Cybercriminal Nicknames: Reputation in an Anonymous World

• In Event: Emerging Issues in Cybercrime

Abstract

This paper addresses how profit-driven cybercriminals maintain reputations in an anonymous criminal environment. Whether programming malware or trading in financial data, co-offending is an increasingly common aspect of online crime. But given that these interactions are online, for instance in marketplaces and forums, cybercriminals must make use of nicknames to build an online “brand”. Without such an identity, no cooperation in cyberspace can take place at all. But cybercriminals also face a core tension in this regard: they cannot operate without an identity signal, yet they must still attempt to protect themselves from law enforcement with as many name variations as they can afford. Cybercriminals must balance these concerns in order to overcome the challenges to cooperation and co-offending. This paper explores this tension and the different approaches taken to address it by cybercriminals throughout the underground economy. It is based on a 7 years of fieldwork in 20 countries and close to 250 interviews with law enforcement agents, security professionals and former cybercriminals.

Author

• Jonathan Lusthaus, University of Oxford