Organizations and cyber crime: An analysis of the nature of groups engaged in cyber crime

Roderic Broadhurst, Peter Grabosky, Mamoun Alazab, Steve Chon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

128 Citations (Scopus)
237 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper explores the nature of groups engaged in cyber crime. It briefly outlines the definition and scope of cyber crime, theoretical and empirical challenges in addressing what is known about cyber offenders, and the likely role of organized crime groups. The paper gives examples of known cases that illustrate individual and group behaviour, and motivations of typical offenders, including state actors. Different types of cyber crime and different forms of criminal organization are described drawing on the typology suggested by McGuire (2012). It is apparent that a wide variety of organizational structures are involved in cyber crime. Enterprise or profit-oriented activities, and especially cyber crime committed by state actors, appear to require leadership, structure, and specialisation. By contrast, protest activity tends to be less organized, with weak (if any) chain of command.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-20
Number of pages20
JournalInternational Journal of Cyber Criminology
Volume8
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Publisher 2014. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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