NESTA Crime Online - University of Brighton Repository

and facilitated by an explosion in connectivity due to the open and almost cost-free
exchange of information. 156
In technology-intensive industries, it has been suggested that the ability to govern often
rests in intangible competences (such as R&D and design) into which it is difficult for
other firms to break. 157 Inherent to cybercrime is the constant search of new
technologies for exploitation; however, this requires substantial investment in R&D,
training and human resources, which is where traditional organised crime may have a
significant role as investors.
Organised criminal groups are gradually diversifying from traditional criminal activities to
more lucrative and less risky e-crimes by co-opting a diverse array of technically
competent cybercriminals. Although traditional criminal organisations generally lack the
technical skills to generate crimeware, they have vast funds from traditional criminal
activities to recruit highly skilled individuals and pay for their services, even sponsoring
university degrees.
Organised crime syndicates are in a position to fund computer science courses at
university in return for cybercrime expertise after the course has finished. The chief
information security officer for a large multinational recently said: "[cybercrime rings]
have research and development programmes, they are putting people through
university, 158 they are calculating return on investment and they have better quality
assurance. By comparison, the legitimate security industry is under-funded, under-
resourced and constantly on the back foot." 159
The preliminary findings for this overview indicate that we can find examples of each of
these value chains for various segments of the cybercrime ‘industry’. In certain criminal
156 Gereffi, G., (2001): “Beyond the Producer-driven/Buyer-driven Dichotomy. The Evolution of Global Value
Chains in the Internet Era”, IDS Bulletin Vol 32 No 3 2001.
157 Kaplinsky R, and Morris M., (2001), A Handbook for Value Chain Research. International Development
Research Centre: Ottawa.
158 Interview with a Tamil who had been charged with credit card fraud.
159 Paul Simmonds of AstraZeneca, quoted in Marshall Kirkpatrick, (23 rd June 2008): Students: The New Hiring
Frontier Online, for Good and Evil. See:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/students_the_new_hiring_frontier.php.
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