Essentials in cybercrime

1 Introduction 13
Wytske van der Wagen, Jan-Jaap Oerlemans & Marleen Weulen Kranenbarg
1.1 Cybercrime as a new field in criminology 13
1.2 What is cybercrime? 14
1.3 Purpose of this book 17
1.4 Structure of this book 18

2 Cybercrime in a criminological perspective 21
Wytske van der Wagen, Marleen Weulen Kranenbarg & Jan-Jaap Oerlemans
2.1 Introduction 21
2.2 Cybercrime in a historical perspective 21
2.2.1 The period 1970-1989 22
2.2.2 The period 1990-1999 24
2.2.3 The period 2000-2009 24
2.2.4 The period 2010-2019 26
2.2.5 The period 2020 – present 28
2.3 Cybercrime in a theoretical perspective: the ‘old wine, new bottles’ discussion 32
2.3.1 The removal of barriers of time and space 33
2.3.2 Automation and amplification 34
2.3.3 Innovation and transformation 35
2.3.4 Social and commercial interconnectivity 35
2.3.5 Anonymity and fluidity of identity 36
2.3.6 Virtualisation and hybridisation 37
2.4 Cybercrime in a methodological perspective 38
2.4.1 Questionnaires and interviews 38
2.4.2 Online and offline participatory observation 44
2.4.3 Documents and registration data 50
2.4.4 General trends and developments in cybercrime research 57
2.5 To conclude 59
2.6 Discussion questions 59
2.7 Key concepts 60

3 Types of cyber-dependent crime and their criminalisation 63
Jan-Jaap Oerlemans, Wytske van der Wagen & Marleen Weulen Kranenbarg
3.1 Introduction 63
3.2 Cyber-dependent crime and its criminalisation 64
3.3 Computer hacking 65
3.3.1 Criminalisation 68
3.3.2 Ethical hacking 69
3.4 Malware 72
3.4.1 Info-stealers 73
3.4.2 Ransomware 74
3.4.3 Banking malware 77
3.4.4 Criminalisation 78
3.5 Botnet 81
3.5.1 Criminalisation 84
3.6 Ddos attack 85
3.6.1 Criminalisation 87
3.7 The role of social engineering in cybercrime 88
3.7.1 Six principles of persuasion 90
3.8 Future developments 91
3.8.1 Greater influence of state actors 91
3.8.2 The Internet of Things 92
3.9 To conclude 93
3.10 Discussion questions 94
3.11 Key concepts 94

4 Types of cyber-enabled crime and their criminalisation 97
Jan-Jaap Oerlemans, Anne de Hingh & Wytske van der Wagen
4.1 Introduction 97
4.2 The clear, the deep and the dark web 97
4.3 Online criminal marketplaces 100
4.3.1 Criminal marketplaces on the clear web 101
4.3.2 Darknet markets 104
4.3.3 Marketplaces on communication apps 108
4.3.4 Criminalisation 110
4.4 Money laundering with virtual currency 111
4.4.1 Regulation 112
4.4.2 Criminalisation 113
4.5 Online fraud 115
4.5.1 Criminalisation 118
4.6 Online sexual offences 119
4.6.1 Images of sexual abuse of minors 119
4.6.2 Sexting 123
4.6.3 Abuse of sexual imagery (‘revenge porn’) 124
4.6.4 Sextortion 127
4.6.5 Online grooming and sex chatting 129
4.7 Online expression offences 131
4.7.1 Freedom of expression vs. criminalisation 132
4.7.2 Criminalisation of online expressions 133
4.7.3 Removing illegal content 139
4.8 Future developments 141
4.8.1 AI and cyber-enabled crime 141
4.8.2 Crime in virtual reality and mixed reality worlds 141
4.9 To conclude 142
4.10 Discussion questions 143
4.11 Key concepts 143

5 Cyber offenders 145
Marleen Weulen Kranenbarg & Wytske van der Wagen
5.1 Introduction 145
5.2 Prevalence of and trends in cyber offending 146
5.3 Typologies of cyber offenders 149
5.3.1 Hacker taxonomies 149
5.3.2 General classifications of cyber offenders 152
5.4 Background characteristics of cyber offenders 152
5.4.1 Sociodemographic characteristics 153
5.4.2 Education, employment and leisure 157
5.4.3 Social network (offline and online) 161
5.4.4 Psychological characteristics and personality 162
5.5 Motivations 165
5.5.1 Intellectual motivations 165
5.5.2 Sensation-related motivations 166
5.5.3 Status-related motivations 166
5.5.4 Financial motivations 167
5.5.5 Revenge-related motivations 167
5.5.6 Ideological motivations 168
5.6 Contextual factors that play a role in cyber offending 169
5.6.1 Family context 169
5.6.2 School context 170
5.6.3 Social context (offline and online) 175
5.6.4 Legal context 177
5.6.5 Digital context 178
5.7 To conclude 180
5.8 Discussion questions 181
5.9 Key concepts 181

6 Cybercriminal networks 183
Rutger Leukfeldt, Robby Roks & Thomas Holt
6.1 Introduction 183
6.2 Is cybercrime organised crime? 184
6.2.1 The structure and organisation of cybercriminal networks 185
6.2.2 Violence and control by cybercriminal networks? 189
6.3 The embeddedness of cybercrime cooperation 190
6.3.1 The online embeddedness of cybercrime: digital meeting places 191
6.3.2 The local embeddedness of cybercrime cooperation 194
6.4 The hybridisation of (cyber)criminal cooperation(s) 196
6.5 To conclude 199
6.6 Discussion questions 200
6.7 Key concepts 201

7 Cybercrime victimisation 203
Susanne van ’t Hoff-de Goede & Rutger Leukfeldt
7.1 Introduction 203
7.2 Prevalence of victimisation 204
7.2.1 Citizens 204
7.2.2 Companies 207
7.3 Risk factors for victimisation 209
7.3.1 Citizens 209
7.3.2 Routine activities 209
7.3.3 Background characteristics 210
7.3.4 Online behaviour 213
7.3.5 Companies 214
7.4 Consequences of victimisation 217
7.4.1 Citizens 217
7.4.2 Companies 220
7.5 Fear of victimisation 221
7.6 To conclude 222
7.7 Discussion questions 224
7.8 Key concepts 225

8 Criminological theories and cybercrime 227
Marleen Weulen Kranenbarg & Wytske van der Wagen
8.1 Introduction 227
8.2 Classical criminological theories and their applicability to cybercrime 228
8.2.1 Opportunity and routine activity theory 228
8.2.2 Social control theory 233
8.2.3 Social learning theory 234
8.2.4 Neutralisation techniques 238
8.2.5 Strain theory 240
8.2.6 Labelling theory 242
8.3 Cyber criminological concepts and approaches 243
8.3.1 Online disinhibition 244
8.3.2 Digital drift 247
8.3.3 Affordance theory 249
8.3.4 Cyborg crime and actor-network theory 251
8.4 To conclude 253
8.5 Discussion questions 254
8.6 Key concepts 255

9 Cybercrime investigations 257
Jan-Jaap Oerlemans & Maša Galič
9.1 Introduction 257
9.2 Digital investigations and criminal procedure law 258
9.2.1 Regulating investigative methods 258
9.2.2 Jurisdiction and cybercrime 263
9.2.3 Mutual legal assistance 264
9.3 IP addresses as digital leads 271
9.3.1 Data production and preservation orders 273
9.3.2 Seizing and analysing data on computers 282
9.3.3 Network computer searches 286
9.4 The challenge of anonymity 288
9.4.1 Anonymisation techniques 288
9.4.2 Open-source investigations 290
9.4.3 Online undercover operations 293
9.5 The challenge of encryption 302
9.5.1 Encryption in storage 304
9.5.2 Encryption in transit 306
9.5.3 Hacking as an investigative method 307
9.6 Disrupting cybercrime 312
9.7 To conclude 313
9.8 Discussion questions 314
9.9 Key concepts 314

10 Interventions for cyber offenders 317
Elina van ’t Zand, Sifra Matthijsse, Tamar Fischer & Wytske van der Wagen
10.1 Introduction 317
10.2 Perspectives on interventions 318
10.2.1 Three approaches 318
10.2.2 Applicability of the approaches to cyber offenders 319
10.3 The rational choice approach 320
10.3.1 Deterrence and situational crime prevention 320
10.3.2 Reactive interventions in line with the rational choice approach 323
10.3.3 Preventive interventions in line with the rational choice approach 324
10.4 The Risk-Need-Responsivity approach 329
10.4.1 Risk-Need-Responsivity and effective treatment 329
10.4.2 Interventions in line with the What Works approach 330
10.5 The desistance approach 337
10.5.1 Why people stop offending 337
10.5.2 Interventions in line with the desistance approach 339
10.6 To conclude 345
10.7 Discussion questions 346
10.8 Key concepts 347

References 349
Index 429
Case Law 439
About the authors 445