The current coronavirus pandemic has significantly disrupted all our societies and, we believe, it has also significantly disrupted cybercrime.
In the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre we collect crime-related datasets of many types and we expect, in due course, to be able to identify, measure and document this disruption. We will not be alone in doing so — a key aim of our centre is to make datasets available to other academic researchers so that they too can identify, measure and document. What’s more, we make this data available in a timely manner — sometimes before we have even looked at it ourselves!
When we have looked at the data and identified what might be changing (or where the criminals are exploiting new opportunities) then we shall of course be taking the traditional academic path of preparing papers, getting them peer reviewed, and then presenting them at conferences or publishing them in academic journals. However, that process is extremely slow — so we have decided to provide a faster route for getting out the message about what we find to be going on.
Our new series of “COVID Briefing Papers” are an ongoing series of short-form, open access reports aimed at academics, policymakers, and practitioners, which aim to provide an accessible summary of our ongoing research into the effects which the coronavirus pandemic (and government responses) are having on cybercrime. We’re hoping, at least for a while, to produce a new briefing paper each week … and you can now read the very first, where Ben Collier explains what has happened to illegal online drug markets… just click here!
Briefing Paper #2: “The Effect of the Coronavirus Pandemic on a Cybercrime Market: A Stimulation” is now available:
Briefing Paper #3: “The Impact of Lockdown on DoS-for-hire” is now available:
https://www.cambridgecybercrime.uk/COVID/
Briefing Paper #4: “Boredom, routine activities, and cybercrime during the pandemic” is now available:
https://www.cambridgecybercrime.uk/COVID/
Briefing Paper #5: “The Pandemic as Incels see it” is now available:
https://www.cambridgecybercrime.uk/COVID/
Briefing Paper #6: “Denial of Service Attacks during Lockdown: the role of Easter” is now available:
https://www.cambridgecybercrime.uk/COVID/
Briefing Paper #7: “DoS Attacks During Lockdown: Worldwide Data” is now available:
https://www.cambridgecybercrime.uk/COVID/
Thank you for your papers!
We have a four page submission to WPES based on a representative survey (according to prolific so ~~~) on concerns about sharing information. Would you like to add that to your compilation?