February 20, 2012 START researchers fight cybercrime with old
school criminology Criminologists, psychologists and computer
security experts collaborate to improve the security of computer
systems BY SAMANTHA GOLDMAN As the world’s dependency on the
Internet grows, so too does the collection of cybersecurity
threats our nation faces—but a landmark study conducted by
researchers from the National Consortium for the Study of
Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) and the University
of Maryland aims to develop strategies to reduce and prevent
cyberattacks. The project, “Protecting the Bazaar: The Ecology
of Cybersecurity in Weakly Fortified Networks,” marks the first
active collaboration between computer security experts and
social and behavioral scientists on the study of cybercrime.
Under the direction of principal investigator David Maimon,
START researcher and assistant professor of criminology and
criminal justice, the team will evaluate criminological theories
within cyberspace using survey data and