Cyber Crime and Cyber Terrorism

102
CHAPTER 9
Understanding the situational awareness in cybercrimes
Leaning toward a sociological perspective, this chapter considers five pertinent 
cyber-crime cases and makes use of a taxonomical classification method to cluster 
these based on perceived intention/motivation of the attack. This chapter also makes 
use of 
Akhgar's (1999)
 concept of knowledge management—where knowledge is 
built upon a continuum of data which is first turned into information through an 
interpretation of the context using domain intelligence and then information into 
knowledge (which is an abstraction of the learning process).
To further support the need for a taxonomy for the situational understanding of 
cybercrime, the 
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2009)
 stresses a need for 
a “people layer knowledge” which consists of data outside networks and hosts (p. 
68). The taxonomy is developed with this in mind. The Department for Homeland 
Security roadmap for cyber security research report also highlights a need for 
analysis on:
repeated patterns of interaction that arise over the course of months or years, 
and unexpected connections between companies and individuals. These derived 
quantities should themselves be archived or, alternatively, be able to be easily 
reconstructed (
US Department of Homeland Security, 2009
, p. 70). Whilst also 
stressing that “situational understanding requires collection or derivation of rel-
evant data on a diverse set of attributes”
(
US Department of Homeland Security, 2009
, p. 73).
As it has been noted through this book, cybercrime has become an everyday prob-
lem for internet users. In 2012 in the US the 
Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
 
who partners with the FBI received 289,874 consumer complaints resulting in a total 
loss of over $500 million dollars. Clearly as well as companies, individuals across the 
globe are subject to cyber-related crime. There are multiple motivations for carrying 
out cybercrime: Moral, financial, political, for exploitation, self-actualization, and 
promotion, and these are outlined below.
However before outlining the case studies it is important to define cybercrime. 
For the purposes of this work, the Association of Chief Police Officer e-Crime 
Strategy definition of E-crime (2012) will be used: “The use of networked computers 
or internet technology to commit or facilitate the commission of crime.”
According to 
ACPO (2012):
The internet allows criminals to target potential victims from anywhere in the 
world, and enables mass victimization to be attempted with relative ease…The 
internet provides the criminal with a high degree of perceived anonymity, as well 
as creating jurisdictional issues that may impede rapid pursuit and prosecution 
of offenders. In addition there is not yet a clear distinction between issues that 
are best dealt with through better regulation and those that require law enforce-
ment action.