Defending Computer Criminals

Andrea Monti – Adjunct Professor of Public Order and Security
University Gabriele d’Annunzio – Chieti-Pescara, IT – amonti@unich.it

Paper presented at the Tokyo CodeBlue Conference 2020

Abstract

This paper is about defending a person accused of computer crime and computer-related crime in Court. It is intended as a primer for those defence counsel who have no experience in the specific field of criminal trials involving computer, digital assets and the Internet. At the same time, it provides insights to computer experts wanting to enter into the digital forensics sector, because it offers a way to understand how a lawyer thinks, and what are his needs when designing a defence strategy.

The focus is on the practical issues, as emerged from the direct trial experience of the author and of other criminal trial lawyers, therefore the legal theory and the ICT technical aspects are not discussed in detail. Both the legal and the IT professional, though, can find in the discussion enough hints to widen their understanding of the matter and improve the effectiveness of their strategies.

The paper is structured in three part: a criminological profile’s taxonomy of the defendants, the analysis of the digital investigation carried on by the prosecution to build the case, and the trial strategies of the defence counsel.

Finally, a note on the cases discussed in this paper: where possible, references to court decisions are available, but in some cases, for confidentiality reasons, the paper analyses the relevant elements without providing further information. Continue reading “Defending Computer Criminals”

A twenty years old jump into the future

Twenty years ago I jumped into the future.

I wasn’t actually aware of it. To me it was just matter of meeting “cool” people who, like me, loved (someone else’s:)) computers.

Twenty years after I’ve realized that I have been part of something great, though unacknowledged.

Join the Metro Olografix Twentieth Birthday Party at MO20.olografix.org.

Lone Wolf Terrorism and Open Source Intelligence

Tomorrow I shall give a talk about Open Source Intelligence and Lone Wolf Terrorism at the “Terrorism and Crime” ? international conference hosted by the University of Chieti.

It will be a chance to debunk the next “national security excuse” invoked to increase mass surveillance and social control for the sake of our “safety”.

Here is the full programme

International Conference on “Terrorism and Crime”

Dedicated to the memory of Prof. Enrico Todisco

University “G. d’Annunzio”, Viale Pindaro 42, Pescara

THURSDAY, JUNE 19 – 2014

Room “Paolo V”

O9 :00-09: 20 – Welcome and greetings

O9: 20 – 11:00 – “Lone Wolf Terrorism

Chair: Yair Sharan

(09:20 – 09:40) Yair Sharan (General Director of the EPI/ first group – Israel)

History of LW terrorism

(09:40 – 10:00) Theodore J.Gordon (co-founder, The Millennium Project):

The Possible Evolution of Lone Wolf Terrorism; an RTD Study

(10:00 – 10:20) Yair Sharan (General Director of the EPI/ first group – Israel)

Prospects for Bio- terrorism

(10:20 – 10:40) Elizabeth Florescu (Director of Research, The Millennium Project)

Lone Wolf Profiling and Social Implications

Discussion

11:00 – 11:30 – Coffee Break

11:30 – 13:30 – Terrorism: Contrast and future prevention

Chair: Arije Antinori Discussant: Gianmarco Cifaldi

(11:30 – 11:50) – Arije Antinori (Sapienza University)

The evolution of the LWT through the web

(11:50 – 12:10) – Salvatore Rapuano (Comando GDF Regione Molise)

The security at airports: prospects and scenarios

(12:10 – 12:30) – Gianmarco Cifaldi – Tatiana Yugay (Un. G. d’Annunzio“, Moscow

State University) – Smart security versus Smart crime

(12:30 – 12:50) – Antonio Cilli (G. d’Annunzio University) – Computer crime and

terrorism

(12:50 – 13:10) – Marco Rosi (Ten. Col. C.C.) – New scenarios of Islamist terrorism:

the phenomenon of the italian homegrown and Foreign fighters

(13:10 – 13:30) – Andrea Monti(University of Milan) – Open Source Intelligence e

Big Data

Discussion

13:30 – 15:30 – Lunch

(15:30 – 16:00) lecture dedicated to the memory of Prof. Enrico Todisco

Prof. Raimondo Cagiano De Azevedo – (Sapienza University)

Live broadcast on: www.unich.it

16:00 – 19:00 – Round table on the future of terrorism

Organizer: Sergio Sorbino Gen C.A. (ris) CC – Moderator:Gianmarco Cifaldi

Participants:

Arije Antinori (Sapienza Univ.) – Gianmarco Cifaldi (Univ. G. d’Annunzio) – Antonio Cilli (Univ. G. d’Annunzio) – Elizabeth Florescu (Millennium Project, World Federation of UN Associations) – Theodor J. Gordon (Millennium Project, “Edward Cornish Award” winner, Futurist of the Year 2010) – Salvatore Rapuano (GdF) – Marco Rosi (Ten. Col. CC) – Carlo Disma (Col. Rivista Italiana Difesa) – Aurelio Soldano (Ufficiale GdF) – Yair Sharan (Director General of EPI/FIRST) – Tatiana Yugay (Moscow ?State ?Univ.) – Augusta Marconi (Univ. G. d’Annunzio)

17:30 Coffè Break

FRIDAY, JUNE 20 – 2014

Room “Paolo V”

Sessions on “The Future Of Crime”

O9 :00-09: 15 – Welcome and greetings

09:15 – 10:50 – Crime and economic activity. Future trends

Chair: Tatiana YugayDiscussants: Andrea Ziruolo

(09:15 – 09:30) – Gianmarco Cifaldi – Tatiana Yugay (University “G. d’Annunzio“,

Moscow State University) Deoffshorization of the Russian economy as a fight against economic crime

(09:30 – 09:45) – Augusta Consorti, Massimo Sargiacomo, Michela Venditti

(University “G. d’Annunzio) – Accounting for illegal activities organized

(09:45 – 10:00) – Andrea Ziruolo(University “G. d’Annunzio) – Bodies of Independent

Assessment of local authorities, by overseeing the performance to yet another bureaucratic structure

(10:00 – 10:15) – Fabizio Lisi (Guardia di Finanza)

Future Trends of economic crimeand perspectives of contrast

Discussion

10:30 – 10:45 – Coffee Break

10:45 – 12:00 – Organized Crime. Future Trends

Chair: Giammarco Cifaldi – Discussants: Arije Antinori

(10:45 – 11:00) – John Gale (Miami judge) – Intenational crime: case study

(11:00 – 11:15) – Franco Sivilli(University “G. d’Annunzio) – From digitization to

datizzatione: the phenomenon of the Big Data in the era of Cloud

Computing

(11:15 – 11:30) – Arije Antinori (University La Sapienza) – The integration of Osint,

Webint and Socint in the analysis of complex criminal phenomena

(11:30 – 11:45) – Gianmarco CifaldiTatiana Yugay (University “G. d’Annunzio“,

Moscow State University) – Smart security versus Smart crime

(12:00 – 12:15) – Elisabetta Narciso (Dirigente Polizia Postale) – New criminal

phenomena in the web

(12:15 – 12:30) – Paolo Piccinelli (Col C.C.) – Micro-crime and prevention strategies Discussion

12:30 – 13:45 –Violence, crime and justice. Temporal and spatial Trends

Chair: Francesco D. d’Ovidio – Discussant: Elizabeth Florescu

(12:30 – 12:45) – Mara Maretti – Elizabeth Florescu ?(University “G. d’Annunzio,

Millennium Project) – Gender-based violence: a sociological reading of

past, present and future

(12:45 – 13:00) – Francesco D. d’Ovidio, Rossana Mancarella, Laura Antonucci

Spatial relationships between changes in crime and the efficiency of

riminal justice in recent years

(13:00 – 13:15) – Antonio Cilli(University “G. d’Annunzio) – Digital investigations

and crime mapping

(13:15 – 13:30) – Pasqualino Cipolla – Italo Cucci(University “G. d’Annunzio,

Journalist) – Violence in sport and criminal tendencies

(13:30 – 13:45) – Gianmarco Cifaldi (University “G. d’Annunzio) – Violence against

children: from virtual to real

Discussion and Interview to Italo Cucci – Live broadcast on: www.unich.it

14:00 – 15:30 – Lunch

15:30 – 16:00 – Theodore J. Gordon“Some Future Ethical Issues”

16:00 – 18:30 – Round table on future of crime

Organizer: Sergio Sorbino (Gen C.A. (Ris) CC) – Moderator: Antonio Cilli

Participants:

Vincenzo D’Antuono (Prefect of Pescara) – Arije Antinori (Coordinator CRI.ME LAB, Rome University) – Filippo Barboso (Quaestor of Chieti) – Angelo Battisti (Sapienza University) – Giuseppe Falasca (Magistrate) – Giovanni Febo (Quaestor of Teramo) – Paolo Passamonti (Quaestor of Pescara) – Paolo Piccinelli (Col. CC) – Fabio Santone (V.Q.A. Polizia di stato) – Yair Sharan (Director General of EPI/FIRST – Israel) – Aurelio Soldano (Cap. GdF) – Armando Tartaro (Univ. G. d’Annunzio)

Conclusions

17:00 Coffè Break

SATURDAY, JUNE 21 – 2014

Room “Paolo V”

Seminars

(09:00 – 09:45) – Arije Antinori10 Years of Digihad. The Evolution of Global Digital

Jihadism

(09:45 – 10:00) – Debate

(10:00 – 10:45) – Yair Sharan – New Technologies and Their Implications

(10:45 – 11:00) – Debate

11:00 – 11:15 – Coffee Break

(11:15 – 12:00) – Theodore J. Gordon New data sources and The Evolution of

Analysis

(12:00 – 12:15) – Debate

(12:15 – 12:45) – Antonio Pacinelli, Simone Di Zio

Conclusions, thanks and future opportunities

13:00 – Lunch

Italian Biotech Law Conference 2008

IBLC fourth edition deals with the impact of building a forensic oriented Italian DNA database.

Just for the curious, here is the programme:

Tuesday, Apr 8, 2008 – h 14,00/18,15
Palazzo delle Stelline Sala PORTA
Corso Magenta 61 – Milano (IT)

h. 14,00/14,15 – Registration

h. 14,15/14,30
Opening and welcome speech

Chairman
Leonardo Santi President
National Committee for Biosecurity, Biotechnology and Life Science – Council of Ministers

Moderator
Guido Romeo, Journalist, Nòva24 – IlSole24Ore

Discussant

h. 14,30/15,00
Personal DNA-based identification: from collection to sample analysys
Salvatore Pece
Researcher, IEO – Europea Institute of Oncology

h. 15,00/15,30
DNAbase Security: hardware and software infrastructures
Andrea Cocito, Campus IEO-IFOM

h. 15,30/16,00
Biobanks and Italian Biotech industry role
Leonardo Biondi, Biopolo S.c.r.l.

h. 16,00/16,30 – Coffee break

16.30/17.00
Case history: the National DNA Database in the UK
Stephen Firth, Firth Consulting

h 17.00/17.30
Myth and reality of DNA-based investigations
Andrea Monti,
Vice President, ALCEI – Electronic Frontiers Italy

h 17.30/18.00
“Of Crime and Gene”
Giovanni Boniolo, Professor of philosophy of Science, Università degli Studi di Padova – IFOM Milano

h. 18.00/18.10
Closing
Leonardo Santi

WHAT IS IBLC

IBLC stands for Italian Biotech Law Conference, the first Italian scientific conference dealing, from an interdisciplinary perspective, with life-science, information technology and law.

IBLC father is Andrea Monti, an Italian lawyer and legal scholar,researching, since more than 14 years, the field of ICT legal issues.

IBLC was born in 2004 as an Italian Cyberspace Law Conference; spinoff, with title Bioinformatics Research between IP protection and information free flow.

The discussant where dr. Marcella Attimonelli (associate professor of molecular biology at the University of Bari) and dr. Paolo Vezzoni (researcher at the National Research Council’s Institute of Biomedical Technologies).

IBLC second edition (2005) the title Protection of Biotech Assets, Market, Freedom of Research has been discussed by dr. Enrico Dainese (associate professor at Teramo University Comparative Biomedical Science Dept.), dr. Giampiero Di Plinio (professor of Public Comparative Law at the University of Chieti), dr. Piero Fariselli (researcher at the Department of Biology – University of Bologna), dr. Andrea Cocito (FIRC Foundation of Molecular Oncology’s bioinformatics group.)

Third edition (2007) has been possible with the invaluable help ho FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology and asked the question: Who owns bioinformation? (Possible) answers came from the following high profile scholars and researchers, managed by Giovanni Boniolo (conference chair – University of Padova, IT, Dept. of Philosophy): Pier Paolo Di Fiore – Andrea Cocito FIRC – IFOM, Luciano Floridi – Oxford University (UK), Giovanni Ziccardi – University of Milan, IT, Marco Ventura – University of Siena.

IFOM-FIRC and Biopolo sustained the fourth edition: Gen-ethics and BioBanks: between market and law enforcement profiling that obtained the endorsment of the National Committee for Biosecurity, Biotechnology and Life Science – Council of Ministers.

Past edition’s speakers talked about:

* What is bioinformatics (M. Attimonelli)

* Human genome variability: privacy and social-ethics issues (M. Attimonelli)

* Open source and bioinformatics software licensing (A. Cocito)

* Bioinformatics and protein structure analysys (E. Dainese)

* Biosequences analysys: database, technics and standard. A technical introduction for “the rest of us” (P. Fariselli)

* Open source, copyrights and bioinformatics (A. Monti)

* Genetic research, biotechnology, information access, economic applications (P. Vezzoni)

* How to build bioinformation (A.Cocito)

* What is bioinformation (L.Floridi)

* Semantic ambiguities, intellectual property, law (G.Ziccardi)

* Bioinformation and Public Policies (M.Ventura)