Cybercrime as a Service

我的博士项目旨在调查网络犯罪即服务。网络犯罪即服务（CaaS）是指一种经济模式，其中技术熟练的行为者提供工具包作为打包服务，可以轻松访问工具和编程框架，这些工具和框架提供经验不足的不良行为者成功进行网络攻击所需的所有服务。CaaS正在推动网络犯罪组织变得更加敏捷和结构化，这与拥有多个角色的IT公司不同，以便最大限度地提高利润并扩大服务范围。该模型中提供了多种网络攻击服务，可以涵盖非常有针对性的攻击，例如Hacking as a Service和Distributed Denial of Service as a Service，以及Ransomware和Data as a Service。然而，没有一个列表的文献使用的服务和文献中研究的服务不同的作者。在我的博士学位期间，我想回答的主要问题是：（i）CaaS生态系统中最常见和最成功的服务是什么？(ii)CaaS未来将如何发展？(iii)在宣传CaaS的市场中，个人营销广告的主要特征是什么？所有这三个问题将有助于告知决策者如何最好地检测和应对CaaS日益增长的威胁。到目前为止，我已经对这个主题进行了广泛的文献综述，并对CaaS进行了系统的文献综述。本文对135篇学术和灰色文献进行了主题分析，旨在调查研究的服务文章，预测CaaS模型未来发展的方法。审查表明，该模型的进一步商业化将进一步降低网络犯罪领域的进入门槛，增加攻击的复杂性，并提高服务提供商及其生态系统的弹性，这将导致当局更难关闭服务。此外，随着模型变得越来越容易获得，有组织犯罪集团，国家和非国家行为者等团体也可能使用它们，这可能对网络和物理领域的犯罪活动产生影响。我在博士课程中的下一步是从新闻报道的角度进一步研究网络犯罪即服务。这将包括对网络安全新闻的调查，以了解那里报道了哪些服务，以及在这些报道中可以注意到哪些趋势。这将呈现出不同的一面和不同的利益相关者，他们也关注网络犯罪作为一种服务的问题。由于CaaS生态系统影响到许多部门，甚至许多不同的利益相关者，因此在我的系统性文献综述中，缺乏对问题的更全面的了解是显而易见的。在对这两个项目进行比较研究之后，我想进一步探索CaaS“在野外”，其中包括暗网论坛数据分析，稍后在我的博士学位期间。通过混合方法分析技术，例如市场的自然语言处理以及服务提供商和客户之间的通信，以及主题甚至网络图研究，可以研究CaaS广告的市场中的个体营销广告的关键特征。

My PhD project aims to investigate Cybercrime as a Service. Cybercrime as a Service (CaaS) refers to an economic model where a technically skilled actor offers a tool kit as a packaged service with easy access to tools and programming frameworks which provide all of the services a less experienced bad actor needs to carry out a successful cyberattack. CaaS is pushing cybercriminal organisations to be more agile and structured not unlike an IT company with multiple roles in order to maximise the profit and increase the reach of services. There are multiple cyberattack services offered within the model, which can span from very targeted attacks, such as Hacking as a Service and Distributed Denial of Service as a service to Ransomware and Data as a Service. However, there is no one list of services the literature uses and the services studied in the literature differ from author to author. The main questions I would like to answer during my PhD are what are: (i) What services are the most commonly offered and successful within the CaaS ecosystem?(ii) How CaaS may develop in the future?(iii) What are the key characteristics of individual marketing advertisements in marketplaces where CaaS is advertised?All these three questions will help inform decision-makers on how best to detect and counter the growing threat of CaaS.So far, I have conducted an extensive literature review on the topic as well as a Systematic literature review of CaaS. This review thematically analysed 135 articles from both academic and grey literature with a view of investigating the services articles studied, the methodological approach the how the CaaS model is predicted to develop in the future. The review indicates that further commercialisation of the model will further lower the barrier of entry to the cybercrime realm, increase the sophistication of the attacks and increase the resilience of the service providers and their ecosystem which will result in harder shutdowns of services by the authorities. Furthermore, as the model becomes more accessible, groups such as organised crime groups, state and non-state actors may use them as well, which may have implications for criminal activity in both cyber and physical domains.My next steps within the PhD programme are to further investigate Cybercrime as a Service from the perspective of news reports. This will include an investigation of cybersecurity news to see what services are reported there and what trends can be noticed in these reports. This will present a different side and different stakeholders that are also concerned with the problem of Cybercrime as a Service. As the CaaS ecosystem affects many sectors and indeed many different stakeholders, the lack of a more holistic picture of the problem was one that became evident during my systematic literature review. After the comparative study of the two projects, I would like to further explore CaaS "in the wild" which will include dark web forum data analysis, later on during my PhD. By mixed method analysis techniques such as natural language processing of the market and communication amongst the service providers and customers, and thematic or even netnographic study, key characteristics of individual marketing advertisements in marketplaces where CaaS is advertised may be studied.