Distrust and Dispute Resolution Among Elite Hackers

• In Event: The Human Factor in Cybercrime and Cybersecurity

Abstract

Most of the literature on the social organization of hackers studies the nature and utility of trust, a key enabler of complex project-based crimes involving strangers who deal in deception. This presentation will examine instead the role distrust plays in communities of online offenders, the challenges it poses for their effectiveness and growth, how it can escalate into formal complaints between members and how these complaints are resolved. Based on an empirical study of an invitation only forum of more than 400 elite hackers and malware developers active between 2008 and 2015, I will analyze 160 formal complaints filed by vetted members in order to understand the causes and behaviours that lead to the public expression of distrust, the status of the plaintiffs and accused within that community, the financial implications of such disputes, the time invested by all parties to settle them, the role played by administrators and third parties to reduce the collective level of distrust, and finally the outcomes of those complaints. I will then use these results to discuss the general effectiveness of trust-building mechanisms by communities of online offenders whose individual costs of defection, failure or betrayal remain extremely low.

Author

• Benoît Dupont, Université de Montréal