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Rapid Information Overlay Technology (RIOT)
In 2010, a major American defense contractor that specializes in military weaponry and electronics developed a software project called Rapid Information Overlay Technology (RIOT). The software...
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Hackers Set Sail for America
This week Mandiant, an American cyber security firm, revealed a report that indicates how the Chinese government or military apparatus has engaged in an extensive cyber espionage campaign against US...
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Push and Pull: Access to Information in Canada
The uncontrolled access to information is one the main areas of contention between governments and citizens. In any point in history, governments and those in hierarchical positions of power understand...
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Non-Documentation in Canada
In De Lint and Bahdi’s (2012) article “Access to Information in Age of Intelligencized Governmentality” a number of concerns around the phenomenon of non-documentation are presented. In order to...
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‘Cuts’ and ‘Deletions’ in Access to Information
Brokering an access to information (ATI) request is not easy. While citizens advocate for an open door policy to the backrooms of government factions, the feds attempt to restrict the flowing...
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Judicial Democracy
In 1976, academic and professor Matthew G. Yeager sued the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) when access DEA intelligence data system’s NADDIS (Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Information System),...
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Digital Age Gap
In a networked society, we have to be careful where we leave our digital footprints. Unlike the physical world, our tracks are permanent. A news article posted to the Globe and Mail this week by Anne...
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This does not add up: Barrett Brown and 105 years in prison
This does not add up. At 300 days behind bars and counting, the journalist, information activist and eccentric Barrett Brown is facing 105 years in prison. So far, Brown faces up to 17 charges ranging...
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MIT intervenes: Kevin Poulsen, Aaron Swartz & FOIA
Aaron Swartz was a brilliant American computer programmer, activist, writer and more. In January 2011, Swartz allegedly hacked into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Building 16 to...
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Drowning in a sea of drones
The history of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), drones, and remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs) can be traced back to precursors of war. For example, in 1849 when the Austrians attacked Venice with bombs...
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Goodbye Arab Spring, Hello Arab Fall
It’s extremely difficult to grasp the magnitude of recent protests in the Arab league. This past Tuesday marked 11 years since the targeted attacks of 9/11 on the United States. The day began with...
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Happy Birthday, Occupy Wall Street
occupy |ˈäkyəˌpī|verb ( occupies, occupying, occupied ) [ with obj. ] to reside or have one’s place of business in (a building): (often be occupied with/in) fill or preoccupy (the mind or thoughts):...
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Starbucks: The Place of Holy Matrimony
Today was something else. I met up at Starbucks with my girlfriend and my mother to welcome the taste of Fall by indulging in an overpriced pumpkin spice latte. The smell of pungent coffee, the...
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Making Nature Against the Law
In my third-year Criminology course, Law and Society, we are asked a “Food for Thought” question each week. Two weeks ago, the question, “Is there a law or legal regime that you consider to be...
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Status Quo: Is It a Myth?
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2012) defines “status quo” as the “existing condition or state of affairs.” Objectively, law and society is in continuous change. The degree of change, however, is...
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Wasted Resources: Implications of the NYPD’s Stop-And-Frisk Program
A new documentary on the New York City Police Department’s controversial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rWtDMPaRD8) stop-and-frisk program has prompted nearly 800,000 viewers on YouTube to gain an...
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Missiles Fall on Gaza Strip
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. Yesterday, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) killed Ahmed Jaabari, a Palestinian political activist and second-in-command of Hamas. The...
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Looking Ahead: Deconstruction and Justice
This week in my course “Law and Society”, the class responded to a thought provoking question. “Explain, in your own words, the meaning of Derrida’s claim ‘Deconstruction is Justice’. Do you agree or...
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Hackers and State Sentencing: Aaron Swartz
Aaron Swartz was a 26-year-old American Internet activist, writer and software developer. On January 6, 2011, Swartz allegedly entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Building 16 to...
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Hamed Al-Khabaz vs. Dawson College
Durkheim had a social-historical approach to crime. From his perspective, crime was a normal occurrence in any social system and sometimes it served as a positive function for society in its entirety....
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Behold #Twitter Trading Card
Trading cards are nothing new. Since 1887, baseball cards have been manufactured and shared across the world. The beginning of trading cards was commonly found in retail products such as candy and...
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Barrett Brown, Third Indictment
Yesterday, Barrett Brown was hit with a third indictment. The first indictment that Brown faces is from 2012 when he shared a link to a private Internet Relay Chat (IRC) that provided 5,000 credit card...
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CISPA is back.
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection act (CISPA) is back. The bill was introduced and passed before the US house last spring but was defeated by the majority in Senate. The purpose of the bill...
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Sentencing “Anonymous”: Exacerbating the civil divide between online citizens...
The rise of the hacktivist collective “Anonymous” and its activities have led to a number of high profile arrests and sentences around the world. To date, criminologists have remained relatively […]
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