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Countering cybercrime tutorials with online video ad campaigns: A quasi-experiment on YouTube
Thu, September 12, 8:00 to 9:15am, Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest, Floor: 1st floor, Amphitheater 5 „Constantin Stătescu”Abstract
Popular social media platforms host harmful content. One type of such content is video tutorials for launching cyberattacks or using cybercrime tools that are posted on YouTube. Often, the videos are uploaded from accounts with thousands of followers, registering an even higher number of views. Following these videos step-by-step requires such basic computer skills that cybercrime becomes available to anyone. For users who are content consumers, these videos can therefore provide a pathway into cybercrime. As part of a broader approach to the use of cybercrime awareness messaging, law enforcement and academics have joined forces to try to counteract the effect of these cybercrime tutorials. This presentation shows the pioneering cybercrime prevention work done jointly with the Cyber Offender Prevention Squad (COPS) of the Netherlands Police to deploy online video ad campaigns on YouTube against tutorials for two types of entry-level cybercrime: launching DDoS attacks and using remote access trojans (RATs). After an initial pilot study, the campaign was set up using four types of skippable video ads following 2 x 2 factorial design (DDoS vs. RATs x deterrent vs. social message), having an efficient reach (i.e. reaching more unique users at lower cost) in the Netherlands, and targeting Dutch or English-speaking users aged 18-24. After about four months of activity, preliminary results show that the video ads were more compelling than the average in YouTube, with anti-DDoS tutorials being the most viewed and most compelling. We discuss the practical implications of implementing this type of campaign for law enforcement and cybercrime prevention, as well as future research directions.