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Cybercrime

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A wide range of computer security threats exists—including faulty software, password trafficking and fraud, and hostile groups intending to inflict damage—and awareness of these threats varies. RAND has conducted research to measure and increase understanding of the impact of cybercrime on businesses and governments and has addressed such issues as the pros and cons of counterattack, the value of deterrence and vigilance, and actions that can be taken in the face of cyberattack.

Commentary
How Extremism Operates Online
Extremist groups use internet-based tools for financing, networking and coordination, recruitment and radicalization, inter- and intra-group knowledge transfer, and mobilization to action. How do internet users engage with these efforts? And can the internet be leveraged to counter extremism?
Apr 12, 2022
Report
Response Options to Cyberattacks on U.S. Government Networks
The United States has proved vulnerable to cyber incidents, and a lack of response has emboldened Russia and China to expand their cyber espionage activities. Have U.S. responses changed over time or affected adversary behavior? What lessons do these cases offer for future policymaking?
Apr 29, 2022

Explore Cybercrime

Commentary
Money, Markets, and Machine Learning: Unpacking the Risks of Adversarial AI
The consequences of ignoring the problem of adversarial attacks in algorithmic trading are potentially catastrophic. In a world increasingly reliant on machine learning models, the financial sector needs to shift from being reactive to proactive to ensure the security and integrity of our financial system.
Aug 31, 2023
Blog
The Wagner Revolt, Housing in L.A., Cyberstalking: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on the Wagner Group's power play against Russian leadership, how Truth Decay affects national security, why the U.S. legal system is underprepared to handle cyberstalking cases, and more.
Jun 30, 2023
Report
Cyberstalking: A Growing Challenge for the U.S. Legal System
As online platforms have multiplied, cyberstalking has become more prevalent. What are the most common or contrasting characteristics of federal cyberstalking cases? And what are the main challenges to prosecuting such cases?
Jun 29, 2023
Commentary
The Metaverse and Homeland Security: Opportunities and Risks of Persistent Virtual Environments
This Perspective provides an initial review of the metaverse concept and its relevance to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The authors map department objectives to key metaverse characteristics and identify areas for proactive efforts.
May 22, 2023
Report
Countering Domestic Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Terrorism on Social Media
Researchers developed the Racist and Violent Extremist Flock (RVE-Flock) tool to explore and analyze textual content and identify and understand emerging terms and their usage on racially and ethnically motivated violent extremist-affiliated social media. This guide explains and demonstrates the tool's functionality and suggests further applications and refinements.
Feb 23, 2023
Report
Managing Response to Significant Cyber Incidents: Comparing Event Life Cycles and Incident Response Across Cyber and Non-Cyber Events
This report examines U.S. structures and processes for non-cyber emergency management and whether U.S. officials can learn from these other incidents to help public and private sector stakeholders improve preparations for response to cyber incidents.
May 12, 2022
Report
Competition and Restraint in Cyberspace
Recent years have seen a mounting concern in the United States over foreign efforts to harm election security or legitimacy through cyber means, an increase in cyber espionage, and attacks of growing sophistication. How could international norms help constrain such destabilizing behavior in cyberspace?
Mar 4, 2022
Blog
RAND Commentary Highlights of 2021
Vaccine rollouts, an attack on the U.S. Capitol, massive ransomware attacks, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, record numbers of job openings and people quitting, and more. RAND researchers weighed in on all these topics and more.
Dec 21, 2021
Commentary
Understanding the Online Extremist Ecosystem
By the early 2010s, it was clear that the internet provided white supremacists and other extremists a tool to operationalize their hateful ideas and cause real-world harms. How can the average user understand their risk of exposure to extremist content and make informed decisions about the platforms they use?
Dec 2, 2021
Blog
Defunding Prisons, Preventing Cyberattacks, Promoting COVID-19 Vaccinations: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on defunding prisons, how to deter ransomware attacks, overcoming barriers to COVID-19 vaccination, and more.
Aug 13, 2021
Commentary
How to Deter Ransomware Attacks
To rein in ransomware attacks, the United States needs to upend the risk-reward ratio for hackers and for the countries that harbor or support them. Such a strategy would make networks harder to breach, hit back harder against hackers, and claw back gains from those who succeed.
Aug 9, 2021
Journal Article
COVID-19, Disinformation and Hateful Extremism: Literature Review Report
This report presents the findings of a literature review that explored the links between hateful extremism and false information, and identifies associated online interventions and policy responses.
Jul 14, 2021
Commentary
Is DarkSide Really Sorry? Is It Even DarkSide?
The U.S. military relies heavily on commercial energy assets, making the implications of events like the Colonial Pipeline outage more serious than just higher prices at the gas pump. The origins and severity of an attack dictate what the United States might do in response.
May 19, 2021
Journal Article
Mapping the Risk of Serious and Organised Crime Infiltrating Legitimate Businesses: Final Report
This report examines the infiltration of organized crime into legitimate European businesses, and its involvement in various illegal markets, including drugs and human trafficking.
Mar 23, 2021
Journal Article
Mapping the Risk of Serious and Organised Crime Infiltrating Legitimate Businesses: Technical Annexes
This annex provides a description of the cross-cutting data-collection activities that were undertaken to address the research questions and the major outputs of the study.
Mar 23, 2021
Journal Article
Systemic Cyber Risk and Aggregate Impacts
High-profile attacks illustrate the potential for systemic cyber risk. We estimate the aggregate economic impact of firm-specific attacks finding potential large losses from downstream propagations.
Feb 18, 2021
Brochure
Spotlight 2020–2021
Spotlight 2020-2021 features examples of our research that helped to improve people's lives during a turbulent year. It also highlights a selection of research initiatives on the horizon for 2021.
Jan 26, 2021
Report
The Future of Cybercrime in Light of Technology Developments
RAND Europe conducted a study to: 1. Analyse future technologies and how these could be used to commit or prevent cybercrimes. 2. Propose ways to prevent future technologies from being exploited for criminal purposes.
Dec 16, 2020

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RAND Topic:
Cybercrime

Topic Synonyms:
Computer Crime

Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Fook Nederveen

Senior Analyst

Fook Nederveen is a senior analyst at the RAND Corporation. His research mainly focuses on security and criminal justice. He is based in RAND’s Brussels office and has primarily worked on studies commissioned by the EU (including by DG HOME, DG JUST, DG CNECT, OLAF, EDA, and JRC) and the Dutch…
Jim Mignano

Assistant Policy Researcher, RAND

Jim Mignano is a Ph.D. student in the Technology Applications and Implications stream at the Pardee RAND Graduate School and an assistant policy researcher at RAND. His research is at the intersection of cyber, finance, and international relations. Jim's dissertation examines how financial…

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