The Critical Challenges from International High-Tech and Computer-Related Crime at the Millennium

The automotive industry stands in front of a great challenge, to decrease its impact on the environment. One important part in succeeding with this is to decrease the structural weight of the body structure and by that the fuel consumption or the required battery power. Carbon fibre composites are by many seen as the only real option when traditional engineering materials are running out of potential for further weight reduction. However, the automotive industry lacks experience working with structural composites and the methods for high volume composite manufacturing are immature. The development of a composite automotive body structure, therefore, needs methods to support and guide the conceptual work to improve the financial and technical results. In this thesis a framework is presented which will provide guidelines for the conceptual phase of the development of an automotive body structure. The framework follows two main paths, one to strive for the ideal material diversity, which also defines an initial partition of the body structure based on the process and material selection. Secondly, a further analysis of the structures are made to evaluate if a more cost and weight efficient solution can be found by a more differential design and by that define the ideal part size. In the case and parameter studies performed, different carbon fibre composite material systems and processes are compared and evaluated. The results show that high performance material system with continuous fibres becomes both more cost and performance effective compared to industrialised discontinuous fibre composites. But also that cycle times, sometimes, are less important than a competitive feedstock cost for a manufacturing process. When further analysing the manufacturing design of the structures it is seen that further partition(s) can become cost effective if the size and complexity is large enough.      QC 20140527</p

Semi-Annual Report to Congress for the Period of October 1, 2002 to March 31, 2003

[Excerpt] It is a privilege to transmit this Semiannual Report to the Congress covering the period October 1, 2002, through March 31, 2003, summarizing the significant audit and investigative activities of the Office of Inspector General (OIG), U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Moreover, I am pleased to introduce a new format for our report that makes use of advances in information technology and moves the OIG forward in the e-government environment. Readers will now receive a “Highlights” summary that emphasizes key audits and investigations conducted by the OIG. The Highlights contains information on how to visit our website and download the complete report. Our goal is to allow you to review snapshots of our work and quickly access those issues of most interest to you. Of special note during this reporting period was the inclusion of statutory law enforcement authority for our investigators in the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-296). This authority enhances our ability to investigate labor racketeering and fraud against pension plans, which has become increasingly important as other Federal law enforcement agencies redirect their resources toward homeland security activities. Among our significant investigative accomplishments during this period was the indictment of 42 individuals including members and associates of the Genovese and Colombo La Cosa Nostra (LCN) organized crime families and Locals 14 and 15 of the Operating Engineers, for unlawful labor payments as well as other charges. Another investigation led to guilty pleas by associates of the Gambino LCN Family. In total, during this reporting period, our investigative work resulted in 337 indictments, 191 convictions, and over $55.6 million in monetary accomplishments. From an audit perspective, we issued a series of reports during this period related to the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) including youth training programs, individual training accounts, and the amount of WIA funding available to states. We hope these reports and recommendations will offer valuable information as the Congress considers WIA reauthorization. We also reported the results of our work with respect to Florida’s closeout of its job training grants, which identified significant discrepancies between the State\u27s financial status reports and its official accounting records. Also significant this period was our follow-up audit of overcharges by the Internal Revenue Service to the Unemployment Trust Fund that totaled$174 million for fiscal years 1999–2002. This targeted work, as well as other audit work, identified nearly $184 million in questioned costs. I am proud of the work of all OIG employees and their continued commitment to serving American workers and taxpayers. My staff and I look forward to continuing to work constructively with the Secretary and the DOL team to further our common goal of ensuring the effectiveness, efficiency, and integrity of the programs that serve and protect the rights and benefits of American workers and retirees

Calm before the storm: the challenges of cloud computing in digital forensics

Cloud computing is a rapidly evolving information technology (IT) phenomenon. Rather than procure, deploy and manage a physical IT infrastructure to host their software applications, organizations are increasingly deploying their infrastructure into remote, virtualized environments, often hosted and managed by third parties. This development has significant implications for digital forensic investigators, equipment vendors, law enforcement, as well as corporate compliance and audit departments (among others). Much of digital forensic practice assumes careful control and management of IT assets (particularly data storage) during the conduct of an investigation. This paper summarises the key aspects of cloud computing and analyses how established digital forensic procedures will be invalidated in this new environment. Several new research challenges addressing this changing context are also identified and discussed

Cybercrime Pervasiveness, Consequences, and Sustainable Counter Strategies

As our connectivity and dependency on technology increases, so does our vulnerability. Technology has provided not only new tools, but also new opportunities for criminals in the digital world. The abuse of new technologies has been threatening economic and Jinancial security and actually devastating the lives of affected indivicluals. In Nigeria, cybercrime has recorded mostly foregin-based individuals and organizations as victims thereby getting Nigeria ranked among the nations with notorious pemasiveness of high-tech crimes. Indeed, adequately formulating a strategy to contain the menace of cybercrime presents aformidable challenge to law enforcement. This paper x-rays noted instances of cybercrime pervasiveness, its devastating consequences, and up-to-date countermeasures in Nigeria It develops an enforceable/sustainable framework to determine how critical infrastructures are put at risk snd how law enforcement should react in responding to the threats