How AI Is Changing Cybercrime
Jaden Lewis
4/12/2025
Introduction
I have read, “Understanding the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Cybercrime” by Choi, Dearden, and Parti (2024), published in the International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence and Cybercrime. It is an introduction to an article on how artificial intelligence (AI) is used in cybercrime today. The article discusses three different papers, each of which has been studying emerging applications of AI to commit cyber crimes such as deep fakes, social engineering, and malware with AI.
How It Relates to Social Science
This article correlates perfectly with essential concepts in social sciences. The article shows how decision making and human behavior are just as important as technology for cybersecurity. For example, the first study uses Routine Activity Theory (RAT) that commonly crops up in criminology to explain how and why attackers target victims. It also focuses on the way individuals’ internet routines and habits (like clicking unsafe links or skipping training) play a major role in why cyberattacks work. Such things encapsulate determinism (our actions are determined by some aspect) and empiricism (based on empirical observation of the real world).
What the Studies Focus On
The three studies highlighted in the article all have different aims. One examines why healthcare is often being targeted and the way criminals target their victims. Another study investigates the dangers of AI tools like ChatGPT being used to create convincing fraud messages or deep fakes. The last one develops a model relating factors like one’s personality, use of internet, and environment to the risk of committing cybercrime.
Methods and Data
Different methods were used across the studies. Some were case study- and historical event-based, and others involved interviews with cyber security specialists or watching AI actions. One even laid out a new model to guide future research and policy.
Course Topics and Social Impact
This article relates to our module 12 cyber criminology topic. Methods such as internet fraud are used with AI tools in cybercrime. Just as stated in this module, internet fraud is a violation of trust, and when combined with AI it can be difficult to differentiate between human and AI. Deepfakes, which have existed for quite some time now, is another way AI can be used to nonconsensually attach someone’s face to another which can even exist in worlds such as the metaverse. An attack like this in the metaverse can easily lead to ransomware or even other forms of fraud such as romance fraud, where an individual may be misled to believe that they are actually forming a romantic relationship with someone who may not actually be who they say they are, or show themselves to be.
Conclusion
Overall, the article excels at describing how fast cybercrime is evolving as a result of AI. It maintains that we need to study the human side of cybersecurity just as much as we study the technical side. The article calls for more research, stronger education, and creative policies to be ahead of upcoming threats.
Reference
Choi, S., Dearden, T., & Parti, K. (2024). Understanding the use of artificial intelligence in cybercrime. International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence and Cybercrime, 7(2), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.52306/2578-3289.1185