Cybercrimeology

Hackting Out: Defacement and Hate Online amid Global Conflicts

Episode Summary

In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Alice Hutchings and her PhD student, Anh Vu, from the University of Cambridge, delve into the intricate world of cybercrime amidst global conflicts, with a special focus on the challenges of deplatforming hate groups. They discuss their research at the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre, focusing on the surge of hacker defacements and DDoS attacks in response to international tensions, notably the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel-Gaza. Additionally, they explore the complexities of deplatforming online hate groups, using the case of Kiwi Farms as an example of how difficult it can be to mitigate the activities of these groups without unintended consequences. Dr. Hutchings and Anh Vu highlight how these cyber incidents reflect broader geopolitical dynamics and the persistent challenge of controlling harmful online behavior while respecting free speech. Their analysis provides a comprehensive view of the cyber dimensions of warfare and online community management.

Episode Notes

 Notes:

About our guests:

Dr. Alice Hutchings:

https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~ah793/

Anh V. Vu

https://www.cst.cam.ac.uk/people/vv301

 

Papers or resources mentioned in this episode:

Anh V. Vu, Alice Hutchings, Ross Anderson. No Easy Way Out: the Effectiveness of Deplatforming an Extremist Forum to Suppress Hate and Harassment. In Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P'24)

Anh V. Vu, Daniel R. Thomas, Ben Collier, Alice Hutchings, Richard Clayton, Ross Anderson. Getting Bored of Cyberwar: Exploring the Role of Low-level Cybercrime Actors in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict. In Proceedings of the ACM World Wide Web Conference (WWW'24)

Other: