Trust in the world of cybercrime

The article “Trust in the World of Cybercrime” by Jonathan Lusthaus explores the complex mechanisms through which cybercriminals establish and maintain trust in an inherently anonymous and risky environment. Despite the challenges posed by online anonymity, which makes it difficult to assess the trustworthiness of others, cybercriminals have developed several strategies to build trust and facilitate collaboration.

Lusthaus identifies three key mechanisms that cybercriminals use to manage trust:

Establishing Cybercriminal Identities: Cybercriminals often create online personas or aliases that serve as their digital identity. These identities are carefully curated to build a reputation within the cybercriminal community. Over time, a trusted identity becomes a valuable asset, which can be leveraged to form new collaborations and attract business.
Assessing Cybercriminal Attributes: Within cybercriminal communities, various methods are used to verify the skills, reliability, and intentions of potential collaborators. This can include checking previous transactions, analyzing the quality of products or services offered, and even conducting tests to evaluate the technical knowledge of an individual.
Extra-Legal Governance: To enforce agreements and resolve disputes, cybercriminals rely on informal governance mechanisms, such as reputation systems on darknet marketplaces, where users rate each other based on their experiences. In some cases, forum administrators or moderators act as intermediaries to ensure that transactions are honored.

Lusthaus’s research underscores the paradox of trust in cybercrime: while anonymity is crucial for avoiding detection, cybercriminals must also build a recognizable and trustworthy identity to succeed in the underground economy. This delicate balance between anonymity and reputation is central to the functioning of cybercriminal networks(Office of Justice Programs, UNODC).