Crime, cyberspace and Covid-19: (accelerated) displacement of opportunities and situational adaptation of cybercrime

Article Sidebar

PDF (Castellano) ePUB (Castellano)

Main Article Content

Fernando Miró Llinares
Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche

This paper addresses the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on cybercrime, gathering and critically evaluating the existing studies and adding some analyses of its own. The work suggests that during the lockdown, more than a shift of criminals from physical space to cyberspace, what has existed is, on the one hand, an adaptation of cybercriminals to the new opportunities for crime that were emerging in the context of Covid-19, and, on the other hand, a shift of opportunities to cyberspace as a result of the increased time and activities carried out on the Internet that could have effectively led to an increase in some cybercrimes. It is argued that this negative correlation of trends, of reduced crime on the streets and increased crime in cyberspace, is directly related to the shift in everyday activities resulting from digitisation, which has been taking place for decades. The Covid-19 crisis thus appears to be more than a cause but an accelerator of this process, and it is important to consider how this will affect future crime trends.

Keywords
cybercrime, crime trends, displacement, criminal opportunity, adaptation of cybercrime

Article Details

How to Cite
Miró Llinares, Fernando. “Crime, cyberspace and Covid-19: (accelerated) displacement of opportunities and situational adaptation of cybercrime”. IDP. Internet, Law and Politics E-Journal, no. 32, doi:10.7238/idp.v0i32.373815.
Rights
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported License.

(c) Fernando Miró Llinares, 2021


Copyright

Contents published in IDP are subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 Spain licence, the full text of which can be consulted on http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/es/deed.en.

Thus, they may be copied, distributed and broadcast provided that the author and IDP are cited, as shown in the recommended citation that accompanies each article. Derivative works are not permitted.

Authors are responsible for obtaining the necessary permission to use copyrighted images.

 

Assignment of intellectual property rights

The author non exclusively transfers the rights to use (reproduce, distribute, publicly broadcast or transform) and market the work, in full or part, to the journal’s editors in all present and future formats and modalities, in all languages, for the lifetime of the work and worldwide.

The author must declare that he is the original author of the work. The editors shall thus not be held responsible for any obligation or legal action that may derive from the work submitted in terms of violation of third parties’ rights, whether intellectual property, trade secret or any other right.

Author Biography

Fernando Miró Llinares, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche

Full Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche

References

ABRAMS, D. (2020). «COVID and crime: an early empirical look». U of Penn. ILERP, núm. 20-49 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3674032 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

ACTION FRAUD. Centro Nacional de Denuncias de Fraude y Delitos Cibernéticos del Reino Unido [en línea] https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/data [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

APPLE MAPS (2020). Informes de tendencias de movilidad [en línea] https://www.apple.com/covid19/mobility [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

ASHBY, M. P. J. (2020). «Initial evidence on the relationship between the coronavirus pandemic and crime in the United States». Crime Science, vol. 9, págs. 1-16 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/ep87s [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

ATTANASIO, A. (2020). «Coronavirus: el dramático incremento del consumo de pornografía infantil en el confinamiento por el covid-19». BBCNews [en línea] https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-52385436 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

BAUMER, E. P.; VELEZ, M. B.; ROSENFELD, R. (2018). «Bringing crime trends back into criminology: a critical assessment of the literature and a blueprint for future inquiry». Annual Review of Criminology, vol. 1, págs. 39-61 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-032317-092339 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

BRADBURY‐JONES, C.; ISHAM, L. (2020). «The pandemic paradox: the consequences of COVID‐19 on domestic violence». Journal of Clinical Nursing, vol. 29, núm. 13-14 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15296 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

BRENNEN, J. S. et al. (2020). «Types, sources, and claims of Covid-19 misinformation». Reuters Institute [en línea] http://www.primaonline.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/COVID-19_reuters.pdf [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

BRUINSMA, G. J. N.; JOHNSON, S. D. (2018). «Environmental criminology: scope, history, and state of the art». The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Criminology. Oxford University Press [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190279707.013.38 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

BUIL-GIL, D.; MIRÓ LLINARES, F.; MONEVA, A., KEMP, S.; DÍAZ-CASTAÑO, N. (2020). «Cybercrime and shifts in opportunities during COVID-19 a preliminary analysis in the UK». European Societies in the Time of the Coronavirus Crisis, págs. 1-13 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2020.1804973 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

BULLINGER, L. R.; CARR, J. B.; PACKHAM, A. (2020). «COVID-19 and crime: effects of stay-at-home orders on domestic violence», núm. 27667. National Bureau of Economic Research [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3386/w27667 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

CAMPEDELLI, G. M.; FAVARIN, S.; AZIANI, A.; PIQUERO, A. R. (2020). «Disentangling community-level changes in crime trends during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chicago». Crime Science, vol. 9, núm. 1, págs. 1-18 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-020-00131-8 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (2020). «COVID-19-Related phone scams and phishing attacks [en línea] https://www.cdc.gov/media/phishing.html [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

CHECKPOINT (2020). «Coronavirus update: in the cyber world, the graph has yet to flatten» [en línea] https://blog.checkpoint.com/2020/04/02/coronavirus-update-in-the-cyber-world-the-graph-has-yet-to-flatten/ [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

COLLIER, B. et al. (2020). «The implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for cybercrime policing in Scotland: a rapid review of the evidence and future considerations» [en línea] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ben_Collier/publication/341742472_Issue_No_1_The_implications_of_the_COVID-19_pandemic_for_cybercrime_policing_in_Scotland_A_rapid_review_of_the_evidence_and_future_considerations/links/5ed4f73a458515294527b273/Issue-No-1-The-implications-of-the-COVID-19-pandemic-for-cybercrime-policing-in-Scotland-A-rapid-review-of-the-evidence-and-future-considerations.pdf [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

CYBERDATA COALITION (2020). «Weekly Threat Advisory: Domain trends» [en línea] https://www.cyberthreatcoalition.org/advisories/2020-05-20-weekly-threat-advisory-domain-trends [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

CYVARE SOCIAL (2020). «How are cybercriminals capitalizing on Zoom’s popularity?» [en línea] https://cyware.com/news/how-are-cybercriminals-capitalizing-on-zooms-popularity-6db91920 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

ESET (2020). «Brute-force attacks targeting remote access increased during the COVID-19 pandemic» [en línea] https://www.eset.com/int/about/newsroom/press-releases/products/brute-force-attacks-targeting-remote-access-increased-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-eset-confirms/ [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

EUROPOL (2020a). «Catching the virus cybercrime, disinformation and the COVID-19 pandemic» [en línea] https://www.europol.europa.eu/publications-documents/catching-virus-cybercrime-disinformation-and-covid-19-pandemic [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

EUROPOL (2020b). «Pandemic profiteering how criminals exploit the COVID-19 crisis» [en línea] https://www.europol.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/pandemic_profiteering-how_criminals_exploit_the_covid-19_crisis.pdf [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

FAFINSKI, S.; DUTTON, W. H.; MARGETTS, H. (2010). «Mapping and measuring cybercrime». OII Working Paper, núm. 18 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1694107 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

FBI (2020). «FBI warns of teleconferencing and online classroom Hijacking during COVID-19 pandemic» [en línea] https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/boston/news/press-releases/fbi-warns-of-teleconferencing-and-online-classroom-hijacking-during-covid-19-pandemic [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021.]

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (2020). «People’s Republic of China (PRC) targeting of COVID-19 research organizations» [en línea] https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/peoples-republic-of-china-prc-targeting-of-covid-19-research-organizations [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

FORCEPOINT (2020). «Three-Month Trend Analysis: COVID and Coronavirus-Themed Web and Email Traffic» [en línea] https://www.forcepoint.com/blog/x-labs/covid-coronavirus-web-email-traffic-analysis [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

GALOV, D. (2020). «Remote spring: the rise of RDP bruteforce attacks». Kaspersky [en línea] https://securelist.com/remote-spring-the-rise-of-rdp-bruteforce-attacks/96820/ [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

GLOBALWEBINDEX (2020). Coronavirus Research. March 2020. Release 3: Multi-market research [en línea] https://www.globalwebindex.com/hubfs/1.%20Coronavirus%20Research%20PDFs/GWI%20coronavirus%20findings%20March%202020%20-%20Multi-Market%20data%20(Release%203).pdf [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

GOOGLE (2020a). Informe de transparencia [en línea] https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/overview [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

GOOGLE (2020b). Informes de movilidad local sobre el COVID-19 [en línea] https://www.google.com/covid19/mobility/ [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

HALFORD, E. et al. (2020). «Coronavirus and crime: social distancing, lockdown, and the mobility elasticity of crime». Crime Science, vol. 9, núm. 1, págs. 1-12 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/4qzca [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

HAWDON, J.; PARTI, K.; DEARDEN, T. E. (2020). «Cybercrime in America amid COVID-19: the initial results from a natural experiment». American Journal of Criminal Justice, núm. 45, págs. 1-17 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-020-09534-4 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

HIDER, A. (2020). «Amazon says it’s removed 200k items, suspended 4k accounts due to price» [en línea] https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/national/coronavirus/amazon-says-its-removed-500k-items-suspended-4k-accounts-due-to-price-gouging [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

HODGKINSON, T.; ANDRESEN, M. A. (2020). «Show me a man or a woman alone and I'll show you a saint». Journal of Criminal Justice, vol. 69 [en línea] DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2020.101706 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

HOLT, T. J.; BOSSLER, A. M. (2008). «Examining the applicability of lifestyle-routine activities theory for cybercrime victimization». Deviant Behavior, vol. 30, núm. 1, págs. 1-25 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01639620701876577 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

INTERPOL (2020). «Cybercriminals targeting critical healthcare institutions with ransomware» [en línea] https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Events/News/2020/Cybercriminals-targeting-critical-healthcare-institutions-with-ransomware [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

JOHN C. (2020). «Number of breached records surged by 273% in 2020 Q1». Atlasvpn [en línea] https://atlasvpn.com/blog/number-of-breached-records-surged-by-273-in-2020-q1 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

KEMP, S.; BUIL-GIL, D.; MONEVA, A.; MIRÓ LLINARES, F.; DÍAZ-CASTAÑO, N. (en prensa). [Special issue] «Empty streets, busy Internet. A time series analysis of cybercrime and fraud trends during COVID-19». Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice.

KEMP, S.; MIRÓ LLINARES, F.; MONEVA, A. (2020). «The dark figure and the cyber fraud rise in Europe: evidence from Spain». European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, vol. 26, núm. 4 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-020-09439-2

[Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

KUPREEV, O.; BADOVSKAYA, E.; GUTNIKOV, A. (2020). «DDoS attacks in Q1 2020». Kapersky [en línea] https://securelist.com/ddos-attacks-in-q1-2020/96837/ [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

LARRAZ, I. (2020). «La pandemia traslada los delitos al mundo digital». Newtral [en línea] https://www.newtral.es/la-pandemia-traslada-mas-delitos-al-mundo-digital/20200604/ [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

LESLIE, E.; WILSON, R. (2020). «Sheltering in place and domestic violence: evidence from calls for service during COVID-19». Journal of Public Economics [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3600646 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

MACKEY, T. K.; LI, J.; PURUSHOTHAMAN, V.; NALI, M.; SHAH, N.; BARDIER, C.; LIANG, B. (2020). «Big Data, natural language processing, and deep learning to detect and characterize illicit COVID-19 product sales: infoveillance study on Twitter and Instagram». JMIR public health and surveillance, vol. 6, núm. 3 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.2196/preprints.20794 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

MATTEI, T. A. (2017). «Privacy, confidentiality, and security of health care information: lessons from the recent Wannacry cyberattack». World neurosurgery, vol. 104, págs. 972-974 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2017.06.104 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

MIMECAST (2020). «100 days of Coronavirus» [en línea] https://www.mimecast.com/globalassets/cyber-resilience-content/100-days-of-coronavirus-threat-intelligence.pdf [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

MIRÓ LLINARES, F. (2011). «La oportunidad criminal en el ciberespacio». RECPC. Revista Electrónica de Ciencia Penal y Criminología, núm. 7, págs. 1-7.

MIRÓ LLINARES, F. (2012). El cibercrimen. Fenomenología y criminología de la delincuencia en el ciberespacio. Madrid: Marcial Pons.

MIRÓ LLINARES, F.; MONEVA, A. (2019). «What about cyberspace (and cybercrime alongside it)? A reply to Farrell and Birks “Did cybercrime cause the crime drop?”». Crime Science, vol. 8, núm. 1, pág. 12 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-019-0107-y [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

MIRÓ LLINARES, F.; MONEVA, A. (2020). «Environmental criminology and cybercrime: shifting focus from the wine to the bottles». The Palgrave Handbook of International Cybercrime and Cyberdeviance, págs. 491-511 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78440-3_30 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

MOHLER, G. et al. (2020). «Impact of social distancing during COVID-19 pandemic on crime in Los Angeles and Indianapolis». Journal of Criminal Justice, vol. 68 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2020.101692 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

NAIDOO, R. (2020). «A multi-level influence model of COVID-19 themed cybercrime». European Journal of Information Systems, págs. 1-16 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0960085X.2020.1771222 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

NGO, F. T. et al. (2020). «Victimization cyberspace: Is it how long we spend online, what we do online, or what we post online?». Criminal Justice Review, vol. 45, núm. 4, págs. 430-451 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0734016820934175 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

NIKOLOVSKA, M.; JOHNSON, S. D.; EKBLOM, P. (2020). «“Show this thread”: policing, disruption and mobilisation through Twitter. An analysis of UK law enforcement tweeting practices during the Covid-19 pandemic». Crime Science, vol. 9, núm. 1, págs. 1-16 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-020-00129-2 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

PAYNE, J.; MORGAN, A. (2020). «COVID-19 and violent crime [PAYNE, J.; MORGAN, A.; PIQUERO, A. R. (2020). «Covid-19 and social distancing measures in Queensland, Australia are associated with short-term decreases in recorded violent crime». Journal of Experimental Criminology. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-020-09441-y.

PEREDA, N.; DÍAZ-FAES, D. A. (2020). «Family violence against children in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic: a review of current perspectives and risk factors». Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health, vol. 14, núm. 40 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-020-00347-1 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

PIQUERO, A. R. et al. (2020). «Staying home, staying safe? A short-term analysis of COVID-19 on Dallas domestic violence». American Journal of Criminal Justice, vol. 45, págs. 1-35 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-020-09531-7 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

ROSENFELD, R. (2018). «Studying crime trends: normal science and exogenous shocks». Criminology, vol. 56, núm. 1, págs. 5-26 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12170 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

STICKLE, B.; FELSON, M. (2020). «Crime rates in a pandemic: the largest criminological experiment in History». American Journal of Criminal Justice, vol. 45, núm. 4, págs. 525-536 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-020-09546-0 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

SZURDI, J.; CHEN, Z.; STAROV, O.; MCCABE, A.; DUAN, R. (2020). «Studying how cybercriminals prey on the COVID-19 pandemic». UNIT42 [en línea] https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/how-cybercriminals-prey-on-the-covid-19-pandemic/ [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

TRENDMICRO (2020). «Developing story: COVID-19 used in malicious campaigns» [en línea] https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/hk-en/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/coronavirus-used-in-spam-malware-file-names-and-malicious-domains [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

UYHENG, J.; CARLEY, K. M. (2020). «Bots and online hate during the COVID-19 pandemic: case studies in the United States and the Philippines». Journal of Computational Social Science, núm. 3, págs. 1-24 [en línea] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42001-020-00087-4 [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (2020). «Beware of criminals pretending to be WHO» [en línea] https://www.who.int/about/communications/cyber-security [Fecha de consulta: 10 de enero de 2021].