Inside the Enemy's Computer

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clement Guitton
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Technical Problem ◽  
Technical Information ◽  
Cyber Attack ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Standards Of Evidence

Attribution — tracing those responsible for a cyber attack — is of primary importance when classifying it as a criminal act, an act of war, or an act of terrorism. Three assumptions dominate current thinking: attribution is a technical problem; it is unsolvable; and it is unique. Approaching attribution as a problem forces us to consider it either as solved or unsolved. Yet attribution is far more nuanced, and is best approached as a process in constant flux, driven by judicial and political pressures. In the criminal context, courts must assess the guilt of criminals, mainly based on technical evidence. In the national security context, decision-makers must analyze unreliable and mainly non-technical information in order to identify an enemy of the state. Attribution in both contexts is political: in criminal cases, laws reflect society’s prevailing norms and powers; in national security cases, attribution reflects a state’s will to maintain, increase or assert its power. However, both processes differ on many levels. The constraints, which reflect common aspects of many other political issues, constitute the structure of the book: the need for judgment calls, the role of private companies, the standards of evidence, the role of time, and the plausible deniability of attacks.

A Good Sentencing Precedent is Hard to Find

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 138-144
Author(s):  
Brian A. Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
College Admissions ◽  
The Body ◽  
Federal Law ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Federal Sentencing

In federal criminal cases, federal law requires that judges consider the sentences other courts have imposed in factually similar matters. Courts and parties, however, face significant challenges in finding applicable sentencing precedents because judges do not typically issue written sentencing opinions, and transcripts of sentencings are not readily available in advanced searchable databases. At the same time, particularly since the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in United States v. Booker, sentencing precedent has come to play a significant role in federal sentencing proceedings. By way of example, this article discusses recent cases involving defendants with gambling addictions, and recent cases involving college admissions or testing fraud. The article explores the ways the parties in those cases have used sentencing precedent in their advocacy, as well as the ways the courts involved have used sentencing precedent to justify their decisions. Given the important role of sentencing precedent in federal criminal cases, the article finally looks at ways in which the body of sentencing law could be made more readily available to parties and courts alike.

Covert Action: United States Law in Substance, Process, and Practice

2010 ◽  
pp. 586-607 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Baker
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Legal Practice ◽  
Legal Regime ◽  
Covert Action ◽  
The Third ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Traditional Activity ◽  
The U.S

This article discusses covert action within the context of the U.S. law. The first section describes the main elements of the U.S. legal regime, including the definition of covert action and the “traditional activity” exceptions, the elements of a covert action finding, and the thresholds and requirements for congressional notification. The second section describes some of the significant limitations on the conduct of covert action. The third section discusses the nature of executive branch legal practice in this area of the law. And the last section draws conclusions about the role of national security law within the context of covert action.

scholarly journals Kuzbass Development Strategy: Past Lessons and Future Wrongs

2020 ◽  
Vol 174 ◽  
pp. 04038
Author(s):  
Yuri Fridman ◽  
Galina Rechko ◽  
Ekaterina Loginova
Keyword(s):  
Strategic Planning ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
The Political ◽  
Business And Society ◽  
Private Companies ◽  
Standards Of Living ◽  
Economic Reality ◽  
The Government

The article discusses the place and role of strategic planning in ensuring that Kemerovo Oblast – Kuzbass develops comprehensively. For over thirty years, we have been studying the region with one of the leading national territorial-production centers established in the 20th century, how it emerged and functioned. Studies suggest that without regard to the economies of Russia as a whole and Kuzbass’s neighboring regions in particular, its issues cannot be satisfactorily resolved. At large, when strategic planning followed this assumption, it contributed to how fast and holistically the territory developed. Considering that, in the 21st century, strategy makers diverged from this concept and started to search for new approaches, the region’s economy has slowed down and its living standards have declined sharply. The momentum can be reversed with an active state socio-economic policy. Its previous forms, however, when the state gave preferences to private companies and did not require corresponding growth in standards of living in return, became unacceptable. It is necessary to work out a system of effective solutions and measures with mechanisms for reconciling the interests of the government, business and society within approaches that are adequate to the political and economic reality of today’s world.

scholarly journals Actors, Partisan Inclination, and Emotions: An Analysis of Government Shutdown News Stories Shared on Twitter

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110088
Author(s):  
Colin Agur ◽  
Lanhuizi Gan
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Responses ◽  
The United States ◽  
Online Information ◽  
News Frames ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
News Stories ◽  
News Sharing ◽  
Government Shutdown

Scholars have recognized emotion as an increasingly important element in the reception and retransmission of online information. In the United States, because of existing differences in ideology, among both audiences and producers of news stories, political issues are prone to spark considerable emotional responses online. While much research has explored emotional responses during election campaigns, this study focuses on the role of online emotion in social media posts related to day-to-day governance in between election periods. Specifically, this study takes the 2018–2019 government shutdown as its subject of investigation. The data set shows the prominence of journalistic and political figures in leading the discussion of news stories, the nuance of emotions employed in the news frames, and the choice of pro-attitudinal news sharing.

scholarly journals The role of race, religion, and partisanship in misperceptions about COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 638-657
Author(s):  
James N. Druckman ◽  
Katherine Ognyanova ◽  
Matthew A. Baum ◽  
David Lazer ◽  
Roy H. Perlis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Media Exposure ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
Targeted Interventions ◽  
Large Survey ◽  
Racial Ethnic

Concerns about misperceptions among the public are rampant. Yet, little work explores the correlates of misperceptions in varying contexts – that is, how do factors such as group affiliations, media exposure, and lived experiences correlate with the number of misperceptions people hold? We address these questions by investigating misperceptions about COVID-19, focusing on the role of racial/ethnic, religious, and partisan groups. Using a large survey, we find the number of correct beliefs held by individuals far dwarfs the number of misperceptions. When it comes to misperceptions, we find that minorities, those with high levels of religiosity, and those with strong partisan identities – across parties – hold a substantially greater number of misperceptions than those with contrasting group affiliations. Moreover, we show other variables (e.g., social media usage, number of COVID-19 cases in one’s county) do not have such strong relationships with misperceptions, and the group-level results do not reflect acquiescence to believing any information regardless of its truth value. Our results accentuate the importance of studying group-level misperceptions on other scientific and political issues and developing targeted interventions for these groups.

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