Table of Contents
- Detection of Illicit Massage Businesses through Spatial and Socio-Demographic Data Enrichment
- Understanding and Disrupting the Formation of New Criminal Networks: The Case of Novel Illicit Drug Trafficking Operations
- CINA Research Partner FIU Awarded DHS SLA Grant for Infrastructure Resilience
- Understanding the Economy and Social Organization of the Underground Market for Cybercrime as a Service
- The CINA Team
- CINA Science Committee
- Research Partners
- Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA)
Also in this report:
Detection of Illicit Massage Businesses through Spatial and Socio-Demographic Data Enrichment
Illicit massage businesses (IMBs) across the United States offer illegal sex work under the guise of a legitimate massage business. Many of these establishments obtain their “workers” through a combination of sex and labor trafficking, simultaneously harming both the victims and the legitimate massage industry. CINA researchers have investigated images through image analysis as a computational method for classifying illicit and non-illicit massage businesses.
Through the development of interpretable risk prediction tools that automatically detect illicit business reviews, practitioners, law enforcement and investigators will be able to prioritize investigations of the most suspicious massage businesses. The results yielded from the research has created an advanced and novel image analysis classification technique that will benefit federal and state investigators as an effective approach for identifying illicit massage businesses and other illicit transnational criminal activity.
- Lead PI: Maria Mayorga PhD, North Carolina State University
- Co-PIs: Osman Ozaltin PhD, North Carolina State University, and Sherrie Caltagirone, Founder and Executive Director at the Global Emancipation Network
Understanding and Disrupting the Formation of New Criminal Networks: The Case of Novel Illicit Drug Trafficking Operations
CINA researchers have been working to better secure and manage air, land, and maritime borders. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach through stakeholder-engagement with law enforcement and federal investigators, the research team will work to develop network analytics to help practitioners identify interdictions and disrupt emerging threats from trafficking networks.
The research team will study illicit synthetic opioid trafficking networks from across different geographic scales to further their knowledge of local fentanyl distribution networks. These networks, at the county level, may form in ways that connect to the broader illicit opioid supply chain differently than traditional networks. The project will create algorithms for an interdiction problem to disrupt the network formation process more effectively. Additionally, the project will build the capacity of several USG agencies in disrupting emerging criminal networks and create stakeholder-based network analytics that can be used by DHS components.
- Lead PI: Thomas Sharkey, PhD, Clemson University
- Co-PI: Bryan Miller, PhD, Clemson University
CINA Research Partner FIU Awarded DHS SLA Grant for Infrastructure Resilience
Florida International University (FIU), a key research partner of the CINA center, has been awarded a prestigious Scientific Leadership Award (SLA) grant by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T). As one of the selected Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), FIU’s project is led by Dr. M. Hadi Amini through the ADvanced education and research for Machine learning-driven critical Infrastructure REsilience (ADMIRE) Center. This initiative focuses on bolstering infrastructure resilience using cutting-edge machine learning techniques.
Dr. Amini's team has a robust collaboration with the CINA center, contributing to projects like "Agent-based Learning to Utilize Local Data for Activity Recognition." The partnership was highlighted during MSI Week in June 2023, where the team led a workshop showcasing their innovative methods for detecting anomalous activities via video and camera data. CINA values this ongoing collaboration and looks forward to advancing national security through pioneering research efforts.
Understanding the Economy and Social Organization of the Underground Market for Cybercrime as a Service
Enhancing Crime Investigation Through Comprehensive Data Analysis
Technology-enabled crime is evolving rapidly, presenting significant challenges for investigators. HSE personnel need in-depth knowledge of these operations for effective disruption strategies. This research supports DHS by highlighting illicit online market behaviors and TCO dynamics.
The project provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of digital and physical goods markets on both the Open and Dark Web, focusing on historical data and market trends, vendor interactions, and payment systems. By employing qualitative and quantitative methods, this research analyzes product distribution, profits, and organizational behaviors, maps social networks to identify disruption points, and bridges the knowledge gap. It provides essential insights and training for HSE stakeholders.
- Lead PI: Thomas Holt, Michigan State University
CINA Technology Transfer of Innovative Research
The CINA Technology Transfer team is excited to announce the following U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funded CINA research efforts that have successfully been transferred or commercialized over the last few months.
- Dr. Arun Ross of Michigan State University, has commercialized the Morph Attack Detection, Latent Fingerprint Matching, and Presentation Attack Detection research with the Thales Group.
- Dr. Yubao Wu, Georgia State University, has initiated a startup to commercialize the research on Open-Source Intelligence in Online Stolen Data Markets - Assessment of Network Disruption Strategies capabilities and we’ll be following up in the coming months to learn more about his progress. Additionally,
- Dr. Robert Simon, George Mason University, is currently transferring research to DHS, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Cyber Crimes Center (C3) on Time Series Analysis of Anonymized Communication Channels.
Updates on each of these initial technology transfers and commercialization will be provided as the capabilities evolve.
The CINA Team
The Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis (CINA) Center is part of the prestigious network of DHS Centers of Excellence funded by the DHS Science and Technology Directorate’s Office of University Programs. Our staff brings together leading experts and researchers to pursue multidisciplinary approaches to address the disruption of criminal activities across the physical and cyber spaces.
CINA Science Committee
Research Partners
Multi-disciplinary research teams from across the country and the world partner with CINA to expand our research expertise and portfolio of services. These trusted and valued collaborators possess a shared focus on our collective mission.
To schedule a CINA capabilities briefing, project demo, or to obtain more information about CINA-sponsored events contact us at cina@gmu.edu
1. Arizona State University, AZ
5. California State University San Marcos, CA
6. Carnegie Mellon University, PA
10. East Carolina University, NC
11. Eastern New Mexico University, NM
12. Elizabeth City State University, NC
14. Fayetteville State University, NC
15. Florida International University, FL
16. George Mason University, VA
17. Georgia State University, GA
18. Jackson State University, MS
19. Jacksonville State University, AL
22. Louisiana State University, LA
23. Michigan State University, MI
24. Morgan State University, MD
25. New York City College of Technology, NY
26. North Carolina State University, NC
27. Northeastern University, MA
28. Pennsylvania State University, PA
30. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY
32. St. Joseph's University, PA
34. Sul Ross State University, TX
36. Texas A&M University Kingsville, TX
37. Trinity Washington University, DC
40. University of Baltimore, MD
41. University of California-Irvine, CA
42. University of Central Florida, FL
44. University of New Mexico, NM
45. University of North Texas, TX
46. University of Notre Dame, IN
47. University of Portsmouth (UK)
48. University of Texas at El Paso, TX
49. University of Texas at San Antonio, TX
50. University of the District of Columbia, D.C.
51. University of Washington, WA
52. University of Winchester (UK)
Basic Ordering Agreement
In addition to CINA research projects executed under our main Cooperative Agreement with DHS, the center also has a Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) with DHS which allows us to execute projects with classified or sensitive content, and to share data bidirectionally with DHS. The center has six active projects under this BOA, and the projects cover a range of issues including criminal disruptions of supply chains, cyber range development, and digital forensics training curriculum development. If you have a problem, need, or idea which may not fit into the center's main agreement for sensitivity, data sharing, or other reasons, please contact us and we'd be happy to discuss the potential and structure of a BOA project.
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