Reputation in a dark network of online criminals

This paper focuses on criminals who could easily be labelled as entrepreneurs and who deal in compromised computer systems. Known as botmasters, these individuals use their technical skills to take over and control personal, business and governmental computers. These networks of hijacked computers are known as botnets in the security industry. With this massive computing power, these criminals can send large amounts of spam, attack web servers or steal financial data – all for a fee. As entrepreneurs, the botmasters' main goal is to achieve the highest level of success possible. In their case, this achievement can be measured in the illegitimate revenues they earn from the leasing of their botnet. Based on the evidence gathered in literature on legitimate and illegitimate markets, this paper sets to understand how reputation could relate to criminal achievement as well as what factors impact a heightened level of reputation in a criminal market.     

Radio and Television Audiences in South Africa: 1994–2002

Abstract

In this article the author tracks various media and their usage in South Africa from 1994 to 2002 to see how they reacted o the extended choices in radio and television. Wider exposure to the media, that is, private radio and television stations other than the South African Broadcasting corporation (SABC), was supposed to deepen democracy in the sense that it would give people the opportunity to hear and see differing opinions on air. In addition, for the first time disadvantaged communities had a voice in the media in the form of community radio. In the context of the massive and positive political, social and administrative changes in a wide range of sectors in South Africa, it was surprising to see the relative stability of choices made by mass media users, in terms of both content and type. Some theoretical and pragmatic comments on this phenomenon are given in the article.     

Popular art,the image,the subject and subverting hegemony

ABSTRACT

One of the most disturbing paradoxes of modern times is that an acute sense of expanding moral responsibility goes hand in hand with a growing inability to bear such responsibility. This article demonstrates how modern technology, in particular information technology, has contributed to both the expansion of moral responsibility and the development of the responsibility gap. In order to deal adequately with the challenges modern technology poses in respect of moral responsibility, it has become necessary to supplement the classical notion of retrospective moral responsibility with the new notion of prospective moral responsibility. In the case of retrospective responsibility some or other negative outcome of the past is ascribed to a particular person or persons. In the case of prospective responsibility, the responsibility of preventing humans and nature from being actively harmed or to realise desirable future conditions by taking the necessary measures in the present, is ascribed to a particular person or persons, or, more likely, to a particular institution or institutions.     

When More Media Equals Less News: Patterns of Content Homogenization in Argentina's Leading Print and Online Newspapers

This article examines content homogeneity, understood as the degree to which different media focus on the same stories during a particular news cycle, in Argentina's leading print and online newspapers. It focuses on the role of technical practices across media and over time—during a decade for print and during 24 hours for online. The analysis shows three main patterns of homogenization: (a) an increase in the level of homogeneity in print newspapers tied to their online counterparts' practice of publishing breaking and developing stories during the day, (b) an increase in the level of homogeneity in online newspapers as the day unfolds, and (c) a densely interconnected web of homogeneity across print and online newspapers in 2005. We draw from these findings to make contributions to research on online news and media sociology and to reflect upon the direction and meaning of changes in journalistic form in the current media environment.     

Following the News? Reception of Uncivil Partisan Media and the Use of Incivility in Political Expression

Partisan, pundit-based media gets blamed for making political discourse more uncivil, and studies on incivility in mediated discourse have found that uncivil political media can induce negative reactions in audiences. However, how use of uncivil media affects the way individuals express their political views has yet to receive substantial scholarly attention. I hypothesize that tuning in to uncivil political media leads to an increased propensity to use incivility in textual political expression. I develop an index to identify incivility in political expressions, and test my hypothesis using panel data analysis and an open-ended survey item in the 2008 National Annenberg Election Survey. I find that, consistent with my hypothesis, use of uncivil media—specifically pundit cable news and political talk radio—leads to an increased use of incivility when expressing text-based political opinions. Furthermore, this only occurs with reception of like-minded uncivil political media. I note the implications this has for online political discourse and effective deliberation.     

Forming Political Culture and Marketing Strategies in a Central-European Setting

ABSTRACT

Having analyzed the different strategies used in the 1998 and 2002 parliamentary election campaigns with reference to the 1990 and 1994 campaigns, we can conclude that the Hungarian election conventions and culture are still in a state of experimentation and exploration. In contrast with American election traditions, in Hungary, not the individual (with the exception of the Alliance of Young Democrats), but the party image is what counts, though, in this respect, considerable changes could be observed during the last few years. The Hungarian political palette is much too fragmented, and this sets a barrier to the necessary desire for creating a suitable forum for the debate of the party leaders and for the declaration of party politics. At present, the party programme reaches the citizens just in implicit, hidden, often symbolic forms of messages.

While the symbols of the left-wing parties were sketchy, unskillful, too rational, and not giving much space for emotional influence, the right-wing parties gave too large of a dose of different symbols, which were emotional rather than rational. This lack of balance made the campaigns superficial, irrational, sometimes misleading, and abnormal. This feeling of abnormality was strengthened by the fact that the overdose on the part of the right wing was not limited to the campaign period, but the emotional shocking started much earlier. The state of excitement, which was spread in time, actually started in the spring of 1998, and even if there were fluctuations, the general mood of the last four years was characterised by the dug-out hatchet. The political opinion of the Orbán party was clearly expressed by their metaphors. The message of the sentences like 'it is more than change of government, less than change of regime,' 'attacking on the whole field,' 'we change the telephone directories,' etc., was unambiguous: combative four years are coming. During their campaign, 'setting up a record' was realized between the two rounds after the failure in the first round and was still going on showing the election failure, which came about in democratic circumstances (Galló Béla, 2002, 93).

One could hardly judge the effectiveness of agenda building, though some of the crucial social questions appeared as cue words and sentences in the mediated messages of parties (for example, family, health care, education, joining the European Union). Hungarian campaigning, compared to the American presidential election campaign, is colorless and rife with technical and rhetorical errors, and it is a competition without any coherence where the citizen is very often just a means of, but not the goal in, the struggle of the parties.     

在线经营主体身份认证——论我国在线交易安全解决方案

电子商务成为当今社会主宰的商务形式,而电子运营环境的特殊性,使得电子商务的安全问题成为威胁电子商务的首要问题.而电子商务安全首要问题是交易主体的识别问题,即如何确认交易主体是否真实存在,对应于现实中的哪个特定的主体问题.将在线经营主体分为两类,一类是经工商登记的商事主体;一类是未经工商登记的从事在线商事活动的个人,进而讨论这两类经营者的身份认证问题.对于取得工商登记的在线经营者,以我国三个地方的实践为基础,提出可以通过工商登记信息电子化(数字化)实现在线验证,是可行的解决方案;而对于未经工商登记的个人,则采纳形式上匿名体制--即以身份验证为条件的注册,但允许匿名从事在线交易行为--以确保未经登记的个体商户人身份真实性.这种体制充分平衡了在线交易安全和个人商户的隐私利益,是一种可行的选择.     

对在线经营者强制说明义务的法律思考

我国《消费者权益保护法》虽规定了经营者的说明义务,但不具有强制性,对在线经营者强制说明义务的立法更落后于国际社会。从网络交易的远程性、虚拟性出发,为实现消费者权益保护的终极价值追求,应对BtoC中的卖方和IPP网络平台提供者做出强制说明的法律规定。     

对网上刑事执法办案的几点思考

随着公安信息化的发展,个别公安机关推出了网上刑事执法的工作模式。由于网上刑事执法办案所涉及的电子签章及其认证系统、刑事法律文书和刑事证据材料等还没有相应法律规定和配套制度体系,所以应当暂缓这一做法。     

当代大学生网恋心理探析

网络时代,互联网以数字化、网络化、信息化为标志的生存状态,以交互性、虚拟性、学习性为标志的运作模式,以多边性、全时性、共享性为标志的机制特质,使网络直接影响到当代青少年的学习和生活。网聊和网恋,几乎成为当代青少年的一种文化时尚。在高校里上网聊天和网恋更为流行,许多大学生都经历过或者正在经历着网恋。究竟应该怎样看待网恋?网恋心态有哪些?它为何有如此大的魔力?这正是当代大学生研究中一项亟待解决的问题,也是放在我们面前的一项重要青年研究课题。