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Australia lacks cash for cybercrime study

Institute of Criminology rates online menace with old third party data

The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) does not have the resources to repeat its 2009 Australian Business Assessment of Computer User Security (ABACUS) study into the prevalence of cybercrime in Australia.

An AIC spokesperson told The Register that the cost and complexity involved in an ABACUS study is not something the Institute can currently contemplate, and added “It’s certainly important to keep track of the trends in this area, although nationally representative prevalence surveys of cybercrime are rarely undertaken.”

“The AIC will, if resources are available, look to undertake similar surveys to our ABACUS project that was one of the few large-scale business victimisation surveys in this area.”

The AIC's 2011 Australian crime: Facts & figures report therefore use previously-published data from AusCERT and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Both sources collected data for 2010 studies. That leaves the cyber crime section of the AIC's 2011 report reliant on aged data from a year other than that defined as the document's reporting period.

We don't think anyone needs advanced epistemological training to deduce that the report may therefore be a little light-on. ®

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