- Research Associate
- This person is no longer active in the department.
Research Interest
My current work as a research associate involves three research areas that address the impacts of the Internet in various aspects of our everyday lives, with an emphasis online criminal and deviant behaviours. To effectively address such impacts, an informed understanding on the complexities of cybercrime is necessary. To do so, it is essential to understand how individuals become involved in cybercrime, and how social networks and structures of cybercriminals impact the evolution of their subcultural values, beliefs and behaviors, and countermeasures against cybercrime.
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The first area of research pertains to a framework on unintended harms of cybersecurity countermeasures. The aim is to develop the framework into a tool for stakeholders to identify cyber-physical and socio-technical implications of cybersecurity countermeasures. Current risk management approaches do not consider the potential harms cybersecurity countermeasures may have on user behaviors, the users and the infrastructures. The framework provides a systematic and holistic approach for addressing risks. Future works include expanding on the framework of unintended harms into workshops and programs through collaboration with stakeholders such as support services for intimate partner abuse victims. The framework was presented at the APWG eCrime Symposium 2019 and the paper won the best paper award.
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Second, I examine the role of gender in criminal opportunities and pathways into online criminal and deviant communities. A recent collaborative project with my colleagues examined the role of gender in criminal. The findings suggest a biased view of females as victims and commodities, as well as hacking as an idealized form of masculinity and was presented at the 2nd Conference on Human Factor in Cybercrime in the Netherlands.
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Third, I apply social network approaches to understand the structures and flow of resources within online communities, focusing online underground communities. My doctoral dissertation examines the impacts of participation in online far-right extremist groups on attitudinal changes. In my research, I applied social network analysis and integrated theories from criminology and political science to understand the process of attitudinal change within social networks. Findings suggested that online radicalization occurred at varying degrees in six of seven forums, with a general lowered level of expressed extremism in later years. The study also found strong support for active interactions with forum members and connectedness as predictors of radicalization, while suggesting that other mechanisms, such as self-radicalization and users’ prior beliefs, were also important. Findings from my study highlight the need to for theory integration, detailed measures of online peer association, and cross-platform comparisons (i.e. Telegram and Gab) to address the complex phenomenon of online radicalization.
Biography
Hi! I am a research associate at the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre, at the Department of Computer Science and Technology, a multi-disciplinary initiative combining expertise from computer science, criminology, and law. I recently graduated from Michigan State University, with a PhD in criminal justice
My research interest centers around the goal of understanding the role of the Internet in criminal offending and is shaped primarily by witnessing the increasing role of technology and cyberspace in criminal and deviant behaviors. I have a strong interest in the relationships between online communities and individual-level online criminal and deviant behaviors. My past work with Dr. T. Holt and Dr. O. Smirnova on the grant examined factors affecting the social and financial dynamics of online stolen data markets, which included estimating profits of actors and how product characteristics affect their pricing in these markets. My current work at the Centre continues to focus on various online communities involved in cybercrime.
Themes
Publications
Parkin, S. & Chua, Y. T. (2020). Refining the Blunt Instruments of Cybersecurity: A Framework to Coordinate Prevention and Preservation of Behaviours. 10th International Workshop on Socio-Technical Aspects in Security (STAST 2020). [Preprint]
Vu, A. V., Hughes, J., Pete, I., Collier, B., Chua, Y. T., Shumailov, I., & Hutchings, A. (2020). Turning Up the Dial: the Evolution of a Cybercrime Market Through Set-up, Stable, and COVID-19 Eras. In ACM Internet Measurement Conference 2020. [Preprint]
Pete, I., Hughes, J., Bada, M., & Chua, Y. T. A Social Network Analysis and Comparison of Six Dark Web Forums. WACCO 2020 : Second Workshop on Attackers and Cyber-Crime Operations : IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy 2020.
Bada, M. Chua, Y. T., Collier, B., Pete, I., (forthcoming). Exploring Maculinities and Perceptions of Gender in Online Cybercrime Subcultures. In 2nd Annual Conference on the Human Factor in Cybercrime. [Preprint]
Chua, Y. T., Parkin, S., Edwards, M., Daniela, O., Schiffner, S., Tyson, G., & Hutchings, A. (2019). Identifying Unintended Harms of Cybersecurity Countermeasures. Proceedings of the APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime), Pittsburgh. [Accepted Manuscript]
Chua, Y. T., & Collier, B. Fighting the "Blackheart Airports": Internal Policing in the Chinese Censorship Circumvention Ecosystem. Proceedings of the APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime), Pittsburgh. [Accepted Manuscript]
Pete, I., & Chua, Y. T. (2019). An Assessment of the Usability of Cybercrime Datasets. In 12th USENIX Workshop on Cyber Security Experimentation and Test (CSET’19).
Chua, Y. T.. (2019). Understanding Radicalization Process in Online Far-right Extremist Forums Using Social Influence Model (Doctoral dissertation).
Hutchings, A. & Chua, Y. T. (2016). Gendering Cybercrime. In T. J. Holt (Ed.), Cybercrime through an Interdisciplinary Lens (pp. 167-188). Oxon: Routledge
Holt, T. J., Smirnova, O., & Chua, Y. T. (2016). Data Thieves in Action: Examining the International Market for Stolen Personal Information. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
Chua, Y. T. & Holt, T. J. (2016). A Cross-National Examination of the Techniques of Neutralization to Account for Hacking Behavior. Victims & Offenders 11(4), 534-555.
Holt, T. J., Smirnova, O., & Chua, Y. T.. (2016). Exploring and Estimating the Revenues and Profits of Participants in Stolen Data Markets. Deviant Behavior 37(4), 353-367.
Holt, T. J., Smirnova, O., Chua, Y. T., & Copes, Heith. (2015). Examining the Risk Reduction Strategies of Actors in Online Criminal Markets. Global Crime, 16(2), 81-103.
Holt, T. J., Chua, Y. T., & Smirnova, O. (2013). An Exploration of the Factors Affecting the Advertised Price for Stolen Data. Proceedings of the APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime)
