Cybercrimes against critical infrastructures: a study of online criminal organization and techniques

摘要

A nation's critical infrastructure (CI) includes those socio-economic entities (transportation, telecommunications, water supply systems) that are crucial to its everyday functioning and security. Technological proliferation has resulted in computerized and interconnected CIs, making them vulnerable to cybercrimes that compromise and/or steal sensitive data. This paper explores cybercrimes against CIs. It samples documents from government agencies, security firms, media sites, and hacker forums, from 1998 to 2008. It examines CI attacks along the characteristics of their frequency, scope, digital technique, and exploitation of system vulnerabilities, and creates a cybercriminal typology along the dimensions of motives, skills, resources, and organization.