Interdisciplinary Cybercrime Project

Project Information

iCrime

Grant agreement ID: 949127

DOI

10.3030/949127

Project closed

EC signature date 19 January 2021

Start date 1 July 2021

End date 30 June 2026

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 499 966,00

EU contribution

€ 1 499 966,00

Coordinated by

THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
United Kingdom

CORDIS provides links to public deliverables and publications of HORIZON projects.

Links to deliverables and publications from FP7 projects, as well as links to some specific result types such as dataset and software, are dynamically retrieved from OpenAIRE .

Publications

Conference proceedings (37)

Stop Following Me! Evaluating the Effectiveness of Anti-Stalking Features of Personal Item Tracking Devices

Author(s): Kieron Ivy Turk; Alice Hutchings
Published in: ACM European Symposium on Usable Security (EuroUSEC), Issue 1, 2024
Publisher: ACM
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2312.07157

Argot as a trust signal: Slang, jargon & reputation on a large cybercrime forum

Author(s): Hughes, J., Caines, A., & Hutchings, A.
Published in: Workshop on the Economics of Information Security, 2022
Publisher: WEIS

Spy-oT: understanding how users learn to use internet of things devices for abusive purposes

Author(s): Kieron Ivy Turk, Alice Hutchings
Published in: Twenty-First USENIX Conference on Usable Privacy and Security, 2025
Publisher: USENIX
DOI: 10.5555/3767870.3767881

App-solutely Modded: Surveying Modded App Market Operators and Original App Developers

Author(s): Luis A. Saavedra, Hridoy S. Dutta, Alastair R. Beresford, Alice Hutchings
Published in: Proceedings of the 20th ACM Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security, 2025, Page(s) 739-758
Publisher: ACM
DOI: 10.1145/3708821.3733883

Can't Keep Them Away: The failures of anti-stalking protocols in personal item tracking devices

Author(s): Turk, K. I., Hutchings, A., & Beresford, A. R.
Published in: Proceedings of the Security Protocols Workshop, 2023
Publisher: Springer

Web(er) of Hate: A survey on how hate speech is typed

Author(s): Luna Wang, Andrew Caines, Alice Hutchings
Published in: 9th Workshop on Online Abuse and Harms (WOAH), 2025
Publisher: ACL

Stayin’ Alive: How Global Stolen Data Markets Thrive on Telegram

Author(s): Tina Marjanov, Taro Tsuchiya, Konstantinos Ioannidis, Jack Hughes, Nicolas Christin, Alice Hutchings
Published in: USENIX Security, 2026
Publisher: USENIX Security

Assessing the aftermath: the effects of a global takedown against DDoS-for-hire services

Author(s): Anh V. Vu, Ben Collier, Daniel R. Thomas, John Kristoff, Richard Clayton, Alice Hutchings
Published in: USENIX Security, 2025
Publisher: USENIX
DOI: 10.5555/3766078.3766263

Catch Me If You Scan: A Longitudinal Analysis of Stalkerware Evasion Tactics

Author(s): Anahitha Vijay, Luis A. Saavedra, Alice Hutchings
Published in: 2025 APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime), 2026, Page(s) 1-16
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/ecrime66972.2025.11327931

Digital drift and the evolution of a large cybercrime forum

Author(s): Hughes, J. & Hutchings, A.
Published in: Proceedings of the IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops, 2023
Publisher: IEEE

In the market for a botnet? An in-depth analysis of botnet-related listings on darkweb marketplaces

Author(s): Georgoulias, D., Pedersen, J. M., Hutchings, A., Falch, M., & Vasilomanolakis, E.
Published in: Proceedings of the APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime) 2023, 2023
Publisher: IEEE

Short Paper: DeFi Deception - Uncovering the prevalence of rugpulls in cryptocurrency projects

Author(s): Agarwal, S., Atondo Siu, G., Ordekian, M., Hutchings, A., Mariconti, E., & Vasek, M.
Published in: Proceedings of the International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, 2023
Publisher: FC

Peer(ing) Pressure: Achieving social action at scale in the Internet infrastructure

Author(s): Ben Collier, Richard Clayton
Published in: Workshop on the Economics of Information Security, 2024
Publisher: WEIS

"""Invest in crypto!"": An analysis of investment scam advertisements found in Bitcointalk"

Author(s): Atondo Siu, G., Hutchings, A., Vasek, M., & Moore, T.
Published in: Proceedings of the APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime), 2022
Publisher: IEEE

Investigating Wrench Attacks: Physical Attacks Targeting Cryptocurrency Users

Author(s): Marilyne Ordekian; Gilberto Atondo Siu; Alice Hutchings; Marie Vasek
Published in: Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT),, Issue 1, 2024
Publisher: ACM
DOI: 10.4230/lipics.aft.2024.24

Beyond the Binary: Analysing transphobic hate and harassment online

Author(s): Anna Talas, Summer Leigh, Alice Hutchings
Published in: 9th ACL Workshop on Online Abuse and Harms (WOAH), 2025
Publisher: ACL

ModZoo: A Large-Scale Study of Modded Android Apps and Their Markets

Author(s): Luis A. Saavedra, Hridoy S. Dutta, Alastair R. Beresford, Alice Hutchings
Published in: 2024 APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime), 2025, Page(s) 162-174
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/ecrime66200.2024.00018

Yet Another Diminishing Spark: Low-Level Cyberattacks in the Israel-Gaza Conflict

Author(s): Anh V. Vu, Alice Hutchings, Ross Anderson
Published in: 2025 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW), 2025, Page(s) 126-131
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/eurospw67616.2025.00020

SoK: Digging into the Digital Underworld of Stolen Data Markets

Author(s): Tina Marjanov, Alice Hutchings
Published in: 2025 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP), 2025, Page(s) 1-18
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/sp61157.2025.00037

'Get a higher return on your savings!': Comparing adverts for cryptocurrency investment scams across platforms

Author(s): Siu, GA; Hutchings, A
Published in: Proceedings of the IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops, Issue 1, 2023
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.17863/cam.96664

Lost in Translation: Analyzing Non-English Cybercrime Forums

Author(s): Mariella Mischinger, Jack Hughes, Fedor Vitiugin, Sergio Pastrana, Alice Hutchings, Guillermo Suarez-Tangil
Published in: 2025 APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime), 2026, Page(s) 1-16
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/ecrime66972.2025.11327989

A ‘sophisticated attack’? Innovation, technical sophistication, and creativity in the cybercrime ecosys- tem

Author(s): Ben Collier Richard Clayton
Published in: Workshop on the Economics of Information Security, 2022
Publisher: Workshop on the Economics of Information Security

Stand-Alone Complex or Vibercrime? Exploring the adoption and innovation of GenAI tools, coding assistants, and agents within cybercrime ecosystems

Author(s): Jack Hughes, Ben Collier, Daniel R. Thomas
Published in: Workshop on the Economics of Information Security, 2026
Publisher: Workshop on the Economics of Information Security

No Easy Way Out: the Effectiveness of Deplatforming an Extremist Forum to Suppress Hate and Harassment

Author(s): Vu, Anh V.; Hutchings, Alice; Anderson, Ross
Published in: Proceedings of the 45th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P), Issue 1, 2024
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2304.07037

Uncovering the Trust Signals Supporting Telegram’s Cybercrime Economy

Author(s): Roy Ricaldi, Tina Marjanov, Luca Allodi, Alice Hutchings
Published in: 2025 APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime), 2026, Page(s) 1-17
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/ecrime66972.2025.11327769

Autism Disclosures and Cybercrime Discourse on a Large Underground Forum

Author(s): Jessica Man, Gilberto Atondo Siu, Alice Hutchings
Published in: 2023 APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime), 2024, Page(s) 1-14
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/ecrime61234.2023.10485504

PostCog: A tool for interdisciplinary research into underground forums at scale

Author(s): Ildiko Pete; Jack Hughes; Andrew Caines; Anh V. Vu; Harshad Gupta; Alice Hutchings; Ross Anderson; Paula Buttery
Published in: Proceedings of the 7th IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshop on Attackers and Cyber-Crime Operations, Issue 1, 2022
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.17863/cam.83768

Threat Me Right: A Human HARMS Threat Model for Technical Systems

Author(s): Kieron Ivy Turk, Anna Talas, Alice Hutchings
Published in: Security Protocols Workshop, 2025
Publisher: Springer

Click Here to Exit: An Evaluation of Quick Exit Buttons

Author(s): Kieron Ivy Turk; Alice Hutchings
Published in: Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Issue 1, 2023
Publisher: ACM
DOI: 10.1145/3544548.3581078

Love Bytes Back: Cybercrime Following Relationship Breakdown

Author(s): Quincy Taylor, Anna Talas, Alice Hutchings
Published in: 2024 APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime), 2025, Page(s) 123-135
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/ecrime66200.2024.00015

Hacker’s Paradise: Analysing music in a cybercrime forum

Author(s): Talas, A. & Hutchings, A.
Published in: Proceedings of the APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime) 2023, 2023
Publisher: IEEE

ExtremeBB: A database for large-scale research into online hate, harassment, the manosphere and extremism.

Author(s): Vu, A. V., Wilson, L., Chua, Y. T., Shumailov, I., & Anderson, R.
Published in: ACL Workshop on Online Abuse and Harms (WOAH@ACL), 2023
Publisher: ACL

Autism disclosures and cybercrime discourse on a large underground forum

Author(s): Man, J, Atondo-Siu, G., & Hutchings, A.
Published in: APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime), 2023
Publisher: IEEE

Breaking the ice: Using transparency to overcome the cold start problem in an underground market

Author(s): Tina Marjanov, Konstantinos Ioannidis, Tom Hyndman, Nicolas Seyedzadeh, Alice Hutchings
Published in: Workshop on the Economics of Information Security, 2024
Publisher: Workshop on the Economics of Information Security

Getting Bored of Cyberwar: Exploring the Role of Low-level Cybercrime Actors in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Author(s): Anh V. Vu, Daniel R. Thomas, Ben Collier, Alice Hutchings, Richard Clayton, Ross Anderson
Published in: Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2024, 2025, Page(s) 1596-1607
Publisher: ACM
DOI: 10.1145/3589334.3645401

Measuring the Unmeasurable: Estimating True Population of Hidden Online Communities

Author(s): Jonah Gibbon, Tina Marjanov, Alice Hutchings, John Aston
Published in: 2024 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW), 2024, Page(s) 56-66
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/eurospw61312.2024.00014

iOSModZoo: A Large-Scale Study of Third-Party iOS App Markets

Author(s): Luis A. Saavedra, Hridoy S. Dutta, Alastair R. Beresford, Alice Hutchings
Published in: Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks, 2026, Page(s) 133-144
Publisher: ACM
DOI: 10.1145/3765613.3797450

Peer reviewed articles (9)

Peer(ing) pressure: maintenance, care, and infrastructural capital in a cybersecurity intervention at Internet scale

Author(s): Ben Collier, Richard Clayton, James Stewart
Published in: Information, Communication & Society, Issue 28, 2025, Page(s) 951-970, ISSN 1369-118X
Publisher: Routledge
DOI: 10.1080/1369118x.2025.2464895

Technology Facilitated Abuse and the Security Paradox

Author(s): Alice Hutchings
Published in: IEEE Security & Privacy, Issue 24, 2026, Page(s) 71-73, ISSN 1540-7993
Publisher: IEEE Computer Society
DOI: 10.1109/msec.2026.3671136

The Art of Cybercrime Community Research

Author(s): Hughes, J., Pastrana, S, Hutchings, A., Afroz, S., Samtani, S., Li, W., & Santana Marin, E.
Published in: Computing Surveys, 2024, ISSN 0360-0300
Publisher: Association for Computing Machinary, Inc.

The Art of Cybercrime Community Research

Author(s): Jack Hughes, Sergio Pastrana, Alice Hutchings, Sadia Afroz, Sagar Samtani, Weifeng Li, Ericsson Santana Marin
Published in: ACM Computing Surveys, Issue 56, 2025, Page(s) 1-26, ISSN 0360-0300
Publisher: Association for Computing Machinary, Inc.
DOI: 10.1145/3639362

The Amplification of Online Deviancy Through the Language of Violent Crime, War, and Aggression

Author(s): Alice Hutchings
Published in: IEEE Security & Privacy, Issue 22, 2024, Page(s) 81-84, ISSN 1540-7993
Publisher: IEEE Computer Society
DOI: 10.1109/msec.2024.3353428

Police Behaving Badly

Author(s): Alice Hutchings
Published in: IEEE Security & Privacy, Issue 23, 2025, Page(s) 80-82, ISSN 1540-7993
Publisher: IEEE Computer Society
DOI: 10.1109/msec.2024.3500152

A Graph-Based Stratified Sampling Methodology for the Analysis of (Underground) Forums

Author(s): Giorgio Di Tizio; Gilberto Atondo Siu; Alice Hutchings; Fabio Massacci
Published in: IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics & Security, 2023, ISSN 1556-6013
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
DOI: 10.1109/tifs.2023.3304424

Peer(ing) pressure: a cybersecurity intervention at global scale in the internet infrastructure

Author(s): Ben Collier, Richard Clayton
Published in: Journal of Cybersecurity, Issue 11, 2025, ISSN 2057-2085
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
DOI: 10.1093/cybsec/tyaf014

A Large-Scale Study of Telegram Bots

Author(s): Taro Tsuchiya, Haoxiang Yu, Tina Marjanov, Alice Hutchings, Nicolas Christin, Alejandro Cuevas
Published in: Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, Issue 20, 2026, Page(s) 2280-2293, ISSN 2334-0770
Publisher: Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)
DOI: 10.1609/icwsm.v20i1.42750

Other (2)

An evaluation of police interventions for cybercrime prevention

Author(s): Maria Bada, Alice Hutchings, Yanna Papadodimitraki, Richard Clayton
Published in: 2023
Publisher: University of Cambridge
DOI: 10.48456/tr-983

Transparent truths: Critical friends and coordinated disclosure

Author(s): Alice Hutchings, Alastair Beresford
Published in: Festschrift in memory of Ross Anderson, 2025
Publisher: University of Cambridge