Legal Studies Commons^™

Identifying Common Characteristics Of Malicious Insiders, Nan Liang, David Biros

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Malicious insiders account for large proportion of security breaches or other kinds of loss for organizations and have drawn attention of both academics and practitioners. Although methods and mechanism have been developed to monitor potential insider via electronic data monitoring, few studies focus on predicting potential malicious insiders. Based on the theory of planned behavior, certain cues should be observed or expressed when an individual performs as a malicious insider. Using text mining to analyze various media content of existing insider cases, we strive to develop a method to identify crucial and common indicators that an individual might be a …

Continuous Monitoring System Based On Systems' Environment, Eli Weintraub, Yuval Cohen

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

We present a new framework (and its mechanisms) of a Continuous Monitoring System (CMS) having new improved capabilities, and discuss its requirements and implications. The CMS is based on the real-time actual configuration of the system and the environment rather than a theoretic or assumed configuration. Moreover, the CMS predicts organizational damages taking into account chains of impacts among systems' components generated by messaging among software components. In addition, the CMS takes into account all organizational effects of an attack. Its risk measurement takes into account the consequences of a threat, as defines in risk analysis standards. Loss prediction is …

Html5 Zero Configuration Covert Channels: Security Risks And Challenges, Jason Farina, Mark Scanlon, Stephen Kohlmann, Nhien-An Le-Khac, Tahar Kechadi

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

In recent months there has been an increase in the popularity and public awareness of secure, cloudless file transfer systems. The aim of these services is to facilitate the secure transfer of files in a peer-to-peer (P2P) fashion over the Internet without the need for centralized authentication or storage. These services can take the form of client installed applications or entirely web browser based interfaces. Due to the P2P nature, there is generally no limit to the file sizes involved or to the volume of data transmitted - and where these limitations do exist they will be purely reliant on …

Measuring Hacking Ability Using A Conceptual Expertise Task, Justin S. Giboney, Jeffrey G. Proudfoot, Sanjay Goel, Joseph S. Valacich

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Hackers pose a continuous and unrelenting threat to organizations. Industry and academic researchers alike can benefit from a greater understanding of how hackers engage in criminal behavior. A limiting factor of hacker research is the inability to verify that self-proclaimed hackers participating in research actually possess their purported knowledge and skills. This paper presents current work in developing and validating a conceptual-expertise based tool that can be used to discriminate between novice and expert hackers. The implications of this work are promising since behavioral information systems researchers operating in the information security space will directly benefit from the validation of …

Invited Paper - A Profile Of Prolonged, Persistent Ssh Attack On A Kippo Based Honeynet, Craig Valli, Priya Rabadia, Andrew Woodard

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

This paper is an investigation focusing on activities detected by SSH honeypots that utilised kippo honeypot software. The honeypots were located across a variety of geographical locations and operational platforms. The honeynet has suffered prolonged, persistent and attack from a /24 network which appears to be of Chinese geographical origin. In addition to these attacks, other attackers have been successful in compromising real hosts in a wide range of other countries that were subsequently involved in attacking the honeypot machines in the honeynet.

Keywords: Cyber Security, SSH, Secure Shell, Honeypots, Kippo

Inivited Paper - Potential Changes To Ediscovery Rules In Federal Court: A Discussion Of The Process, Substantive Changes And Their Applicability And Impact On Virginia Practice, Joseph J. Schwerha, Susan L. Mitchell, John W. Bagby

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) are subject to a unique process also once used in revising the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE). Today, this process is followed in revisions of the FRCP, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and the Federal Bankruptcy Rules. This unique rulemaking process differs significantly from traditional notice and comment rulemaking required for a majority of federal regulatory agencies under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).1 Most notably, rule-making for the federal courts’ procedural matters remain unaffected by the invalidation of legislative veto. It is still widely, but wrongly believed, that the legislative veto was …

On The Network Performance Of Digital Evidence Acquisition Of Small Scale Devices Over Public Networks, Irvin Homem, Spyridon Dosis

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

While cybercrime proliferates – becoming more complex and surreptitious on the Internet – the tools and techniques used in performing digital investigations are still largely lagging behind, effectively slowing down law enforcement agencies at large. Real-time remote acquisition of digital evidence over the Internet is still an elusive ideal in the combat against cybercrime. In this paper we briefly describe the architecture of a comprehensive proactive digital investigation system that is termed as the Live Evidence Information Aggregator (LEIA). This system aims at collecting digital evidence from potentially any device in real time over the Internet. Particular focus is made …

A Review Of Recent Case Law Related To Digital Forensics: The Current Issues, Kelly A. Cole, Shruti Gupta, Dheeraj Gurugubelli, Marcus K. Rogers

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Digital forensics is a new field without established models of investigation. This study uses thematic analysis to explore the different issues seen in the prosecution of digital forensic investigations. The study looks at 100 cases from different federal appellate courts to analyze the cause of the appeal. The issues are categorized into one of four categories, ‘search and seizure’, ‘data analysis’, ‘presentation’ and ‘legal issues’. The majority of the cases reviewed related to the search and seizure activity.

Keywords: Computer Investigation, Case Law, Digital Forensics, Legal Issues, and Courts

A New Cyber Forensic Philosophy For Digital Watermarks In The Context Of Copyright Laws, Vinod P. Bhattathiripad, Sneha Sudhakaran, Roshna K. Thalayaniyil

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

The objective of this paper is to propose a new cyber forensic philosophy for watermark in the context of copyright laws for the benefit of the forensic community and the judiciary worldwide. The paper first briefly introduces various types of watermarks, and then situates watermarks in the context of the ideaexpression dichotomy and the copyright laws. It then explains the forensic importance of watermarks and proposes a forensic philosophy for them in the context of copyright laws. Finally, the paper stresses the vital need to incorporate watermarks in the forensic tests to establish software copyright infringement and also urges the …

A Survey Of Software-Based String Matching Algorithms For Forensic Analysis, Yi-Ching Liao

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Employing a fast string matching algorithm is essential for minimizing the overhead of extracting structured files from a raw disk image. In this paper, we summarize the concept, implementation, and main features of ten software-based string matching algorithms, and evaluate their applicability for forensic analysis. We provide comparisons between the selected software-based string matching algorithms from the perspective of forensic analysis by conducting their performance evaluation for file carving. According to the experimental results, the Shift-Or algorithm (R. Baeza-Yates & Gonnet, 1992) and the Karp-Rabin algorithm (Karp & Rabin, 1987) have the minimized search time for identifying the locations of …

Investigating Forensics Values Of Windows Jump Lists Data, Ahmad Ghafarian

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Starting with Windows 7, Microsoft introduced a new feature to the Windows Operating Systems called Jump Lists. Jump Lists stores information about user activities on the host machine. These activities may include links to the recently visited web pages, applications executed, or files processed. Computer forensics investigators may find traces of misuse in Jump Lists auto saved files. In this research, we investigate the forensics values of Jump Lists data. Specifically, we use several tools to view Jump Lists data on a virtual machine. We show that each tool reveal certain types of information about user’s activity on the host …

An Empirical Comparison Of Widely Adopted Hash Functions In Digital Forensics: Does The Programming Language And Operating System Make A Difference?, Satyendra Gurjar, Ibrahim Baggili, Frank Breitinger, Alice Fischer

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Hash functions are widespread in computer sciences and have a wide range of applications such as ensuring integrity in cryptographic protocols, structuring database entries (hash tables) or identifying known files in forensic investigations. Besides their cryptographic requirements, a fundamental property of hash functions is efficient and easy computation which is especially important in digital forensics due to the large amount of data that needs to be processed when working on cases. In this paper, we correlate the runtime efficiency of common hashing algorithms (MD5, SHA-family) and their implementation. Our empirical comparison focuses on C-OpenSSL, Python, Ruby, Java on Windows and …

Two Challenges Of Stealthy Hypervisors Detection: Time Cheating And Data Fluctuations, Igor Korkin

Annual ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law

Hardware virtualization technologies play a significant role in cyber security. On the one hand these technologies enhance security levels, by designing a trusted operating system. On the other hand these technologies can be taken up into modern malware which is rather hard to detect. None of the existing methods is able to efficiently detect a hypervisor in the face of countermeasures such as time cheating, temporary self-uninstalling, memory hiding etc. New hypervisor detection methods which will be described in this paper can detect a hypervisor under these countermeasures and even count several nested ones. These novel approaches rely on the …

Institutionalized Racism And The Death Penalty, Ashleigh Ellis

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Overtime, support for capital punishment has evolved. Compared to previous decades, support has changed amongst different variables such as: age, race, gender, and political perspective; therefore, today, these variables have changed the amount of support for it. For example, as of today, 6 states have repealed the death penalty with New Jersey being the first in 2007 to do so in 40 years. As memories of Jim Crow and the Civil Rights era have faded due to generational replacement, American society today still has this racial gap, however it is due to this racial resentment or symbolic resentment that the …

Indigenous Land Rights Of The Khoi In South Africa, Chelsea Wilkins

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Upon discussions in classes at James Madison University, I became aware of the Khoi people. I became interested in their way of life, as well as the implications of globalization and industrialization worldwide. After researching the topic, I decided I wanted to not only write my thesis on this topic, but I wanted to travel to South Africa to learn more. I wanted to know how a refreshment station at the Cape for the Dutch East India Company transformed into a fight for land that ultimately led to the extreme disenfranchisement of the Khoi people and their way of life. …

Trending@Rwu Law: Swapna Yeluri's Post: Baltimore: Ignoring Problems No Longer An Option, Swapna Yeluri

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

The Surveillance State: Do License Plate Readers Impinge Upon Americans' Civil Liberties?, Jourdin Hermann

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The boundaries that delineate public from private sphere have challenged our political system’s foundations since its origination. License plate readers (LPRs), a tool used by law enforcement and private businesses, cause citizens and their government to question the criteria separating public and private information. While police and repossession agencies contend that license plate readers aid their work, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argues that surveillance equipment interferes with an individual’s right to privacy. Addressing such privacy concerns requires the public to hold its government accountable by petitioning for limits on LPR use and data retention. LPRs also pose unique …

Justice Reform: Who's Got The Power, Yevgeniy Mayba

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

As the US prison population continues to rise despite the significant decrease in crime rates, scholars and social activists are demanding comprehensive reforms to the penal system that disproportionately affects minorities and the poor and has become a significant burden on the taxpayers. This paper examines some of the processes that contributed to the rise of the modern day carceral state, such as the determinate sentencing reform and the proliferation of mandatory minimum sentencing. It also explores the unintended consequences of these penal developments and traces the reaction and subsequent resistance to these sentencing schemes from the judiciary, as well …

There Goes The Neighborhood: Exposing The Relationship Between Gentrification And Incarceration, Casey Kellogg

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

This paper seeks to demonstrate that there is a deliberate and intentional link between residential housing patterns and crime and mass incarceration, and that government plays a strong role in allowing and formalizing this link. Using historical examples, this paper attempts to document the role of government and policy in furthering residential segregation through the processes of gentrification and disinvestment. By contributing to the destruction of low-income communities and the invasion of gentry through covert partnerships with the private sector to develop land and design cities, government has prioritized commercial interests over the needs of the community at all income …

The Use Of Criminal Profilers In The Prosecution Of Serial Killers, Chelsea Van Aken

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the concept of criminal profiling in terms of serial killers in the United States. The research provided in this paper was found using the most recent research available on the topic. The FBI’s Behavioral Unit, or National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC), is the current leading law enforcement agency that investigates these types of crimes. They utilize definitions, typographies, and motives to create a criminal profile to investigate serial killings. Ultimately, these profiles are inadequate because they are inconclusive and exclude multiple suspects that are potentially dangerous. Therefore, criminal …

The "Csi Effect" And Its Potential Impact On Juror Decisions, John Alldredge

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The “CSI Effect” was first described in the media as a phenomenon resulting from viewing forensic and crime based television shows. This effect influences jurors to have unrealistic expectations of forensic science during a criminal trial and affect jurors’ decisions in the conviction or acquittal process. Research has shown the “CSI Effect” has a possible pro-defense bias, in that jurors are less likely to convict without the presence of some sort of forensic evidence. Some studies show actors in the criminal justice system are changing their tactics, as if this effect has a significant influence, causing them to request unnecessary …

Did They Ever Stand A Chance? Understanding Police Interrogations Of Juveniles, Brian Werner

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

The Miranda v. Arizona (1966) decision was a pivotal case in the United States. It afforded rights to suspects and defendants against self-incrimination and representation during police interrogations. Miranda ensured police read individuals in custody their rights before interrogations. However, what happens when individuals being read their rights do not fully comprehend the significance of what the police are telling them, whether it is because of lack of comprehension due to brain development, or susceptibility to the influence of those questioning them? The courts have examined these direct issues when it comes to “voluntary” confessions made by juveniles. Several cases …

Imagining The Unimaginable: Torture And The Criminal Law, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This article examines the use of torture by the U.S. government in the context of the late 20th-century preventive turn in criminal justice. Challenging the assumption that the use of “enhanced interrogation tactics” in the war on terror was an exceptional deviation from accepted norms, this article suggests that this deviation began decades before the terror attacks, in the context of conventional criminal procedure. I point to the use of the “ticking time bomb hypothetical,” and its connection to criminal procedure’s “kidnapping hypothetical.” Using case law and criminal procedure textbooks I trace the employment of that narrative over several decades, …

Prison Privatization: Driving Influences And Performance Evaluation, Carla Schultz

Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science

United States conservatism and neoliberalism have created a market for prison privatization. The business of making money from incarcerated bodies is in direct conflict with the goals of the justice system. Driving economic and political forces are examined and used to explain the rising prison-industrial complex. Private prison performance is measured by recidivism, cost, inmate rights, and quality of confinement. This paper suggests that prison privatization must be reformed or abolished to improve the corrections system in the United States.

Resurrecting The "Dead" Second Amendment: How The Libertarian Legal Movement Has Shaped Gun Control Litigation, Anthony M. Sierzega

Politics Honors Papers

For nearly two centuries following its adoption, the Second Amendment was largely ignored and even referred to as a “dead amendment.” Virtually all legal scholarship considered the right protected by the amendment to be a collective right written into the Constitution to protect local militias from a powerful federal standing army. However, beginning in the late 1970s a surge of libertarian scholarship began to emerge promoting the Second Amendment as a safeguard for an individual right to bear arms without any connection to military service. Promoted by the National Rifle Association and libertarian theorists, the individual-right theory began to gain …

An Analysis And Examination Of College Undergraduates' Perceptions Of Women In Law Enforcement, William T. Stone ~

Honors College Theses

Throughout the course of history, various perceptions of gender and the roles that each gender should play have been observed. As Western society has progressed, so have the rights of women in many modern, developed nations. In America, women became an integral part of the workforce during World War II. When the war was over, however, they were expected to return to a more domestic role. Today, the number of women in the workplace continues to increase; however, many disparities continue to exist. Traditionally masculine careers, such as policing, have seen smaller increases in the number of women in these …

Editorial, Willard M. Oliver

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Welcome to the third volume of the Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology. I am pleased to report that the journal is still going strong and manuscripts continue to be submitted on a regular basis. The journal continues to hold its authors to a high standard and as you will note for this issue’s updated analytics, the journal is currently holding a 16.9% acceptance rate. I believe you will see the satisfactory results of maintaining the high standards in this first issue of Volume 3. Lisa Kort-Butler and Michael Killingsworth lead off with a historical analysis of media-crime …

“Were You Drunk At The Time?”: The Influence Of Parole Boards On Accounts And Neutralization Techniques In State Parole Hearings, Danielle Lavin-Loucks, Kristine Levan

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"This paper examines the collaborative nature of accounts and neutralization techniques that are employed in parole hearings. Prior research using neutralization theory has largely overlooked the role of other actors in the development of neutralizations, examining them through interviews or narratives where interaction is either scripted or limited and thus has little bearing on the production of such accounts. In contrast, this study evaluates real time interaction, examining how parole board members propose, respond to, and modify neutralizations issued by inmates seeking parole. Ethnographic observations of 438 regular parole and parole revocation hearings, videotapes of 40 such hearings from the …

Becoming A Hacker: Demographic Characteristics And Developmental Factors, Kevin F. Steinmetz

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Hackers are not defined by any single act; they go through a process of development. Building from previous research and through ethnographic interviews and participant observation, the current analysis examines characteristics which may influence an individual’s development as a hacker. General demographic characteristics are analyzed, the participants’ school experiences are discussed, and perceived levels of parental support and influence are defined. Finally, descriptions of first exposures to technology, the concept of hacking, and the hacking community are presented. The study concludes with theoretical implications and suggestions for future research."

Summer Cop: A Qualitative Study Of Summer Police Officers, Brad Campbell

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"There are approximately 18,000 police agencies employing 750,000 police officers in the United States in order to police a population over 300 million citizens. In addition, sketchy estimates state there are 400,000 police reserves assisting full-time sworn officers in their duties. One major subgroup of these police reserves are summer police officers (“summer cops”) who serve full-time during the tourist season in mostly beach communities. There has been little to no research into this subpopulation of police officers and little is known about their background and reasons for becoming summer reserve officers. In order to fill this gap in the …