Topic: Fake news
Published:
2026
- DetailsCampanile, L., Iacono, M., Mastroianni, M., Riccio, C., & Viscardi, B. (2026). A TOPSIS-Based Approach to Evaluate Alternative Solutions for GDPR-Compliant Smart-City Services Implementation [Conference paper]. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 15893 LNCS, 303–316. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-97645-2_20
Abstract
Adapting or designing a system which operates on personal data in EU is impacted by the privacy-by-design and privacy-by-default principles because of the prescriptions of the GDPR. In this paper we propose an approach to decision making which is based on TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution). The approach is applied to a GDPR system compliance design process, based on a case study about system performance evaluation by means of queuing networks, but is absolutely general with respect to analogous problems, in which cost issues should be balanced with technical performances and risk exposure. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.
2025
- DetailsMarulli, F., Campanile, L., Ragucci, G., Carbone, S., & Bifulco, M. (2025). Data Generation and Cybersecurity: A Major Opportunity or the Next Nightmare? [Conference paper]. Proceedings of the 2025 IEEE International Conference on Cyber Security and Resilience, CSR 2025, 969–974. https://doi.org/10.1109/CSR64739.2025.11130069
Abstract
In recent years, the proliferation of synthetic data generation techniques-driven by advances in artificial intelli-gence-has opened new possibilities across a wide range of fields, from healthcare to autonomous systems, by addressing critical data scarcity issues. However, this technological progress also brings with it a growing concern: the dual-use nature of synthetic data. While it offers powerful tools for innovation, it simultaneously introduces significant risks related to information disorder and cybersecurity. As AI systems become increasingly capable of producing highly realistic yet entirely fabricated content, the boundaries between authentic and artificial information blur, making it more difficult to detect manipulation, protect digital infrastructures, and maintain public trust. This work undertakes a preliminary exploration of the evolving nexus between Generative AI, Information Disorder, and Cybersecurity: it aims to investigate the complex interplay among these three and to map their dynamic interactions and reciprocal influences, highlighting both the potential benefits and the looming challenges posed by this evolving landscape. Moreover, it seeks to propose a conceptual framework for assessing these interdependencies through a set of indicative metrics, offering a foundation for future empirical evaluation and strategic response. © 2025 IEEE.
2024
- DetailsBook Chapter Combining Federated and Ensemble Learning in Distributed and Cloud Environments: An Exploratory StudyMarulli, F., Campanile, L., Marrone, S., & Verde, L. (2024). Combining Federated and Ensemble Learning in Distributed and Cloud Environments: An Exploratory Study [Book chapter]. Lecture Notes on Data Engineering and Communications Technologies, 203, 297–306. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57931-8_29
Abstract
Conventional modern Machine Learning (ML) applications involve training models in the cloud and then transferring them back to the edge, especially in an Internet of Things (IoT) enabled environment. However, privacy-related limitations on data transfer from the edge to the cloud raise challenges: among various solutions, Federated Learning (FL) could satisfy privacy related concerns and accommodate power and energy issues of edge devices. This paper proposes a novel approach that combines FL and Ensemble Learning (EL) to improve both security and privacy challenges. The presented methodology introduces an extra layer, the Federation Layer, to enhance security. It uses Bayesian Networks (BNs) to dynamically filter untrusted/unsecure federation clients. This approach presents a solution for increasing the security and robustness of FL systems, considering also privacy and performance aspects. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024. - DetailsCampanile, L., De Fazio, R., Di Giovanni, M., & Marulli, F. (2024). Beyond the Hype: Toward a Concrete Adoption of the Fair and Responsible Use of AI [Conference paper]. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 3762, 60–65. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85205601768&partnerID=40&md5=99140624de79e37b370ed4cf816c24e7
Abstract
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a fast-changing technology that is having a profound impact on our society, from education to industry. Its applications cover a wide range of areas, such as medicine, military, engineering and research. The emergence of AI and Generative AI have significant potential to transform society, but they also raise concerns about transparency, privacy, ownership, fair use, reliability, and ethical considerations. The Generative AI adds complexity to the existing problems of AI due to its ability to create machine-generated data that is barely distinguishable from human-generated data. Bringing to the forefront the issue of responsible and fair use of AI. The security, safety and privacy implications are enormous, and the risks associated with inappropriate use of these technologies are real. Although some governments, such as the European Union and the United States, have begun to address the problem with recommendations and proposed regulations, it is probably not enough. Regulatory compliance should be seen as a starting point in a continuous process of improving the ethical procedures and privacy risk assessment of AI systems. The need to have a baseline to manage the process of creating an AI system even from an ethics and privacy perspective becomes progressively more important In this study, we discuss the ethical implications of these advances and propose a conceptual framework for the responsible, fair, and safe use of AI. © 2024 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
2022
- DetailsCampanile, L., Cesarano, M., Palmiero, G., & Sanghez, C. (2022). Break the Fake: A Technical Report on Browsing Behavior During the Pandemic [Conference paper]. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, 309, 573–586. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3444-5_49
Abstract
The widespread use of the internet as the main source of information for many users has led to the spread of fake news and misleading information as a side effect. The pandemic that in the last 2 years has forced us to change our lifestyle and to increase the time spent at home, has further increased the time spent surfing the Internet. In this work we analyze the navigation logs of a sample of users, in compliance with the current privacy regulation, comparing and dividing between the different categories of target sites, also identifying some well-known sites that spread fake news. The results of the report show that during the most acute periods of the pandemic there was an increase in surfing on untrusted sites. The report also shows the tendency to use such sites in the evening and night hours and highlights the differences between the different years considered. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. - DetailsConference A Federated Consensus-Based Model for Enhancing Fake News and Misleading Information DebunkingMarulli, F., Verde, L., Marrore, S., & Campanile, L. (2022). A Federated Consensus-Based Model for Enhancing Fake News and Misleading Information Debunking [Conference paper]. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, 309, 587–596. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3444-5_50
Abstract
Misinformation and Fake News are hard to dislodge. According to experts on this phenomenon, to fight disinformation a less credulous public is needed; so, current AI techniques can support misleading information debunking, given the human tendency to believe “facts” that confirm biases. Much effort has been recently spent by the research community on this plague: several AI-based approaches for automatic detection and classification of Fake News have been proposed; unfortunately, Fake News producers have refined their ability in eluding automatic ML and DL-based detection systems. So, debunking false news represents an effective weapon to contrast the users’ reliance on false information. In this work, we propose a preliminary study aiming to approach the design of effective fake news debunking systems, harnessing two complementary federated approaches. We propose, firstly, a federation of independent classification systems to accomplish a debunking process, by applying a distributed consensus mechanism. Secondly, a federated learning task, involving several cooperating nodes, is accomplished, to obtain a unique merged model, including features of single participants models, trained on different and independent data fragments. This study is a preliminary work aiming to to point out the feasibility and the comparability of these proposed approaches, thus paving the way to an experimental campaign that will be performed on effective real data, thus providing an evidence for an effective and feasible model for detecting potential heterogeneous fake news. Debunking misleading information is mission critical to increase the awareness of facts on the part of news consumers. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
2021
- DetailsCampanile, L., Cantiello, P., Iacono, M., Lotito, R., Marulli, F., & Mastroianni, M. (2021). Applying Machine Learning to Weather and Pollution Data Analysis for a Better Management of Local Areas: The Case of Napoli, Italy [Conference paper]. International Conference on Internet of Things, Big Data and Security, IoTBDS - Proceedings, 2021-April, 354–363. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85135227609&partnerID=40&md5=5a7c117fa01d0ba8d779b0e092bc0f63
Abstract
Local pollution is a problem that affects urban areas and has effects on the quality of life and on health conditions. In order to not develop strict measures and to better manage territories, the national authorities have applied a vast range of predictive models. Actually, the application of machine learning has been studied in the last decades in various cases with various declination to simplify this problem. In this paper, we apply a regression-based analysis technique to a dataset containing official historical local pollution and weather data to look for criteria that allow forecasting critical conditions. The methods was applied to the case study of Napoli, Italy, where the local environmental protection agency manages a set of fixed monitoring stations where both chemical and meteorological data are recorded. The joining of the two raw dataset was overcome by the use of a maximum inclusion strategy as performing the joining action with”outer” mode. Among the four different regression models applied, namely the Linear Regression Model calculated with Ordinary Least Square (LN-OLS), the Ridge regression Model (Ridge), the Lasso Model (Lasso) and Supervised Nearest Neighbors Regression (KNN), the Ridge regression model was found to better perform with an R2 (Coefficient of Determination) value equal to 0.77 and low value for both MAE (Mean Absolute Error) and MSE (Mean Squared Error), equal to 0.12 and 0.04 respectively. © 2021 by SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications, Lda. - DetailsMarulli, F., Balzanella, A., Campanile, L., Iacono, M., & Mastroianni, M. (2021). Exploring a Federated Learning Approach to Enhance Authorship Attribution of Misleading Information from Heterogeneous Sources [Conference paper]. Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, 2021-July. https://doi.org/10.1109/IJCNN52387.2021.9534377
Abstract
Authorship Attribution (AA) is currently applied in several applications, among which fraud detection and anti-plagiarism checks: this task can leverage stylometry and Natural Language Processing techniques. In this work, we explored some strategies to enhance the performance of an AA task for the automatic detection of false and misleading information (e.g., fake news). We set up a text classification model for AA based on stylometry exploiting recurrent deep neural networks and implemented two learning tasks trained on the same collection of fake and real news, comparing their performances: one is based on Federated Learning architecture, the other on a centralized architecture. The goal was to discriminate potential fake information from true ones when the fake news comes from heterogeneous sources, with different styles. Preliminary experiments show that a distributed approach significantly improves recall with respect to the centralized model. As expected, precision was lower in the distributed model. This aspect, coupled with the statistical heterogeneity of data, represents some open issues that will be further investigated in future work. © 2021 IEEE.
2026
- DetailsCampanile, L., Iacono, M., Mastroianni, M., Riccio, C., & Viscardi, B. (2026). A TOPSIS-Based Approach to Evaluate Alternative Solutions for GDPR-Compliant Smart-City Services Implementation [Conference paper]. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 15893 LNCS, 303–316. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-97645-2_20
Abstract
Adapting or designing a system which operates on personal data in EU is impacted by the privacy-by-design and privacy-by-default principles because of the prescriptions of the GDPR. In this paper we propose an approach to decision making which is based on TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution). The approach is applied to a GDPR system compliance design process, based on a case study about system performance evaluation by means of queuing networks, but is absolutely general with respect to analogous problems, in which cost issues should be balanced with technical performances and risk exposure. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2026.
2025
- DetailsMarulli, F., Campanile, L., Ragucci, G., Carbone, S., & Bifulco, M. (2025). Data Generation and Cybersecurity: A Major Opportunity or the Next Nightmare? [Conference paper]. Proceedings of the 2025 IEEE International Conference on Cyber Security and Resilience, CSR 2025, 969–974. https://doi.org/10.1109/CSR64739.2025.11130069
Abstract
In recent years, the proliferation of synthetic data generation techniques-driven by advances in artificial intelli-gence-has opened new possibilities across a wide range of fields, from healthcare to autonomous systems, by addressing critical data scarcity issues. However, this technological progress also brings with it a growing concern: the dual-use nature of synthetic data. While it offers powerful tools for innovation, it simultaneously introduces significant risks related to information disorder and cybersecurity. As AI systems become increasingly capable of producing highly realistic yet entirely fabricated content, the boundaries between authentic and artificial information blur, making it more difficult to detect manipulation, protect digital infrastructures, and maintain public trust. This work undertakes a preliminary exploration of the evolving nexus between Generative AI, Information Disorder, and Cybersecurity: it aims to investigate the complex interplay among these three and to map their dynamic interactions and reciprocal influences, highlighting both the potential benefits and the looming challenges posed by this evolving landscape. Moreover, it seeks to propose a conceptual framework for assessing these interdependencies through a set of indicative metrics, offering a foundation for future empirical evaluation and strategic response. © 2025 IEEE.
2024
- DetailsBook Chapter Combining Federated and Ensemble Learning in Distributed and Cloud Environments: An Exploratory StudyMarulli, F., Campanile, L., Marrone, S., & Verde, L. (2024). Combining Federated and Ensemble Learning in Distributed and Cloud Environments: An Exploratory Study [Book chapter]. Lecture Notes on Data Engineering and Communications Technologies, 203, 297–306. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57931-8_29
Abstract
Conventional modern Machine Learning (ML) applications involve training models in the cloud and then transferring them back to the edge, especially in an Internet of Things (IoT) enabled environment. However, privacy-related limitations on data transfer from the edge to the cloud raise challenges: among various solutions, Federated Learning (FL) could satisfy privacy related concerns and accommodate power and energy issues of edge devices. This paper proposes a novel approach that combines FL and Ensemble Learning (EL) to improve both security and privacy challenges. The presented methodology introduces an extra layer, the Federation Layer, to enhance security. It uses Bayesian Networks (BNs) to dynamically filter untrusted/unsecure federation clients. This approach presents a solution for increasing the security and robustness of FL systems, considering also privacy and performance aspects. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024. - DetailsCampanile, L., De Fazio, R., Di Giovanni, M., & Marulli, F. (2024). Beyond the Hype: Toward a Concrete Adoption of the Fair and Responsible Use of AI [Conference paper]. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, 3762, 60–65. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85205601768&partnerID=40&md5=99140624de79e37b370ed4cf816c24e7
Abstract
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a fast-changing technology that is having a profound impact on our society, from education to industry. Its applications cover a wide range of areas, such as medicine, military, engineering and research. The emergence of AI and Generative AI have significant potential to transform society, but they also raise concerns about transparency, privacy, ownership, fair use, reliability, and ethical considerations. The Generative AI adds complexity to the existing problems of AI due to its ability to create machine-generated data that is barely distinguishable from human-generated data. Bringing to the forefront the issue of responsible and fair use of AI. The security, safety and privacy implications are enormous, and the risks associated with inappropriate use of these technologies are real. Although some governments, such as the European Union and the United States, have begun to address the problem with recommendations and proposed regulations, it is probably not enough. Regulatory compliance should be seen as a starting point in a continuous process of improving the ethical procedures and privacy risk assessment of AI systems. The need to have a baseline to manage the process of creating an AI system even from an ethics and privacy perspective becomes progressively more important In this study, we discuss the ethical implications of these advances and propose a conceptual framework for the responsible, fair, and safe use of AI. © 2024 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
2022
- DetailsCampanile, L., Cesarano, M., Palmiero, G., & Sanghez, C. (2022). Break the Fake: A Technical Report on Browsing Behavior During the Pandemic [Conference paper]. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, 309, 573–586. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3444-5_49
Abstract
The widespread use of the internet as the main source of information for many users has led to the spread of fake news and misleading information as a side effect. The pandemic that in the last 2 years has forced us to change our lifestyle and to increase the time spent at home, has further increased the time spent surfing the Internet. In this work we analyze the navigation logs of a sample of users, in compliance with the current privacy regulation, comparing and dividing between the different categories of target sites, also identifying some well-known sites that spread fake news. The results of the report show that during the most acute periods of the pandemic there was an increase in surfing on untrusted sites. The report also shows the tendency to use such sites in the evening and night hours and highlights the differences between the different years considered. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. - DetailsConference A Federated Consensus-Based Model for Enhancing Fake News and Misleading Information DebunkingMarulli, F., Verde, L., Marrore, S., & Campanile, L. (2022). A Federated Consensus-Based Model for Enhancing Fake News and Misleading Information Debunking [Conference paper]. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, 309, 587–596. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3444-5_50
Abstract
Misinformation and Fake News are hard to dislodge. According to experts on this phenomenon, to fight disinformation a less credulous public is needed; so, current AI techniques can support misleading information debunking, given the human tendency to believe “facts” that confirm biases. Much effort has been recently spent by the research community on this plague: several AI-based approaches for automatic detection and classification of Fake News have been proposed; unfortunately, Fake News producers have refined their ability in eluding automatic ML and DL-based detection systems. So, debunking false news represents an effective weapon to contrast the users’ reliance on false information. In this work, we propose a preliminary study aiming to approach the design of effective fake news debunking systems, harnessing two complementary federated approaches. We propose, firstly, a federation of independent classification systems to accomplish a debunking process, by applying a distributed consensus mechanism. Secondly, a federated learning task, involving several cooperating nodes, is accomplished, to obtain a unique merged model, including features of single participants models, trained on different and independent data fragments. This study is a preliminary work aiming to to point out the feasibility and the comparability of these proposed approaches, thus paving the way to an experimental campaign that will be performed on effective real data, thus providing an evidence for an effective and feasible model for detecting potential heterogeneous fake news. Debunking misleading information is mission critical to increase the awareness of facts on the part of news consumers. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
2021
- DetailsCampanile, L., Cantiello, P., Iacono, M., Lotito, R., Marulli, F., & Mastroianni, M. (2021). Applying Machine Learning to Weather and Pollution Data Analysis for a Better Management of Local Areas: The Case of Napoli, Italy [Conference paper]. International Conference on Internet of Things, Big Data and Security, IoTBDS - Proceedings, 2021-April, 354–363. https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85135227609&partnerID=40&md5=5a7c117fa01d0ba8d779b0e092bc0f63
Abstract
Local pollution is a problem that affects urban areas and has effects on the quality of life and on health conditions. In order to not develop strict measures and to better manage territories, the national authorities have applied a vast range of predictive models. Actually, the application of machine learning has been studied in the last decades in various cases with various declination to simplify this problem. In this paper, we apply a regression-based analysis technique to a dataset containing official historical local pollution and weather data to look for criteria that allow forecasting critical conditions. The methods was applied to the case study of Napoli, Italy, where the local environmental protection agency manages a set of fixed monitoring stations where both chemical and meteorological data are recorded. The joining of the two raw dataset was overcome by the use of a maximum inclusion strategy as performing the joining action with”outer” mode. Among the four different regression models applied, namely the Linear Regression Model calculated with Ordinary Least Square (LN-OLS), the Ridge regression Model (Ridge), the Lasso Model (Lasso) and Supervised Nearest Neighbors Regression (KNN), the Ridge regression model was found to better perform with an R2 (Coefficient of Determination) value equal to 0.77 and low value for both MAE (Mean Absolute Error) and MSE (Mean Squared Error), equal to 0.12 and 0.04 respectively. © 2021 by SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications, Lda. - DetailsMarulli, F., Balzanella, A., Campanile, L., Iacono, M., & Mastroianni, M. (2021). Exploring a Federated Learning Approach to Enhance Authorship Attribution of Misleading Information from Heterogeneous Sources [Conference paper]. Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks, 2021-July. https://doi.org/10.1109/IJCNN52387.2021.9534377
Abstract
Authorship Attribution (AA) is currently applied in several applications, among which fraud detection and anti-plagiarism checks: this task can leverage stylometry and Natural Language Processing techniques. In this work, we explored some strategies to enhance the performance of an AA task for the automatic detection of false and misleading information (e.g., fake news). We set up a text classification model for AA based on stylometry exploiting recurrent deep neural networks and implemented two learning tasks trained on the same collection of fake and real news, comparing their performances: one is based on Federated Learning architecture, the other on a centralized architecture. The goal was to discriminate potential fake information from true ones when the fake news comes from heterogeneous sources, with different styles. Preliminary experiments show that a distributed approach significantly improves recall with respect to the centralized model. As expected, precision was lower in the distributed model. This aspect, coupled with the statistical heterogeneity of data, represents some open issues that will be further investigated in future work. © 2021 IEEE.