Digital Commons Network^™

Threats To Information Protection - Industry And Academic Perspectives: An Annotated Bibliography, Michael E. Whitman, Herbert J. Mattord

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Threats to information assets have always been a concern to those responsible for making information useful and defending its value. The concepts of threat, threat agent, threat events and threat sources have evolved in recent years have very precise definitions. A summary of threat classification models used in academic research is provided along with a summary of recent industry threat assessment reports. Finally, the results from a recent study, 2015 SEC/CISE Threats to Information Protection Report Including a Current Snapshot of the State of the Industry, are given.

Smoke And Mirrors: Generic Manipulation And Doubling In Dancing To “Almendra”, Amanda Ruth Waugh Lagji

Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal

This paper explores Mayra Montero’s novel Dancing to “Almendra” as a specifically postcolonial revision of the classic detective novel. Through an examination of the novel’s generic characteristics, I argue that elements that might be at first considered mere postmodern play—the conflation of the real and the performed or the illusion, anachronistic film references, the implantation of historical figures and cinematic personas alike into an otherwise fictional detective narrative—serves the novel’s socially committed, political critique. The doubling and smoke and mirrors that structure the novel ultimately serve to show the truth more clearly, as the postmodern play of performance, smoke, and …

State Failure In Venezuela, Marcus Littman

Master's Theses

The role of the state is to provide political goods such as security and an environment conducive to economic growth. The Venezuelan state is failing to provide both security and conditions capable of producing economic growth. The government has exacerbated both by enacting failed policies. I measure the economic crisis in Venezuela based on the rates of inflation, falling foreign currency reserves, the food and medical supply shortage, falling government spending, and negative GDP growth. I measure the security crisis based on the escalating rate of kidnapping, human trafficking, drug sales, smuggling, theft, gun distribution, and homicide. In this thesis, …

Drug Trafficking And The Presidential Family In Venezuela: The Narco Nephews, Daniela Castro

Capstones

An explosive combination of political turmoil, a deep economic crisis and critical security situation has Venezuela on the verge of collapse. Despite the alarming situation in the country, not everyone is doing so bad, especially those close to the ruling power. Ferraris, access to private aircrafts and bodyguards are only some of the privileges that only few can get access to in this impoverished South American nation.

Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, 30, and Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, 31 -- the nephews of the Venezuelan Presidential couple -- were found guilty of conspiring to import hundreds of kilograms of cocaine …

Emigration, Repatriation And The Reality Of Returned Youth In El Salvador, Isabel C. Duarte Vasquez

Master's Theses

According to US Customs and Border Protection, over 59 thousand unaccompanied minors from the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) have been detained at the US border, of those 59 thousand, 17 thousand are from El Salvador. El Salvador is home to some of the most dangerous and ruthless gangs of the twenty-first century. Their ruthlessness comes from 1980s guerrilla warfare experience. In addition, El Salvador serves as a transshipment point for illicit substances from South America into Mexico. These dynamics fuel the homicide rate of the region as local gang members must protect their territory by any means …

Strategic Insights: Thinking Strategically About Latin America And The Caribbean, R. Evan Ellis

Articles & Editorials

No abstract provided.

Mexican And Central American Emigration: Exploring Recent Motivations And Challenges Of The Migrant Child Arriving To The U.S, Frank (Frank Edward) Bradford

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines several critical factors deemed to be important in examining why children from Mexico and Central America decide to take risks by traveling alone to unfamiliar places, such as the U.S., in such large numbers. An exploration of present day and historical backgrounds provide insight for social, political, and economic conditions that assist in shaping the landscape and outlook of Central Americans and Mexicans, particularly children on a daily basis.

Costa Rica And Panama Work To Solve Immigration Crisis At Their Border, George Rodrã­Guez

NotiCen

No abstract provided.

The Merida Initiative: Perceptions, Interests And Security Cooperation In The Mexico-U.S. Relationship (2006-2012), Alberto Lozano-Vázquez

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation asserts that bilateral cooperation can be possible when specific perceptions and identities -socially constructed- converge between two states, creating subsequently rational incentives to cooperate strategically. Both states can derive domestic and international benefits from mutual cooperation materialized through a specific bilateral policy. However, the evaluation of such cooperative program requires, as another stage of analysis, different analytical tools based on materialist and constructivist criteria opening then the possibility to find successes and failures simultaneously in the same bilateral policy. Taking the Merida Initiative as a case study of security cooperation, this research engages in the analysis of the …

Military Contingencies In Megacities And Sub-Megacities, Phil Williams Dr., Werner Selle Mr.

Monographs, Collaborative Studies, & IRPs

Urbanization is one of the most important mega-trends of the 21st century. Consequently, the possibility of U.S. military involvement in a megacity or sub-megacity is an eventuality that cannot be ignored. After elucidating the nature of urbanization and developing a typology in terms of smart, fragile, and feral cities, we give consideration to the kinds of contingencies that the U.S. military, especially the Army, needs to think about and prepare for. Understanding the city as a complex system or organism is critical and provides the basis for changes in intelligence, recruitment, training, equipment, operations, and tactics.

One of the key …

Optimizing Border Security With Stochastic And Deterministic Strategies, Gabriel A. Rueda

Theses and Dissertations

International trade and border security have always been linked together, and so has the need to find ways to improve security decisions. The United States and bordering countries benefit from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but amongst the positive effects of NAFTA there is a looming drug threat that effects the bi-national supply chains. In 2015 Customs and Border Protections (CBP) processed over 72,000 trucks, rail, and sea containers a day. CBP also seized 3.4 million pounds of narcotics, the majority of them at the ports of entry. With unknown threats using commercial vehicles to transport their illicit …

The Canada Brand: Violence And Canadian Mining Companies In Latin America, Shin Imai, Leah Gardner, Sarah Weinberger

All Papers

The Canada Brand: Violence and Canadian Mining in Guatemala

This is the first report to profile specific forms of violence and criminalization associated with Canadian mining projects in Latin America over a fifteen-year period. Each incident is carefully footnoted and all web links are preserved using Harvard Law School’s Perma.cc service. The report is critical of the lack of Canadian mechanisms for investigating human rights abuses of Canadian companies operating overseas. It draws on the thinking of former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Ian Binnie and others to argue that the concepts of proximity to violence and complicity of the …

Back To The Future: The Persistence Of Horse Skidding In Large Scale Industrial Community Forests In Chihuahua, Mexico, David Barton Bray, Elvira Duran, Javier Hernández-Salas, Concepción Luján-Alvarez, Miguel Olivas-García, Iván Grijalva-Martínez

Department of Earth and Environment

Horse skidding for extracting logwood is characterized as a niche activity in small-scale forestry, limited to small tracts and low volumes, where environmental impacts and aesthetics are concerned, and to operations with no wood-processing facilities. This article documents and analyzes the widespread persistence, current magnitude, and multiple advantages of horse skidding in large-scale industrial community forest enterprises in Chihuahua, Mexico. We extracted data from the logging permit files of 59 communities in the Sierra Tarahumara and conducted semi-structured interviews with community leaders and foresters in 18 communities, 17 random selections, and one purposefully selected case. There are nine communities that …

Bringing Balance To The Force: The Militarization Of America’S Police Force And Its Consequences, Anta Plowden

University of Miami Law Review

The current trend in the militarization of police can be traced back to the earliest times in our country. We are soon approaching a tipping point in which the combination of aggressive military tactics, wrongful deaths and injuries, and a lack of accountability will lead to an increase in civil unrest and animosity towards those who have sworn to uphold the law. In an ironic twist of fate, the military force, which law enforcement is trying to emulate, has made sharp adjustments in the way it operates due to the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has adopted more police-like …

Human Rights Commission Resurrects Proposal To Create System Of Anonymous Judges, Carlos Navarro

SourceMex

No abstract provided.

Military Making A Comeback In Central America, George Rodrã­Guez

NotiCen

No abstract provided.

President’S Brother And Son Involved In New Corruption Scandal In Guatemala, Louisa Reynolds

NotiCen

No abstract provided.

Blockchain (Distributed Ledger Technology) Solves Vat Fraud, Richard Thompson Ainsworth, Andrew Shact

Faculty Scholarship

At the World Economic Forum more than 800 executive and technology experts were asked when they thought a particular “tipping point” would be reached – when would we see a government collect tax with blockchain? The agreed date was 2023 (on average). A full 73% of the respondents however, expected the tipping point to have been reached by 2025.

This paper argues that the EU VAT will be an early adopter, if not the earliest adopter of blockchain. There are a number of reasons why. Blockchain will bring substantial efficiencies to VAT collection. It will reduce costs, and build critical …

Drugs & Thugs: Funding Terrorism Through Narcotics Trafficking, Colin P. Clarke

Journal of Strategic Security

To date, much of the literature on the financing of terrorism and insurgency has focused at the macro-level on groups involved in financing their organizations through involvement in the drug trade. This paper discusses some of those implications, but argues that to better understand the threat faced by the new generation of jihadists in the West, security forces and intelligence services must also look at the micro-level of how lower level trafficking, drug dealing and petty criminal activity, combined with prison radicalization and ties to the black market and illicit underworld, combine to present a new spin on a longstanding …

Americas Coverage, Human Rights Brief

Human Rights Brief Fall 2016 Regional Coverage

No abstract provided.

Drug Traffickers Thrive, Branch Out In Porous Paraguay, Andrã©S Gaudã­N

NotiSur

No abstract provided.

Corruption, Abuse Of Power, Gang Violence Endanger Democracy In Central America, George Rodrã­Guez

NotiCen

No abstract provided.

Security Equipment From U.S. To Help Costa Rica Fight Organized Crime, George Rodrã­Guez

NotiCen

No abstract provided.

Meeting With Trump Further Damages President Enrique Peã±A Nieto’S Image In Mexico, Carlos Navarro

SourceMex

No abstract provided.

Costa Rica Steps Up To Help Victims Of Violence In Northern Triangle, George Rodrã­Guez

NotiCen

No abstract provided.

Belize’S Chiquibul Forest Under Threat From Illegal Timber Loggers, Louisa Reynolds

NotiCen

No abstract provided.

Defense Ministry Reports Tens Of Thousands Of Defections From Military Since 2000, Carlos Navarro

SourceMex

No abstract provided.

Retired Army Officer And Notorious Drug Trafficker Captured In Guatemala, Louisa Reynolds

NotiCen

No abstract provided.

Central American Judges And Prosecutors Close Ranks Against Organized Crime, George Rodrã­Guez

NotiCen

No abstract provided.

Journalists, Small-Town Mayors Remain Under Siege In Mexico, Carlos Navarro

SourceMex

No abstract provided.