1st Edition

Cyberspace, Data Analytics, and Policing

By David Skillicorn Copyright 2022
274 Pages 24 B/W Illustrations
by Chapman & Hall

274 Pages 24 B/W Illustrations
by Chapman & Hall

274 Pages 24 B/W Illustrations
by Chapman & Hall

Cyberspace is changing the face of crime. For criminals it has become a place for rich collaboration and learning, not just within one country; and a place where new kinds of crimes can be carried out, and a vehicle for committing conventional crimes with unprecedented range, scale, and speed. Law enforcement faces a challenge in keeping up and dealing with this new environment. The news is not... Read more

Preface 
List of Figures 
List of Tables 


Introduction 


Cyberspace
2.1 What is cyberspace? 
2.2 The impact of cyberspace 
2.3 Identity and authentication 
2.4 Encryption 
2.5 Crime is changing
2.6 Policing is changing 

New opportunities for criminality 
3.1 Unprecedented access to information 
3.2 Crimes directed against cyberspace 
3.2.1 Malware 
3.2.2 Crimes of destruction 
3.2.3 Monetized cybercrimes 
3.2.4 Data theft crimes 
3.2.5 Secondary markets 
3.3 Crimes that rely on cyberspace 
3.3.1 Spam, scams, and cons 
3.3.2 Financial crime 
3.3.3 Online shopping 
3.3.4 Crimes against children 
3.4 Crimes done differently because of cyberspace 
3.4.1 Disseminating hatred 
3.4.2 Selling drugs 
3.4.3 Stalking and crime preparation 
3.4.4 Digital vigilantes 
3.5 Money laundering
3.5.1 Cash 
3.5.2 The financial system 
3.5.3 International money laundering 
3.5.4 Cryptocurrencies 
3.6 Overlap with violent extremism 

New ways for criminals to interact 
4.1 Criminal collaboration 
4.2 Planning together 
4.3 Information sharing 
4.3.1 Sharing techniques
4.3.2 Sharing resources 
4.3.3 Sharing vulnerabilities 
4.4 International interactions


Data analytics makes criminals easier to find
5.1 Understanding by deduction 
5.2 Understanding by induction 
5.3 Subverting data analytics
5.4 Intelligence-led policing 
5.5 Hot spot policing 
5.5.1 Place 
5.5.2 Time 
5.5.3 Weather 
5.5.4 People involved 
5.5.5 Social network position 
5.6 Exploiting skewed distributions 

Data collection
6.1 Ways to collect data 
6.2 Types of data collected 
6.2.1 Focused data 
6.2.2 Large volume data 
6.2.3 Incident data 
6.2.4 Spatial data 
6.2.5 Temporal data 
6.2.6 Non-crime data 
6.2.7 Data fusion 
6.2.8 Protecting data collected by law enforcement
6.3 Issues around data collection 
6.3.1 Suspicion 
6.3.2 Wholesale data collection 
6.3.3 Privacy 
6.3.4 Racism and other -isms 
6.3.5 Errors 
6.3.6 Bias 
6.3.7 Sabotaging data collection 
6.3.8 Getting better data by sharing

Techniques for data analytics 
7.1 Clustering 
7.2 Prediction 
7.3 Meta issues in prediction 
7.3.1 Classification versus regression 
7.3.2 Problems with the data 
7.3.3 Why did the model make this prediction? 
7.3.4 How good is this model?
7.3.5 Selecting attributes
7.3.6 Making predictions in stages 
7.3.7 Bagging and boosting 
7.3.8 Anomaly detection
7.3.9 Ranking
7.3.10 Should I make a prediction at all? 
7.4 Prediction techniques 
7.4.1 Counting techniques 
7.4.2 Optimization techniques 
7.4.3 Other ensembles
7.5 Social network analysis 
7.6 Natural language analytics 
7.7 Making data analytics available 
7.8 Demonstrating compliance 

Case studies
8.1 Predicting crime rates 
8.2 Clustering RMS data 
8.3 Geographical distribution patterns 
8.4 Risk of gun violence 
8.5 Copresence networks 
8.6 Criminal networks with a purpose 
8.7 Analyzing online posts 
8.7.1 Detecting abusive language 
8.7.2 Detecting intent 
8.7.3 Deception 
8.7.4 Detecting fraud in text 
8.7.5 Detecting sellers in dark-web marketplaces 
8.8 Behavior – detecting fraud from mouse movements 
8.9 Understanding drug trafficking pathways 

Law enforcement can use interaction too
9.1 Structured interaction through transnational organizations 
9.2 Divisions within countries 
9.3 Sharing of information about crimes 
9.4 Sharing of data 
9.5 Sharing models 
9.6 International issues 


Summary
Index 

Biography

David B. Skillicorn is a professor at the School of Computing, Queen's University, Canada.