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Criminals: Cybercriminals

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Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management

Definition

Cybercriminals commit or support criminal acts in a digital world. These acts can be classified as either digital-focused crimes, where a criminal act has emerged as result of technology, or digital-assisted crimes, where a criminal has used technology in a supporting capacity to commit a criminal act.

Introduction

Industry reports indicate that cybercriminals continue to target organizations around the world. The PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC 2018) Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey indicated that a third of all respondents had been a target for cybercriminals. The survey also reported that a quarter of the respondents were victims of digital extortion or had suffered from asset misappropriation during the last year. These increases come at a great financial cost. The 2017 Ponemon Cost of Cybercrime report estimated that the financial losses from criminal enterprise cost organizations an average of $11.7 million in 2017, an increase of 23% since the previous year and a...

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References

Further Reading

  • Casey, E. (2011). Digital evidence and computer crime: Forensic science, computers, and the internet. Academic. Waltham, MA, USA.

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  • Rogers, M. K. (2011). The psyche of cybercriminals: A psycho-social perspective. In Cybercrimes: A multidisciplinary analysis (pp. 217–235). Springer. Berlin, Heidelberg.

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  • Smith, R., Grabosky, P., & Urbas, G. (2004). Cyber criminals on trial. Criminal Justice Matters, 58(1), 22–23.

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Correspondence to George Grispos .

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Grispos, G. (2019). Criminals: Cybercriminals. In: Shapiro, L., Maras, MH. (eds) Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_80-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69891-5_80-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69891-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69891-5

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