Research conducted by an international team has pinpointed six regions where cyber crime activity is most concentrated, challenging the notion that such activities are highly fluid and mobile.
The findings suggest that cyber criminals tend to congregate in specific areas rather than scattered globally. An Australia-UK-French research collaboration highlighted Russia, Ukraine, China, the USA, Nigeria, and Romania as prominent hubs for cyber crime, with Australia ranked 34th on the list.
Dr. Miranda Bruce from UNSW Canberra emphasized the importance of the World Cybercrime Index in directing law enforcement and private sector efforts towards these “key cyber crime hubs.” According to her, this index aims to shed light on the anonymity surrounding cyber criminal activities, facilitating a more targeted approach in combating profit-driven cyber crime.
Professor Federico Varese of France’s Sciences Po likened cyber crime to other organized criminal activities, stressing the significance of understanding its specific contexts. The research involved interviews with 92 experts specializing in cyber crime intelligence and investigations, who identified countries based on various cyber crime parameters such as impact, professionalism, and technical expertise of cyber criminals.
Oxford University associate professor Jonathan Lusthaus highlighted the challenges in tracking cyber offenders who actively conceal their activities. The research team relied on input from experts familiar with cyber crime landscapes to map out the geographical distribution of cyber crimes, aiming to enable more effective responses from both public and private sectors.
Dr. Bruce emphasized the importance of ongoing data collection to monitor the evolution of cyber crime hotspots and potentially intervene early in countries at risk of developing serious cyber crime problems. Additionally, Professor Varese expressed the team’s intention to explore potential associations between national characteristics and cyber crime, such as educational attainment, internet penetration, GDP, or levels of corruption.
The research, published in the Plos One journal, was funded by EU-backed CRIMGOV, hosted at Oxford and Sciences Po. Other co-authors of the study include Oxford professor Ridhi Kashyap and Monash University’s Nigel Phair, three of whom had previously collaborated on a 2020 paper examining geographical cyber crime data.
