So when did "Actors" become the new buzz word?

[JustGeorge]

This is a useless thread, I know.

 

I swear I never heard of this term until the last couple of weeks. Who started it, and does annoy you as much as it does me? I don't know why it irks me, it just does 

 

"State sponsored actors."

 

"This malware allows threat actors to infiltrate a user's network environment."

 

It just has this politically correct ring to it.

 

[adrynalyne]

1 minute ago, slamfire92 said:

This is a useless thread, I know.

 

I swear I never heard of this term until the last couple of weeks. Who started it, and does annoy you as much as it does me? I don't know why it irks me, it just does 

 

"State sponsored actors."

 

"This malware allows threat actors to infiltrate a user's network environment."

 

It just has this politically correct ring to it.

 

It's in the dictionary so a while ago I'd wager.  

[Torolol]

why its 'Actors' and not 'Agents'?

[adrynalyne]

3 minutes ago, Torolol said:

why its 'Actors' and not 'Agents'?

ac·tor

ˈaktər/

noun

a person whose profession is acting on the stage, in movies, or on television.

synonyms:performer, player, thespian, trouper; More

a person who behaves in a way that is not genuine.

"in war one must be a good actor"

a participant in an action or process.

"employers are key actors within industrial relations"

[Solid Knight]

"State sponsored participants in a process"

"This malware allows threat participants in an action to infiltrate a user's network environment"

 

Could be more specific.

[Torolol]

3 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

a person who behaves in a way that is not genuine.

pretty much what they doing are genuine, executing any hidden agenda/instructions/orders such as sabotaging, spying, infiltration, etc..,

so they can't be 'actors' in buzz-words sense.

[adrynalyne]

Just now, Torolol said:

pretty much what they doing are genuine, executing any hidden agenda/instructions/orders such as sabotaging, spying, infiltration, etc..,

so they can't be 'actors' in buzz-words sense.

You know, I underlined what I was referring to...

[HawkMan]

Actors has been used like this and in documentation and such for a long time. 

[+BudMan MVC]

^ yeah.. I am with hawkman here, which is not always the case heheh But use of that term has been use for long long time...   That has always been the definition of the word, so it has always been used in that fashion.  It describes someone that is a participant in something

 

adrynalyne underlined the appropriate definition for use of the word in this sense

 

a participant in an action or process.

 

Not sure where you would of gotten that it is a "buzz" word - when talking about state sponsored malware, yeah the state sponsored is now becoming more widely used.  Back a few years when the internet was new.. Ah the good old days without spam, etc.  And there really wasn't malware/worms/etc who would of thought that a government would be involved in their writing such code, etc. 

[Anibal P]

Look at it this way, when a company uses that term it's a deflection tactic, it's meant to give them an out for shoddy or nonexistent security in their environment, so using the term actors is correct because the "actor" is meant to distract form reality 

[HawkMan]

13 minutes ago, Anibal P said:

Look at it this way, when a company uses that term it's a deflection tactic, it's meant to give them an out for shoddy or nonexistent security in their environment, so using the term actors is correct because the "actor" is meant to distract form reality 

eh, no. it's standard terminology on software development, QA and documentation.

[+BudMan MVC]

So is it the people not getting the definition of the term Actor not native english speakers?  Is that what it is?  While hawkman's english is top notch, and might even be a native speaker?  But you can see from his location not in US, and pretty sure he is not an expat.  So he gets it, why are you others having issues with the definition of a word?

[compl3x]

On 10/1/2016 at 2:52 PM, adrynalyne said:

You know, I underlined what I was referring to...

 

Ya see, that is where you went wrong, mate. You need to bold, underline, increase font size, and change the colour to red. Only then will people see what you are referring to. /s

 

 

[HawkMan]

6 hours ago, BudMan said:

So is it the people not getting the definition of the term Actor not native english speakers?  Is that what it is?  While hawkman's english is top notch, and might even be a native speaker?  But you can see from his location not in US, and pretty sure he is not an expat.  So he gets it, why are you others having issues with the definition of a word?

Scandinavia is pretty good with english education in schools. also I have had higher education in programming and projects, so I might have an unfair advantage in knowing the usage of the word in system and software. 

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

This isn't new, although it may be new to you, so you're simply noticing it more?

[+BudMan MVC]

"Scandinavia is pretty good with english education in schools."

 

If your english is an indication I would say yeah!   Guess you deal with native speakers, or all use it all the time work/friends?  Or just online? Did you spend any time in native english speaking country? School maybe?

 

I deal with many non native speakers for work, and spend lots of personal time with some of them (beers after work, etc).  Mostly German, Spanish (Mexico and from Spain), French, etc.  Picking up on the multiple definitions of a word and its different definitions based upon context and its proper use is skill picked up after many years of speaking.  There is one thing to know the multiple definitions of a word, there is another in determining the specific definition from the context or understanding that the word must have multiple definitions when used in specific context.  Vocabulary is not only the number of words you know, its the proper use and understanding of the same words as they are used in specific context.

 

While its true that your technical background might have given you exposure to this example of the use of this word.  Maybe it's just you have a higher education level overall that has provided you with exposure to richer vocabulary use, or use and experience has increased your overall vocabulary above the OP or others that are not getting this context?  I am with agreement that this nothing new how this word is used, Players/Actors/Contributors all could be used in such context based upon the exact wording used.

[compl3x]

17 hours ago, HawkMan said:

Scandinavia is pretty good with english education in schools. 

Sorry to go OT, but from what I understand about your school systems you do a pretty amazing job overall. I wish I could say the same about my own country.

[HawkMan]

39 minutes ago, BudMan said:

"Scandinavia is pretty good with english education in schools."

 

If your english is an indication I would say yeah!   Guess you deal with native speakers, or all use it all the time work/friends?  Or just online? Did you spend any time in native english speaking country? School maybe?

No, but I was a computer kid and I preferred reading books in the english they where written in.

 

I have worked at a call center with Danish and Finnish people though.  The danish you can't understand when they speak their gibberish that's supposed to be practically the same language, why do they stuff that potato down their throat every morning... and the finns... well they just plain refuse to speak swedish even though they all learn it in school and can speak swedish just fine... there's some anger issues there from way back

[HawkMan]

13 minutes ago, compl3x said:

Sorry to go OT, but from what I understand about your school systems you do a pretty amazing job overall. I wish I could say the same about my own country.

Pretty good, but there's definite issue and from what I understand we're struggling with the math levels and science stuff at least, in some of the education studies compared to the countries around the world with better education results. So far the current governments solution is to demand that all teacher need near top grades from teacher university in all the major classes they started with math, and Norwegian(which is more more about old writers and boring books anyway, and analyzing stuff instead of enjoying reading) and english is next.  this ignores the problem that they're get teachers with good theoretical knowledge in all classes but few that are actually good teachers.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

Within the past decade... maybe 7-8 years ago?  I suspect it is a term initially used by intelligence/military/defense contractors that has made it's way over to the commercial anti-malware space.  Other buzzword bingo terms include "military-grade," "nation-state," and cyber-as-a-prefix to anything, to name a few.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[HawkMan]

It was a standardized term in software development,  documentation and use cases more than 15 years back.