Abstract

The global geography of cybercriminal offenders is not well understood. Existing data on the subject are not well suited to establishing the true location of offenders, nor can they be scaled up to accurately compare rates of cybercrime across nations. We propose a novel approach to this problem: an expert survey with leading cybercrime investigators and intelligence professionals from across the world. In 2021 we asked 92 experts to nominate the countries they believe are the most significant sources of five different types of cybercrime, and then to rate the impact, technical skill, and professionalism of those crimes. This paper discusses the survey’s initial results, limitations, and future directions for the project.

Miranda Bruce is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford. She contributes to the CRIMGOV project, exploring the sociological and geographical elements of cybercrime. Her past research focused on the Internet of Things and its social implications, especially the use of social theory to rethink how humans and machines are connected. She was the lead editor of a Routledge collection on belonging, runs the UNSW Masters course on Cybercrime in Australia, and has developed and convened several advanced university courses.