| Project Name: |
Cyberspace investigation technology using criminal profiling
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| Objective: |
This project aims to apply the concept of criminal profiling to the issue of cybercrime
within the cyberspace, targeting three prevalent types of cybercrimes: Internet piracy,
cyberstalking and online auction site fraud. In particular, the techniques of criminal
profiling will be applied. These techniques assist in correlating different online identities,
groups of users with social relationships, and multiple instances of online acts in order to
establish more accurate online criminal profiles. The major sources of the data for
creating the profiles will be popularized internet discussion forums and online auction
sites, where those cyber criminals devise and commit their crimes.
In recent years, online discussion forums have emerged to a cyberspace which virtually gathers a huge number people together, exchanging their ideas and resources. At a given
point in time, there may be as many as hundreds of thousands of people on a single
discussion forum. These forums also cultivate an excellent platform for cybercriminals. In
this project, one of the target groups is internet pirates, who publish copyrighted materials,
such as songs, movies, software and computer games on these forums. One credible
analysis by the Institute for Policy Innovation concludes that global music piracy causes
$12.5 billion of economic losses every year. As traditional street piracy is diminishing,
Internet piracy accounts for a major portion of the loss. Over years, lots of work has been
done on combating Internet piracy. However, the problem persists as new forms of
technology assisting Internet piracy emerged along the way. Among different available
online platforms, discussion forums are usually more preferable than others. To post a
thread on a discussion forum, a user merely needs to create an account with some
arbitrary information, which has no link to his or her real identity. In most cases, the
infringing materials would not be posted on the discussion forums directly. The actual
sharing may involve web lockers, BitTorrent or other technologies. For instance, the
person who posted the thread on the discussion forum may differ from the person who
uploaded the materials to the web locker. This chain of acts has created significant
difficulties in the investigation process.
Another type of targeted cybercrime is cyberstalking, which is also cultivated mostly on
online discussion forums or other social networking platforms. Stalking is a crime
characterized by a persistent and repeated pattern of pursuit and harassment.
Cyberstalking refers to the use of Internet for stalking and harassment behaviors. In the
first half of 2010, the Hong Kong Police Force recorded eight rape cases and sixteen
indecent assault cases in which the victims got to know the offenders through Internet
activities [PF10]. These figures are usually underreported. Apart from the online
discussion forums, we would target online auction sites where cybercriminals sell
counterfeit products. Online auction frauds also include goods ordered by customers are
not delivered as promised after payment is made, and conversely, online sellers fail to
receive any money after delivery is made to the buyer. In 2009, the Hong Kong Police
Force reported 402 cases of online commercial cases [SN10], which is 55% more than
those reported in 2008, a large portion of which were related to online auction frauds.
In these three types of prevalent cybercrimes, cybercriminals usually create multiple
accounts to establish fake impressions of their identity or credibility. It is complicated to
distinguish whether a single individual is responsible for a series of online acts or rather
that multiple individuals are involved. Also, the anonymous nature of the cyberspace
makes the investigation even harder. Therefore, the objective of this project is to apply the techniques of criminal profiling which facilitate the analysis of cyber criminals and the
investigation of these online crimes. By extracting the key behavioral characteristics and
the classification of different online users, accurate online user profiles could be
established. These profiles are expected to help understand the motivations and behaviors
of the cybercriminals on a meaningful level. It is believed that this project would
contribute towards assisting in cybercrime investigation and analysis in a way, which is
tangible, significant and would ultimately have a long term impact towards alleviation of
online crime in Hong Kong.
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| Project Duration : |
15 months |
Introduction