Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Profiling the Cybercriminal: A Systematic Review of Research

Bada, Maria, Nurse, Jason R. C. (2021) Profiling the Cybercriminal: A Systematic Review of Research. In: IEEE Cyber Science 2021 Conference, June 14-18, 2021. (doi:10.1109/CyberSA52016.2021.9478246) (KAR id:87945)

Abstract

As cybercrime becomes one of the most significant threats facing society today, it is of utmost importance to better understand the perpetrators behind such attacks. In this article, we seek to advance research and practitioner understanding of the cybercriminal (cyber-offender) profiling domain by conducting a rigorous systematic review. This work investigates the aforementioned domain to answer the question: what is the state-of-the-art in the academic field of understanding, characterising and profiling cybercriminals. Through the application of the PRISMA systematic literature review technique, we identify 39 works from the last 14 years (2006-2020). Our findings demonstrate that overall, there is lack of a common definition of profiling for cyber-offenders. The review found that one of the primary types of cybercriminals that studies have focused on is hackers and the majority of papers used the deductive approach as a preferred one. This article produces an up-to-date characterisation of the field and also defines open issues deserving of further attention such as the role of security professionals and law enforcement in supporting such research, as well as factors including personality traits which must be further researched whilst exploring online criminal behaviour. By understanding online offenders and their pathways towards malevolent behaviours, we can better identify steps that need to be taken to prevent such criminal activities.

Item Type: Conference or workshop item (Paper)
DOI/Identification number: 10.1109/CyberSA52016.2021.9478246
Uncontrolled keywords: cybersecurity, cybercrime, crime, attackers, profiling, situational awareness, criminal behaviour
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
K Law
Q Science > QA Mathematics (inc Computing science)
T Technology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Computing
Depositing User: Jason Nurse
Date Deposited: 06 May 2021 15:53 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Dec 2022 03:49 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/87945 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.