Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Do I have a right to be anti-monadic?

Having discovered the word that describes well the actions of the cyber giants that results in our being squeezed into one single identity, it struck me that perhaps my human rights are being eroded. Monadism, yet another term from philosophy, it effectively describes the GAFA activities that are driving us toward a single identity.

Being able to represent my self in one of my many web based personas has become increasingly difficult, as first one of the GAFAs and then another manage to fuse my different personas, their clear target is to know me as a single individual. (See my recent Apple Watch example)

My grandfather persona is one I am still trying to protect though at least two of the GAFAs have managed to attach that persona to their monadic view of me.

My Jericho Forum colleague Paul Simmonds is working towards protecting our ability to uniquely represent ourselves as multiple personas, while maintaining our ability to have agency over our identities. His Global Identity Foundation is unsurprisingly currently making little headway against the huge combined gravitational forces of the GAFAs.

Perhaps what is needed is public awareness of the implications giving control of our identities to third parties and the development of a clear desired identity state. The current issue is that the frustration with the difficulty of maintaining identity control, is actually resulting in individuals handing control to the GAFAs.

A recent purchase of an Amazon Fire TV device demonstrated to me just how attractive it is to pass control over. The device arrived with the identity of the purchaser pre-loaded, we had after all purchased it from Amazon so they already knew who the purchaser was. There was no effort involved in claiming ownership of the device as the device apparently already "knew" who it's owner was. The truth is that it is Amazon who knew the identity of the owner, and they had asserted their control over the device. The experience was far simpler and less weird than the Samsung TV Identity ownership ceremony. The underlying issue is that we have passed control to Amazon and they had chosen not to authenticate the Identity of the owner.

Amazon have not yet made the jump to combining monadic identities into family groups, that Apple have made. This action would further pass control to the provider of identities, this would not be an issue if that were all they provided, the issue comes from the fact that they also provide products and services.

Anti-Monadic Rights

So, should we give an individual the right to create separate identities and maintain them separately.

The difficulty comes when such separate personas are used to hide illegal or immoral activities.

The state will likely press for monadic identities, using terrorism, tax evasion and crime as their primary drivers.

So what are the key elements of a successful identity model in the 21st Century

Data Agency: Having control over the transparency, privacy and usage of our data.

Identity Agency: Having control over the creation, use and deletion of multiple separate personas

These two elements should apply equally to all entities, whether person or organisation.

 

So my conclusion is, yes, I should have the right to control multiple separate identities.

Clearly that does not give me the right to use any of these for illegal or immoral purposes.

The challenge will be to create the legal and digital ecosystems that will allow CyberAgency, while maintaining a civilised and moral society.

Thursday, July 02, 2015

Eliminating Passwords: The Latest #AgencyFail Fashion

The latest fashion amongst

hi tech service providers,

is eliminating passwords.

They understand that their customers hate passwords however they are taking shortcuts that are denying their customers the ability to control their devices or services. Worse these shortcuts are passing the risks onto their customers

Apple have added a new feature to their Personal Hotspot service on the iPhone. Basically once you've set it up you can no longer turn it off. Sliding the switch in the iphone settings panel to off does nothing. A device that you have allowed to use the Personal Hotspot service on your phone somehow knows that the phone is near, and advertises Personal Hotspot availability. But wait it's switched off right... nope! if the devices user just connects to your phones Personal Hotspot from the device. Your phone will switch the Personal Hotspot service to <ON> and allow the connection!

This is not good, an iphone owner that allowed someone to use their Personal Hotspot doesn't appear to be able to stop them having access.

Oh wait, all one needs to do is change the Personal Hotspot password right? Well actually no, Apple have thought of that too! If you change the password, the device that you have already allowed to access the Personal Hotspot has apparently been given a magical password.

To recap: Hotspot switched off on the iPhone, Personal Hotspot Password changed.

When a device that has previously been allowed to connect to your Personal Hotspot comes close to your iPhone, the device will be informed and offer the Personal Hotspot to it's user, who can request connection and "Open-ses-a-me" the device is connected, as if the password change never happened.

This is an issue Apple!

How Apple should have designed the new "Instant Personal Hotspot" feature, was to add it as a selectable option. An option that would allow the iPhone user to have control, ie have agency over their phone. By quietly adding the option and leaving the iPhone owners assuming they had the ability to switch off their iPhone's Personal Hotspot feature, they have demonstrated the worse sort of Password Elimination: #AgencyFail

Another example of Password Elimination: #AgencyFail has been perpetrated by Amazon. When a user is shipped a new Kindle, they ordered it from their Amazon account, with their password.

Amazon must have thought "So we know it's them right, and they won't want the hassle of a password, will they?"

Having ordered the Kindle for my wife, I handed her it to her boxed. Yes, I was very surprised that she could order e-books on her new Kindle from my account without needing my password. She had gone through the install process, which assumed that I was her, and at no time was she asked to authenticate.

This is an issue Amazon!

How Amazon should have designed the no password "One-Click" feature, was to add it as a selectable option. An option that would allow the Kindle user, once they had authenticated, to enable the "One-Click" Kindle purchase feature, ie have agency over their Kindle. By deciding to ship a Kindle that assumed it's user was it's owner and did not require authentication for purchases, they too have demonstrated the Password Elimination: #AgencyFail

I believe that these features are often driven by marketeers who like the idea of making users life so simple it will delight them. But they are missing the opportunity of delighting their users by informing them of and giving them control of new features.

In both instances my experience was far from delightful, in fact it diminished my trust in both companies.

In your own organisation's quest to make your customer's lives easier, be wary of losing their trust and loyalty by denying them the right to control or have Agency over the devices or services you provide them.

As the Internet of Things explodes into our lives, let's hope the growing Password Elimination Fashion is delivered in a manner that does not eliminate our Agency, but enhances our Agency. Though sadly hope has never been an effective strategy!

 

 

Why should CISOs get involved in mapping?

Sadly many CISOs have yet to discover the existence, or power, of mapping, as described by LEF's Simon Wardley. So what is mapping and what has it got to do with a CISO? Happily Simon has made gaining an understanding of mapping a trivial activity, as those who follow his Blog already know.

Firstly do not assume that trivial always equates to quick, for to fully grasp the intricacies and power of Simon Wardley's mapping tool is the work of a lifetime.

While attempting to describe Simon's Mapping Tool in a single paragraph brings the danger of over simplification and trivialization, I will attempt it in order to whet your appetites. After running companies and developing strategy for others, and much else besides, Simon saw the light. More correctly he derived the mapping tool after much research and data gathering and analysis. The tool helps map the flow of things business related through four phases shown in his graphic below. It allows the development of a unique awareness of your business and its competitive environment, allowing the development of strategic and defensive plays, that will strengthen any organisation. As Simon implies "No military commander would consider going into battle without a map, so why should business leaders attempt to do business without a map?"

Used under Creative Commons License with no changes made.

Mapping has many benefits but one that will appeal to CISOs is that it helps identify the changing flows of information across organizational boundaries, as well as identifying services that are candidates for outsourcing.

In truth, there are many valuable benefits of Mapping, to numerous to enumerate here.

So, find out if your organisation is Mapping and if they are; get involved. If they are not, start Mapping yourself and bring the tool and your findings to the attention of the strategy planners in your organisation.

In either case you win!