Cyberspace Research Research Articles

An Ontology of Cyberspace as a Basis for Decision-making in Cyberoperations

In the cyberoperations community there is a commonly accepted starting point for describing cyberspace as comprising of multiple planes through which information flows. However, the model is not a tool that facilitates planning and executing cyberoperations. Tools do exist in the form of technical cybersecurity ontologies. At the moment the link between technical ontologies, that are the tools of experts, and the operational planning process is limited. These technical ontologies provide automated information that would support operational planning. At the moment cybersecurity experts translate the information that military professionals need, which may cause insufficiencies or distortions in communication or cause inconsistencies in the planning process. This paper presents the ongoing work of developing a model of cyberspace in the form of a core ontology. The ontology describes the flow of digital information between persons and the enabling technology as well as geographical data. It is intended as a tool that supports operational planning and decision-making in and through cyberspace, by enabling automation and reasoning. The model is created using the well-established Constructive Research Approach (CRA) methodology, and is developed on earlier research. CRA consists of six phases in which (1) the problem is defined, (2) an understanding of the topic is generated, (3) a solution (model) is constructed which then is (4) demonstrated. Then the models (5) theoretical connections are presented and the (6) scope of applicability is assessed. The challenges of developing an ontology of cyberspace as part of the third phase of the methodology are in focus. The ontology serves as an operational core ontology, aiming to link cybersecurity domain ontologies to the DOLCE+DnS Ultralite (DUL) foundational ontology. The ontology is based on research in Cyberspace Geography and Cyber Terrain. No earlier attempts at creating a core ontology of cyberspace grounded in a foundational ontology, based on these concepts, were found. Overall, the use of reference ontologies in cyberspace research is scarce and few are grounded in a foundational ontology. The starting point for the ontology is a model of cyberspace comprising of six layers, which are the 1) geographic layer, 2) physical network layer, 3) logical network layer, 4) socio-organizational layer, 5) virtual persona layer and finally the 6) persona layer. The model was complemented with levels describing action and information and partially excluded the outer levels 1 and 6, which were directly linked to the DUL foundational ontology.

СYBER THREATS WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY PERCEPTION OF THEM IN UKRAINE

The article focuses on security research in cyberspace, in particular in the context of the cyber threat. It is emphasized that under current conditions a number of strategically important objects of economic, infrastructural and defense sectors using information and telecommunication systems are potentially objects of high risk due to consequences and their level of vulnerability to external invasion. The article places emphasis on some discussion among researchers by type of threat. Attention is paid to the belief that, also taking into account the general methodological approaches to the assessment of risks of the proliferation of threats, these threat factors are primarily not threats, but internal factors that contribute to the spread of cyber threats and could be characterized as the ability of the system to counteract the proliferation of these threats or as vulnerability of society. With this as a background of cybercrime, which is typical not only for Ukraine but for the whole world society. It has been pointed out that the Convention on Cybercrime has approached the classification of cybercrime in a rather generalized manner, and that certain actions in cyberspace which clearly cause significant losses to the subjects of information relations have been left out of its attention. Under the contemporary conditions, a special type of cyber threat is the spread of cyberterrorism, the global nature of the technical base of which and its accessibility have determined the special features of this type of terrorism. It was noted that cyberterrorism from cybercrime differs by its openness, when the terrorist's demands are widely covered by the media. Solving the problem of combating cyberterrorism is based on a comprehensive approach and has legal, organizational, psychological and technical components. At the same time, the key problem remains the legal regulation of the use of cyberspace, as well as legal conflicts and gaps in legislation, resulting in an untimely and inadequate response by law enforcement agencies to damage to information, information and telecommunications networks, the reputation of citizens and so on.

Language culture of a city in cyberspace

The article attempts at studying language culture of a city on the material of the two leading websites, www.74.ru of Chelyabinsk and www.66.ru of Yekaterinburg. The choice of websites of the two main Ural cities is conditioned by their geographical position, similar role in the country as leading industrial centres. Language and cultural approach to website study has resulted in revealing general and special characteristics of the local city space and city image. Cognitive and discourse approach to city cyberspace research has shown the tendencies to choose both local and global issues for discussion widening the boarders of the local city culture by including actual issues for Russia and the whole world. Place names, local place names and city space verbal markers are frequently used in both websites creating true to life language and cultural message for the websites users, making city image recognizable and language culture of a city specific by using a few folk place names. City space markers have been outlined and grouped. The sites are characterized by similar content representation but differ in its realization. Diagrams and tables help verify the results of the city space analysis and website dynamics.

Cyber-Ethnography and Youth Cultures

The object of study is the research of youth phenomena, which is, linked to the expansion of opportunities for socialization of young people, particularly those related to interactive cyberspace mobility. This confirms the sociocultural processes where youth culture makes sense, in the temporary space and the cultural context where they take place.
 Assumptions allied to the purpose of investigating the vision of young students from public universities in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico and Viedma, Rio Negro, Argentina. We are convinced that moving through cyberspace research by means of digital mediation can provide the advantage of new ways of organizing information, in addition to aid in expanding the ways information is analyzed and interpreted.
 Qualitative research of Cyberethnographics whose development favors the construction of a specific methodological model for sighting, examining and identifying the sense and action that young people produce. It is that description, the core purpose of this present work.

Editor's Notes

Editor's Notes

Blurred Boundaries: Probing the Ethics of Cyberspace Research

Review of Policy ResearchVolume 28, Issue 5 p. 531-537 Blurred Boundaries: Probing the Ethics of Cyberspace Research Ronald Deibert, Ronald Deibert Citizen Lab and Canada Centre for Global Security Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of TorontoSearch for more papers by this authorMasashi Crete-Nishihata, Masashi Crete-Nishihata Citizen Lab and Canada Centre for Global Security Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of TorontoSearch for more papers by this author Ronald Deibert, Ronald Deibert Citizen Lab and Canada Centre for Global Security Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of TorontoSearch for more papers by this authorMasashi Crete-Nishihata, Masashi Crete-Nishihata Citizen Lab and Canada Centre for Global Security Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of TorontoSearch for more papers by this author First published: 14 September 2011 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-1338.2011.00521.xCitations: 8Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume28, Issue5September 2011Pages 531-537 RelatedInformation

Cohesion, Adhesion and Incoherence: Magazine Production with a Flickr Special Interest Group

Cohesion, Adhesion and Incoherence: Magazine Production with a Flickr Special Interest Group

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Research in Cyberspace

The purpose of this column is twofold. First, Dr. Joyce Griffin-Sobel provides detailed information on search strategies for accessing nursing research in cyberspace. Second, material from an earlier column by Dr. Judy Norris, now retired, is reprinted to provide another look at the significant issues she discussed that are still timely some 7 years later. The column concludes with some of the points raised by Dr. Violet Malinski in her original commentary on Norris’ column. Readers are encouraged to share their experiences with research in cyberspace.

Finding Research in Cyberspace

Finding Research in Cyberspace

The ethics of research using electronic mail discussion groups

The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss the ethical considerations that have confronted and challenged the research team when researchers facilitate conversations using private electronic mail discussion lists. The use of electronic mail group conversations, as a collaborative data generation method, remains underdeveloped in nursing. Ethical challenges associated with this approach to data generation have only begun to be considered. As receipt of ethics approval for a study titled; 'Describing transition with people who live with chronic illness' we have been challenged by many ethical dilemmas, hence we believe it is timely to share the issues that have confronted the research team. These discussions are essential so we can understand the possibilities for research interaction, communication, and collaboration made possible by advanced information technologies. Our experiences in this study have increased our awareness for ongoing ethical discussions about privacy, confidentiality, consent, accountability and openness underpinning research with human participants when generating data using an electronic mail discussion group. We describe how we work at upholding these ethical principles focusing on informed consent, participant confidentiality and privacy, the participants as threats to themselves and one another, public-private confusion, employees with access, hackers and threats from the researchers. A variety of complex issues arise during cyberspace research that can make the application of traditional ethical standards troublesome. Communication in cyberspace alters the temporal, spatial and sensory components of human interaction, thereby challenging traditional ethical definitions and calling to question some basic assumptions about identity and ones right to keep aspects of it confidential. Nurse researchers are bound by human research ethics protocols; however, the nature of research by electronic mail generates moral issues as well as ethical concerns. Vigilance by researchers is required to ensure that data are viewed within the scope of the enabling ethics approval.

An overview of the ethics of cyber-space research and the implication for nurse educators

This paper provides an overview of the techniques available to the cyber-space researcher together with a consideration of the specific ethical issues that such research generates. It is acknowledged that these research methods are, at present, not widely utilised within health care sciences, thus this paper draws upon the experiences and debates that are current within other disciplines, predominantly those of the social sciences. The primary areas of ethical concern are suggested to be those surrounding consent, privacy, identification verification and disguise. These issues are further considered for their implications for nurse educators and for those academics that are either undertaking cyber-space research of their own or supervising student's Internet-based research projects.

The discursive field of Web-based health research: implications for nursing research in cyberspace.

Web-based health research is a relatively new phenomenon. Its definition and conceptualization differs markedly as it is deployed within and across a complex array of discourses, with serious implications for nursing research and knowledge development. Web-based health research offers nurse researchers unique and abundant opportunities to provide leadership in the development and conduct of diverse modes of online health research. To appropriately avail themselves of such opportunities, however, nurse researchers must first address the significant ontological, epistemological, methodological, ethical, legal, and professional issues and concerns that nursing research in cyberspace raises.

The Tri-Council Policy Statement and Research in Cyberspace: Research Ethics, the Internet, and Revising a ‘Living Document’

Increasingly, the Internet is proving to be an important research tool. Today, cyberspace affords researchers easy access to traditionally difficult to reach populations, a host of virtual communities, and a wealth of data created through computer-mediated-communication. This newfound research frontier brings with it, however, a multiplicity of ethical concerns, including: (1) whether the Internet constitutes a private or public space; (2) whether the human subject paradigm is appropriate when considering the ethics of Internet research; and (3) whether cyber participants/‘speakers-as-writers’ and communities should be guaranteed confidentiality and anonymity when researchers contain or consider them in research. This paper examines these specific ethical concerns as they relate to Canada's Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, which, as yet, does not explicitly address ethics involved in Internet research. I propose that in large part the Internet is by definition a public site of activity, and as such, many posters cannot expect their texts to remain confidential, nor their names anonymous, and that the human subject paradigm is highly problematic in terms of regulating ethics involved in some research generated through new information technologies. This is most expressly the case with computer-mediated-communication, which, in light of the Tri-Council Policy Statement, can be viewed as theoretically akin to public entertainment and performance.

Doing Research in Cyberspace

Although laws and policies developed in the context of off-line research apply to online investigations, questions about the identifiability of human subjects, the conceptualization of privacy, the need for and means of obtaining informed consent, and the applicability of copyright law to computer-mediated communication (CMC) pose special problems for doing research in cyberspace.

Technical Communication Research: From Traditional to Virtual

Researchers in technical communication have recently begun to take advantage of the interactions taking place via computer-mediated communication as a rich source for research. Yet, although research in cyberspace is growing, there are few guidelines for researchers to follow. This article reviews three forms of technical communication research methods (ethnography, rhetorical analysis, and surveys) and raises preliminary issues to consider when using such research methods in cyberspace. These issues include privacy and author permissions.

What's Wrong with the 'Golden Rule'? Conundrums of Conducting Ethical Research in Cyberspace

Three key values for ethical cyberspace research practices are evident in recent discussions: (1) protect the subjects from harm as a result of the research fieldwork and the research practices; (2) produce good social science research; and (3) do not unnecessarily perturb the phenomena studied. Much of the argumentation aims to negotiate the ethical conflicts that often emerge between these goals. Bakhtin argues that one can only strive for a bottom-up ethical wisdom built upon concrete examples, and disputes the possibility that rigid top-down application of universal rules constitutes ethical action. His perspective has key implications for ethical research practices. I illustrate this perspective at work through my recent fieldwork and writing practices in a virtual community. Research ethics for cyberspace are like research ethics for any other site. They should be situated, dialogic agreements that develop over time between researchers and the participants of the research study. It is unlikely that ...

Doing the Right Thing: Ethical Cyberspace Research

With increased use of the Internet and other computer-based communications resources, researchers have begun examining interactions in, and uses of, ''cyberspace.'' In considering ways to conduct ethical cyberspace research, some have looked to guidelines in their own disciplines. A potentially useful ethics statement for social science researchers to consider is that of the Association of Computing Machinery. Keeping in mind some of the ACM guidelines, as well as the similarities and differences between cyberspace and other communications media, may help researchers to be aware of their ethical responsibilities in conducting their research. The ACM guidelines, especially in consideration with other communications media, help remind researchers of the technological environment within which the social interactions being studied take place.

Introduction: A Debate about the Ethics of Fair Practices for Collecting Social Science Data in Cyberspace

Most of us prefer doing to the opposite. But sometimes it is not easy to determine either what constitutes right conduct or how to do it. In this special ethics issue of TIS, scholars involved in cyberspace research explore the problem of doing in terms of research subjects. The participants here draw from their own research and the ethical dilemmas they confronted. The offerings illustrate how diverse ethical theories can lead to different views over which, or even whether, new formal guidelines are needed for on-line research.

The Ethics of Research in Cyberspace

As computers, the Internet, online digital resources, and eventually the National Information Infrastructure become increasingly important in our lives, the study of the use of these technologies has become one of the fastest growing areas in social science. This research is important, but, like any kind of social science involving the study of human subjects, it raises questions of ethics and human dignity. Most major research universities have guidelines for this kind of scholarship, based on the Nuremberg Code and/or the Belmont Principles. But research in cyberspace was clearly not on the minds of those drafting these guidelines. Some of the difficulties produced by this tension between traditional guidelines and new technologies are discussed.