Biblio

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study on discussions about two major law enforcement interventions against Dark Net Market (DNM) users extracted from relevant Reddit forums. We assess the impact of Operation Hyperion and Operation Bayonet (combined with the closure of the site Hansa) by analyzing posts and comments made by users of two Reddit forums created for the discussion of Dark Net Markets. The operations are compared in terms of the size of the discussions, the consequences recorded, and the opinions shared by forum users. We find that Operation Bayonet generated a higher number of discussions on Reddit, and from the qualitative analysis of such discussions it appears that this operation also had a greater impact on the DNM ecosystem.

This tutorial will introduce participants to Grounded Theory, which is a qualitative framework to discover new theory from an empirical analysis of data. This form of analysis is particularly useful when analyzing text, audio or video artifacts that lack structure, but contain rich descriptions. We will frame Grounded Theory in the context of qualitative methods and case studies, which complement quantitative methods, such as controlled experiments and simulations. We will contrast the approaches developed by Glaser and Strauss, and introduce coding theory - the most prominent qualitative method for performing analysis to discover Grounded Theory. Topics include coding frames, first- and second-cycle coding, and saturation. We will use examples from security interview scripts to teach participants: developing a coding frame, coding a source document to discover relationships in the data, developing heuristics to resolve ambiguities between codes, and performing second-cycle coding to discover relationships within categories. Then, participants will learn how to discover theory from coded data. Participants will further learn about inter-rater reliability statistics, including Cohen's and Fleiss' Kappa, Krippendorf's Alpha, and Vanbelle's Index. Finally, we will review how to present Grounded Theory results in publications, including how to describe the methodology, report observations, and describe threats to validity.

This tutorial will introduce participants to Grounded Theory, which is a qualitative framework to discover new theory from an empirical analysis of data. This form of analysis is particularly useful when analyzing text, audio or video artifacts that lack structure, but contain rich descriptions. We will frame Grounded Theory in the context of qualitative methods and case studies, which complement quantitative methods, such as controlled experiments and simulations. We will contrast the approaches developed by Glaser and Strauss, and introduce coding theory - the most prominent qualitative method for performing analysis to discover Grounded Theory. Topics include coding frames, first- and second-cycle coding, and saturation. We will use examples from security interview scripts to teach participants: developing a coding frame, coding a source document to discover relationships in the data, developing heuristics to resolve ambiguities between codes, and performing second-cycle coding to discover relationships within categories. Then, participants will learn how to discover theory from coded data. Participants will further learn about inter-rater reliability statistics, including Cohen's and Fleiss' Kappa, Krippendorf's Alpha, and Vanbelle's Index. Finally, we will review how to present Grounded Theory results in publications, including how to describe the methodology, report observations, and describe threats to validity.