Cybercrimeology

Notes: Irnasya Hadi explains how growing up with the internet, and being frustrated by the limited connection between critical criminology and cybercrime, drew her toward the study of cyber insecurity. The conversation turns to Indonesia and the difficulty of producing nationally representative cybercrime research in a country with a very large population, uneven internet access and uneven documen...

Notes : Dr. Bridgman discusses his path from Winnipeg to McGill and how he became involved with the Media Ecosystem Observatory while still a PhD student. The conversation turns to the origins of the Media Ecosystem Observatory during the 2019 Canadian federal election and how its work continued through the pandemic, the Hogue Commission and the growing focus on information ecosystem health in Can...

Notes: The conversation begins with his path into teaching public policy, despite never having planned a conventional academic career, and why translating technical subjects for non-technical students became rewarding work. He explains the importance of analogies and memorable language when communicating difficult concepts, noting that terms such as “security theatre” can help audiences quickly gr...

Notes: Cybercrime is often treated as a distinct phenomenon, but there are strong continuities with offline crime that are frequently overlooked. Digital technologies change behaviour and scale, but do not fundamentally alter the social dynamics underlying crime. There is a significant gap between the harms experienced by individuals and the institutions available to respond to those harms. Federa...

Notes: Dr Samuel Tanner began his doctoral research examining war crimes and armed militias involved in mass violence in the Balkans, conducting extensive fieldwork and interviews with participants on multiple sides of the conflict. A central puzzle of his PhD research was not denial of violence, but how individuals who acknowledged their participation struggled to explain how they came to commit...

Notes: Dr Bekkers describes his academic pathway from psychology to criminology and explains why his research focus has consistently been on offenders and their behaviour rather than on offences or technologies. Cybercrime offenders are often portrayed as a homogeneous group of highly skilled hackers, but research shows they are a heterogeneous population with distinct motivations, skills, and pat...

Notes: Julia Prümmer describes her transition from legal psychology into cybersecurity research and how psychological methods shape her approach to cybersecurity training. The discussion explores the role of systematic reviews in mapping what a research field actually knows, rather than relying on highly visible or frequently cited studies. Findings from a large-scale systematic review of cybersec...

otes: Melissa completed her PhD after two decades of operational work, bringing a pracademic perspective to cyber profiling and offender pathways. Her research focuses on understanding the human behind the keyboard through developmental history, motivation and lived experience. Initial motivations among hackers often centre on curiosity, challenge seeking and belonging rather than financial gain....

Episode Notes: Dr Ho describes an empirical research agenda focused on how security actually operates in organisations. He explains his experience with getting this research off the ground to allow them to perform the research in this setting. Study setting and scope: eight-month randomised controlled trial at UC San Diego Health involving ~19,500 employees and ten distinct phishing campaign lures...

Trigger warning: This episode includes discussion of suicide in the context of researching measurable predictive indicators and the lack thereof in the context of cyber.  Episode Notes Dr Caputo's path from social psychology to applied security, including intelligence analysis and building a behavioural-science team at MITRE. What MITRE is: a not-for-profit operating six federally funded R&D centr...

Show Notes: Daniëlle began her academic path in psychology, later moving into criminology through her interest in decision making and online behaviour. Her PhD research at NSCR focuses on  cybercriminal decision making , using honeypots and experiments in real online environments. Early experiments tested how different rewards affected access attempts on fake accounts. A major focus has been on th...

Episode Notes About our guest: Dr. Francesco Carlo Campisi PhD in Criminology, Université de Montréal Researcher, International Centre for Comparative Criminology 🔗  https://www.cicc-iccc.org/fr/personnes/etudiants-supervises/carlo-campisi 🔗  https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesco-carlo-campisi-aa3576125/ Topics discussed in this episode: From street gangs to digital deviance: a research trajecto...

About our guest: Dr. Iain Reid Senior Lecturer in Cybercrime University of Portsmouth https://www.port.ac.uk/about-us/structure-and-governance/our-people/our-staff/iain-reid   Topics discussed in this episode: How principles of military deception map onto cybersecurity Why the phrase  “the human is the weakest link”  oversimplifies risk What it’s like to research developer perspectives on secure s...

In this episode: How Estelle became involved in ransomware research between degrees The scale and origin of the ContiLeaks dataset Using machine learning and topic modelling to analyse criminal group communications What the internal chat data revealed about the organizational structure of Conti Surprising insights about roles, specializations, and tasking within a criminal enterprise Why making cy...

Notes: Paper mills are fraudulent commercial enterprises that fabricate scientific papers and sell authorship, citations, and other academic credentials—often at scale. Sarah Eaton and Sabina Alam first collaborated through COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) and later worked together in United2Act, an international initiative focused on tackling paper mills. The conversation draws parallels be...

Episode Notes: Dr. Reeves’ Background  – Trained as a psychologist, his interest in cybersecurity emerged from a talk connecting human error to security breaches. Cybersecurity Fatigue Defined  – A form of disengagement where employees lose motivation to follow security practices due to overload and conflicting advice. Not Just Apathy  – Fatigue often affects people who initially cared about cyber...

Episode Notes SMEs struggle with cybersecurity  due to time, cost, and lack of expertise, despite recognizing its importance. An automated cybersecurity scan  was developed to assess SME websites and email security without requiring them to opt-in. Physical reports were mailed  instead of emailed to avoid phishing concerns and increase credibility. Reports included security ratings  on ten key are...

Episode Summary (Dot Points) Understanding Cybercrime through Strain and Anomie Theories Dr. Dearden explains how  strain theory  and  anomie theory  provide insights into cybercriminal motivations. Discussion on  economic and social pressures  that push individuals toward cybercrime, including  unemployment, inequality, and lack of upward mobility . The Role of Honeypots in Cybercrime Research Ov...

Key Points Discussed: Defining Ethical Hacking:  Ethical hackers use their skills to identify and report vulnerabilities, often to enhance cybersecurity in various capacities, including voluntary work, bug bounty programs, or professional roles. Research Focus:  Dr. Weulen Kranenbarg’s studies highlight a significant overlap between positive and negative cyber behaviors, particularly among IT stud...

About Our Guest: Dr. Tom Holt https://cj.msu.edu/directory/holt-tom.html Key Topics Discussed: Dr. Tom Holt emphasized the urgent need for consistent and evidence-based cybercrime training in law enforcement, pointing out disparities in how local agencies handle these crimes. He highlighted the challenges agencies face in responding to cyber-enabled and cyber-dependent crimes, particularly in rura...

Episode Notes Episode Summary Introduction to Open Science  – Asier Moneva introduces open science, emphasizing transparency and replicability as essential to modern research. Importance of Transparency  – He explains how transparency builds trust, enabling other researchers to assess rigor and replicate findings accurately. Preregistration and Registered Reports  – Asier discusses these practices...

Episode Notes: The research focuses on analyzing the representation of passwords and cyber threats in films, particularly how password guessing and hacking scenes influence public perceptions of security. Movies both reflect societal attitudes towards cybersecurity and shape them, as many viewers learn about cyber behaviors through entertainment rather than formal education. The research indicates...

About our Guest : Judith Donath https://cyber.harvard.edu/people/jdonath Key Discussion Points : Understanding Signaling Theory: The foundation of signaling theory in communication. The balance between honest and deceptive signals. Evolutionary Biology and Communication: Darwin's insights on animal communication. Zahavi's Handicap Principle and its role in ensuring signal honesty. Maynard Smith's...

Notes: Background in Sociology : Dr. Miranda Bruce started in sociology, focusing on the dynamics of power and institutions. PhD Research : Her PhD explored the Internet of Things (IoT) using post-structuralist French theory to understand technological reality. Transition to Cybercrime : Transitioned from IoT research to a project on the geography of cybercrime, partnering with a local Australian...

Notes:   Dual Research Focus : Dr. Huey historically focused on policing and victimization, particularly in marginalized communities. Burnout and Shift : Burnout from trauma research led her to shift focus to applied policing research around 2012-2013. Economics of Policing : The federal government's focus on the costs of policing and the "economics of policing" initiative influenced her new resea...