Cybercrime

Reading assignments

The following papers are assigned reading for Cybercrime/R354, which should be read prior to the class indicated. Please contact the module instructors if you have any questions.

1. Introduction (26 January 2026)

   No set readings.

2. Cybercrime victimisation (2 February 2026)
   1. Grabosky, P. N. (2001). Virtual criminality: Old wine in new bottles? Social & Legal Studies, 10(2), 243-249.
   2. Woods, D. W., & Walter, L. (2022). Reviewing estimates of cybercrime victimisation and cyber risk likelihood. Proceedings of the IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW) (pp. 150-162).
   Optional additional reading:
   • Cohen, L. E. & Felson, M. (1979). Social change and crime rate trends: A routine activity approach. American Sociological Review, 44(4), 588-608.
3. Costs and harms of cybercrime (9 February 2026)
   1. Anderson, R., Barton, C., Böhme, R., Clayton, R., Gañán, C., Grasso, T., Levi, M., Moore, T., & Vasek, M. (2019). Measuring the changing cost of cybercrime. Workshop on Economics and Information Security (WEIS19), Boston, 3-4 June.
   2. Tcherni, M., Davies, A., Lopes, G., & Lizotte, A. (2016). The dark figure of online property crime: Is cyberspace hiding a crime wave? Justice Quarterly, 33(5), 890-911.
4. Criminal marketplaces (16 February 2026)
   1. van Wegberg, R., Tajalizadehkhoob, S., Soska, K., Akyazi, U., Ganan, C. H., Klievink, B., Christin, N., & van Eeten M. (2018). Plug and prey? Measuring the commoditization of cybercrime via online anonymous markets. Proceedings of the 27th USENIX Security Symposium. Baltimore, 15-17 August.
   2. Mirian, A., DeBlasio, J., Savage, S., Voelker, G. M., & Thomas, K. (2019). Hack for hire: Exploring the emerging market for account hijacking. Proceedings of the ACM World Wide Web Conference, San Francisco, 13-17 May.
   Optional additional readings:
   • Vu, A. V., Hughes, J., Pete, I., Collier, B., Chua, Y. T., Shumailov, I., & Hutchings, A. (2020). Turning up the dial: The evolution of a cybercrime market through set-up, stable, and COVID-19 eras. Proceedings of the ACM Internet Measurement Conference, Pittsburgh.
5. Cybercrime offenders and offender pathways (23 February 2026)
   1. Lusthaus, J. (2013). How organised is organised cybercrime? Global Crime, 14(1), 52-60.
   2. Collier, B., Clayton, R., Hutchings, A., & Thomas, D. R. (2021). Cybercrime is (often) boring: Infrastructure and alienation in a deviant subculture. British Journal of Criminology, 61(5), 1407-1423.
   Optional additional readings:
   • Hutchings, A. & Clayton, R. (2016). Exploring the provision of online booter services. Deviant Behavior, 37(10), 1163-1178.
6. Cybercrime prevention (2 March 2026)
   1. Brantingham, P. J., & Faust, F. L. (1976). A conceptual model of crime prevention. Crime & Delinquency, 22(3), 284-296.
   2. Vu, A. V., Collier, B., Thomas, D. R., Kristoff, J., Clayton, R., & Hutchings, A. (2025). Assessing the aftermath: The effects of a global takedown against DDoS-for-hire services. Proceedings of the USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security).
   Optional additional readings:
   • Hutchings, A., Clayton, R., & Anderson, R. (2016). Taking down websites to prevent crime. Electronic Crime Reseach (eCrime), Toronto, 1-3 June.
7. Regulation and policy (9 March 2026)
   1. Clayton, R., Moore, T., & Christin, N. (2015). Concentrating correctly on cybercrime concentration. Workshop on the Economics of Information Security, Delft.
   2. Abelson, H., Anderson, R., Bellovin, S. M., Benaloh, J., Blaze, M., Diffie, W., Gilmore, J., Green, M., Landau, S., Neumann, P. G., Rivest, R. L., Schiller, J. I., Schneier, B., Specter, M. A., & Weitzner, D. J. (2015). Keys under doormats: mandating insecurity by requiring government access to all data and communications. Journal of Cybersecurity, 1(1), 69-79.
8. Cybercrime and the criminal justice system (16 March 2024)
   1. Wall, D S. (2007). Policing cybercrimes: Situating the public police in networks of security within cyberspace. Police Practice and Research, 8(2), 183-205.
   2. Lee, J. R., Nam, Y., Lee, W. G., Holt, T. J., & Bossler, A. M. (2025). Police capacity for cybercrime response: Assessing the impact of officers’ perceptions and agency-level factors on England and Wales constables’ capability responding to computer hacking offenses. Journal of Criminal Justice, 101, 102541.