Teoría y práctica de las redes ilegales encubiertas

Obra ressenyada: D. CUNNINGHAM, S. EVERTON, P. MURPHY, Understanding dark networks: A strategic framework for the use of social network analysis. Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.El libro de Cunningham, Everton y Murphy ocupa un lugar importante en la literatura dedicada a la aplicación del análisis de redes sociales en el estudio de las "redes oscuras". Por un lado, es un buen manual que puede ser de interés tanto para un principiante, como para un investigador avanzado en el análisis de redes sociales. Por otro lado, los ejemplos propuestos por los autores analizan datos de gran interés, siendo buenos ejemplos prácticos de la aplicación de la teoría aprendida.The book by Cunningham, Everton and Murphy occupies an important place in the literature dedicated to the application of social network analysis in the study of "dark networks". On the one hand, it is a good manual that can be of interest to both a beginner and an advanced researcher in social network analysis. On the other hand, the examples proposed by the authors analyze data of great interest, being good practical examples of the application of the theory learned

Detecting psycho-anomalies on the world-wide web: current tools and challenges

The rise of the use of Social Media and the overall progress of technology has unfortunately opened new ways for criminals such as paedophiles, serial killers and rapists to exploit the powers that the technology offers in order to lure potential victims. It is of great need to be able to detect extreme criminal behaviours on the World-Wide Web and take measures to protect the general public from the effects of such behaviours. The aim of this chapter is to examine the current data analysis tools and technologies that are used to detect extreme online criminal behaviour and the challenges that exist associated with the use of these technologies. Specific emphasis is given to extreme criminal behaviours such as paedophilia and serial killing as these are considered the most dangerous behaviours. A number of conclusions are drawn in relation to the use and challenges of technological means in order to face such criminal behaviours

Deploying Artificial Intelligence to Combat Covid-19 Misinformation on Social Media: Technological and Ethical Considerations

This paper reports on research into online misinformation pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic using artificial intelligence. This is part of our longer-term goal, i.e., the development of an artificial intelligence (machine-learning) tool to assist social media platforms, online service providers and government agencies in identifying and responding to misinformation on social media. We report herein on the predictive accuracy accomplished by applying a combination of technologies, including a custom-designed web-crawler, The Dark Crawler (TDC) and the Posit toolkit, a text-reading software solution designed by George Weir of University of Strathclyde. Overall, we found that performance of models based upon Posit-derived textual features showed high levels of correlation to the pre-determined (manual and machine-driven) data classifications. We further argue that the harms associated with COVID-19 misinformation — e.g., the social and economic damage, and the deaths and severe illnesses — outweigh the right to personal privacy and freedom of speech considerations

IoT vulnerability data crawling and analysis

Internet of Things (IoT) is a whole new ecosystem comprised of heterogeneous connected devices —i.e. computers, laptops, smart-phones and tablets as well as embedded devices and sensors— that communicate to deliver capabilities making our living, cities, transport, energy, and many other areas more intelligent. The main concerns raised from the IoT ecosystem are the devices poor support for patching/updating and the poor on-board computational power. A number of issues stem from this: inherent vulnerabilities and the inability to detect and defend against external attacks. Also, due to the nature of their operation, the devices tend to be rather open to communication, which makes attacks easy to spread once reaching a network. The aim of this research is to investigate if it is possible to extract useful results regarding attacks’ trends and be able to predict them, before it is too late, by crawling Deep/Dark and Surface web. The results of this work show that is possible to find the trend and be able to act proactively in order to protect the IoT ecosystem

Why Cryptocurrencies Want Privacy: A Review of Political Motivations and Branding Expressed in "Privacy Coin" Whitepapers

New currencies designed for user anonymity and privacy – widely referred to as “privacy coins” – have forced governments to listen and legislate, but the political motivations of these currencies are not well understood. Following the growing interest of political brands in different contexts, we provide the first systematic review of political motivations expressed in cryptocurrency whitepapers whose explicit goal is “privacy.” Many privacy coins deliberately position themselves as alternative political brands. Although cryptocurrencies are often closely associated with political philosophies that aim to diminish or subvert the power of governments and banks, advocates of privacy occupy much broader ideological ground. We present thematic trends within the privacy coin literature and identify epistemic and ethical tensions present within the communities of people calling for the adoption of entirely private currencies

A Framework for More Effective Dark Web Marketplace Investigations

The success of the Silk Road has prompted the growth of many Dark Web marketplaces. This exponential growth has provided criminal enterprises with new outlets to sell illicit items. Thus, the Dark Web has generated great interest from academics and governments who have sought to unveil the identities of participants in these highly lucrative, yet illegal, marketplaces. Traditional Web scraping methodologies and investigative techniques have proven to be inept at unmasking these marketplace participants. This research provides an analytical framework for automating Dark Web scraping and analysis with free tools found on the World Wide Web. Using a case study marketplace, we successfully tested a Web crawler, developed using AppleScript, to retrieve the account information for thousands of vendors and their respective marketplace listings. This paper clearly details why AppleScript was the most viable and efficient method for scraping Dark Web marketplaces. The results from our case study validate the efficacy of our proposed analytical framework, which has relevance for academics studying this growing phenomenon and for investigators examining criminal activity on the Dark Web

Domestic minor sex trafficking and technology

Human trafficking is a significant public health and human rights problem with negative physical, mental, and social outcomes that transcend age, sex, gender, and race and ethnicity; these outcomes have immediate and long-term effects for individuals involved. It manifests itself in a number of forms, including the domestic sex trafficking of minors, and involves a wide variety of actors. This paper presents a general overview of human trafficking. The various forms of human trafficking are defined, with particular emphasis on the domestic sex trafficking of minors. Additionally, the perpetration, risk factors, and health outcomes of the domestic sex trafficking of minors are explored in order to provide a working framework for the remainder of the paper. The role of technologies and their relations to sex trafficking follows the background. In particular, key concepts related to the Internet have been explained to further understand how the Internet can be used as a tool for and against sex trafficking. Future work should continue to include the voices of the LGBTQ+ population and consider applying a community based participatory research (CBPR) approach

La collaboration internationale dans les enquêtes sur le darkweb : exploration des types et des motivations selon l’expérience des policiers

Mondialement, les organisations policières sont responsables de résoudre les crimes qui sont commis physiquement dans les juridictions qui leur sont attribuées. Cependant, ce fonctionnement n’est pas adapté aux cybercrimes, considérant qu’ils sont commis virtuellement et non physiquement dans l’espace. Depuis les dernières années, des milliers de criminels utilisent le darkweb, la portion cachée de l’Internet, afin de commettre des crimes à l’insu de toutes détections policières. En effet, les forces de l’ordre se retrouvent bien souvent dans l’incapacité d’intervenir face aux cybercrimes à cause du manque de ressources financières et humaines ainsi que du manque de formations adéquates. Une solution proposée face à ce problème est de favoriser les collaborations internationales qui transcendent les juridictions. Cependant, la littérature sur le sujet de la collaboration internationale n’est plus d’actualité et ne prend pas en considération les défis causés par les technologies. Étant la première étude à se pencher sur cette problématique, ce mémoire a pour objectif général de comprendre les collaborations internationales dans les enquêtes policières sur les crimes commis à l’aide du darkweb. Précisément, cette étude exploratoire désire (1) décrire et comprendre les motivations qui poussent les enquêteurs à collaborer à l’extérieur de leur agence policière et (2) décrire et comprendre les types de collaboration nécessaire à la réalisation d’une enquête policière sur le darkweb. Pour ce faire, nous utilisons une approche internationale et centrée sur les policiers grâce à un corpus de 20 entretiens avec des enquêteurs de cinq pays (Canada, États-Unis, Royaume-Uni, Australie et Suède). Cette recherche s'appuie sur le point de vue des participants afin d'apprécier leurs réalités et leurs expériences. À l’aide d’une analyse thématique classique, nous avons décrit cinq principales motivations et trois types de collaboration expérimentés par les sujets. Ce mémoire permet de mettre en lien des thématiques distinctes dans la littérature, de générer de nouvelles connaissances et d’établir les bases conceptuelles pour de futures recherches. Les résultats illustrent la pertinence et la nécessité de mettre de l’avant les collaborations internationales afin d’accroître le succès des enquêtes policières sur les crimes commis à l’aide du darkweb.Globally, police organizations are responsible for solving crimes committed physically in their assigned jurisdictions. Considering that they are committed virtually and not physically in space, this system is not adequate for tackling cybercrimes. In the last decades, thousands of criminals have been using the darkweb, the hidden part of the Internet, to commit crimes without police detection. Indeed, law enforcement agencies are often unable to intervene in cybercrimes due to a lack of financial, human resources and adequate training. One proposed solution to this problem is to foster international collaborations that transcend jurisdictions. However, the literature about international collaboration is outdated and does not consider the challenges caused by technology. As the first study to address this issue, the overall goal of this master’s thesis is to understand international collaborations in police investigations of darkweb crimes. Specifically, this exploratory study seeks to (1) describe and understand the motivations that drive investigators to collaborate outside of their police agency and (2) describe and understand the types of collaboration required to conduct a police investigation on the darkweb. We used an international and police-centric approach through a corpus of 20 interviews with investigators from five countries (Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Sweden). This research draws on the participants' perspectives to appreciate their realities and experiences. Using the traditional thematic analysis, we described five main motivations and three types of collaboration experienced by the subjects. This dissertation connects distinct themes in the literature, generates new knowledge, and establishes the conceptual basis for future research. The results illustrate the relevance and necessity of improving international collaborations to increase the success of police investigations of darkweb-related crimes