Downstream Competence Challenges and Legal/Ethical Risks in Digital Forensics

Forensic practice is an inherently human-mediated system, from processing and collection of evidence to presentation and judgment. This requires attention to human factors and risks which can lead to incorrect judgments and unjust punishments. For digital forensics, such challenges are magnified by the relative newness of the discipline and the use of electronic evidence in forensic proceedings. Traditional legal protections, rules of procedure and ethics rules mitigate these challenges. Application of those traditions better ensures forensic findings are reliable. This has significant consequences where findings may impact a person\u27s liberty or property, a person\u27s life or even the political direction of a nation. Conversely, a legal, procedural or ethical failure leads to a failure in the mission of the system of justice and of public security We examine this for digital forensics and outline a framework to mitigate the risk of a forensic and security failure

Security and the Transnational Information Polity

Global information and communications technologies create criminal opportunities in which criminal violation and physical proximity are decoupled. As in all our endeavors, the good become the prey of the bad. Murderous and venal exploitation of ICT has followed from the inception of the Internet, threatening all the good it brings and the trust we need so badly as a people. As the work continues to expand the implementation of Smart Cities and the Internet of Things, there will be more opportunities for exploitation of these technologies. We examine the social and liberty risks our data and technology-driven responses may entail

The Impact of Low Self-Control on Online Harassment: Interaction with Opportunity.

Developing Internet technology has increased the rates of youth online harassment. This study examines online harassment from adolescents with low self-control and the moderating effect of opportunity. The data used in this study were collected by the Korea Institute of Criminology in 2009. The total sample size was 1,091. The results indicated that low self-control, opportunity, and gender have a significant influence on online harassment. However, these results differed according to gender; for males, low self-control significantly impacted online harassment; for females, however, only low self-control significantly impacted online harassment. Furthermore, the interaction between low self-control and opportunity did not significantly influence online harassment for either gender. The results of multiple regression strongly supported Gottfredson and Hirschi\u27s (1990) theory, but other models divided by gender only partially supported interacting effects. Thus, low self-control theory should be applied by genders. These results can help to guide investigations of online misconduct and application of digital forensics resources as well as suggest policies and practices to prevent and remediate it

Government Cybersurveillance and AI: A New Equation

There is a tension between state oversight and state intrusion into our personal lives. The analytical powers of artificial intelligence/machine learning and the pervasive data collection of the Internet of Things, the Smart City and all those personal devices we use together permit revelations as to our lives as never seen before. We must consider the impact of this on the relations between citizen and government in this new, ubiquitous world of government cybersurveillance and revelation

Cyber security challenges in Smart Cities: Safety, security and privacy

The world is experiencing an evolution of Smart Cities. These emerge from innovations in information technology that, while they create new economic and social opportunities, pose challenges to our security and expectations of privacy. Humans are already interconnected via smart phones and gadgets. Smart energy meters, security devices and smart appliances are being used in many cities. Homes, cars, public venues and other social systems are now on their path to the full connectivity known as the “Internet of Things.” Standards are evolving for all of these potentially connected systems. They will lead to unprecedented improvements in the quality of life. To benefit from them, city infrastructures and services are changing with new interconnected systems for monitoring, control and automation. Intelligent transportation, public and private, will access a web of interconnected data from GPS location to weather and traffic updates. Integrated systems will aid public safety, emergency responders and in disaster recovery. We examine two important and entangled challenges: security and privacy. Security includes illegal access to information and attacks causing physical disruptions in service availability. As digital citizens are more and more instrumented with data available about their location and activities, privacy seems to disappear. Privacy protecting systems that gather data and trigger emergency response when needed are technological challenges that go hand-in-hand with the continuous security challenges. Their implementation is essential for a Smart City in which we would wish to live. We also present a model representing the interactions between person, servers and things. Those are the major element in the Smart City and their interactions are what we need to protect

Ubiquitous Networks, Ubiquitous Sensors: Issues Of Security, Reliability And Privacy In The Internet Of Things

The growth of ubiquitous networks moves ever more personal data into collectible and computational opportunities. This changes assumptions based on past latency and limits on data analysis and brings challenges to the reliability of data acquisition principles and practices and their proper use in societies. System engineers must consider outcomes and related regulation in the design and use of these systems. It also cautions us as to overreaching. We examine the general legal sphere within which ubiquitous networks and associated data exist, mapping some technological outcomes to legal consequences. We consider the impact and legal decisions regarding ubiquitous networks in the United States as an indicator of future direction and legal entanglements of these technological systems. In particular, we consider security and privacy principles that may regulate computational use through ubiquitous networks, and the competing interests/benefits/detriments in their use. This informs as to possible future regulation that may be needed or required and offer guidance with the growing data sphere and ubiquitous networking, and advises that the engineering of such systems should be flexible enough to accommodate new regulatory regimes as to deployment, access and use