ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE AND COUNTER-TERRORISM: PROSPECTS FOR THE NIGERIAN STATE

Nigeria’s national security has been threatened over the past few years by the menace of terrorism. On a large scale, several efforts have been made by the Nigerian government to combat terrorism (mostly military based strategies), yet the threats persist. Crucial to the quest of combating terrorism in Nigeria is the role of technology. This is especially so because, terrorists also utilize modern technology, both online and offline in seeking funds, engaging operations, recruitment, training and communication. Thus, there is a need to not only evaluate offline activities, but also include the monitoring of online and digital communications in the counter-terrorism process. The general objective of this paper is to highlight important strategies rooted in electronic surveillance that the Nigerian state should adopt in counter-terrorism efforts that can ultimately guarantee national security and engender national development. Using a qualitative approach, this paper relies majorly on secondary data analyzed textually. It is situated within the securitization framework. This paper submits that technology exclusively cannot guarantee security, however, security would be an impossible accomplishment without the influence of technology. A collaboration of technological tools, especially through the use of electronic surveillance poses a potentially effective counter-terrorism strategy, as more and more terrorist operations depend on ICT tools

State of the art 2015: a literature review of social media intelligence capabilities for counter-terrorism

Overview This paper is a review of how information and insight can be drawn from open social media sources. It focuses on the specific research techniques that have emerged, the capabilities they provide, the possible insights they offer, and the ethical and legal questions they raise. These techniques are considered relevant and valuable in so far as they can help to maintain public safety by preventing terrorism, preparing for it, protecting the public from it and pursuing its perpetrators. The report also considers how far this can be achieved against the backdrop of radically changing technology and public attitudes towards surveillance. This is an updated version of a 2013 report paper on the same subject, State of the Art. Since 2013, there have been significant changes in social media, how it is used by terrorist groups, and the methods being developed to make sense of it.  The paper is structured as follows: Part 1 is an overview of social media use, focused on how it is used by groups of interest to those involved in counter-terrorism. This includes new sections on trends of social media platforms; and a new section on Islamic State (IS). Part 2 provides an introduction to the key approaches of social media intelligence (henceforth ‘SOCMINT’) for counter-terrorism. Part 3 sets out a series of SOCMINT techniques. For each technique a series of capabilities and insights are considered, the validity and reliability of the method is considered, and how they might be applied to counter-terrorism work explored. Part 4 outlines a number of important legal, ethical and practical considerations when undertaking SOCMINT work

Proceedings of the 2009 Joint Workshop of Fraunhofer IOSB and Institute for Anthropomatics, Vision and Fusion Laboratory

The joint workshop of the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB, Karlsruhe, and the Vision and Fusion Laboratory (Institute for Anthropomatics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)), is organized annually since 2005 with the aim to report on the latest research and development findings of the doctoral students of both institutions. This book provides a collection of 16 technical reports on the research results presented on the 2009 workshop

Exploring the relationship between intelligent transport system capability and business agility within the Bus Rapid Transit in South Africa

Abstract: More than 65% of South Africans use public transportation to access educational, business, and financial activity. Mobility of individuals and products, particularly in metropolitan areas, suffers from delays, unreliability, absence of safety and air pollution. On the other hand, mobility demand is increasing quicker than South Africa's accessible infrastructure. Public transport services are poor in general, but this picture is transforming a high-quality mass transit system using high-capacity buses along dedicated bus lanes by implementing the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. The BRT system appeared as the leading mode of urban passenger transit in the first decade of the twenty-first century after a few pioneering applications in the later portion of the twentieth century. In addition, Intelligent Transport System’s (ITS) advantages motivate both advanced and developing nations, such as South Africa, to invest in these techniques rather than spending enormous quantities on expanding the transportation network. Various stakeholders in government, academia and industry are in the process of presenting a shared vision of this new strategy and first practical steps should be taken towards this objective. Intelligent transport system capacity can provide better and more inclusive public transportation facilities to commuters through enhanced reliability and accessibility; to operators through efficiency gains; and to customers and operators in terms of cost-effectiveness and service provision affordability. International experience shows that capacities of the ITS can boost transportation profits by as much as 10-15%...D.Phil. (Engineering Management

Is Wide-Area Persistent Surveillance by State and Local Governments Constitutional?

This dissertation addresses the following question: “Can wide-area persistent surveillance (WAPS) developed by the United States military and employed abroad as a tool in the Global War on Terror be employed domestically as a law enforcement tool without violating the US Constitution’s Fourth Amendment?” The most likely and controversial application of WAPS by state and local governments is for law enforcement. Aircraft will loiter over a city persistently taking high-definition photographs to capture locations of unidentified persons with the intent to identify persons and areas of interest for criminal investigations. Based on the Flyover Cases, aerial surveillance has few constitutional limitations which WAPS can be consistent. The key challenge in determining the constitutionality of WAPS depends on the Court’s interpretation of the Fourth Amendment concerning emerging technologies. Legal scholars have suggested various forms of the Mosaic Theory, which was introduced in two concurring opinions in Jones v. United States . The Supreme Court has been reticent to engage new technology’s constitutionality. WAPS is among the less intrusive tools when compared to other emerging technologies like digital information or facial recognition. This research argues why the Courts should view Personal Identifying Information (PII) as the line of reasonable expectations of privacy for WAPS and other emerging technologies. Aerial surveillance by nature, collects passive information, new data is not being created by photographing the happenings in public spaces from an aerial platform. In Carpenter v. United States, the Court ruled that warrantless surveillance of cell site location information (CSLI) for more than seven days was an unreasonable search. However, the court repeatedly referred to CSLI as “unique,” whereas “conventional surveillance and tools, such as security cameras,” are not. WAPS should not be limited by the Constitution for the operational duration, time of day/night, camera resolution, location of collection, altitude, or any other variable at the collection stage of the operations. The analysis and exploitation of WAPS data encounters constitutional limits necessary to protect individuals’ PII absent probable cause standards

Standardization Roadmap for Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Version 1.0

This Standardization Roadmap for Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Version 1.0 (“roadmap”) represents the culmination of the UASSC’s work to identify existing standards and standards in development, assess gaps, and make recommendations for priority areas where there is a perceived need for additional standardization and/or pre-standardization R&D. The roadmap has examined 64 issue areas, identified a total of 60 gaps and corresponding recommendations across the topical areas of airworthiness; flight operations (both general concerns and application-specific ones including critical infrastructure inspections, commercial services, and public safety operations); and personnel training, qualifications, and certification. Of that total, 40 gaps/recommendations have been identified as high priority, 17 as medium priority, and 3 as low priority. A “gap” means no published standard or specification exists that covers the particular issue in question. In 36 cases, additional R&D is needed. The hope is that the roadmap will be broadly adopted by the standards community and that it will facilitate a more coherent and coordinated approach to the future development of standards for UAS. To that end, it is envisioned that the roadmap will be widely promoted and discussed over the course of the coming year, to assess progress on its implementation and to identify emerging issues that require further elaboration