The Economics of Cybercrime

Cybercrime is a multi-level phenomenon that affects various industries and aspects of life. Economic research in this field requires stepping beyond a mainstream economic approach. Complexity economics shows that every economic phenomenon is influenced by a plethora of factors rooted in various fields of science. This book utilizes a complexity economics approach as the main framework for cybercrime research; whereby economic problems are analysed in a complex manner not constrained by tradition or a body of work limited to one discipline.

It presents concepts related to the cybercrime market to familiarize readers with the impact of the digital sphere on individuals’ lives and the risks associated with these markets. It provides information on the challenges of regulating the digital economy and the difficulties in analysing the cybercrime market. It also outlines the methodological approach, from meta-science to agent-based modelling, and explains why case studies were employed as an additional tool to examine cybercrime markets. The book describes the structure of cybercrime markets, how they function and are coordinated, as well as how they are influenced by external factors such as politics and global events. It highlights the behaviours of criminals and victims, explaining how criminals behave and why they are caught and why victims are unwilling to report crimes It also shows how technological progress, and unique regional factors influence criminal behaviours and morality.

This book will be valuable to policymakers and academics in the fields of economics and cybersecurity studies and will be especially interesting to the complexity economics community.