A novel approach of mining write-prints for authorship attribution in e-mail forensics

There is an alarming increase in the number of cybercrime incidents through anonymous e-mails. The problem of e-mail authorship attribution is to identify the most plausible author of an anonymous e-mail from a group of potential suspects. Most previous contributions employed a traditional classification approach, such as decision tree and Support Vector Machine (SVM), to identify the author and studied the effects of different writing style features on the classification accuracy. However, little attention has been given on ensuring the quality of the evidence. In this paper, we introduce an innovative data mining method to capture the write-print of every suspect and model it as combinations of features that occurred frequently in the suspect's e-mails. This notion is called frequent pattern, which has proven to be effective in many data mining applications, but it is the first time to be applied to the problem of authorship attribution. Unlike the traditional approach, the extracted write-print by our method is unique among the suspects and, therefore, provides convincing and credible evidence for presenting it in a court of law. Experiments on real-life e-mails suggest that the proposed method can effectively identify the author and the results are supported by a strong evidence.     

A novel approach of mining write-prints for authorship attribution in e-mail forensics

There is an alarming increase in the number of cybercrime incidents through anonymous e-mails. The problem of e-mail authorship attribution is to identify the most plausible author of an anonymous e-mail from a group of potential suspects. Most previous contributions employed a traditional classification approach, such as decision tree and Support Vector Machine (SVM), to identify the author and studied the effects of different writing style features on the classification accuracy. However, little attention has been given on ensuring the quality of the evidence. In this paper, we introduce an innovative data mining method to capture the write-print of every suspect and model it as combinations of features that occurred frequently in the suspect's e-mails. This notion is called frequent pattern, which has proven to be effective in many data mining applications, but it is the first time to be applied to the problem of authorship attribution. Unlike the traditional approach, the extracted write-print by our method is unique among the suspects and, therefore, provides convincing and credible evidence for presenting it in a court of law. Experiments on real-life e-mails suggest that the proposed method can effectively identify the author and the results are supported by a strong evidence.     

Pistol image retrieval by shape representation

Databases have been used to record data in forensic science, such as fingerprints, shoeprints, and photos. In traditional databases, we use “text” as the “keyword” for retrieving data (text-keyword retrieval); however, in some applications, “text” is not proper to describe the searching target, and in this case, “image” plays an important role. In this paper, we use “image features” as the “keywords”, and show its potential for building up a prototype of pistol image databases.In current firearm databases of forensic science, the retrieval method is still by text-keyword retrieval. For experienced forensic examiners, this kind of databases may satisfy their requirement. However, for people who have little gun knowledge, how can they find the possible gun candidates or similar guns in the databases, if there are not any available words or marks on the gun? In this paper, we try to retrieve similar pistol images by the pistol shape instead of “text-keyword”. This method can narrow down the searching range while identifying pistols by firearm databases.There are more than 300 pistol images in our pistol image database. From the experimental results, we can retrieve the similar pistol images in top five candidates for each pistol image.     

Whose decision is it anyway?: identifying the Medicaid planning client

In the Medicaid planning context, the answers to seemingly easy questions are often quite elusive. Client identification is fundamental to every attorney-client relationship, yet resolving this basic question for Medicaid planners has sparked some debate. This essay explores the difficult question Medicaid planners encounter regarding client identification. The author, Mr. Rosenfeld, reveals the lack of guidance provided by contemporary legal ethic codes and then investigates some of the client representation models currently used by practitioners. Upon identifying the inherent conflict of interest that often develops in estate planning, Mr. Rosenfeld argues that individual client representation is the only ethically acceptable model of representation.     

Is the general data protection regulation the solution?

Never has a text been received with so many requests for amendments; never has the debate around it been so huge. Some see it as a simple duplicate of the Directive 95/46; others present the GDPR, as a monster. In the context of this birthday, it cannot be a question of analyzing this text or of launching new ideas, but simply of raising two questions. I state the first as follows: "In the end, what are the major features that cross and justify this regulation? In addition, the second: "Is the regulation adequate for today's digital challenges to our societies and freedoms? The answers given in the following lines express the opinion of their author. It is just an invitation for a dialogue to go forth in this journal where so many excellent reflections have been published on Digital Law, thanks to our common friend: Steve.     

China's campaign-style Internet finance governance: Causes,effects, and lessons learned for new information-based approaches to governance,

China's Internet companies and citizens are now world leaders in developing and using the Internet and related information technologies for financial transactions. Accordingly, it is important that China becomes a world leader in identifying challenges posed by Internet finance, and providing law and governance solutions to address these challenges. While the Internet and its associated technologies are now globally available, a core question is whether, and to what extent, regulatory challenges and opportunities are common across different jurisdictions, or whether they reflect local circumstances. In short, an interesting question is what can the world learn from China as it takes the lead in addressing Internet finance challenges, and what can China learn from the world as it seeks to do so?This article first identifies the landscape of China's burgeoning Internet finance market, including key technologies and services and government and nongovernment players. The article then turns to key regulatory challenges, with a focus on factors especially significant in China. The article then examines the “top down” “campaign style” approach to regulation, which is China government's initial response to emerging challenges. Following an analysis of the campaign, some suggestions are then made for future possible governance strategies. We explain how emerging “information” based and experiment-based approaches to governance are drawing on both global and Chinese experiences to harness the capabilities of the Internet and the collective energies of Internet finance enterprises and users to advance the regulation of the China Internet finance system in a way that is conducive to the public interest.     

Forensic analysis of smart TV: A current issue and call to arms

A number of new entertainment systems have appeared on the market that have embedded computing capabilities. Smart Televisions have the ability to connect to networks, browse the web, purchase applications and play games. Early versions were based on proprietary operating systems; newer versions released from 2012 are based on existing operating systems such as Linux and Android. The question arises as to what sort of challenges and opportunities they present to the forensics examiner. Are these new platforms or simply new varieties of existing forms of devices? What data do they retain and how easy is it to access this data? This paper explores this as a future forensic need and asks if we are missing potential sources of forensic data and to what degree we are ready to process these systems as part of an investigation.     

On the commodification of the black female body: the critical implications of the alienability of fetal tissue

Recent scientific experimentation has revealed that fetal tissue yielded from abortions has remarkable therapeutic value. This Note posits that the demand for fetal tissue likely will expand to the point where the current supply no longer satisfies it. Therefore, in order to obtain tissue from women who would not otherwise donate their abortuses, should research organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and doctors be allowed to offer women a "financial incentive" for their fetal tissue? That is, should women be allowed to sell their fetal tissue? This Note explores the question from a Critical Race Theory perspective. It analyzes the impact that a market in fetal tissue will have on Black women, who are more likely to participate in such a market due to their precarious economic situation, their higher abortion rate, and the effects of internalized oppression. The Note concludes that because Black women will be disproportionately exploited, as well as disenfranchised from the benefits produced by a market in fetal tissue, fetal tissue should not be made market alienable.     

Legal Pluralism and the Adjudication of Internet Disputes

No single entity-academic, corporate, governmental or non-profit-administers the Internet. (American Civil Liberties Union v Reno \[E.D. Pa. 1996] 929 F. Supp. 824, 832) The problems of regulation on the Internet are simply stated. First, it allows novel activities: e-mail, electronic discussion groups, simple transfer or viewing of text, images, sound and video. These activities may fall foul of laws of obscenity or defamation in some or all of the jurisdictions in which it is available. Second, the Internet is a distributed system that straddles geographical and jurisdictional boundaries; the regulation of such activities is likely to fall within two or more national 'legal' jurisdictions. It may therefore be difficult to choose an appropriate jurisdiction. Third, the inevitable need to choose a jurisdiction will mean that the values to be imposed upon the dispute will be the values of that jurisdiction, values that may be different from the values of those involved in the dispute. Much has been written on the first two problems and significant developments have been made in the formulation of principles to be applied to the problem of choosing a jurisdiction. In this paper, I will begin to focus on the third problem, the problem of inappropriate values being imposed upon Internet behaviour. The paper will develop the theme that the need for a single jurisdiction and, in consequence, the need for a single set of values to be imposed upon Internet activities is a fiction born out of centralist systems of western jurisprudence. The paper will review how courts have turned against pluralistic approaches in the past when dealing with clashes in cultural and religious values, particularly the clash in the English courts in the case of Salman Rushdie's 'The Satanic Verses'. Western courts have been dismissive of cultural and religious claims either treating them as 'repugnant' or contrary to public policy, or else questioning the validity of the motives of the applicants. It is evident from recent cases in the US, that judges will use similar techniques to impose their own value values upon Internet activity. The concept of legal pluralism is not recognised within westernised systems of law. The paper will then consider whether a more pluralistic strategy would provide a more satisfactory approach to dealing with such disputes on the Internet: an approach that would enable the resolution of the conflict between different cultural and religious values.     

Retracing One’s Steps: Searching for the Ethics of Legal Interpretation

The article discusses the problem of interpretation in law. Are there some criteria by which we can distinguish a good interpretation from a bad one, interpretation from over-interpretation? It is argued in this article that there is always a choice in defining the meaning of a text and this choice can be seen as an ethical one. This article thus studies the question of limits of interpretation by focusing on the ethical elements of interpretation. It is argued here that legal interpretation contains a requirement of justice that shapes the responsibility that the interpreter carries for his choices of meaning. Therefore the ethical elements of interpretation are especially pressing in the interpretation of legal texts.     

Digital camera identification using PRNU: A feature based approach

Source camera identification is one of the emerging field in digital image forensics, which aims at identifying the source camera used for capturing the given image. The technique uses photo response non-uniformity (PRNU) noise as a camera fingerprint, as it is found to be one of the unique characteristic which is capable of distinguishing the images even if they are captured from similar cameras. Most of the existing PRNU based approaches are very sensitive to the random noise components existing in the estimated PRNU, and also they are not robust when some simple manipulations are performed on the images. Hence a new feature based approach of PRNU is proposed for the source camera identification by choosing the features which are robust for image manipulations. The PRNU noise is extracted from the images using wavelet based denoising method and is represented by higher order wavelet statistics (HOWS), which are invariant features for image manipulations and geometric variations. The features are fed to support vector machine classifiers to identify the originating source camera for the given image and the results have been verified by performing ten-fold cross validation technique. The experiments have been carried out using the images captured from various cell phone cameras and it demonstrated that the proposed algorithm is capable of identifying the source camera of the given image with good accuracy. The developed technique can be used for differentiating the images, even if they are captured from similar cameras, which belongs to same make and model. The analysis have also showed that the proposed technique remains robust even if the images are subjected to simple manipulations or geometric variations.     

Forensic investigation framework for the document store NoSQL DBMS: MongoDB as a case study

The NoSQL DBMS provides an efficient means of storing and accessing big data because its servers are more easily horizontally scalable and replicable than relational DBMSs. Its data model lacks a fixed schema, so that users can easily dynamically change the data model of applications. These characteristics of the NoSQL DBMS mean that it is increasingly used in real-time analysis, web services such as SNS, mobile apps and the storage of machine generated data such as logs and IoT (Internet of Things) data. Although the increased usage of the NoSQL DBMS increases the possibility of it becoming a target of crime, there are few papers about forensic investigation of NoSQL DBMS.In this paper, we propose a forensic investigation framework for the document store NoSQL DBMS. It is difficult to cover all of the NoSQL DBMS, as 'NoSQL' includes several distinct architectures; our forensic investigation framework, however, is focused on the document store NoSQL DBMS. In order to conduct an evaluative case study, we need to apply it to MongoDB, which is, a widely used document store NoSQL DBMS. For this case study, a crime scenario is created in an experimental environment, and then we propose in detail a forensic procedure and technical methods for MongoDB. We suggested many substantial technical investigation methods for MongoDB, including identifying real servers storing evidences in a distributed environment and transaction reconstruction method, using log analysis and recovering deleted data from the MongoDB data file structure.     

E-mail,the Police,and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: Retooling Our Understanding of a Reasonable Expectation of Privacy in the Cyber Age

As in other jurisdictions, technological innovation continues to impose burdens on our understanding of the reasonable expectation of privacy in Canada. Recently, the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench was forced to weigh the privacy rights guaranteed under section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms against Her Majesty's interest in collecting electronic evidence (in order to facilitate criminal proceedings against an individual who was accused of using e-mail to gain possession of child pornography). For the first time ever in Canada, the Court's analysis focused specifically on the technological aspects of e-mail. Although technological enthusiasts applaud this approach, it has resulted in a decision which, if followed, is sure to render ineffectual the ability of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to protect the privacy of Canadian e-mail users against overly intrusive police wire-tap interceptions. Upon a detailed review of this decision (within the context of an overview of the Canadian jurisprudence on unreasonable search and seizure), the author of this paper argues that the traditional test for sanctioning privacy protection must shift away from a merely technological analysis of the actual security offered by the communications medium in question. The author submits that the proper analysis should focus instead on the reasonable Canadian e-mail user's typical understanding and perception of the medium.     

FROM THE INSIDE OUT: CALLING ON STATES TO PROVIDE MEDICALLY NECESSARY CARE TO TRANSGENDER YOUTH IN FOSTER CARE

It is well known that transgender youth in foster care often face egregious discrimination and victimization based on their gender identities. Unfortunately, transgender youth in foster care have also been deprived of transgender-specific medical care that is vital to their health and well-being. This Note advocates that child welfare agencies adopt legislation that will demonstrate their commitment to fulfilling their constitutional duty to provide medically necessary care to transgender youth in their custody. This Note examines recent case law on the topic and addresses counterarguments to the proposal, including risks associated with treatment, high cost, and the stigma of gender identity disorder. Ultimately, this Note concludes that adopting the proposed legislation is a necessary step toward securing health care rights for transgender foster care youth.     

录音设备识别司法鉴定技术研究

目标随着手机和录音笔等数字录音设备的普及,数字录音已基本取代传统的模拟录音,成为录音司法鉴定主导性检材类型。数字录音资料作为视听资料的重要组成部分,其真实性司法鉴定新技术新方法的研究具有重要的理论意义和实际应用价值。方法研究基于录音设备识别的数字录音真实性鉴定技术,通过数字录音背景噪声片段的提取,计算录音设备相关的关键统计特征,包括采样直方图分布特征和平均频谱统计特征,并使用机器学习和模式分类方法对数字录音的载体即录音设备进行准确分类。结果实验中最高的分类准确性达到97.09%。在录音设备可分性研究成果基础上,提出应用于数字录音设备司法鉴定的可行实施方案。结论研究结果表明了基于信号统计特征分析的录音设备识别方法的可行性和准确性。     

Using NLP techniques for file fragment classification

The classification of file fragments is an important problem in digital forensics. The literature does not include comprehensive work on applying machine learning techniques to this problem. In this work, we explore the use of techniques from natural language processing to classify file fragments. We take a supervised learning approach, based on the use of support vector machines combined with the bag-of-words model, where text documents are represented as unordered bags of words. This technique has been repeatedly shown to be effective and robust in classifying text documents (e.g., in distinguishing positive movie reviews from negative ones).In our approach, we represent file fragments as “bags of bytes” with feature vectors consisting of unigram and bigram counts, as well as other statistical measurements (including entropy and others). We made use of the publicly available Garfinkel data corpus to generate file fragments for training and testing. We ran a series of experiments, and found that this approach is effective in this domain as well.     

Who's Your Daddy?: The Marital Presumption of Legitimacy in the Modern World and its Application to Same‐Sex Couples

Recently, the definition of marriage has been significantly altered. No longer do we find ourselves exclusively in the midst of “traditional marriage” between one man and one woman. Instead, everywhere we experience different kinds of marriages and diverse, nontraditional families. The United States has finally caught up to many advanced democracies in universally recognizing same‐sex marriage through the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. However, the next question remains unanswered: what about families of same‐sex couples? This Note explores the nature of same‐sex couples, their families, and in particular, their children. It addresses the issue of the marital presumption of legitimacy and encourages its application to all legally recognized married couples regardless of sexual orientation and biology. Even though prior to Obergefell some states were unwilling to apply the presumption, since the implementation of marriage equality, the next logical step would be to utilize the presumption to ensure that all parents, regardless of gender, are recognized and families are preserved.     

Does breaking gender stereotypes contribute to victimization at school?

Victimization is a serious problem facing youth in American public schools. Prior research demonstrates that victimization is stratified by sex/gender; however, few studies consider factors that may moderate this relationship. This research investigates if victimization occurs when students break sex/gender stereotypes at school among female and male youth. The broad research question for this study is – are breaking sex/gender stereotypes regarding academic activities, math, and sports associated with victimization for female and male students at school? To address this research question, this study employs nationally representative data from the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) of 2002 to investigate if breaking sex/gender stereotypes contributes to the likelihood of victimization for female and male students at school. The study finds that females who have favorable attitudes toward math and participate in math-related activities are less likely to be victimized, while students of both sexes who participate in female dominated sports (i.e. cheerleading and softball) have a higher risk of victimization, as do females who participate in male dominated sports (i.e. football and baseball). The implications for future research and policy implementation are discussed.     

博客的经济分析及对法律的影响

最近几年,博客的发展特别迅速,引起了人们的广泛注意.然而,博客产生了很多法律问题,比如传统记者的一些特权其是否享有?公众人物的隐私权制度、传统的行政许可法和合伙法,是否可以不加修正地适用于博客?都存在着很多的疑问.这些问题需要根据博客的经济特点来加以解决,而博客的经济特点与博客的技术特点又有着密切的联系.