Digital forensics investigative framework for control rooms in critical infrastructure

In this paper a cyber-forensic framework with a detailed guideline for protecting control systems is developed to improve the forensic capability for big data in critical infrastructures. The main objective of creating a cyber-forensic plan is to cover the essentials of monitoring, troubleshooting, data reconstruction, recovery, and the safety of classified information. The problem to be addressed in control rooms is the diversity and quantity of data, and for investigators, bringing together the different skill groups for managing data and device diversity. This research embraces establishing of a new digital forensic model for critical infrastructures that supports digital forensic investigators with the necessary information for conducting an advanced forensic investigation in Critical Infrastructures. The framework for investigation is presented here and elaborated. The extended work applies the framework to industry case studies and is not reported here

Ready, set, crisis – transitioning to crisis mode in local public administration

Local public administrations are typically the first responders during disruptive crisis events. Building on literature on fast-response organizations, this study theorizes on their ability to transition effectively from routine bureaucracy to crisis mode. Empirically, we study early responses to COVID-19 in Germany with agency-level survey data. The findings suggest that an effective switch between practices cannot be explained by crisis severity alone. Instead, organizational, technical, and individual preparedness of local administrations matter. These results provide insights into the conditions that enable administrations to respond effectively to crisis events, offering a comprehensive understanding of crisis management capabilities at the local level

Essays on local currencies, development, and sustainable tourism

The past years brought challenges to humankind. This was not different to the tourism sector which needed to face travel restrictions and the perspective of changes in behaviour when travelling. As a consequence, this thesis aims to deal with new perspectives on tourism, addressing local development and well-being. This work is divided into three papers and brings three different propositions to improve local conditions and deal with visitors by using local currencies. The goal of local currencies is to allow money coming from out of the community to circulate in the local economy, possibly creating a virtuous circle. The first chapter treats the Maricá's case, a small city in Brazil that is implanting basic income for its inhabitants using oil royalties and a local currency called Mumbuca. It proposes a change in the engine of the city's economy, coming from oil to sustainable tourism, including tourism in the local financial framework. The second chapter proposes a balance in the negative externalities coming from visitors in favour of locals. To do so, it suggests a basic income coming from tourism, being paid through local currency. On the contrary, the last chapter proposes a kind of local cryptocurrency, based on cases in the literature and in specialized markets, in order to foment tourism and improve locals' well-being

Ono: an open platform for social robotics

In recent times, the focal point of research in robotics has shifted from industrial ro- bots toward robots that interact with humans in an intuitive and safe manner. This evolution has resulted in the subfield of social robotics, which pertains to robots that function in a human environment and that can communicate with humans in an int- uitive way, e.g. with facial expressions. Social robots have the potential to impact many different aspects of our lives, but one particularly promising application is the use of robots in therapy, such as the treatment of children with autism. Unfortunately, many of the existing social robots are neither suited for practical use in therapy nor for large scale studies, mainly because they are expensive, one-of-a-kind robots that are hard to modify to suit a specific need. We created Ono, a social robotics platform, to tackle these issues. Ono is composed entirely from off-the-shelf components and cheap materials, and can be built at a local FabLab at the fraction of the cost of other robots. Ono is also entirely open source and the modular design further encourages modification and reuse of parts of the platform

People, pets and communities in natural disasters: A case for One Health promotion

Climate change and extremes in weather can amplify the risk of some natural disasters. Emergency management authorities also face a contemporary challenge of a societal shift toward companion animals (pets) being considered as family members. From a public health perspective, pets are widely regarded as facilitators of social interactions and a sense of community, having a ripple effect which extends beyond their human family to the broader community. Against this backdrop, people may make evacuation decisions based on their pet’s welfare, increasing disaster risk. Pet loss in disasters has detrimental effects on individual and community health post-disaster. My dissertation provides an empirical examination of the relationship between emergency services and pet owners in natural disasters, and the implications for the field of health promotion. I explore the values of responsibility and solidarity that can underpin tensions between pet owners and emergency services

Best practice hostage negotiator stress debriefings â a step toward PTSD symptom reduction

After a hostage negotiation incident, it is common practice for either no debriefing to occur or a formal, administration-attended debriefing to discuss issues and possible emotional as well as, psychological stressors with the hostage negotiation team members. However, many times negotiators are reluctant to be honest in front of administrators or supervisors about their weaknesses as they feel this will lead to termination or loss of service weapon. Little is known about what effect, if any, best practice hostage negotiation after incident debriefings would have given regarding possible psychological distresses on the negotiators as well as effects on team bonding. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate whether and how after incident hostage negotiation debriefing strategies lower PTSD symptoms among hostage negotiators. The theoretical framework for this study was Kelley\u27s followership theory. The sample was 12 negotiators from a local county negotiation team and a local city negotiation team. The research questions focused on hostage negotiator preference for debriefing strategies, honesty in debriefings in relation to stressors, opinions of the meeting\u27s effects on dealing with trauma, and effects on team bond building. The results were that peer run, peer driven debriefing strategies are most wanted and most effective for hostage negotiators. The positive social change implications are numerous, including a more effective, more mentally fit, and closer bonded hostage negotiation team capable of saving more lives who in turn will have a healthier family life, which will resonate into the community

What Support Does Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Offer to Organizational Improvisation During Crisis Response ?

While evidence of the exceedingly important role of technology in organizational life is commonplace, academics have not fully captured the influence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on crisis response. A substantive body of knowledge on technology and crisis response already exists and keeps developing. Extensive research is on track to highlight how technology helps to prepare to crisis response and develop service recovery plans. However, some aspects of crisis response remain unknown. Among all the facets of crisis response that have been under investigation for some years, improvisation still challenges academics as a core component of crisis response. In spite of numerous insights on improvisation as a cognitive process and an organizational phenomenon, the question of how improvisers do interact together while improvising remains partly unanswered. As a result, literature falls short of details on whether crisis responders can rely on technology to interact when they have to improvise collectively. This dissertation therefore brings into focus ICT support to organizational improvisation in crisis response in two steps: We first address this question from a general standpoint by reviewing literature. We then propose an in depth and contextualized analysis of the use of a restricted set of technologies – emails, faxes, the Internet, phones - during the organizational crisis provoked by the 2003 French heat wave. Our findings offer a nuanced view of ICT support to organizational improvisation in crisis response. Our theoretical investigation suggests that ICTs, in a large sense, allow crisis responders to improvise collectively. It reports ICT properties - graphical representation, modularity, calculation, many-to-many communication, data centralization and virtuality – that promote the settling of appropriate conditions for interaction during organizational improvisation in crisis response. In the empirical work, we provide a more integrative picture of ICT support to organizational improvisation in crisis response by retrospectively observing crisis responders’ interactions during the 2003 French heat wave. Our empirical findings suggest that improvisation enables crisis responders to cope with organizational emptiness that burdens crisis response. However, crisis responders’ participation in organizational improvisation depends on their communicative genres. During the 2003 French heat wave crisis, administrative actors who had developed what we call a “dispassionate” communicative genre in relation to their email use, barely participated in organizational improvisation. Conversely, improvisers mainly communicated in what we call a “fervent” communicative genre. Therefore, our findings reveal that the ICT support to organizational improvisation in crisis response is mediated by the communication practices and strategies that groups of crisis responders develop around ICT tools

Exploring Emergency Communication Experiences in Response to the 2010 Haiti Earthquake: Lessons Learned from International Donors and Local Government Agencies

Background: In almost every disaster situation, the use of standardized communication procedures among humanitarian relief agencies has been identified as one of the efficient practices to minimize the mismanagement of resources and thus to maximize the response effort among actors to reduce the incidence impact on the public and to increase their resilience capabilities. Agencies have access to several guidelines to follow during domestic disasters, but there have been very few manuals developed to guide relief organizations on best practices during international large and complex natural disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Haiti has experienced over its history several years of natural disasters, political, social-economic instability and recently has been devastated by one of the worst earthquakes that humanity has ever known. Methods and Findings After the 7.1 earthquakes on January 12, 2010, it was reported that over 10,000 relief agencies, nonprofit organizations had deployed their staff for a short or a long term period to support the response and recovery effort. In order to explore the communication experiences and patterns of local and international agencies, a qualitative research study was administered, consisting of conducting semi-structured phone interviews with seventeen (17) respondents who participated in the complex humanitarian response in Haiti six years ago, using an eight question interview between February 4th and March 6th, 2016. Data and information captured through the interview process were used to document the communication process systematically, the strengths and limitations, the lessons learned and recommendations provided by the respondents. Snowball sampling was used to identify and recruit participants who have traveled as emergency medical specialists or whose responsibilities helped with the coordination of the response. Interviews were conducted in English or French and Haitian Creole depending on the participant’s linguistic preference and country of citizenship. Interview transcripts, notes and codes were analyzed using key themes proposed as a framework for the study. Conclusion: Emergency response should not add more burden and responsibilities to government officials’ countries significantly affected by natural disasters and should not cause distress to the affected communities. Rapid response is thus needed but should be efficiently coordinated to avoid wasted supplies, untrained staff and an influx of inexperienced international agencies in a complex and resource limited environment. The absence of a national response plan, the lack leadership and guidance from the Haitian government have been perceived as a sign of weakness by almost all local and international relief agencies and the negative aftermath of the disaster has been exacerbated by the thousands of small organizations that came looking for visibility and ultimately undermined the quality and timeliness of the response. Key Words: Natural Disaster, Haiti, Earthquake, Communication,Relief Agencie