Perceived Formal and Informal Sanctions in Deterring Cybercrime in a College Sample

The threat of formal sanctions is the criminal justice system’s primary tool to discourage online and offline deviant behavior. Yet, scholars have expressed strong concerns about the effectiveness of formal sanctions to deter cybercrime. Even more surprising is the sparsity of deterrence research in the cybercrime literature. This study examined the effects of perceived formal and informal sanctions on digital piracy, computer hacking, and online harassment in a large American college sample. Perceived formal sanctions was negatively correlated with software piracy, media piracy, password cracking, accessing accounts, sending mean messages privately online, and posting mean messages. Higher levels of perceived formal sanctions did not significantly predict any form of cybercrime, however, when controlling for informal sanctions and deviant peer associations. The implications of the findings for our ability to deter deviant behavior in cyberspace are explored.

Data for the People, by the People

This chapter assesses how citizens can take a more active role in using data for the public good through civic hacking, citizen science, and data justice initiatives. The 'Myq.ie' project, and the other Code for Ireland projects, are an example of civic hacking: citizens linking together practices of civic innovation with computer hacking to address local issues. In the case of Code for Ireland, members of the local community created their own data-driven apps using accessible datasets, and in some cases produced their own data as well, for other citizens to use. The work is altruistic, performed for the good of the community rather than to create a paid service, and is often undertaken over a number of months or years. Closely related to civic hacking is the practice of citizen science. Here, members of the public generate data and undertake analysis on an ongoing basis to better understand a local phenomenon, or to contribute to a wider scientific study.

Examining the Role of Power-Control Theory and Self-Control to Account for Computer Hacking

Criminological inquiry consistently identifies a gender difference in offending rates, which are also evident among certain forms of cybercrime. The gender difference in cybercrime offending is particularly large within computer hacking, though few have specifically addressed this issue through applications of criminological theory. The current study attempted to account for the gender disparity in hacking through a test of power-control theory, which considers the role of class and family structure. This analysis also incorporated an extension of power-control theory through the influence of low self-control. Using data from the Second International Self-Report of Delinquency study (ISRD-2), logistic regression analyses were estimated, producing partial support for both theories to account for hacking. Implications for theory and research were explored in detail.

Assessing the Role of Opportunity and Low Self-Control in Juvenile Hacking

Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory of crime argues individuals with low self-control are more likely to engage in crime on and off-line. There is less research considering the role of opportunity, as low self-control should increase individuals’ willingness to act on opportunities to offend. The importance of opportunity is distinct for cybercrime, as technology access may be differentially impacted by various demographic factors. This study surveyed 1,411 South Australian adolescents enrolled at secondary schools across a large metropolitan region to examine the relationships between opportunity and self-control for four forms of computer hacking. A series of binary logistic regression models illustrated that distinct opportunity factors and low self-control are associated with each form of hacking.

Use of a Multitheoretic Model to Understand and Classify Juvenile Computer Hacking Behavior

Criminological inquiry has identified a range of risk factors associated with juvenile delinquency. However, little research has assessed juvenile computer hacking, despite the substantial harm and opportunities for delinquent behavior online. Therefore, understanding the applicability of criminological risk factors among a cross-national sample of juvenile hackers is important from a theoretical and applied standpoint. This study aimed to address this gap using a logistic regression and latent class analysis (LCA) of risk factors associated with self-reported hacking behavior in a sample of more than 60,000 juveniles from around the globe. Results demonstrated support for individual- and structural-level predictors of delinquency, although distinct risk factors for hacking among three subtypes are identified in the LCA. This study examines criminological risk factors for juvenile hacking in a cross-national sample and provides insight into the distinct risk factors of hacking, so more tailored prevention and treatment modalities can be developed.

How to Attack a Disconnected Computer

This poster presents how a disconnected computer, that has no network access, can be attacked to retrieve data. Air-gapped devices are thought to be an impenetrable setup because the device is disconnected from the network and cannot be reached by an attacker. Therefore, an infected airgapped computer cannot affect others around it preventing any potential information leaks. People believe/assume that leaking information from an air-gapped machine is impossible. This research effort invalidates this assumption by exploring possible covert channels to get data from victim machines. We take advantage of a hidden acoustic channel that employs the computer speakers and a tiny audio recording device to communicate sensitive data over inaudible near-ultrasonic signals. Data stored on this device can then be processed and displayed as useful information on the attacker’s computer. Hacking methods and the search for new system exploits are being continuously developed and new techniques to obtain data unlawfully are on the rise. Therefore, this work alerts organizations regarding potential threats that they typically ignore by assuming that air-gapped systems are safe. In the past, security researchers have not devoted sufficient time and effort to innovate counter measures for such niche but capable attacks. Spreading awareness is one of the main objectives of this project. This is done by demonstrating that data can be stolen from an ‘air-gapped’ computer, by using methods that people neglect to consider when coming up with plans to protect their computers from attackers. An experiment, such as this, will hopefully push the security field researchers and developers to explore the uncommon methods of unlawful data acquisition and their prevention.

Hacking Adaptation: Updating, Porting, and Forking the Shakespearean Source Code

This essay proposes that computer hacking can provide us with an appropriate framework through which to rethink the basic workings of adaptation in general and Shakespeare adaptation in particular in the twenty-first century. Building on the work of Thomas Leitch and Sarah Cardwell in adaptation studies and Christopher Kelty in the anthropology of the hacker movement, the essay positions itself as an alternative to Douglas Lanier’s model of the Shakespeare rhizome. The central argument is that understanding Shakespeare’s works as source code, and adaptations of them as hacks of that source code, as well as sources of future hacks, makes it possible to account for and work with the difficult but crucial notions of the source and of fidelity, while resolving many of the theoretical, practical, and political problems which motivated scholars to avoid or try to overcome those notions in the past.

10. Substantive criminal law provisions

This chapter examines the provisions of the Council of Europe’s Convention on Cybercrime to determine the major headings under which computer-related conduct might be prosecuted and to analyse the effectiveness of UK legislation in the field. The focus is on offences against the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of computer data and systems, which essentially refers to computer hacking and to attempts to impair the operation of computer systems through interception of communications, the promulgation of viruses, or the launching of denial of service attacks. The chapter discusses also the law on computer-related fraud and forgery.

A Novel Solution to Academic Publishing

Scientists have complained about the inconsistency and politics of academic publishing for hundreds of years. Among the explanations offered are that evaluators lack time and use shortcuts, that they lack the expertise to judge things properly, that they can't put aside personal biases and we must hide the names of authors, and that they are conscientious instead of creative and cannot judge new ideas. All of these are actually wrong. As a literary analyst, I spent the last ten years independently studying this same problem in book and movie production. I've found that the human decision-making apparatus doesn't work the way we think, and the solutions based on this misunderstanding could never have solved the problem. In this paper, we present the first method that actually can, which is a technique adapted from computer hacking, as well as a new view of how our brains make choices.

A Novel Solution to Academic Publishing

Scientists have complained about the inconsistency and politics of academic publishing for hundreds of years. Among the explanations offered are that evaluators lack time and use shortcuts, that they lack the expertise to judge things properly, that they can't put aside personal biases and we must hide the names of authors, and that they are conscientious instead of creative and cannot judge new ideas. All of these are actually wrong. As a literary analyst, I spent the last ten years independently studying this same problem in book and movie production. I've found that the human decision-making apparatus doesn't work the way we think, and the solutions based on this misunderstanding could never have solved the problem. In this paper, we present the first method that actually can, which is a technique adapted from computer hacking, as well as a new view of how our brains make choices.