David M Cook | Edith Cowan University (original) (raw)

Papers by David M Cook

Research, Society and Development

The aim of this scoping review is to understand the extent of issues of resilience implied by the... more The aim of this scoping review is to understand the extent of issues of resilience implied by the interactions of older people with financial, social, and health related technologies. Older people aged 60+, technology use or non-use, and issues of resilience studied over the last four years (2019-2022) demarcate the scope of this review. Key exclusion criteria are older adults living in long-term care facilities, nursing homes, care homes and hospital in-patients. It also excludes studies on the perspectives of older peoples’ clinicians. The review will be carried out according to the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) scoping review methodology. The key information sources are SCOPUS, Web of Science, CINAHL, PsychINFO, and MEDLINE databases. The forms of grey literature included are reports from government and non-government organizations, as well as studies from the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses - Global database. The search is limited to studies written in English. For the first ste...

Recent Advances in Information and Communication Technology 2018

Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology that has already found successful application in a... more Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology that has already found successful application in a variety of different fields, including simulation, training, education, and gaming. While VR technologies have been considered for use in recruitment practices, available research on the topic is limited. In all stages of the recruitment process, social categorization of job applicants based on ethnicity, skin color, and gender, as well as other forms of discrimination are contemporary issues. This study examined the efficacy of using virtual reality technology as part of job interview strategies and evaluated its potential to mitigate personal bias towards job applicants. The use of VR technology as a job interview concept has been shown to have a high rate of acceptance and initial barriers for first-time users are low. The method provides benefits for job applicants in terms of social equity and performance.

2019 4th International Conference on Information Technology, Information Systems and Electrical Engineering (ICITISEE), 2019

The Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol is an established bandwidth-efficient met... more The Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol is an established bandwidth-efficient method of connection with remote locations using wireless sensor networks. It forms a backbone infrastructure for IoT collection and analytics. The collection and sharing of data by embedded devices and heterogeneous systems fuels an ever-increasing reliance on secure data. An important consideration is the resilience of MQTT brokers when subject to large subscriber loads. This research describes how the intelligence gathered by a simple physical reconnaissance attack can be used as part of a rapid kill-chain to facilitate resource starvation and water torture attacks in order to bring down three distinct MQTT broker implementations.

Information Security often works in antipathy to access and useability in communities of older ci... more Information Security often works in antipathy to access and useability in communities of older citizens. Whilst security features are required to prevent the disclosure of information, some security tools have a deleterious effect upon users, resulting in insecure practices. Security becomes unfit for purpose where users prefer to abandon applications and online benefits in favour of non-digital authentication and verification requirements. For some, the ability to read letters and symbols from a distorted image is a decidedly more difficult task than for others, and the resulting level of security from CAPTCHA tests is not consistent from person to person. This paper discusses the changing paradigm regarding second tier applications where non-essential benefits are forgone in order to avoid the frustration, uncertainty and humiliation of repeated failed attempts to access online software by means of CAPTCHA.

The end-of-year post exam celebrations for Year 12 secondary school students presents a unique cr... more The end-of-year post exam celebrations for Year 12 secondary school students presents a unique crime prevention proposition in Australia each year. Students of approximately 17 years of age congregate in a variety of locations in large groups known as ‘Leavers’. Traditionally a number of 'rite of passage' activities, fuelled by additional factors such as alcohol, drugs and peer pressure, have resulted in an increased risk of crime and anti-social behaviour. This paper examines mitigation strategies aligned with Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) when placed at an event. Using the annual Leavers cohort at Rottnest Island, W.A., a number of 1 and 2 generation CPTED instruments are discussed and evaluated. The additional isolation factor of the island highlights the value of 2 generation social cohesion and its likely impact in reducing a number of crime-related social issues. The paper concludes that increased 2 generation CPTED treatments significantly impr...

Recent Advances in Information and Communication Technology 2018, 2018

Turing tests are used to secure the human interaction on the Internet. Tests such as CAPTCHA are ... more Turing tests are used to secure the human interaction on the Internet. Tests such as CAPTCHA are based on visual or auditory recognition of symbols and are difficult to distinguish by elderly people. A study examining the consistency of a tactile feedback-based Turing test identified an alternative to mainstream tests. This approach examines the vibration-based sensitivity which is detectable through skin surfaces when used to touch the screen of a mobile device. The study concentrated on a range of rough, smooth, sticky and coarse textures as possible differentiators for swipe-based tactile authentication using mobile devices. This study examined the vibration-based touch screen capabilities of 30 elderly people over the age of 65. The results of this study showed that tactile differentiation can be a viable alternative for device and security authentication for Turing tests such as those used for CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA verification.

Australia’s anti-money laundering regulations (AML/CTF) on money transfer businesses exhibit flaw... more Australia’s anti-money laundering regulations (AML/CTF) on money transfer businesses exhibit flaws. The internationally driven implementation of regulatory controls on money transfers now encounters compliance entropy as commercialization saturates traditional money transfer networks. At the micro level, a large number of shop front transfer businesses sell a variety of products and services in an informal retail environment which is built on familiarity and trust. Yet wire transfer business now competes alongside postal outlets that provide a myriad of products and services. They share retail interests with alternative remittance agencies operating in both convenience stores and independent currency exchange services. Retail remitters increasingly offer money transfers through providers such as Western Union, MoneyGram and Ezy Money. This paper posits that regulatory compliance levels have decayed in money transfer stores. Retail transfers in shop-front money transfer business prac...

2017 National Information Technology Conference (NITC), 2017

Virtual Reality (VR) usability is an emerging area that has made rapid progress among early adopt... more Virtual Reality (VR) usability is an emerging area that has made rapid progress among early adopters, but has so far failed to address the concerns of late adopters. In particular, elderly cohorts stand to benefit greatly from VR technologies as they enter areas of assistive technology, gerontechnology, and authentic modes of training. This study examined technology rejection criteria from a sample of 19 retired persons by comparing normative and VR practices for the fundamental learning of navigation using Google Earth mapping. This research discovered that three dimensional fear was a major factor in determining the acceptance and rejection of VR as a usable instrument for training elderly people in the use of navigation by means of enhanced mapping. This study examines the hypothesis that in combination, physical and pseudo physical realities require a range of preparatory exercises to acclimatize older users towards a stress-free approach to VR adoption. This study aimed to reveal new understanding about technology rejection in older populations, in particular where the physical presence of the wearing of VR equipment, in combination with the psychological and mental fear of the 3D experience, brought about high levels of technology rejection. Hesitation to accept VR equipment across both physical and perceptual boundaries is problematic for elderly users where rich 3D experiences are a requirement for successful, purposeful, and authentic tasking.

The advent of Social media has changed the manner in which perceptions about power and informatio... more The advent of Social media has changed the manner in which perceptions about power and information can be influenced. Twitter is used as a fast‐paced vehicle to deliver short, succinct pieces of information, creating the perception of acceptance, popularity and authority. In the case of extremist groups, Twitter is one of several avenues to create the perception of endorsement of values that would otherwise gain less prominence through mainstream media. This study examines the use of Twitter in augmenting the status and reputation of anti‐Islam and anti‐immigration policy through the controlled release of social media information bursts. The paper demonstrates the use of new media by extremist groups using open source case study data from the associated Twitter traffic of Geert Wilders. The results indicate the pursuit of increased traction for controversial ideals that provoke and incite others towards extremism, violence, racism and Islamaphobia.

Informal Money Transfer systems represent one of several persistent loopholes in the fight agains... more Informal Money Transfer systems represent one of several persistent loopholes in the fight against the War on Terror. Terrorist groups and criminal networks continue to use the Hawala system, as well as other informal transfer systems, to escape the regulatory and administrative control of formal international banking transactions. In an age where global financial regulation is underpinned by international agreement through Basel and others, the ongoing use of IVTs in Australia is cause for increasing concern. Yet Hawala is only half of the informal equation. E-bay and its associated bedfellows outstrip Hawala transfers through the same commercial imperative that drives the modern world, simply by doing business. This paper describes the escalating risk in Australian and International money transfers, and the need for a reconsideration of the prevention strategies that conceal the support for terrorist and criminal activities.

Senior Citizens represent a unique cohort of computer users insomuch as they have come to the fie... more Senior Citizens represent a unique cohort of computer users insomuch as they have come to the field of computer usage later in life, as novices compared to other users. As a group they exhibit a resentment, mistrust and ignorance towards cyber related technology that is born out of their educational and social experiences prior to widespread information technology. The shift from analogue to digital proficiency has been understated for a generation of citizens who were educated before computer usage and internet ubiquity. This paper examines the language difficulties encountered by senior citizens in attempting to engage in banking and communications that now rely heavily on internet connectivity and computer expression. In particular, this research exposes a generational problem facing senior citizens in the security of their financial assets.

Whilst security threats to the general public continue to evolve, elderly computer users with lim... more Whilst security threats to the general public continue to evolve, elderly computer users with limited skill and knowledge are left playing catch-up in an ever-widening gap in fundamental cyber-related comprehension. As a definable cohort, the elderly generally lack awareness of current security threats, and remain under-educated in terms of applying appropriate controls and safeguards to their computers and networking devices. This paper identifies that web-based computer security information sources do not adequately provide helpful information to senior citizen end-users in terms of both design and content. It subsequently demonstrates a solution designed with the elderly, yet novice, end-user in mind. This paper examines the need for practical computer-based instructions that have wide-ranging applications to a wide selection of under-informed internet consumers. As computer usage rapidly spreads towards total ubiquity across all generations and social levels, the need for web-ba...

The realization that cyber threats can cause the same devastation to a country as physical securi... more The realization that cyber threats can cause the same devastation to a country as physical security risks has taken the long route towards acceptance. Governments and businesses have thrown the glove of responsibility back and forth on numerous occasions, with government agencies citing the need for private enterprise to take up the mantle, and Business returning the gesture by proposing a ‘national’ perspective on cyber security. Ambit claims such as these drain a range of security resources when both sides should work in concert by directing all available energy towards resolving cyber-threats. This paper compares the public-private arrangements through Australasia in arguing the need for new modes of governance across cyber-security initiatives. Whilst critical infrastructure partnerships accept the need for joint operations – the broader information technology (IT) security industry has yet to embrace the same.

Identifying which website, Facebook page or Linked-in connection could lead to an engagement with... more Identifying which website, Facebook page or Linked-in connection could lead to an engagement with a terrorist group is beyond the capabilities of ordinary people. Differentiation of one website from another in terms of cyber threat is a complex problem in terms of separating those that encourage and sponsor radicalization and those that do not. These claims usually exist without evidence, and almost always without the opportunity to know where social justice and human-rights support ends, and reaction, dissidence and subversion begins. By overlaying the new modes of governance (NMG) framework against sites and connections that may be subject to ongoing and persistent threats, sites can be divided into two areas. The first aligns closely with governance, whilst the second looks decidedly more threatening. This paper gives an outline for future developments in recognizing simple markers for differentiating hard core extremism from genuine community engagement. The notion that particip...

It is uncertain how many discreet users occupy the social media community. Fake tweets, sock pupp... more It is uncertain how many discreet users occupy the social media community. Fake tweets, sock puppets, force‐multipliers and botnets have become embedded within the fabric of new media in sufficient numbers that social media support by means of quantity is no longer a reliable metric for determining authority and influence within openly expressed issues and causes. Election campaigns, and their associated political agendas, can now be influenced by non‐specific virtual presences that cajole and redirect opinions without declaring identity or allegiance. In the lead up to the 2013 Australian Federal Election, the open source Twitter activity for the two major party leaders was examined in order to establish patterns of information diffusion. The results showed fake online personas, fake bots deploying automated Twitter dissemination, and deceptive Twitter strategies. New media tolerates slacktivism, where Twitter users mistake auto‐narrative for genuine political sentiment. This study...

Ecu Publications 2011, 2011

Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology that has already found successful application in a... more Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology that has already found successful application in a variety of different fields, including simulation, training, education, and gaming. While VR technologies have been considered for use in recruitment practices, available research on the topic is limited. In all stages of the recruitment process, social categorization of job applicants based on ethnicity, skin color, and gender , as well as other forms of discrimination are contemporary issues. This study examined the efficacy of using virtual reality technology as part of job interview strategies and evaluated its potential to mitigate personal bias towards job applicants. The use of VR technology as a job interview concept has been shown to have a high rate of acceptance and initial barriers for first-time users are low. The method provides benefits for job applicants in terms of social equity and performance.

Australia's anti-money laundering regulations (AML/CTF) on money transfer businesses exhibit flaw... more Australia's anti-money laundering regulations (AML/CTF) on money transfer businesses exhibit flaws. The internationally driven implementation of regulatory controls on money transfers now encounters compliance entropy as commercialization saturates traditional money transfer networks. At the micro level, a large number of shop front transfer businesses sell a variety of products and services in an informal retail environment which is built on familiarity and trust. Yet wire transfer business now competes alongside postal outlets that provide a myriad of products and services. They share retail interests with alternative remittance agencies operating in both convenience stores and independent currency exchange services. Retail remitters increasingly offer money transfers through providers such as Western Union, MoneyGram and Ezy Money. This paper posits that regulatory compliance levels have decayed in money transfer stores. Retail transfers in shop-front money transfer business practices have increased the risk of money laundering significantly. The results from a sample of Australian store-front transfer businesses (n=42) found that 58% of stores exhibited non-compliance with Australian anti-money laundering regulations. The results point to an emerging trend of decay in retail-based shop-front remittances and the need to re-evaluate AML/CTF in the retail sector.

New Media usage has expanded in unexpected directions. This qualitative study pulls together two ... more New Media usage has expanded in unexpected directions. This qualitative study pulls together two new media phenomena that demonstrate widespread engineered influence through Twitter dispersion. The first aspect is the practice of sock-puppetry deception that occurs when social media identities are used without proof of identity. The relative ease in creating a single invented online identity is overshadowed by the more recent practise of harnessing thousands of created identities to accentuate the standing of a single identity. The second aspect is the use of metadata to fetch and find increased nodes of commonality. This promulgates the perception of connectivity and homogeneity in terms of information transfer. Identity masking in Twitter, and the use of homophily to manipulate authority, public sway, and social media deception are a formidable combination. This study considers the increasing use of sock-puppetry in conjunction with techniques that exploit homophily to sway the perceptions of others. The ethical and socio-political issues of identity deception and their subsequent impact are discussed. Using the publicly available Twitter accounts of six high profile political figures, the study compares retweets that retain metadata from original tweets. Using both real and fake accounts, the paper tests the hypothesis that non-genuine Sybil Twitter accounts are deployed in the followings of popular figures by using metadata in retweets to establish credibility amongst fake entities. New Media experiences augmented manipulation in multiple ways. The use of metatagging to expose greater commonality increases both the frequency and the amplitude of information diffusion when delivered through social networking and microblogging. A comparison of the associated tweets, followers, and retweets of high profile leaders indicate pervasive sock-puppetry and Sybil deception. With homophily embedded into Tweets and Retweets, sock puppetry in social media presents a challenge. Where homophily fits traditional notions of " similarity between two nodes " , increasing the likelihood of likeness to occur is problematic. If homophily and false identity coalesce, then the use of twitter as a reliable social medium is contingent on discrete user identity in social media.

Informal Money Transfer systems represent one of several persistent loopholes in the fight agains... more Informal Money Transfer systems represent one of several persistent loopholes in the fight against the War on Terror. Terrorist groups and criminal networks continue to use the Hawala system, as well as other informal transfer systems, to escape the regulatory and administrative control of formal international banking transactions. In an age where global financial regulation is underpinned by international agreement through Basel and others, the ongoing use of IVTs in Australia is cause for increasing concern. Yet Hawala is only half of the informal equation.
E-bay and its associated bedfellows outstrip Hawala transfers through the same commercial imperative that drives the modern world, simply by doing business. This paper describes the escalating risk in Australian and International money transfers, and the need for a reconsideration of the prevention strategies that conceal the support for terrorist and criminal activities.

Research, Society and Development

Recent Advances in Information and Communication Technology 2018

2019 4th International Conference on Information Technology, Information Systems and Electrical Engineering (ICITISEE), 2019

Recent Advances in Information and Communication Technology 2018, 2018

2017 National Information Technology Conference (NITC), 2017

Ecu Publications 2011, 2011

Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology that has already found successful application in a... more Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology that has already found successful application in a variety of different fields, including simulation, training, education, and gaming. While VR technologies have been considered for use in recruitment practices, available research on the topic is limited. In all stages of the recruitment process, social categorization of job applicants based on ethnicity, skin color, and gender , as well as other forms of discrimination are contemporary issues. This study examined the efficacy of using virtual reality technology as part of job interview strategies and evaluated its potential to mitigate personal bias towards job applicants. The use of VR technology as a job interview concept has been shown to have a high rate of acceptance and initial barriers for first-time users are low. The method provides benefits for job applicants in terms of social equity and performance.

Informal Money Transfer systems represent one of several persistent loopholes in the fight agains... more Informal Money Transfer systems represent one of several persistent loopholes in the fight against the War on Terror. Terrorist groups and criminal networks continue to use the Hawala system, as well as other informal transfer systems, to escape the regulatory and administrative control of formal international banking transactions. In an age where global financial regulation is underpinned by international agreement through Basel and others, the ongoing use of IVTs in Australia is cause for increasing concern. Yet Hawala is only half of the informal equation.
E-bay and its associated bedfellows outstrip Hawala transfers through the same commercial imperative that drives the modern world, simply by doing business. This paper describes the escalating risk in Australian and International money transfers, and the need for a reconsideration of the prevention strategies that conceal the support for terrorist and criminal activities.