677
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
1 collections
    0
    shares

      If you have found this article useful and you think it is important that researchers across the world have access, please consider donating, to ensure that this valuable collection remains Open Access.

      State Crime Journal is published by Pluto Journals, an Open Access publisher. This means that everyone has free and unlimited access to the full-text of all articles from our international collection of social science journalsFurthermore Pluto Journals authors don’t pay article processing charges (APCs).

      scite_
       
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      State Crime

      Published
      other
      State Crime Journal
      Pluto Journals
      Bookmark

            Abstract

            <p class="first" id="d33026694e56">Cybercrime and other cybersecurity harms are gaining increasing political and public attention across many countries. One of the most serious and fastest growing categories of such harms relates to ransomware attacks. Many of the groups responsible for ransomware attacks have come under political pressure in recent years as they have become more aggressive in their methods and targeting. On a geopolitical level, an area attracting increasing interest is the complex relationships between ransomware groups and states, in particular, Russia. This paper introduces the concept of state crime to ransomware groups. Starting with the concept of proxies before turning to the historical examples of privateering and piracy, we focus on the notion of “cyber privateers” to analyze two select ransomware groups — DarkSide and REvil — that are believed to be affiliated with the Russian state. We argue that approaching these ransomware groups as cyber privateers engaged in state crime has the potential to enhance our understanding of how these groups operate. We further posit that a state crime perspective also assists in identifying how ransomware may be countered, highlighting the need for policy responses that are effective even when ransomware groups may be tacitly protected by a state. </p>

            Main article text

            STATE CRIME

            Journal of the International State Crime Initiative

            Volume 12 • Number 1 • 2023

            “I think there’s no challenge in our world quite as daunting as finding effective ways to address state crime. I believe that the future of democracy, world peace, and global justice each crucially depend on the capacity of peoples throughout the world to hold the state accountable for its failures to comply with law and its refusals to promote justice.”

            Richard Falk

            Produced and distributed by

            ISSN 2046–6056 (Print)

            ISSN 2046–6064 (Online)

            © INTERNATIONAL STATE CRIME INITIATIVE 2023

            STATE CRIME

            Journal of the International State Crime Initiative

            EDITORS IN CHIEF

            Prof Penny Green (Queen Mary University of London)

            Prof Tony Ward (Northumbria University)

            Prof Kristian Lasslett (University of Ulster)

            Dr Thomas MacManus (Queen Mary University of London)

            BOOK REVIEWS EDITOR

            Dr Dawid Stańczak (Ulster University)

            ASSISTANT EDITOR

            Sophie Knowles-Mofford

            EDITORIAL BOARD

            Dr Michael Grewcock (University New South Wales)

            Prof Neve Gordon (Queen Mary University of London)

            Prof Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

            Dr Vincenzo Bollettino (Harvard University)

            Prof Scott Poynting (Queensland University of Technology)

            Prof Jude McCulloch (Monash University)

            Prof Sharon Pickering (Monash University)

            Dr Elizabeth Stanley (Victoria University)

            Prof Bill Rolston (University of Ulster)

            Prof Frank Pearce (Queen’s University)

            Prof Ron Kramer (Western Michigan University)

            Prof Ray Michalowski (Northern Arizona University)

            Prof Martha K. Huggins (Tulane University)

            Prof Hilal Elver (University of California, Santa Barbara)

            Dr José Atiles-Osoria (University of Illinois)

            Dr Victoria Mason (Australian National University)

            Prof Jeremy Keenan (SOAS, University of London)

            Shaazka Beyerle (John Hopkins University)

            Dr Rachel Seoighe (University of Kent)

            Prof Elisabeth Saatjian Weber (University of California, Santa Barbara)

            Dr Hazel Cameron (Pearl International Insights)

            Prof Jennifer Leaning (Harvard University)

            Prof David Whyte (University of Liverpool)

            Prof Steve Tombs (The Open University)

            Prof Jennifer Schirmer (Harvard University/ London School of Economics)

            Prof David Kauzlarich (Southern Illinois University)

            Dr Cathy Gormley Heenan (University of Ulster)

            Dr Sam Raphael (University of Westminster)

            AIMS AND SCOPE OF THE JOURNAL

            State Crime is the first peer-reviewed, international journal that seeks to disseminate leading research on the illicit practices of states. The concept of state crime is not confined to legally recognized states but can include any entity that exerts political and military control over a substantial territory. The journal’s focus is a reflection of the growing awareness within criminology that state criminality is endemic and acts as a significant barrier to security and development. Contributions from a variety of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives are welcomed. Topics covered by the journal include: torture; genocide and other forms of government and politically organized mass killing; war crimes; state–corporate crime; state-organized crime; natural disasters exacerbated by government (in)action; asylum and refugee policy and practice; state terror; political and economic corruption; and resistance to state violence and corruption. See here for a guide for contributors: http://statecrime.org/journal/notes-for-contributors/

            ABOUT ISCI

            State Crime is administered by the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI). ISCI is a multi-disciplinary, cross-institutional and international initiative designed to collate, analyse and disseminate research-based knowledge about criminal state practices and resistance to them. Launched in 2010 with an inaugural lecture by Robert Fisk, ISCI actively develops and administers diverse spaces which enable state crime researchers to engage in meaningful dialogue with civil society in order to both understand and prevent illicit state practices. ISCI is institutionally supported by Queen Mary University of London and partnered with Northumbria University and the University of Ulster. Further information on ISCI and its members can be found at the initiative’s website: www.statecrime.org.

            CONTENTS

            Articles

            Ransomware through the lens of state crime: Conceptualizing ransomware groups as cyber proxies, pirates, and privateers 4

            James Martin and Chad Whelan

            The politics of fear and the suppression of Indigenous language activism in Asia: Prospects for the United Nations’ Decade of Indigenous Languages 29

            Gerald Roche, Madoka Hammine, Jesus Federico C. Hernandez, and Jess Kruk

            It was the anarchists: The quest for the truth about Italy’s bombs 51

            Vincenzo Scalia

            “We will give our blood, but not our land!”—Repertoires of resistance and state-organized land-grabbing at a Bangladeshi tea plantation 68

            Ashrafuzzaman Khan and Kristian Lasslett

            Book reviews

            Monish Bhatia and Victoria Canning eds. Stealing Time: Migration, Temporalities and State Violence, reviewed by Scott Poynting 96

            Vasja Badalič, The War Against Civilians: Victims of the “War on Terror” in Afghanistan and Pakistan, reviewed by Victoria Canning 100

            Rebecca Adelman and David Kieran eds. Remote Warfare: New Cultures of Violence, reviewed by Rimona Afana 104

            Josephine Beoku-Betts and Fredline A. M’Cormack-Hale eds. War, Women, and Post-Conflict Empowerment: Lessons from Sierra Leone, reviewed by Jillian LaBranche 108

            Nan Sloane, Uncontrollable Women: Radicals, Reformers and Revolutionaries, reviewed by Jade Moran 111

            Obituary

            David O. Friedrichs Obituary by Martin D. Schwartz and Valeria Vegh Weis 113

            Notes on contributors 115

            Author and article information

            Journal
            10.13169/statecrime
            State Crime Journal
            SCJ
            Pluto Journals
            2046-6056
            2046-6064
            26 May 2023
            2023
            : 1
            Article
            10.13169/statecrime.12.1.0001
            f1b9b314-d84d-4d00-8e8c-50f37443c72c

            This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

            History
            Page count
            Pages: 3
            Categories
            Prelims

            Criminology

            Comments

            Comment on this article