Leveraging Machine Learning in Financial Fraud Forensics in the Age of Cybersecurity

Financial sectors are lucrative cyber-attack targets because of their immediate financial gain. As a result, financial institutions face challenges in developing systems that can automatically identify security breaches and separate fraudulent transactions from legitimate transactions. Today, organizations widely use machine learning techniques to identify any fraudulent behavior in customers' transactions. However, machine learning techniques are often challenging because of financial institutions' confidentiality policy, leading to not sharing the customer transaction data. This chapter discusses some crucial challenges of handling cybersecurity and fraud in the financial industry and building machine learning-based models to address those challenges. The authors utilize an open-source e-commerce transaction dataset to illustrate the forensic processes by creating a machine learning model to classify fraudulent transactions. Overall, the chapter focuses on how the machine learning models can help detect and prevent fraudulent activities in the financial sector in the age of cybersecurity.

Egypt’s energy diplomacy strengthens position abroad

Significance Beirut and its Western backers have turned to Cairo for assistance in mitigating Lebanon’s energy crisis. President Abdel Fattah el Sisi seeks to leverage Egypt’s strategic location, infrastructure and natural gas reserves for political and financial gain amid global gas shortages and soaring prices. Impacts Egypt aims to use gas as a way to show its importance but faces supply constraints. The EU and the United States reluctantly accept the Egyptian government as a better ally than the available alternatives. Egypt becoming an energy hub could play a small, but significant, role in helping Europe to reduce its chronic dependence on Russian gas.

In Business with God: The Role of Religion in the Private Sector of Apia, Samoa

<p>Religion, in particular Christianity, has a large impact on Business in Samoa. Through surveys and interviews, this research was able to ascertain areas in which Christianity and business intersect to determine its daily function and the broader implications of doing business in a highly Christian nation. Christianity has taken on its own form of ‘Samoan Christianity’ through the merging of religion and fa’aSamoa which allows business owners facilitate the practice of religion, primarily for their staff members, while not being deeply religious themselves. This ‘Samoan Christianity’ is influenced by the disproportionate number of Catholics represented in the private sector who face fewer practical and financial demands than other denominations along with the assistance of historical privileges gained the status of the Catholic Marist Brothers. Businesses in Apia are heavily impacted by staff loans, theft and cultural demands, but owners maintain a positive outlook on the spiritual benefits that religion brings to their lives. Business owners are heavily critical of organised religion in Samoa, particularly the church and priests, believing fewer financial demands on staff members would ease the negative impacts of religion on business. However, interested in preserving the culture and religion of their unique homeland, business owners have opted to observe religiously motivated practises such as closing on Sundays as they believe this to be more important than financial gain.</p>

In Business with God: The Role of Religion in the Private Sector of Apia, Samoa

<p>Religion, in particular Christianity, has a large impact on Business in Samoa. Through surveys and interviews, this research was able to ascertain areas in which Christianity and business intersect to determine its daily function and the broader implications of doing business in a highly Christian nation. Christianity has taken on its own form of ‘Samoan Christianity’ through the merging of religion and fa’aSamoa which allows business owners facilitate the practice of religion, primarily for their staff members, while not being deeply religious themselves. This ‘Samoan Christianity’ is influenced by the disproportionate number of Catholics represented in the private sector who face fewer practical and financial demands than other denominations along with the assistance of historical privileges gained the status of the Catholic Marist Brothers. Businesses in Apia are heavily impacted by staff loans, theft and cultural demands, but owners maintain a positive outlook on the spiritual benefits that religion brings to their lives. Business owners are heavily critical of organised religion in Samoa, particularly the church and priests, believing fewer financial demands on staff members would ease the negative impacts of religion on business. However, interested in preserving the culture and religion of their unique homeland, business owners have opted to observe religiously motivated practises such as closing on Sundays as they believe this to be more important than financial gain.</p>

Disability and Children as Begging Guides: For how Long Shall Children be Used as Begging Guides by Visually Impaired Persons in Africa?

This study examines the effect of using children as begging guides by people with sensory disabilities in Africa. It argues that in some African countries, visually impaired persons, especially parents and relatives, have devised the strategy of abusing their children or someone very close to them as begging guides for financial gain. While this strategy has remained a recurrent problem with severe social, economic, political, and legal implications, scientific research on addressing these implications is scarce. Given this, the article examines the rationale for using children as begging guides, its effects on the children and visually impaired parents, and mitigation strategies against abuse of children as begging guides in Africa. The qualitative research design based on key informant interviews (KIIs) complemented social exclusion and childhood theoretical underpinnings of the study. Results from (KIIs) showed that poverty, religion, cultural beliefs, financial profiteering, poor governance, breakdown in policy implementation against begging are among the rationale why children are abused and used as begging guides. The results also showed that these children experience low academic performance in school, harassment, psychological trauma, health complications from laborious trekking. At the same time, their visually impaired parents suffer from regrets and guilt of not being able to provide good parental care to their children. It concludes that good rehabilitation, vocational programmes, and prompt government supports for people with sensory disabilities would lessen the abuse and use of children as begging guides in Africa.

Serious games to study the influence of wildlife devaluation strategies on hunter behaviour

<p>The international illegal wildlife trade (IWT) threatens countless species globally. Many solutions to the IWT have been proposed and implemented, the most common being increased security. However, security on its own has been ineffective at protecting all wildlife. Wildlife commodity devaluation strategies have also been proposed and trialled as a complement or substitute to security. The strategy has primarily been applied to protect rhinoceros populations by, for example, dehorning them. The apparently logical expectation is that reducing the value of rhinos’ horns will discourage hunters and protect rhino. Either hunters will choose not to hunt a population with devalued animals or choose not to kill one when it is found. Unexpectedly, however, theory and anecdotal evidence suggest that devaluation might fail, and may even encourage hunting and the killing of devalued animals. This apparently illogical outcome is the subject of this thesis. Games and choice-based surveying were used to study the behaviour of people hunting a commodity for financial gain. These methods were used to understand why devaluation strategies might fail to protect wildlife and to understand when they might be beneficial. Two games and a choice-based survey posing different hunting scenarios were developed to measure hunter behaviour and test hunters’ responses to risk, value and devaluation. Lucky-dip games were rapid, highly replicated games used to test the impact of variation in devaluation and security strategies across multiple populations. Thirty-three lucky-dip games were conducted, each with ten members of the public participating. They were conducted at community events (e.g. fairs and galas) across Wellington Region in February and March of 2018. Scavenger-hunt games, to elicit more complex behaviours and interactions among participants, were conducted over a longer time and larger area but were, therefore, also less replicated. Four of these games were conducted with between 8-20 members of outdoor recreation clubs. They were conducted at public parks across Wellington Region throughout 2018. And lastly, an online scenario choice-based survey presented members of recreational hunting clubs with hypothetical scenarios where the value and likelihood of a successful hunt varied. The survey was distributed through hunting organisations and received 333 responses. The three research methods presented similar scenarios but used different formats to test my ideas among a diverse population of people. Each method involved participants hunting protected items that varied in value with some items having been devalued. Measuring for the trade-offs that people make between risk and reward when making hunting decisions, including choices about where to hunt, whether to kill and, if they did, whether to harvest a commodity, was of particular interest. Devaluation failed to protect commodities and increase commodity survival. In both games, hunters chose to ‘kill’ devalued commodities. Of the devalued items located by hunters, 74% and 100% were ‘killed’ in the lucky-dip and scavenger-hunt games, respectively. This appears to be because risk increased people’s perceived value of partially devalued commodities. Low-risk lucky-dip games resulted in 44% more devalued items being kept by participants compared to high-risk games. Additionally, devaluation reduced people’s perceptions of risk. Compared to lucky-dip games with just risk, games that included devaluation caused a 10% drop in survival at the highest-risk treatment. Moreover, when devalued commodities were worthless in the lucky-dip games, 27% more were ‘killed’ compared to when devalued commodities were worth 25% of the full-value commodity. Therefore, contrary to expectations, partial devaluation may be more successful than complete devaluation. Greater rates of devaluation were also met with greater variation in commodity survival between games. Coefficients of variation for commodity survival increased from 12% to 41% as devaluation rates increased from zero to 100%. Moreover, respondents to the survey ranked the most devalued population (90%) highest 36% of the time, but also lowest 35% of the time. Thus, peoples’ responses to devaluation vary. Risk was a more effective and consistent regulator of hunting behaviour. Average commodity survival was 88% at maximum security treatments but was only 65% at maximum devaluation treatments. My experimental games and surveys do not support the expectation that reducing the value of rhinos’ horns will discourage hunters and protect rhino. The IWT is a complex socio-economic system, and human behaviour is varied in response to risk and reward. Devaluation introduces a complex interaction between the two, rendering risk and devaluation less effective in some circumstances. Every population and situation is unique, and the effectiveness of devaluation will be context-specific. Finally, the research demonstrates that serious games can be applied to the study of criminal hunting behaviour. Other difficult-to-study human subjects and systems could benefit from greater use of similar methodologies.</p>

Serious games to study the influence of wildlife devaluation strategies on hunter behaviour

<p>The international illegal wildlife trade (IWT) threatens countless species globally. Many solutions to the IWT have been proposed and implemented, the most common being increased security. However, security on its own has been ineffective at protecting all wildlife. Wildlife commodity devaluation strategies have also been proposed and trialled as a complement or substitute to security. The strategy has primarily been applied to protect rhinoceros populations by, for example, dehorning them. The apparently logical expectation is that reducing the value of rhinos’ horns will discourage hunters and protect rhino. Either hunters will choose not to hunt a population with devalued animals or choose not to kill one when it is found. Unexpectedly, however, theory and anecdotal evidence suggest that devaluation might fail, and may even encourage hunting and the killing of devalued animals. This apparently illogical outcome is the subject of this thesis. Games and choice-based surveying were used to study the behaviour of people hunting a commodity for financial gain. These methods were used to understand why devaluation strategies might fail to protect wildlife and to understand when they might be beneficial. Two games and a choice-based survey posing different hunting scenarios were developed to measure hunter behaviour and test hunters’ responses to risk, value and devaluation. Lucky-dip games were rapid, highly replicated games used to test the impact of variation in devaluation and security strategies across multiple populations. Thirty-three lucky-dip games were conducted, each with ten members of the public participating. They were conducted at community events (e.g. fairs and galas) across Wellington Region in February and March of 2018. Scavenger-hunt games, to elicit more complex behaviours and interactions among participants, were conducted over a longer time and larger area but were, therefore, also less replicated. Four of these games were conducted with between 8-20 members of outdoor recreation clubs. They were conducted at public parks across Wellington Region throughout 2018. And lastly, an online scenario choice-based survey presented members of recreational hunting clubs with hypothetical scenarios where the value and likelihood of a successful hunt varied. The survey was distributed through hunting organisations and received 333 responses. The three research methods presented similar scenarios but used different formats to test my ideas among a diverse population of people. Each method involved participants hunting protected items that varied in value with some items having been devalued. Measuring for the trade-offs that people make between risk and reward when making hunting decisions, including choices about where to hunt, whether to kill and, if they did, whether to harvest a commodity, was of particular interest. Devaluation failed to protect commodities and increase commodity survival. In both games, hunters chose to ‘kill’ devalued commodities. Of the devalued items located by hunters, 74% and 100% were ‘killed’ in the lucky-dip and scavenger-hunt games, respectively. This appears to be because risk increased people’s perceived value of partially devalued commodities. Low-risk lucky-dip games resulted in 44% more devalued items being kept by participants compared to high-risk games. Additionally, devaluation reduced people’s perceptions of risk. Compared to lucky-dip games with just risk, games that included devaluation caused a 10% drop in survival at the highest-risk treatment. Moreover, when devalued commodities were worthless in the lucky-dip games, 27% more were ‘killed’ compared to when devalued commodities were worth 25% of the full-value commodity. Therefore, contrary to expectations, partial devaluation may be more successful than complete devaluation. Greater rates of devaluation were also met with greater variation in commodity survival between games. Coefficients of variation for commodity survival increased from 12% to 41% as devaluation rates increased from zero to 100%. Moreover, respondents to the survey ranked the most devalued population (90%) highest 36% of the time, but also lowest 35% of the time. Thus, peoples’ responses to devaluation vary. Risk was a more effective and consistent regulator of hunting behaviour. Average commodity survival was 88% at maximum security treatments but was only 65% at maximum devaluation treatments. My experimental games and surveys do not support the expectation that reducing the value of rhinos’ horns will discourage hunters and protect rhino. The IWT is a complex socio-economic system, and human behaviour is varied in response to risk and reward. Devaluation introduces a complex interaction between the two, rendering risk and devaluation less effective in some circumstances. Every population and situation is unique, and the effectiveness of devaluation will be context-specific. Finally, the research demonstrates that serious games can be applied to the study of criminal hunting behaviour. Other difficult-to-study human subjects and systems could benefit from greater use of similar methodologies.</p>

Why older rural women in Ireland want to work: it's not all about the money

This paper extends our understanding of employment and gendered rural ageing by examining the latent benefits of paid work for mid-life women in rural Ireland. Existing social gerontology literature deals extensively with manifest financial reasons to work, consequences of gendered pay and pension inequalities, work-related health concerns and the negative impacts to an extended working life for women. However, there is much less focus on the latent non-financial positive contributions that work provides for the older woman, especially within a rural context. Findings from this study show how mid-life women, even if in lower-paid, precarious work or in poorer health may choose to continue working into older age. Paid work provides not only financial autonomy, but also temporal structure, life purpose, personal agency, social connectivity and a self-identity that most women are reluctant to relinquish to retirement. Meaningful work plays a critical role in the ageing experience of older rural women. A qualitative study of 25 women aged 45–65 in Connemara, Ireland was undertaken from a lifecourse perspective and analysed using constructivist grounded theory to allow rich, novel narrative to emerge. Narrative from seven, who best represent all participants, are utilised in this paper. Conclusions suggest that the latent benefits of paid work are at least as, if not more important than financial gain for rural mid-life women.

Using Nominal Group Technique to Identify Key Ethical Concerns Regarding Hearing Aids With Machine Learning

Purpose: Machine learning (ML) in new-generation hearing aid technology presents a beneficial opportunity for development in audiology. It is, however, important to balance new applications against the audiologist's professional ethics to protect the client from any harm. This study aimed to identify the key ethical concerns related to the latest digital hearing aid technology that incorporates ML that could potentially impact the client and/or the audiologist. Method: A nominal group technique was conducted with the audiologist to generate and prioritize a list of key ethical concerns related to human data interaction, with specific focus on hearing aids. Results: Five categories were identified in relation to the potential impact on the client: (a) privacy and confidentiality, (b) relationship and trust, (c) nonmaleficence, (d) informed decision making, and (e) financial gain. An additional five categories were identified in relation to the potential impact on the audiologist: (a) privacy and confidentiality, (b) professional responsibility, (c) relationship and trust, (d) financial gain, and (e) trust technology. Privacy and confidentiality were ranked as the highest priority that should be considered when supplying clients with the latest hearing aid technology. Conclusions: Hearing aid technology has evolved considerably, and audiologists need to keep abreast of and master the general technological developments and the associated ethical challenges that may arise. Discussions on the ethics related to ML and hearing aid fittings will help identify the key ethical concerns involved and, thereby, enhance the ethical sensitivity of the profession.