A Homicide Investigation And The (Still Alive) Data Retention Regulation

The young girl homicide investigation I’ve talked about in a previous post reveals other interesting information, this time about the Telcos’s role in supporting the public prosecution service through the traffic data retention.

The media are reporting (italian only, sorry) that more than 120.000 single mobile calls are under scrutiny spanning from a few months before the kill. But since the fact is more than three years’old, these data aren’t even supposed to exist since the Data Retention Directive forbade its preservation once the (maximum) two-years term expired.

So, hopefully for the justice and the family of the poor girl, at the beginning of the investigation the public prosecutor, as required by law, did issue a traffic data “freezing” order or, better, seized it as dictated by the Italian Criminal Rule of Evidence.

As in the case of the DNA-based evidence, the collection of traffic data without complying the Rule of Evidence might allow the defense lawyers to challenge the reliability of these information especially because the original traffic data have (or should have been) destroyed once collected by the public prosecution service, thus preventing the possibility of double-checking during the trial their actual evidence “weight”.

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

The Fake Data Processor and The True Criminal Liability

Under Legislative Decree 196/03 (the Italian enforcement of the Data Protection Directive) one of the most common practice when developing the data-protection corporate policy of a company is to appoint the heads of the various departments as “Data Processor”.

Although easy on the short term, this solution might backfire the company itself. A recent Corte di cassazione (Italian Supreme Court) decision – ? III penal section – Dec. n.20682/14 – ruled that under the workplace safety regulation, the employer that appoints a safety manager who is not fit for the job because of his lack of competence, ? commits a criminal offense.

The very same principle can be applied by analogy to the Data Protection Directive. The DPD – and its Italian enforcement – make mandatory to appoint a data controller actually fit for the job.

By choosing people on different basis (not because they know the matters, but just because they’re company’s heads) means that in case of data-protection-related criminal offenses the data controller (and, most important, the prosecutor and the court) can’t blame (only) the data processor itself.

Then, in terms of management, the decision is between only formally comply with the legal requirements, and actually comply by appointing capable data processors.

In the first case the company is accepting the risk of a future (but uncertain both in “if” and “when”) accident but saves on the short term effort and time.

In the second case the company spends more, has to possibly change its internal processes in the anticipation of an event that might not happens at all.

Mesh Networks and BBS. Re-inventing the Wheel?

An important Italian online magazine just “discovered” today the possibility to build a “parallel-Internet” by using WI-FI antennas, no need to purchase an access-plan and (allegedly) free form NSA’s peeping eyes. Of course, the buzzword is “revolution”.

I can’t stop being amazed by the candid ignorance of these contemporary “digital cognoscenti” or “digital natives”. They think that the ICT world was born with Facebook and that beforehand there only was a gravitational singularity.

Today only some mature former(?) geek can remember of the BBS Era and witness how does the world worked at those times: mesh networks are nothing but a way to create an independent network like Fidonet was; with the only difference that Fidonet was software-indepedent, while mesh networks might become hardware independent too. In this sense mesh networks are an evolution and not a revolution, and omitting the “r” at the beginning of the word makes a great difference.

But semantics isn’t the (only) issue to deal with. Why, somebody might in fact ask, should we be concerned by this granny’s style rant? Things evolve so do people: who cares anymore about relics such as Bocamodem or Fidonet?

Answer: because the experience of the BBS Era is the basis of all of the modern (social, political and economical) ways to exploit a network and a lot of answers to a lot of questions have already been provided. Just think of issues like online anonymity, forum posting liability, online free speech, online journalism: these are just a few examples of the topics that once were hot and today we still struggle with. The difference between yesterday and today is that the “old school” users were and are more conscious about the actual impact of technology in their own life, while the “digital natives” actually are part of a dumb generation of technology’s passive users. A condition that is everything but different than the one reserved to the human part of The Matrix: fuel for the machines.