The Anthropology of Security: Perspectives from the Frontline of Policing, Counter-terrorism and Border Control, by Mark Maguire, Catarina Frois and Nils Zurawski

No abstract available

Richard J. Aldrich, Rory Cormac and Michael S. Goodman, Spying on the World: The Declassified Documents of the Joint Intelligence Committee, 1936-2013

No abstract available

Mission and Safety Critical (MASC): An EVACS simulation with nested transactions

The Extra-Vehicular Activity Control System (EVACS) Simulation with Nested Transactions, a recent effort of the MISSION Kernel Team, is documented. The EVACS simulation is a simulation of some aspects of the Extra-Vehicular Activity Control System, in particular, just the selection of communication frequencies. The simulation is a tool to explore mission and safety critical (MASC) applications. For the purpose of this effort, its current definition is quite narrow serving only as a starting point for prototyping purposes. (Note that EVACS itself has been supplanted in a larger scenario of a lunar outpost with astronauts and a lunar rover). The frequency selection scenario was modified to embed its processing in nested transactions. Again as a first step, only two aspects of transaction support were implemented in this prototype: architecture and state recovery. Issues of concurrency and distribution are yet to be addressed

A Detailed Comparison of UML and OWL

As models and ontologies assume an increasingly central role in software and information systems engineering, the question of how exactly they compare and how they can sensibly be used together assumes growing importance. However, no study to date has systematically and comprehensively compared the two technology spaces, and a large variety of different bridging and integration ideas have been proposed in recent years without any detailed analysis of whether they are sound or useful. In this paper, we address this problem by providing a detailed and comprehensive comparison of the two technology spaces in terms of their flagship languages – UML and OWL – each a de facto and de jure standard in its respective space. To fully analyze the end user experience, we perform the comparison at two levels – one considering the underlying boundary assumptions and philosophy adopted by each language and the other considering their detailed features. We also consider all relevant auxiliary languages such as OCL. The resulting comparison clarifies the relationship between the two technologies and provides a solid foundation for deciding how to use them together or integrate them

Cyber-security internals of a Skoda Octavia vRS:a hands on approach

The convergence of information technology and vehicular technologies are a growing paradigm, allowing information to be sent by and to vehicles. This information can further be processed by the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) and the Controller Area Network (CAN) for in-vehicle communications or through a mobile phone or server for out-vehicle communication. Information sent by or to the vehicle can be life-critical (e.g. breaking, acceleration, cruise control, emergency communication, etc. . . ). As vehicular technology advances, in-vehicle networks are connected to external networks through 3 and 4G mobile networks, enabling manufacturer and customer monitoring of different aspects of the car. While these services provide valuable information, they also increase the attack surface of the vehicle, and can enable long and short range attacks. In this manuscript, we evaluate the security of the 2017 Skoda Octavia vRS 4x4. Both physical and remote attacks are considered, the key fob rolling code is successfully compromised, privacy attacks are demonstrated through the infotainment system, the Volkswagen Transport Protocol 2.0 is reverse engineered. Additionally, in-car attacks are highlighted and described, providing an overlook of potentially deadly threats by modifying ECU parameters and components enabling digital forensics investigation are identified

Auf dem Weg zu prozessorientierten Informationssystemen der nächsten Generation : Herausforderungen und Lösungskonzepte

Prozess-Management-Systeme müssen gegenüber dem heutigen Stand erheblich leistungsfähiger werden, damit prozessorientierte Informationssysteme für ein breites Spektrum von Anwendungen einsetzbar werden. Besonders wichtig ist in diesem Zusammenhang ist die Realisierung einer wesentlich höheren Flexibilität und Adaptivität als sie von heutigen Systemen geboten werden. In diesem Beitrag wird zunächst aus Anwendersicht aufgezeigt, wie der Umgang mit solchen flexiblen und adaptiven Prozess-Management-\ud Systemen aus Anwendersicht aussehen könnte und was die daraus resultierenden technologischen Herausforderungen sind. Die vorgestellten Beispiele und Lösungsansätze orientieren sich an den im ADEPT-Projekt gewonnenen Erkenntnissen sowie den im Nachfolgeprojekt AristaFlow verfolgten Zielen

‘Football fans are not thugs’:communication and the future of fan engagement in the policing of Scottish football

The recent history of the policing of Scottish football has been tempestuous. The enactment of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012 subjected those attending regulated football matches to a range of new forms of control, and mobilised significant fan resistance that resulted in the Act’s eventual repeal in 2018. By this time, however, significant damage had been inflicted upon fan-police relations, with a concomitant impact on communication and fan engagement. Drawing upon the findings of qualitative research conducted in Scotland, the analysis herein documents a recognition on all sides of the poor state of fan-police relations following the implementation of the original Act. This research traces an emergent shift in some policing sensibilities towards more constructive forms of police-fan engagement and communication following the Act’s repeal. However, the study also highlights significant challenges to such emergent sensibilities, acknowledging, via a case study, that they exist in parallel with still highly problematic practices and approaches in the policing of football fans in Scotland

A tale of two cities: restoring water services in Kabul and Monrovia

Kabul and Monrovia, the respective capitals of Afghanistan and Liberia, have recently emerged from long-lasting armed conflicts. In both cities, a large number of organisations took part in emergency water supply provision and later in the rehabilitation of water systems. Based on field research, this paper establishes a parallel between the operations carried out in the two settings, highlighting similarities and analysing the two most common strategies. The first strategy involves international financial institutions, which fund large-scale projects focusing on infrastructural rehabilitation and on the institutional development of the water utility, sometimes envisaging private-sector participation. The second strategy involves humanitarian agencies, which run community-based projects, in most cases independently of the water utilities, and targeting low-income areas. Neither of these approaches manages to combine sustainability and universal service. The paper assesses their respective strengths and weaknesses and suggests ways of improving the quality of assistance provided

‘There is more than one sort of prison, Captain’:a popular criminology of prisons and penal regimes in Star Wars

In this paper we emphasise how science fiction, as a projection of the possible, can forewarn of dystopic dangers in emergent and future penal regimes. In this popular criminology we explore three archetypes of the prison as they have appeared across the Star Wars franchise: the panoptic prison; the labour camp; and the smart prison. The panoptic prison of the Galactic Republic invokes reflective nostalgia; prompting critical discussion of the deficiencies of the modern prison. Under the Galactic Empire prisons become labour camps, recalling the horrors of the Gulag as violent and cruel manifestations of underpinning ideology. Whilst the fall of the Galactic Empire signalled a return to governance based on democratic values, the representation of the smart prison in the New Republic continues to resonate as a techno-Gulag, reading as an allegory for a deeper crisis of liberal democracy. Analysed as such, prisons in Star Wars exist at the intersection of the past, present and possible futures of penal regimes, and in our current political climate can be a resource for resistance to technological trends and dystopic dangers. Star Wars, we conclude, and science fiction more broadly, is well-positioned to inform a radical re-imagining of future prisons and penal regimes