds of things relating to data and data science and artificial intelligence so it should be a great conversation. Welcome to the show, Kirk.

Kirk Borne: Thank you Byron. It’s great to be here.

So for the folks who aren’t familiar with you and your work, can you give us a little bit of a history about how did you get here, what was the path you took?

Well as you mentioned my background is Astrophysics and Astronomy. Starting in grad school about 40 years ago, I was always working with data for scientific discovery either through modeling and simulation or data analysis. So that’s sort of what I was doing as my avocation, which is research and astronomy, but my vocation became supporting NASA research scientists data systems — so the data systems from various satellites that NASA had for studying the space/astronomy domain. I worked on those systems and provided access to those data for scientists worldwide. I did that for about 20 years and so I was always working with data, and I would say data is my day job; data is my night job as an astronomer.

And so it was about 20 years ago that we were starting to notice the data volumes of the experiments we were working with, were just becoming more off scale than ever imagined. I mean just one single dataset I still remember 1997 — we were trying to work with this dataset that just by itself was more than double the size of the other 15,000 experiments we were working with combined. So that was like unheard of. And so at that point I started looking around at what can one do with data of this volume and I discovered machine learning and data mining. So I had never actually looked at data that way before. I just thought about analysis, not so much discovery from data from a machine learning perspective, and so that was 20 years ago and sort of fell in love with that whole mathematical process and the applications that come from that, which include AI. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last two decades.

And so as a practitioner, what’s the sort of work you’re doing now?

Well for me personally it’s really about, as my company likes to say, thought leadership. I feel kind of nervous when I say that about myself but I do a lot of public speaking, I write a lot of blogs. My title includes ‘executive advisor’, so I’m advising both internally our business managers around AI machine learning and data science, but also our clients. But at the same time I’m also doing sort of tutoring and mentoring to some of our younger data scientists because after my 20 years at NASA, I spent 12 years at George Mason University as a professor. I was Professor of Astrophysics, but I really was teaching data science; and so it’s sort of in my blood I guess to be an educator, to teach, to train and so that’s pretty much what I’m doing. I’m promoting the field, having conversations with people, for developing new ideas and concepts; not so much coding anymore like I used to do back when I was younger at NASA. I let the smart young coders today do all that work but we have lots of interesting conversations about which algorithms to use or developing. So it’s really exploratory innovation at the frontier of all this stuff. ... " ... ' 

Recorded Future on IoT

Recall we connected with Recorded Future some time ago to understand their visually oriented method to analyze and react to known and predicted external threats.    We sought to use it to help us think about external activity like competitors planned and possible actions.  These methods are used by the intelligence community.  Interesting thoughts about how IOT interacts with this.

AI, Robots, and Cyborgs — Inside IoT With Chris Poulin    By Amanda McKeon 

In this episode of the Recorded Future podcast we take a closer look at the Internet of Things (IoT). It’s a wide-ranging category, spanning everything from connected thermostats, refrigerators, and security cameras to industrial control systems, self-driving cars, and medical devices. It’s hardly an exaggeration to say that if a device has a power source, somebody is thinking up a way to connect it to the internet. And with that comes opportunities for improving our lives and the world we live in, as well as risks to our security and privacy.

Our guest this week is Chris Poulin. He’s a principal at Booz Allen Hamilton, where he leads the company’s Internet of Things security practice. ... " 

SailFish Exchange for Data Curation

A clever idea.  A Pinterest for data.  Approach to data democratization.   From Booz Allen Hamilton
  .
Sailfish™ Exchange
Socially Charged Data Curation
Sailfish Exchange simplifies the data curation process. Using a social community, you can find, collect, and share your data sets. ...  "

Booz Allen Makes Sailfish Free for Government and Academia

Worth a look, impressed by their online presence.  Giving this a try.

Booz Allen Makes its Analytics Platform Free for Government (and Academia)
by: Morgan Lynch

Booz Allen Hamilton made its analytics platform free June 29 for the government, military, and academic sectors.

The Treasury Department recently launched beta.usaspending.gov, giving Federal agencies and citizens insight into how taxpayer money is being spent. The platform, Sailfish, would help government agencies make sense of the spending data. Booz Allen helped begin this governmentwide reform using open source code and agile design.

“We had a set of systems and processes that I think have been broken for a while,” said Bryce Pippert, vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton, at the DATA Act Summit on June 29. “We lost the ability to have the big picture, connect the link between those things. The DATA Act was pushed forward to solve that challenge.”

Now that the Federal spending data is open to the public, researchers have to make sense of what it all means. The department of Treasury continues to enhance the open data website to make it user friendly.

“This is a big, new, robust data set that is connected and is fulfilling the vision for the DATA Act,” Pippert said.

Booz Allen Hamilton wants its platform to be an easy solution for the government to comprehend this data.  .... "

Sailfish Suite

Just recently saw this:  Big Data Analytics using the Sailfish Suite. 

" ... MCLEAN, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--An algorithm that predicts consumer retail trends down to the style of sweater that’s most likely to sell out this fall. And another that could transform heart disease diagnosis. Buried in the volumes of data we produce every day are answers to questions that may fuel a retailer’s success. Or insights that can help to solve challenges that have plagued us for decades. But until society becomes more conversant in analytics and data science, this transformative knowledge will remain out of reach. With updates to its Sailfish platform, Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH) is leading commercial and government organizations to learn more from their data and to spur business and mission success. For the first time, users can try their own hand at analytics by accessing Booz Allen Hamilton’s Sailfish trial that is fully available to the public. ... " 

Free Field Guide to Data Science

Very nicely done, 126 page, free and shareable introduction to Data Science by Booz Allen Hamilton.  Starts very simply, fine for an executive intro.  Takes you much further, but never gets very technical.   Lots of useful practical hints and advice.  Many visuals, a bit overdone, but those that are meant to be are very informative.   Attention is paid to the embedded business decision aspects of results.   Also covers the team aspects of doing data science.  Worth scanning or reading.

How the Data Lake Works

Part of an exploration of useful linkages between data and analytics to promote easier data use and sharing.  Brought to my attention by Kirk Borne.  A PDF from Booz Allen.

SailFish Exchange for Data Curation

A clever idea.  A Pinterest for data.  Approach to data democratization.   From Booz Allen Hamilton
  .
Sailfish™ Exchange
Socially Charged Data Curation
Sailfish Exchange simplifies the data curation process. Using a social community, you can find, collect, and share your data sets. ...  "

Analytics Reference Architecture

Nicely done look at a Cloud Analytics Playbook & Reference Architecture  by @BoozAllen at Booz Allen Consulting  via Kirk Borne.  I like the inclusion of metadata tagging in the design.

Internet of Things Transparency Ad Targeting

See EvryThng: The Internet of Things Smart Products Platform

EVRYTHNG is the award-winning IoT cloud platform that connects any consumer product to the Web and manages real-time data to drive applications. Smart products don’t just deliver connected experiences and support services, they share data with enterprise systems and other device clouds for smarter ROI    .... " 

In Adage:
Internet of Things Data Could Fuel Ad Targeting
Next Home for Connected Product Data Is the Marketing Database

The Internet of Things has promised to turn our everyday interactions with stuff into data for logistical and marketing applications.

But now that more and more corporations, including Diageo and Mondelez, have tested actual web-connected products in the market, the industry is approaching the next stage of connected appliances and food packaging. That means figuring out where all that information will go and how it will be used. IoT platform company Evrythng sees a home for data generated by connected thermostats, bottles of booze, designer handbags and washing machines in first-party marketing databases.... " 

A new realm of marketing and retail transparency? We looked at a number of web connected packages, displays, shelves, kitchens, rooms and appliances.

Free Field Guide to Data Science

This appears to be very nicely done.  By its title assumes a practical orientation with sample uses mentioned.    The Field Guide to Data Science, In several formats including PDF, and a supporting App will also eventually be available.  by Booz Allen Hamilton.    107 pages.   I see it includes mention of Bayesian networks.  Will review.

Ratio of Spend to Sales

A relatively old story, brought to my attention by a recent startup involvement:
" ... Booz & Company recently conducted the bi-annual refresh of its Customer Planning and Trade Spend study, surveying an extensive set of firms across several sectors in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) space. The survey asked questions about trade spending, customer planning and how trade agendas affect sales. The results indicate that a majority of the companies believe they spend too many resources on trade management and are unhappy with the quality of the tools/systems available to manage investments. Interestingly, even the companies identified as leaders have the potential to significantly improve their trade-to-sales ratios through building out their capabilities. ... "

Towards Better Shopper Marketing Strategies

In Mediapost:   Takes a look at a Booz & Company Study:

" ... The big challenge, concluded Booz, is for manufacturers to “better engage retail partners in the development and execution of shopper solutions that deliver added value beyond price reductions.” Those that are successful, Booz said, “will earn the right to win their categories.”ROI measurement results are often inconsistent, the survey found. Most of the respondents indicated that they measure brand sales lift half the time or less from such programs, while share gain results and brand health impact were measured even less.... "

Efficient Project Staffing with Social Networks

A quite good piece in the HBR Blog on some of the issues behind using social technologies for staffing and collaboration.  In particular I like the statement of the problems themselves:, which we immediately discovered a decade ago in different guises:  " ...  Asking a colleague, "Do you have bandwidth to work on this project?", has long been a mysterious and even perilous activity in knowledge-based organizations. ...   Project timetables, deliverables, and scope can unexpectedly change. Some colleagues just can't say no, even when they are already oversubscribed. Others automatically say no because they're holding out for more interesting opportunities, or ones that advance their careers. In sum: assessing a colleague's bandwidth has traditionally required negotiation, guesswork, and other "knowledge interaction" costs that hurt performance, even if they aren't directly measured in financial systems ... " 

 Discusses research with Booz Allen's successful collaboration Hello network.  " ... an "internal Facebook." It is a widely used tool, which nearly all of the firm's 24,000 employees have logged into, with 50% contributing content. Before Hello, consultants often relied on their own personal network, or their manager's network, to get staffed on future projects.... " 

EmPower Research

Newly discovered: EmPower Research.  " ... EmPower Research provides Custom Market and Media Intelligence services to Global 2000 companies, and Advertising and PR agencies worldwide. It was founded in 2004 by MIT Sloan MBAs, former Booz Allen Hamilton consultants, and senior marketing managers from Gillette, Whirlpool, and Applied Materials. Our client list today includes some of the world’s best known brands and companies. Our success is driven by a singular commitment to integrity and customer satisfaction. Our goal is to establish long-term relationships with our clients – built on winning recurring business earned via successful prior engagements ... " .  Much more here.  What I have seen so far is impressive.

Four Square and Pepsico: The Rise of Blockbuster Location Apps

Steve Frenda, sfrenda@instoremarketer.org,  Managing Director, Strategy and Development, The In-Store Marketing Institute  writes:

" .... The following pieces are relatively new and speak a great deal to the rapidly emerging mobile space. We would welcome your thoughts.

1. Exclusive: Foursquare's New Partnership With PepsiCo (and Safeway) Takes Focus Off of Places, by Fast Company  .... Foursquare is partnering with PepsiCo and Safeway to launch a pilot program which could serve as the future of the company's business model & have a dramatic impact on CPG.  Also Vons website promoting the service - If you put in your Safeway or other Safeway Division card number, it will allow you to sign up  

2. Clicking Through the Path to Purchase: Best Practices in Digital Shopper Marketing
An industry report by the In-Store Marketing Institute sponsored by Catapult Marketing and Google Inc.

3. Shopper Marketing 4.0: Building Scalable Playbooks That Drive Results Booz/GMA report finds budgets rising, effective tactics emerging 

4. From Hype to Holy Grail - Location is the New Frontier in Digital Marketing White Paper From moment feed on Location-Based Marketing Solutions (LBS)

Please take the time to comment on these important developments - Your opinions are important to us .... "

R&D Intensity Climbs

From CFO:  Companies' "R&D intensity" -- a measure of R&D spending versus total sales -- is on the increase, according to a Booz & Co. survey. The trend is a sign of managers' reluctance to slash innovation budgets despite falling sales, and serves as a reminder that R&D is largely recession-proof, says Booz partner Barry Jaruzelski. "They cut R&D last; that's the future revenue stream that these companies are protecting," .... '

Global Innovation Marches on

Lots of interesting details in this report:

Booz & Company's 2009 edition of the Global Innovation 1000 report finds large R&D spenders are keeping the pace when it comes to developing new products and services despite fiscal challenges presented by the economic downturn ... '

' ... In the face of a severe global recession, the world’s 1,000 largest publicly traded corporate research and development spenders increased R&D budgets in 2008, affirming the critical importance of innovation to their corporate strategies, according to Booz & Company’s Global Innovation 1000, the global management consulting firm’s fifth annual analysis of global innovation spending. R&D spending at these firms rose 5.7 percent in 2008, a slower rate of growth than the prior year’s 10 percent increase, but in line with the group’s 6.5 percent increase in worldwide sales. More than two-thirds of the companies included in this year’s Global Innovation 1000 maintained or increased R&D spending in 2008, even though a third of the companies reported a financial loss for the year ... '