Understanding the Perpetration of Employee Computer Crime in the Organisational Context

Robert Willison
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Robert Willison : Department of Informatics, Copenhagen Business School, Postal: Department of Informatics, Copenhagen Business School, Howitzvej 60 , DK-2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark

No 2006-4, Working Papers from Copenhagen Business School, Department of Informatics

Abstract: While hackers and viruses fuel the IS security concerns for organisations, the problems posed by employee computer crime should not be underestimated. Indeed, a growing number of IS security researchers have turned their attention to the ‘insider’ threat. However, to date, there has been a lack of insight into the relationship between the actual behaviour of offenders during the perpetration of computer crime, and the organisational context in which the behaviour takes place. To address this deficiency, this paper advances two criminological theories, which it is argued can be used to examine the stages an offender must go through in order for a crime to be committed. In addition, this paper illustrates how the two theories, entitled the Rational Choice Perspective and Situational Crime Prevention, can be applied to the IS domain, thereby offering a theoretical basis on which to analyse the offender/context relationship during the perpetration of computer crime. By so doing, practitioners may use these insights to inform and enhance the selection of safeguards in a bid to improve prevention programmes.

Keywords: None (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2006-09-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pbe and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:cbsinf:2006_004

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