DeepSec 2018 Talk: Without a Trace – Cybercrime, Who are the Offenders? – Edith Huber & Bettina Pospisil
Cybercrime is a worldwide and diverse phenomenon, which needs multidisciplinary and global prevention and intervention strategies. Regarding the situation in Austria, no evidence-based scientific analysis exists that depicts the bright field of Cybercrime. Therefore an interdisciplinary research group investigated the phenomenon cybercrime regarding the questions – Edith Huber and Bettina Prospisil will present their findings at DeepSec 2018.
We asked them a few questions about their talk:
Please tell us the top 5 facts about your talk.
We will talk about cybercrime, offender profiling, the typical modus operandi and successful methods to apprehend offenders.
How did you come up with it? Was there something like an initial spark that set your mind on creating this talk?
Cybercrime is a worldwide and diverse phenomenon, which needs multidisciplinary and global prevention and intervention strategies. Regarding the situation in Austria, no evidence-based scientific analysis exists that depicts the bright field of Cybercrime. Hence a research group planned study focuses on central questions:
- Who are the offenders and the victims?
- Which initiation and realisation strategies of Cybercrime can be identified?
- Which offender-structure can be found?
- Which investigation methods, performed by the police, can be identified as useful and what can be said about the further prosecution of the identified offenders?
Why do you think this is an important topic?
The topic is more topical than ever as the number of cyber attacks increases. Therefore, there is an urgent need to better understand the logic of crime in order to improve investigation methods.
Is there something you want everybody to know – some good advice for our readers maybe?
Cybercrime is by no means a purely technical phenomenon. It requires a legal, technical, sociological and psychological view. Criminology is still in its infancy here and must take this interdisciplinary approach into account.
A prediction for the future – what do you think will be the next innovations or future downfalls when it comes to your field of expertise / the topic of your talk in particular?
The exciting thing about cyberattacks is that you don’t know exactly what will come next. Probably the area of I-o-T [Internet of Things] and white-collar crime will increase in this context.
Edith Huber is a Senior Researcher in the field of Security Research. Her research focuses on Cyber Security, CERTs, Information Security, Communication, Cybercrime, Cyberstalking, New Media, Social Science and Criminology. In 2009, she received the federal security prize of Austria. She has a lot of publications and experience in international research projects.
Bettina Pospisil received the B.A. and also the M.A. degree in sociology from the University of Vienna (2014, 2017). In 2015 she was Research Assistant with the Institute of Instructional and School Development at the University of Klagenfurt and at the Institute for Information Management and Control at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Since 2017 she works as Junior Researcher in different KIRAS and FWF funded projects at the Faculty of Business and Globalization at the Danube University Krems. 2017 she and her colleague received the Innovation Award of the Danube University Krems for the project called “CERT-Kommunikation II”. By now Bettina Pospisil is the co-author of different papers and presented academic lectures at criminological and technical conferences. Her research interest includes the topics Cybersecurity and Crime Studies.