Cyber terrorism challenges: The need for a global response to a multi-jurisdictional crime

With the widespread concerns about cyber terrorism and the frequent use of the term “cyber terrorism” at the present time, many international organisations have made efforts to combat this threat. Since cyber terrorism is an international crime, local regulations alone are not able to defend against such attacks; they require a transnational response. Therefore, an attacked country will invoke international law to seek justice for any damage caused, through the exercise of universal jurisdiction. Without the aid of international organisations, it is difficult to prevent cyber terrorism. At the same time, international organisations determine which state court, or international court, has the authority to settle a dispute. The objective of this paper is to analyse and review the effectiveness and sufficiency of the current global responses to cyber terrorism through the exercise of international jurisdiction. This article also touches upon the notion of cyber terrorism as a transnational crime and an international threat; thus, national regulations alone cannot prevent it. The need for an international organisation to prevent and defend nations from cyber terrorism attacks is pressing. This paper finds that, as cyber terrorism is a transnational crime, it should be subjected to universal jurisdiction through multinational cooperation, and this would be the most suitable method to counter future transnational crimes such as cyber terrorism.     

The liability of website owners for defamation in Israel: A challenge yet to be solved?

From the end of the twentieth century to the present we have witnessed the effects of technology on the way we consume and distribute information. The print media, which in many ways was the natural product of the printing revolution, has given way to the electronic media with websites providing the new “town squares” in which the public discourse is held on political, economic and social issues among others. The Israeli legal system, like the legal systems in other countries, faces a variety of challenges and complex ethical and legal issues when required to regulate (often retrospectively) the manner and processes through which the discourse will be conducted in the virtual “town hall”. In essence, this article focuses on one of the many questions occupying the Israeli legal system and that is whether website owners should be liable in defamation for speech published by third parties on the Internet (through blogs, tweets on Twitter, posts on Facebook,¹ uploaded video clips on YouTube and the like) when no connection exists between the third party and the site owner apart from the fact that the third party has used the website as a platform to publish the offensive speech. The issue of the liability of the website owner has ramifications for the injured party's capacity to institute an action for defamation against the website owner, as often only the latter will be in a position to compensate the injured party (financially) for the offensive speech. The Israeli legal system, which in many ways furnishes a unique and interesting framework for examining the question posed above, as we explain in the body of the article, presents a fascinating example of how the Israeli legislature and the courts have dealt and continue to deal with claims filed against website owners for damage to reputation as a result of speech published by third parties. The article offers a comprehensive review of the status of the right to freedom of speech, anonymity and the right to reputation in Israel, the considerations for and against the imposition of liability on website owners and the latest case law on these questions.     

近年来网络文学研究之一瞥

伴随着网络文学的广泛影响,许多学者对网络文学也进行了全方位的研究。本文主要对近十年来网络文学的研究进行了一般性的介绍和概括,这主要表现在四个方面:1、从什么是网络文学,2、网络文学的特质研究,3、网络文学的语言研究,4、网络文学的审美研究。通过分析,笔者认为近十年来的网络文学的研究大致可以归纳成为以下几点:一是网络文学的研究还处在肇始时期,二是由最初的批评多于肯定逐渐发展到肯定多于批评,三是由网络的技术分析逐渐转变为网络的图像和文本分析,四是网络文学的研究与创作仍然处在相互隔离的状态。     

当前办理网络犯罪案件面临的困难及对策初探

目前网络犯罪仍然十分猖獗,如何打击日益增加的网络犯罪已成为各国政府面临的严峻课题.由于网络犯罪比传统犯罪的形式更隐蔽、手段更高明,因此它比普通的犯罪更加难以掌握证据.执法和监管部门只有紧跟社会发展步伐,及时掌握最先进的数字化信息技术和手段,审时度势,才能有效打击网络犯罪.     

论当代武装冲突法面临的挑战

在武力使用借口日益多样,信息网络、无人攻击机以及私人军事、安保公司等新型作战力量和新的方法手段被广泛运用的形势下,武装冲突法出现了效力缺失的局面。对此,一方面应结合武装冲突实践的新特点进行创新发展,制订规范文件弥补法律漏洞,增强可行性与操作性;另一方面积极推进国际合作,进一步完善执行监督机制,保证各国较好地遵守武装冲突法。     

Cyber asset in judicial discourses: a socio-semiotic interpretation

Issues concerning cyber asset in cyberspace have intrigued the legislators, the judicial practitioners, the netizens, and even the onlookers in real world; simultaneously, academia is discussing the disputes aroused by this intangible object. However, various studies in the past refined the discussions in domains of law but the refinement fails to clarify the cyber-asset issues and to resolve the disputes. Therefore, a better understanding of what “cyber asset” is can be achieved by exploring cyber asset in the judicial discourses from a socio-semiotic perspective. In this study, judicial discourses are tantamount to the semiotic resource. Then, incorporating in a generic model of judicial discourses, we examine (1) how cyber asset as a sign has been framed by agents of the judicial institution of the People’s Republic of China; (2) how the judicial institution justified their framing; and (3) whether any temporal change in the semiotic system of cyber asset took place. Furthermore, by applying the five questions introduced by Van Leeuwen, we examine why the quandaries of cyber asset are aroused. In conclusion, we propose that the cyber-asset disputes can hardly be resolved unless joint efforts are made by the legislature and the judiciary of the People’s Republic of China.     

A study on the forensic mechanisms of VoIP attacks: Analysis and digital evidence

This paper discusses the use of communication technology to commit crimes, including crime facts and crime techniques. The analysis focuses on the security of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), a prevention method against VoIP call attack and the attention points for setting up an Internet phone. The importance of digital evidence and digital forensics are emphasised. This paper provides the VoIP digital evidence forensics standard operating procedures (DEFSOP) to help police organisations and establishes an experimental platform to simulate phone calls, hacker attacks and forensic data. Finally, this paper provides a general discussion of a digital evidence strategy that includes VoIP for crime investigators who are interested in digital evidence forensics.     

Hyper‐Securitization,Everyday Security Practice and Technification: Cyber‐Security Logics in Switzerland

This contribution to the SPSR debate about technology and security in Switzerland looks at how and by whom cyber‐security is constructed in Swiss security politics. Using three securitization logics as developed by reflexive Security Studies – hyper‐securitization, everyday security practices, and technification – it illustrates how Swiss actors have sorted out roles and responsibilities over the years. The article suggests that all three logics are present in the political process, but that ‘technification’ – a way to construct the issue as reliant upon technical knowledge and the supposition that this serves a political and normatively neutral agenda – is currently the dominant one. For democratic politics, technification is a big challenge. Assigning an issue to the technical realm has a depoliticizing influence and makes contestation from those with less technical expertise very hard.     

金融业计算机犯罪的特点及防范

随着计算机和网络技术在金融业务中的广泛应用,通过计算机系统实施的金融犯罪活动也呈上升之势,其特点是高技术、连续性强、手段隐蔽且危害巨大。为维护正常的金融秩序,必须强化防范意识、提高防范技能、完善安全管理制度。     

BiSAL – A bilingual sentiment analysis lexicon to analyze Dark Web forums for cyber security

In this paper, we present the development of a Bilingual Sentiment Analysis Lexicon (BiSAL) for cyber security domain, which consists of a Sentiment Lexicon for ENglish (SentiLEN) and a Sentiment Lexicon for ARabic (SentiLAR) that can be used to develop opinion mining and sentiment analysis systems for bilingual textual data from Dark Web forums. For SentiLEN, a list of 279 sentiment bearing English words related to cyber threats, radicalism, and conflicts are identified and a unifying process is devised to unify their sentiment scores obtained from four different sentiment data sets. Whereas, for SentiLAR, sentiment bearing Arabic words are identified from a collection of 2000 message posts from Alokab Web forum, which contains radical contents. The SentiLAR provides a list of 1019 sentiment bearing Arabic words related to cyber threats, radicalism, and conflicts along with their morphological variants and sentiment polarity. For polarity determination, a semi-automated analysis process by three Arabic language experts is performed and their ratings are aggregated using some aggregate functions. A Web interface is developed to access both the lexicons (SentiLEN and SentiLAR) of BiSAL data set online, and a beta version of the same is available at http://www.abulaish.com/bisal.