Craig Webber

Revaluating relative deprivation theory

This article reassesses the concept of relative deprivation and restates its relevance and potential to extend the theoretical boundaries of criminology. Rather than search for causes or attempting to determine the genesis of the problem in either individuals or social structures, relative deprivation can sensitize us to the process and emotion of crime, the fluidity of deviant activity and, as such, connects to the contemporary concerns of cultural and psychosocial criminology. The article is also intended to reacquaint criminologists with the work of W.G. Runciman, a leading theorist of relative deprivation. Runcimans work can be seen as an elaboration of Mertonian strain tradition.

Trust among cybercriminals? Carding forums, uncertainty and implications for policing

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, before the power of online social networking became apparent, several studies speculated about the likely structure of organised cybercrime. In the light of new data on cybercriminal organisations, this paper sets out to revisit their claims. This paper examines the structure of organised cybercrime by analysing data from online underground markets previously in operation over the Internet. In order to understand the various structures of organised cybercrime which have manifested, theories are drawn from social psychology, organised crime and transaction cost economics (TCE). Since the focus is on how uncertainty is mitigated in trading among cybercriminals, uncertainty is treated as a cost to the transactions and is used as the unit of analysis to examine the mechanisms cybercriminals use to control two key sources of uncertainty: the quality of merchandise and the identity of the trader. The findings indicate that carding forums facilitate organised cybercrime because they offer a hybrid form of organisational structure that is able to address sources of uncertainty and minimise transaction costs to an extent that allows a competitive underground market to emerge. The findings from this study can be used to examine other online applications that could facilitate the online underground economy.

Why forums?: an empirical analysis into the facilitating factors of carding forums

Over the last decade, the nature of cybercrime has transformed from naive vandalism to profit-driven, leading to the emergence of a global underground economy. A noticeable trend which has surfaced in this economy is the repeated use of forums to operate online stolen data markets. Using interaction data from three prominent carding forums: Shadowcrew, Cardersmarket and Darkmarket, this study sets out to understand why forums are repeatedly chosen to operate online stolen data markets despite numerous successful infiltrations by law enforcement in the past. Drawing on theories from criminology, social psychology, economics and network science, this study has identified four fundamental socio-economic mechanisms offered by carding forums: (1) formal control and coordination; (2) social networking; (3) identity uncertainty mitigation; (4) quality uncertainty mitigation. Together, they give rise to a sophisticated underground market regulatory system that facilitates underground trading over the Internet and thus drives the expansion of the underground economy.

Structural analysis of online criminal social networks

Over the last decade, a sophisticated underground economy has emerged over the Internet in which cybercriminals collaborate and trade different goods and services. This study takes a unique approach towards understanding the functioning of the underground economy by focusing on the social dynamics between the cybercriminals. Using anonymized private messaging records from four underground forums formerly operating as online black markets, this study aims to examine the structural properties of the networks of personal interactions between the cybercriminals and to turn the findings into actionable intelligence for tackling the problem of profit-driven cybercrime.

Background, foreground, foresight: The third dimension of cultural criminology?:

This article evaluates cultural criminology and argues that despite its utility in overcoming narrow technocratic empiricism it needs, first, more ethnographic research to support its theoretical material, and second, a firmer foundation for its definition of culture. These issues will be elucidated with reference to an ethnographic study of young people, where it will be further argued that the tendency to glamourize deviancy requires tempering with a dose of realism at the outcome of transgressive activity. The two-dimensional approach of attempting to overcome and integrate the foreground with the background needs to be joined with that of foresight.

Unpicking the privacy paradox: can structuration theory help to explain location-based privacy decisions?

Social Media and Web 2.0 tools have dramatically increased the amount of previously private data that users share on the Web; now with the advent of GPS-enabled smartphones users are also actively sharing their location data through a variety of applications and services. Existing research has explored peoples privacy attitudes, and shown that the way people trade their personal data for services of value can be inconsistent with their stated privacy preferences (a phenomenon known as the privacy paradox). In this paper we present a study into privacy and location sharing, using quantitative analysis to show the presence of the paradox, and qualitative analysis in order to reveal the factors that lie behind it. Our analysis indicates that privacy decision-making can be seen as a process of structuration, in that people do not make location-sharing decisions as entirely free agents and are instead heavily influenced by contextual factors (external structures) during trade-off decisions. Collectively these decisions may themselves become new structures influencing future decisions. Our work has important consequences both for the understanding of how users arrive at privacy decisions, and also for the potential design of privacy systems.

Buying unlicensed slimming drugs from the web: a virtual ethnography

The aim of this study was to describe and understand the purchase of unlicensed slimming drugs via the Web. This paper draws on social theory, specifically theories used within criminology to inform the analysis of Web purchasing of slimming medicines. Virtual ethnographic techniques, including non-participant observation of three Web forums were used, along with interviews with key stakeholders involved in medicines regulation in the UK. This paper presents the findings from a thematic analysis of text obtained from the forums. These indicate that particular aspects of The Web allow a new route to purchasing unlicensed medicine and appear to circumvent some of the threats and sanctions associated with illegal drug purchases. Accessibility is provided to those who previously would not have engaged in such activities. It is suggested that this may constitute a new method of conducting deviant behavior.

Discovering credit card fraud methods in online tutorials

Online underground forums allow for the sharing of up-to-date knowledge on how to optimally commit an online crime. Tutorials focusing on specific online crimes are commonplace and provide members of underground communities with all the information needed to engage in illicit transactions. In this article, tutorials that focus on the online process of cashing out stolen credit card details, i.e. carding, will be analysed. A crime script analysis will reveal the most common ways in which carding is executed. We found that if these paths are meticulously followed, interceptive opportunities are limited for law enforcement. Cases of deviation from these paths are not uncommon, which renders situational crime prevention measures less effective. As a potential solution, we propose the uptake of prospect theory as an analytical tool to account for deviations from the criminal optimal norm. In future work, such a method could better account for all the various ways in which fraudulent activity is committed and contribute to thinking about new preventive measures.

Hacktivism: a theoretical and empirical exploration of China's cyber warriors

China is frequently reported as the source of many politically motivated cyber-attacks. Yet, there have been very few studies on the people behind such attacks, also known as hacktivists. In this paper, we have taken a step back and studied some of the reasons behind the rise of freelance hacktivism emanating from China. Using various criminological theories, as well as political and sociological approaches, we propose a novel theoretical framework behind Chinese hacktivism. Furthermore, we present an empirical analysis on the membership growth patterns of online Chinese hacktivist forums and use the observed patterns to support our proposed framework.

Deviating From the Cybercriminal Script: Exploring Tools of Anonymity (Mis)Used by Carders on Cryptomarkets:

This work presents an overview of some of the tools that cybercriminals employ to trade securely. It will look at the weaknesses of these tools and how the behavior of cybercriminals will sometimes lead them to use tools in a nonoptimal manner, creating opportunities for law enforcement to identify and apprehend them. The criminal domain this article focuses on is carding, the online trade in stolen payment card details and the consequent criminal misuse of such data. However, these findings could be applied more broadly, as many of the analyzed tools are used across (cyber) criminal domains. This article is a continuation of earlier work, in which a crime script analysis of 25 carding tutorials presented the tools that cybercriminals use to cash-out stolen payment card details while remaining anonymous. We use these tutorials and an analysis of the literature to identify how they can be used incorrectly and create a typology of potential behavioral and technological pitfalls in these tools. Finally, we conclude that finding pitfalls in the usage of tools by cybercriminals has the potential to increase the efficiency of disruption, interception, and prevention approaches. However, in future work, interviews with law enforcement experts and convicted cybercriminals or still active users should be used to analyze the operational security of cybercriminals in more depth.