scholarly journals Digital Evidence and Cloud Forensics: Contemporary Legal Challenges and the Power of Disposal

Information ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 181
Author(s):  
Christos Karagiannis ◽  
Kostas Vergidis
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Cloud Storage ◽  
User Authentication ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
Digital Evidence ◽  
Global Effect ◽  
Data Preservation ◽  
Legal Challenges ◽  
Legal Frameworks ◽  
Cloud Storage Environment

Fighting crime in cyberspace requires law enforcement authorities to immerse in a digital ocean of vast amount of information and also to acquire and objectify the evidence of criminal activity. Handling digital evidence is a complex and multifaceted process as they can provide critical evidentiary information in an unquestionable and irrefutable way. When digital evidence resides in a cloud storage environment the criminal investigation is faced with unprecedented contemporary legal challenges. In this paper, the authors identify three main legal challenges that arise from the current cloud-based technological landscape, i.e., territoriality (the loss of location), possession (the cloud content ownership) and confiscation procedure (user authentication/data preservation issues). On the onset of the identified challenges, the existing American, European and International legal frameworks are thoroughly evaluated. Finally, the authors discuss and endorse the Power of Disposal, a newly formed legal notion and a multidisciplinary solution with a global effect as a result of collaboration between technical, organizational and legal perspectives as an effective first step to mitigate the identified legal challenges.

Digital Forensics

2011 ◽  
pp. 311-325
Author(s):  
David A. Dampier ◽  
A. Chris Bogen
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Digital Forensics ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
Computer Forensics ◽  
Data Recovery ◽  
Digital Evidence ◽  
Digital Forensic ◽  
Network Device

This chapter introduces the field of digital forensics. It is intended as an overview to permit the reader to understand the concepts and to be able to procure the appropriate assistance should the need for digital forensics expertise arise. Digital forensics is the application of scientific techniques of discovery and exploitation to the problem of finding, verifying, preserving, and exploiting digital evidence for use in a court of law. It involves the use of hardware and software for finding evidence of criminal activity on digital media, either in a computer or in a network device, and attributing that evidence to a suspect for the purposes of conviction. Digital forensics can also be used for non-law enforcement purposes. Data recovery is a form of computer forensics used outside of the legal arena. The authors hope that the reader will understand some of the intricacies of digital forensics and be able to intelligently respond to incidents requiring a digital forensic response.

scholarly journals The Fine Line: Rural Justice, Public Health and Safety, and the Coronavirus Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 000276422110031
Author(s):  
Jennifer Sherman ◽  
Jennifer Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
Personal Liberty ◽  
Local Law Enforcement ◽  
Local Law ◽  
Sheriff's Department ◽  
Public Health And Safety

In this article, we provide an early glimpse into how the issues of public health and safety played out in the rural United States during the coronavirus pandemic, focusing on Washington State. We utilize a combination of news articles and press releases, sheriff’s department Facebook posts, publicly available jail data, courtroom observations, in-depth interviews with those who have been held in rural jails, and interviews with rural law enforcement staff to explore this theme. As elected officials, rural sheriffs are beholden to populations that include many who are suspicious of science, liberal agendas, and anything that might threaten what they see as individual freedom. At the same time, they expect local law enforcement to employ punitive measures to control perceived criminal activity in their communities. These communities are often tightly knit, cohesive, and isolated, with high levels of social support both for community members and local leaders, including sheriffs and law enforcement. This complex social context often puts rural sheriffs and law enforcement officers in difficult positions. Given the multiple cross-pressures that rural justice systems faced in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, we explore the circumstances in which they attempted to protect and advocate for the health and safety of both their incarcerated and their nonincarcerated populations. We find that certain characteristics of rural communities both help and hinder local law enforcement in efforts to combat the virus, but these characteristics typically favor informal norms of social control to govern community health. Thus, rural sheriff’s departments repeatedly chose strategies that limited their abilities to protect populations from the disease, in favor of appearing tough on crime and supportive of personal liberty.

scholarly journals Distributed data hiding in multi-cloud storage environment

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonel Moyou Metcheka ◽  
René Ndoundam
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Storage ◽  
Network Protocols ◽  
Secret Message ◽  
Covert Channel ◽  
Distributed Data ◽  
Comparison Results ◽  
Major Interest ◽  
Cloud Storage Environment ◽  
Audio Video ◽  
Multi Cloud

AbstractClassical or traditional steganography aims at hiding a secret in cover media such as text, image, audio, video or even in network protocols. Recent research has improved this approach called distributed steganography by fragmenting the secret message and embedding each secret piece into a distinct cover media. The major interest of this approach is to make the secret message detection extremely difficult. However, these file modifications leave fingerprints which can reveal a secret channel to an attacker. Our contribution is a new steganography paradigm transparent to any attacker and resistant to the detection and the secret extraction. Two properties contribute to achieve these goals: the files do not undergo any modification while the distribution of the secret in the multi-cloud storage environment allows us to hide the existence of the covert channel between the communicating parties. Information’s are usually hidden inside the cover media. In this work, the covert media is a pointer to information. Therefore the file carries the information without being modified and the only way to access it is to have the key. Experiments show interesting comparison results with remarkable security contributions. The work can be seen as a new open direction for further research in the field.

Countering Threats

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-45
Author(s):  
Margarita Jaitner
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Physical Violence ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Mobile Web ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Legal Frameworks ◽  
High Level

The increased adoption of social media has presented security and law enforcement authorities with significant new challenges. For example, the Swedish Security Service (SÄPO) asserts that a large proportion of radicalization takes place in open fora online. Still, approaches to contain social media-driven challenges to security, particularly in democratic societies, remain little explored. Nonetheless, this type of knowledge may become relevant in European countries in the near future: Amongst other factors, the challenging economic situation has resulted in increased public discontent leading to emergence or manifestation of groups that seek to challenge the existing policies by almost any means. Use of social media multiplies the number of vectors that need law enforcement attention. First, a high level of social media adaption allows groups to reach and attract a wider audience. Unlike previously, many groups today consist of a large but very loosely connected network. This lack of cohesion can present a challenge for authorities, to identify emerging key actors and assess threat levels. Second, a high level of mobile web penetration has allowed groups to ad-hoc organize, amend plans and redirect physical activities. Third, the tool social media is as not exclusive to potential perpetrators of unlawful action, but is as well available to law enforcement authorities. Yet, efficient utilization of social media requires a deep understanding of its nature and a well-crafted, comprehensive approach. Acknowledging the broad functionality of social media, as well as its current status in the society, this article describes a model process for security authorities and law enforcement work with social media in general and security services work in particular. The process is cyclic and largely modular. It provides a set of goals and tasks for each stage of a potential event, rather than fixed activities. This allows authorities to adapt the process to individual legal frameworks and organization setups. The approach behind the process is holistic where social media is regarded as both source and destination of information. Ultimately, the process aims at efficiently and effectively mitigating the risk of virtual and physical violence.

scholarly journals Translated Transcripts From Covert Recordings Used for Evidence in Court: Issues of Reliability

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gilbert ◽  
Georgina Heydon
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
National Security ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
Organised Crime ◽  
Complex Environment ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Australian State ◽  
Using Data

Nation states increasingly apply electronic surveillance techniques to combat serious and organised crime after broadening and deepening their national security agendas. Covertly obtained recordings from telephone interception and listening devices of conversations related to suspected criminal activity in Languages Other Than English (LOTE) frequently contain jargon and/or code words. Community translators and interpreters are routinely called upon to transcribe intercepted conversations into English for evidentiary purposes. This paper examines the language capabilities of community translators and interpreters undertaking this work for law enforcement agencies in the Australian state of Victoria. Using data collected during the observation of public court trials, this paper presents a detailed analysis of Vietnamese-to-English translated transcripts submitted as evidence by the Prosecution in drug-related criminal cases. The data analysis reveals that translated transcripts presented for use as evidence in drug-related trials contain frequent and significant errors. However, these discrepancies are difficult to detect in the complex environment of a court trial without the expert skills of an independent discourse analyst fluent in both languages involved. As a result, trials tend to proceed without the reliability of the translated transcript being adequately tested.

Disclosure, Security, Technology

2021 ◽  
pp. 100-116
Author(s):  
Darryl K. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Information Disclosure ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Digital Evidence ◽  
Security Technology ◽  
Evidence Gathering ◽  
Disclosure Rules ◽  
Types Of Information ◽  
Trial Evidence

Criminal disclosure rules in all common law jurisdictions are organized around the same sets of conflicting aims. Pre-trial evidence disclosure is essential to fair and accurate adjudication. Yet certain types of information, such as identities of undercover operatives and ongoing law enforcement surveillance, must be kept confidential. Beyond these tensions, disclosure practices face new challenges arising primarily from evolving technology and investigative tactics. This chapter describes divergent approaches across common law jurisdictions—especially among U.S. states—to these challenges and offers explanations for their differences. It also sketches the technology-based challenges that discovery schemes face and offers options, or tentative predictions about their resolution. Differences often turn on who decides whether to withhold information from the defense—judges or prosecutors—and when certain information must be disclosed. Broader disclosure regimes tend to put greater trust in judicial capacity to dictate or at least review hard questions about the costs, benefits, and timing of disclosure; narrower systems leave more power in prosecutors’ hands. Technology has multiplied challenges for disclosure policy by vastly increasing evidence-gathering tactics and thus the nature and volume of information. Disclosure rules adapted fairly easily to the rise much forensic lab analysis. But fast-growing forms of digital evidence is more problematic. Defendants may lack the time to examine volumes of video and technical resources to analyze other data; sometimes prosecutors do as well. The chapter identifies some possible solutions emerging through technology and law reform, as well as trend toward greater judicial management of pre-trial disclosure.

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