Our Research

Current Research

Cybercrime Victimization Survey

We are partnering with local law enforcement and victims' advocacy offices for this research. The planned survey study will identify victims of cybercrime to ask about their online behaviors and activities that may have precipitated their victimization. We will be able to recommend various best practices in cyber hygiene to help reduce their risk of re-victimization. Following up, we will measure the effectiveness of various interventions.

Predicting Which Hackers Will Become Persistent Threats

The content of this post is solely the responsibility of the author. AT&T does not adopt or endorse any of the views, positions, or information provided by the authors in this article. This blog was jointly written with David Maimon, Professor at Georgia State University. Website defacement websites are central to business operations but are also the target of various cyber-attacks. Malicious hackers have found several ways to compromise websites, with the most common attack vector...

Gone Smishing: Development of an End User Risk Assessment

Phishing and smishing have become regular tactics by hackers to gain access through an end users account or device yet cyber hygiene education is limited in that it typically only provides information and encourages reporting scam attempts. The current project will build on empirically supported predictive models using thoughtfully reflective decision making and protection motivation theory to predict victimization risk and tailor educational material to the user themselves. Using experimental methodologies, we will assess real life behavior of end users both as they interact with a third-party site and how they respond to smishing attempts. This project will collectively assess the predictive ability of the models using real end-user behavior, allowing for tailored education to develop well informed decision making processes.

Publications Featuring Lab Faculty & Members

Journal Articles:

Maimon, D., Howell, C. J., & Burruss, G. W. (2021). Restrictive deterrence and the scope of hackers’ reoffending: Findings from two randomized field trials. Computers in Human Behavior, 125, 106943.

Burruss, G. W., Howell, C. J., Maimon, D., & Wang, F. (2021). Website Defacer Classification: A Finite Mixture Model Approach. Social Science Computer Review. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0894439321994232

Fox, B. & Holt, T. J. (2020, in press). Use of a multi-theoretic model to understand and classify juvenile computer hacking behavior. Criminal Justice and Behavior. doi: 10.1177/0093854820969754.

Ngo FT, Piquero AR, LaPrade J, Duong B. (2020). Victimization in Cyberspace: Is It How Long We Spend Online, What We Do Online, or What We Post Online? Criminal Justice Review, 45, 430-451. doi:10.1177/0734016820934175.

Perkins, R., Howell, C.J., Dodge, C., Burruss, G., & Maiman, D. (2020). Malicious spam distribution: A routine activities approach. Deviant Behavior. Advanced online publication. doi: 10.1080/01639625.2020.1794269

Book Chapters:

Hyslip, Thomas, S. (2020) “Cybercrime as-a-service operations.” in Holt, T. & Bossler, A. (Eds). The Palgrave Handbook of International Cybercrime and Cyber deviance, Palgrave MacMillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-78440-3_36

Dodge, C., & Burruss, G. (2019). Policing cybercrime: Responding to the growing problem and considering future solutions. In Leukfeldt, R. & Holt, T. (Eds.), Cybercrime: The human factor (pp. 339-358). Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780429460593-15

Burruss, G., & Dodge, C. (2018). The criminality of digital piracy: Is it a pathway to more serious offending? In Holt, T. (Ed.), Digital piracy: A global, multidisciplinary account (pp. 217-238). Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315158679-10