Exploring Threats and Vulnerabilities in Hacker Web: Forums, IRC and Carding Shops Victor Benjamin1, Weifeng Li1, Thomas Holt2, Hsinchun Chen1 1Department of Management Information Systems 2School of Criminal Justice The University of Arizona Michigan State University Tucson, AZ 85721 East Lansing, MI, 48824 {vabenji, weifengli}@email.arizona.edu,
[email protected] [email protected] Abstract— Cybersecurity is a problem of growing thwart existing security threats. Conversely, very little work relevance that impacts all facets of society. As a result, has been done to go beyond technological issues and instead many researchers have become interested in studying focus investigation on the human element behind cybercrime. cybercriminals and online hacker communities in order to For example, much is unknown concerning hacker behaviors, develop more effective cyber defenses. In particular, the cybercriminal supply chain, underground hacker analysis of hacker community contents may reveal existing communities, etc. Specifically, the development of methods to and emerging threats that pose great risk to individuals, model cyber adversaries is one of the critical but unfulfilled businesses, and government. Thus, we are interested in research need outlined in a 2011 report on cybersecurity by the developing an automated methodology for identifying National Science and Technology Council [1]. More research identify tangible and verifiable evidence of potential on “black hat hackers”, i.e., cybercriminals, would offer new threats within hacker forums, IRC channels, and carding knowledge on securing cyberspace against those with shops. To identify threats, we couple machine learning malicious intent, leading to the development of more effective methodology with information retrieval techniques. Our countermeasures against security threats [2].