A Nearly Four-Year Longitudinal Study of Search-Engine Poisoning

We investigate the evolution of search-engine poisoning using data on over 5 million search results collected over nearly 4 years. We build on prior work investigating search-redirection attacks, where criminals compromise high-ranking websites and direct search traf-fic to the websites of paying customers, such as unlicensed phar-macies who lack access to traditional search-based advertisements. We overcome several obstacles to longitudinal studies by amalga-mating different resources and adapting our measurement infras-tructure to changes brought by adaptations by both legitimate op-erators and attackers. Our goal is to empirically characterize how strategies for carrying out and combating search poisoning have evolved over a relatively long time period. We investigate how the composition of search results themselves has changed. For in-stance, we find that search-redirection attacks have steadily grown to take over a larger share of results (rising from around 30 % in late 2010 to a peak of nearly 60 % in late 2012), despite efforts by search engines and browsers to combat their effectiveness. We also study the efforts of hosts to remedy search-redirection attacks. We find that the median time to clean up source infections has fallen from around 30 days in 2010 to around 15 days by late 2013, yet the number of distinct infections has increased considerably over the same period. Finally, we show that the concentration of traffic to the most successful brokers has persisted over time. Further, these brokers have been mostly hosted on a few autonomous systems, which indicates a possible intervention strategy. Categories and Subject Descriptors K.4.1 [Public Policy Issues]: Abuse and crime involving comput-er

Is the European Union ready for foreign direct investment from emerging markets?

This chapter asks whether the European Union Member States are ready for inward Foreign Direct Investment from the Emerging Markets. It concludes that European Union Member States have relatively open Foreign Direct Investment regimes in the international context, and yet instances of protectionism have been apparent in the recent period. However, protectionism has occurred both vis-a-vis Foreign Direct Investment from the Global South as well as from within the European Union, particularly in the so-called 'strategic' industries

Global overview of the management of acute cholecystitis during the COVID-19 pandemic (CHOLECOVID study)

Background: This study provides a global overview of the management of patients with acute cholecystitis during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: CHOLECOVID is an international, multicentre, observational comparative study of patients admitted to hospital with acute cholecystitis during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data on management were collected for a 2-month study interval coincident with the WHO declaration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and compared with an equivalent pre-pandemic time interval. Mediation analysis examined the influence of SARS-COV-2 infection on 30-day mortality. Results: This study collected data on 9783 patients with acute cholecystitis admitted to 247 hospitals across the world. The pandemic was associated with reduced availability of surgical workforce and operating facilities globally, a significant shift to worse severity of disease, and increased use of conservative management. There was a reduction (both absolute and proportionate) in the number of patients undergoing cholecystectomy from 3095 patients (56.2 per cent) pre-pandemic to 1998 patients (46.2 per cent) during the pandemic but there was no difference in 30-day all-cause mortality after cholecystectomy comparing the pre-pandemic interval with the pandemic (13 patients (0.4 per cent) pre-pandemic to 13 patients (0.6 per cent) pandemic; P = 0.355). In mediation analysis, an admission with acute cholecystitis during the pandemic was associated with a non-significant increased risk of death (OR 1.29, 95 per cent c.i. 0.93 to 1.79, P = 0.121). Conclusion: CHOLECOVID provides a unique overview of the treatment of patients with cholecystitis across the globe during the first months of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The study highlights the need for system resilience in retention of elective surgical activity. Cholecystectomy was associated with a low risk of mortality and deferral of treatment results in an increase in avoidable morbidity that represents the non-COVID cost of this pandemic