The Experts below are selected from a list of 96 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Rebecca Mcadams - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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143 baltimore s Underground gun Market availability of and access to guns
Injury Prevention, 2020Co-Authors: Cassandra K Crifasi, Shani Buggs, Marisa D Booty, Daniel W Webster, Rebecca McadamsAbstract:Statement of Purpose Underground gun Markets create opportunities for individuals who are prohibited from gun ownership to gain access to them. Understanding how these individuals obtain guns, as well as their unsuccessful attempts to get guns, is key to developing interventions that effectively restrict the supply of guns in an Underground Market. Methods/Approach We recruited 195 men outside of parole and probation centers in Baltimore City. We conducted surveys with these criminal justice system-involved men about their experiences in the Underground gun Market. The survey data was gathered using an audio-assisted computer survey instrument. The survey was composed of questions about ability to acquire firearms, why they were desired, and selling/trading behaviors. Results 30% of respondents (n=58) reported having experience in the Underground gun Market. More than half of these individuals were unsuccessful in their most recent attempt to obtain a firearm due to cost- or source-related barriers. Over 80% of individuals who did not already have access to a gun but wanted one (31/38) reported wanting to acquire one for safety or protection. Most respondents who had access to firearms had handguns (90%). Individuals reported selling or trading a gun (n=35) for money (69%), drugs (46%), or other guns (23%), or accepting guns as payment for drugs. Conclusions Although an Underground Market can facilitate access to firearms, barriers exist that can prevent acquisition by high risk individuals. Significance and Contributions to Injury and Violence Prevention Science This is the first study to understand the availability of and access to guns in Baltimore’ Underground gun Market. Efforts should focus on strategies that increase accountability and restrict the supply of guns in an Underground Market or those that provide alternatives to gun carrying to feel safe.
Cassandra K Crifasi - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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143 baltimore s Underground gun Market availability of and access to guns
Injury Prevention, 2020Co-Authors: Cassandra K Crifasi, Shani Buggs, Marisa D Booty, Daniel W Webster, Rebecca McadamsAbstract:Statement of Purpose Underground gun Markets create opportunities for individuals who are prohibited from gun ownership to gain access to them. Understanding how these individuals obtain guns, as well as their unsuccessful attempts to get guns, is key to developing interventions that effectively restrict the supply of guns in an Underground Market. Methods/Approach We recruited 195 men outside of parole and probation centers in Baltimore City. We conducted surveys with these criminal justice system-involved men about their experiences in the Underground gun Market. The survey data was gathered using an audio-assisted computer survey instrument. The survey was composed of questions about ability to acquire firearms, why they were desired, and selling/trading behaviors. Results 30% of respondents (n=58) reported having experience in the Underground gun Market. More than half of these individuals were unsuccessful in their most recent attempt to obtain a firearm due to cost- or source-related barriers. Over 80% of individuals who did not already have access to a gun but wanted one (31/38) reported wanting to acquire one for safety or protection. Most respondents who had access to firearms had handguns (90%). Individuals reported selling or trading a gun (n=35) for money (69%), drugs (46%), or other guns (23%), or accepting guns as payment for drugs. Conclusions Although an Underground Market can facilitate access to firearms, barriers exist that can prevent acquisition by high risk individuals. Significance and Contributions to Injury and Violence Prevention Science This is the first study to understand the availability of and access to guns in Baltimore’ Underground gun Market. Efforts should focus on strategies that increase accountability and restrict the supply of guns in an Underground Market or those that provide alternatives to gun carrying to feel safe.
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policies to prevent illegal acquisition of firearms impacts on diversions of guns for criminal use violence and suicide
Current Epidemiology Reports, 2019Co-Authors: Cassandra K Crifasi, Marisa D Booty, Alexander D Mccourt, Daniel W WebsterAbstract:Firearm-related deaths are a significant source of mortality in the USA. More than 30,000 individuals die annually from firearm-related injuries, including homicide and suicide, in our nation. This review summarizes recent findings on policies designed to prevent illegal acquisition of firearms and their impacts on diversions of guns into Underground Markets and firearm-related homicide and suicide. A significant body of evidence has been produced between 2013 and 2018 demonstrating the effectiveness of laws requiring prospective handgun purchasers to obtain a permit (PTP). The evidence for other types of laws to deter illegal acquisition of firearms is less robust. Current research on illegal acquisition and the impact of related policies illustrates that there are policies that effectively reduce diversion and have positive impacts on firearm-related violence. However, there is a paucity of research that use strong study designs and clearly identifies specific policy impacts pertaining to diversion and illegal acquisition of firearms. Future research is needed that further elucidates transactions that facilitate a gun’s entry into an Underground Market and the role and impact of policies regulating these transactions.
Ponnurangam Kumaraguru - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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what they do in shadows twitter Underground follower Market
Conference on Privacy Security and Trust, 2015Co-Authors: Anupama Aggarwal, Ponnurangam KumaraguruAbstract:Internet users and businesses are increasingly using online social networks (OSN) to drive audience traffic and increase their popularity. In order to boost social presence, OSN users need to increase the visibility and reach of their online profile, like — Facebook likes, Twitter followers, Instagram comments and Yelp reviews. For example, an increase in Twitter followers not only improves the audience reach of the user but also boosts the perceived social reputation and popularity. This has led to a scope for an Underground Market that provides followers, likes, comments, etc. via a network of fraudulent and compromised accounts and various collusion techniques. In this paper, we landscape the Underground Markets that provide Twitter followers by studying their basic building blocks — merchants, customers and phony followers. We charecterize the services provided by merchants to understand their operational structure and Market hierarchy. Twitter Underground Markets can operationalize using a premium monetary scheme or other incentivized freemium schemes. We find out that freemium Market has an oligopoly structure with few merchants being the Market leaders. We also show that merchant popularity does not have any correlation with the quality of service provided by the merchant to its customers. Our findings also shed light on the characteristics and quality of Market customers and the phony followers provided by Underground Market. We draw comparison between legitimate users and phony followers, and find out key identifiers to separate such users. With the help of these differentiating features, we build a supervised learning model to predict suspicious following behaviour with an accuracy of 89.2%.
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what they do in shadows twitter Underground follower Market
arXiv: Social and Information Networks, 2014Co-Authors: Anupama Aggarwal, Ponnurangam KumaraguruAbstract:Internet users and businesses are increasingly using online social networks (OSN) to drive audience traffic and increase their popularity. In order to boost social presence, OSN users need to increase the visibility and reach of their online profile, like - Facebook likes, Twitter followers, Instagram comments and Yelp reviews. For example, an increase in Twitter followers not only improves the audience reach of the user but also boosts the perceived social reputation and popularity. This has led to a scope for an Underground Market that provides followers, likes, comments, etc. via a network of fraudulent and compromised accounts and various collusion techniques. In this paper, we landscape the Underground Markets that provide Twitter followers by studying their basic building blocks - merchants, customers and phony followers. We charecterize the services provided by merchants to understand their operational structure and Market hierarchy. Twitter Underground Markets can operationalize using a premium monetary scheme or other incentivized freemium schemes. We find out that freemium Market has an oligopoly structure with few merchants being the Market leaders. We also show that merchant popularity does not have any correlation with the quality of service provided by the merchant to its customers. Our findings also shed light on the characteristics and quality of Market customers and the phony followers provided. We draw comparison between legitimate users and phony followers, and find out key identifiers to separate such users. With the help of these differentiating features, we build a supervised learning model to predict suspicious following behaviour with an accuracy of 89.2%.
Vern Paxson - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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trafficking fraudulent accounts the role of the Underground Market in twitter spam and abuse
USENIX Security Symposium, 2013Co-Authors: Kurt Thomas, Damon Mccoy, Chris Grier, Alek Kolcz, Vern PaxsonAbstract:As web services such as Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Yahoo now dominate the daily activities of Internet users, cyber criminals have adapted their monetization strategies to engage users within these walled gardens. To facilitate access to these sites, an Underground Market has emerged where fraudulent accounts - automatically generated credentials used to perpetrate scams, phishing, and malware - are sold in bulk by the thousands. In order to understand this shadowy economy, we investigate the Market for fraudulent Twitter accounts to monitor prices, availability, and fraud perpetrated by 27 merchants over the course of a 10-month period. We use our insights to develop a classifier to retroactively detect several million fraudulent accounts sold via this Marketplace, 95% of which we disable with Twitter's help. During active months, the 27 merchants we monitor appeared responsible for registering 10-20% of all accounts later flagged for spam by Twitter, generating $127-459K for their efforts.
Shani Buggs - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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143 baltimore s Underground gun Market availability of and access to guns
Injury Prevention, 2020Co-Authors: Cassandra K Crifasi, Shani Buggs, Marisa D Booty, Daniel W Webster, Rebecca McadamsAbstract:Statement of Purpose Underground gun Markets create opportunities for individuals who are prohibited from gun ownership to gain access to them. Understanding how these individuals obtain guns, as well as their unsuccessful attempts to get guns, is key to developing interventions that effectively restrict the supply of guns in an Underground Market. Methods/Approach We recruited 195 men outside of parole and probation centers in Baltimore City. We conducted surveys with these criminal justice system-involved men about their experiences in the Underground gun Market. The survey data was gathered using an audio-assisted computer survey instrument. The survey was composed of questions about ability to acquire firearms, why they were desired, and selling/trading behaviors. Results 30% of respondents (n=58) reported having experience in the Underground gun Market. More than half of these individuals were unsuccessful in their most recent attempt to obtain a firearm due to cost- or source-related barriers. Over 80% of individuals who did not already have access to a gun but wanted one (31/38) reported wanting to acquire one for safety or protection. Most respondents who had access to firearms had handguns (90%). Individuals reported selling or trading a gun (n=35) for money (69%), drugs (46%), or other guns (23%), or accepting guns as payment for drugs. Conclusions Although an Underground Market can facilitate access to firearms, barriers exist that can prevent acquisition by high risk individuals. Significance and Contributions to Injury and Violence Prevention Science This is the first study to understand the availability of and access to guns in Baltimore’ Underground gun Market. Efforts should focus on strategies that increase accountability and restrict the supply of guns in an Underground Market or those that provide alternatives to gun carrying to feel safe.
