What impacts has the COVID-19 pandemic had on cybercrime offending, and how can knowledge of such impacts help to inform cybercrime prevention in the future?

Cyber Security Research Paper

This is a research exercise designed to assess your substantive knowledge of course content, relevant academic literature, and your ability to present and develop a cogent argument. The paper should be written in formal academic style and in correct, grammatical, and succinct English. The paper should be structured with an introduction that clearly sets out the essay argument, a body that builds the argument using evidence and examples, and a conclusion that integrates the arguments made and relates them back to the question.

Choose ONE of the following essay topics:

1. Cybercrime is both a technological issue and a human issue. How might technical solutions be blended with behavioural solutions to bring about the best forms of cybercrime prevention and control?

2. Choose one cybercrime (e.g., hacking; phishing; business email compromise; cyber fraud; piracy; trade in illegal goods; online exploitation of children; human trafficking; online harassment/stalking; revenge pornography; IP theft). Compare and contrast plausible influencing factors for committing this crime from the perspectives of two different social scientific theories.

3. What impacts has the COVID-19 pandemic had on cybercrime offending, and how can knowledge of such impacts help to inform cybercrime prevention in the future?

4. Radicalisation of youths by extremists of various ideologies is an ongoing concern for security agencies. What role does the Internet play in such radicalisation, and how can Australian security agencies better respond?

5. Should national security agencies be more concerned about, and focus their efforts on, cyber terrorism, offline terrorism, or both forms equally? Why?

6. Argue for or against the following statement: the Dark Web has been described both as “a haven from society-imposed norms” and “a pit of illicit endeavours.” Only the most serious criminal activity undertaken by organised crime groups via the Dark Web should be monitored and intercepted by authorities.

7. Argue for or against the following statement: the positive affordances that the digital age has brought to people’s lives do not outweigh the negative result of further enabling organised crime.

8. Does it make more sense to treat cyber warfare and cyber espionage as new phenomena, or extensions of conventional techniques?

9. Choose a recent disinformation campaign (e.g., COVID-19 misinformation; election interference in a given country). What might impact the success or failure of this campaign, and what can be done through cyber-based interventions to combat the disinformation at state, business, and individual levels?