Big Data – They unveiled the secret

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Still in the hurricane of the Microsoft Tech Day 2013 in Paris. Two smart guys were interviewed about Big Data and Innovation.

Why did they were elected ? The first because his name is Cyrille Vincey @cyrvin, founder of Qunb, a startup which which created a good Buzz during Paris Le Web, which offers some datavisualization services. And the second is Antoine Durieux the CEO Chef Jerome @Chef_Jerome. Interview was conducted by  PEG @pegobry.

What is big data ? In real real reality. Those guys set up the context of big data. Big data is not new. It is just the principle of storage a very laaarge amount of data and being able to perform some request on it. Nothing really new. even the algorithms use to manage the operations are old. The major skills required to be a significant player on this area is the capability to store on different servers in parallel a large amount of data, with a reasonable scalability.

As an exemple. Chef Jerome is a linker of big data : receipts on one hand, supermakert catalog on the other hand. Chef Jérôme makes the link for the user : offering him a aggregated view. The little magic behind is the following : receipts are analysed, scanned, cut into basic elements such as title, picture, list of components, weight, quantity, supermaket catalogs suffer the same and it is done. Regarding the number of data manipulated, this is what can be called big data.

Limitation. Calculation operated on large amount of data are complex. Why ? Because data are fragmented. Because data calculation takes a non-predictable time to be performed. Because calculation are done in a asynchronous way. And to make sure that you can use the data despite those obstacles, pre-calculation is used. Which presents the drawback to make real time impossible.

Solutions. Oversimplifying, there are kind of two technical types of solution. The distributed model based, running in several servers, asynchronous and thus pre-calculated which has the advantage to be open source. And the second model which is based on storage on a single machine, allowing real time, but which has the disadvantaged to be under license.
What has changed since everyone talks about big data ?

One. Start up can talk to investors and decision makers, as they feel they should belong to the history by joining the big data movement. But in reality, shhuuut, don’t tell them, but big data is just a statistical tool for the dummies.

Two. Companies using big data principles on their internal information system can now have support to make micro-decision. Big data may not help you to build your innovation and strategic 3 years-plan, but may help companies to fine tune some decisions, analyzing statistically some usage of the employees, of their customers…

Three. Some work is starting about prediction based on Big Data. By spoofing little signs, you may be able to predict some behavior, or some underground trends, or detect some demand from your customer that you do not address.

Four. There is an unlimited combination of trying to correlate data. Imagination does not have any limit, expect power processing, and silos between actors detaining the data.

The philosophical questions. If we believe that the big data tool will be deployed in all area of business. One should ask if this is really attractive for citizen (and their privacy), for example, in the health domain. Another question, is, when are we going to open the data from different sectors ? Last amazing observation. Why is that statisticians do not join the movement ? (well, we can guess they might feel uncomfortable with everyone starting to play with statistics).

Definitely a technology to monitor. Thanks again to two guys, who have been innovative and demystified for us the big data magic.

Note : Picture by h de c’s under creative common license.

Microsoft message to the developers…

techdays2013This week is the Paris Microsoft TechDays 2013 #mstechdays. And tuesday was the first day dedicated mainly to developers. Here is a view from a non-developer girl attending this event (in other words, an alien here).

The key message was : we love you and we want you to make money.

Microsoft and its dynamic team of francophone evangelists demonstrated during the morning session series of well calibrated messages (rolling out an average cooking scenario, but this is another story). With Microsoft platform and tools, developers were promised to be able to have cool design of applications, compatible with the multi-screen user requirements, driven by mobility today. In addition developers will benefit from easy coding of new user habits, like sharing content from an app, using touch screen in the Surface, scrolling in every direction,  easy to create. And last but not least, any language would be supported from native C++ to web, with a great re-usability of code in both cases. Consistency of the features across the different environment of Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Windows RT was also repeated on a regular basis. Last but not least all applications can be distributed on the Windows Store App, where a team will make sure it is compatible with the rules (no worry you can pre-test it);.

As a mobile oriented person, I was greatly interested in  the features related to mobile. Lets review some differentiators of the Windows Phone 8 platform.

A locked screen, just made for you. Locked screen of WP8 can be customized. Developers, if lucky enough to have their app chosen by the user, will be the user companion, being display as a background of the mobile screen. And MS development software enable seamless integration of the the data to be used when being elected as a locked screen.

The wallet is your chance. It is an aggregation of loyalty services and allows to directly access applications. In addition the application can embed some promotional mesage to the user and raise his attention on your super app.

Even the camera is an opportunity. The camera can easily offer the user to play with applications providing filters when he is taking picture.

Whatever is your favorite language, you can play. Web technologies were as present as old good technos. And the message was clear, make web app, make native app, make hybrid app, and we will make sure you will have visibility of our platforms.

Be innovative think NFC. The NFC technology was also promoted by the team, in the person of the only girl – Julie Knibbe @julieknibbe – who demonstrated the strength of integrated technologies with an NFC coupon transmitted from one device to another by peer to peer NFC, and was finally present into the wallet previously demonstrated.

In all cases, the simplicity of the code was amazing – well we all know that Microsoft evangelists are magicians.

A last word about security. The Microsoft solutions were promoted as highly secured. With new tools to control devices, new operating systems capabilities like the well known combination of bitlocker, secure bootloader and early antimalware, insuring integrity of the platform from a to z. But this will be detailed in later posts.

Code must also be a fun. The tradition in the tech days is to have a crazy session about codes. It is a session where evangelists are just demonstrating that any idea they think about can be easlily coded. Pushing back the limits of creativity. We had a chance to review a movie-generic a la Star Wars prepared in HTML5 and CSS3 by David Rousset @davrous, a machine to generate World-dictionnary-compatible sentences by David Catuhe @deltakosh , a fractal generator by Eric Mittelette, a super graphic application to manage form overlapping by Mitsu Furuta @mitsufu, and a joint Bluetooth/geolocalisation sandwich finder by Pierre Lagarde @pierlag and Julie Knibbe @julieknibbe. And-it-was-really-fun.

To sumup, that first developer’s day was enthusiastic, a lots of things learned, even if the continuous flow of positive messages was a bit scary – well there might be a problem somewhere, no ?

Stay tuned for other posts related to cloud, innovation, social media and obviously security…

Note to tech girls : a great advantage of being a girl in TechDays is that you never queue to go to the toilet : )

Where do you think IT guys are discussing web security ? (Tip, it might be next door…)

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In your town OWASP chapter. OWASP standing for Open Web Application Security Project. And there might certainly be an OWASP chapter closed to your office, as there are more than 200 chapters in 70 countries. The reason why I am blogging on that foundation is that last week the French OWASP chapter met in my employer’s offices. Gathering about 30 security experts or security-concerned people, the Paris meeting was fruitful and interactive. The French chapter leaders are Ludovic Petit (@Owasper), and Sébastien Gioria (@SPoint), supported by Ely de Travieso (@ElydeTravieso, yes, the one who already committed Secutic Day I reported in earlier posts). The objective of OWASP is to support the developers community with tools, code and documentation related to security. Web application and everything related to it. All this material is obviously available for free.

Great projects. During this meeting, new OWASP foundation projects were unveiled : a Top 10 related to cloud deployment [1], a revised version of Mobile Top 10 [2]. I can only recommend you to have a look at the OWASP website and analyse the different projects handled there. There might definitely have one which answers your most recent security question on web application (https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Main_Page).

Liability or how to avoid ending in jail. Another topic was discussed, a topic which is sometimes far from the developers working constraints : the liability. The complex question of ‘who is liable in case of software failure’ was addressed by Ludovic [3], based on its large experience related to fraud and legal aspects. The answer is quite simple : a developer can be liable for a piece of software creating damages (information leak, privacy damage, functional incident, …). The rationale behind is that the web application delivered are most of the time part of the IT systems, which are submitted to strict laws, such as guarantee that no incident could happen. Most off countries are requiring IT systems to be reliable when treating data such as integrity, availability, non-repudiation, and confidentiality. Obviously this does not mean that any developer will end in jail. It means that potentially, in case of problem, he will be challenged on the quality of the product, based on its skills and knowledge (if you are known as good but are coding with a lazy style, you might get into trouble).

Data privacy in Europe. The light was also made, during that meeting, on the recent progress of the European Community to deliver a law on the data privacy. This status was made by Thiébaut Devergranne, PhD in law, experienced developer and consultant. His message was quite direct :  European text will be a tool to attack any company missing to take care of data privacy [4]. This new regulation will be the same for all 27 European countries, and takes into account the aspects of internet, mobility, social media which recently reshaped all information systems and services. The other major changes compared to the EU previous directive issued in 1995 relies on the fact that (1) companies will have to demonstrate that they made a risk analysis related to data treatment, and (2) European commission will be able to tax up to 2% of companies turnover if they do not correctly implement the law. The most impressive aspects is that this law will be applicable to any company managing data of European citizen – including large software and service company located in the silicon valley. And last but not least, a new job will soon be hype: data privacy officer – similar to the Correspondant Informatique Liberté in France – required for every private companies larger than 250 people, or any company treating sensitive data.

The passionate discussion following that talk demonstrated how this could impact the life of companies… Stay tune on OWASP projects !

[1] OWASP Top 10 cloud project https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Category:OWASP_Cloud_%E2%80%90_10_Project

[2] OWASP Mobile Security Project, in collaboration with ENISA https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Mobile_Security_Project, look at the Top 10 mobile controls

[3] French chapter leader presentation about OWASP projects and liability https://www.owasp.org/images/2/2a/Chapter_Meeting_OWASP_France_-_7_Feb_2013.pdf

[4] Thiébaut Devergranne presentation about EU data privacy regulation [fr] http://www.donneespersonnelles.fr/donnees-personnelles-le-nouveau-projet-de-reglement-europeen

Open Data – A postcard from France

Open Data – A postcard from France

Last week was held in Aix en Provence a public conference dealing with ‘Open Data and Citizen’ [ http://arsenicpaca.fr/]. The conference, organized by Arsenic PACA @arsenicpaca and lead by Philippe Méda @merkapt, was an opportunity to hear major french actors in the open data area. Here is what I could capture from that open day, mixing conference, panelist discussion and active brainstorms.

Open data – origin and today’s mood

While the 120 people gathered in the amphitheater of Aix En Provence Library, named La Méjane, were very educated about open data topic, Valérie Peugeot @valeriepeugeot, from Orange Labs and Vice President of French Digital Council (CNNum),  took some time to remind major aspects of the open data movement. She recalled open data origin based on citizen requiring from their government and politic representatives a better transparency. First laws in the US to allow citizen to access data were made in1966, but since, the topic has greatly evolved, with the arrival of the digital, which has pushed the citizen requirement from ‘let us watch the data’, to ‘let us make use and circulate the data’. On which a number of governments have answered positively, from left to right and from Americas to Europe, with first success stories in Africa. (more…)

How I became digital !

This will be a Friday confession. I have been entering the digital world two years ago. Yes only two years ago. I mean, I started working with internet in 1994 when studying at the university, sharing with other researchers, flirting with my boyfriend via talk and mails, but I have been exploiting the digital innovation and social media intensively since 2 years. And I must say it changed my life – and probably the one of my relatives.What is it that is so attractive to make me jumping and staying in this area ?

Data and tools

Why am I on the net ? Because I am trying to understand where our world is going, what are the evolutions the human being is currently living and how it is surviving to it. Great program, is not it ? And if you wanna get that information, you may have interest to be someone in the digital arena, be someone to join communities, have the information coming to you or be able to build a common understanding with others. And tools are there. I should say user friendly, free and easy to manage applications are available here and around. How to create your digital identity, how to understand the other one’s, how to record or track data, how to curate information. All is here, one click far from you. And even if I have a bias view due to the security environment I have the default to work for, I am able to have a digital life using those tools, taking care of my own privacy and security. I am concentrating myself on Twitter, blog with WordPress, LinkedIn, and playing with about.me and Klout – still trying to find what does those bring to me. But lets be frank, this is not tools that pushed me to stay digital. The others did. (more…)

[Mots] Du temps et de sa saveur

ImageQuelques vagues se courbent et se croisent devant les châteaux de sable. L’air est si doux. Ne faisons pas comme d’habitude.

Un déjeuner de blanc, des rires nouveaux, du vin rouge et du café noir. Ne faisons pas comme d’habitude.

Un cercueil appareille sous le regard lourd de costumes sombres. Quelques accolades, des sourires, retenus. Ne faisons pas comme d’habitude.

Nos mille facettes, nos vieux démons, nos beaux mirages, nos petits mensonges. Ne faisons plus comme d’habitude.

Note : Autres textes littéraires sur ce blog https://poulpitablog.wordpress.com/category/art-fr/

[2/2] Main IT threats today – learning from Secutic Day in Marseille

Two weeks ago was held in Marseille the first edition of the Secutic Day PACA, a conference dediacted to IT managers focusing on protection of digital economy. A first post reported the legal aspects behind the risk of having weak security in IT systems, together with means for IT managers to understand and implement the primary security measures. This new post is detailing the views of the different invited experts on the recent threats that IT managers should face. Warning, this post includes all attractive buzz words, such as BYOD, cloud and social media …

Which environment are we trying to control ?

Thanks to the diversity of the speakers, different IT framework have been discussed, relying on different population and services :

  • Employees : big companies offering IT services to several hundreds of employees, a.k.a. corporate;
  • Citizen : government environment, where services are offered to citizen to pay tax or declare revenues, a.k.a e-government;
  • Machines : distributed industrial environment, where cars or vending machines are accessing central services, a.k.a M2M;
  • Mixing human : partnering environment, meaning environment such as Marseille Innovation [1], a place where start up are sharing a same physical space and IT systems, where new business models are designed, in a collaborative but protected environment. People are ready to share crazy ideas in front of the coffee machine, but do not want to disclose their business cases and make sure their innovations stay theirs. (more…)

[1/2] What IT Manager should know about security – learning from Secutic Day in Marseille

Last week was held in Marseille the first edition of Secutic Day PACA [1], a security conference, organized by Secutic. This one day event tagline was about securing the digital economy. While being a free and open to public event, it was mainly dedicated to IT managers interested to know more about security. The program gathered 24 great speakers who shared with the public the state of the art of security in various domain such as digital crime investigation, liability of IT managers, major today’s and tomorrow’s threats. Here is a sumup of the major ideas that some highly experienced people discussed.

About the legal risk for IT managers.

Some officials of the Gendarmerie Nationale together with Claude Leloustre, representing the Club de la Sécurité des Systèmes d’Information PACA (CLUSIR), reminded the legal aspects associated with the management of IT systems. Managing an IT network induces some liability. (more…)

[Livre] La Peau Froide

En cette fin d’année qui pousse à célébrer le meilleur de chacun, qui se nourrit du culte de la bonté et de la famille, il est des livres qui peuvent introduire quelques nuances à ce grand déballage. J’ai en tête La Peau Froide de Albert Sanchez Pinol [1].

La peau froide ce sont deux hommes qui fuient la société dont ils ont trahi les règles, et qui vivent sur une île déserte, un bout de terre oublié des bateaux. La peau froide, c’est l’histoire de deux hommes attaqués chaque nuit par une multitude de créatures mi-homme mi-poisson, et qui sombrent de fatigue. C’est l’histoire de deux hommes qui usent et abusent de la violence pour sauver leur peau. Mais la peau froide c’est surtout un récit sur la perception de l’autre et sur les limites de nos humanités. Le héros, dont on suit la dérive sur une année, se transforme. Il débarque sur l’île pétri de bonnes valeurs – il vient de renoncer à une société qui a trahi ses idéaux. Il rencontre un homme bourru, gardien du phare, exercé à la survie, qui maintient en esclavage une de ces étranges créatures, une femelle aux formes attractives. (more…)