How Might Crime-Scripts Be Used to Support the Understanding and Policing of Cloud Crime?

Crime scripts are becoming an increasingly popular method for understanding crime by turning a crime from a static event into a process, whereby every phase of the crime is scripted. It is based on the work relating to cognitive scripts and rational-choice theory. With the exponential growth of cyber-crime, and more specifically cloud-crime, policing/law enforcement agencies are struggling with the amount of reported cyber-crime. This paper argues that crime scripts are the most effective way forward in terms of helping understand the behaviour of the criminal during the crime itself. They act as a common language between different stakeholders, focusing attention and resources on the key phases of a crime. More importantly, they shine a light on the psychological element of a crime over the more technical cyber-related elements. The paper concludes with an example of what a cloud-crime script might look like, asking future research to better understand: (i) cloud criminal fantasy development; (ii) the online cultures around cloud crime; (iii) how the idea of digital-drift affects crime scripts, and; (iv) to improve on the work by Ekblom and Gill in improving crime scripts

She Wanted It?: Examining Young Adult Literature And Its Portrayals Of Rape Culture

At a time when discussions about rape culture appear throughout social media and the news, our ability to consider how literature addresses these social issues is critical. The recent work of scholars discussing rape culture emphasizes the crucial need to consider what many understand (though many also continue to dismiss or diminish) as a serious social issue. While these cultural critiques are worthwhile, my focus shifts these critiques from general (American) culture or society to a particular expression of culture: the young adult novel. In this thesis, I examine how this cultural discourse surrounding rape culture and its related myths appear in four young adult novels: Isabel Quintero’s Gabi, A Girl in Pieces (2014), Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak (1999), Chris Lynch’s Inexcusable (2005), and Courtney Summers’s All The Rage (2015). Analyzing these novels, I explore how they attend to ideologies related to rape culture, and I argue that these novels complicate our understanding of rape culture and how this understanding reaches young adult audiences. While many forms of literature deal with aspects of rape culture, it is particularly important to consider how young adult texts address these issues because YA novels hold a special place in our culture as they are (often) the first texts written about the subject that young adults encounter. Moreover, even if young adults never encounter these texts, they are expressly marketed to a particular intended audience and hold particular explicit and implicit agendas, so there is a possibility these texts are either reacting to rape culture, perpetuating it—or both. The goal of my analysis is to illuminate the potential readings and consequences of young adult novels that portray rape. I further argue for putting these texts into conversation and under critical consideration, not banning, challenging, or censoring of such texts in any way, shape, or form

Design Led Criminology: An Investigation into Police Use of Body-Worn Video Cameras in England & Wales

Research into police body-worn video cameras (BWCs) is a burgeoning field. However, on the whole, research tends to be quantitative and positivist. This thesis considers how else we might know about this piece of technology suggesting design as way of doing so. The project exists at the juncture of design and social research, building theoretical and methodological connections between design, cultural and critical criminologies, and science and technology studies. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory (ANT) the thesis argues for paying empirical attention to the objects of crime and its control. The thesis draws both empirical, methodological, and theoretical conclusions about BWCs. It suggests that the BWC can be thought of as ontologically multiple and that any political salience it might have is as a result of its performance or enactment. Based on this the thesis argues that, rather than being conceived only a disciplinary device, BWCs instead have many possibilities. The practical aspects of this research spanned various research sites and involved three interlinked approaches: making, observing, and speculating. Making, I argue, offers a way to make sense of material, stack various ontologies, and produce outcomes. These outcomes, used during, and in conjunction with, observational research with research participants can engender specific conversations, and invite speculation. Empirically, the thesis outlines three distinct but related enactments of BWCs by police: BWCs are enacted to provide professional and emotional security to officers; BWCs are enacted with TASER devices, making a particular model of policing possible; and BWCs reinforce and support a particular kind of police culture. Methodologically, the thesis suggests various ways in which design and social research can work productively to examine technology in such contexts. Theoretically it argues that the notion of ontological multiplicity might be productive for considering how police technologies are understood

The Australian Cyber Security Centre threat report 2015

Introduction: The number, type and sophistication of cyber security threats to Australia and Australians are increasing. Due to the varied nature of motivations for cyber adversaries targeting Australian organisations, organisations could be a target for malicious activities even if they do not think the information held on their networks is valuable, or that their business would be of interest to cyber adversaries. This first unclassified report by the ACSC describes the range of cyber adversaries targeting Australian networks, explains their motivations, the malicious activities they are conducting and their impact, and provides specific examples of activity targeting Australian networks during 2014. This report also offers mitigation advice on how organisations can defend against these activities. The ACSC’s ability to detect and defend against sophisticated cyber threats continues to improve. But cyber adversaries are constantly improving their tradecraft in their attempts to defeat our network defences and exploit the new technologies we embrace. There are gaps in our understanding of the extent and nature of malicious activity, particularly against the business sector. The ACSC is reaching out to industry to build partnerships to improve our collective understanding. Future iterations of the Threat Report will benefit from these partnerships and help to close gaps in our knowledge

Developing a digital competence framework for UAE law enforcement agencies to enhance cyber security of Critical Physical Infrastructure (CPI)

Critical Physical Infrastructures (CPI) are assets and systems that are vital to the health, safety, security, and economic or social well-being of people, and have become increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks that have the potential to cause severe debilitating and destructive impact on a nation’s economic security or public health and safety. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has experienced a high level of cyberattacks targeted at its critical physical infrastructure which has also undergone rapid modernisation, digitisation and interconnection of systems that could expose it to potential vulnerabilities in cyberspace. This thesis addresses a major challenge in the capacity of law enforcement to address cyberattacks in respect of the digital capabilities that are necessary to maintain pace with technologies and respond effectively in a digital environment. The purpose of this study is to develop a digital competences framework for UAE law enforcement agencies to combat cyber security threats facing CPI. This identifies the key functions and role of law enforcement and prioritises primary domains and elements of digital competency for cyber security that are critical for law enforcement to perform its role in protecting CPI. A holistic case study design using multiple methods to generate qualitative and quantitative data is adopted. A Delphi method is applied over multiple stages aimed at achieving consensus among experts and professionals using open and semi-structured interviews, analytical hierarchy process (AHP), quantitative survey and group building methods. The sample consists of 25 experts from different law enforcement organisations and from different roles and different levels of the organisation. The findings present a digital competency framework for cybersecurity of CPI which models a holistic socio-technical approach and evaluation of digital competency requirements in line with the different functions and roles of law enforcement. Digital competency is conceptualised as an interplay of multiple interconnected dimensions including balance, type and relevance of training and future proofing. The highest ranked digital competencies for law enforcement to protect CPI are identified as Investigate, Analyse, Collect and Operate and Protect and Defend. The three highest ranked specialty areas are Cyber Investigation, Digital Forensics and All-Source Analysis. Cybercrime Investigator, Law Enforcement/Counterintelligence Forensics Analyst, and All-Source Analyst are the highest ranked work roles. The framework identifies knowledge skills and ability competencies for each of these domains. This study makes a novel contribution to theory of digital competency in identifying and prioritising key factors and processes for the design and implementation of digital competency development. The study prioritises the competences and speciality areas of digital competency and the associated knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) in the area of law enforcement for enhancing security of CPI

The Future of Cybercrime: AI and Emerging Technologies Are Creating a Cybercrime Tsunami

This paper reviews the impact of AI and emerging technologies on the future of cybercrime and the necessary strategies to combat it effectively. Society faces a pressing challenge as cybercrime proliferates through AI and emerging technologies. At the same time, law enforcement and regulators struggle to keep it up. Our primary challenge is raising awareness as cybercrime operates within a distinct criminal ecosystem. We explore the hijacking of emerging technologies by criminals (CrimeTech) and their use in illicit activities, along with the tools and processes (InfoSec) to protect against future cybercrime. We also explore the role of AI and emerging technologies (DeepTech) in supporting law enforcement, regulation, and legal services (LawTech)

A Mobile and web based application for security intelligence gathering - a case study of Nairobi County

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Science in Mobile Telecommunications and Innovation at Strathmore UniversityThe security situation in Kenya has deteriorated over time due to the low number of police personnel in the country which is currently at a population ratio of 1:1150. Security challenges have increased from mere theft to carjacking attacks and to more serious and evolved challenges like murder and terrorism. The government’s efforts towards reducing these crimes have been ineffective as there are no mechanisms for gathering intelligence at low levels. Intelligence gathering especially from the public is very essential in tackling matters to do with insecurity. This research proposes a simple, convenient and efficient solution to the security challenges that Kenya is currently facing with respect to systematic gathering of intelligence and its analysis by the use of a mobile and web based application. The mobile based solution will integrate the use of GPS location services and ensure that it uses machine learning by using predictive models produced from Multiclass Decision Forest Algorithm, and to be able to provide detailed descriptive statistical analysis, text mining analysis of criminal activity taking place, as well as prediction analysis to predict crime patterns. The solution has an administrative web-based backend that will be accessed by the police force to ensure they get detailed information of criminal activities. From this portal, tests were done by entering information regarding suspicious person, potential suspicious person names associated with the submitted information are provided together with relevant scores to depict the most likely accurate name

The Freddie Gray Uprising: Persistence and Desistance Narratives of Community-Engaged Returning Citizens

This study explored how selected returning citizens in Baltimore who experienced the Freddie Gray Uprising of 2015 quelled community violence, stopped looting, and cleaned up the community in the aftermath made meaning of their experiences of the unrest. The central purpose of this study was to collect and analyze the life stories of returning citizens in Baltimore who experienced the Uprising. These men who had been incarcerated for between 5 and 20 years responded to government officials who called on them to quell violence in their neighborhoods that stemmed from the in-custody homicide of Freddie Gray. The informants provided narratives that expressed how they made meaning of their experiences during and after the Uprising. One way this occurred was through their experience of community divisions, which validated the long-standing tensions between the police and community members in the Penn-North and Sandtown-Winchester neighborhoods. These men reported both short-term and long-term benefits the Uprising had on community unity despite the turmoil. For some, the unrest that harmed the community also served as a catalyst for the community to heal, come together, and become the caring community they recalled from their childhoods. In addition, participants described how helping during and after the Uprising shaped their self-narratives and how different forms of helping influenced their growth/ transformations. The actions of the informants in this study spanned the spectrum of helping through relational actions such as normal mentoring to helping through political action, advocacy, or civic actions such as cleaning up the neighborhood. There were differences in arrests following the Uprising for those who helped through relational actions, political actions, and civic actions. Participants who helped through relational actions and political actions were more likely to report reoffending post-Uprising than those who helped through civic actions