Hacking Amid Civic Affairs: A Routine Activities Approach to Defacement Trends

• In Event: Innovative Approaches Towards Better Understanding Cybercrimes

Abstract

Objective: Despite popular belief that both festive periods and political events coincide with larger volumes of cyber-attacks, evidence on the matter remains dubious. Therefore, the current study’s objective is to better understand how both festive and political events influence the volume of perpetrated attacks among defacers.
Data/Methods: The study uses pooled cross-sectional time-series data on nearly 250 website defacers which captures the volume of their defacements over a period of two decades.
Results: Findings revealed the effect of holidays on the attack volumes of defacers is not significant. In addition, defacers on teams saw an increase in defacement activity by approximately 33% on holidays. Conversely, Middle Eastern and ideological defacers’ attack volumes decreased during holidays and political events if their career began after 2015. However, as a whole, our models show that political events and holidays do not significantly impact the volume of defacement attacks.
Conclusions/Implications: Overall, this research offers evidence that prominent events through the year do not necessarily mean grater instances of hacking coincide. Moreover, the study also provides further evidence regarding the efficacy of routine activities theory in cyberspace.

Authors

• Cameron Hoffman, Georgia State University

• William Sabol, Georgia State University

• David Maimon, Georgia State University