The contemporary cybercrime ecosystem: A multi-disciplinary overview of the state of affairs and developments

Abstract

This article provides a multi-disciplinary overview of the contemporary cybercrime ecosystem and its developments. It does so by reviewing and synthesising recent cybercrime research from fields such as cybersecurity, law and criminology. The article also examines ways in which gaps between the aforementioned fields arise and how to lessen them to increase cybersecurity. This article is divided into four main parts. The first part offers background on cybercrime and some of its main elements. It defines terminology, sets out a legal taxonomy of cybercrime offences and presents the estimated costs, threat agents and characteristics of various illicit activities and technical aspects of cybercrime. Parts two, three and four build on this preceding analysis by (separately) examining three prominent threat vectors within the ecosystem – malware, the darknet and Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. For each threat vector, the article identifies and investigates features, history, functions and current and expected states of development within the ecosystem. Through its attention to and synthesis of current research and results from different fields, this article offers a synoptic account of the cybercrime ecosystem, which can bridge potential knowledge gaps between fields.