How Question Answering Technology Helps to Locate Malevolent Online Content

The inherent lack of control over the Internet content resulted in proliferation of online material that can be potentially detrimental. For example, the infamous “Anarchist Cookbook” teaching how to make weapons, home made bombs, and poisons, keeps re-appearing in various places. Some websites teach how to break into computer networks to steal passwords and credit card information. Law enforcement, security experts, and public watchdogs started to locate, monitor, and act when such malevolent content surfaces on the Internet. Since the resources of law enforcement are limited, it may take some time before potentially malevolent content is located, enough for it to disseminate and cause harm. Currently applied approach for searching the content of the Internet, available for law enforcement and public watchdogs is by using a search engine, such as Google, AOL, MSN, etc. We have suggested and empirically evaluated an alternative technology (called automated question answering or QA) capable of locating potentially malevolent online content. We have implemented a proof-of-concept prototype that is capable of finding web pages that may potentially contain the answers to specified questions (e.g. “How to steal a password?”). Using students as subjects in a controlled experiment, we have empirically established that our QA prototype finds web pages that are more likely to provide answers to given questions than simple keyword search using Google. This suggests that QA technology can be a good replacement or an addition to the traditional keyword searching for the task of locating malevolent online content and, possibly, for a more general task of interactive online information exploration

Mobile Phone Text Processing and Question-Answering

Mobile phone text messaging between mobile users and information services is a growing area of Information Systems. Users may require the service to provide an answer to queries, or may, in wikistyle, want to contribute to the service by texting in some information within the service’s domain of discourse. Given the volume of such messaging it is essential to do the processing through an automated service. Further, in the case of repeated use of the service, the quality of such a response has the potential to benefit from a dynamic user profile that the service can build up from previous texts of the same user. This project will investigate the potential for creating such intelligent mobile phone services and aims to produce a computational model to enable their efficient implementation. To make the project feasible, the scope of the automated service is considered to lie within a limited domain of, for example, information about entertainment within a specific town centre. The project will assume the existence of a model of objects within the domain of discourse, hence allowing the analysis of texts within the context of a user model and a domain model. Hence, the project will involve the subject areas of natural language processing, language engineering, machine learning, knowledge extraction, and ontological engineering

Fall 2022

https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/eductackle/1011/thumbnail.jp

A dramatistic approach to the singularity movement

The Singularity is a hypothetical moment in the not-so-distant future when machine intelligence will supplant human intelligence as the dominant force in the world. There is a growing movement of scientists, authors, and advocates who believe the Singularity is not just possible, but inevitable. There is maybe no more eloquent or influential argument for the Singularity than futurist Ray Kurzweil’s 2005 book, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. Kurzweil predicts a utopian future of advanced human/machine hybrid intelligence and radically extended life by the year 2045. This thesis applies Kenneth Burke’s system of dramatism, specifically the pentad, to The Singularity is Near as well as a sample of technology articles from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal to examine Kurzweil’s motives and the way Singularity discourse “chains out” through other media. I will also draw on movement theory to examine the discourse of Singularity advocates to determine if Singularity discourse qualifies as a rhetorical movement.Thesis (M.A.)Department of Telecommunication

A Psychosocial Behavioral Attribution Model: Examining the Relationship Between the “Dark Triad” and Cyber-Criminal Behaviors Impacting Social Networking Sites

This study proposes that individual personality characteristics and behavioral triggering effects come together to motivate online victimization. It draws from psychology’s current understanding of personality traits, attribution theory, and criminological research. This study combines the current computer deviancy and hacker taxonomies with that of the Dark Triad model of personality mapping. Each computer deviant behavior is identified by its distinct dimensions of cyber-criminal behavior (e.g., unethical hacking, cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and identity theft) and analyzed against the Dark Triad personality factors (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy). The goal of this study is to explore whether there are significant relationships among the Dark Triad personality traits and specific cyber-criminal behaviors within social network sites (SNSs). The study targets offensive security engineers and computer deviants from specific hacker conferences and from websites that discuss or promote computer deviant behavior (e.g., hacking). Additional sampling is taken from a general population of SNS users. Using a snowball sampling method, 235 subjects completed an anonymous, self-report survey that includes items measuring computer deviance, personality traits, and demographics. Results yield that there was no significant relationship between Dark Triad and cyber-criminal behaviors defined in the perceived hypotheses. The final chapter of the study summarizes the results and discusses the mechanisms potentially underlying the findings. In the context of achieving the latter objective, exploratory analyses are incorporated and partly relied upon. It also includes a discussion concerning the implications of the findings in terms of providing theoretical insights on the Dark Triad traits and cyber-criminal behaviors more generally

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones but Words Will Never Hurt Me...Until I See Them: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Trolls in Relation to the Gricean Maxims and (IM)Polite Virtual Speech Acts

The troll is one of the most obtrusive and disruptive bad actors on the internet. Unlike other bad actors, the troll interacts on a more personal and intimate level with other internet users. Social media platforms, online communities, comment boards, and chatroom forums provide them with this opportunity. What distinguishes these social provocateurs from other bad actors are their virtual speech acts and online behaviors. These acts aim to incite anger, shame, or frustration in others through the weaponization of words, phrases, and other rhetoric. Online trolls come in all forms and use various speech tactics to insult and demean their target audiences. The goal of this research is to investigate trolls\u27 virtual speech acts and the impact of troll-like behaviors on online communities. Using Gricean maxims and politeness theory, this study seeks to identify common vernacular, word usage, and other language behaviors that trolls use to divert the conversation, insult others, and possibly affect fellow internet users’ mental health and well-being

Dark Technology and Financial Management Iraq as a Mediating Factor

Dark technology affects financial resource management, with Iraq as a mediating component. Dark Technology, the illegal use of technology, hinders financial systems. Technology has benefited financial management in both directions. Technology has benefited chiefly the financial sector in the previous study. Thus, shadow technology’s negative repercussions, especially in unsavoury places like Iraq, are poorly understood. Based on an in-depth analysis, dark technology significantly impacts Iraq’s financial management practices. It illuminates financial institution issues like money laundering, cybercrime, and fraud. Iraq’s legislative climate and institutional weaknesses help spread dark technologies. Socio-economic issues worsen dark technologies in financial management. This study suggests dark technology-related financial management improvements. Research challenges inspired these suggestions. It recommends improving regulatory frameworks, technology infrastructure, and financial sector awareness and training. It also highlights the need for stakeholder coordination, international cooperation, and dark technology-specific forces. This report helps researchers understand how dark technologies might harm financial management, which is crucial in corrupt Iraq. The findings and recommendations educate financial institutions and policymakers on mitigating the negative effects of dark technologies and creating a safer and more transparent financial ecosystem in Iraq