Date of Award

Spring 5-12-2023

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Computer Science

First Advisor

Margaret McCoey

Language

English

Abstract

Cybercrime has grown exponentially around the world due to consistently changing technology and the craftiness of cybercriminals often outpacing that of security officers. In the past three decades, cybercrime has been expedited and globally expanded due to the accumulated experience of these criminals, who take advantage of the new found black market, cryptocurrency, and other operations. According to a report published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies titled, “Economic Impact of Cybercrime,” it was found that, “close to $600 billion, nearly one percent of global GDP, is lost to cybercrime each year” (2018). Unfortunately, this number will only continue to increase in the upcoming decades due to the progressiveness of technologies and other digital currencies. This is a global phenomenon and with the anticipation of these numbers rising, countries all over the world will need to be prepared for the impacts of the crime. This crime poses significant social and economic problems that will impact each country differently depending on many different factors. One of these problems is the connection between cybercrime and money laundering. This paper will address the economic impacts of these cybercrimes, specifically money laundering, and in a way that is symbolic to the rest of the world, examine the negative economic impacts of cybercrime-centric money laundering in Kenya, Thailand and France.

Money laundering has been around for decades, as a clandestine white-collar crime that has significant social consequences as well as economic consequences for every country affected. According to the article titled, “Money Laundering: Concept, Significance and its Impact,” money laundering is officially the “process by which large amount of illegally obtained money (from drug trafficking, terrorist activity or other serious crimes) is given the appearance of having originated from the legitimate source” (Kumar, 2012). Essentially, similar to the process of washing or laundering clothes, these criminals are attempting to clean up their dirty money, as well as cover up where they actually received the specific source of income. This laborious process conceals the crime from authorities and officials who could potentially observe and flag them for the associated crimes.

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