An Approach to Guide Users Towards Less Revealing Internet Browsers

When browsing the Internet, HTTP headers enable both clients and servers send extra data in their requests or responses such as the User-Agent string. This string contains information related to the sender’s device, browser, and operating system. Previous research has shown that there are numerous privacy and security risks result from exposing sensitive information in the User-Agent string. For example, it enables device and browser fingerprinting and user tracking and identification. Our large analysis of thousands of User-Agent strings shows that browsers differ tremendously in the amount of information they include in their User-Agent strings. As such, our work aims at guiding users towards using less exposing browsers. In doing so, we propose to assign an exposure score to browsers based on the information they expose and vulnerability records. Thus, our contribution in this work is as follows: first, provide a full implementation that is ready to be deployed and used by users. Second, conduct a user study to identify the effectiveness and limitations of our proposed approach. Our implementation is based on using more than 52 thousand unique browsers. Our performance and validation analysis show that our solution is accurate and efficient. The source code and data set are publicly available and the solution has been deployed

Terrorism's Communicative Dynamic: Leveraging the Terrorist-Audience Relationship to Assess Evolutionary Trajectories

Terrorist groups do not operate in isolation. To survive in the face of counter-pressures from their opponents, the group must establish a beneficial relationship with a targeted audience, a presumed constituency, in order to generate the sympathy and support necessary for maintaining operational viability. Existing studies of terrorism, however, offer few insights into how this might be done. The most common approach revolves around assessments of terrorist messages, yet typically treats those messages as self-serving propaganda or media manipulation. This study takes a different approach, suggesting that terrorists use statements and communiqués in an effort to gain and maintain a supportive audience. Further, the intended audience for the messages infer meaning in terrorist violence, thus augmenting or reducing the impact of persuasive messaging by the terrorist. Understanding this process, in turn, may yield new insights into the dynamic processes of terrorism, offering new opportunities to assess a terrorist group's potential for positive evolutionary growth or greater relative fitness. Using Grunig's situational theory of publics, this study creates and evaluates a new metric, called expected affinity, for examining the terrorist group's effort to establish and strengthen bonds between itself and its targeted and presumptively supportive audience. Expected affinity combines sub-measures addressing problem recognition, expected and desired levels of involvement, and constraint recognition, coupled with an inferred meaning in the symbolism of violent acts in order to evaluate terrorist messages and attacks. The results suggest utility in the expected affinity metric and point to opportunities for making the measure more directly applicable to specific cases through incorporation of detailed case study data

Hands in the Pockets of Mercurial Donors: How Three Theories Explain Ngo Responses to Shifting Funding Priorities

The NGO-donor relationship has become understood as exceptionally volatile. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in developing countries rely heavily on foreign donor funding and potential over-reliance on donors becomes apparent. The research at hand concentrates on the relationship between environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international donor agencies in the local setting of a developing country. It explores the potential impact of changing funding priorities on NGO behavior and decision-making. It raises two questions: How do NGOs respond to changes in donor funding objectives? Why do NGOs react the way they do? NGOs react to changes in the external environment in different ways (Thompson 1967; Pfeffer and Salancik 1978; Scott 1981; Pfeffer 1982). The first phase of the dissertation explores the NGO-donor relationship when donors revise funding priorities and partner NGOs try to adapt. There is a variation in the way NGOs respond to changes in funding manifested or applied in a variety of ways. The study draws on qualitative research to study the decisions of four NGOs in response to shifts in funding, and analysis reveals the following variations in NGO responses to such shifts: suspend the relationship, reach common ground and maintain the relation, automatically execute the donor\u27s interests, and voluntarily and deliberately adapt to the situation. The research builds on Hirschman\u27s (1970) individual self-interest theory and considers NGOs as `consumers\u27 in their relationship with donor agencies. Using Hirschman\u27s (1970) typology, three modes of NGOs\u27 response are identified: exit, voice, loyalty, and a fourth mode, adjustment, is proposed. Furthermore, the dissertation integrates resource dependence theory (Pfeffer and Salancik 1978) and the theory of weak ties (Granovetter 1973, 1983) to construct a more parsimonious theory to predict organizational responses to changes in the surrounding environment. Each of the two theories is reviewed separately to provide a theoretical justification for NGO behavior in a changing funding environment. Resource dependence determines NGO behavior. Therefore, we expect that NGOs characterized with high resource dependency will comply with donor interests. Furthermore, the behavior of the NGO could also be determined by the presence of strong or weak ties, such that an NGO centrally located in a dense network with strong ties is likely to comply with donor interests. This investigation also recognizes that organizations vary in terms of tolerance for resource dependency and the nature and structures of their network relations. The study accepts Salancik\u27s (1995) argument that control over resources is not the only source of power in an inter-organizational relationship; network positions are related to power. Accordingly, the study presents an alternative perspective that integrates the two theories, stipulating that an organizational response to changes in its external environment depends on the level of resource dependence tolerance as well as the strength of ties in a network of actors. The likelihood of an organization adopting exit as a response to shifts in donor funding is higher with lower resource dependence and weaker network ties. The likelihood of an organization practicing voice is higher with lower resource dependence and stronger ties. The likelihood of an organization practicing adjustment is higher with higher resource dependence and weaker network ties. Lastly, the likelihood of an organization adopting loyalty as a response to shifts in donor funding is higher with higher resource dependence and stronger ties. The integrated theory is supported with in-depth qualitative analysis of multiple cases of NGOs and their relations with stakeholders, specifically donors. It is verified by translating propositions into hypotheses. These key hypotheses are tested using multinomial regression analysis based on measurements derived from network analysis that plots network maps of environmental NGOs in Lebanon. The results provide good support for the predictions of the integrated theory. Variation in resource dependence has no effect on the choice of voice over exit, while higher centrality increases the tendency towards voice. There is a higher tendency for adjustment with higher resource criticality and concentration while tie strength has a weak effect on the choice of adjustment over exit

Self-Organising Networks in Complex Infrastructure Projects: The Case of London Bank Station Capacity Upgrade Project

Managing large infrastructure projects remains a thorny issue in theory and practice. This is mainly due to their increasingly interconnected, interdependent, multilateral, nonlinear, unpredictable, uncontrollable, and rapidly changing nature. This study is an attempt to demystify the key issues to the management of large construction projects, arguing that these projects are delivered through networks that evolve in ways that we do not sufficiently understand as yet. The theoretical framework of this study is grounded in Complexity Theory; a theory resulted in a paradigm shift when it was first introduced to project management post-2000 but is yet to be unpacked in its full potential. The original contribution of the study is predicated on perceiving large construction projects as evolving complex systems that involves a high degree of self‐organisation. This is a process that transitions contractually static prescribed roles to dynamic network roles, comprising individuals exchanging information. Furthermore, by placing great emphasis upon informal communications, this study demonstrates how self-organising networks can be married with Complexity Theory. This approach has the potential to make bedfellows around the concept of managing networks within a context of managing projects; a concept that is not always recognised, especially in project management. With the help of social network analysis, two snapshots from Bank Station Capacity Upgrade Project Network were analysed as a case study. Findings suggest that relationships and hence network structures in large construction projects exhibit small-world topology, underlined by a high degree of sparseness and clustering. These are distinct structural properties of self-organising networks. Evidence challenges the theorisation about self-organisation which largely assumes positive outcomes and suggests that self-organising could open up opportunities yet also create constraints. This helps to provide further insights into complexity and the treatment of uncertainty in large projects. The study concludes with detailed recommendations for research and practice

Corporate social responsibility, diversity, and corporate communication : natural language processing and machine learning approaches

1 online resource (226 pages) : graphsIncludes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (pages 27-36, 73-81, 128-136, 185-189, 226).In the second chapter, we rely on collaborative intelligence, which combines human and artificial intelligence (i.e., supervised machine learning), to construct a textual feature that measures firmlevel gender diversity talk (GDT), as reflected in the share of gender diversity discussion in the narrative of quarterly earnings conference calls. We show that the MeToo movement, an unequivocal social movement shock, led to a significant increase in GDT. We however document positive short-term stock market reaction to GDT during the first post-MeToo quarter, indicating that GDT is, on average, perceived by investors as value-relevant. We also show that post-MeToo, high-GDT firms engage in less substantive female-friendly initiatives, indicating that firms do not walk the talk of gender diversity. In the third chapter, using industry-relevant documents and the most-cited CSR/ESG papers to develop a new CSR dictionary, we show that the COVID-19 incentivized firms to engage in overselling of their CSR. We find that more CSR talk during COVID translates into value depression, indicating that investors, on average, do not perceive CSR overselling as value-relevant. Our evidence suggests that firms do not walk their CSR talk and that CSR Talk is positively (negatively) associated with the use of positive (negative) words. Our evidence suggests that ‘cheap talk is not cheap’. In the fourth chapter, we use Natural Language Processing to measure supply chain risk (SCR) faced by US firms, as expressed in narratives of quarterly earnings conference calls. We show that exposure to SCR reached unprecedented levels during COVID-19. The effect of COVID-19 on SCR is more pronounced in firms with a greater dispersion of analyst forecasts, increased complexity, and more financial constraints. We document a negative effect of SCR on conference call short-term returns and future profitability. High-SCR firms are also associated with longer cash conversion cycles and more ESG overselling

Vulnerability to bushfires in south-eastern Australia: a case study from East Gippsland, Victoria

This thesis is an analysis of human vulnerability to bushfires in the Wulgulmerang district of East Gippsland, Victoria, in south-eastern Australia. On January 30, 2003, bushfires devastated the small population of this isolated farming district. The fires destroyed homes, livelihood assets and public infrastructure. They also adversely affected the health, livelihoods and social lives of many local people. Australian bushfire research has traditionally focused on the geophysical dimensions of fire hazards and disasters, with little consideration of how cultural, economic, political and social factors shape people’s exposure to hazards and their capacities to cope and adapt to bushfire impacts. To date, there have been no systematic, social science analyses of human vulnerability to bushfires. The vulnerability analysis presented in this thesis concentrates on two key research questions: (1) How and why were people exposed to hazards during the bushfires? and (2) How and why were people differentially capable of coping and adapting to the fires’ impacts? Qualitative methods were primarily used to investigate these questions, including semi-structured interviews with residents and landholders of the Wulgulmerang district, representatives of government departments and authorities, and others who participated in responses to the fires. The thesis develops a multifaceted understanding of how and why people were vulnerable to the January 30 fires. Vulnerability is shown to arise from the circumstances of people’s day to day lives, which are shaped by factors both within and beyond their control. Local pressures and challenges – such as drought, declining farm incomes, depopulation, limited access to essential services, and political marginality – are shown to increase people’s exposure to bushfire hazards and reduce their capacities to cope and adapt. The thesis demonstrates the fundamental importance of sustainable livelihoods and regional economic and social vitality to the long-term goal of vulnerability reduction

The Ambivalence of Power in the Twenty-First Century Economy

The Ambivalence of Power in the Twenty-First Century Economy contributes to the understanding of the ambivalent nature of power, oscillating between conflict and cooperation, public and private, global and local, formal and informal, and does so from an empirical perspective. It offers a collection of country-based cases, as well as critically assesses the existing conceptions of power from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The diverse analyses of power at the macro, meso or micro levels allow the volume to highlight the complexity of political economy in the twenty-first century. Each chapter addresses key elements of that political economy (from the ambivalence of the cases of former communist countries that do not conform with the grand narratives about democracy and markets, to the dual utility of new technologies such as face-recognition), thus providing mounting evidence for the centrality of an understanding of ambivalence in the analysis of power, especially in the modern state power-driven capitalism. Anchored in economic sociology and political economy, this volume aims to make ‘visible’ the dimensions of power embedded in economic practices. The chapters are predominantly based on post-communist practices, but this divergent experience is relevant to comparative studies of how power and economy are interrelated

The Ambivalence of Power in the Twenty-First Century Economy

The Ambivalence of Power in the Twenty-First Century Economy contributes to the understanding of the ambivalent nature of power, oscillating between conflict and cooperation, public and private, global and local, formal and informal, and does so from an empirical perspective. It offers a collection of country-based cases, as well as critically assesses the existing conceptions of power from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The diverse analyses of power at the macro, meso or micro levels allow the volume to highlight the complexity of political economy in the twenty-first century. Each chapter addresses key elements of that political economy (from the ambivalence of the cases of former communist countries that do not conform with the grand narratives about democracy and markets, to the dual utility of new technologies such as face-recognition), thus providing mounting evidence for the centrality of an understanding of ambivalence in the analysis of power, especially in the modern state power-driven capitalism. Anchored in economic sociology and political economy, this volume aims to make ‘visible’ the dimensions of power embedded in economic practices. The chapters are predominantly based on post-communist practices, but this divergent experience is relevant to comparative studies of how power and economy are interrelated