The National Science Foundation has awarded a $250,000 grant to Georgia State University (GSU) to study how best to disrupt - and ultimately take down - the supply chains that allow cybercriminals to thrive.
David Maimon, associate professor and director of the Evidence-Based Cybersecurity Research Group at GSU, says his team will focus on the supply chains that support counterfeiting cash money and PII such as credit card data, social security numbers, and names and addresses, as well as fraud around Small Business Administration loans and unemployment claims.
Maimon says by using an evidence-based approach, the team at GSU will use rigorous social science research, observations, and surveys to find out which law enforcement techniques actually work in the field.
"The goal is to take down these supply chains," Maimon says. "Cyber researchers and law enforcement agencies chasing cybercriminals tend to focus on taking down servers to disrupt cybercrime. While these activities are effective, they often have short-term impact, as the cybercriminals can reconfigure servers very quickly and stay in operation."
Ed Cabrera, chief cybersecurity officer at Trend Micro, says there's a definite need for research that looks at the nature of the supply chain versus the technical cyber-side of the equation.
"We tend to look at the symptoms and not the disease, which is the ecosystems that enable these criminal activities," Cabrera says. "As security researchers in the industry, we'll look at the malware bought and sold, the macro picture. But there's a need for more innovative ways to go aft ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
