Malware Infections in the U.S. during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Study

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world in many ways, especially in the landscape of cyber threats. The pandemic has pro-vided cybercriminals with more opportunities to commit crimes due to more people engaging in online activities, along with the increased use of computers for school, work, and social events. The current study seeks to explore cybercrime trends, in particular malware infections, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, this study examines the relationship between the number of malware in-fections, COVID-19 positive cases, closed non-essential businesses, and closed K-12 public schools in the United States. Data utilized in this study derives from (1) Kaspersky Cyberthreat Real-Time Map, (2) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and (3) COVID-19 US State Policy Database over the course of six months from January of 2020 to June of 2020. The findings of this study reveal that there are associations between the number of malware infections, COVID-19 positive cases, and closed non-essential busi-nesses. However, interestingly, there is no link between the number of malware infections and closed K-12 public schools. Policy impli-cations and the limitations of this study are also discussed

The Severity and Certainty of Punishment on the Cyberstalking Offense: An Application of Deterrence Theory

Technological advancements have benefited society in numerous ways yet have provided offenders with new criminal opportunities through cyberspace. Crimes of stalking traditionally committed within physical space have now progressed into cyberstalking via the virtual world. There have been few empirical studies that examine the characteristics of cyberstalking offenders in relation to their incarceration sentence. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to apply elements of deterrence theory (the severity and certainty of punishment) to investigate what factors influence cyberstalking punishments. The findings of the study indicate that there is a relationship between type of offense and penalty and between severity of damage to the victim and penalty. The study found no relationship between number of law enforcement agencies and penalty. Policy implications and limitations of this study are discussed