TOPIC 4

New Media Security & Crime: The Double-Edged Sword

Digital media has been touted as new and exciting platform for international development. The Internet, cell phones and other social technologies have been used to strengthen communities by making information readily available and by empowering the voiceless. Internet and communications technology is undoubtedly a tool that can be harnessed for positive social change, but as with every other technological advancement, ICT is a double-edged sword. As access to new media increases, there is growing concern among academics, activists and technology professionals that real-world issues of privacy, security, conflict and crime are moving into the digital sphere more quickly than they can be monitored or addressed.

The following pages address the legal challenges of an increasingly global Internet community, the ways in which some private citizens are responding to the issues of cyber security, the use of new media and technology to incite violence and hate, and citizen use of these technologies to report crime and prevent it in the future.

Contents:

1. Legal Challenges in the Age of New Media
2. Cyber Security and the Cyber Cops
3. New Media and Real-World Crime
4. New Media and Crime Prevention

Literature Review

Below, you will find a listing of recommended websites that correspond to each entry in this section.

Legal Challenges in the Age of New Media

• Recent statistics indicate that the Internet use sprouted between 2000 and 2008 by 305.5 % worldwide.
• Internet penetration is compared across the globe
• The spread of Internet is a cause for concern in a developing world
• Electronic Communications Privacy Act protects anonymity of internet users
• FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) explains the term cyber crimes and provides recent statistics
• US government takes securitization of information seriously
• United States National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC)reports on cyber terrorism prevention
• Average cost of maintaining a website is $10 a year and there is no screening process to obtain one
• Pull media, as explained by Columbia Law School Professor Eben Moglen, is a powerful tool now available to cyber criminals
• International law is limited to resolving disputes between those who have international legal personality, the term that does not apply to most victims and perpetrators of cyber crimes
• United States Institute of Peace senior fellow Gabriel Weimann "Terror on the Internet: The New Arena, The New Challenges" gives suggestions on how to fight Internet crimes on national level
• US Patriot Act is one such measure
• Government’s enforced censorship of the Internet, as demonstrated in Indonesia’s Blocked You Tube case is the other
• Christopher Bronk in “Webtapping: Securing the Internet to save us from transnational terror” disscusses implications of the US Patriot Act and its impact on civil liberties citing CNN’s poll on the question of Webtapping.
• IC3 created a list of safety tips and cyber crime prevention for the Internet users

Cyber Security and the Cyber Cops

• According to a history of cyber attacks compiled by The Washington Post, the first "cyber" attacks were via the phone lines.
• Evgeny Morozov, a writer and fellow at the Open Society Institute, wrote about how he easily became a cyber soldier with just a few clicks on his computer.
• A Nov. 2008 article describing the strength of China's cyber warfare capabilities as compared to the U.S.
• Ethan Zuckerman provides nuance behind the definition of Cyber War and the 2008 exchange between Georgia and Russia on his blog.
• An article regarding "Hacktivists" Hackers with a cause. Is thisfree speech or malicious propaganda
• A white paper from The Honeynet Project explaining botnets.
• A 2005 article about the increasing problem of botnets on personal computers
• Ironcove.net an organization that seeks to provide cyber security solutions for NGO's worlwide.
• The Georgia Institute of Technology provides a list of global cyber security organizations working from a variety of different perspectives and goals.
• The Website of the Worldwide Infrastructure Report
• The Honeynet Project homepage

New Media and Violence

• Jarret M. Brachman. High-Tech Terror: Al-Qaeda’s Use of New Technology: a review by the Director of Research at the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy.
• Josh Goldstein and Juliana Rotich. Digitally Networked Technologies in Kenya's Post-Election Crisis: a summary of the positive and negative uses of new media in post-election Kenya.
• Marc Lacey. “Exploiting Real Fears With ‘Virtual Kidnappings.’” New York Times, 29 April 2008: an explanation of Mexico's mobile phone-based kidnapping trend.
• Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, “Text Messages Used To Incite Violence in Kenya,” NPR News: first-hand accounts of violent SMS messaging in post-election Kenya.
• Ushahidi: Ushahidi is a platform for crowdsourcing crisis information by allowing anyone to submit reports via mobile phone, email or web form. It has been used in Kenya to report post-election violence and to collect stories of peace heroes during the same period. It has also been implemented in South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

New Media and Crime Prevention: Incorporating new technologies and digital media into government programs and public policies

• Andrade Carmona, Fernando, Using the IT’s to Create a New Vision of Services, II World Summit of Cities and Local Authorities on the Information Society, Bilbao 2005.
• Franco, Jeffery and Soto, Ignacio (Voxiva, Inc.), Peru: Alerta Miraflores: Managing to Increase Citizen Safety Managing for Development Results SourceBook, 2nd Edition, May 2007.
• Miraflores Municipality
• Public Sector Partner Solutions Marketplace (Microsoft), Lima Neighborhood Reduces Crime 30 Percent with Cost-Effective Public Safety System, 2006.
• Voxiva, CitizenNet
• Voxiva, Lima Alerta Miraflores Case Study