Characterizing eve: Analysing cybercrime actors in a large underground forum
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Publication Date
2018Journal Title
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Conference Name
RAID 2018: 21st International Symposium on Research in Attacks, Intrusions, and Defenses
ISSN
0302-9743
ISBN
9783030004699
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Volume
11050 LNCS
Pages
207-227
Type
Conference Object
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Pastrana, S., Hutchings, A., Caines, A., & Buttery, P. (2018). Characterizing eve: Analysing cybercrime actors in a large underground forum. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), 11050 LNCS 207-227. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00470-5_10
Abstract
Underground forums contain many thousands of active users, but the vast majority will be involved, at most, in minor levels of deviance. The number who engage in serious criminal activity is small. That being said, underground forums have played a significant role in several recent high-profile cybercrime activities. In this work we apply data science approaches to understand criminal pathways and characterize key actors related to illegal activity in one of the largest and longest- running underground forums. We combine the results of a logistic regression model with k-means clustering and social network analysis, verifying the findings using topic analysis. We identify variables relating to forum activity that predict the likelihood a user will become an actor of interest to law enforcement, and would therefore benefit the most from intervention. This work provides the first step towards identifying ways to deter the involvement of young people away from a career in cybercrime.
Sponsorship
Alan Turing Institute
Funder references
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/M020320/1)
Alan Turing Institute (DS_SDS_1718_4)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00470-5_10
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/284436
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Licence:
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