Towards Effective Cybercrime Intervention

TL;DR

This paper proposes a systematic framework to understand cyber threat actors' motivations and stages, aiming to develop effective interventions to reduce cybercrime and reintegrate offenders into society.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework analyzing threat actor motivations and stages to inform targeted cybercrime interventions.

Findings

Framework identifies key motivation factors of cyber threat actors.

Intervention strategies are formulated to discourage malicious activities.

Approach supports offender reintegration into society.

Abstract

Cybercrimes are on the rise, in part due to technological advancements, as well as increased avenues of exploitation. Sophisticated threat actors are leveraging on such advancements to execute their malicious intentions. The increase in cybercrimes is prevalent, and it seems unlikely that they can be easily eradicated. A more serious concern is that the community may come to accept the notion that this will become the trend. As such, the key question revolves around how we can reduce cybercrime in this evolving landscape. In our paper, we propose to build a systematic framework through the lens of a cyber threat actor. We explore the motivation factors behind the crimes and the crime stages of the threat actors. We then formulate intervention plans so as to discourage the act of committing malicious cyber activities and also aim to integrate ex-cyber offenders back into society.