When discussing the concepts of crime and cybercrime, their victims are important key players to understand why these criminal acts takes place. More importantly, with these players taken into...Show moreWhen discussing the concepts of crime and cybercrime, their victims are important key players to understand why these criminal acts takes place. More importantly, with these players taken into account, it is not only possible to understand this concept but also to predict and prevent the crimes that take place. In this thesis, the research focuses on individual victims of cybercrime in the Netherlands and their behavioural characteristics. The aim of this research is to study which behavioural risk factors have a predictive value for victimization, both in the offline as the online world. To answer this question, I designed a digital survey to compare two types of crime; one in the offline world and one in the online world. These two criminal acts have in common that they are comparable with each other, with the only difference that they take place in different worlds. The chosen criminal acts are doorstep scams in the offline world, and phishing in the online world. A scientific literature review, the data collected from the digital questionnaire and the subsequent analysis will answer the sub-questions of this research. It seemed that certain risk factors like socio-economic status, online activities, optimism bias, loneliness, capable guardianship and offline victimization had a significant correlation with victimization. For the factors optimism bias, capable guardianship and loneliness, these results had even a predictive value. Although there is quite an amount of scientific research available on risk factors and victimization, this research shows that there is still not enough knowledge about the behaviour of victims. This is because the studied risk factors have little to do with the actual behaviour of potential victims. Researchers must take a step back to study which existing theories should be better investigated for the existence of other, potential risk factors. With a descent description and formulation of the new risk factors, it would be easier in the future to reduce online and offline victimization based on these risk factors.Show less
Digitalization adds convenience to our lives in many ways. We communicate and do shopping online, turn the heating up at home while leaving the office, and connect the lights to remote control them...Show moreDigitalization adds convenience to our lives in many ways. We communicate and do shopping online, turn the heating up at home while leaving the office, and connect the lights to remote control them from the couch. The examples illustrate how technology has shaped our lives in the past decades. Our interaction with technology has changed dramatically. This development affects organizations as well. Organizations adopt new technologies to service their clients in order to gain competitive advantage. Processes and services are offered digital and in many cases, online. Independent of the processes and services offered, organizations require adequate security measures to protect their assets. As examples in the news illustrate, not doing so may result in serious business impact like loss of reputation, financial losses, operational or legal impact, or even worst case scenarios like bankruptcy. At the same time, there are numerous challenges that organizations face in securing their assets. These challenges include a rapid changing threat landscape, new technologies, vulnerabilities in software, and the strongly interconnected and inherent complex nature of the cyber domain. To what extent are organizations able to protect their assets against cybersecurity threats? How do organizations assess their cybersecurity risks? Do these approaches fit the current cybersecurity challenges? Identifying, analyzing and evaluating cybersecurity risks can become a daunting task. Fortunately, there are many risk frameworks, methods and techniques available that organizations can adopt. Maybe even that many that selecting a fit for purpose approach becomes daunting by itself. This qualitative research explores the current state of cybersecurity risk assessment practices in organizations by researching to what extent the available cybersecurity risk assessment methods and techniques actually have been adopted by organizations. Second, the research investigates whether the chosen approach caters for the challenges in the cyber domain, and what benefits and limitations are perceived.Show less
