Cyber Crime and Cyber Terrorism

CHAPTER
101
9
Understanding the 
situational awareness in 
cybercrimes: case studies
Eleanor Lockley, Babak Akhgar 
INTRODUCTION
As already mentioned in chapters throughout this book (see Chapters 1, 3, 5, and 13) 
cybercrime and cyber terrorism are increasingly important concerns not only for pol-
icy makers, but also businesses and citizens. In many countries, societies have come 
to rely on cyberspace to do business, consume products and services or exchange 
information with others online. Between 2000 and 2012, the growth of Internet us-
ers has been estimated at 393.4% (World 
Internet Usage and Population Statistics, 
2012
). Yet, Khoo Boon Hui, former President of Interpol, announced in May 2012 
a figure of 
€
750 billion is lost globally per year due to cybercrime. Cybercrime not 
only costs money, it also jeopardizes critical infrastructures, citizens and businesses, 
as well as security, identity and privacy.
This chapter shows that a clearer understanding of the motivations and intentions 
behind cybercrimes/cyber terrorism can lead to clearer situational understanding. 
Furthermore, it provides frontline agencies (LEAs) with the capability to recognize 
and act on cybercrime and cyber terrorism situations through the design of a tax-
onomy model. Situational understanding and attack attribution of cybercrimes is one 
of the key problems defined by the 
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2009)
for cyber security research. In particular, situational understanding is critical for a 
number of reasons:
• Improved systems security
• Improved defense against future attacks
• Attack attribution
• Identification of potential threats
• Improved situational awareness
This chapter proposes that the lessons learnt from real-life scenarios can be used to 
create a knowledge repository which can support a clearer understanding and knowl-
edge framework for cybercrime. The prerequisite for a knowledge repository is the 
development of a taxonomy which will help to develop the situational understanding 
behind the cybercrimes.

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