Cybercrime knows no limits
by Amelia Mulcahy
From his grass root beginnings as a police officer in Singapore, Dr Kim Kwang (Raymond) Choo always knew he wanted to help people.
Now, 14 years later and armed with a UniSA honours degree and masters, Dr Choo’s work could help people all over the world while he fights cybercrime as a research analyst for the Australian Institute of Criminology, Australia’s national research and knowledge centre on crime and justice.
According to Dr Choo cybercrime is a rapidly expanding form of criminality that knows no borders.
"In our increasingly interconnected world, threats to national security can come from unexpected sources and directions," he said.
"In recent years, cyber exploitation and malicious activity has grown more sophisticated and more serious allowing the information shared by government and private sector bodies to be exploited by criminals and terrorists."
Dr Choo said he was always fascinated with police work when he was young and that was why he signed up to be a police officer in Singapore, in 1995.
"While the early stages of my police work was mainly in front line policing, it was as the officer-in-charge of the computer section that really ignited my passion for computing," he said.
"It’s what led me to undertake my degrees at UniSA. I choose UniSA’s Master of Information Technology as the degree is accredited by the Australian Computer Society."
Dr Choo graduated in 2002 with a Bachelor of Applied Science (honours) Industrial and Applied Maths as well as a Master of Information Technology.
Since then, Dr Choo’s career has known no boundaries.
He went on to complete a PhD scholarship in Information Technology at the Queensland University of Technology, then took his position at the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) in July 2006. He has served as an advisory board member, editorial board member, workshop coordinator, technical program committee member and reviewer for a number of international conferences and journal articles.
Earlier this year, Dr Choo was nominated as one of 10 emerging leaders in the field of innovation as part of The Australian’s "Next 100" series which saw the newspaper search for 100 promising Australians who share the highest standards of professional integrity in their field.
To top it all off, he is one of only 23 Australian recipients to receive a Fulbright Professional Scholarship this year. With the scholarship, Dr Choo will study for three months later this year at the Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice and the Palo Alto Research Centre in the United States.
Dr Choo said he hopes to apply the insight gained from his studies to further develop national cyber security policy and practices in Australia.
"I’m excited at the potential my research has to find out what motivates cybercriminals and to identify weaknesses in current regulations," he said.
"Historically, one of the prime motivations for hacking and virus creation is fame seeking.
"Current trends suggest cybercriminals prefer to be low key so they can maximise their profits or steal privileged information.
"So it’s about undertaking further research to understand the precise nature and effects of cybercrime so we can produce effective responses to combat breaches in information security."
Dr Choo said that the true impact of cybercrime is unknown because of poor detection and under- reporting.
He believes that there needs to be more research undertaken to understand the precise nature and effects of cybercrime so that policy makers can be informed to help them produce efficient and effective responses to cybercrime.
"There is a need to look ahead to future offending as crime in the cyber environment is prone to rapid changes and those who fail to anticipate the future are in for a rude shock when it arrives."