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I am currently studying psychology and sociology at the local college and I have 5 degrees in network administration, programming, user support and network security. My question is this, do any of you see the potential use of a computer criminal profiler? Is this a field in which you think would benefit the security community, law enforcement and government?
Hi leviathan59,
Well..there does seem to be some talk about it....
http://www.thiemeworks.com/write/arc...leprofiler.htmQuote:
Let's talk about computer crime in a way that builds on that work. You have said that serial killers often taunt their adversaries, which makes them visible. But there are spies like Aldrich Ames who seem to have had extraordinary discipline, so whatever ego-type needs they gratified did not require a public display. They strike me as the most dangerous people on the other side.
Absolutely. People who don't need to say, "Look at how good I am" to someone else are the criminals who pose the greatest threat, regardless of their specialty. That kind of restraint happens to be unusual with criminal hackers or crackers. Most of these people seem to have a need to boast about their latest conquest on a listserv.
My guess is that, as technology becomes less expensive, more powerful and more pervasive, we'll start to see "the Hannibal Lecters of cybercrime."
ThiemeWorks - Profile of a Profiler
http://www.corpus-delicti.com/fs_boo...ors_1sted.htmlQuote:
Eoghan Casey is currently a full partner, Instructor, and Educational Technology Developer with Knowledge Solutions LLC. In his courses, he teaches individuals to investigate crimes that involve computer networks and to use the Internet as an investigative tool. Through Knowledge Solutions, he consults on criminal cases that involve computers, networks, and the Internet. He is also a System Security Administrator for Yale University, where he investigates computer intrusions, cyberstalking reports, and other computer-related crimes, and assists in the research and implementation of university wide security solutions.
Criminal Profiling / © 1996 - 2002 Knowledge Solutions LLC
Eg ;)
Hello,
leviathan59
That is a hard one to call :) I am sure that you could write one hell of a book, and make a fair amount of money in the process.
I am not sure of the practicalities though? it is a bit like profiling a car thief? As I see things, profiling comes into its own in psyco-criminology (hey! I just invented a new word for you :D ). When it comes down to the more mundane criminal activities, it is of less practical relevance?
My recommendations would be to think about the book. As part of your research, approach the law enforcement agencies and get their views. Please don't forget Interpol, and New Scotland Yard over here and the RCMP in Canada.
As I see it, profiling is more suitable for individuals.................skiddies run in herds?
Cheers :)
SourceQuote:
According to the RCMP, there is no real hacker profile anymore, due to the proliferation of computers over the last decade. However, the stereotypical profile apparently is not entirely defunct. The teenager from the South Shore who made headlines last January following his arrest on suspicion of hacking into several high-profile organizations (including NASA) conforms perfectly with the "bored, dysfunctional male loner between the ages of 15 and 25 with an unhappy family life" profile formerly used by the Mounties.
Hi all,
I've been curious about that psychosocial motivations and profile of hackers, too. However, I haven't found anything published regarding that.
leviathan59, if you are planning to do a dissertation on the subject, you won't be the first but I can't see any credible reference as of yet. However, you might be interested in the approach used by a study along similar lines but concerning terrorists. Check out:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/..._Terrorism.pdf
it might be useful.
Good luck!
http://www.antionline.com/showthread...898#post848898
That about sums it up...
What you need to remember though is that this mainly applies to anyone you see jumping around, tossing the H word around. You see kids doing that... I myself on the other hand have never met a fellow criminal who really did that outside the contexts of a joke or insult. Either way it'll always fallow the general path of what I've said in the thread above though.
But then agian, take a good look at "criminal profiling" in action. Lets take The-Rev as an example. He used to come on AO-IRC when it was around. The conversations where your average tech-support garbage which you'd normally expect on the board instead. Then t3h l33t h4x0r profiler known as JP would have stuff like this to say about him...
Haha...Quote:
Internationally famous hacker profiler, JP Vranesonuvavich has ridiculed the FBI for incorrectly blaming Pimpshiz and The-Rev as being the Deceptive Duo. "Having applied my advanced ' hacker profiling techniques ' I was able to conclusively prove that the 'Dell Dude' and 'Dumb Bimbo' were in fact the Deceptive Duo. I have in fact photographic evidence. The attached picture shows the Deceptive Duo making their getaway following a recent ' drive by hacking ' of a commercial computer retailer establishment. I have not yet identified the older black gentleman that they were seen plotting with "I am by no means a criminal psychologist, or a behavioral scientist. What I'm going to describe in this special report is based on over 6 years of studying the "underground", and from talking with well over 7,000 different hackers " crowed JP. " In order to help the law enforcement community do better 'hacker profiling' I am making available copies of my patented ' hacker profiling techniques ' online...
A good book to read on this is one written by Kevin D. Mitnick: The Art of Deception. He was a hacker who then turned it around and now he uses "his talents and the extensive
knowledge he gathered about information security and social engineering tactics to helping government, businesses, and individuals prevent, detect, and respond to information-security threats" (Kevin Mitnick - The art of deception). If you read that book you might get a better understanding of how their (hackers) psychology works. By the way it is a good book.
P.S. If you want it, i have it in PDF format. :)
I'm afraid you've missed the boat on this one. In the UK we already have such specialisits. Only recently, MI5 had a full page Ad looking to recruit computer security professionals. This is the very first time that I have seen such an Ad from the UK Civil Service. I'm sure that the computer criminal profiler is just part and parcel of these guys everyday jobsQuote:
Originally posted here by leviathan59
I am currently studying psychology and sociology at the local college and I have 5 degrees in network administration, programming, user support and network security. My question is this, do any of you see the potential use of a computer criminal profiler? Is this a field in which you think would benefit the security community, law enforcement and government?
Yeah but Mitnick always kept himself within a circle of other "l33t d00dz". Its fair to say that everything he did was to look cool infront of people he thought was tech-savvy at the time. And from what I've seen... he wants others to beleave he is just that. Only this time its through the highly technical means of being a compulsive liar and playing grab-ass just to get at another man's PDA, phone, not to mention other stuff which may be loosely hanging from a pair of pants. :)Quote:
A good book to read on this is one written by Kevin D. Mitnick: The Art of Deception. He was a hacker who then turned it around and now he uses "his talents and the extensive
knowledge he gathered about information security and social engineering tactics to helping government, businesses, and individuals prevent, detect, and respond to information-security threats" (Kevin Mitnick - The art of deception). If you read that book you might get a better understanding of how their (hackers) psychology works. By the way it is a good book
It's funny how noone has mentioned AO's frontpage:
How To Be A Hacker Profiler.
Cheers.
<edit>It's on the right menu list.
I did... I mentioned what a joke it was.
leviathan, A criminal profiler is the same regardless of the specialty field. The quick and dirty answer is yes, white collar crime needs some good profilers. We need to be able to predict, based on the psyche of the major archetypes where a computer criminal will strike next. What are their motivations, who are they working for, is it a script kiddie or a pro? Did they leave a calling card? etc...
Just like other crimes, we need to understand white collar crime. However...we need to be able to catch and prosecute a criminal in order for the psychologists to study them, and that is where the struggle is.
Computer criminals target weaknesses, so maybe you'd be better to focus your efforts on security profiling ?
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/bu...tml?oref=loginQuote:
"Tell me the things you most want to keep secret," Mr. Seiden challenged a top executive at the bank a few years back. The executive listed two. One involved the true identities of clients negotiating deals so hush-hush that even people inside the bank referred to them by using a code name. The other was the financial details of those mergers and acquisitions.
A week later, Mr. Seiden again sat in this man's office in Manhattan, in possession of both supposedly guarded secrets. As a bonus, he also had in hand a pilfered batch of keys that would give him entry into this company's offices scattered around the globe, photocopies of the floor plans for each office and a suitcase stuffed with backup tapes that would have allowed him to replicate all the files on the bank's computer system.
"Basically, that all came from working nights over a single weekend," he said with a canary-eating smile that seemed equal parts mischief and pride.
Mr. Seiden is what some people inside the security industry call a "sniffer": someone who is paid to twist doorknobs for a living, to see which are safely locked and which are left dangerously unsecured. Clients sometimes hire Mr. Seiden, a former computer programmer, to buttress the security systems that protect their computers and other precious corporate assets. But primarily, large corporations turn to him to test the vulnerability of their networks.
You have to register to read the rest, but there is not too much more of interest.
After someone has just set a few bots to mass-exploit a dozen web-servers would it really matter that a bunch of index pages contained a political viewpoint... or while this is going on this person specifcally targeted something else which would draw in ten times more attention or would be enacting some form of revenge.Quote:
We need to be able to predict, based on the psyche of the major archetypes where a computer criminal will strike next.
As I keep mentioning, most people want to seem very prolific at best and I don't care if money is involved or not... its still mostly about keeping an image.Quote:
What are their motivations, who are they working for, is it a script kiddie or a pro? Did they leave a calling card? etc...
I think the problem is that, as The Specialist rightly says, the word 'hacker', 'cracker' usw are chucked around too much. It should be clear by now that different people criminally infiltrate computer systems for different reasons. They follow a basic pattern of
organisation reconnaissance
host enumeration
service scanning
vulnerability exploitation
establishing and defending their operational bridgehead
covering up their tracks
Although it should be said that each phase overlaps or shares elements with the others.
Because the methodology is essentially the same, you might think it difficult to determine differences between groups/individuals. But in fact their motivations and targets are different as are their levels of ability. Determining those differences requires a mixture of common sense and careful forensics. From this, a profile of the individual or group concerned can be built up.
The point is that there is no general one size fits all profile.
One highly oversimplied example:
1. A web site defacement is carried out on a hard core porn site by a group who identify themselves as 'WWJD'. They replace full frontal nudity pictures with women dressed in long flowery dresses and change all swear words to 'sugar' and replace passages of fantasy sex with biblical expositions and finally change the paypal address to a prolife charitable organisation.
2. Once the site is defaced, the 'team' post the URL and graphics around the world on various religious newsgroups, proclaiming that they have struck a blow against Satan and also upheld the rights of women who should be Stepford wives not exotic models and that they will strike against the powers of darkness again soon.
Looking at this fictional attack, we find that the so-called group did not actually deface the website. Instead they put up a spoof site and poisoned the DNS cache. Combined with the fact that the language used on the defaced site and in the email announcement shows indications of college level education, including the use of several academic terms in theology, we start to see that we are dealing with someone who may have been to or still is at a bible seminary and may also have a degree in computers or be self taught to the extent that they are skilful enough to work in the industry and one or more of them probably are doing just that.
All the pretty girls in frocks are white and in the 16 to 25 age range. This probably indicates white males in the 20 - 35 age group were responsible for the attack. Fundies have desires too.
These bubbas chose to donate to a charitable organisation in the mid west dedicated to pro life policies. This is probably a reasonable indication of their geographic location. And the newsgroups they posted to were consistently fundamentalist baptist/hard line presbyterian.
Having gleaned this information from the attack, the policing forces could probably narrow down their search to graduates belonging to hardline baptist/presbyterian churches working in the computer industry in the mid west, male, white in the 20-35 age group, probably with a college level education in computers or a reasonably senior networking job and who have been to bible college.
It's still a lot of people to trawl through but it's better than nothing.
That makes sense, a criminal is a criminal is a criminal. Just because one may use a computer is irrelevant; that is the MO (modus operandi). The actual tools used are pretty irrelevant to the crime or the criminal, fraud is fraud and theft is theft.Quote:
leviathan, A criminal profiler is the same regardless of the specialty field
Technology has changed, and it is only reasonable to expect criminals to adapt to and embrace that technology like other members of society.
¤The¤Spe©ialist has several times made the point that the internet is just a medium or environment, nothing more, nothing less. Alongside computers, it has changed the way that we store and transmit information. Otherwise the rules are the same. Sure, the existence of tools has generated the skiddie...............but the herd mentality is the same, and no different from that of the gangs of previous generations.
The wanton damage/destruction of other's property has been around for a long time, it is called "vandalism"
Whilst attempting to "profile" computer criminals sounds fine on paper it is an academic exercise of little practical value. Particularly in a society where people are actually considered innocent until they commit a crime and are found guilty of it ;)
The "future" from a career viewpoint, in this area must lie with criminal computer forensics and criminologists.
just my £0.02 :)