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

The Need for Curtains of the Soul: Privacy Versus Transparency in the Instrumented World of Algorithmic Artificial Intelligence

We approach a privacy singularity in pervasive data collection and inference that may reveal all about our lives. While privacy might not yet be dead, we struggle to maintain its shield for personal autonomy. Part of this contemporary challenge comes from the massive data sets generated every day everywhere. And then the powerful analytics that reveal all. This is further challenged by efforts at data transparency that may reveal too much of one’s life. Preservation of privacy, if we deem it important enough to preserve, must have a robust set of technical and legislative implementations on collection, storage, transmission and use of all such collections of data, public and private. This includes regulation of governmental and private transparency to best assure the protections of the privacy of people. But such protections may conflict with laws protecting freedom of expression or supporting law enforcement, making for greater justification for regulation that demonstrates a compelling need to protect the lives and personal autonomy of others. Yet the importance of protecting that core of people’s lives means we must find a legal/technical curtain to protect those lives from the utter destruction of their privacy and right to personal autonomy

Evidentiary Power and Propriety of Digital Identifiers and the Impact on Privacy Rights in the United States

Media and network systems capture and store data about electronic activity in new, sometimes unprecedented ways; computational systems make for new means of analysis and knowledge development. These new forms offer new, powerful tactical tools for investigations of electronic malfeasance under traditional legal regulation of state power, particular that of Fourth Amendment limitations on police searches and seizures under the U.S. Constitution. But autonomy, identity and authenticity concerns with electronic data raise issues of public policy, privacy and proper police oversight of civil society. We examine those issues and their implications for digital and computational forensic

Public Security & Digital Forensics in the United States: The Continued Need for Expanded Digital Systems for Security

Digital Forensics is one of the latest challenges for the use of forensics in the investigative process in the United States. Some of the challenges are created by conditions and circumstances present for law enforcement around the world. However, many are unique to the United States and created by the standards of evidence within our courts, nature of our law enforcement organizations, and structure of our judicial and prosecutorial systems. It is essential for the preservation of public security and individual safety that competent systems of digital forensics are developed for law enforcement at all levels. The failure to do so will let the guilty avoid responsibility for their criminal actions while possibly subjecting the innocent to unprecedented government intrusion into their private lives

Algorithms of Machines and Law : Risks in Pattern Recognition, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for Justice and Fairness

Pattern recognition, machine learning and artificial intelligence offer tremendous opportunities for efficient operations, management and governance. They can optimise processes for object, text, graphics, speech and pattern recognition. In doing so the algorithmic processing may be subject to unknown biases that do harm rather than good. We examine how this may happen, what damage may occur and the resulting ethical/legal impact and newly manifest obligations to avoid harm to others from these systems. But what are the risks, given the Human Condition

Cyber Black Box/Event Data Recorder: Legal and Ethical Perspectives and Challenges with Digital Forensics

With ubiquitous computing and the growth of the Internet of Things, there is vast expansion in the deployment and use of event data recording systems in a variety of environments. From the ships’ logs of antiquity through the evolution of personal devices for recording personal and environmental activities, these devices offer rich forensic and evidentiary opportunities that smash against rights of privacy and personality. The technical configurations of these devices provide for greater scope of sensing, interconnection options for local, near, and cloud storage of data, and the possibility of powerful analytics. This creates the unique situation of near-total data profiles on the lives of others. We examine legal and ethical issues of such in the American and transnational environment

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

Assessing the legal risks in network forensic probing

This paper presents a framework for identifying the legal risks associated with performing network forensics on public networks. The framework is discussed in the context of the Gnutella P2P network protocol for which the legal issues related to authorized access have not yet been addressed