Traditional Organised Crime and the Internet: The changing organization of illegal gambling networks

Objetivo

Transnational criminal networks utilise Information Communication Technology (ICT) to commit ‘old’ and ‘new’ types of crime. ICT assists in transnational crime (i.e. hacking) and also as a way to exchange information or plan new crimes. Empirical research has provided ample evidence that social and familial networks play a crucial role in the formation and growth (recruitment) of criminal networks. However, ICT now makes it possible for organised crime to form networks without the restrictions of geographic proximity and with the growth in the online gambling sector estimated at 13 billion Euros per annum in the EU worth approximately 15 percent of EU gambling market such sums of revenue attracts unwanted attention from organised cybercriminals.

This proposal will therefore examine online gambling and extortion networks. The reason(s) for this is that gambling – illegal and legal – has often attracted organised crime, and empirical evidence regarding online gambling and extortion in EU is limited.

The objectives of this research are:

establish tools and technique that facilitate management of internal/external cyber-threats to online gambling sector
validate tools and techniques that will facilitate the management of internal/external cyber-threats to online gambling sector
set standards of information management
set standards of dissemination and flows of information to cybersecurity centres from online gambling sector in EU

This is to be achieved by:

interviews with key individuals (systems managers at online sites and law enforcement)
analyse data for information flows and breaking down volume of information into accessible data for internal and external use.
analyse current decision making processes/systems and processing information
analyse exchange of data to improve and implement best practice available in cybersecurity across EU online gambling sites