Journal articles on the topic 'Canadian Security Intelligence Act (Proposed)'

Abstract. In this paper, the authors analyze the empirical process of securitization of the US–Canada border and then reflect on the model proposed by the Copenhagen School. We argue that securitization theory oversimplifies the political process of securitizing moves and audience acceptance. Rather than attributing securitization to a singular speaker addressing a specific audience, we present overlapping and ongoing language security games performed by varying relevant actors during the key period between the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) in December 2004 and the signing of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) in June 2005, showing how multiple speakers participate in the continuing construction of a context in which this issue is increasingly treated as a matter of security. We also explore the language adopted by participants in the field, focusing on an expert panel convened by the Homeland Security Institute. We conclude that in the securitization of the US–Canada border there are inconsistencies between truth and discourse, as well as significant distinctions between official and bureaucratic discourses, further emphasizing the importance of a comprehensive model of securitization.Résumé. Dans cet article, les auteurs font l'analyse du processus empirique de la sécurisation de la frontière Canado-Américaine à travers la réflexion sur le modèle proposé par l'École de Copenhague. Nous soutenons que cette théorie de sécurisation simplifie trop le processus politique de son initiation et de l'acceptation de l'auditeur. Au lieu d'attribuer la sécurisation à un orateur, s'adressant à un public particulier, nous présentons les jeux de langage continuels effectués par plusieurs acteurs pendant la période suivant la Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) en décembre 2004, jusqu'à l'approbation de la Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) en juin 2005. Nous maintenons que plusieurs orateurs participent dans la construction continuelle du contexte dans lequel l'affaire est de plus en plus comprise dans le cadre de sécurité. Nous explorons aussi le langage employé par les participants dans le champ, observant surtout un groupe d'experts convoqué au Homeland Security Institute. Nous concluons que dans le cas de la sécurisation de la frontière Canado-Américaine il existe des incohérences entre le discours et le réel, ainsi que des distinctions significatives entre les discours officiels et bureaucratiques, mettant l'accent sur l'importance d'un modèle compréhensif de sécurisation.

On 9 December 2014, the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service Amendment Act 2014 amended the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service Act 1969 by removing the requirement for an intelligence or visual surveillance warrant in some situations of emergency or urgency. The warrant process is the primary mechanism for the purpose of ensuring surveillance powers are not exercised arbitrarily or unreasonably. Any departure from this process must be justified, limited and proportionate. After a brief look at the history of the Bill, this article will then consider the circumstances in which a warrantless authorisation shall be granted and information retained, with reference to the trigger concepts of "terrorist act", "foreign terrorist fighter" and "security". Amendments proposed include limiting the grounds for warrantless surveillance and information retention to countering "foreign terrorist fighters". It will then discuss the consistency of the Bill with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, focusing on the authorisation structure and length. It will put forward a proposed amendment that restructures the power such that authorisation for surveillance in urgency will be provided by the Minister and Commissioner within 12 hours.

Abstract: The research paper delved into the concerns of chatbot users and the potential risks lurking in the shadows—security, privacy, data protection, and social quandaries. What emerged from the study was a disquietude among users, fearing the misuse or thievery of their personal information. Additionally, apprehension surfaced regarding the sinister deployment of chatbots in the realms of phishing scams and the propagation of deceitful news. To ensure a shielded experience when engaging with chatbots, users were provided with sagacious counsel. They were admonished to only divulge their valuable information to chatbots that have garnered a reputable and trustworthy stature. Moreover, a word of caution resonated, urging users to exercise vigilance in their cyber-surfing, refraining from clicking on dubious links and showing discretion when confronted with attachments or applications proposed by chatbots. Careful advice also dictated the periodic updating of devices and software, ensconcing the latest security fixes within their digital fortresses. As an added layer of defence, users were encouraged to change their passwords at regular intervals, an act of precautionary foresight guarding against potential breaches of security.

Canadians increasingly rely on digital technology to connect with each other, to work and innovate. That’s why the Government of Canada is committed to making sure Canadians can benefit from the latest technologies, knowing that their privacy is safe and secure, and that companies are acting responsibly. In June 2022, the government proposed the Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022, which will significantly strengthen Canada’s private sector privacy law, create new rules for the responsible development and use of artificial intelligence (AI), and continue advancing the implementation of Canada’s Digital Charter. Canada's Digital Charter sets out principles to ensure that privacy is protected, data-driven innovation is human-centred, and Canadian organizations can lead the world in innovations that fully embrace the benefits of the digital economy. Canadians must be able to trust that their personal information is protected, that their data will not be misused, and that organizations operating in this space communicate in a simple and straightforward manner with their users. This trust is the foundation on which Canadian digital and data-driven economy will be built. This legislation takes a number of important steps to ensure that Canadians have confidence that their privacy is respected and that AI is used responsibly, while unlocking innovation that promotes a strong economy. The Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022 will include three proposed acts: the Consumer Privacy Protection Act, the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act, and the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act.

After six short weeks of debate, Bill C-36, The Anti-terrorism Act,1 passed into law on 28 November 2001. Bill C-36 was Parliament’s formal legislative response to the terrorist attacks upon the U.S. on September 11. Among other things, Bill C-36 amended the National Defence Act2 to grant the Minister of National Defence, in place of a judge, the power to authorize the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) to intercept private communications for the purpose of obtaining foreign intelligence under section 273.65. The CSE’s mandate includes acquiring and providing foreign signals intelligence.3 In this article, I argue that this amendment to the National Defence Act abolished an essential safeguard to arbitrary state actions and likely violates section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.4 The eventual removal of section 273.65 from the National Defence Act would uphold the long-standing, appropriate, and constitutional doctrine that the power to authorize agents of the state to intercept private communications rests solely with the judiciary.

In November of 2016, the Federal Court of Canada published a scathing ruling pertaining to some of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s (CSIS) big data surveillance activities. Among other charges of wrongdoing, the ruling accused the agency of not having been forthcoming with the Court about the existence of its “Operational Data Analysis Center” (ODAC), an advanced analytics bulk metadata exploitation program that had been operational since 2006. The ruling also revealed that a significant portion of the metadata collected by CSIS should not have been retained in ODAC, a practice that the ruling declared illegal. Drawing from the ruling, a series of classified CSIS documents obtained via requests made under the Access to Information Act, various public reports from both CSIS and the Security Intelligence Review Committee, as well as a Senate Committee hearing transcript, this article examines CSIS’s conduct, justifications, and statements relating to its bulk metadata retention activities spanning from the year of ODAC’s inception in 2006 to the publication of the ODAC ruling in 2016. The paper demonstrates how CSIS engaged in various forms of secrecy and how it successfully constructed and disseminated its own big data related language to effectively “gerrymander” the national security narrative, thereby ultimately ensuring its tight control over the knowledge that the Court would have of big data surveillance and CSIS’s engagement with it. This would enable the Service to keep its metadata exploitation program out of sight and operational for ten years until the Court ended up declaring a significant portion of ODAC illegal in 2016.

The security of computer networks is critical for network intrusion detection systems (NIDS). However, concerns exist about the suitability and sustainable development of current approaches in light of modern networks. Such concerns are particularly related to increasing levels of human interaction required and decreased detection accuracy. These concerns are also highlighted. This post presents a modern intrusion prevention deep learning methodology. For unattended function instruction, we clarify our proposed Symmetric Deep Autoencoder (SDAE). Also, we are proposing our latest deep research classification model developed with stacked SDAEs. The classification proposed by the Network Security Laboratory-Knowledge Discovery in Databases (NSL-KDD) and Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity -Intrusion Detection System (CICIDS 2017) data sets was implemented in Tensor Flow, a Graphics Procedure Unit (GPU) enabled and evaluated. We implemented and tested our experiment with different batch sizes using Adam optimizer. Promising findings from our model have been achieved so far, which demonstrates improvements over current solutions and the subsequent improvement for use in advanced NIDS.

Security agencies in Canada have become increasingly anxious regarding the threat of domestic radicalization. Defined loosely as “the process of moving from moderate beliefs to extremist belief,” inter-agency security practices aim to categorize and surveil populations deemed at-risk of radicalization in Canada, particularly young Muslims. To detail surveillance efforts against domestic radicalization, this article uses the Access to Information Act (ATIA) to detail the work of Canada’s inter-agency Combating Violent Extremism Working Group (CVEWG). As a network of security governance actors across Canada, the CVEWG is comprised of almost 20 departments and agencies with broad areas of expertise (intelligence, defence, policing, border security, transportation, immigration, etc.). Contributing to critical security studies and scholarship on the sociology of surveillance, this article maps the contours and activities of the CVEWG and uses the ATIA to narrate the production and iteration of radicalization threats through Canadian security governance networks. Tracing the influence of other states – the U.S. and U.K., in particular – the article highlights how surveillance practices that target radicalization are disembedded from particular contexts and, instead, framed around abstractions of menacing Islam. By way of conclusion, it casts aspersions on the expansion of counter-terrorism resources towards combating violent extremism; raising questions about the dubious categories and motives in contemporary practices of the “war on terror.”

The intelligence of energy storage devices has led to a sharp increase in the amount of detection data generated. Data sharing among distributed energy storage networks can realize collaborative control and comprehensive analysis, which effectively improves the clustering and intelligence. However, data security problems have become the main obstacle for energy storage devices to share data for joint modeling and analysis. The security issues caused by information leakage far outweigh property losses. In this article, we first proposed a blockchain-based machine learning scheme for secure data sharing in distributed energy storage networks. Then, we formulated the data sharing problem into a machine-learning problem by incorporating secure federated learning. Innovative verification methods and consensus mechanisms were used to encourage participants to act honestly, and to use well-designed incentive mechanisms to ensure the sustainable and stable operation of the system. We implemented the scheme of SFedChain and experimented on real datasets with different settings. The numerical results show that SFedChain is promising.

The internet of things (IoT) is a multiple devices, which connects with the internet for communication, in order to obtain the updated from the cloud. The fog can act as a controller and it is located between the IoT devices and cloud. The major attacks like de-synchronization, and disclosure has arises in the devices, this has been prevented. The major contribution in this work is key generation and authentication, for key generation the “advanced encryption standard algorithm” is developed, in which the new and old keys are generated. The encryption is done under the source side, and decryption is done under the device side. The fog security is maintained through “device tag, and bit wise XOR rotational algorithm”. The security, and the computational complexity is defined in this work and it is given in table format. The implementations are carried out in the MATLAB R2016 a. The proposed algorithm is compared with the existing protocols like LMAP, M2AP, EMAP, SASI, and RAPP, from the comparison the proposed methodology makes the better knowledge about the security and prevents from various attacks.

Digital technology and Internet of things is acting as turning force on aviation industry. It is also noted that airport IoT solutions are leading in efficient airport operations and smooth passenger flow. The proposed architecture is to gear smart passenger processing through sensor, connected devices, artificial intelligence and analytical decision making. It also focuses on great potential of IoT integration in end to end passenger processing at airport terminal. This proposition helps in ‘always stays a connected passenger ‘concept. The proposed concept gives new dimension to check-in to boarding in smart way. The use of IoT will help to enhance security efficiency, shorter and better traveller experience with selecting capabilities in IoT. The Internet of Things (IoT), a network of connected smart devices through sensors which are used to communicate and collect the smart data which are analysed with augmented intelligence, such analysed data used to perform act across the applied area.

The day-to-day progress in communication plays a vital role in transmitting millions and trillions of data through the unsecured network channels. It creates a way where the user’s data becomes the victim of various security threats. Among those users’ data, images act as primary data, and its encryption security methodologies are fascinating. The conventional encryption techniques don’t work well against the various other hidden security threats but require substantial computational time and cost with poor permutation performance. Hence to deal with this, an auto-encoder induced DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) sequence via chaotic image encryption framework is designed in our proposed work. It integrates the properties of DNA encoding and the chaotic maps to handle the data losses effectively and resist several attacks such as statistical attacks, chosen-plaintext attacks, etc. Moreover, an auto-encoder is used to control the data noises, thereby ensuring a better encryption performance. Here, the auto-encoder is activated to generate a permuted image with less time complexity and noise. A secret key is then initialized with the aid of SHA-256. Finally, image encryption and decryption are achieved, followed by the successful transmission of data over a digital network. The performance of the proposed work is analyzed with varied metrics to strengthen its efficiency over the prior techniques.

With many advancements, technologies are now capable of recording non-human animals’ location, heart rate, and movement, often using a device that is physically attached to the monitored animals. However, to our knowledge, there is currently no technology that is able to do this unobtrusively and non-invasively. Here, we review the history of technology for use with animals, recent technological advancements, current limitations, and a brief introduction to our proposed novel software. Canadian tech mogul EAIGLE Inc. has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) software solution capable of determining where people and assets are within public places or attractions for operational intelligence, security, and health and safety applications. The solution also monitors individual temperatures to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19. This technology has been adapted for use at the Toronto Zoo, initiated with a focus on Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) given the close physical similarity between orangutans and humans as great ape species. This technology will be capable of mass data collection, individual identification, pose estimation, behaviour monitoring and tracking orangutans’ locations, in real time on a 24/7 basis, benefitting both zookeepers and researchers looking to review this information.

Cryptoasset miners verify and record transactions, maintaining the integrity and security of the blockchain network. The Department of Finance ("Finance") has recently proposed new Excise Tax Act (ETA) provisions regarding the goods and services tax (GST)/harmonized sales tax (HST) treatment of crypto mining. Under these proposed provisions, crypto mining activities provided to anonymous recipients will not be subject to GST/HST, but the crypto miners performing these activities will also not be eligible to recover any GST/HST paid on their business inputs (and thus will be forced to bear the brunt of the tax themselves). We believe that Finance's decision to tax what it can identify—the business inputs of Canadian crypto miners—is a roughly balanced but reasonable approach. Although Finance might be legitimately criticized as departing from Canada's decision to eliminate the cascading of tax found in the former origin-based federal sales tax, it seems impossible to administer a destination-based transactional tax such as the GST/HST when faced with "anonymous" recipients (the users of the crypto miner's services). Finance appears to have minimized the cascading of tax by including a carve-out for identifiable recipients of a crypto miner's services, allowing the regular zero-rating rules in the ETA to apply in limited circumstances. In the face of utter uncertainty, Finance's reactive approach is likely the best that it can do. Given the rapid evolution and inherent decentralization of the crypto space, a more broadly based proactive approach would seem imprudent at this time.

The article substantiates that the guarantees of rights and freedoms in the activity of the Security Service of Ukraine are: the procedure established by legislation and departmental legal acts for conducting counter-intelligence, operative-search, administrative and criminal-procedural measures by authorized structural units and their officials; effective departmental control, prosecutorial supervision, judicial, parliamentary, presidential and public control over the activities of the SBU; high professionalism and intolerance to corruption of all SBU employees; independence of the court in Ukraine. It is proven that in connection with the reform of the Security Service of Ukraine, an urgent question arises about the need for scientific research devoted to the development of guarantees of human rights and freedoms in the activities of the SBU and, on their basis, the development of relevant legal norms and their inclusion in the project of new Laws of Ukraine «On the Security Service of Ukraine», «On counter-intelligence activities», «On operational and investigative activities». At the same time, it should be taken into account that the practice of the European Court of Human Rights in verifying the legality of operational-search measures, counter-intelligence measures and covert investigative (search) actions shows that the right of the state to covert (secret) interference with the rights of citizens is recognized as permissible in if two conditions are met: 1) the intervention was carried out exclusively in the interests of national and public security or economic well-being of the country, to prevent riots or crimes, to protect health or morals, or to protect the rights and freedoms of other persons (Part 2 of Article 8 of the Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and fundamental freedoms); 2) if the intervention takes place in accordance with the law and is necessary, that is, in a way determined by a regulatory act of a non-departmental nature, but by law. It is proposed in the draft laws of Ukraine «On counter-intelligence activities» and «On operational and investigative activities» to provide for the duty of authorized bodies to notify a person whose constitutional rights were temporarily restricted during the period of the special administrative procedure or special administrative procedure, respectively, of such intervention, which will be an additional guarantee of ensuring effective control and legal protection of citizens. The current laws of Ukraine «On investigative and counter-intelligence activities» and «On counter-intelligence activities» do not fully guarantee the rights and freedoms of citizens, since persons who were subjected to investigative or counter-intelligence activities, due to their ignorance, do not have the opportunity to appeal actions related to interference in their personal life or communication. This, in turn, leads to the risk of abuse of office and violation of the rights and freedoms of citizens on the part of authorized persons to conduct investigative or counter-intelligence activities.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a model for quantitatively analyzing the security profile of an organization’s IT environment. The model considers the security risks associated with stored data, as well as services and devices that can act as channels for data leakages. The authors propose a sensitive information (SI) leakage vulnerability model. Design/methodology/approach – Factors identified as having an impact on the security profile are identified, and scores are assigned based on detailed criteria. These scores are utilized by mathematical models that produce a vulnerability index, which indicates the overall security vulnerability of the organization. In this chapter, the authors verify the model result extracted from SI leakage vulnerability weak index by applying the proposed model to an actual incident that occurred in South Korea in January 2014. Findings – The paper provides vulnerability result and vulnerability index. They are depends on SI state in information systems. Originality/value – The authors identify and define four core variables related to SI leakage: SI, security policy, and leakage channel and value of SI. The authors simplify the SI leakage problem. The authors propose a SI leakage vulnerability model.

As Canada approaches the end of its first decade of government-run health care with universal coverage and controlled costs, the majority in the United States Congress has proposed repealing the federal guarantee of health coverage to poor and disabled persons embodied in Medicaid. This somber turn in the history of American health care comes only a few years after an optimistic President Clinton resurrected the efforts of Presidents Truman and Nixon to establish universal coverage. Clinton’s own party quashed his Health Security Act prior to any formal debate. Characterizing the plan as Byzantine government that would limit choice, health insurance companies, the very industry President Clinton tried to accommodate by rejecting the Canadian model, opposed the plan. Ironically, the possibility of such legislation accelerated the movement by health care insurers and other large-scale payers to assume control of health care delivery through the establishment of “managed care” systems. While this movement has initially reduced costs, it has also restricted consumers’ choice and imposed new administrative procedures.

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs), low power, and short-range wireless communication in a near-body area provide advantages, particularly in the medical and healthcare sector: (i) they enable continuous monitoring of patients and (ii) the recording and correlation of physical and biological information. Along with the utilization and integration of these (sensitive) private and personal data, there are substantial requirements concerning security and privacy, as well as protection during processing and transmission. Contrary to the star topology frequently used in various standards, the overall concept of a novel low-data rate token-based WBAN framework is proposed. This work further comprises the evaluation of strategies for handling medical data with WBANs and emphasizes the importance and necessity of encryption and security strategies in the context of sensitive information. Furthermore, this work considers the recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), which are opening up opportunities for enhancing cyber resilience, but on the other hand, also new attack vectors. Moreover, the implications of targeted regulatory measures, such as the European AI Act, are considered. In contrast to, for instance, the proposed star network topologies of the IEEE 802.15.6 WBAN standard or the Technical Committee (TC) SmartBAN of the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI), the concept of a ring topology is proposed which concatenates information in the form of a ‘data train’ and thus results in faster and more efficient communication. Beyond that, the conductivity of human skin is included in the approach presented to incorporate a supplementary channel. This direct contact requirement not only fortifies the security of the system but also facilitates a reliable means of secure communication, pivotal in maintaining the integrity of sensitive health data. The work identifies different threat models associated with the WBAN system and evaluates potential data vulnerabilities and risks to maximize security. It highlights the crucial balance between security and efficiency in WBANs, using the token-based approach as a case study. Further, it sets a foundation for future healthcare technology advancements, aiming to ensure the secure and efficient integration of patient data.

With an increasing influence of computers and software, automation is affecting many areas of daily life. Autonomous systems have become a central notion, but many systems have reached only a lower level of automation and not yet full autonomy. Information technology and software have a strong impact and their industries are introducing their own business cultures. Even though autonomy will enable systems to act independently from direct human input and control in complex scenarios, the factors of responsibility, control, and attribution are of crucial importance for a legal framework. Legal responsibility has to serve as a safeguard of fundamental rights. Responsibility can be attributed by a special legal regime, and mandatory human override and fallback modes can assure human intervention and control. It is proposed to establish a precautionary regulatory regime for automated and autonomous systems to include general principles on responsibility, transparency, training, human override and fallback modes, design parameters for algorithms and artificial intelligence, and cyber security. States need to take a positivist approach, maintain their regulatory prerogative, and, in support of their exercise of legislative and executive functions, establish an expertise independent of industry in automation, autonomy, algorithms, and artificial intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) breakthroughs in the last few years have accelerated dramatically as a result of the industry's vast technological use. Neural Networks (NN) is one of the most vital areas of AI, as they allow for commercial use of features that were previously not accessible via the use of computers. The Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is one of the areas in which Neural Networks are being extensively investigated to provide comprehensive computer network security and data confidentiality. During the realization of this work Artificial Neural Network (ANN) were used to shape the proposed model using a realistic CICIDS2017 dataset retrieved from the Canadian Institute for Cyber-Security (CIC) website. Following implementation and testing, it was discovered that the new model performs exceptionally well, with an average. In addition, the receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) has a 9.999 % area under the Receiver Operator Characteristic Curve (AUC). Finally, it was discovered that the new model is exceptional and has a high level of accuracy. The new model will aid in an improved knowledge of various orders in which IDS research has been conducted. It will be useful for those working on AI-based solutions in IDS and similar domains. It is possible to enhance the new model's detection capabilities to incorporate all other lingering forms of incidents in this actual datasets, which contains all real-time and existing incidents.

Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) is contextualised knowledge, built on information that is collected, processed, analysed, and disseminated to the right audience, in order to comprehend a malicious threat actor’s motivation, goals, objectives, targets, and attack behaviours. The CTI value increases by the ability to be shared, consumed, and actioned timely, by the right stakeholders, based always on quality standards and parameters, which boost the cyber security community to understand how adversaries act and to counter the constantly emerging sophisticated cyber threats. In this article, along with the identification of research gaps, after a comparison between existing research studies in the similar scope of CTI evaluation and sharing mechanisms, we propose a blockchain-based cyber threat intelligence system architecture, which collects, evaluates, stores, and shares CTI, enabling tamper-proof data and exclusion of untrustworthy evaluation peers, while evaluating, at the same time, the quality of CTI Feeds against a defined set of quality standards. The evaluation of the data is performed utilising a reputation and trust-based mechanism for selecting validators, who further rate the CTI feeds using quality-based CTI parameters, while the consensus for preserving the fairness of the results and their final storage is performed via the recently introduced proof-of-quality (PoQ) consensus algorithm. The data, which are stored in the proposed ledger, constitute a reliable, distributed, and secure repository of CTI Feeds and contain their objective evaluation, as well as the performance of the validators who participated in each evaluation, while these data can be further used for assessing the reputation of CTI Sources. Finally, in order to assess the proposed system’s reliability, integrity, and tolerance against malicious activities, the model is subject to a theoretical analysis using a probabilistic simulation, taking into account various aspects and features of the integrated mechanisms. The results show that the tolerance against malicious validators is acceptable, even when the ratio between legitimately vs. maliciously behaving validators is 1 : 50.

Abstract: Security is always a main concern in every sphere, due to a rise in crime rate in a crowded event or suspicious lonely areas. Anomalydetection and observance have major applications of computer vision to gear various problems. Due to demand in the protection of safety, security of private properties placement of surveillance systems can recognize and interpret the scene and anomaly events play a vital role in intelligence observance. Detection of weapon and militant using convolution neural network (CNN). Proposed implementation uses two types of datasets. One dataset contains pre-labelled images. And the other one labelled manually contains a set of images. Results are tabulated, both algorithms achieve good efficiency, but their operation in real situations can be based on the trade-off between speed and efficiency. Crime is defined as an act dangerous not only to the person involved, but also to the community as a whole. It is to predict the crime using image dataset and finally calculate accurate performance of the detector. The propose algorithms that are able to alert the human operator when a weapon and militant is visible in the image. It is mainly focusedon limiting the number of false alarms in order to allow for real life application of the system. For future work, it is planned to use in live applicationand to improve the detection and reduce the crime.

Abstract: Due to the emerging developments in artificial intelligence(AI) and machine learning(ML) Technology various systems are developed in recent days that late the human emotions and real time aspects of human psychology detection. Facial recognition based music recommendation system (MRS) is a interesting area of research where he plays an important role in handling the psychology patients. Face recognition system is extensively applied in security systems surveillance systems fault identification etc. Based on Emotion of the human, the music recommendation needs to be provided to analyse the phycology changes with the patients. The proposed approach is focused on considering the constraints available with the facial recognition system in existing frameworks such as deep feature extraction processing delay need to be reduce the hair using deep convolutional neural network(DCNN) architecture based Mini exception algorithm is developed. The system considered FER2013 image dataset that contains 35000 face images with automated labels that would be helpful for the presented approach to identify the emotion class accurately. The Mini exception algorithm used in CNN layers act as a lightweight system compared with various states of approaches. The proposed system removes the barrier between the existing frameworks and achieved the accuracy of 92%. The recommended music is derived from the music database and further mapped with respect to the algorithm result.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has demonstrated huge potential in a various real-world applications. However, some significant considerations like fairness, transparency and trustworthiness are still challenging when applying AI to trust-oriented applications such as E-voting. In this project, we aim to facilitate the consolidation of AI ecosystems by developing a blockchain-based traceable self-tallying E-voting system. The proposed system presents a novel voting system by using Fingerprint of Aadhar card. In E-voting system an voter can vote from anywhere as there will be two or more levels of authenticity checks. The system will act as registering module on activating switch by the super admin. For registering module, followed by the fingerprint verification. The system permits the elector to cast their vote, block chain technology comes into existence that is integrated within the machine. Each vote is added into each block encrypted by 256-bit SHA hash codes, the hashed block cannot be tampered by any individual as more security is added to the system. By adopting Blockchain within the distribution of information will scale back one in every of the cheating sources of database manipulation. The proposed mechanism of voting using Blockchain not only serves the election conducting bodies but also the voters who get notified in case of any meddling with their votes before the counting announcement.

Nowadays, crimes connected to cultural heritage can feature as a staple for organised crime networks and act as financial enablers for international conflicts, including terrorism organisations and even inter-state conflicts, in several ways. Goods of cultural significance include a range of valuable objects related to human cultures, like works of art, historical artefacts, and other antiques, but also forgeries based on such objects. These crimes are almost always transnational, for instance, involving theft or looting in one country and goods moved across borders to be sold. This article presents an intelligence methodology based on Social Network Analysis (SNA) techniques that can support law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in their daily struggle against criminals that also pose a threat to national security. The methodology proposed is based on the building of a blended, multiplexed social network graph, deriving from the fusion of a diverse set of data sources, both in the open-source domain (OSINT) and in the classified domain. We will present data collection methods, correlation between sources, possible ways to generate blended links between individuals that retain information from different sources, and SNA techniques applied to intelligence and investigations. The article provides an answer to the following research questions: how we can detect and identify criminal activities and networks related to cultural goods crimes, how we can assist LEAs in countering illicit trafficking, and how we can ensure that art crime does not pay.

Digital twin (DT), machine learning, and industrial Internet of things (IIoT) provide great potential for the transformation of the container terminal from automation to intelligence. The production control in the loading and unloading process of automated container terminals (ACTs) involves complex situations, which puts forward high requirements for efficiency and safety. To realize the real-time optimization and security of the ACT, a framework integrating DT with the AdaBoost algorithm is proposed in this study. The framework is mainly composed of physical space, a data service platform, and virtual space, in which the twin space and service system constitute virtual space. In the proposed framework, a multidimensional and multiscale DT model in twin space is first built through a 3D MAX and U3D technology. Second, we introduce a random forest and XGBoost to compare with AdaBoost to select the best algorithm to train and optimize the DT mechanism model. Third, the experimental results show that the AdaBoost algorithm is better than others by comparing the performance indexes of model accuracy, root mean square error, interpretable variance, and fitting error. In addition, we implement empirical experiments by different scales to further evaluate the proposed framework. The experimental results show that the mode of the DT-based terminal operation has higher loading and unloading efficiency than that of the conventional terminal operation, increasing by 23.34% and 31.46% in small-scale and large-scale problems, respectively. Moreover, the visualization service provided by the DT system can monitor the status of automation equipment in real time to ensure the safety of operation.

WSN plays a major role in the design of IoT system. In today’s internet era IoT integrates the digital devices, sensing equipment and computing devices for data sensing, gathering and communicate the data to the Base station via the optimal path. WSN, owing to the characteristics such as energy constrained and untrustworthy environment makes them to face many challenges which may affect the performance and QoS of the network. Thus, in WSN based IoT both security and energy efficiency are considered as herculean design challenges and requires important concern for the enhancement of network life time. Hence, to address these problems in this paper a novel secure energy aware cluster based routing algorithm named Trusted Energy Efficient Fuzzy logic based clustering Algorithm (TEEFCA) has been proposed. This algorithm consists of two major objectives. Firstly, the trustworthy nodes are identified, which may act as candidate nodes for cluster based routing. Secondly, the fuzzy inference system is employed under the two circumstances namely selection of optimal Cluster Leader (CL) and cluster formation process by considering the following three parameters such as (i) node’s Residual Energy level (ii) Cluster Density (iii) Distance Node BS. From, the experiment outcomes implemented using MATLAB it have been proved that TEEFCA shows significant improvement in terms of power conservation, network stability and lifetime when compared to the existing cluster aware routing approaches.

The article points out that the pace of technological advance has led to integrating informaion and communication technology into accounting processes. Examples of advanced technologies for business that influence accounting management include computer-assisted learning and artificial intelligence, “smart” applications for telecommunication devices, “smart” things, complemented by virtual reality, digital twins, blockchain, chat communication systems, adaptive security systems, applications and network architecture, integrated electronic platforms. The aim of the research is to elucidate the impact of advanced technological trends on accounting management and highlight advantages of applying computer and communication technology to the processing of credentials. Artificial intelligence (AI) and computer-assisted learning, which include neural networks and natural-language processing, support the accounting system that is capable of learning, forecasting, adapting and working autonomously. Using AI, technology developers focus on three areas: advanced analytics of accounting information, digital assistants of accounting automation, and interactive interface for virtual reality. AI, used in automated information processing, is complemented by applying “smart” things that make it possible to identify, measure, evaluate and transfer accounting data on phenomena and events to the single database without the participation of staff. A proposed information model of integrated database might act as a common information environment for electronic interaction of all participants in financial market transactions. There is information exchange between suppliers, customers, banking institutions, legal and factoring organizations, government fiscal and statistical authorities. However, public access to a single database may lead to losses of confidential information, which requires effective methods for information protection of the accounting system. “Blockchain” is one of the advanced technologies of information security. It is a type of accounting ledger in the database (for example, in bitcoin crypto-currency), where entries are grouped consecutively into blocks to prevent unauthorized changes. The use of computer and communication technology in the accounting management will provide: the opportunity for complete automation of accounting processes; minimization of time and money spent on administrative staff; information protection in communication interactions between participants of information processes; development of algorithms for building a common database of credentials and common information environment.

At present data transmission widely uses wireless network framework for transmitting large volume of data. It generates numerous security problems and privacy issues which laid a way for developing IDS. IDS act as preventive technique in securing computer networks. Previously there are numerous metaheuristic and deep learning algorithms used in IDS for detecting threats. Some are affected by dynamic growth of feature spaces and others are degraded in performance during detection of threats. One fine-grained model for intrusion detection can be developed by selecting accurate features and testing them with the intelligent algorithms. Based on these explorations, in this research IDS is implemented with intelligence from preprocessing to feature classification. At first stage, data preprocessing is done using binning concept to reduce noise. Secondly feature selection is done dynamically using dynamic tree growth algorithm with fire fly optimization techniques. Finally, these features are processed using DTB-FFNN for detecting anomalies perfectly. This DTB-FFNN is evaluated with popular KDD dataset. Our proposed model cable news network (CNN)-classification is compared with existing intelligent techniques: feed forward deep neural network, support vectors machines, decision tree, and CNN-clustering is compared with k-means, density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN). The experimental outcome proves that dynamic tree based FFNN and CNN-clustering produce higher accuracy than the existing models.

In terms of manned aircraft, pilots usually detect icing conditions by visual cues or by means of ice detector systems. If one of these cues is seen by the crew or systems detect icing conditions, they have to apply the evasive procedure as defined within the aircraft flight manual (AFM). However, as regards unmanned aircraft, there are not pilots on board and, consequently, nobody can act immediately when icing conditions occur. This article aims to propose new techniques of sending information to ground which make possible to know the aircraft performance correctly in icing conditions. For this goal, three contributions have been developed for the unmanned aircraft Milano. Since icing conditions are characterized quantitatively by the droplet size, the liquid water content, and the total air temperature, when these parameters are between certain limits ice formation on aircraft may occur. As a result of these contributions, in that moment, high-quality images of the wing leading edge, tail leading edge and meteorological probes will be captured and sent to ground making possible that remote pilots or artificial intelligent (AI) systems can follow the appropriate procedures, avoid encounters with severe icing conditions and perform real-time decision making. What is more, as information security is becoming an inseparable part of data communication, it is proposed how to embed relevant information within an image. Among the improvements included are image compression techniques and steganography methods.

Recent developments have made software-defined networking (SDN) a popular technology for solving the inherent problems of conventional distributed networks. The key benefit of SDN is the decoupling between the control plane and the data plane, which makes the network more flexible and easier to manage. SDN is a new generation network architecture; however, its configuration settings are centralized, making it vulnerable to hackers. Our study investigated the feasibility of applying artificial intelligence technology to detect abnormal attacks in an SDN environment based on the current unit network architecture; therefore, the concept of symmetry includes the sustainability of SDN applications and robust performance of machine learning (ML) models in the case of various malicious attacks. In this study, we focus on the early detection of abnormal attacks in an SDN environment. On detection of malicious traffic in SDN topology, the AI module in the topology is applied to detect and act against the attack source through machine learning algorithms, making the network architecture more flexible. Under multiple abnormal attacks, we propose a hierarchical multi-class (HMC) architecture to effectively address the imbalanced dataset problem and improve the performance of minority classes. The experimental results show that the decision tree, random forest, bagging, AdaBoost, and deep learning models exhibit the best performance for distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. In addition, for the imbalanced dataset problem of multiclass classification, our proposed HMC architecture performs better than previous single classifiers. We also simulated the SDN topology and scenario verification. In summary, we concatenated the AI module to enhance the security and effectiveness of SDN networks in a practical manner.

The article is devoted to research of the essence of the concepts of professional, service and service-combat activity of the National Police from the point of view of their definition in the current legislation and scientific literature, their interdependence and demarcation, including from the point of view of their definitions given in relation to the law enforcement activities of law enforcement forces and other units that perform military and law enforcement functions. It is emphasized that the performance by police officers in accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On the National Police" of both peacetime and military service tasks introduced in Ukraine during the martial law as part of their law enforcement activities necessitates a detailed study of these concepts. If there is a distinction in the relevant Law between the terms "service" and "professional", it is noted that there is no definition of their content Сonsidering to the contextual search in the current legislation, it was clarified that the only definition of the concept of "service activity" is proposed in the subordinate legal act of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, which concerns the organization and service of military units of the National Guard of Ukraine. It is noted that such a definition, although it can be taken by analogy as a basis for defining police activity, nevertheless needs to be specified in terms of the functional demarcation of bodies and units of the MIA system of Ukraine. The definition of the service and combat activity of the National Police is given in accordance with the specifics of its service activity, and the prospective direction of legal regulation and the need for scientific substantiation of the conditions and order of belonging of the National Police not only to the law enforcement forces, but also to the security forces during the martial law in accordance with the newly introduced Paragraph 34 of Art. 23 of the Law of Ukraine "On the National Police", which is tasked with combating subversion and intelligence forces of the aggressor and paramilitary or armed formations not provided for by the laws of Ukraine in cooperation with military and other law enforcement services, bodies and units.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the key technical challenges that derive from the recently proposed European Artificial Intelligence Act and specifically, to investigate the applicability of the requirements that the AI Act mandates to high-risk AI systems from the perspective of AI security. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents the main points of the proposed AI Act, with emphasis on the compliance requirements of high-risk systems. It matches known AI security threats with the relevant technical requirements, it demonstrates the impact that these security threats can have to the AI Act technical requirements and evaluates the applicability of these requirements based on the effectiveness of the existing security protection measures. Finally, the paper highlights the necessity for an integrated framework for AI system evaluation. Findings The findings of the EU AI Act technical assessment highlight the gap between the proposed requirements and the available AI security countermeasures as well as the necessity for an AI security evaluation framework. Originality/value AI Act, high-risk AI systems, security threats, security countermeasures.

Since the swift passage of the Anti-Terrorism Act in 2015, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has had the unprecedented and highly controversial authority to take ‘reasonable and proportionate’ measures to reduce threats to Canadian security. While there are some limits to the types of measures CSIS can employ, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act permits the use of measures that would otherwise contravene the laws of Canada or limit a right protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms so long as they are judicially authorized by the Federal Court. As new threats proliferate around the world, it is anticipated that CSIS will increasingly carry out this mandate overseas. Yet review bodies tasked with monitoring CSIS’s use of threat reduction measures (TRMs) report that CSIS has never sought judicial authorization to conduct a TRM. Why? One answer may be that CSIS has concluded that the Charter does not govern actions carried out abroad, and, as such, their extraterritorial conduct falls beyond the reach and oversight of the Federal Court. Whether the Charter applies to CSIS’s overseas conduct ostensibly lies in the Supreme Court of Canada’s leading case on the extraterritorial application of the Charter, R. v Hape. This article canvasses domestic and international law, as well as intelligence law theory, to explain why that presumption is wrong. Wrong, not least because the majority opinion in Hape is deeply flawed in its analysis and application of international law. But also, because intelligence operations are so distinguishable from the transnational criminal investigations at issue in Hape, the Court’s findings are inapplicable in the former context. In short, this article demonstrates that applying Hape to the actions of CSIS officers not only leaves their actions beyond the scrutiny of Canadian courts but also creates a significant human rights gap.

This article examines the technical topic of CSIS’s modern data acquisition, retention, and exploitation, a matter not canvassed in the existing legal literature. As part of a special collection on the National Security Act (NSA 2017), it focuses on the policy and legal context driving the NSA 2017 amendments, relying on primary materials to memorialize this background. This article examines how CSIS has been pulled in divergent directions by its governing law, and sometimes a strained construal of those legal standards, toward controversial information retention practices. It argues that the tempered standards on acquisition, retention, and exploitation of non-threat-related information created by the NSA 2017 respond to civil liberties objections. The introduction of the “dataset” regime in the NSA 2017 may finally establish an equilibrium between too aggressive an information destruction standard that imperils due process and too constraining an information retention system that undermines CSIS’s legitimate intelligence functions. The article flags, however, areas of doubt, the resolution of which will have important implications for the constitutionality and legitimacy of the new system.

In April 2021, the European Commission published its first draft of the Proposal for a Regulation on Artificial Intelligence. Since AI in the work context has increasingly become important in organising work and managing workers, the AI Act will undoubtedly have an impact on EU and national labour law systems. One aim of the proposal is to guarantee ‘consistency with existing Union legislation applicable to sectors where high-risk Artificial Intelligence systems are already used or likely to be used in the near future’, which includes the EU social acquis. It could be argued that ensuring true consistency with EU law means guaranteeing that the way the AI Act will be implemented and applied will still allow the other pieces of EU labour law to fulfil their purpose. It is undeniable that the implementation of the AI Act will overlap with various fields of EU law, especially considering the increasing use of AI technology at work. Thus, this article seeks to identify ways to refine the AI Act, insofar as it impacts work. The contribution discusses the current AI Act as proposed in April 2021, thereby focusing on two particular areas, EU non-discrimination law and EU law on occupational health and safety (OSH), as these two areas are, more or less explicitly, addressed as legal fields in the AI Act. The article starts with taking the perspective of EU labour law influencing the development of AI systems used in the employment context. We argue that providers should respect EU labour law throughout the development of the AI system (section 2). Then, the areas where EU labour law and the AI overlap are identified, thereby viewing it from an employer's perspective, i.e., the user of the AI system (section 3). Using two specific EU labour law areas (the right not to be discriminated against and the right to healthy and safe working conditions) the article provides a first assessment of how the AI Act might influence work and the regulation thereof (section 4). Finally, the conclusion critically explores whether and to what extent AI in employment situations warrants particular attention (section 5).

AbstractSoftware security vulnerabilities are significant for the software development industry. Exploration is conducted for software development industry landscape, software development eco-system landscape, and software system customer landscape. The focus is to explore the data sources that can provide the software development team with insights to act upon the security vulnerabilities proactively. Across these modules of software landscape, customer landscape, and industry landscape, data sources are leveraged using artificial intelligence approaches to identify the security insights. The focus is also on building a smart knowledge management system that integrates the information processed across modules into a central system. This central intelligence system can be further leveraged to manage software development activities proactively. In this exploration, machine learning and deep learning approaches are devised to model the data and learn from across the modules. Architecture for all the modules and their integration is also proposed. Work helps to envision a smart system for Artificial Intelligence-based knowledge management for managing software security vulnerabilities.

This document describes the new technological alternatives in personal protection systems and equipment proposed and implemented in industries due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. System developments include devices that employ Machine Vision database connectivity and act as support for controlling workers' industrial safety. Advances in personal protective equipment include modern materials with better performance, strength, and benefits for its users. An exhaustive review of scientific articles was carried out in which current developments in the two themes raised are presented and have been reflected and described in this document. It is concluded that the use of Vision and Artificial Intelligence is more frequent for the control of industrial security and is better adapted and aligned with Industry 4.0, allowing the acquisition of data, transmission, and storage in databases of information.

Because significantly complex crypto procedures such as holomorphic encryption are robotically applied, despite the fact that consumer gadgets under our software circumstances are not, computational overhead is outrageously high. Simply hiding customers with the aid of nameless communications to act to protect the server and adversaries from linking suggestions made with the aid of the same customer makes the traditional method, which computes with the aid of any server based on the amount of provided services, impossible, and customers with charge features widely publicised with the aid of the server cause additional security concerns, impossible. To overcome the above existing drawbacks, this research study presents a Privacy Preservation Data Collection and Access Control Using Entropy-Based Conic Curve. To safeguard the identity of clients and their requests, EBCC employs a unique group signature technic and an asymmetric cryptosystem. First, we ought to implement our EBCC method for data acquisition while maintaining privacy. Second, we consider looking at the properties of secure multiparty computation. EBCC employs lightweight techniques in encryption, aggregation, and decryption, resulting in little computation and communication overhead. Security research suggests that the EBCC is safe, can withstand collision attacks, and can conceal consumer distribution, which is required for fair balance checks in credit card payments. Finally, the results are analysed to illustrate the proposed method performance in addition to the more traditional ABC, AHRPA, ECC, and RSA methods. The proposed work should be implemented in JAVA.

This paper deals with the issue of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on our modern societies as well as on fundamental rights and freedoms, mainly those of privacy and security. AI constitutes one of the most essential pillars of the EU Digital Agenda. Despite its use in almost every field of private and public life there is a significant gap regarding its legal regulation. Subsequently, in relation to the proposed AI Act, which corresponds to the first binding legal instrument on AI anywhere, a key consideration arises regarding the governing of AI. Following a brief presentation of the nature and content of the proposed rules, this paper focuses on two major matters which give rise to serious concerns and demand further investigation: those of facial recognition and AI liability. Even though the draft AI Act encompasses provisions relating to these issues, there are still significant points which need to be clarified, such as the potential use of biometric identification tools by private organisations or the liability for AI decisions or actions. Through a comparative analysis of the existing European legal framework covering data protection as well as via the study of significant rulings of European courts and national competent authorities on data protection, this paper aims to demonstrate how to balance the rights, freedoms and interests of the individual against the challenges imposed by the ongoing technological evolutions. Moreover, an original theory is put forward in the area of AI liability which ideally keeps pace with the latest evolutions marked by the proposal of an AI Liability Directive. In addition, an effective mechanism is suggested for the lawful use of facial recognition systems. Therefore, the goal of the study is to indicate fruitful solutions of AI governance in order to build a trustworthy and productive technological environment, with respect to the consolidation of digital privacy and the deployment of modern technological tools.

Abstract Content-based image retrieval (CBIR) is a technique used to retrieve image from an image database. However, the CBIR process suffers from less accuracy to retrieve many images from an extensive image database and prove the privacy of images. The aim of this article is to address the issues of accuracy utilizing deep learning techniques such as the CNN method. Also, it provides the necessary privacy for images using fully homomorphic encryption methods by Cheon–Kim–Kim–Song (CKKS). The system has been proposed, namely RCNN_CKKS, which includes two parts. The first part (offline processing) extracts automated high-level features based on a flatting layer in a convolutional neural network (CNN) and then stores these features in a new dataset. In the second part (online processing), the client sends the encrypted image to the server, which depends on the CNN model trained to extract features of the sent image. Next, the extracted features are compared with the stored features using a Hamming distance method to retrieve all similar images. Finally, the server encrypts all retrieved images and sends them to the client. Deep-learning results on plain images were 97.87% for classification and 98.94% for retriever images. At the same time, the NIST test was used to check the security of CKKS when applied to Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR-10) dataset. Through these results, researchers conclude that deep learning is an effective method for image retrieval and that a CKKS method is appropriate for image privacy protection.

The Directive on the Security of Networks and Information Systems (NISD) is the first EU-wide cybersecurity instrument. It aims to establish a common minimum high level of NIS security across the EU among operators of essential services (OES) within specific sectors — such as electricity, transport, water, energy, health, financial services and telecommunications — as well as digital service providers (DSPs), in order to secure the digital infrastructure that is vital to society and the economy through coordinated intelligence-sharing, capacity-building and cooperation across the EU, and consistent incident detection, reporting and response obligations, and operational risk management approaches. NISD entered into force in August 2016, only months after the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Member states have until 9th May, 2018 to transpose it into their domestic law, and until 9th November, 2018 to identify the OES and DSPs who will be subject to it. Because it is a Directive, there will be variation across the EU. Significantly, an entity may find it is an OES in one member state, but not in another. This variation may raise compliance challenges. NISD is part of the broader EU legislative framework for data protection and cybersecurity that includes the GDPR (which protects personal data), the proposed ePrivacy Regulation (ePr) (which protects the privacy of electronic communications) and the proposed Cybersecurity Act (which will protect the security of information and communications technologies (ICT)). NISD aims to protect the foundational layer — the infrastructure — on which the Digital Single Market depends. Like the GDPR, and the proposed ePr, it is risk-based and outcomes-focused, and has a potentially extraterritorial effect. It comes into effect around the same time as the GDPR, yet has not received the same attention as the GDPR. Some entities working towards GDPR compliance, such as telecommunications companies and DSPs, may also be subject to NISD obligations. GDPR and NISD may converge in certain areas, but they are qualitatively different and therefore diverge in others. Entities seeking to comply with both NISD and GDPR should take care to ensure the approaches to both are aligned and streamlined where possible, and would do well to proactively engage with regulators to ensure they are on the right track.

AbstractAutonomous intelligent systems are artificial intelligence (AI) tools that act autonomously without direct human supervision. Cloud computing (CC) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies find it challenging to deploy sufficient security defences because of the different structures, storage, and limited computing capabilities that make them more vulnerable to attacks. Security threats against IoT structures, devices, and applications are increasing with the demand for IoT technology. The training data available to AI models may be limited, which could impact their performance and generalizability. Adopting AI solutions in real‐world situations may be impeded by compatibility concerns and the requirement for flawless integration. Malware classification errors can occur due to a lack of contextual knowledge, particularly in cases where benign files behave identically to malicious. Various studies were carried out on detecting IoT malware to evade the menaces posed by malicious code. However, prevailing techniques of IoT malware classification supported particular platforms or demanded complicated methods for attaining higher accuracy. This study introduces an enhanced slime mould optimization with a convolutional BLSTM autoencoder‐based malware classification (ESMO‐CBLSTMAE) system in the IoT cloud platform. The projected ESMO‐CBLSTMAE system focuses on detecting and classifying malware in the IoT cloud platform. To achieve that, the ESMO‐CBLSTMAE algorithm employs a min–max normalization technique for scaling the input dataset. The ESMO‐CBLSTMAE method uses a convolutional bidirectional long short‐term memory autoencoder (CBLSTM‐AE) model for the malware detection process. Lastly, the ESMO method is executed for the optimum hyperparameter tuning of the CBLSTM‐AE technique, which boosts the malware classification results. The experimental analysis of the ESMO‐CBLSTMAE method is tested against a benchmark database, and the outcomes portray the greater efficacy of the ESMO‐CBLSTMAE approach over other existing techniques. The proposed malware classification model achieved an accuracy of 98.57 and F Score of 80.77 and outperformed the existing models.

Preventing the leak of sensitive information, also popularly known as data leak or data loss to an unauthorized recipient, is the primary goal of an organization's information security system. A data leak can occur through multiple channels. While it may not always be possible to prevent it entirely, measures can be taken to minimize the possibility of the occurrence. Like all other financial institutions, TI companies collect sensitive personal information of their customers for business purposes. This information is often categorized into three primary types; NPI, PII, and PI are the designated types in the descending order of sensitivity. The detection of sensitive documents and redaction of sensitive information is required if it is needed to be shared. Inspection of such digital documents to find any sensitive information is by far a human-driven process, and thus time-consuming and costly. An and costly. An intelligent and robust system is required where the content is analysed by state-of-the-art data mining, statistical and machine learning techniques from various data dimensions. An AI based self-learning Intelligent Information Leak Protection System using LSTM is proposed in the project that mines and extracts information and categorizes the document images, to SD or NSD, based on the presence of NPI and PII semantic signatures without any explicit rule configuration. The system is designed to be used proactively as an early warning system to tag the SD images while resting in the data store. It can also act as a real-time checkpoint for the information loss by the documents in transit or use. The proposed model prescribes an information loss protection mechanism using a binary classifier based on the state-of-the-art LSTM technique within the paradigm of Artificial Intelligence.

E-textiles have received tremendous attention in recent years due to the capability of integrating sensors into a garment, enabling high-precision sensing of the human body. Besides sensing, a number of solutions for e-textile garments have also integrated wireless interfaces, allowing sensing data to be transmitted, and also inbuilt capacitive touch sensors, allowing users to provide instructions. While this has provided a new level of sensing that can result in unprecedented applications, there has been little attention placed around on-body edge computing for e-textiles. This study focuses on the need for a noninvasive and remote health-monitoring solution with inbuilt on-body edge computing, and how enabling such sensing and computing capabilities in a fabric environment can act as a new method for healthcare monitoring through the use of embedded computing intelligence in smart garments. Facilitating computing in e-textiles can result in a new form of on-body edge computing, where sensor information is processed very close to the body before being transmitted to an external device or wireless access point. This form of computing can provide new security and data privacy capabilities and, at the same time, provide opportunities for new energy-harvesting mechanisms to process the data through the garment. This study proposes this concept through embroidered programmable logic arrays (PLAs) integrated into e-textiles. In the same way that PLAs have programmable logic circuits by interconnecting different AND, NOT, and OR gates, we propose e-textile–based gates that are sewn into a garment and connected through conductive thread stitching. Two designs are proposed, and this includes single- and multi-layered PLAs. Experimental validations have been conducted at the individual gates and the entire PLA circuits to determine the voltage utilization and logic computing reliability. The multilayered PLA garment superseded the single-layered garment with higher levels of accuracy in the yielded results due to the enhanced design layout, which reduces the potential for short circuits and errors occurring. Our proposed approach can usher in a new form of on-body edge computing for e-textile garments for future wearable technologies, and, in particular, with the current pandemic that requires noninvasive remote health-monitoring applications.

Introduction Television has become more and more restricted within the past few years. Rating systems and "family programming" have taken over the broadcast networks, relegating violent programming, often some of the most cutting edge work in television, to pay channels. There are very few people willing to stand up and say that viewers -- even young children -- should be able to watch whatever they want, and that viewing acts of violence can actually result in more mature, balanced adults. Jib Fowles is one of those people. His book, The Case For Television Violence, explores the long history of violent content in popular culture, and how its modern incarnation, television, fulfils the same function as epic tragedy and "penny dreadfuls" did -- the diverting of aggressive feelings into the cathartic action of watching. Fowles points out the flaws in studies linking TV violence to actual violence (why, for example, has there been a sharp decline in violent crime in the U.S. during the 1990s when, by all accounts, television violence has increased?), as well as citing overlooked studies that show no correlation between viewing and performing acts of violence. The book also demonstrates how efforts to censor TV violence are not only ineffective, but can lead to the opposite result: an increase in exposure to violent viewing as audiences forsake traditional broadcast programming for private programming through pay TV and videocassettes. The revised excerpt below describes one of the more heated topics of debate -- the V-Chip. Television Violence and You Although the antiviolence fervor crested in the US in the first half of the 1990s, it also continued into the second half. As Sissela Bok comments: "during the 1990s, much larger efforts by citizen advocacy groups, churches, professional organizations, public officials, and media groups have been launched to address the problems posed by media violence" (146). It continues as always. On the one side, the reformist position finds articulation time and again; on the other side, the public's incessant desire for violent entertainment is reluctantly (because there is no prestige or cachet to be had in it) serviced by television companies as they compete against each other for profits. We can contrast these two forces in the following way: the first, the antitelevision violence campaign, is highly focussed in its presentation, calling for the curtailment of violent content, but this concerted effort has underpinnings that are vague and various; the second force is highly diffused on the surface (the public nowhere speaks pointedly in favor of violent content), but its underpinnings are highly concentrated and functional, pertinent to the management of disapproved emotions. To date, neither force has triumphed decisively. The antiviolence advocates can be gratified by the righteousness of their cause and sense of moral superiority, but violent content continues as a mainstay of the medium's offerings and in viewers' attention. Over the longer term, equilibrium has been the result. If the equilibrium were upset, however, unplanned consequences would result. The attack on television violence is not simply unwarranted; it carries the threat of unfortunate dangers should it succeed. In the US, television violence is a successful site for the siphoning off of unwanted emotions. The French critic Michel Mourlet explains: "violence is a major theme in aesthetics. Violence is decompression: Arising out of a tension between the individual and the world, it explodes as the tension reaches its pitch, like an abscess burning. It has to be gone through before there can be any repose" (233). The loss or even diminishment of television violence would suggest that surplus psychic energy would have to find other outlets. What these outlets would be is open to question, but the possibility exists that some of them might be retrogressive, involving violence in more outright and vicious forms. It is in the nation's best interest not to curtail the symbolic displays that come in the form of television violence. Policy The official curbing of television violence is not an idle or empty threat. It has happened recently in Canada. In 1993, the Canadian Radio- Television and Telecommunications Commission, the equivalent of the Australian Broadcasting Authority or of the American FCC, banned any "gratuitous" violence, which was defined as violence not playing "an integral role in developing the plot, character, or theme of the material as a whole" (Scully 12). Violence of any sort cannot be broadcast before 9 p.m. Totally forbidden are any programs promoting violence against women, minorities, or animals. Detailed codes regulate violence in children's shows. In addition, the Canadian invention of the V-chip is to be implemented, which would permit parents to block out programming that exceeds preset levels for violence, sexuality, or strong language (DePalma). In the United States, the two houses of Congress have held 28 hearings since 1954 on the topic of television violence (Cooper), but none has led to the passage of regulatory legislation until the Telecommunications Act of 1996. According to the Act, "studies have shown that children exposed to violent video programming at a young age have a higher tendency for violent and aggressive behavior later in life than children not so exposed, and that children exposed to violent video programming are prone to assume that acts of violence are acceptable behavior" (Section 551). It then requires that newly manufactured television sets must "be equipped with a feature designed to enable viewers to block display of all programs with a common rating" (Telecommunications Act of 1996, section 551). The V-chip, the only available "feature" to meet the requirements, will therefore be imported from Canada to the United States. Utilising a rating system reluctantly and haltingly developed by the television industry, parents on behalf of their children would be able to black out offensive content. Censorship had passed down to the family level. Although the V-chip represents the first legislated regulation of television violence in the US, that country experienced an earlier episode of violence censorship whose outcome may be telling for the fate of the chip. This occurred in the aftermath of the 1972 Report to the Surgeon General on Television and Social Behavior, which, in highly equivocal language, appeared to give some credence to the notion that violent content can activate violent behavior in some younger viewers. Pressure from influential congressmen and from the FCC and its chairman, Richard Wiley, led the broadcasting industry in 1975 to institute what came to be known as the Family Viewing Hour. Formulated as an amendment to the Television Code of the National Association of Broadcasters, the stipulation decreed that before 9:00 p.m. "entertainment programming inappropriate for viewing by a general family audience should not be broadcast" (Cowan 113). The definition of "inappropriate programming" was left to the individual networks, but as the 1975-1976 television season drew near, it became clear to a production company in Los Angeles that the definitions would be strict. The producers of M*A*S*H (which aired at 8:30 p.m.) learned from the CBS censor assigned to them that three of their proposed programs -- dealing with venereal disease, impotence, and adultery -- would not be allowed (Cowan 125). The series Rhoda could not discuss birth control (131) and the series Phyllis would have to cancel a show on virginity (136). Television writers and producers began to rebel, and in late 1975 their Writers Guild brought a lawsuit against the FCC and the networks with regard to the creative impositions of the Family Viewing Hour. Actor Carroll O'Connor (as quoted in Cowan 179) complained, "Congress has no right whatsoever to interfere in the content of the medium", and writer Larry Gelbert voiced dismay (as quoted in Cowan 177): "situation comedies have become the theater of ideas, and those ideas have been very, very restricted". The judge who heard the case in April and May of 1976 took until November to issue his decision, but when it emerged it was polished and clear: the Family Viewing Hour was the result of "backroom bludgeoning" by the FCC and was to be rescinded. According to the judge, "the existence of threats, and the attempted securing of commitments coupled with the promise to publicize noncompliance ... constituted per se violations of the First Amendment" (Corn-Revere 201). The fate of the Family Viewing Hour may have been a sort of premoniton: The American Civil Liberties Union is currently bringing a similar case against proponents of the V-chip -- a case that may produce similar results. Whether or not the V-chip will withstand judicial scrutiny, there are several problematic aspects to the device and any possible successors. Its usage would appear to impinge on the providers of violent content, on the viewers of it, and indeed on the fundamental legal structure of the United States. To confront the first of these three problems, significant use of the V- chip by parents would measurably reduce the audience size for certain programmes containing symbolic violence. Little else could have greater impact on the American television system as it is currently constituted. A decrease in audience numbers quickly translates into a decrease in advertising revenues in an advertising system such as that of the United States. Advertisers may additionally shy away from a shunned programme because of its loss of popularity or because its lowered ratings have clearly stamped it as violent. The decline in revenues would make the programme less valuable in the eyes of network executives and perhaps a candidate for cancellation. The Hollywood production company would quickly take notice and begin tailoring its broadcast content to the new standards. Blander or at least different fare would be certain to result. Broadcast networks may begin losing viewers to bolder content on less fastidious cable networks and in particular to the channels that are not supported and influenced by advertising. Thus, we might anticipate a shift away from the more traditional and responsible channels towards the less so and away from advertising-supported channels to subscriber-supported channels. This shift would not transpire according to the traditional governing mechanism of television -- audience preferences. Those to whom the censored content had been destined would have played no role in its neglect. Neglect would have transpired because of the artificial intercession of controls. The second area to be affected by the V-chip, should its implementation prove successful, is viewership, in particular younger viewers. Currently, young viewers have great license in most households to select the content they want to watch; this license would be greatly reduced by the V-chip, which can block out entire genres. Screening for certain levels of violence, the parent would eliminate most cartoons and all action- adventure shows, whether the child desires some of these or not. A New York Times reporter, interviewing a Canadian mother who had been an early tester of a V-chip prototype, heard the mother's 12-year-old son protesting in the background, "we're not getting the V-chip back!" The mother explained to the reporter, "the kids didn't like the fact that they were not in control any longer" (as quoted in DePalma C14) -- with good reason. Children are losing the right to pick the content of which they are in psychological need. The V-chip represents another weapon in the generational war -- a device that allows parents to eradicate the compensational content of which children have learned to make enjoyable use. The consequences of all this for the child and the family would be unpleasant. The chances that the V-chip will increase intergenerational friction are high. Not only will normal levels of tension and animosity be denied their outlet via television fiction but also so will the new superheated levels. It is not a pleasant prospect. Third, the V-chip constitutes a strong challenge to traditional American First Amendment rights of free speech and a free press. Stoutly defended by post-World War II Supreme Courts, First Amendment rights can be voided "only in order to promote a compelling state interest, and then only if the government adopts the least restrictive means to further that interest" (Ballard 211). The few restrictions allowed concern such matters as obscenity, libel, national security, and the sometimes conflicting right to a fair trial. According to legal scholar Ian Ballard, there is no "compelling state interest" involved in the matter of television violence because "the social science evidence used to justify the regulation of televised violence is subject to such strong methodological criticism that the evidence is insufficient to support massive regulatory assault on the television entertainment industry" (185). Even if the goal of restricting television violence were acceptable, the V-chip is hardly "the least restrictive means" because it introduces a "chilling effect" on programme producers and broadcasters that "clearly infringes on fundamental First Amendment rights" (216). Moreover, states Ballard, "fear of a slippery slope is not unfounded" (216). If television violence can be censored, supposedly because it poses a threat to social order, then what topics might be next? It would not be long before challenging themes such a feminism or multiculturalism were deemed unfit for the same reason. Taking all these matters into consideration, the best federal policy regarding television violence would be to have no policy -- to leave the extent of violent depictions completely up to the dictates of viewer preferences, as expertly interpreted by the television industry. In this, I am in agreement with Ian Ballard, who finds that the best approach "is for the government to do nothing at all about television violence" (218). Citation reference for this article MLA style: Jib Fowles. "Television Violence and You." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3.1 (2000). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/0003/television.php>. Chicago style: Jib Fowles, "Television Violence and You," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3, no. 1 (2000), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/0003/television.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Jib Fowles. (2000) Television Violence and You. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3(1). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/0003/television.php> ([your date of access]).

Fig. 1: “Pink Flamingo Furby” (2000), “Peachy Furby Baby” (1999), and “Owl Furby” (1999) Sunlight Up (“Dah-ay-loh oo-tye”): Introduction As playthings at the junction of human experience and imagination, toys like Furby present an interesting touch point to explore cultural imaginations, hopes, and fears about zoomorphic robots and AI toys. This year marks their 25th anniversary. Created by Dave Hampton and Caleb Chung, Furby publicly debuted at the American International Toy Fair in 1998. Originally released by Tiger Electronics, this toy was later sold to Hasbro in 2005 to 2007. Since their introduction to the market, Furbys have been occupying our shelves and basements, perceived as “annoying little owl-like dolls with embedded sound-recording chips” (Gullin) that speak their own language “furbish” (shown throughout in parenthesis). Early reportage likened Furby to all kinds of cute critters: mogwais, hamsters, and Star Trek’s tribbles. Narratively Furbys are framed as a benevolent, alien species, living in space in a cloud known as Furbyland. For motivations not revealed, Furbys, in looking down on our planet, were so struck by the beautiful view of nature and its signs of peacefulness — “no worry (boo boh-bay)” — that they jumped, plummeting to us like tiny fluffy asteroids. Little did they know that their arrival would spark an intergalactic diplomatic incident. During its introduction in 1998, the initial discourse in media reportage emphasised anxieties of the unknown. What lies beneath the surface of Furby, as a toy that might blur the line between the real and imagined for children? What technologies might it harbour? As a hybrid of technology and animal, Furby appeared as a creepy-cute cultural icon that simultaneously delighted and horrified children and adults alike. Today adult fans reimagine Furby through play and customisation as part of their reflections on their childhood experiences of this cultural moment, and as a way of exploring new futures. Furby provides an opportunity to reflect on adults’ interactions with toys, including parents, members of the public, and fans motivated by nostalgia. At the time of its release Furby presented adults with moments of “dissonance” towards new horrifying technologies that “might occur at the seams [of] … monumental cultural shifts” (Powell 4). But for adult fans today, as a childhood memory, the toy represents both strangeness and future possibilities; it has become a tool of “disrupt[ing] and challeng[ing] beliefs and connections” (Rand 9). In this article I primarily analyse the “original” Furbys of 1998 to 2002, but also mention a range of later versions. This includes: the Emoto-tronic Furbys (2006) which were designed to have more expressive faces; the Furby Boom (2003), a toy whose personality changes according to the level of care it is provided with; and the Furby Connect (2016), which has bluetooth capacity. This discussion is supported by a thematic analysis of 3800 news articles about Furby from 1998 to 2000, visual analysis of both the original and customised iterations of Furby, as well as my reflections as a member of the Furby fandom community. You Play? (U-nye-loo-lay-doo?): Furby Encounters A key part of the discourse around Furby since its introduction in 1998 was, “who would want one?” Indeed, the answer at the time appeared to be “several million of us, the toy demons hope” (Weeks). After their release in American toy stores on 2 October 1998 in limited supplies, a Furbish frenzy ensued, resulting in altercations between shoppers and staff (e.g. Munroe; Warmbir; Associated Press). Aged 10, I recall my little black and white Furby, Coco, waiting for me on the shelves of the electronics section of Big W in Australia, fortunately with no such commotion. Furby is classed by the Guinness World Records as the world’s first AI toy, but it was certainly not the first electronic toy to enter the market; at the time of Furby’s release, Tickle Me Elmo and My Interactive Pooh presented competition, and by the late 1980s there was already concern about how electronic pet toys might erode emotion and connection (Turkle, “Authenticity”; Turkle, “Nascent”). Speculation over the reason for the Furby mass hysteria ensued. Some suggested the appeal was the toy’s status symbol status (Beck), whereas others cited its broad appeal: “it's not gender specific; it doesn't appeal to a particular age group; and most important, it's affordable and doesn't require additional equipment or a computer” (Davis). Some experts offered their commentary of the cyberpet phenomena in general, suggesting that it is a way of dealing with isolation and loneliness (Yorkshire Post). Indeed, all of these features are important to note when we consider the transformation of Furby into queer icon. Central to Furby’s cultural narrative is the idea of contact, or a meeting between robot and user; through play children “teach” their new pet Earth’s new ways (Marsh, “Coded”; Marsh, “Uncanny”). And with this contact also comes a sense of the unknown: what lies beneath the creature’s surface? In their study of zoomorphic robots, Hirofumi Katsumi and Daniel White suggest that Donna Haraway’s work on animal encounters might help us understand this idea of contact. As “animal-like” creature, Furby recalls the transformative potentials of meeting with the more-than-human. Furby’s presence on toy shelves, in classrooms and in homes was one of the first times society had to consider what it meant to “enter the world of becoming with” zoomorphic robots, and to reflect on “who or what ... is precisely at stake” in this entanglement (Haraway 19). What do we learn about ourselves and the unknown through our encounters with Furby? “Monster” (Moh-moh): Technological Threat, Monstrous Other In media reportage, Furby is framed as both new and innovative, but also as a threatening fluffy anarchist. With its technology largely unknown, Furby at the time of its release presented society with a sense of “technohorror” and “imaginings of [social] collapse” (Powell 24). A common concern was that Furby might record and repeat inappropriate language in an act of rebellion. Occasionally tabloid newspapers would report claims such as, "MUM … was horrified when she sat down to play with her daughter's new Furby toy and it squeaked: "F*** me" (The Sun). Some concerns were quite serious, including that Furby could emit electromagnetic fields that would create interference for medical devices and aircraft instruments; this was later disproven by engineers (Tan and Hinberg; Basky; Computer Security). Other urban myths pointed to a more whimsical Furby, whose sensors had the capacity to launch spacecraft (Watson). One persistent concern was the surveillance potentials of Furby. In 1999 the US National Security Agency (NSA) issued a ban on Furby in their Fort Mead headquarters, with concern that they might record and repeat confidential information (Gullin; Ramalho; Borger). This was denied by Tiger Electronics, who emphatically stated “Furby is not a spy” (Computer Security). Engineers performing “autopsies” on Furbys quickly put much of this anxiety to rest (Phobe). This was met with mirthful rebuttals of how future Furbys might be transformed into cute and ubiquitous “wireless furby transmitters” to gather intelligence in warzones (Gullin). As a result, the initial anxiety about surveillance and toys dissipated. However, academics continue to remind us of the real risks of smart toys (e.g. Lupton; Milkaite and Lievens). The 2016 Furby Connect, equipped with voice recognition and Bluetooth capacities has been shown to be hackable (Williams). Further, Maria Ramalho has reported Snowden’s 2014 claims that both NSA and the UK Government Communication Headquarters have been accessing the data collected. In this context, Furby has become “Big Brother transmogrified into ambiguous, cute” unaccountable creature (Ramalho). Through this, we can see how our entanglement with Furby as an object of technohorror speaks both to our anxieties and the real possibilities of technology. In order to craft a narrative around Furby that speaks to this monstrous potential, many have drawn comparisons between Furby and the character Gizmo from the Gremlins franchise. This reference to Gizmo appears in the majority of the media articles sampled for this research. Gizmo is a “mogwai” (trans. demon) with both cute and monstrous potential; like Furby, it also has the potential to transform into a threat to “good society” (Chesher 153-4). This comparison speaks to Gremlins as an anti-technology statement (Sale). However, when we consider how media rhetoric has framed Furby as something to be tamed and controlled, it’s important we approach this comparison with caution in light of the Orientalist underpinnings of the Gremlins franchise. Wendy Allison Lee highlights how Gremlins reflects xenophobic themes of invasion and assimilation. While Gizmo is a “cute, well-behaved” character who “strives to assimilate” much like how Furby might, through play with children, it also harbours a threat to order. In this encounter are resonances of “racist love” that can sometimes underpin our affection for cuteness (Bow). Further reflection is needed on how we might unentangle ourselves from this framing and imagine more inclusive futures with toys like Furby. Fig. 2: Interactive Gizmo, a “Furby Friend” produced by Hasbro, Tiger and Warner Bros in 1999 Big Fun! (Dah doo-ay wah!): Queer Re-Imaginings of Furby Fig. 3: Party time! Adult fans around the world now gather under the “Furby” banner, participating in a colourful array of playful mischief. Reddit forum r/furby (11,200 subscribers) creates a fun space to enjoy the whimsy of Furby, transforming the figure into a sweet and kind companion. Under this umbrella, r/oddbodyfurby (997 subscribers) explore the horrifying potentials of Furby to its playful and surprising ends, which I discuss in this section. In other forums, such as Furby Collectors and Customisers (4.1k members) on Facebook, these different interests come together in a playful and creative space. There was also an active community on Tumblr, where some of the most creatively generative activities around Furby have occurred (Tiffany). In Japan, there is a lively community of fans on Twitter who dress and photograph Emoto-tronic Furbys in a range of cute and charming ways. This forms part of a broader network of creatives, such as “Circuit Benders” who tear down toys and rework them into instruments in a process known as “frankensteining”, such as Look Mum No Computer’s Furby Organ (Deahl). As fans and artists, people act as “queer accessories” to help Furby escape the world and narrative that sought to enclose it, so it might enact its revenge or transcend as a non-binary queer icon (Rand 9-11). As small, collectible and customisable friends, images of happy and creepy Furbys are part of a network of cute media that provides my generation with a source of comfort during times of precarity, occupying our spaces with their own vitality and presence as soothing companions (e.g. Stevens; Allison; Yano). Cuteness as media also lends itself to hybridisation; a mixing and matching with seemingly “opposing” aesthetics. For many fans, the charm of Furby lies in its nostalgic pull as a creature of childhood creepy-cute nightmares. Indeed, it seems that early concerns that Furby may “blur the line between the real and imagined for many children” were in fact valid (Knowlton). While we knew they weren’t “alive” in the true sense, to us they appeared “sort of alive” as our everyday environments became increasingly technological with a dazzling array of electronics (Turkle, “Authenticity”). As Allison (179) explains, we had to “adjust to a world where the border between the imaginary and the real” began to shift rapidly, leaving us open to dream, imagine, and craft narratives populated by a fear of the mechanised undead. Many Millennials were convinced as children that their Furby was waiting for them in the dark, watching, chuckling (“he he heeeee”). Patrick Lenton, diarising his adventures with a rescue Furby this year recalls his childhood toy as “a riot of noise and fury, the kind of demonic household terror”. Some adults, recalling these memories now refer to Furby as “it” or “evil” (Marsh, “Uncanny” 59). In 2020, adult Furby fans, thinking back to their childhood toys, speculated if the positioning of Furby’s eyes at the front of its head meant it was a predator (Watson). Some suggested that their short legs meant they are ambush predators, their infra-red sensor enabling them to detect prey in the dark. Other playful lore suggested that they were made of real cat and dog fur. Through this act of imaginative play, adults reach back to the playful horrors of their childhoods, combining their sense of dread with glee. This has been recently animated by films such as The Mitchells vs. The Machines (2021), where Furbys equipped with “PAL” chips transmogrify into a horrific pack of menacing creatures, and exact revenge. The main contributing factor to this experience is in part the puppetry of Furby. The 1999 Furby presents an exaggerated performance that is both “alive” and “unalive”, its wild rocking, owlish blinking, and cackling creating a sense of “dread and creeping horror” (Freud 2; Marsh, “Uncanny”). Through a blend of animation and imagination, agency is diffused between toy and child to give Furby “life” (Silvio 423). Interestingly, studies of the 2016 Furby Connect and its friendly and social programming that is designed to encourage positive care and engagement has counteracted some of this experience for children (Marsh, “Uncanny” 54). Likewise, in discussing the 2013 Furby Boom Chesher (151) describes this animation as “zany”, working with Sianne Ngai’s conceptualisation of this aesthetic and its relationship to cuteness. While some might praise these later developments in the Furby franchise as having saved another generation of children from nightmares, compared to the original Furby these later editions are less popular among fans; perhaps there is less “material” to work with. Fans as adults now draw on Furby as a playful and cute text to experiment with and hybridise with a variety of horrifying and surprising potentials. This leans into Furby’s design as a chimera, as it uses a combination of cute features to create a “short-hand” for life and also evoke the “idea” or “character” of appealing animals that form part of cultures “charismatic megafauna” (Nishimura 179; Stuck and Rogers; Gn). With cat-like ears, a tuft of hair that drifts with sympathetic movement, two wide eyes, framed with coquettish false lashes, a bird’s beak, and two paws, Furby both suspends and confounds our disbelief. Following the principles of the Kindchenschema (Lorenz) to a “100% ratio” its body is reduced to a round form, its most dominant feature its large eyes (Borgi, Cogliati-Dezza, Brelsford Meints, and Cirulli). While large eyes generally are thought to have an affective pull to them (Harris 4), their fixed placement in the original Furby’s skull creates a dead-pan gaze, that morphs into a Kubrik stare as the toy tilts forward to greet the viewer. Fig. 4: Kindschenschema at work in Furby’s design Furby fans mischievously extend this hybridisation of Furby’s body further through a range of customisation practices. Through “skinning”, Furby’s faux fur surfaces are removed and replaced with a fantastic array of colours and textures. Through breaking into their mechatronic shell – a practice known as “shucking” – their parts are repaired or modified. This results in a range of delightfully queer, non-binary representations of Furby with a range of vibrant furs, piercings, and evocative twinkling and gentle eyes (“tee-wee-lah!”). These figures act as both avatars and as companions for fans. Sporting earrings and rainbow bead necklaces, they are photographed resting in grassy fields, soft crochet rainbows, and bookshelves: they are an expression of all that is joyful in the world. Some fans push the customisation further to create whimsical creatures from another dimension. Some Furbys appear with moss and lichen for fur, sprouting tiny toadstools. Furbys are also transformed into “oddbodies” of varying species. Some appear both as winged fairies, and as transcendental multi-eyed and winged “biblically accurate” angels. Others are hybridised with plush toys or are reworked into handbags. Some veer into the realm of body horror, using doll limbs and bodies to create humanoid forms. The most iconic is the “long furby”, created by Tumblr user FurbyFuzz in 2018. Elongated and insect-like, the Long Furby wriggles into homes and curls up on soft furnishings. Collectors gather “haunted photos from the dark recesses of the internet” to document their escapades (Long Furby). Sometimes, hybridised Furbys appear not through creator interventions but rather emerge from nature itself. One such mythical creature is Murby, an original Furby unearthed in 2013 on an old farm property. Once toy, now woodland spirit, Murby gazes upon and blesses fans with dreamy, clouded eyes, its body an entanglement of thick moss, rich earth and time. Furby’s queerness, strangeness, and hybridity speaks to fans in different ways. Personally, as a neurodivergent person, I experience the coding and the playful reimaginings of Furby as a reflection of my own life experience. Neurodivergent people have a high capacity for care and empathy for objects as curiosities, supports, and friends (e.g. Atherton and Cross; White and Remington; Clutterbuck, Shah and Livingston). Like Furby, I am an alien whom people want to tame. My body and movement are treated with the same infantilising bemusement and suspicion. I feel like a chimera myself; an entanglement of many parts that make a whole, each on their own charming, but together forming a chaotic attempt to connect with neurotypicals. For me, what lies beneath Furby’s surface is my own psyche; rescuing and customising Furbys is a symbolic act, a creative expression of my desire to transcend and resist ableist forces. Together my Furbys and I revel in our strangeness in solidarity, plotting our mischievous revenge (“party time!”). This micro-level resistance will not overturn ableism but brings me a sense of reprieve as I work with my allies to bring socio-cultural change. Fig. 5: The author, Furby Queen. Photo by Sherbet Birdie Photography. Through their creative work, fans explore how Furbys could be reimagined. While fannish activities may at first glance appear fringe or frivolous, they hold up a mirror to our own limitations, anxieties, and practices as a society. The future is Furby. Go to Sleep Now (U-nye-way-loh-nee-way): Conclusions As a source of technohorror and queer potential, Furby provides a vessel by which we can imagine the futures of toys. Through encounter and contact, this seemingly harmless fluffy robot brought about disruption and chaos as a threat to securities and social fabrics. Adult fans, now recalling this cultural moment, lean into this creature’s promise of new possibilities, queering its cultural narrative. Through exploring adults’ interactions with toys, we explore new potentials for change and futures that are playful and creative. Acknowledgments This article was produced with the support of a Vitalities Lab Scholarship and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. I also thank Deborah Lupton and David Eastwood for their support in the production of an arts-based project that draws on this research into cyberpet histories. References Allison, Anne. Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination. Berkeley: U of California P, 2006. Associated Press. “Two Injured in Flurry over Furby.” Charleston Daily Mail 28 Nov. 1998. Atherton, Gray, and Liam Cross. “Seeing More than Human: Autism and Anthropomorphic Theory of Mind.” Frontiers in Psychology 9 (2018): 1–18. Basky, Greg. “Furby Not Guilty as ‘Charged’.” The Western Journal of Medicine 172 (2000): 59. Beck, Rachel. “‘Must-Have’ Toys Created by Intense Publicity Campaigns.” AP Business Writer 16 Oct. 1998. 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IntroductionAccounts of criminals, their victims, and their pursuers have become entrenched within the sphere of popular culture; most obviously in the genres of true crime and crime fiction. The centrality of the pursuer in the form of the detective, within these stories, dates back to the nineteenth century. This, often highly-stylised and regularly humanised protagonist, is now a firm feature of both factual and fictional accounts of crime narratives that, today, regularly focus on the energies of the detective in solving a variety of cases. So familiar is the figure of the detective, it seems that these men and women—amateurs and professionals—have always had an important role to play in the pursuit and punishment of the wrongdoer. Yet, the first detectives were forced to overcome significant resistance from a suspicious public. Some early efforts to reimagine punishment and to laud the detective include articles written by Charles Dickens; pieces on public hangings and policing that reflect the great Victorian novelist’s commitment to shed light on, through written commentaries, a range of important social issues. This article explores some of Dickens’s lesser-known pieces, that—appearing in daily newspapers and in one of his own publications Household Words—helped to change some common perceptions of punishment and policing. Image 1: Harper's Magazine 7 December 1867 (Charles Dickens Reading, by Charles A. Barry). Image credit: United States Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. A Reliance on the Scaffold: Early Law Enforcement in EnglandCrime control in 1720s England was dependent upon an inconsistent, and by extension ineffective, network of constables and night watchmen. It would be almost another three decades before Henry Fielding established the Bow Street Foot Patrol, or Bow Street Runners, in 1749, “six men in blue coats, patrolling the area within six miles of Charing Cross” (Worsley 35). A large-scale, formalised police force was attempted by Pitt the Younger in 1785 with his “Bill for the Further prevention of Crime and for the more Speedy Detection and Punishment of Offenders against the Peace” (Lyman 144). The proposed legislation was withdrawn due to fierce opposition that was underpinned by fears, held by officials, of a divestment of power to a new body of law enforcers (Lyman 144).The type of force offered in 1785 would not be realised until the next century, when the work of Robert Peel saw the passing of the Metropolitan Police Act 1829. The Police Act, which “constituted a revolution in traditional methods of law enforcement” (Lyman 141), was focused on the prevention of crime, “to reassure the lawful and discourage the wrongdoer” (Hitchens 51). Until these changes were implemented violent punishment, through the Waltham Black Act 1723, remained firmly in place (Cruickshanks and Erskine-Hill 359) as part of the state’s arsenal against crime (Pepper 473).The Black Act, legislation often referred to as the ‘Bloody Code’ as it took the number of capital felonies to over 350 (Pepper 473), served in lieu of consistency and cooperation, across the country, in relation to the safekeeping of the citizenry. This situation inevitably led to anxieties about crime and crime control. In 1797 Patrick Colquhoun, a magistrate, published A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis in which he estimated that, out of a city population of just under 1 million, 115,000 men and women supported themselves “in and near the Metropolis by pursuits either criminal-illegal-or immoral” (Lyman 144). Andrew Pepper highlights tensions between “crime, governance and economics” as well as “rampant petty criminality [… and] widespread political corruption” (474). He also notes a range of critical responses to crime and how, “a particular kind of writing about crime in the 1720s demonstrated, perhaps for the first time, an awareness of, or self-consciousness about, this tension between competing visions of the state and state power” (Pepper 474), a tension that remains visible today in modern works of true crime and crime fiction. In Dickens’s day, crime and its consequences were serious legal, moral, and social issues (as, indeed, they are today). An increase in the crime rate, an aggressive state, the lack of formal policing, the growth of the printing industry, and writers offering diverse opinions—from the sympathetic to the retributive—on crime changed crime writing. The public wanted to know about the criminal who had disturbed society and wanted to engage with opinions on how the criminal should be stopped and punished. The public also wanted to be updated on changes to the judicial system such as the passing of the Judgement of Death Act 1823 which drastically reduced the number of capital crimes (Worsley 122) and how the Gaols Act, also of 1823, “moved tentatively towards national prison reform” (Gattrell 579). Crimes continued to be committed and alongside the wrongdoers were readers that wanted to be diverted from everyday events by, but also had a genuine need to be informed about, crime. A demand for true crime tales demonstrating a broader social need for crimes, even the most minor infractions, to be publicly punished: first on the scaffold and then in print. Some cases were presented as sensationalised true crime tales; others would be fictionalised in short stories and novels. Standing Witness: Dickens at the ScaffoldIt is interesting to note that Dickens witnessed at least four executions in his lifetime (Simpson 126). The first was the hanging of a counterfeiter, more specifically a coiner, which in the 1800s was still a form of high treason. The last person executed for coining in England was in early 1829; as Dickens arrived in London at the end of 1822, aged just 10-years-old (Simpson 126-27) he would have been a boy when he joined the crowds around the scaffold. Many journalists and writers who have documented executions have been “criticised for using this spectacle as a source for generating sensational copy” (Simpson 127). Dickens also wrote about public hangings. His most significant commentaries on the issue being two sets of letters: one set published in The Daily News (1846) and a second set published in The Times (1849) (Brandwood 3). Yet, he was immune from the criticism directed at so many other writers, in large part, due to his reputation as a liberal, “social reformer moved by compassion, but also by an antipathy toward waste, bureaucratic incompetence, and above all toward exploitation and injustice” (Simpson 127). As Anthony Simpson points out, Dickens did not sympathise with the condemned: “He wrote as a realist and not a moralist and his lack of sympathy for the criminal was clear, explicit and stated often” (128). Simpson also notes that Dickens’s letters on execution written in 1846 were “strongly supportive of total abolition” while later letters, written in 1849, presented arguments against public executions rather than the practice of execution. In 1859 Dickens argued against pardoning a poisoner. While in 1864 he supported the execution of the railway carriage murderer Franz Müller, explaining he would be glad to abolish both public executions and capital punishment, “if I knew what to do with the Savages of civilisation. As I do not, I would rid Society of them, when they shed blood, in a very solemn manner” (in Simpson 138-39) that is, executions should proceed but should take place in private.Importantly, Dickens was consistently concerned about society’s fascination with the scaffold. In his second letter to The Daily News, Dickens asks: round what other punishment does the like interest gather? We read of the trials of persons who have rendered themselves liable to transportation for life, and we read of their sentences, and, in some few notorious instances, of their departure from this country, and arrival beyond the sea; but they are never followed into their cells, and tracked from day to day, and night to night; they are never reproduced in their false letters, flippant conversations, theological disquisitions with visitors, lay and clerical […]. They are tried, found guilty, punished; and there an end. (“To the Editors of The Daily News” 6)In this passage, Dickens describes an overt curiosity with those criminals destined for the most awful of punishments. A curiosity that was put on vile display when a mob gathered on the concourse to watch a hanging; a sight which Dickens readily admitted “made [his] blood run cold” (“Letter to the Editor” 4).Dickens’s novels are grand stories, many of which feature criminals and criminal sub-plots. There are, for example, numerous criminals, including the infamous Fagin in Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress (1838); several rioters are condemned to hang in Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of Eighty (1841); there is murder in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (1844); and murder, too, in Bleak House (1853). Yet, Dickens never wavered in his revulsion for the public display of the execution as revealed in his “refusal to portray the scene at the scaffold [which] was principled and heartfelt. He came, reluctantly to support capital punishment, but he would never use its application for dramatic effect” (Simpson 141).The Police Detective: A Public Relations ExerciseBy the mid-1700s the crime story was one of “sin to crime and then the gallows” (Rawlings online): “Crimes of every defcription (sic) have their origin in the vicious and immoral habits of the people” (Colquhoun 32). As Philip Rawlings notes, “once sin had been embarked upon, capture and punishment followed” (online). The origins of this can be found in the formula relied upon by Samuel Smith in the seventeenth century. Smith was the Ordinary of Newgate, or prison chaplain (1676–1698), who published Accounts of criminals and their gruesome ends. The outputs swelled the ranks of the already burgeoning market of broadsides, handbills and pamphlets. Accounts included: 1) the sermon delivered as the prisoner awaited execution; 2) a brief overview of the crimes for which the prisoner was being punished; and 3) a reporting of the events that surrounded the execution (Gladfelder 52–53), including the prisoner’s behaviour upon the scaffold and any last words spoken. For modern readers, the detective and the investigation is conspicuously absent. These popular Accounts (1676–1772)—over 400 editions offering over 2,500 criminal biographies—were only a few pence a copy. With print runs in the thousands, the Ordinary earnt up to £200 per year for his efforts (Emsley, Hitchcock, and Shoemaker online). For:penitence and profit made comfortable bedfellows, ensuring true crime writing became a firm feature of the business of publishing. That victims and villains suffered was regrettable but no horror was so terrible anyone forgot there was money to be made. (Franks, “Stealing Stories” 7)As the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution were having their full impact, many were looking for answers, and certainty, in a period of radical social transformation. Sin as a central motif in crime stories was insufficient: the detective was becoming essential (Franks, “True Crime” 239). “In the nineteenth century, the role of the newly-fashioned detective as an agent of consolation or security is both commercially and ideologically central to the subsequent project of popular crime writing” (Bell 8). This was supported by an “increasing professionalism and proficiency of policemen, detectives, and prosecutors, new understandings about psychology, and advances in forensic science and detection techniques” (Murley 10). Elements now included in most crime narratives. Dickens insisted that the detective was a crucial component of the justice system—a figure to be celebrated, one to take centre stage in the crime story—reflecting his staunch support “of the London Metropolitan Police” (Simpson 140). Indeed, while Dickens is known principally for exposing wretched poverty, he was also interested in a range of legal issues as can be evinced from his writings for Household Words. Image 2: Household Words 27 July 1850 (Front Page). Image credit: Dickens Journals Online. W.H. Wills argued for the acceptance of the superiority of the detective when, in 1850, he outlined the “difference between a regular and a detective policeman” (368). The detective must, he wrote: “counteract every sort of rascal whose only means of existence it avowed rascality, but to clear up mysteries, the investigation of which demands the utmost delicacy and tact” (368). The detective is also extraordinarily efficient; cases are solved quickly, in one example a matter is settled in just “ten minutes” (369).Dickens’s pro-police pieces, included a blatantly promotional, two-part work “A Detective Police Party” (1850). The narrative begins with open criticism of the Bow Street Runners contrasting these “men of very indifferent character” to the Detective Force which is “so well chosen and trained, proceeds so systematically and quietly, does its business in such a workman-like manner, and is always so calmly and steadily engaged in the service of the public” (“Police Party, Part I” 409). The “party” is just that: a gathering of detectives and editorial staff. Men in a “magnificent chamber”, seated at “a round table […] with some glasses and cigars arranged upon it; and the editorial sofa elegantly hemmed in between that stately piece of furniture and the wall” (“Police Party, Part I” 409). Two inspectors and five sergeants are present. Each man prepared to share some of their experiences in the service of Londoners:they are, [Dickens tells us] one and all, respectable-looking men; of perfectly good deportment and unusual intelligence; with nothing lounging or slinking in their manners; with an air of keen observation, and quick perception when addressed; and generally presenting in their faces, traces more or less marked of habitually leading lives of strong mental excitement. (“Police Party, Part I” 410) Dickens goes to great lengths to reinforce the superiority of the police detective. These men, “in a glance, immediately takes an inventory of the furniture and an accurate sketch of the editorial presence” and speak “very concisely, and in well-chosen language” and who present as an “amicable brotherhood” (“Police Party, Part I” 410). They are also adaptable and constantly working to refine their craft, through apeculiar ability, always sharpening and being improved by practice, and always adapting itself to every variety of circumstances, and opposing itself to every new device that perverted ingenuity can invent, for which this important social branch of the public service is remarkable! (“Police Party, Part II” 459)These detectives are also, in some ways, familiar. Dickens’s offerings include: a “shrewd, hard-headed Scotchman – in appearance not at all unlike a very acute, thoroughly-trained schoolmaster”; a man “with a ruddy face and a high sun-burnt forehead, [who] has the air of one who has been a Sergeant in the army” (“Police Party, Part I” 409-10); and another man who slips easily into the role of the “greasy, sleepy, shy, good-natured, chuckle-headed, un-suspicious, and confiding young butcher” (“Police Party, Part II” 457). These descriptions are more than just attempts to flesh out a story; words on a page reminding us that the author is not just another journalist but one of the great voices of the Victorian era. These profiles are, it is argued here, a deliberate strategy to reassure readers.In summary, police detectives are only to be feared by those residing on the wrong side of the law. For those without criminal intent; detectives are, in some ways, like us. They are people we already know and trust. The stern but well-meaning, intelligent school teacher; the brave and loyal soldier defending the Empire; and the local merchant, a person we see every day. Dickens provides, too, concrete examples for how everyone can contribute to a safer society by assisting these detectives. This, is perfect public relations. Thus, almost singlehandedly, he builds a professional profile for a new type of police officer. The problem (crime) and its solution (the detective) neatly packaged, with step-by-step instructions for citizens to openly support this new-style of constabulary and so achieve a better, less crime-ridden community. This is a theme pursued in “Three Detective Anecdotes” (1850) where Dickens continued to successfully merge “solid lower-middle-class respectability with an intimate knowledge of the criminal world” (Priestman 177); so, proffering the ideal police detective. A threat to the criminal but not to the hard-working and honest men, women, and children of the city.The Detective: As Fact and as FictionThese writings are also a precursor to one of the greatest fictional detectives of the English-speaking world. Dickens observes that, for these new-style police detectives: “Nothing is so common or deceptive as such appearances at first” (“Police Party, Part I” 410). In 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle would write that: “There is nothing so deceptive as an obvious fact” (78). Dickens had prepared readers for the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes: who was smarter, more observant and who had more determination to take on criminals than the average person. The readers of Dickens were, in many respects, positioned as prototypes of Dr John Watson: a hardworking, loyal Englishman. Smart. But not as smart as those who would seek to do harm. Watson needed Holmes to make the world a better place; the subscriber to Household Words needed the police detective.Another article, “On Duty with Inspector Field” (1851), profiled the “well-known hand” responsible for bringing numerous offenders to justice and sending them, “inexorably, to New South Wales” (Dickens 266). Critically this true crime narrative would be converted into a crime fiction story as Inspector Field is transformed (it is widely believed) into the imagined Inspector Bucket. The 1860s have been identified as “a period of awakening for the detective novel” (Ashley x), a predictor of which is the significant sub-plot of murder in Dickens’s Bleak House. In this novel, a murder is committed with the case taken on, and competently solved by, Bucket who is a man of “skill and integrity” a man presented as an “ideal servant” though one working for a “flawed legal system” (Walton 458). Mr Snagsby, of Bleak House, observes Bucket as a man whoseems in some indefinable manner to lurk and lounge; also, that whenever he is going to turn to the right or left, he pretends to have a fixed purpose in his mind of going straight ahead, and wheels off, sharply at the very last moment [… He] notices things in general, with a face as unchanging as the great mourning ring on his little finger, or the brooch, composed of not much diamond and a good deal of setting, which he wears in his shirt. (278) This passage, it is argued here, places Bucket alongside the men at the detective police party in Household Words. He is simultaneously superhuman in mind and manner, though rather ordinary in dress. Like the real-life detectives of Dickens’s articles; he is a man committed to keeping the city safe while posing no threat to law-abiding citizens. ConclusionThis article has explored, briefly, the contributions of the highly-regarded Victorian author, Charles Dickens, to factual and fictional crime writing. The story of Dickens as a social commentator is one that is familiar to many; what is less well-known is the connection of Dickens to important conversations around capital punishment and the rise of the detective in crime-focused narratives; particularly how he assisted in building the professional profile of the police detective. In this way, through fact and fiction, Dickens performed great (if under-acknowledged) public services around punishment and law enforcement: he contributed to debates on the death penalty and he helped to build trust in the radical social project that established modern-day policing.AcknowledgementsThe author offers her sincere thanks to the New South Wales Dickens Society, Simon Dwyer, and Peter Kirkpatrick. 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