Exploring the Intersections of Technology, Crime, and Terror

Tackling cyber-terrorism: Balancing surveillance with counter-communication

“…Even before the recent Arab Spring, the connection between IT and cultural transformation in the Middle East was clearly recognized (Bailey and Grimaila, 2006). Today, financial institutions, private industry and governments have come to rely on such technology to manage sensitive data and critical infrastructure, inevitably exposing themselves to the threat posed by cyber-criminals, extremist groups and terrorist organizations (Post et al, 2000;Holt, 2012). This opens up an important debate about the optimal balance between the currently dominant defence strategies focused on online surveillance, which are supposed to aid user identification, and the less popular strategies focused on online communication, which are aimed at limiting the impact of terrorist propaganda and networking in cyberspace.…”

Website defacement and routine activities: considering the importance of hackers’ valuations of potential targets

“…As exemplified by this attack, website defacement, or the replacement of a website's original content with one's own content, is a relatively simple form of hacking with potentially severe consequences (Holt 2009(Holt , 2012. Although hackers have found numerous ways to deface websites, with varying degrees of complexity, the most common method is via SQL injection (Trend Micro 2019).…”

Criminal Careers in Cyberspace: Examining Website Failure within Child Exploitation Networks

“…Despite the challenges of research in online settings, cybercrime research also provides unique opportunities for innovations in research designs and contributions to the field as a whole. For example, websites and online discussion forums with illegal material emerged as a new object of criminological inquiry providing unique insights into illegal markets operating online (Holt, 2012(Holt, , 2013, how online subcultures around deviant interests form, evolve, and disappear (Decary-Hetu & Dupont, 2012;Holt, 2007;Jordan & Taylor, 1998), how the logic deterrence may apply online (Maimon et al, 2014), or how the existence of the Web changes the practices of criminal networks and groups such as street gangs (Moule, Pyrooz, & Decker, 2014;Pyrooz, Decker, & Moule, 2015). In some cases, like ours, longitudinal data can be collected in real time, as opposed to retroactively.…”