Career Choice Tip: Cybercrime is Mostly Boring
Summary: Researchers at Cambridge University's Cybercrime Centre examined botnets, DDoS-for-hire services, underground forums and malware-as-a-service offerings, and concluded that most of the work supporting these illicit economies is routine maintenance and customer support rather than sophisticated activity. Co-author Richard Clayton said the common portrayal of cybercrime as lucrative and exciting does not match the experience of most people involved, and the paper argues that messaging which emphasizes the tedious, low-skilled, low-paid nature of the work may be more effective at dissuading participants than messaging focused on technical skill and money.
What's compelling: The paper argues that takedowns and enforcement create repetitive setup work for administrators, and that the prevailing law-enforcement message about skilled, high-earning actors may feed the aspiration that draws people in rather than deter them.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
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