This course introduces fundamental notions of cybercrime. Namely, what cybercrime is, the main questions surrounding cybercrime, how cybercrime can be defined, and how it can be studied. You will learn about the difficulties in measuring the occurrence, the frequency and the impact of cybercrime, and build a scepticism on the reliability and the interpretation of cybercrime reports. You will be introduced to discussion about human aspects of cybercrime, in particular, the actors related to cybercrime, that is, the criminals, the victims, and law enforcement.
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You will also learn about aspects such as personality, national and organisational culture, security culture, training, and other components which affect cybercriminal activity. Finally, you will dive into what is arguably the most important attack vector in cybercrime, that is, social engineering. You will gain an understanding of how it occurs, which techniques social engineers utilise, and which are the underlying psychological principles which make all of us – as humans – susceptible to social engineering attacks.
By the end of the course you should be able to:
• Reflect on the main questions related to cybercrime.
• Explain the meaning, definitions, importance, and impact of cybercrime.
• Assess the reliability and the interpretation of reports and surveys related to cybercrime.
• Identify the various classifications of cybercrime, the related threats, and threat actors.
• Explain the key role of human aspects in cybercrime.
• Differentiate between the various actors involved in cybercrime and their associated perspectives.
• Evaluate the underlying psychological principles which make social engineering the most successful attack vector in cybercrime.
• Describe how deception and social engineering manifest and how they can be defended against.
This course is part of the Cyber Security – Technology and Governance Specialization
Syllabus
Introduction to Cybercrime
In Week 1 we explain the concept of cybercrime and provide the various definitions of it. Some important cybercrime reports, surveys and guides (e.g. from Europol) are introduced. You will learn about cyber vs traditional crime and the threats that we face.
Cybercrime threats, actors and surveys
In this week we identify the approaches for classifying related crimes and threat actors and we discuss various reports and surveys on the manifestation, frequency and impact of cybercrime. We elaborate on the accuracy and the statistics of such reports and we compare and contrast traditional and cyber or online crime.
Humans and cybercrime
This week we explain the importance of human aspects in cybercrime. We look primarily at introducing the breadth of the offensive and criminal activity, the types of threats, and the crimes which are observed. We also discuss the various types of offenders, criminals and hackers, that is, the threat actors. We also discuss some of the big issues relating to cyber threats, at individual, organisational and national level.
Social engineering
In this week you will be introduced to social engineering in cybercrime that is as a manipulation technique where cyber criminals exploit human trust to obtain confidential information, enabling further cyber crimes. Using disguised communication such as emails or calls, they trick individuals into revealing passwords or personal details.
