A CRIMINOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE ILLICIT USE OF THE INTERNET OF - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

A CRIMINOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE ILLICIT USE OF THE INTERNET OF THINGS

GEORGE W. BURRUSS DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINOLOGY

Why would a criminologist be interested in IoT?

• IoT used as a vector for hacking, causing harm:

–Expose user data –Privacy violations/surveillance –Denial of service attacks

• Hackers using IoT likely involved in other illegal

activities

Areas of interest to a criminologist regarding IoT

• Offender motivations
• Victims’ routine activities
• Criminal opportunity structure
• Legal response (laws & regulations)
• Law enforcement (Cybersecurity) response

Offender Motivations and IoT

• Techniques of Neutralizations

–Deny the victim –Denial of injury

• Subcultural theory

–Hacker norms and expectations

• Social Learning

–Define use of IoT for crime as normative –Imitation and reinforcement

• Rational Choice and Deterrence

Offender Motivations and IoT

• Techniques of Neutralizations

–Deny the victim –Denial of injury

• Subcultural theory

–Hacker norms and expectations

• Social Learning

–Define use of IoT for crime as normative –Imitation and reinforcement

• Rational Choice and Deterrence

Offender Motivations and IoT

• Techniques of Neutralizations

–Deny the victim –Denial of injury

• Subcultural theory

–Hacker norms and expectations

• Social Learning

–Define use of IoT for crime as normative –Imitation and reinforcement

• Rational Choice and Deterrence

Offender Motivations and IoT

• Techniques of Neutralizations

–Deny the victim –Denial of injury

• Subcultural theory

–Hacker norms and expectations

• Social Learning

–Define use of IoT for crime as normative –Imitation and reinforcement

• Rational Choice and Deterrence

Offender Motivations and IoT

• Techniques of Neutralizations

–Deny the victim –Denial of injury

• Subcultural theory

–Hacker norms and expectations

• Social Learning

–Define use of IoT for crime as normative –Imitation and reinforcement

• Rational Choice and Deterrence

Victim’s online activities expose them to offenders

• Routine activities theory explores how daily patterns increase

likelihood of victimization

• We can examine the self-protective actions

people take and why?

Suitable Target Motivated Offender Lack of Guardianship

Victim’s online activities expose them to offenders

WWW

Password1!

• Routine activities theory explores how daily patterns increase

likelihood of victimization

• We can examine the self-protective actions

people take and why?

The legal, law enforcement, and cybersecurity response

• Criminologists examine the impact of laws and regulations
• n behavior
• Examine how criminal justice agencies respond (or not) to

cybercrime

• Need to understand how cybersecurity fits within traditional

response to criminal behavior

Criminologists study cybercrime through various methods

• Quantitative Analysis of available usage data
• Surveys of users, victims, and offenders
• Qualitative interviews of victims and offenders
• Natural experiments on policies and practices

In sum:

• IoT is but one aspect of cybercrime and

cybersecurity that presents an opportunity to study deviant and harmful online behaviors.

• Criminologist would benefit for partnering with

computer scientists and other technology experts to help develop theories and empirical studies of online behavior.