Chapter
four Case 3
Information technology is emerging as of critical importance across the
globe. New and emerging technologies are enabling companies to reach spans they
were never able to do before. The internet has become a global platform through
which anyone can chat and share ideas. Despite its many advantages, misuse of the internet by criminal
organizations is on the rise. “Terrorist organizations, extremist groups, hate
groups, and racial supremacy groups are using the web to promote their
ideology, to facilitate internal communications, to attack their enemies, and
to conduct criminal activities. It therefore has become important to obtain
from the web intelligence that permits better understanding and analysis of
terrorist and extremist groups” (Chen, Chung, Qin, Reid, Sageman, and
Weimann 2008).
This
video case file, Data Mining for Terrorists and Innocents, is a work in
progress. This Tuscan data-mining project gathers and collects data from
internet users from around the world. Programmers use logarithms to sort
critical information. Internets users are put into categories. This case
describes an arrest of a German Sociology professor, Andrej Holm, who spent 3
weeks in jail because of said information that was gathered on him. He engaged
in two conversations with a known terrorist. That alone wasn’t the only factor.
The program also linked written work he published as a cause for concern.
Between the two, they arrested him. He and his family subjected him and his
family to constant surveillance afterwards.
Although I
am a supporter of such technology and information gathering for possible
terrorists, at first glance it appears that the arrest of Andrej Holm was
unjustified. There needs to be proof of
a link between the two, not just suspicion based on a couple a contact moments.
Then again, I have not seen the conversation material, if there is any. Even though I support such technology, I don’t
support it in just anybody’s hands. I
don’t support Facebook administrators being able to see my information. I do
support government and hope they use it wisely. I am not a terrorist and as
such have no worries about what I post on the internet or my usage pattern. Society
should understand that the government is not interested in who you are dating
or having an affair with. That data is tossed away. Logarithms pick up on key
words which is something to ponder about.
References
Laudon, K.C., Laudon, J.P. (2014). Management
Information Systems, Managing the Digital
Firm (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River NJ:
Pearson/Prentice Hall. Data Mining for Terrorists and
Innocents [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lKpD7MC22I
Tianjun, F., Abbasi, A., & Chen, H. (2010). A
focused crawler for Dark Web forums. Journal Of
The American Society For Information Science & Technology,
61(6), 1213-1231.
doi:10.1002/asi.21323
Chen, H., Chung, W., Qin, J., Reid, E., Sageman, M.,
& Weimann, G. (2008). Uncovering the
dark Web: A case study of Jihad on the Web. Journal
Of The American Society For
Information Science & Technology, 59(8),
1347-1359
