Exploring the cybercrime capacity and capability of local law enforcement agencies in the United States

2021 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.The relentless pace of technological innovation has changed how people communicate, interact, and conduct business, creating new pathways and opportunities for people to commit crimes or engage in harmful behavior via the internet or digitally networked devices. Cybercrime is rapidly scaling up, leading many to predict that it will become the next significant global crisis (Krebs, 2021; Viswanathan & Volz, 2021; Zakaria, 2021). In the United States, local law enforcement agencies and their personnel stand at the frontlines of the cybercrime problem (Police Executive Research Forum, 2014). This dissertation project was inspired by several calls to action to explore and evaluate how law enforcement agencies are responding to the cybercrime problem (Holt & Bossler, 2014; Ngo & Jaishankar, 2017). The research conducted in this project aligns with and extends a small body of exploratory and evaluative research focusing on local law enforcement agencies and cybercrime (for example Harkin et al., 2018; Monaghan, 2020; Nowacki & Willits, 2016). By utilizing a mixed methods research design consisting of a survey and series of qualitative interviews this project helped address the research question: What is the current cybercrime capacity and capability of local law enforcement agencies in the United States? Findings from this project advance our knowledge about the cybercrime capacity and capability of local law enforcement agencies and contribute to strengthening law enforcement practice, policy, and future research. In total, 925 county and municipal agencies participated in this research project through a survey instrument called the Cybercrime Capacity and Capability Questionnaire (CCCQ©), with 855 agencies providing data usable for analysis. Additionally, 23 individuals representing 23 distinct agencies, who previously participated in the CCCQ, also participated in a series of semi-structured qualitative interviews. Multiple findings and recommendations were derived as a result of the participation by these agencies and individuals in this project. Several findings from this project aligned with or validated findings and recommendations from other recent studies (for example Harkin et al., 2018). Among the key findings from this project are that the cybercrime capacity and capability of local law enforcement agencies is deficient, despite trends at the local law enforcement agency level to allocate more resources to the cybercrime problem. This deficiency is noted both by response patterns on the CCCQ© and through comments supplied during the qualitative interviews. Lack of financial and personnel resources, especially technologically skilled and competent personnel, limited and/or outdated technological infrastructure, and problems leveraging partnerships and obtaining cooperation from private sector organizations are just a few of the challenges hampering the development of a more robust local law enforcement cybercrime capacity and capability. Results and insights from this research also illuminate the dynamic process of developing cybercrime capacity and capability. Result from this project indicate that caution should be exercised before assuming that cybercrime capacity and capability are solely a function of agency size. While this project substantiates other research that shows larger agencies are more likely to have cybercrime units, and also tend to have more resources, personnel, and equipment for cybercrime investigations, they do not necessarily have greater cybercrime capacity or capability. Cybercrime case volume appears to impact cybercrime capacity and capability such that large local law enforcement agencies, despite specialized cybercrime units and more resources allocated to cybercrime, may not be better off in managing cybercrime incidents or responding to cybercrime related issues than midsize and smaller local agencies. Personnel at larger agencies, despite having dedicated cybercrime units, more resources, and better equipment, may be at higher risk of burnout and other issues as a result. In short, extremely high cybercrime case volumes may undermine the capacity and capability of even the most robustly developed specialized cybercrime units, as well as the best equipped and resourced agencies. Given the pace at which the cybercrime problem is growing, this is a troubling finding. This project also highlights that cybercrime capacity and capability cannot be understood without accounting for the critical differences that external forces and contextual factors produce on local law enforcement agencies that, in turn, impact how those agencies function and adapt to new issues and challenges. For example, qualitative data from this project help us to understand the connections between the defund the police movement and the COVID-19 pandemic, both of which appear to be undermining the capacity and capability of local law enforcement agencies, and thus negatively impacting their cybercrime capacity and capability. As a result, cybercrime administrators and personnel at local law enforcement agencies in the U.S. may be experiencing similar challenges to their peers abroad (see Harkin et al. 2018). A number of directions for future research, improvement of the CCCQ©, and recommendations for improving police practice and policy such as developing uniform, and operationalizable cybercrime best practices and strengthening private sector compliance with law enforcement agency requests for data are also provided

“Scholarly Communications at Duke” Blog, December 2006-April 2016

This work contains all of the blog posts spanning the years 2006-2016 from the "Scholarly Communications @ Duke" blog by Kevin L. Smith, M.L.S, J.D. It is being made available in both PDF and XML formats to facilitate use of the material.The "Scholarly Communications at Duke" blog addressed current issues in scholarly communications, and also tried to provide information, from the most basic to complex issues, about how copyright law impacted higher education as it moved more fully into a digital age

Digital Research Cycles: How Attitudes Toward Content, Culture And Technology Affect Web Development.

It has been estimated that one third of the world\u27s population does not have access to adequate health care. Some 1.6 billion people live in countries experiencing concentrated acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemics. Many countries in Africa--and other low-income countries--are in dire need of help providing adequate health care services to their citizens. They require more hands-on care from Western health workers--and training so more African health workers can eventually care for their own citizens. But these countries also need assistance acquiring and implementing both texts--the body of medical information potentially available to them--and technology--the means by which that information can be conveyed. This dissertation looks at these issues and others from a multi-faceted approach. It combines a survey of the developers of Web sites designed for use by health workers in low-income countries and a proposal for a novel approach to communication theory, which could help improve health communication and other social marketing practices. It also includes an extensive review of literature regarding a number of topics related to these issues. To improve healthcare services in low-income countries, several things should occur. First, more health workers--and others--could visit African countries and other places to provide free, hands-on medical care, as this researcher\u27s group did in Uganda. Such trips are ideal occasions for studying the cultural differences between mzungu (white man) and the Ugandan people. A number of useful medical texts have been written for health workers in low-income countries. Others will be published as new health information becomes available. But on what medium will they be published? Computers? Personal digital assistants? During the past 10 years the Internet became an ideal venue for conveying information. Unfortunately, people in target countries such as Uganda encounter cultural differences when such new technologies are diffused. This dissertation looks at cultural and technological difficulties encountered by people in low-income countries who attempt to diffuse information and communication technologies (ICT). Once a technology has been successfully adopted, someone will look for ways to use it to help others. There are hundreds of sites on the Internet--built by Web developers in Western countries--that are designed for use by health workers in low-income countries. However, these Web developers also experience cultural and technological differences, based on their knowledge of and attitudes toward best practices in their field. This research includes a survey of Web developers which determined their attitudes toward best practices in their field and tested this researcher\u27s hypothesis that there is no significant difference among the developers\u27 attitudes toward the content on their sites, their audience\u27s cultural needs and the various technological needs their audience has. It was found that the Web developers agree with 17 of 18 perceived best practices and that there is a significant difference between Web developers\u27 attitudes toward their audience\u27s technological needs and their attitudes toward quality content and the audience\u27s cultural needs. Creation of the survey herein resulted in this researcher generating a new way of thinking about communication theory--called digital research cycles. The survey was based on a review of literature and is rooted in the belief that any successful communication of a computer-mediated message in the information age is a behavior which is influenced by the senders\u27 and receivers\u27 attitudes and knowledge about textual style, the audience, technology and the subject matter to which the message pertains

A Matter of Material:Exploring the Value of the Museum of Design in Plastics

This thesis, A Matter of Material: Exploring the Value of the Museum of Design in Plastics (MoDiP), sets out to understand how a museum focusing on a single material family can contribute to the societal and museological comprehension of design in plastics. It looks at how museums communicate a group of materials that audiences believe they know and understand, yet that knowledge and understanding may not be the whole story. It explores why it might seem strange that a museum dedicated to plastics even exists, by looking at what museums are, what they have been traditionally, and what they can become. The contribution to knowledge that this research demonstrates is in the previously unwritten history and close study of MoDiP which is an, as yet, under researched resource. My role as Curator of MoDiP has provided an empirical knowledge and expertise that grounds this contribution in my professional practice. This has enabled an opening of a knowledge embedded in the role of a museum of a contested and devalued material, illuminating the problem of plastics in museums. The study inserts plastics, and the specific collection of them by MoDiP, into the relational museological theory to discover the value of the museum’s practice where complexity is added to the debate about plastics in the current climate. The particular interest of the triangular relationships between audiences, museums, and plastics is demonstrated using new diagrams, a tradition of museum studies especially used by Susan Pearce. The six original diagrams within the thesis are used to illustrate new ideas and concepts. This research uses the tools of case study as a methodology to make a close study of the functions and collections of MoDiP, and in contrast the Pinto Collection of wooden objects at Birmingham Museums Trust. These tools include interviewing employees, studying documents, and observing practices, and sit alongside the curatorial practices of collections and object research, audience sampling through surveys and social media, as well as visiting other museums and exhibitions and reflecting on such experiences. By using these methods, this work investigates the material qualities of plastics, alongside other materials, and looks at why the placement of some materials within the museum setting might be difficult to comprehend and how, by being the sole focus of the museum, materials can be more deeply explored

Using spontaneously generated online patient experiences to improve healthcare : A case study using Modafinil

Background Acknowledged issues with the RCT focus of EBM and recognition of the value of patient input have created a need for new methods of knowledge generation that can give the depth of qualitative studies but on a much larger scale. Almost half of the global population uses social media regularly, with increasing numbers of people using online spaces as either a first- or second-line health information and exchange resource. Estimates suggest the volume of online health related data grew by 300% between 2017 and 2020. As a data source, this unstructured freeform textual data is a form of patient generated health data, containing a mass of patient centred, contextually grounded detail about the perceptions and health concerns of those who post online. Methods for analysing it are at an early stage of development, but it is seen as having potential to add to clinical understanding, either by augmenting existing knowledge, or in aiding understanding of real-world usage of healthcare interventions and services. Objectives To explore how large-scale analysis of SGOPE can help with understanding patient perspectives of their conditions, symptoms, and self-management behaviours, assess the effectiveness of interventions, contribute to the process of knowledge and evidence creation, and consequently help healthcare systems improve outcomes in the most efficient manner. A secondary aim is to contribute to the development of methods that can be generalised across other interventions or services. Methods Using Modafinil as a case study, a multistage approach was taken. First, an exploratory study, comparing both qualitative and basic NLP techniques was undertaken on a small sample of 260 posts to identify topics, evaluate effectiveness and identify perceived causal text. An umbrella scoping review was then undertaken exploring how and for what purposes SGOPE data is currently being used within healthcare research. Findings from both then guided the main study, which used a variety of unsupervised NLP tools to explore the main dataset of over 69k posts. Individual methods were compared against each other. Results from both studies were compared and for evaluation. Results In contrast to the existing inconclusive systematic review evidence for Modafinil for anything other than narcolepsy, both studies found that Modafinil is seen as by posters as effective in treating fatigue and cognition symptoms in a wide range of conditions. Both identified the topics mentioned in the data, although more work needs to be done to develop the NLP methods to achieve a greater depth of understanding. The first study identified eight themes within the posts: reason for taking, impact of symptoms, acquisition, dosage, side-effects, comparison with other interventions, effectiveness, and quality of life outcomes. Effectiveness of Modafinil was found to be 68% positive, 12% mixed and 18% negative. Expressions of causal belief were identified. In the main study, effectiveness was measured with sentiment analysis, with all methods showing strong positive sentiment. Topic modelling identified groups of themes. Linguistic techniques extracted phrases indicating causality. Various analysis methods were compared to develop a method that could be generalised across other health topics

Factors Influencing Customer Satisfaction towards E-shopping in Malaysia

Online shopping or e-shopping has changed the world of business and quite a few people have decided to work with these features. What their primary concerns precisely and the responses from the globalisation are the competency of incorporation while doing their businesses. E-shopping has also increased substantially in Malaysia in recent years. The rapid increase in the e-commerce industry in Malaysia has created the demand to emphasize on how to increase customer satisfaction while operating in the e-retailing environment. It is very important that customers are satisfied with the website, or else, they would not return. Therefore, a crucial fact to look into is that companies must ensure that their customers are satisfied with their purchases that are really essential from the ecommerce’s point of view. With is in mind, this study aimed at investigating customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed among students randomly selected from various public and private universities located within Klang valley area. Total 369 questionnaires were returned, out of which 341 questionnaires were found usable for further analysis. Finally, SEM was employed to test the hypotheses. This study found that customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia is to a great extent influenced by ease of use, trust, design of the website, online security and e-service quality. Finally, recommendations and future study direction is provided. Keywords: E-shopping, Customer satisfaction, Trust, Online security, E-service quality, Malaysia

Diverse voices in crime fiction: Expanding creative narratives with reference to the absence of the teen voice in adult crime fiction

This practice-led creative writing PhD is in two parts. The creative element consists of the adult crime fiction (CF) novel Unseen Evil. This is the sixth book in my DI Gus McGuire police procedural series, set in contemporary Bradford. Through chapters of first person narration from teen characters’ viewpoints, Unseen Evil uses the investigation into a boy’s murder to give voice to diverse teen characters and illuminate issues pertaining to them, with particular reference to digital-age technology. The exegesis contextualises the creative element by interrogating the publishing industry’s commitment to expanding narratives amidst ongoing discussions around diversity and inclusion. Chapter 1 explores the writing process involved in creating Unseen Evil, with specific reference to the wide-ranging influences impacting on creative choices made. Chapter 2 establishes why expansive narratives in the creative industries contribute to a wider understanding of cultural and societal issues and illustrates that inclusion and diversity within the publishing industry is lacking, thus highlighting the importance of increased representation of disenfranchised groups. This chapter demonstrates that the CF genre performs no better than the wider industry in promoting diverse narratives from a diverse representation of authors, and identifies the need to: • recruit employees and authors from diverse groups, • ensure that published narratives are responsibly expansive, • encourage authors, specifically CF authors, to represent within their narratives a diverse cast of characters. Chapter 3 establishes CF as the genre which documents social history and gives voice to disenfranchised and marginalised communities by exploring issues affecting them and giving voice to their lived experiences. However, this chapter also illuminates the absence of teen lived experiences within CF narratives and demonstrates the importance of increasing representation of issues pertaining to teen mental health, criminality, use/misuse of digital technology, and more, within the genre

Operational Research: Methods and Applications

Throughout its history, Operational Research has evolved to include a variety of methods, models and algorithms that have been applied to a diverse and wide range of contexts. This encyclopedic article consists of two main sections: methods and applications. The first aims to summarise the up-to-date knowledge and provide an overview of the state-of-the-art methods and key developments in the various subdomains of the field. The second offers a wide-ranging list of areas where Operational Research has been applied. The article is meant to be read in a nonlinear fashion. It should be used as a point of reference or first-port-of-call for a diverse pool of readers: academics, researchers, students, and practitioners. The entries within the methods and applications sections are presented in alphabetical order. The authors dedicate this paper to the 2023 Turkey/Syria earthquake victims. We sincerely hope that advances in OR will play a role towards minimising the pain and suffering caused by this and future catastrophes

Trade unions, news media strategies and newspaper journalists

Trade unions, news media strategies and newspaper journalist