NESTA Crime Online - University of Brighton Repository

measure all other statistical outputs still remains a major issue in understanding
cybercrime. 9
Here are some of the conclusions provided by the main existing sources:
Trends on information security threats are published regularly by security firms in
what are generally named ‘white papers’ and technical reports, although they might be
better described as commercial intelligence bulletins. 10 These reports provide useful
updates on the latest threats and trends and are mainly oriented to their potential
clients – businesses and the public. Their statistics need to be read cautiously since they
will inevitably be shaped by different methodologies and may be linked to the marketing
of protection packages offered by the different security companies. This is also why
these reports often contradict each other. 11 Additionally, the accuracy of their statistics
has been questioned, not least as research that indicates exponential and dramatic
growth trends can do much to aid sales of security software. 12
Figures on victimisation are collected by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), 13
a joint operation between the FBI and the US's National White Collar Crime Center. 14 IC3
records international complaints about cybercrime, though most come from within the
US. In the UK, the National Fraud Reporting Centre (NFRC) is expected to become
operative during 2009, as part of the recently established Police Central e-Crime Unit
(PCeU). The NFRC will, in due course, offer a single contact centre for the public to
report all frauds, including those online.
include a classification scheme for recording the incidence of all forms of e-crime”. House of the Lords Science
and Technology Committee, ‘Personal Internet Security’, 5th Report of Session 2006–07.
9 Wall, D. (2007), Cybercrime: The Transformation of Crime in the Information Age, Polity Press, UK.
10 Some of the most widely quoted in the news and research papers include those from Symantec, Sophos,
MacAfee, Kaspersky, MessageLabs, Websense and Finjan. The term ‘white paper’ does not refer to a
government policy document.
11 For instance, Kaspersky report (2005) predicted the gradual change in type of attacks moving away from
targeting end users to direct attacks on sites and site owners with valuable information for cybercriminals.
Meanwhile, Finjan (2007) reported that the nature of cybercrime has changed dramatically in the last 10 years
and criminals have started targeting the user and not the system. Kaspersky (2005), ‘The Changing Threat:
from pranksters to professionals’; Finjan (2007), Web Security Trends Report - Q3/2007.
12 John Leyden, “Lies, damned lies and anti-virus statistics”, The Register, 16 th January 2002.
13 See www.ic3.gov.
14 See www.nw3c.org.
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