Changes in the social dynamics and motivations of the hacking community are a potential catalyst that when combined with the expanding reliance of critical infrastructure components upon networked control systems may provide the genesis for the emergence of what is being called the civilian cyberwarrior The emerging visibility and salience of cyber-vulnerabilities within large elements of a nation's critical infrastructure is creating opportunities that are facilitating significant potential shifts in the power relationship between individuals and nation states. This paper examines some of these shifts in the social dynamics and motivations in the hacking community, their effects on the traditional power differential between individuals and nation-state actors and discusses the emergence of the civilian cyberwarrior – individuals that are encouraged and emboldened by this transformed power differential to engage in malicious acts against another country's critical infrastructure or even the critical infrastructure of their own country. In particular, this presentation will explore the findings from an international survey of youth to identify the situational and social factors that predict individual willingness to engage in physical and cyberattacks against various targets. The findings will assist researchers, law enforcement, and the intelligence community to proactively anticipate various threat scenarios and develop effective defenses against attacks on and off-line.
Thomas J. Holt is an Assistant Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. He received his Ph. D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Missouri-Saint Louis in 2005. His research focuses on computer hacking, malware, and the role that technology and computer mediated communications play in facilitating all manner of crime and deviance. Dr. Holt has been published in numerous academic journals, including Crime and Delinquency, Deviant Behavior, and the Journal of Criminal Justice, is a co-author of the book Digital Crime and Digital Terror, editor of the text Cybercrime: Causes, Correlates, and Context, and co-editor of the forthcoming book Corporate Hacking and Technology-Driven Crime. He is also a regular presenter at Defcon, the Department of Defense Cybercrime Conference, and various regional hacker conferences. Dr. Holt is also the recipient of two grants from the U.S. National Institute of Justice to examine the market for malicious software and the social dynamics of carders and data thieves in on-line markets. Additionally, Dr. Holt is the project lead for the Spartan Devils Chapter of the Honeynet Project, and directs the MSU Open Source Research Laboratory dedicated to exploring the landscape of cyberthreats around the globe through on-line research.
Max Kilger received his doctorate from Stanford University in Social Psychology in 1993. He is a behavioral profiler for the Honeynet Project and contributes additional efforts in the areas of statistical and data analysis. Max has written and co-authored research articles and book chapters in the areas of influence in decision-making, the interaction of people with technology, the motivations of malicious online actors and understanding the changing social structure of the computer hacking community. He was the lead author for the Profiling chapter of the Honeynet Project's book Know Your Enemy (second edition) which serves as a reference guide for information security professionals in government, military and private sector organizations. He also coauthored a chapter examining the vulnerabilities and risks of a cyberattack on the U.S. national electrical grid. His most recent published work is a book chapter on social dynamics and the future of technology-driven crime. He currently is working on two chapters dealing with cyberprofiling for a book on cyber-counterintelligence to be published in early 2012. Max was a member of the National Academy of Engineering's Combating Terrorism Committee, which was charged with recommending counterterrorism methodologies to the Congress and relevant federal agencies. He is a frequent national and international speaker to law enforcement, the intelligence community and military commands as well as information security forums.