Victoria Wang is a Senior Lecturer on Security and Cybercrime in the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth. She particularly enjoys applying scientific rigour and academic analysis to real-world situations to obtain evidence-based solutions. Victoria is the Principal Investigator (PI) of a £360k (FEC funding) competitively-reviewed EPSRC project (EP/N027825/1) on Data Release: Trust, Identity, Privacy and Security, which is a collaboration with Swansea University (EP/N028139/1; FEC funding: £1.24M) (2016-2020). She leads one of the four work packages - information security - and is an active contributor to another work package - formal methods. She is a Co-Investigator (CoI) of the UK government's annual Cyber Security Breaches Survey (HM Government; £12,749) (2016; 2017; 2018; 2019). She is also a Program Committee Member of the First Workshop on Attackers and Cyber-Crime Operations; IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy 2019. Phone: 023 9284 3900 Address: Room 5.30 St. George's Building, University of Portsmouth
Advanced cybercommunities are communities in which perfect surveillance is possible – software to... more Advanced cybercommunities are communities in which perfect surveillance is possible – software tools allow everything to be observed, recorded, archived, pored over at a later date and acted upon. Hence, one expects that these surveillance technologies ought to be heavily used and effective in controlling deviance in these cybercommunities. Drawing on our research in the cybercommunity Second Life, we observe that surveillance technologies are not heavily used to deal with deviance; instead, it is the power of relationships that form the fabric of social control and the regulation of deviance. This discovery questions the effectiveness of technology as a regulator, both in Second Life and in the real world, as well as evidences the importance of social bond as a mediator of deviance.
Our machines, products, utilities, and environments have long been monitored by embedded software... more Our machines, products, utilities, and environments have long been monitored by embedded software systems. Our professional, commercial, social and personal lives are also subject to monitoring as they are mediated by software systems. Data on nearly everything now exists, waiting to be collected and analysed for all sorts of reasons. Given the rising tide of data we pose the questions: What is monitoring? Do diverse and disparate monitoring systems have anything in common? We attempt answer these questions by proposing an abstract conceptual framework for studying monitoring. We argue that it captures a structure common to many different monitoring practices, and that from it detailed formal models can be derived, customised to applications. The framework formalises the idea that monitoring is a process that observes the behaviour of people and objects in a context. The entities and their behaviours are represented by abstract data types and the observable attributes by logics. Sin...
International Journal of Virtual Communities and Social Networking, 2013
The growth of cybercommunities is a notable social phenomenon. Empirical studies of cybercommunit... more The growth of cybercommunities is a notable social phenomenon. Empirical studies of cybercommunities have described new forms of social behaviour that call for deeper conceptual analysis. Drawing on evidence from our research in the cybercommunity Second Life, the authors examine the sociology of cybercommunities through the lens of Giddens’ abstract theories of modernity. In particular, the authors suggest that an individual’s participation in cybercommunities may be gauged using a spectrum of individual responses to particular abstract conditions of modernity. These abstract conditions have interpretations ranging from seeking refuge from the vicissitudes of the real world to pursuing the playful heights of modernity.
Self-censorship in social networking sites (SNSs) – privacy concerns, privacy awareness, perceived vulnerability and information management, 2019
This paper aims to investigate behavioural changes related to self-censorship (SC) in Social Netw... more This paper aims to investigate behavioural changes related to self-censorship (SC) in Social Networking Sites (SNSs) as new methods of online surveillance are introduced. In particular, it examines the relationships between self-censorship (SC) and four related factors: privacy concerns (PC), privacy awareness (PA), perceived vulnerability (PV), and information management (IM). A national wide survey was conducted in the United Kingdom (N = 519). The data were ana-lysed to present both descriptive and inferential statistical findings. The level of online self-censorship increases as the level of privacy concern increases. The level of privacy concern increases as the levels of privacy awareness and perceived vulnerability increase, and the level of effective information management decreases. This study extends the literature on online self-censorship, showing that privacy concerns increase the level of self-censorship in SNSs. It provides support for three antecedent factors to privacy concerns which impact upon levels of self-censorship when communicating in SNSs. https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/JICES-07-2018-0060
ABSRACT This article reports on a recent research project undertaken in the UK that investigated ... more ABSRACT This article reports on a recent research project undertaken in the UK that investigated young people's use of a range of prominent social media tools for socialising and relationship building. The research was conducted by a way of online survey. The findings suggest that this sample of British young people's socialising and relationship-building practices via the range of prominent social media tools reflect similar behavioural categories used offline. The use of these social media tools provides young people with an opportunity to manage, simultaneously, different categories of relationships in a multiplicity of 'spaces' created by these tools. The findings challenge the widely held belief that young people expose themselves to risk on social media as they indiscriminately befriend strangers. There is an absence of evidence of 'unjustified' intent to harm others. Indeed the findings indicate a strong desire to primarily support and protect those with whom relationships have been carefully established. The research suggests in fact that online engagement through social media can be positive and constructive for young people. It appears to provide them with a challenging 'space' to practice identity and relationship management strategies. ARTICLE HISTORY
In our contemporary society, phatic technologies routinely establish, develop and maintain person... more In our contemporary society, phatic technologies routinely establish, develop and maintain personal and emotional relationships across time and space. This phenomenon is reminiscent of Giddens' 1990 concept of abstract systems-made of symbolic tokens and expert systems-that disembed and re-embed public and professional life. In this paper, we develop social theory that aims to provide a better understanding of the prominent role of phatic technologies in society. We proceed in three stages: first, we critique and revise Giddens' vague concept of symbolic tokens and its implications for timespace distanciation by introducing novel concepts from measurement science. This focusses on forms of information that are relatively precise and communal. Secondly, building on our new formulation of abstract systems, we propose new sociological concepts, phatic systems and symbolic indicators, to enable social theory to explore and analyse the rise of phatic technologies. The concepts focus on the personal and emotional. Thirdly, reflecting on the fact that our digital society is held together by software, we introduce concepts from theoretical computer science to relate the abstract sociological idea of phatic systems and symbolic indicators to the concrete nature of digital data.
"The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric o... more "The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it" - Mark Weiser Our digital world is made from software and data is generated wherever there is software. It is natural to collect data, indeed, it is difficult not to collect it and also difficult to erase it. Digital technologies encourage monitoring of physical and social phenomena. The accelerating growth of data is transforming how we live our lives, and hence on surveillance and intelligence practices broadly conceived. Such a transformation presents many challenges. In this chapter, we reflect on the technologies of monitoring in our digital society and offer a conceptual framework for thinking about digital intelligence in general terms. We address the issue of privacy that is increasingly significant as the monitoring of everyday life becomes all-pervasive. At first sight, privacy issues suggest that we should either (i) not collect certain data, or (ii) limit and regulate access to data collected. Given that data is difficult to manage, and especially to protect and erase, we focus on a third option that is (iii) to hide or mask the identity of the people to whom the data refers. So, we propose that the key to privacy in an increasingly digital world is identity. We outline a theory of identity whose primary purpose is to provide a framework to view the complex path from data to intelligence, and to mark obstacles to personal digital privacy. We use ideas from computer science, surveillance studies, and intelligence studies to guide our arguments. In Section 2, we provide some key background observations of many significant impacts that digital technologies have on surveillance and intelligence practices in our contemporary digital world. In Section 3, we briefly describe the concept of surveillance as the monitoring of everyday life and summarize software technologies that are the sources of data. In Section 4, we explore how definitions and practices of intelligence may be affected by evolving software technologies and the abundance of data that they generate. In Section 5, we discuss the concepts of privacy and identity, and their interdependency. In Section 6, we explain our concept of identifiers to make our discussion more precise. We conclude by commenting on some implications of our approach and its possible further development.
In book: Cyber Security: Law and Guidance Publisher: Bloomsbury
Deep Learning (DL) networks are recent revolutionary developments in artificial intelligence rese... more Deep Learning (DL) networks are recent revolutionary developments in artificial intelligence research. Typical networks are stacked by groups of layers that are further composed of many convolutional kernels or neurons. In network design, many hyper-parameters need to be defined heuristically before training in order to achieve high cross-validation accuracies. However, accuracy evaluation from the output layer alone is not sufficient to specify the roles of the hidden units in associated networks. This results in a significant knowledge gap between DL's wider applications and its limited theoretical understanding. To narrow the knowledge gap, our study explores visualization techniques to illustrate the mutual information (MI) in DL networks. The MI is a theoretical measurement, reflecting the relationship between two sets of random variables even if their relationship is highly non-linear and hidden in high-dimensional data. Our study aims to understand the roles of DL units in classification performance of the networks. Via a series of experiments using several popular DL networks, it shows that the visualization of MI and its change patterns between the input/output with the hidden layers and basic units can facilitate a better understanding of these DL units' roles. Our investigation on network convergence suggests a more objective manner to potentially evaluate DL networks. Furthermore, the visualization provides a useful tool to gain insights into the network performance, and thus to potentially facilitate the design of better network architectures by identifying redundancy and less-effective network units.
Surveillance is recognised as a social phenomenon that is commonplace, employed by governments, c... more Surveillance is recognised as a social phenomenon that is commonplace, employed by governments, companies and communities for a wide variety of reasons. Surveillance is fundamental in cybersecurity as it provides tools for prevention and detection; it is also a source of controversies related to privacy and freedom. Building on general studies of surveillance, we identify and analyse certain concepts that are central to surveillance. To do this we employ formal methods based on elementary algebra. First, we show that disparate forms of surveillance have a common structure and can be unified by abstract mathematical concepts. The model shows that (i) finding identities and (ii) sorting identities into categories are fundamental in conceptualising surveillance. Secondly, we develop a formal model that theorizes identity as abstract data that we call identifiers. The model views identity through the computational lens of the theory of abstract data types. We examine the ways identifiers depend upon each other; and show that the provenance of identifiers depends upon translations between systems of identifiers.
Our lives are facilitated and mediated by software. Thanks to software, data on nearly everything... more Our lives are facilitated and mediated by software. Thanks to software, data on nearly everything can be generated, accessed and analysed for all sorts of reasons. Software technologies, combined with political and commercial ideas and practices, have led to a wide range of our activities being monitored, which is the source of concerns about surveillance and privacy. We pose the questions: What is monitoring? Do diverse and disparate monitoring systems have anything in common? What role does monitoring play in contested issues of surveillance and privacy? We are developing an abstract theory for studying monitoring that begins by capturing structures common to many different monitoring practices. The theory formalises the idea that monitoring is a process that observes the behaviour of people and objects in a context. Such entities and their behaviours can be represented by abstract data types and their observable attributes by logics. In this paper, we give a formal model of monitoring based on the idea that behaviour is modelled by streams of data, and apply the model to a social context: the monitoring of web usage by staff and members of an organisation.
In recent years, the Darknet has become one of the most discussed topics in cyber security circle... more In recent years, the Darknet has become one of the most discussed topics in cyber security circles. Current academic studies and media reports tend to highlight how the anonymous nature of the Darknet is used to facilitate criminal activities. This paper reports on a recent research project in four Darknet forums that reveals a different aspect of the Darknet. Drawing on our qualitative fndings, we suggest that many users of the Darknet might not perceive it as intrinsically criminogenic, despite their acknowledgement of various kinds of criminal activity in this network. Further, our research participants emphasised on the achievement of constructive socio-political values through the use of the Darknet. This achievement is enabled by various characteristics that are rooted in the Darknet’s technological structure, such as anonymity, privacy, and the use of cryptocurrencies. These characteristics provide a wide range of opportunities for good as well as for evil.
This paper reports on a recent research project undertaken in the UK that investigated how young ... more This paper reports on a recent research project undertaken in the UK that investigated how young people negotiate their identities and relationships online, including how they experience interventions by adults. Drawing on qualitative interviews with young people in two schools and a voluntary youth organisation in England, we argue that young people engage rather successfully in practices of self-governance. Our findings based on this sample of young people's agentic practice and care for their peers challenge some dominant perceptions of young people's online practices as risky and/or harmful to themselves and/or others. Furthermore we found a lack of evidence concerning the effectiveness of, and need for, interventions orientated around surveillance and zero tolerance.
This paper explores some of the key barriers to Open Government Data (OGD) that responsible civil... more This paper explores some of the key barriers to Open Government Data (OGD) that responsible civil servants in the UK face as they try to comply with the UK-led OGD initiative. Empirically, we provide a quantitative analysis of the resources published on the government's central OGD portal, data.gov.uk, and a unique insight into the publishing of OGD in the UK based on 22 interviews with responsible individuals at the operational level of publishing OGD. Our findings reveal that while the barriers to open government information have been substantially reduced, the barriers to open government data persist. Even the most enthusiastic responsible individuals face considerable obstacles in publishing OGD. Further, a key barrier to OGD in the UK is its impression management strategy based on its informational rather than data orientation. Due to the UK's pioneering position in the OGD initiative, these findings are relevant to understanding and improving OGD programmes at local, national and international levels. The findings may, subsequently, lead to evidence-based strategies and policies.
Advanced cybercommunities are communities in which perfect surveillance is possible – software to... more Advanced cybercommunities are communities in which perfect surveillance is possible – software tools allow everything to be observed, recorded, archived, pored over at a later date and acted upon. Hence, one expects that these surveillance technologies ought to be heavily used and effective in controlling deviance in these cybercommunities. Drawing on our research in the cybercommunity Second Life, we observe that surveillance technologies are not heavily used to deal with deviance; instead, it is the power of relationships that form the fabric of social control and the regulation of deviance. This discovery questions the effectiveness of technology as a regulator, both in Second Life and in the real world, as well as evidences the importance of social bond as a mediator of deviance.
Our machines, products, utilities, and environments have long been monitored by embedded software... more Our machines, products, utilities, and environments have long been monitored by embedded software systems. Our professional, commercial, social and personal lives are also subject to monitoring as they are mediated by software systems. Data on nearly everything now exists, waiting to be collected and analysed for all sorts of reasons. Given the rising tide of data we pose the questions: What is monitoring? Do diverse and disparate monitoring systems have anything in common? We attempt answer these questions by proposing an abstract conceptual framework for studying monitoring. We argue that it captures a structure common to many different monitoring practices, and that from it detailed formal models can be derived, customised to applications. The framework formalises the idea that monitoring is a process that observes the behaviour of people and objects in a context. The entities and their behaviours are represented by abstract data types and the observable attributes by logics. Sin...
International Journal of Virtual Communities and Social Networking, 2013
The growth of cybercommunities is a notable social phenomenon. Empirical studies of cybercommunit... more The growth of cybercommunities is a notable social phenomenon. Empirical studies of cybercommunities have described new forms of social behaviour that call for deeper conceptual analysis. Drawing on evidence from our research in the cybercommunity Second Life, the authors examine the sociology of cybercommunities through the lens of Giddens’ abstract theories of modernity. In particular, the authors suggest that an individual’s participation in cybercommunities may be gauged using a spectrum of individual responses to particular abstract conditions of modernity. These abstract conditions have interpretations ranging from seeking refuge from the vicissitudes of the real world to pursuing the playful heights of modernity.
Self-censorship in social networking sites (SNSs) – privacy concerns, privacy awareness, perceived vulnerability and information management, 2019
This paper aims to investigate behavioural changes related to self-censorship (SC) in Social Netw... more This paper aims to investigate behavioural changes related to self-censorship (SC) in Social Networking Sites (SNSs) as new methods of online surveillance are introduced. In particular, it examines the relationships between self-censorship (SC) and four related factors: privacy concerns (PC), privacy awareness (PA), perceived vulnerability (PV), and information management (IM). A national wide survey was conducted in the United Kingdom (N = 519). The data were ana-lysed to present both descriptive and inferential statistical findings. The level of online self-censorship increases as the level of privacy concern increases. The level of privacy concern increases as the levels of privacy awareness and perceived vulnerability increase, and the level of effective information management decreases. This study extends the literature on online self-censorship, showing that privacy concerns increase the level of self-censorship in SNSs. It provides support for three antecedent factors to privacy concerns which impact upon levels of self-censorship when communicating in SNSs. https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/JICES-07-2018-0060
ABSRACT This article reports on a recent research project undertaken in the UK that investigated ... more ABSRACT This article reports on a recent research project undertaken in the UK that investigated young people's use of a range of prominent social media tools for socialising and relationship building. The research was conducted by a way of online survey. The findings suggest that this sample of British young people's socialising and relationship-building practices via the range of prominent social media tools reflect similar behavioural categories used offline. The use of these social media tools provides young people with an opportunity to manage, simultaneously, different categories of relationships in a multiplicity of 'spaces' created by these tools. The findings challenge the widely held belief that young people expose themselves to risk on social media as they indiscriminately befriend strangers. There is an absence of evidence of 'unjustified' intent to harm others. Indeed the findings indicate a strong desire to primarily support and protect those with whom relationships have been carefully established. The research suggests in fact that online engagement through social media can be positive and constructive for young people. It appears to provide them with a challenging 'space' to practice identity and relationship management strategies. ARTICLE HISTORY
In our contemporary society, phatic technologies routinely establish, develop and maintain person... more In our contemporary society, phatic technologies routinely establish, develop and maintain personal and emotional relationships across time and space. This phenomenon is reminiscent of Giddens' 1990 concept of abstract systems-made of symbolic tokens and expert systems-that disembed and re-embed public and professional life. In this paper, we develop social theory that aims to provide a better understanding of the prominent role of phatic technologies in society. We proceed in three stages: first, we critique and revise Giddens' vague concept of symbolic tokens and its implications for timespace distanciation by introducing novel concepts from measurement science. This focusses on forms of information that are relatively precise and communal. Secondly, building on our new formulation of abstract systems, we propose new sociological concepts, phatic systems and symbolic indicators, to enable social theory to explore and analyse the rise of phatic technologies. The concepts focus on the personal and emotional. Thirdly, reflecting on the fact that our digital society is held together by software, we introduce concepts from theoretical computer science to relate the abstract sociological idea of phatic systems and symbolic indicators to the concrete nature of digital data.
"The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric o... more "The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it" - Mark Weiser Our digital world is made from software and data is generated wherever there is software. It is natural to collect data, indeed, it is difficult not to collect it and also difficult to erase it. Digital technologies encourage monitoring of physical and social phenomena. The accelerating growth of data is transforming how we live our lives, and hence on surveillance and intelligence practices broadly conceived. Such a transformation presents many challenges. In this chapter, we reflect on the technologies of monitoring in our digital society and offer a conceptual framework for thinking about digital intelligence in general terms. We address the issue of privacy that is increasingly significant as the monitoring of everyday life becomes all-pervasive. At first sight, privacy issues suggest that we should either (i) not collect certain data, or (ii) limit and regulate access to data collected. Given that data is difficult to manage, and especially to protect and erase, we focus on a third option that is (iii) to hide or mask the identity of the people to whom the data refers. So, we propose that the key to privacy in an increasingly digital world is identity. We outline a theory of identity whose primary purpose is to provide a framework to view the complex path from data to intelligence, and to mark obstacles to personal digital privacy. We use ideas from computer science, surveillance studies, and intelligence studies to guide our arguments. In Section 2, we provide some key background observations of many significant impacts that digital technologies have on surveillance and intelligence practices in our contemporary digital world. In Section 3, we briefly describe the concept of surveillance as the monitoring of everyday life and summarize software technologies that are the sources of data. In Section 4, we explore how definitions and practices of intelligence may be affected by evolving software technologies and the abundance of data that they generate. In Section 5, we discuss the concepts of privacy and identity, and their interdependency. In Section 6, we explain our concept of identifiers to make our discussion more precise. We conclude by commenting on some implications of our approach and its possible further development.
In book: Cyber Security: Law and Guidance Publisher: Bloomsbury
Deep Learning (DL) networks are recent revolutionary developments in artificial intelligence rese... more Deep Learning (DL) networks are recent revolutionary developments in artificial intelligence research. Typical networks are stacked by groups of layers that are further composed of many convolutional kernels or neurons. In network design, many hyper-parameters need to be defined heuristically before training in order to achieve high cross-validation accuracies. However, accuracy evaluation from the output layer alone is not sufficient to specify the roles of the hidden units in associated networks. This results in a significant knowledge gap between DL's wider applications and its limited theoretical understanding. To narrow the knowledge gap, our study explores visualization techniques to illustrate the mutual information (MI) in DL networks. The MI is a theoretical measurement, reflecting the relationship between two sets of random variables even if their relationship is highly non-linear and hidden in high-dimensional data. Our study aims to understand the roles of DL units in classification performance of the networks. Via a series of experiments using several popular DL networks, it shows that the visualization of MI and its change patterns between the input/output with the hidden layers and basic units can facilitate a better understanding of these DL units' roles. Our investigation on network convergence suggests a more objective manner to potentially evaluate DL networks. Furthermore, the visualization provides a useful tool to gain insights into the network performance, and thus to potentially facilitate the design of better network architectures by identifying redundancy and less-effective network units.
Surveillance is recognised as a social phenomenon that is commonplace, employed by governments, c... more Surveillance is recognised as a social phenomenon that is commonplace, employed by governments, companies and communities for a wide variety of reasons. Surveillance is fundamental in cybersecurity as it provides tools for prevention and detection; it is also a source of controversies related to privacy and freedom. Building on general studies of surveillance, we identify and analyse certain concepts that are central to surveillance. To do this we employ formal methods based on elementary algebra. First, we show that disparate forms of surveillance have a common structure and can be unified by abstract mathematical concepts. The model shows that (i) finding identities and (ii) sorting identities into categories are fundamental in conceptualising surveillance. Secondly, we develop a formal model that theorizes identity as abstract data that we call identifiers. The model views identity through the computational lens of the theory of abstract data types. We examine the ways identifiers depend upon each other; and show that the provenance of identifiers depends upon translations between systems of identifiers.
Our lives are facilitated and mediated by software. Thanks to software, data on nearly everything... more Our lives are facilitated and mediated by software. Thanks to software, data on nearly everything can be generated, accessed and analysed for all sorts of reasons. Software technologies, combined with political and commercial ideas and practices, have led to a wide range of our activities being monitored, which is the source of concerns about surveillance and privacy. We pose the questions: What is monitoring? Do diverse and disparate monitoring systems have anything in common? What role does monitoring play in contested issues of surveillance and privacy? We are developing an abstract theory for studying monitoring that begins by capturing structures common to many different monitoring practices. The theory formalises the idea that monitoring is a process that observes the behaviour of people and objects in a context. Such entities and their behaviours can be represented by abstract data types and their observable attributes by logics. In this paper, we give a formal model of monitoring based on the idea that behaviour is modelled by streams of data, and apply the model to a social context: the monitoring of web usage by staff and members of an organisation.
In recent years, the Darknet has become one of the most discussed topics in cyber security circle... more In recent years, the Darknet has become one of the most discussed topics in cyber security circles. Current academic studies and media reports tend to highlight how the anonymous nature of the Darknet is used to facilitate criminal activities. This paper reports on a recent research project in four Darknet forums that reveals a different aspect of the Darknet. Drawing on our qualitative fndings, we suggest that many users of the Darknet might not perceive it as intrinsically criminogenic, despite their acknowledgement of various kinds of criminal activity in this network. Further, our research participants emphasised on the achievement of constructive socio-political values through the use of the Darknet. This achievement is enabled by various characteristics that are rooted in the Darknet’s technological structure, such as anonymity, privacy, and the use of cryptocurrencies. These characteristics provide a wide range of opportunities for good as well as for evil.
This paper reports on a recent research project undertaken in the UK that investigated how young ... more This paper reports on a recent research project undertaken in the UK that investigated how young people negotiate their identities and relationships online, including how they experience interventions by adults. Drawing on qualitative interviews with young people in two schools and a voluntary youth organisation in England, we argue that young people engage rather successfully in practices of self-governance. Our findings based on this sample of young people's agentic practice and care for their peers challenge some dominant perceptions of young people's online practices as risky and/or harmful to themselves and/or others. Furthermore we found a lack of evidence concerning the effectiveness of, and need for, interventions orientated around surveillance and zero tolerance.
This paper explores some of the key barriers to Open Government Data (OGD) that responsible civil... more This paper explores some of the key barriers to Open Government Data (OGD) that responsible civil servants in the UK face as they try to comply with the UK-led OGD initiative. Empirically, we provide a quantitative analysis of the resources published on the government's central OGD portal, data.gov.uk, and a unique insight into the publishing of OGD in the UK based on 22 interviews with responsible individuals at the operational level of publishing OGD. Our findings reveal that while the barriers to open government information have been substantially reduced, the barriers to open government data persist. Even the most enthusiastic responsible individuals face considerable obstacles in publishing OGD. Further, a key barrier to OGD in the UK is its impression management strategy based on its informational rather than data orientation. Due to the UK's pioneering position in the OGD initiative, these findings are relevant to understanding and improving OGD programmes at local, national and international levels. The findings may, subsequently, lead to evidence-based strategies and policies.
Recruitment fraud is when someone lies about their experience, qualifications, employment history... more Recruitment fraud is when someone lies about their experience, qualifications, employment history or previous integrity to help gain employment. It is a serious problem which: • denies genuine candidates the employment that they deserve • denies employers the staff they need to do a good job • allows fraudsters into organisations where they can then undertake wider fraud and theft • damages the reputation of those organisations which do not undertake effective pre-employment checks • represents a significant cost, thereby undermining the financial health of those organisations which are affected.
This report, for the first time, establishes a baseline figure for the cost of recruitment fraud. It also shows that, where it is allowed to occur as a result of no or inadequate pre-employment checks, it often leads to further fraud and theft.
Fraudsters, encouraged by successfully gaining employment through dishonesty are often motivated to attempt wider fraud within their host organisations. However, the deterrent to individuals from carrying out recruitment fraud is not complex or difficult for businesses to adopt. Effective pre-employment checks are relatively low cost and easy to commission. Specialists can check in-country, in the relevant local language, and look at local documentation. With fraud growing by almost 50% in the last 10 years1, the real question is not why would we do this, but why wouldn’t we?
The Cyber Security Breaches Survey is a quantitative and
qualitative survey of UK businesses and ... more The Cyber Security Breaches Survey is a quantitative and qualitative survey of UK businesses and charities. For this latest release, the quantitative survey was carried out in winter 2018 and the qualitative element in early 2019. It helps these organisations to understand the nature and significance of the cyber security threats they face, and what others are doing to stay secure. It also supports the Government to shape future policy in this area.
This report presents the findings from the questionnaire stage of a research study which explored... more This report presents the findings from the questionnaire stage of a research study which explored links between the frequency with which young people use a range of digital social networking media and the behaviours they engage on these media at different levels of relationships. The overall aim of the research was to map young peoples’ socialising strategies on digital media in order to help practitioners have a clearer understanding of what is going on when faced with issues which might be interpreted as cyberbullying. This will help inform decisions about the most appropriate interventions needed to respond to these issues and help young people communicate more safely on these media. The research was carried out during September 2014 using online questionnaires in two secondary schools and a youth organisation in Sussex. 686 questionnaires were retrieved. Within these retrieved questionnaires, 543 were completed. A significant proportion of the remaining questionnaires were half completed with identical series of questions unanswered towards the second half of the questionnaire. Perhaps, large cohorts of young people completing questionnaires in lessons ran out of time. The behaviour categories used in this research emerged from Edwards’ (2013) – a research project exploring the behavioural and linguistic dimensions of 300 young people’s relationship building strategies in physical sites over 18 months (See appendix 1). The findings are summarised first and then data is presented in tables. These findings will be used to guide further focus group research in January and February, which will gather further data in order to help develop a safer communicative environment on digital media.
This report presents the findings from a research study carried out across two secondary schools ... more This report presents the findings from a research study carried out across two secondary schools and a youth organisation in Sussex between June 2014 and July 2015. The study, carried out in two stages, responds to concerns raised by colleagues in each organisation about their perceived increase in cyberbullying incidents on prominent social networking sites (sns). The first stage of the study, carried out between July and September 2014, was a quantitative exploration designed to help create a basic outline of young people’s socialising and relationship building practices on eight prominent sns. The second stage, carried out between June and July 2015, used a series of semi-structured focus groups and scenario analyses to explore young people’s communications in a range of behaviours and relationships on the eight sns. This stage also explored the most appropriate interventions, which the young people thought would support them when issues arise, which might otherwise be placed under the umbrella term of cyberbullying by teachers and other adults. The findings show that the use of sns provides young people with the opportunity to simultaneously manage different categories of relationships within the sns available. Issues, which might be viewed as cyberbullying on the sns by adults, primarily support or protect those with whom relationships have been carefully established as part of their self-identities. Furthermore, central to the young people’s behaviours on these sns is a sense of self- governance; that is, where each young person is responsible for a) maintaining their self- narrative; b) ensuring their actions either do not restrict a peer’s attaining this goal; and c) ensuring their peers’ actions do not restrict others attaining this goal. The findings challenge current trends towards increased online surveillance and zero tolerance policies in favour of creating safe spaces with trusted adults with whom the young people can resolve their relationship issues face to face. We recommend further research is carried out, which works with young people to develop a more supportive, collaborative range of interventions, which enable young people to manage their own relationships on sns.
This report summarises research into the nature and extent of discussions on the Dark Web with th... more This report summarises research into the nature and extent of discussions on the Dark Web with the intent to attack and damage companies through fraud and cybercrime. Monetising those attacks is also often part of the plan.
The House of Lords_Written evidence (DSC0023): Select Committee on digital skills, oral and written evidence, 2014
In this written evidence, we comment on the question: How fundamental are the changes that we are... more In this written evidence, we comment on the question: How fundamental are the changes that we are experiencing due to digital technologies? Our Comments are directed to the point made by Baroness Morgan above and are relevant to issue number 1 in the committee’s Call for Evidence. We argue that the rise and rise of the digital world is a profound phenomenon. To fully exploit this digital world economically, socially and politically, the UK must drive change in education, skills and life-long learning. We note the role of digital data in this phenomenon.
The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2018 comprised:
• a random probability telephone survey of 1,5... more The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2018 comprised: • a random probability telephone survey of 1,519 UK businesses and 569 UK registered charities from 9 October 2017 to 14 December 20171 • 50 in-depth interviews undertaken in January and February 2018 to follow up with organisations that participated in the survey, as well as higher education institutions. For business results, comparisons are made where feasible to the 2017 and 2016 surveys (for which quantitative survey fieldwork was undertaken in late 2016 and late 2015 respectively). Charities were surveyed for the first time in the 2018 survey.
This report details the findings from a quantitative and qualitative survey with UK businesses on... more This report details the findings from a quantitative and qualitative survey with UK businesses on cyber security. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) commissioned the survey as part of the National Cyber Security Programme, following a previous comparable study by the Department published in 2016. 1. It was carried out by Ipsos MORI, in partnership with the Institute for Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Portsmouth, and comprised: ▪ a telephone survey of 1,523 UK businesses from 24 October 2016 to 11 January 20172 ▪ 30 in-depth interviews undertaken in January and February 2017 to follow up businesses that participated in the survey.
Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2016 - Main Report, 2016
Ipsos MORI and its partner, the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies (ICJS) at the University of... more Ipsos MORI and its partner, the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies (ICJS) at the University of Portsmouth, were commissioned by the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Programme to survey UK businesses on their approach to cyber security and the costs they have incurred from cyber security breaches. The survey and report have been endorsed by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
Understanding the UK cyber security skills labour market. We carried out a rapid evidence review ... more Understanding the UK cyber security skills labour market. We carried out a rapid evidence review of 32 existing evidence sources (surveys and white papers, globally and in the UK). We include a full list of references in the separately published technical report. Ipsos MORI carried out the remaining strands.
Commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (HR Government)
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Papers by Victoria Wang
A national wide survey was conducted in the United Kingdom (N = 519). The data were ana-lysed to present both descriptive and inferential statistical findings. The level of online self-censorship increases as the level of privacy concern increases. The level of privacy concern increases as the levels of privacy awareness and perceived vulnerability increase, and the level of effective information management decreases. This study extends the literature on online self-censorship, showing that privacy concerns increase the level of self-censorship in SNSs. It provides support for three antecedent factors to privacy concerns which impact upon levels of self-censorship when communicating in SNSs.
https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/JICES-07-2018-0060
In book: Cyber Security: Law and Guidance
Publisher: Bloomsbury
highlight how the anonymous nature of the Darknet is used to facilitate criminal
activities. This paper reports on a recent research project in four Darknet forums that reveals a different aspect of the Darknet. Drawing on our qualitative fndings, we suggest
that many users of the Darknet might not perceive it as intrinsically criminogenic,
despite their acknowledgement of various kinds of criminal activity in this network.
Further, our research participants emphasised on the achievement of constructive
socio-political values through the use of the Darknet. This achievement is enabled
by various characteristics that are rooted in the Darknet’s technological structure,
such as anonymity, privacy, and the use of cryptocurrencies. These characteristics
provide a wide range of opportunities for good as well as for evil.
A national wide survey was conducted in the United Kingdom (N = 519). The data were ana-lysed to present both descriptive and inferential statistical findings. The level of online self-censorship increases as the level of privacy concern increases. The level of privacy concern increases as the levels of privacy awareness and perceived vulnerability increase, and the level of effective information management decreases. This study extends the literature on online self-censorship, showing that privacy concerns increase the level of self-censorship in SNSs. It provides support for three antecedent factors to privacy concerns which impact upon levels of self-censorship when communicating in SNSs.
https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/JICES-07-2018-0060
In book: Cyber Security: Law and Guidance
Publisher: Bloomsbury
highlight how the anonymous nature of the Darknet is used to facilitate criminal
activities. This paper reports on a recent research project in four Darknet forums that reveals a different aspect of the Darknet. Drawing on our qualitative fndings, we suggest
that many users of the Darknet might not perceive it as intrinsically criminogenic,
despite their acknowledgement of various kinds of criminal activity in this network.
Further, our research participants emphasised on the achievement of constructive
socio-political values through the use of the Darknet. This achievement is enabled
by various characteristics that are rooted in the Darknet’s technological structure,
such as anonymity, privacy, and the use of cryptocurrencies. These characteristics
provide a wide range of opportunities for good as well as for evil.
problem which:
• denies genuine candidates the employment that they deserve
• denies employers the staff they need to do a good job
• allows fraudsters into organisations where they can then undertake wider fraud and theft
• damages the reputation of those organisations which do not undertake effective pre-employment checks
• represents a significant cost, thereby undermining the financial health of those organisations which are affected.
This report, for the first time, establishes a baseline figure for the cost of recruitment fraud. It also shows that, where it is
allowed to occur as a result of no or inadequate pre-employment checks, it often leads to further fraud and theft.
Fraudsters, encouraged by successfully gaining employment through dishonesty are often motivated to attempt wider
fraud within their host organisations. However, the deterrent to individuals from carrying out recruitment fraud is not complex or difficult for businesses to adopt. Effective pre-employment checks are relatively low cost and easy to commission. Specialists can check in-country, in the relevant local language, and look at local documentation. With fraud growing by almost 50% in the last 10 years1, the real question is not why would we do this, but why wouldn’t we?
qualitative survey of UK businesses and charities.
For this latest release, the quantitative survey was
carried out in winter 2018 and the qualitative element in early 2019. It helps these organisations to understand the nature and significance of the cyber security threats
they face, and what others are doing to stay
secure. It also supports the Government to shape future policy in this area.
The research was carried out during September 2014 using online questionnaires in two secondary schools and a youth organisation in Sussex. 686 questionnaires were retrieved. Within these retrieved questionnaires, 543 were completed. A significant proportion of the remaining questionnaires were half completed with identical series of questions unanswered towards the second half of the questionnaire. Perhaps, large cohorts of young people completing questionnaires in lessons ran out of time.
The behaviour categories used in this research emerged from Edwards’ (2013) – a research project exploring the behavioural and linguistic dimensions of 300 young people’s relationship building strategies in physical sites over 18 months (See appendix 1). The findings are summarised first and then data is presented in tables. These findings will be used to guide further focus group research in January and February, which will gather further data in order to help develop a safer communicative environment on digital media.
Commissioned by Eelectric Storm Youth Ltd
Commissioned by Electric Storm Youth Ltd.
https://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-committees/digital-skills/Digital-Skills-Committee-Evidence.pdf
• a random probability telephone survey of 1,519 UK businesses and 569 UK registered charities from 9 October 2017 to 14 December 20171
• 50 in-depth interviews undertaken in January and February 2018 to follow up with organisations that participated in the survey, as well as higher education institutions.
For business results, comparisons are made where feasible to the 2017 and 2016 surveys (for which quantitative survey fieldwork was undertaken in late 2016 and late 2015 respectively). Charities were surveyed for the first time in the 2018 survey.
Commissioned by HR Government: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/702074/Cyber_Security_Breaches_Survey_2018_-_Main_Report.pdf
1. It was carried out by Ipsos MORI, in partnership with the Institute for Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Portsmouth, and comprised:
▪ a telephone survey of 1,523 UK businesses from 24 October 2016 to 11 January 20172
▪ 30 in-depth interviews undertaken in January and February 2017 to follow up businesses that participated in the survey.
Commissioned by HR Government:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/609186/Cyber_Security_Breaches_Survey_2017_main_report_PUBLIC.pdf
Commissioned by HR Government:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/521465/Cyber_Security_Breaches_Survey_2016_main_report_FINAL.pdf
Commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (HR Government)
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/767422/Understanding_the_UK_cyber_security_skills_labour_market.pdf