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Degree Specialization in Fraud and Financial Crimes

Advance your financial career and help to protect secure information as you focus on the prevention of deceitful practices..

Fraud comes in many forms. With this program, you can learn to prevent it, as well as investigate the crime after it has occurred. The Fraud and Financial Crimes program is designed to meet the educational needs of professionals who are responsible for fraud investigation and prevention. This program will also help broaden your knowledge of the financial field.

You'll learn how to implement preventative measures, as well as how to utilize modern technologies for data analysis and investigation. Through this program, you will also gain a better understanding of the legal implications and challenges of fraud management.

Courses In This Specialization

This program consists of four graduate online Fraud and Financial Crimes courses for a total of 12 credit hours.

CRJ555 - Fraud Examination and Prevention

CRJ556 - Criminal Justice and Legal Concepts of Fraud

CRJ557 - Fraud Investigation

CRJ558 - Fraud Data Analysis

Corresponding Master Degree Programs

A specialization in Fraud and Financial Crimes pairs well with the following:

• Business Administration
• Criminal Justice
• Data Analytics

Why You Should Consider a Graduate Specialization

Customize your master’s degree with a specialization that fits your professional aspirations and personal ambitions. Just add additional, upper-division courses to your degree program, and gain skills in a related subject that complements your degree. Much like a minor, or degree concentration, a graduate specialization allows you the opportunity to examine an additional area of interest. Add a specialization to your master’s degree to showcase career-specific skills that meet your professional goals.

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• Areas of Research

Financial Crime

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Financial crime (and efforts to tackle such crime) has long been an area of strength at IALS. Expertise at the Institute is recognised internationally, by governments, civil servants, practitioners and other academics. The Institute has a track-record of funded research projects in this area (including as far back as the EU Falcone and Grotius Programmes). Particular strengths include anti-money laundering; counter-terrorist financing; proceeds of crime; bribery/ corruption; fraud; corporate crime; white-collar crime and punishment; financial crime and regulation; the financial crisis; art crime; and professional crimes.

The Institute has a number of PhD graduates who completed their doctoral theses on financial crime-related subjects, such as anti-money laundering in different countries (eg China; Nigeria; UK; USA); anti-corruption; tax evasion; and the financial crisis. 

Both the Institute and the  Society for Advanced Legal Studies  are involved in the annual  International Symposium on Economic Crime  held at Jesus College Cambridge. 

Financial Crime and Cyber Crime Research Network

Details about the Financial Crime and Cyber Crime Research Network at UWE Bristol

The Financial Crime and Cyber Crime Research Network comprises members of the Global Crime, Justice and Security Research Group , the Computer Science Research Centre  at UWE Bristol, and external scholars.

View the profiles of the Network members who lead research into financial and cyber crime.

Dr Mary Young , Senior Lecturer, UWE Bristol Mary is a recognised subject expert in financial crime in offshore financial centres and transnational organised crime. She is a subject expert for the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, and a contributing intelligence analyst with Open Briefing. She has been researching the complex relationship between financial secrecy, criminal proceeds and offshore financial centres since 2003, when she undertook the LLM International Business Law at Aberystwyth University – she later focused on the subject for her PhD (Aberystwyth University, 2011).

Mary’s main research interests surround the concept of confiscation law and its interaction with financial secrecy laws. She is also interested in transnational crime at the wider level, particularly drug trafficking and its interaction with drug trafficking. In October 2012, Mary gave a training workshop on offshore financial centres and money laundering for members of the Abu Dhabi Police force, held at the (former) Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) headquarters. In 2013, Mary was interviewed on the subjects of money laundering and offshore banking for international publications including the  LA Times . She was interviewed in 2014 by the Eastern Europe desk of  Deutsche Welle  (the German news broadcaster), the  Financial Times , and was invited to speak by Dods Parliamentary Communications.  With recent and forthcoming projects, she has concentrated on empirical research to uncover the truths behind wildlife trafficking and money laundering in Vietnam. Mary was a Visiting Research Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, Cambridge University (2015 and 2017).

Samantha Bourton ,  Lecturer in Law, UWE Bristol Sam has been an Assistant Support Lecturer in the College of Business and Law at UWE Bristol since November 2014. Her research interests focus on tax evasion, money laundering and fraud. She has published on the areas of money laundering and tax evasion, including the implications of the Fourth European Money Laundering Directive and the response by the UK authorities to the recent HSBC bank tax evasion scandal. Sam is currently working on a book chapter evaluating the responses in the UK and USA to mortgage fraud since the financial crisis of 2007 to 2008. 

Dr Phil Legg , Associate Professor in Cyber Security, UWE Bristol

Phil is an Associate Professor in Cyber Security and Programme Leader for MSc Cyber Security at UWE Bristol. His research interests address the intersections of cyber security, machine learning, visual analytics, and human-computer interaction. He has led externally-funded research projects and works closely with industry partners on PhD research studentships in the areas of cyber, defence and national security, and on industrial consultancy projects. 

Phil is the Programme Leader for MSc Cyber Security course at UWE Bristol, which has been provisionally certified by the NCSC. He teaches Information Risk Management on  MSc Cyber Security , and Security Data Analytics and Visualisation on  BSc Cyber Security and Digital Forensics . Phil supervises PhD students as well as a number of  undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations each year.

He is  also co-founder of the  Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education UK (CISSEUK) , supported by the NCSC, which aims to promote sharing and collaboration to improve cyber security education across the UK.  

Ian Johnson , Associate Head of Department of Information Science, UWE Bristol

Ian is currently Associate Head of Department/Cluster Leader for Cyber Security and Business Computing) in the College of Arts, Technology and Environment at UWE Bristol, where he is responsible for managing roughly a third of the department's staff. Prior to this, he was Programme Leader for the BSc Forensic Computing and Security programme (now renamed Cyber Security and Digital Forensics). He is a highly experienced teacher and academic with a history of programme and module design. He has designed and led modules for nearly 30 years in a number of programmes from the MSc Parallel Computer Systems (1989) through the MSc Systems Administration and Security, to the current undergraduate Forensic Computing and Security programme, for which he led the redesign in 2016. 

Ian's main interests are networks and network security, operating systems and embedded systems. He also has interests covering a wide gamut of cyber security issues, from embedded systems security, through network forensics to the traceability of digital currency transactions.

Diana Johnson , Programme Leader LLB

Diana is a programme leader on the LLB and is a solicitor with several years of practice experience. Before working at UWE Bristol, Diana worked in the European Commission’s Directorate for Competition, then in an international law firm in Brussels and law firms in Bristol. Her research interests focus on the role competition law plays in the enforcement and regulation of financial crime, specifically that of benchmark rate manipulation. Diana has written several articles and a book chapter for an edited collection by Routledge. Diana is undertaking a PhD in financial crime and competition law.

Dr Ester Herlin-Karnell ,  Associate Professor of EU Constitutional Law and Justice, VU University of Amsterdam

Ester is a Professor of EU Constitutional Law and Justice and the Co-Director of the VU Centre for European Legal Studies. Her publications include a monograph on the constitutional dimension of European criminal law (Hart publishing, 2012) and numerous articles on the EU security regulation, EU criminal law, constitutional aspects of EU law and on regulatory market-based challenges in the EU’s fight against financial crimes and terrorism. She is also the co-author (with Nicholas Ryder) of  Market manipulation and the financial crisis: Regulatory challenges and responses in United States of America, the European Union and the United Kingdom , (forthcoming Hart Publishing 2018), as well as the co-editor (with M Fletcher and C Matera) of  The European Union as an Area of  
 Freedom, Security and Justice .

Dr Umut Turksen , Professor in Law, Coventry University

Umut has 15 years of international experience in designing, managing and delivering legal education, research and high impact consultancy projects in prestigious organisation.  Umut is the Head of Commercial Law Research Unit. He is a business facing academic who is currently researching the risks, challenges and opportunities that the digital assets and property pose for society. He has published extensively in the area of financial crime and brings a wide range of expertise and experience in areas including international trade and economic law, energy law, counter-terrorism law, financial crime and banking regulations, commercial law and European Union law.

Saamir Nizam , Solicitor at DWF, Editor-in-Chief, Scottish Parliamentary Review and The British Journal of White Collar Crime

Saamir is chief editor of  The British Journal of White Collar Crime  and the  Scottish Parliamentary Review . Saamir has over 25 years of experience in researching and drafting legislation, committee reports, and investigative materials relating to financial and budgetary matters. In the past, Saamir participated in the BCCI investigation (and legislative/regulatory responses), the savings and loan crisis (and resulting legislation), financial failures by municipalities and public bodies, and more recently, the mortgage loan crises. His legal practice will entail EU/UK/US competition/antitrust law, cartel offences, corporate investigations, and white collar criminal defence. Saamir holds a BA (George Washington), LLB (Edinburgh Napier), MSc and Dip LP (Edinburgh) degrees and is currently a visiting scholar and tutor at the University of St Andrews.

Andrew Baker , Senior Lecture, Liverpool John Moores University

Andrew is a senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University. His research interests are in the regulation of banks and financial crime. A specific focus of his interests is in the links between regulation and market abuse, and whether an alternative to the current regulatory reforms could be found in an enhanced sanctions-based regime. Other research interests include the confiscation of criminally obtained assets and the difficulties posed by law enforcement in denying criminal enterprises the fruits of the illegal activities.  Andrew is a doctoral candidate at UWE Bristol researching the current developments in regulatory reform, with a focus on the complexity of regulatory regimes and what alternative mechanisms are available. Andrew has written articles on corporate social responsibility in banks and on the UK market abuse regime. He is course leader for Bank and Financial Services Regulation and Law Relating to Financial Crime on the LLB and LJMU and course leader for Financial Crime on the LLM.

Paul Keenan , Keenan Regulatory Consulting Limited

A senior financial markets professional with extensive and diverse knowledge, skills and experience gained in both on-shore and off-shore investment environments at board and CEO level. Paul has in-depth knowledge of the complex products, the required systems and controls, and regulatory supervision and enforcement in those investment environments that he built on a career in inter-governmental projects and financing, investment banking, regulation and education over 40 years. He also has broad experience of working at committee level with the finance industry's Trade Associations.

The breadth and depth of this combination of professional experiences has uniquely qualified Paul to contribute at a high level to all aspects of the regulatory risk management function. He has a good reputation for the ability to communicate complex ideas to non-expert groups, and for training and coaching others in the intricacies and requirements of compliance policy, from the trading floor up to Board level. He is a highly regarded speaker on regulatory risk and financial crime (AML) issues at Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), Complinet and academic seminars.

Professor Jackie Harvey, Professor of Financial Management, Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University

Jackie Harvey is Professor of Financial Management and Director of Business Research at Newcastle Business School. Her research is focused in the area of criminal financial management, in particular money laundering.  Early outputs considered costs and benefits of regulatory compliance before moving on to evaluate the effectiveness of the Anti-Money Laundering Framework.  Jackie has been invited to speak at a number of very high profile academic and practitioner conferences in both the UK and Europe. She is on the Editorial Board for the European Cross-Border Crime Colloquium that brings together researchers from across Europe. Her main teaching interests focus on risk and investment management together with financial market regulation.  Prior to becoming an academic, Jackie, whose PhD is in Taxation Policy, spent 10 years working for a major merchant bank, followed by a three year posting as fiscal policy adviser (under the auspices of the British Government) to the Ministry of Finance in Belize.

Dr Colin King , Reader in Law, The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies

Colin King has joined the Institute as Reader in Law from 1 October 2019. Colin previously worked at the School of Law, University of Sussex, where he co-founded the Sussex Crime Research Centre. Prior to joining Sussex in 2015, Dr King taught at the Universities of Manchester and Leeds. He received his LLB in Law and European Studies, as well as his PhD, from the University of Limerick. Colin has recently published two books,  The Handbook of Criminal and Terrorism Financing Law  (2018) and  Negotiated Justice and Corporate Crime: The Legitimacy of Civil Recovery and Deferred Prosecution Agreements  (2018). In March 2016, Colin gave oral evidence at the Home Affairs Select Committee Inquiry into the Proceeds of Crime Act. He is a member of the AHRC Peer Review College (2015-), on the editorial board of Lloyds Law Reports: Financial Crime (2015-), and an Academic Fellow at the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple (2014-). His teaching is in the areas of Criminal Law; Criminal Evidence; Transnational Offending; Financial Crime; and Banking Law. His research focuses on civil recovery (NCB forfeiture), particularly in Ireland, the UK, the EU, and with reference to the ECHR. Colin is co-editor of  Dirty Assets: Emerging Issues in the Regulation of Criminal and Terrorist Assets  (King and Walker, Ashgate, 2014).

Dr Alison Lui,  Reader in Corporate and Financial Law at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU)

Alison is a Reader in Corporate and Financial Law. She is the Associate Dean (Global Engagement) for the Faculty of Business and Law at LJMU.  Alison obtained her LLB (European Legal Studies) from the University of Bristol. She spent a year in Germany as part of her undergraduate degree. She then studied a LLM (Corporate and Commercial Law) at the London School of Economics. She obtained her PhD from the University of Liverpool. She qualified as a Solicitor and practised commercial law before joining LJMU. She is a joint module leader for Bank and Financial Services Regulation on the LL.B programme.  Alison’s research interests are predominantly in financial regulation and corporate governance. She has published articles and book chapters. Her monograph  Financial stability and prudential regulation: A comparison between the regulators and central banks of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany  was published in 2016 with Routledge. She has also appeared in radio programmes. Alison has won a number of awards to date. In 2010, she was runner-up in the British Federation of Women Graduates Travel Bursary Competition. In 2011, she was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship. A year later, she was a joint winner of a Higher Education Authority grant for employability and social media. In 2013, she was awarded an LJMU Early Career Researcher Fellowship. Alison won a Max Planck Society Scholarship in 2015, which enabled her to spend three months at the Max Planck Institute of Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg to conduct research into financial regulation. Alison is an Academic Fellow of the Honorary Society of the Inner Temple. She is a reviewer of the Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance.

Dr Steven Cairns , Lecturer in Banking and Corporate Law, University of Leeds

Steven is a specialist in the role of corporate governance in preventing financial crime within multinational financial groups. His doctoral thesis, entitled  Changing the Culture of Financial Regulation: A Corporate Governance Approach , analysed the roles and responsibilities of the director (both executive and non-executive) within large corporate groups. His research used the global financial crisis as a lens for wider critique. Dr Cairns’ subsequent research has focused on the liability of directors for decision making within the corporate structure. His wider research interests focus on the roles and responsibilities of formal regulators and the board of directors. He currently delivers lectures on banking regulation and financial crime to both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Dr Lorenzo Pasculli , Associate Head of School at Coventry University

Lorenzo is Assistant Professor of Law at Coventry Law School and Associate of the Centre for Financial and Corporate Integrity at Coventry University. He is the founding Director of the Global Integrity Research Network and Sessional Lecturer in Conflict, Crime and Justice and Law and Professional Ethics for Science and Technology at Imperial College London. Prior to my appointment in Coventry, he was Senior Lecturer in Law at Kingston University London. He has been a visiting researcher at many institutions in the UK and overseas, including Oxford University, Queen's University Belfast, Columbia University, Fordham University, University of Adelaide, Florida International University and Bahcesehir Universitesi Istanbul. Lorenzo's main research interest concern on the prevention of global crimes, such as transnational corruption, corporate crimes, organised crime and terrorism.  His first book on the Measures of Prevention of International Terrorism and Criminal Trafficking (2012) was awarded the international prize "Opera Selezionata G. Falcone - P. Borsellino" in 2015.

You may also be interested in

Global Crime, Justice and Security Research Group (GCJS)

A forum for research activity in the field of financial crime, criminal justice and procedure, serious organised crime and cyber security.

Computer Science Research Centre (CSRC)

Undertaking fundamental and applied research in computer science.

Financial Crime Management

There’s a growing need today for professionals who can skillfully prevent, detect, and investigate illicit financial activities. This program is only available in person.

The Financial Crime Management program gives you the skills and confidence to pursue a career in the fields of private sector compliance and investigations, government intelligence, training and research with multilateral organizations, and anti-corruption compliance for NGOs.

The Institute’s Financial Crime Management Certificate can be taken as a specialization for students currently enrolled in an Institute degree program or as a stand-alone certificate for nondegree students. Individuals interested in the stand-alone certificate should have a graduate degree or several years of relevant work experience in areas such as law, law enforcement, intelligence, banking, or data analytics.

Upon completion, students will be prepared to do the following:

• Uncover financial crime in public, private, and nonprofit contexts.
• Analyze cyber risks relating to financial crimes and help organizations take measures to prevent them.
• Help organizations make effective use of data analytics in financial crime compliance.
• Ensure conformity to laws regulating financial crimes, such as the Bank Secrecy Act, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, Sarbanes Oxley Act, and Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions, as well as non-U.S. laws, such as the U.K. Bribery Act, and international standards issued by the Financial Action Task Force.
• Communicate a financial crime analysis report in clear, direct, jargon-free style via written, verbal, and visual schematics.
• Identify violations of laws and regulations in the context of organized crime, corruption, terrorism, and WMD proliferation, and work to proactively thwart such activities.

The certificate consists of 16 credits. Core classes are only offered in the spring semester. Electives are available in the spring and fall semesters and winter term.

Core (6 credits)

• Financial Crime Typologies (3 credits)
• Legal Aspects of Compliance (3 credits)

Electives (10 credits)

Sample courses:

• Financial Crime Investigations & Compliance in Practice (2 credits)
• Network Analysis (4 credits)
• Intro to Crypto, Web 3.0, and DeFi (2 credits)
• Blockchain Analytics (2 credits)
• CyberSecurity: Operational Perspective (2 credits)
• Quantitative Data Analysis with Excel (1 credit)
• SQL Basics (1 credit)
• Intro to Intelligence (4 credits)Terrorism Financing Seminar (4 credits)
• Transnational Crime & Terrorism (1 credit)
• Corruption Seminar (4 credits)
• WMD Proliferation Financing (1 credit)
• Strategic Trade Controls (4 credits)
• Import/Export/Trade Law Compliance (3 credits)

Financial Crime Intelligence and Management

Learn more about the Financial Crime Management specialization and our Alumni’s career outcomes.

Alumni of the financial crime management program have used the skills they learned in the following sectors and organizations:

• Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)
• Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)
• Terrorism and Financial Intelligence
• Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
• Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)
• U.S. State Department
• Department of Justice
• Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry & Security 
• U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)

Private sector intelligence

• Thomson Reuters Special Services
• TR Worldcheck
• Mintz Group
• Camstoll Group
• Charles Schwab
• JPMorganChase
• BNP Paribas
• Wells Fargo
• Western Union
• Bank of the West
• Ernst & Young

International

• U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
• Square/Block

If you take 12–16 credits in a semester, you will be charged the full-time rate.

If you take 11 or fewer credits in a semester, you will be charged at the per credit rate:

Visit our tuition page  for details of each rate.

How to Apply

If you are interested in the certificate, visit the  how to apply page  for the MA in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies but please note that the following are not required for applicants to the certificate program:

• Admissions interview
• Second language proficiency
• Current students: contact Professor Moyara Ruehsen
• Prospective students: contact your  enrollment advisor

Featured News

News Stories

How New Technologies Are Changing Global Security

January 5, 2024 | by Moyara Ruehsen

Professor Moyara Ruehsen recently shared some insights into how AI, blockchain and other technologies are shifting financial crime and the skills that new professionals will need.

How I Got Hired: Senior Analyst for Global Trade Compliance, Neurocrine Biosciences

February 1, 2023 | by Ariah Barth MAITED ’20

International Trade graduate Ariah Barth describes how program coursework and class projects helped prepare her to launch her career as a trade compliance analyst.

The META Lab, the Data Analytics Hub of the Institute

November 2, 2022 | by Jessie Raymond

The largely student-run initiative provides students, faculty, and community partners with data analysis services ranging from software training to program evaluation to collaborative projects.  

Dawes Centre for Future Crime at UCL

PhD Research

Can we predict new and evolving crimes? And if we can predict them, can we prevent them?

Below you can read about the PhD projects currently underway and being funded by the Dawes Centre for Future Crimes.

Crime is known to cluster in time and space. Methods for space-time clustering analysis of crime include Kernel Density Estimation, Dual Kernel Density Estimation, and Local and Global Moran’s I Index, to name a few. The applicability of these methods is possible because the four most common sub-concepts of the physical space – place, distance, size, and route – are well understood. For this reason, we are able to locate crime “hot-spots” and thus inform effective place-based crime prevention policies and strategies.

Nevertheless, the sub-concepts of space – place, distance, size, route – are not the same in the cyberspace as in the physical space. Therefore, space-time clustering analysis of cybercrime requires new means by which place, distance, size, and route can be conceptualised and measured in the cyberspace. The aim of my research is two-folded. First, I aim to develop a framework that can measure the cyberspace and map cybercrime with reference to both the physical and virtual space. Second, I aim to demonstrate how the framework can be implemented to conduct space-time clustering of cybercrime both in the physical and online space. The findings of this research study can inform and provide the security industry and policy-makers with effective deployable solutions to targeting cybercrime.

PhD start year: 2017  PhD researcher: Octavian Bordeneau   PhD supervisors: Dr Toby Davies, UCL Security and Crime Science and Dr Gianluca Stringhini, UCL Computer Science. Contact: [email protected]

• Llinares, M.L. and Johnson, S.D. (2017). Cybercrime and Place Applying Environmental Criminology to Crimes in Cyberspace . In G Bruinsma and S Johnson (Eds.) Handbook of Environmental Criminology . New York: Oxford University Press.
• Fernando Miró Llinares and Shane D. Johnson. (2018). Cybercrime and Place: Applying Environmental Criminology to Crimes in Cyberspace . The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Criminology. Edited by Gerben J.N. Bruinsma and Shane D. Johnson. 
• Bordeanu, O. C., Stringhini, G., Shen, Y., Davies, T. (2021), JABBIC Lookups: A Backend Telemetry-Based System for Malware Triage . In: Garcia-Alfaro J., Li S., Poovendran R., Debar H., Yung M. (eds) Security and Privacy in Communication Networks. 

Living in the most digitally exciting times with technologies that introduce a smarter life and bring a faster industrial revolution, the new generation of criminals are inevitably becoming more ‘tech savvy’ than ever before. Advances in biology makes even more exciting technologies such as DNA sequencing and engineering publicly available and accessible, regardless of technical background. This highlights the urgency of trying to understand and foresee potential illicit activities that are possible with these rapidly developing technologies.

We continue to face the ongoing challenge of cybersecurity as a result of the launch of the internet in the public domain without any pre-planned defence systems against cybercrime and we are yet to see another paradigm shift in crime. The future challenge from the commercialisation of various biological techniques and the potential “Bio-crimes” that will inevitably appear, must be understood in order to put security systems in place.

This research project will overview the technologies that are catalysing this paradigm shift of crime. The social changes shaped from these technologies will then be explored to identify the new opportunities of offending they produce, here referred to as “Bio-crime”. The aim is to determine how these emerging trends might best be identified at the earliest possible stage before they escalate. Data science techniques will be predominately used to predict how, when and what form these new opportunities will have. Can we predict and defend ourselves from the new offending opportunities?

PhD start year: 2017 PhD researcher: Mariam Elgabry  PhD supervisors: Prof Shane Johnson, UCL Security and Crime Science and Dr Darren Nesbeth, UCL Biochemical Engineering. Contact: [email protected]         https://medium.com/@mariamelgab         http://uclsecretsociety.org/mariamelgabry/             https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariam-elgabry/        

• UCL 7 Questions with Mariam Elgabry
• A Systematic Review of the Criminogenic Potential of Synthetic Biology and Routes to Future Crime Prevention
• Article in Policing Insight on bio-crime and covid-19
• Bio-crime and Covid-19 report
• MedTech Integrates conference (UK)
• A systematic review protocol for crime trends facilitated by synthetic biology
• UK Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy for Biosecurity and national security, in light of Covid-19
• Elgabry, M. and Camilleri, J. (2021) Conducting hidden populations research: A reflective case  study on researching the biohacking community , Futures, 132. Hutt, O. K., Bowers, K., & Johnson, S. D. (2021). The effect of GPS refresh rate on measuring police patrol in micro-places. Crime Science, 10(1), 1-14.
• Joint and Individual NGO Statements to Biological Weapons Convention, United Nations, Meetings of State Parties, Geneva, 22 – 25 November 2021. UN Web TV
• Joint NGO Statement to Biological Weapons Convention , United Nations, Meetings of Experts, Geneva, 30 August – 8 September 2021. UN Web TV
• Elgabry, M. (2021) Policy brief: Synthetic biology and future crime , Dawes Centre for Future Crime, UCL
• Elgabry, M. (2021) National Machinery: Red-Teaming Approach Written Evidence . UK Parliament Joint Committee on National Security and Machinery, UK Parliament
• Elgabry, M., Nesbeth, D., Johnson, S., (2022), The Future of Biotechnology Crime: A Parallel Delphi Study with Non-Traditional Experts , Futures, 102970, ISSN 0016-3287.

In December 2013, the Greater London Authority published a plan outlining how the creative power of data and technology will be used to improve the infrastructure of London and establish “Smart London”. Smart cities incorporate technological advances such as autonomous vehicles, smart street lightings, smart solar charger points, networked lamp-post sensors for environment data collection, smart CCTV applications and smart trash cans to name a few. The intelligent devices within the street infrastructure are inherently insecure and have the potential to launch cybercrimes, posing a real threat to the society. The UK Government’s vision for 2021 is to ensure security and resilience to cyber threats as the country progresses to become more digitised. There is also a focus on future proofing London until 2050 so that London retains its place as one of the world’s leading cities.

The aim of the proposed research is to gather the holistic view of the overall smart street infrastructure operating model and its resilience to possible types of cybercrimes in the future smart city of London. The expected outcome of this research is to evaluate possible gaps and risks to cyber security in the operational management of London’s future smart street infrastructure. The long term goal is to study the ongoing effectiveness of cyber security measures on smart London streets through regulations and policies. This research can be extended to other leading cities of the world expecting to implement the smart infrastructure. 

PhD start year: 2017 PhD researcher: Meha Shukla PhD supervisors: Prof Shane Johnson, UCL Security and Crime Science and Prof Peter Jones, UCL Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering. Contact: [email protected]

• Shukla, M., Johnson, S. D., & Jones, P. (2019, June). Does the NIS implementation strategy effectively address cyber security risks in the UK? In 2019 International Conference on Cyber Security and Protection of Digital Services (Cyber Security) (pp. 1-11). IEEE

The threat landscape relating to cyberweapons and cyber warfare is increasingly dominated by vulnerabilities in internet-connected devices, vehicles, implants, and infrastructure; industrial control systems; and widely-used protocols and applications. The incidence of such vulnerabilities being exploited by criminals, terrorists, and hostile states continues to increase, and the sophistication and ambition of threat actors is escalating rapidly.

Despite these developments, however, the current discourse on cyberweapons and cyber warfare tends to focus heavily on the implications for technical infrastructure, the economy, and wider issues such as policy and legislation, without considering the physical and psychological impacts on humans. 

My research focuses on these effects. There are two major motivations for this; first, to contribute to tactical, policy, and legislative frameworks relating to cyberweapons; and second, to develop robust countermeasures for such effects - thereby providing responders and investigators with effective mitigation strategies, and reducing the threat posed by cyberweapons.

PhD start year: 2018 PhD researcher: Matt Wixey PhD supervisors: Prof Shane Johnson, UCL Security and Crime Science and Dr Emiliano De Cristofaro, UCL Computer Science Contact: [email protected]

• M. Wixey, E. De Cristofaro and S. D. Johnson, On the Feasibility of Acoustic Attacks Using Commodity Smart Devices , 2020 IEEE Security and Privacy Workshops (SPW), 2020, pp. 88-97.

The internet provides vast amounts of information. More and more people engage in online activities through social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter etc.) or online markets (e-bay, Amazon etc.). Such environments enable individuals with malicious intents to affect massive amounts of people. Authorities have the problem of finding such individuals. The amount of data available is simply too much to be analyzed by humans alone. However, the current information technology enables proficient analyses and inferences from big data, which can support authorities in their work.

Automated methods, such as machine learning (ML) or natural language processing (NLP) techniques are a viable solution to that problem. These techniques are able to meaningful analyze enormous amounts of data. NLP methods can extract grammatical or semantic information from text. For example, finding linguistic commonalities of fraudulent advertisements can be utilized to train ML classifiers, which can then categorize advertisements in being fraudulent or non-fraudulent. With the help of such techniques possible emerging crimes can be uncovered, which would be otherwise not possible.

It is aimed to utilize such automated methods to support authorities in their work with huge amounts of data. Gathering insights from companies and authorities from past crimes will help to establish criteria, which the automated methods will operate on. The goal of this research is to combine human knowledge and data science techniques to find potential emerging crimes, support future human decision making and find ways of preventing new crimes.

PhD start year: 2018 PhD researcher: Felix Soldner PhD supervisors: Prof Shane Johnson, UCL Security and Crime Science, Dr Bennett Kleinberg, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]     http://fsoldner.net/    

• F Soldner, JCT Ho, M Makhortykh, I Van der Vegt, M Mozes, B Kleinberg, Workshop on Natural Language Processing and Computational Social Science,  Uphill from here: Sentiment patterns in videos from left-and right-wingYouTube news channels
• Soldner F, Kleinberg B, Johnson SD (2022) Confounds and overestimations in fake review detection: Experimentally controlling for product-ownership and data-origin . PLoS ONE 17(12): e0277869.
• van der Vegt, I., Mozes, M., Gill, P. et al. (2021) Online influence, offline violence: language use on YouTube surrounding the ‘Unite the Right’ rally . J Comput Soc Sc 4, 333–354.
• Soldner, F., Tanczer, L. M., Hammocks, D., Lopez-Neira, I., & Johnson, S. D. (2021). Using Machine Learning Methods to Study Technology-Facilitated Abuse: Evidence from the Analysis of UK Crimestoppers’ Text Data. In The Palgrave Handbook of Gendered Violence and Technology (pp. 481-503). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
• Soldner, F., Kleinberg, B., & Johnson, S. (2022). Trends in online consumer fraud: A data science perspective . In A Fresh Look at Fraud (pp. 167-191). Routledge 

The use of the Internet and online Social Networks (OSN) has increased drastically in recent years, and increased exposure of children to Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) has followed. However, few empirical studies have been conducted to address the factors that contribute to exposing children to child sexual abusers online and to identify the characteristics of the individuals who contact them. Recent studies have demonstrated that child sexual abusers come from various demographic backgrounds and that it is a challenge to describe a ‘typical’ offender. Studies have also shown that girls are more exposed to CSA attacks than boys but identified no differences in victim ethnicities.

Based on Routine Activity Approach (RAA), my PhD research extends the published work by introducing a methodology to explore the online social communities where probable offenders and children interact and investigating the characteristics of both, as well as any associations between them. The knowledge obtained from this experiment could be used by many private and public sectors such as: law enforcement, child protection entities, school teachers, social media platform developers, parents and children.

PhD start year: 2018 PhD researcher: Somaya Ali PhD supervisors: Prof Richard Wortley, UCL Security and Crime Science, Dr Jyoti Belur, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]

The use of smart city technology is growing rapidly around the world and it is becoming a reality of our daily lives. While most of the technologies employed in such systems already exist in various other contexts (e.g. cameras or audio sensors), it is the depth of interconnectivity and the use of vast amounts of data that are key to the idea of a smart city. In addition to the advantages these technologies offer for many urban challenges such as transportation, waste management, and environmental protection, they also create new opportunities for crime prevention now and in the future.

However, new security technologies may cause controversy because of the threat they can pose to personal data and privacy, which can lead to a lack public support, making them fail in the long-term. This can have serious consequences for the companies designing them, the end-users who employ them, the governments who authorise them, and the citizens whose security or personal data may be compromised.

Ultimately, the goal of the proposed research is to identify how new smart city technologies may be used for crime prevention and identify possible obstacles to their implementation. Special emphasis will be placed on how different technologies are perceived and with what level of public support they are met. In addition, the study aims to test to what extent public perception of smart city interventions correlates with risks previously identified by practitioners. Overall, the study aims for practical applicability by identifying specific interventions and criteria for their '(social) acceptability', laying the groundwork for their future implementation in the United Kingdom. PhD start year: 2018

PhD start year: 2018 PhD researcher: Julian Laufs PhD supervisors: Dr Herve Borrion, UCL Security and Crime Science, Prof Ben Bradford, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]   https://urbanviolence.org/user/julian.laufs/  

https://shoc.rusi.org/members/julian-laufs    

• Laufs, J. & Waseem, Z. (2020). Policing in Pandemics: A Systematic Review and Best Practices for Police Response to COVID-19 . International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 101812. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101812
• Laufs, J., Bowers, K., Birks, D., & Johnson, S. (2020). Understanding the Concept of ‘Demand’ in Policing: A Scoping Review and Resulting Implications for Demand Management . Policing & Society. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2020.1791862
• Laufs, J., Borrion, H., & Bradford, B. (2020). Security and the Smart City: A Systematic Review . Sustainable Cities & Society, 55, 102023. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102023
• Laufs, J. (2019). A New Perspective on the 2003 Invasion of Iraq: Marxist IR, Dependency Theory and the Myth of a “Humanitarian Intervention . In M. Grabowski & T. Pugacewicz (Eds.), Application of International Relations Theories in Asia and Africa (Vol. 1, pp. 267-285). Berlin: Peter Lang Verlag
• Laufs, J., & Borrion, H. (2021). Technological innovation in policing and crime prevention: Practitioner perspectives from London . International Journal of Police Science & Management, 14613557211064053. doi:10.1177/14613557211064053.

International anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) efforts have grown exponentially since the 1990s. AML/CTF is now a key element of financial services, combining obligations set by both domestic and supranational organizations. However, these detection efforts are consistently increasing in implementation costs, while failing to keep up with the latest money laundering and terrorist financing risks. New payment methods are providing new opportunities for illicit transactions, while cryptocurrencies continue to pose new risks by increasing the anonymity of their users. Contemporary prevention initiatives are struggling to keep up with rapidly improving criminal sophistication.

This project aims to apply a crime scripting approach to detecting the likelihood, nature and scale of suspected money laundering or terrorist financing offences. This involves understanding the motives, constraints and indicators involved in each stage of the offence to potentially predict the previous or subsequent stages. In doing so, the prevention, resource allocation and successful investigation rates of law enforcement agencies can be improved. The project includes a scoping review, a Delphi Study to identify future typologies based on projected risks, and a subsequent scripting exercise of past cases to explore whether crime scripting can be an effective means of contributing to contemporary AML/CTF efforts.

PhD start year: 2019 PhD researcher: Eray Arkatuna PhD supervisors: Prof Shane Johnson, UCL Security and Crime Science; Dr Amy Thornton, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]

• Arkatuna, E.A., Johnson, S.D. & Thornton, A.E. The money laundering and terrorist financing risks of new and disruptive technologies: a futures-oriented scoping review . Secur J (2022). 
• Arkatuna, E. A., Johnson, S. D., & Thornton, A. (2022). Preventing the money laundering and terrorist financing risks of emerging technologies: An international policy Delphi study . Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 179, 121632.

Deep Learning algorithms can detect and classify people, activities and objects in images with performance at human-level. These methods are finding their way into consumer products. They also offer great potential in security applications for example in person verification at checkpoints, suspect-finding in video, discovering harmful content on the internet, and detecting threats in bags and parcels. However, they have a curious vulnerability ('adversarial perturbation'), which while harmless for consumer applications offers a potential exploit for determined adversaries in the security realm.

An adversarial perturbation is a very small, but very precise, change to the image input into a classifier that causes the classifier output to dramatically change. For example, with just the right perturbation an image of a cat can be mis-classified as a dog, while still looking like a cat to a human viewer. In the context of security this method could allow an adversary to, for example: alter harmful video content to escape detection by automated methods; conceal threats in bags; or maliciously 'place' targeted individuals into pornographic content, so far as face-based search algorithms are concerned. At present there is no known fix for adversarial perturbations. Can this problem be fixed, or is it an issue that we need to learn to live with and safeguard against in other ways? This PhD will address this problem before adversaries develop the sophistication to exploit it.

PhD start year: 2019 (April) PhD researcher: Maximilian Mozes PhD supervisors: Prof Lewis Griffin, UCL Computer Science, Dr Bennett Kleinberg, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]     http://mmozes.net/

• Maximilian Mozes, Pontus Stenetorp, Bennett Kleinberg and Lewis D. Griffin (2021). Frequency-Guided Word Substitutions for Detecting Textual Adversarial Examples. To appear in Proceedings of the 16th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (EACL).
• Mozes, M., Bartolo, M., Stenetorp, P., Kleinberg, B. and Griffin, L., 2021, November. Contrasting Human-and Machine-Generated Word-Level Adversarial Examples for Text Classification. In Proceedings of the 2021 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (pp. 8258-8270).

It is no secret that police forces are seeking to advance their repertoire of analytical and predictive tools to deal with emerging crimes as they adapt to the repercussions of penurious fiscal policies. However, the volume, variety and velocity of data both recorded by police forces and available through open sources means that analysing such data can be an ambitious and challenging undertaking. Despite the aforementioned obstacles horizon scanning is set to become a prominent aspect of future policing allowing police forces to identify emerging threats, anticipate imminent crimes and to extinguish future methods of perpetration. In essence, allowing the police to stay one step ahead of criminals.

In my PhD I will aim to develop working relationships with law enforcement organisations to resolve current blockades in horizon scanning. The first stages of my PhD will be to gather information on the structural and relational limitations of the multifarious systems used by police forces. Using this information, and a selection of data science techniques, I will develop automated tools that can identify and prioritise emerging trends in vast amounts of data using natural language processing and machine learning; whilst being able to communicate these results appropriately to the relevant users and stakeholders by employing suitable interactive data visualisations. As my research develops I aspire to incorporate different data sources and types (for example, employing computer vision and deep learning on social media posts) into large scale threat scanning models.

PhD start year: 2018 PhD researcher: Daniel Hammocks PhD supervisors: Professor Kate Bowers  and Dr Bennett Kleinberg , UCL  Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]

The massive flow of refugees from conflict zones since the Syrian Civil War has presented global society with growingly complex problems related to security and economic stability. The crisis is well reflected in the annual report of UNHCR according to which 42,500 people are displaced everyday from conflict zones. United Nations Refugee Agency reports 65 million people in the world are currently considered as refugees who are looking for asylum and this has triggered a global security issue.

The idea that a quantitative approach, borrowed from complex systems literature, is an essential tool to study the network of refugees and their movements, engaged me in this project. In the same spirit, mathematical models, computer simulations and statistical physics measures are the remarkably useful tools to assess the current policies such as border closures and detention centres which are currently affecting lives of thousands of refugees everyday all around the Mediterranean sea and other areas.

My project aims to investigate why some people flee from conflict zones, where they go and how these movements impact the stability of host countries and the entire global security. The project studies this phenomenon at both microscopic and macroscopic scales. We study and model how an individual’s decision in conflict zones is affected by the small network of people around him as well as other factors such as social media, language, religion, and the capacity of host countries.

Climate changes, conflicts, and many other factors reveal how irregular migration is not going to remain limited to this scale. Thereby, predictive models are growing as a subject of notice to contribute to some predictive tools in the future. We aim to investigate the patterns of movements on global scale and produce predictive models, according to the data we have from refugees in Lebanon and other data sets made by the UNHCR, by exploiting network theories and statistical learning approach. This approach enables us to forecast the movements and it consequently leads to a set of prudent policies to tackle the refugee crisis and support this group of migrants. 

PhD start year: 2018 PhD researcher: Zahra Jafari PhD supervisors: Prof Shane Johnson and Dr Toby Davies, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]

• Frith, M.J., Simon, M., Davies, T., Braithwaite, A., & Johnson, S.D. (2019). Spatial interaction and security: a review and case study of the Syrian refugee crisis .  Interdisciplinary Science Reviews ,  44 (3-4), 328-341.

The rise in popularity of cryptocurrencies since the release of Bitcoin in 2009 has changed the face of financial fraud, facilitating lower-risk anonymous money laundering and fraudulent transfers on a massive scale. Methods of detecting, mitigating and preventing financial fraud remain underdeveloped relative to the value of the cryptocurrency market, and the efforts of academics, law enforcement and policymakers remain in their infancy. This project will adapt data science-based fraudulent transaction detection methods used in traditional financial services to the cryptocurrency market to ascertain their effectiveness in the cryptocurrency space. The results of this project will provide an empirical basis for policymakers to develop evidence-based legislation surrounding digital currencies worldwide, as well as provide a necessary contribution to this currently sparse body of academic literature. It will also enable innovation, facilitating the entry of conventional financial services companies into the cryptocurrency arena by providing a method for conducting due diligence on these transactions in the absence of accepted anti-money laundering processes.

PhD start year: 2019 PhD student: Arianna Trozze PhD supervisors: Dr Toby Davies and Dr Bennett Kleinberg, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]

• Trozze, A., Kamps, J., Akartuna, E.A. et al. Cryptocurrencies and future financial crime . Crime Sci 11, 1 (2022). 
• Trozze, A., Davies, T. and Kleinberg, B. (2022), Explaining prosecution outcomes for cryptocurrency-based financial crimes , Journal of Money Laundering Control, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. 

Anomaly detection is the task of identifying items or events which deviate significantly from normal appearance or behaviour. This is a well-established approach in financial fraud detection, but is applicable in many other areas within the security domain. In X-ray screening of baggage and cargo it can be used to detect concealment, even if a threat is not directly recognizable. In biometric verification it can be used to detect tampering, such as facial morph images which match two identities. In home security it can enable advanced alarm systems that warn when unusual physical or digital activity is occurring. 

Anomaly Detection is a sub-problem of machine learning. It is common for machine learning applications to be hindered by a lack of sufficient available training data. This problem is raised to its most extreme form in anomaly detection, where there may be no available example anomalies. The answer, to be explored in this PhD project, is to use methods of self-supervised rather than supervised learning. Self-supervised learning uses proxy tasks which can be defined on normal data, allowing effective data representations to be learnt from that data alone, rather than on the contrast between normal and threat data. Effective representations allow effective modelling of the distribution of normal data so that anomalous deviations can be spotted. 

The goal of the PhD will be to develop self-supervised learning methods that are effective for anomaly detection. The first problem to be worked on will be anomaly detection in X-ray security imaging. Other problems that we plan to explore are anomaly detection in audio (for deep fake detection), in video streams (as an AI-driven flexible home emergency/crime alarm), and in text (for detecting phishing, and similar, emails).   PhD start year: 2019 PhD Student: Kimberly Ton-Mai PhD Supervisors: Prof Lewis Griffin, UCL Computer Science and Dr Toby Davies, UCL Security and Crime Science  Contact: [email protected]

• Mai, K.T.; Davies, T.; Griffin, L.D. Brittle Features May Help Anomaly Detection . 9th Women in Computer Vision workshop at CVPR.

This Phd will investigate the levels of threat that “deepfakes” pose with regard to various contexts within human society, by means of conducting a human user study and testing to find contexts where humans are deceived by these deepfakes and whether any particular types of humans are particularly easily deceived. The main context to be studied will be news propagation. After establishing the various levels of threat posed by deepfakes, the project will aim to propose protection systems for the UK’s mainstream news propagation networks, such that the UK might lead the way in protecting its news systems and journalists against the possibility of “deepfake news injection”. The context of mainstream news propagation networks in the UK is one that is heavily adverse to outside regulation. The freedom of the press is important. However, with research evidencing that deepfakes are a threat to an array of important stakeholders via the context of news propagation, measures can be taken to implement such fixes as are necessary whilst leaving journalistic liberties intact. 

PhD start year: 2019  PhD student: Sergi Bray PhD supervisors: Prof Shane Johnson and Dr Bennett Kleinberg, UCL Security and Crime Science  Contact: [email protected]

In criminal investigations (street samples, biological fluids, gunshot residues, etc.) efficient and accurate methods are needed for detection and analysis of evidence. The crime scene offers many analytical challenges due to its complexity and therefore requires the use of a variety of techniques to assess evidence. Current technologies have issues of low specificity, detrimental effects on evidence recovery and an inability to be performed simultaneously. Biosensors can be applied in the detection of biomolecules and biological components (fingerprints, blood samples, odours etc.) found at crime scenes, which can aid in identification and tracking of suspects. The application of biosensors represents a significant advancement for forensic sciences with the opportunity for untrained individuals in the field to carry out economic, rapid and decentralised testing of complex samples. 

The recent rapid development in the research and development of biosensors is due mainly to advances in nanomaterial-based biosensors with advantages of rapid response time, high stability, superior biocompatibility and low cost. Despite the demonstrated versatility of design and usefulness in their potential for analysis of biological fluids and multiplexed determinations, biosensors in forensic analysis are less advanced than in other fields. 

This project aims to explore this lack of positive identification and on-site testing by improving the application of biosensors, and their current vast development in other sectors, to forensics. Therefore, a systematic review of current technologies and their potential for combating crime is to be undertaken. These findings and further discussions with police forces and other stakeholders will determine appropriate biosensing technologies for further development. The overall aim of the project is the fabrication of a field-deployable biosensing device to combat crime.

PhD start year: 2020  PhD student: Alice Cozens PhD supervisors: Prof Kwang-Leong Choy, UCL Institute of Materials and Prof Shane Johnson, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]

The nature of the international security environment is changing in the light of hybrid challenges. Although the concept of hybrid threats is not new, it has recently gained wider traction among Western countries due to the foreign interventions in Ukraine in 2014 and during the 2016 United States presidential election. The evolution of hybrid threats has been driven by the rise of the cyber domain and online information spaces. The potential deployment of cyberattacks against the target and the use of social networking services to conduct influencing activities are important attack methods for hybrid threats.

Since 2016, NATO and the European Union have decided that countering hybrid threats is a priority for cooperation. An important goal for the world's governments and international agencies is to respond to hybrid threats. Deciding on the appropriate and proportional response is difficult due to the complexity of the concept and underdeveloped methods for assessing the impact of hybrid threats. The aim of the research is to propose a method that helps to quantify the impact of hybrid threats. The results of the research will provide empirical basis for justifying response decisions and important contributions to the sparse body of existing literature.

PhD start year: 2020 PhD student: Kärt Padur PhD supervisors: Prof Stephen Hailes, UCL Computer Science and Dr Herve Borrion, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]

Smartphones and laptops play increasingly essential roles in many people's daily lives. Studies find that the average adult in developed areas spends at least 4 hours every day looking at a screen. This makes online deceptions such as phishing and disinformation on social media increasingly attractive means for cybercriminals. Such attacks prove to be effective since they are easy to scale and cybercriminals can more easily hide their true identities from local law enforcers. A big phishing attack from 2015 for instance defrauded Facebook and Google for millions of dollars. Hence, it is important to understand why individuals fall for online deceptions and what individual differences and contextual factors may make certain people more vulnerable than others.

In my research I aim to test if we can let computers automatically detect when individuals are particularly susceptible to online deceptions. If so, the goal is to develop interactive user interfaces that help to shield people from falling for such frauds, by dynamically changing the appearance of online environments. To this end, I use an eclectic mix of psychophysiological methods, web application development and machine learning.

PhD start year: 2020 PhD student: Sarah Zheng PhD supervisors: Prof Tali Sharot, UCL Experimental Psychology and Dr Ingolf Becker, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]

The advent of a global pandemic has had numerous consequences on people and, more in general, on society. During this year of isolation and/or reduced social interactions, society turned toward technology to find a substitute and a tool to stay engaged and entertained. During this period level of stress, isolation and depression, also due to a looming economic crisis, have reached new highs, affecting, in particular, the most endangered and exposed parts of society. Law enforcement agencies and charity group around the UK have advocated and highlighted that this pandemic will affect in particular young and vulnerable individuals.    Hence, this PhD research aims to look at the consequences and effects of human trafficking during this pandemic and the adaptability of this illicit crime enterprise to the new era of digitalisation and the high volume of vulnerable individuals. Feelings of isolation and an economic crisis are very dangerous when combined and easy to be exploited by traffickers. Thus, this project aims to find answers to whether and how criminal enterprise have adapted in order to reach these individuals world-wide; to understand if human trafficking has reached a new level of sophistication by incorporating technology in their business model. By focusing on modus operandi, psychological manipulation techniques and decision-making in relation to technological engagement, this research aims to look at the way digital interaction occurs from an offender point of view. 

PhD start year: 2020 PhD student: Francesca Costi PhD supervisors: Professor Kate Bowers and Dr Sanaz Zolghadriha, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]

Brexit marks the first time in history that a state has withdrawn its membership from the European Union.  This has presented one of the most important political rearrangements on the European scene since the fall of the Berlin Wall. While debates regarding the impact of Brexit on economic issues took the centre stage during the lead up to the Brexit referendum as well as during the withdrawal process, much less attention was paid to its impact on crime and security. At a time when major serious crimes are increasingly transnational in scope, the UK will face limited access to the EU’s security and criminal justice infrastructure.  At the same time, growing asymmetries between EU and UK laws and policies may create new criminal opportunities for serious and organised crime.  

The objective of this PhD project is to create a coherent analytical product outlining alternative future crimes to guide strategic planners and decision-makers in designing robust policies capable of addressing various future scenarios and thus disrupting opportunities for criminals before they can manifest in full form. It will do so by, firstly, conducting a systematic review to examine the state-of-the-art in knowledge concerning the impact of Brexit on policing and serious crime in the UK, and secondly, by utilising foresight methodologies to identify types of opportunities for serious and organised crime which are likely to emanate from the social, political and legal changes caused by Brexit.  

PhD start year: 2020 PhD student: Jakub Pinter PhD supervisors: Prof Shane Johnson and Dr Manja Nikolovska, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]

Smart cities take the principles of smart devices and apply them at the scale of making cities more efficient and sustainable. This promise of efficiency means some environments may become increasingly automated and rely less on the physical presence of security guards and place managers. Research shows guardianship, including formal and natural surveillance, plays a clear role in the disruption of offending and is key to preventing crimes like hostile reconnaissance. Smart cities will generate potential opportunities for crime, but also generate disruption opportunities. This project will seek to understand the affordances and potential detriments a move toward smart cities has on criminal and terrorist attack planning (including hostile reconnaissance) and targeting. For example, place managers, such as bus drivers, parking lot attendants, train conductors and others, perform a surveillance function by virtue of their position of employment. Place managers may prevent crime because potential offenders are deterred by their increased subjective probability of being detected. These forms of surveillance may also increase the true probability of detection. If the amount of place managers declines, how can this role be incorporated into smart systems? 

PhD start year: 2020 PhD student: Phillip Doherty PhD supervisors: Dr Paul Gill and Dr Sanaz Zolghadriha, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]

This project seeks to outline the imperative for further research, on the evidential opportunities innate to social media usage by young persons engaged in organised criminal conduct. The phenomena of county line gangs (CLG) has received significant media attention. However, the criminal investigation techniques deployed by practitioners have undergone less public scrutiny. Social media intelligence, also known as internet intelligence investigations (III), is the operational tactic used by law enforcement organisations (LEO) to collect evidence from suspects and victims in a wide range of criminal investigations. This is a crucial intelligence development tool for organised crime investigations involving child criminal exploitation (CCE). Due to the pertinence of online dependence on communication and social networking for all young persons, which also encompasses county line gangs. Internet Intelligence & Investigations will be examined as a distinct form of digital forensic evidence that will be a key technique in the effective enforcement and disruption of internet enabled crime perpetuated through existent and emerging social networking sites. 

PhD start year: 2020 PhD student: Kane Brooks PhD supervisors: Professor Kate Bowers and Dr Sanaz Zolghadriha, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]

High-profile scandals, data breaches, and daily cookie consent notices, have gradually raised the public's awareness to the potential use and misuse of their personal data.  Data is the new oil and Big Data has created Big Tech and new business models. Privacy and data protection are important because the continued growth of the internet is predicated on a business model that harvests consumers' data to generate targeted advertising revenue that in turn funds the growth of the information industry. I am researching the intersection of technology, business, and public policy into how Big Tech can better accommodate consumer's privacy concerns in a win-win model.

PhD start year: 2020 PhD student: Gerard Buckley PhD supervisors: Dr Ingolf Becker, UCL Security and Crime Science and Dr Tristan Caulfield, UCL Computer Science Contact: [email protected]

Decision-making processes once delegated to humans are progressively mediated, if not even determined, by machine learning algorithms. Machine learning algorithms are powerful socio-tech constructs which may however raise not ethically neutral outcomes. Examples nowadays abound, with the consequence that the ethical debate has gone mainstream. With over 80 AI ethics guides available in the public domain, the debate has primarily focused on principles - the ‘what’ of AI ethics. Hence, this PhD research aims to advance the question of ‘how’ to reach the ‘what’ when machine learning is employed in high impact and socially sensitive contexts, like the child protection system.

PhD start year: 2021 PhD student: Aliai Eusebi PhD supervisors: Dr Enrico Mariconti, Dr Ella Cockbain, UCL Security and Crime Science, and Dr Marie Vasek, UCL Computer Science. Contact:  [email protected]

The online purchase of illicit substances has been happening on the dark web, but in recent years commercial activity has moved to popular social media apps. Teenagers can now buy and sell illicit substances through Instagram or Snapchat, without having to physically leave their homes.

In a couple of clicks, posts advertising the sale of cannabis, cocaine, or ecstasy can be easily found. This has led to an increasing number of teenagers dying of overdose, given the accessibility and perceived trust when buying drugs through social media.

My PhD project has 3 key objectives: to measure the extent of this issue cross-nationally, to evaluate the effectiveness of preventive solutions and to successfully implement these within policy strategies. This research will be using various disciplinary frameworks, including social sciences, public policy, crime and computer science methods.

User-generated data and young people’s views will be combined to effectively detect and counter the harm caused by the advertisement and sale of drugs. Collecting cross-national data on terminology used to bypass detection such as emojis is crucial for social media companies to better target these posts and improve reporting systems. The findings of this research will enable to propose implementable policy solutions in the aim of cross-national and institutional collaboration among concerned actors.

PhD start year: 2021 PhD student: Ashly Fuller PhD supervisors: Prof. Shane Johnson, Dr. Enrico Mariconti, UCL Security and Crime Science, and Dr. Marie Vasek, UCL Computer Science. Contact:  [email protected]

In 2018 technology-facilitated abuse was marked by Comic Relief and the charity SafeLives as an emerging concern. Following the work of teams that include the G-IoT project at UCL, there is work taking place that explores this prevalent form of abuse. However within the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) sector this form of abuse has only recently begun to be acknowledged as a risk indicator. Efforts thus far within the industry in response have included dedicated tech abuse caseworkers and device how-to guides.  Sector-wide understanding, sharing of learning, and assessments to develop evidence-based responses in the United Kingdom remain few and far between. This PhD seeks to understand the prevalence of technology-facilitated abuse in the context of intimate partner relationships. Key areas of focus will include; the understanding of tech abuse within the Domestic Abuse sector, how the sector assesses this form of abuse, what implementations are currently being utilized to support survivors of tech abuse, and could this form of abuse be considered a high-risk of harm indicator. It is hoped that through effective research and collaboration with the Domestic Abuse sector researchers, policymakers, and service providers that a better understanding of technology facility abuse can be achieved. 

PhD start year: 2021 PhD student: Ademelza Penaluna PhD supervisors: Dr Leonie Maria Tanczer, Lecturer in International Security and Emerging technologies, and Professor Shane Johnson, Director, Dawes Centre for Future Crime at UCL. Contact:  [email protected]

Internet of Things (IoT) devices are now ubiquitous with most parts of day-to-day life. We use them to monitor our health and wellbeing through devices such as Smart Watches. We use them for entertainment purposes such as using Smart TV’s and Games Consoles. We use them to monitor household energy consumption through Smart Meters. We also use them to power our cars through Smart Vehicles. In addition, we also now use them to monitor individuals that approach our properties using Smart Cameras/CCTV and Smart Doorbells. The applications for IoT devices are limitless and they provide amazing benefits to our way of life. However, ordinary consumers do not consider the potential dangers to these devices that can occur through present and future cyber qttacks and the types of heinous and sometimes dangerous crimes that can be committed using these IoT devices as attack vectors through attacks such as Man-in-the-middle, Replay Attacks, etc. As such this topic aims to conduct a review of the potential attacks that can be committed on these devices and then to conduct a systematic testing methodology to identify what attacks are possible and list potential crimes that can be committed such as cyber stalking, household burglaries, etc.

PhD start year: 2021 PhD student:  Ashley Brown PhD supervisors:  Dr Enrico Mariconti, UCL Security and Crime Science, and Prof Shane Johnson UCL Security and Crime Science.

Contact:  [email protected]  

Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are known to be prolifically targeted by cyber criminals. This is due in part to their apparent inability to counteract the ever-changing cyber threat landscape, along with a potential/ perceived disregard from the decision makers within these organisations to do so. Despite the fact that SMEs account for an estimated 99% of businesses and contribute to 60% of employment, there continues to be a focus on the risks associated with cyber attacks on larger businesses and not how the vulnerabilities within their smaller counterparts can negatively impact on the supply chain. This thesis will therefore aim to outline these vulnerabilities in the context of real business victim experiences of cyber attacks, with this knowledge used to better inform a framework that can be applied by SMEs to protect themselves in the future.

PhD start year: 2022 (Jan) PhD student:  Siobhan McCrea PhD supervisors:  Dr Ingolf Becker, UCL Security and Crime Science, and Prof Shane Johnson UCL Security and Crime Science.

Contact:  [email protected]  

A surge in cyber-threats has resulted in an increasing rate of data breaches within companies, leading to financial and economic impacts across the globe. For decades, cybersecurity efforts have concentrated on large corporations, leaving Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) ill-equipped to handle cyberattacks. Yet, SMEs represent a vast majority of the global economy - according to the UK parliament, over 99% of the 5.6 million businesses in Britain are considered SMEs and are responsible for 61% of employment and 52% of the country's turnover. Consequently, SMEs have become attractive targets as they struggle to implement solutions designed for larger organisations with in-house cybersecurity resources. While it is evident that SMEs must address security issues, they lack financial resources, expertise and sometimes awareness to address cybersecurity threats. This research presents a systematic and empirical approach to chart threats faced by SMEs, mapping uptake controls along with challenges and constraints in adhering to cybersecurity practices. The ultimate aim is to provide a tailored set of recommendations to equip SMEs with cyber-resilience.

PhD start year: 2021 PhD student: Carlos Rombaldo Jr. PhD supervisors: Prof Dr Ingolf Becker, UCL Security and Crime Science; and Prof Shane Johnson, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact:  [email protected]

According to the Home Office, the proportion of adults aged 75 and over that use the internet has almost doubled from 29% in 2013 to 54% in 2020. This represents a steep increase in the number of potentially susceptible targets accessible by malicious actors online. In fact, older people (60+) are victims of fraud more than any other crime, and there is general consensus that elderly victims can suffer disproportionate psychological distress, not forgetting significant economic losses. The COVID-19 pandemic is thought to have exacerbated this situation, with more vulnerable people, heightened vulnerability, and an additional context with which attackers can frame their approaches.

With particular attention paid to social engineering scams (which are tailor-made to exploit vulnerability and hence highly relevant for the older demographic), my research first seeks to analyse the current cyber vs elderly landscape using primarily the Crime Survey of England and Wales. Subsequently, after identifying the most appropriate problem area, I plan to collaborate with stakeholders from across the banking, cybersecurity, policing and social care sectors in order to design a targeted and practicable response that protects older people from cyber-attacks.

PhD start year: 2022  PhD researcher: Ben Havers PhD supervisors: Prof Claudia Cooper, UCL Psychiatry, and Dr Kartikeya Tripathi, UCL Security and Crime Science Contact: [email protected]

News & Highlights

• New report: Covid-19 and Future Threats: A Law Enforcement Delphi Study
• Dawes Centre Annual Report 2021-22
• First DAWES funded PhD researcher graduates: Julian Laufs
• Policy brief: Older adults as victims of online financial crime
• Policy brief: Synthetic biology and future crime
• Policy report: Network and information systems: Improving Implementation  

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BECOME A MEMBER TODAY

Join thousands of members in the Association of Certified Financial Crime Specialists who excel in financial crime prevention and detection. Advance your career, protect your company, and support the whole community!

As the world’s most elite crime detection and prevention certification, ACFCS addresses the full spectrum of financial crime empowering specialists all over the globe with resources that improve results.

Arm yourself with the right tools.

CERTIFICATION

Build Skills

Stand out in your career with fundemental skills and a full-array of insight across the financial crime spectrum.

Stay Connected

Meet and network with like-minded financial crime professionals around the world with a low-cost membership.

Be Informed

Take advantage of online and live training resources covering AML, crypto , cyber risk, corruption, elder abuse, and more.

WHAT CFCS CERTIFICATION COVERS

• Anti-Money Laundering
• Cyber Security
• Tax evasion
• Terrorist Financing
• Compliance Programs
• Investigations
• Asset Recovery

MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS

• Extensive FinCrime Training
• Unlimited Webinars
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• In Person and Virtual Events
• Articles and Updates - Visit Our Blog

FINANCIAL CRIME PREVENTION TRAINING

• Training, Webinars, Events, and Workshops on a wide array of financial compliance topics.
• AML 360 Certificate

“NEW” – ACFCS recently launched our Crypto Compliance Specialization , powered by Chainalysis.

Get an in-depth understanding of cryptocurrency financial crime risks, the operations of virtual asset service providers, and key compliance, investigative and regulatory considerations.

See What Certified Financial Crime Specialists Are Saying

"The CFCS tests the skills necessary to fight financial crime. It's comprehensive. Passing it should be considered a mark of high achievement, distinguishing qualified experts in this growing specialty area."

KENNETH E. BARDEN 

(JD, Washington)

"It's a vigorous exam. Anyone passing it should have a great sense of achievement."

DANIEL DWAIN

(CFCS, Official Superior

de Cumplimiento Cidel

Bank & Trust Inc. Nueva York)

"The exam tests one's ability to apply concepts in practical scenarios. Passing it can be a great asset for professionals in the converging disciplines of financial crime."

(CFCS, Royal Band of

Canada, Montreal)

"The Exam is far-reaching. I love that the questions are scenario based. I recommend it to anyone in the financial crime detection and prevention profession."

BECKI LAPORTE

(CFCS, CAMS Lead Compliance

Trainer, FINRA, Member Regulation

Training, Washington, DC)

"This certification comes at a very ripe time. Professionals can no longer get away with having siloed knowledge. Compliance is all-encompassing and enterprise-driven."

KATYA HIROSE CFCS, CAMS, CFE, CSAR Director, Global Risk & Investigation Practice FTI Consulting, Los Angeles

READY TO BEGIN YOUR JOURNEY TOWARDS CFCS CERTIFICATION?

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Home > Academy of Excellence in Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance

Academy of Excellence in Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance

• Professional Learning Hub

Conducting world-class research

• Thought Leadership

About the Academy

The Academy of Excellence in Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance aims to be Australia’s leading interdisciplinary research, engagement and education forum in the area of financial crime investigation and compliance.

Established in 2022, we bring together Griffith’s expertise in criminology, economics, tax law, information technology and forensic accounting, in collaboration with industry partners, to provide national thought leadership and drive continuous improvement of training programs to tackle these global issues.

We also work alongside NGOs to grow awareness of financial crimes and equip vulnerable segments of the community with the information and strategies they need to protect their businesses and families.

We are proud to partner with Commonwealth Bank of Australia on this important initiative.

Sustainable Development Goals

Griffith University is aligned with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs ) and is committed to contributing to building resilient economies that promote decent work and improve the well-being of individuals and communities.

Meet the faculty and industry partners

Building on Griffith's proud tradition of delivering innovative interdisciplinary research and teaching, the Academy brings together world class expertise in Information Systems, Criminology, Justice, Accounting, Finance, Law and Economics to deliver tailored training packages for industry partners, as well as thought leadership and research that helps organisations, policymakers and investigators better identify and report financial crime.

Creating a pipeline of future talent

We produce high-calibre graduates with in-demand, interdisciplinary competencies and job-ready skills, including compliance, risk assessment, data analytics, advanced finance, audit and assurance, and forensic accounting.

Bachelor of Business - Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance Major

Graduate Certificate in Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance

Master of Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance

Our research focuses on delivering technology-based solutions to regulatory and compliance challenges, including the use of data to allow predictive analytics and real-time monitoring to reduce the burden on business.

Current projects

Fostering collaboration and innovation

We believe that partnerships are critical to the success of our initiatives. We work closely with a range of industry partners, regulatory bodies, and law and policy makers to continuously improve our research, engagement and training outcomes.

Interested in becoming a partner?

Establishing thought leadership

We harness Griffith's interdisciplinary expertise in financial systems and regulations, economics, ethics and governance, criminology, information technology and forensic accounting to lead the way in tackling financial crime.

Industry advisory board

The Academy of Excellence in Financial Crime Investigation & Compliance Industry Advisory Board comprises external Members drawn from areas of key strategic importance to the work of the Academy.  It also includes members of the Academy's management team.

Meet the Academy's Industry Advisory Board

Education and training

We can tailor micro-credentials exclusively for your organisation to ensure your employees are fully trained to meet the regulatory and compliance needs specific to your business needs.

Already a Griffith student?

We have developed a specialist micro-credentials exclusively for Griffith students and staff, to provide an introduction into Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance, and help promote career pathways into this growth industry. This micro-credential supports creating a sustainable talent pipeline for future employment opportunities whilst offering our undergraduate students the opportunity to upskill in financial crime alongside their existing degree. Students are able to engage with the micro-credential as an extra-curricular activity during their existing study, at no additional cost.

Upon completion, you will be eligible to earn a Digital Badge that enables you to showcase your achievement through LinkedIn and various other social media platforms to prospective employers.

If you are a current Griffith student or staff member and are interested in enrolling in Foundations of Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance micro-credential, please complete the form linked below. Once completed, you should received a confirmation of your enrollment within two business days.

Enrol in the Foundations of Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance

Research expertise and opportunities

A variety of research opportunities exist for Honours, Masters, PhD and post-doctoral research students. Scholarships are also available.

If you'd like more information on how you can undertake research studies with the Academy, please contact the Secretariat via email.

More details

News from the Academy

Associate professor jacqueline drew talks to sunrise about romance scams.

9 September 2023

Academy of Excellence in Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance Deputy Director and Associate Professor from Griffith University's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Jacqueline Drew speaks on Channel 7's Sunrise about Romance Scams.

Dr Margo van Felius presents at Business Educators' Association of Queensland High School Seminar

27 July 2023

In July 2023, Academy of Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance member, and Lecturer from the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Dr Margo van Felius was invited by the Business Educators' Association of Queensland to present to 800 high school students from ten Queensland schools about selecting business and economics subjects at in their senior years at school and how these can link to career opportunities in the field of Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance.

Griffith Business School announces membership with Women in Banking and Finance

30 May 2023

We're excited to announce our membership with WiBF, a non-profit association committed to empowering female leaders in the banking and finance industry...

Griffith welcomes CBA staff – First to embark on financial micro-credentials

Five hundred Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) employees are the first to embark on a Griffith University upskilling program, helping the banking industry to detect...

Contact the academy

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• Fraud & Financial Crimes

Fraud & Financial Crimes

Fraud examination is a growing field for forensic accountants and investigators. The courses in this interdisciplinary program will aid in preparing undergraduates to become certified through the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE)* as part of their four-year degree completion of major requirements and elective courses. The Certified Fraud Examiners (CFE) Exam requires qualified candidates to have knowledge of fraud prevention, investigation, financial transactions, and the legal system.

In the classroom. In the workforce.

What You’ll Learn

The courses in this interdisciplinary program will aid in preparing undergraduates to become certified through the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

Career Opportunities

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the 10-year outlook for jobs is strong in the occupations dealing with fraud such as accounting, auditing, private detectives, and investigators.

• Degree Requirements
• Course Descriptions
• ACC1201: Principles of Accounting I
• ACC1601: Principles of Accounting II
• ACC3510: Fraud Examination
• ACC3520: Financial Statement Fraud
• CRJ1400: Introduction to Criminal Justice
• CRJ2451: Legal Aspects of Criminal Justice
• CRJ3520: Criminal Investigation
• CRJ3842: Criminology

*The ACFE is the largest and the most recognized anti-fraud organization and training program in the world. Its mission is to “reduce the incidence of fraud and white-collar crime and to assist the Membership in fraud detection and deterrence.”  ( http://www.acfe.com/who-we-are.aspx ).

Fraud & Financial Crimes Courses

Acc1201 - principles of accounting i (3).

Topics include: the basic structure, principles, and practices of accounting; the nature and classification of accounts; the accounting cycle and the preparation of financial statements for both service and merchandising enterprises; design of accounting systems, including special journals and subsidiary ledgers; and coverage of cash, receivables, inventories, deferrals, accruals, plant assets, intangible assets, and current liabilities. Lecture classes and laboratory sessions meet at least four times per week. Laboratory fee.

ACC1601 - Principles of Accounting II (3)

This course continues the study of basic concepts and principles, as well as accounting for the partnership and corporate forms of business organizations; coverage of plant assets, intangible assets, and current liabilities, long-term liabilities, investments financial statement analysis, and the Statement of Cash Flows. Lecture classes and laboratory sessions meet at least four times per week. Laboratory fee.

ACC3510 - Fraud Examination (3)

This interdisciplinary course begins with the exploration of te nature of fraud, its costs, and why it occurs. Emphasis then shifts to the analysis of the accounting and legal procedures used to fight or prevetnt the different types of fraud such as detection, investiation, and the dispositions or resolutions available.

ACC3520 - Financial Statement Fraud (3)

This type of white-collar crime is also known as “cooking the books” where various schemes are used to manipulate, misstate, or omit financial information to deceive financial statement users. This in depth study focuses on the detection and investigation of revenue-based, asset-based, liability-based, and other financial statement fraud, schemes, as well as the auditor’s liability in these criminal activities.

CRJ1400 - Introduction to the Criminal Justice System (3)

An introductory survey course designed to provide the student with an overview of the system. Theories of criminal behavior, criminal law, and procedures are introduced and studied as they apply to the criminal justice components of law enforcement, the courts, and corrections.

CRJ2451 - Legal Aspects of the Criminal Justice System (3)

The course is designed to give an overview of legal principles, which provide a framework for the criminal justice system. An analysis of cases and statutes, pertinent to areas under consideration, is emphasized together with a coverage of fundamental aspects of legal research. Areas covered include investigation, initial appearance, arraignment, preliminary examination, trial, guilty pleas or conviction, sentence, and release.

CRJ3520 - Criminal Investigation (3)

The course will introduce the student to basic criminal investigation theories and techniques. The development of contemporary criminal investigation and criminalistics will be examined, as well as crime specific investigative technology.

CRJ3842 - Criminology (3)

This course examines the nature and complexity of crime as a social problem. The measurement, techniques of data collection, and patterns of crime are explored as well as various classical, biological, psychological, and sociological theories of crime causation. Throughout the course, policy implications of the content matter will be considered.

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• Fraud and Financial Crime Investigation
• Our Programs

About This Program

You’re a quick thinker. You’re focused, motivated, and ambitious. You want a career on the forefront of new technology, and you want to learn the skills that can help protect individuals and businesses from crime. Fraud and Financial Crime Investigation may be the major for you.

Why Utica University

The first program of its kind in the nation, Utica University's undergraduate major in Fraud and Financial Crime Investigation (formerly economic crime investigation) offers advanced education in the highly specialized skill sets required to prevent, detect, and investigate economic crime in today's global economy. Economic crime encompasses fraud, money laundering, and corruption, with counter-efforts that include institutional and corporate compliance and due diligence programs, regulatory and enforcement efforts on the part of government agencies, and the recovery of assets wrongfully taken or held.  Part of Utica's internationally respected suite of economic crime and justice studies programs, the Fraud and Financial Crime Investigation major is taught by a remarkably accomplished professional faculty using the industry's most current tools and techniques.

The BS Fraud and Financial Crime Investigation program is available both online and on campus.

Related Programs

• Forensic Accounting (online)

Contact Information

Office of admissions, general information.

• Utica Campus

Fraud and Financial Crime Investigation at Utica

Enrolling in the program was one of the best decisions I've made. It opened the door to my employment with Equitable. I couldn't be more satisfied with my experience and education at Utica University.

Thomas Tarkowski '89 CFE, CLU Equitable New York, NY

Career Opportunities

• Law Enforcement
• Fraud Investigation
• Forensic Accounting
• Government Intelligence Services
• Banking and Finance

State-of-the-Art

First of its Kind

What you'll learn.

Developed in consultation with the Economic Crime and Cybersecurity Institute of Utica University ( www.ecii.edu ), the Fraud and Financial Crime Investigation major features a uniquely interdisciplinary curriculum that includes courses in:

• economic crime law
• financial investigations
• fraud detection
• payment systems
• detection technologies

Student have the opportunity to choose from two concentrations:

• Fraud prevention and detection
• Financial investigation

Fraud and Financial Crime Investigation Faculty

• Distinguished Professor of Criminal Justice

• Professor of Practice - Economic Crime Mgmt

• Professor of Practice - Economic Crime

Adjunct Faculty

• Adjunct Lecturer of Criminal Justice
• Adjunct Professor of Criminal Justice
• Adjunct Lecturer of Economic Crime Management

• OE Campus Ops Specialist

A Degree That Works

Utica University Fraud and Financial Crime Investigation alumni have taken rewarding positions at:

• Bank of America
• Deloitte & Touche LLP
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.)
• Hartford Financial Services
• IRS Criminal Investigations
• JP Morgan Chase
• NBT Bankcorp, Inc
• SAS Institute
• U.S. Secret Service

Student Voices: Victoria Montgomery

A brief conversation with Victoria Montgomery '15, a recent graduate of the Economic Crime Investigation major.

Student Voices: Celeste Cook '19

A conversation with Celeste Cook '19, a dual major in Fraud and Financial Crime Investigation and Spanish, about industry-experienced professors, real-world learning opportunities, and her plans for the future.

Student Voices: Sydney Turczyn '17

A brief visit with FFCI (ECI) major Sydney Turczyn '17 about her experience as a transfer student, her academic program, her professors, and her plans for studying abroad in South Africa.

Student Voices: Jared Platt

Economic Crime Investigation major Jared Platt discusses his choice to come to Utica University and the growing outlook across the board in his field.

Justice Studies at Utica University

A Taste of the Real Thing: Utica University Mock Trial Goes to Regionals

New Crime Scene Lab to provide students with state-of-the-art, hands-on learning in incident response

Making History - New York State Supreme Court Justice Janet Malone '86

I would like to see logins and resources for:

For a general list of frequently used logins, you can also visit our logins page .

Master's in Financial Crime and Compliance Management: Curriculum

Curriculum details.

36 TOTAL CREDITS REQUIRED

This two-year, 36-credit online program provides rigorous coursework grounded in expert insights from government, private industry, and law enforcement professionals.

Prepare for this intense field through 3 courses in management, 3 in economic crime, 3 in technology, 1 on analytic skills, and a final, two-course cumulative experience. You will gain relevant, relatable knowledge to meet growing financial crime and compliance demands.

Additionally, the curriculum will support your preparation for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) and Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) certification exams. These certifications are known to increase job opportunities and income potential. 1,2

The curriculum course abstracts on this page are meant to provide a high-level course overview and subject to change based on term, faculty, and/or institutional requirements. View the official course descriptions as written in the Utica University Academic Catalog and in adherence to regional compliance. Select the appropriate Graduate Catalog from the dropdown.

Study the foundations of financial crime and compliance management. Focus on thematic areas: Management, economic crime, technology, analytics, and research skills.

This course is designed to familiarize students with the structure and design of organizations. Emphasis will be on systems theory and its applicability to today’s environment, identifying external environmental forces, designing optimal corporate structure for the organization’s mission, changing organizational structure, and analyzing the process and effects of corporate infrastructure.

This course is designed to familiarize students with the challenges faced by managers and organizations precipitated by the post-industrial knowledge-based global society. Discussions will include topics such as the changing concepts of technology and knowledge, impact of workforce changes on managers and organizations, the evolution of management thought and concepts, managing in foreign cultures, international law issues, and managing a multi-cultural workforce.

Economic Crime

Using case studies, you’ll analyze business and economic crime, including the criminal liability of business entities, their officers, and managers.

Become familiar with the principles and practices of compliance and operational risk assessment and mitigation. You’ll also examine the management of fraud prevention detection and investigation.

The challenges of management in an increasingly technological environment. The history and evolutionary development of counter fraud technology. The integration of fraud management in the development of new corporate products or instruments. Anticipating new forms of frauds based on the application of new and projected technologies.

Study the issues and concepts related to the protection of information and information systems. You’ll explore the threats and vulnerabilities that can impact communication, and the methods of securing communications, information systems, and computer technology. Examine the legal, ethical, and privacy issues related to information security.

You’ll study the key components associated with threats and vulnerabilities to computers and networks. Develop your understanding of distributed systems and how they work, an appreciation for various methods of network and internet security, and the strategies necessary to promote successful business plans and policies. You’ll also become familiar with intersecting legal, ethical, and privacy issues. Course content is linked to the CompTIA ® Security+ certification exam.

Analytical skills

This course is designed to familiarize students with innovative analytic approaches used to perform complex fraud analysis. Topics include: link analysis, data mining, advanced statistical tools, case management systems, and expert system approaches such as neural network early-warning software.

You’ll study financial crime in the context of business operations, methods of detection, and methods of investigation including the analysis of financial documents, investigative process and techniques, and preparation of investigative case reports.

Cumulative experience (Option 1)

Complete your professional project including data collection, analysis, and submission of reports, or other methodologies approved by the Research Committee.

Prerequisite: FCM 651

Cumulative experience (Option 2)

Complete the data collection, analysis, and submission of your thesis while adhering to the Graduate Research Proposal Guidelines for the M.S. in Financial Crime and Compliance Management program.

Prerequisite: FCM 653

Request More Information

We’d love to get to know you and hear more about your educational and professional goals. If you’d like to learn more about one of our programs, fill out this form and we’ll be in touch:

Note: All fields required.

• CFEs earn 31 percent more than their non-credentialed counterparts.  Fraud Magazine  (September/October 2017). Retrieved from  https://www.fraud-magazine.com/article.aspx?id=4294999100 . Accessed on Oct. 31, 2018.
• Guest, N. (2016, June 10).  CAMS Certification – Cost/Benefit?.  Retrieved from  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cams-certification-costbenefit-nick-guest-cams/ . Accessed on Oct. 31, 2018.

Bryan Kohberger Investigation Expenses Leave Moscow Facing Financial Brink

T he quiet college town of Moscow, Idaho, is buckling under the financial pressures of funding the investigation into the killings of four students in November last year.

The city, which brings in $6.9 million in property taxes each year, was already spending $7.2 million on its police force, Moscow officials told ABC News—even before the department had to handle the quadruple murder case. But the bills skyrocketed as the investigation ramped up, with increased patrols on the streets, working hours extended with overtime, and various expenses, such as forensic tests, adding up.

The victims—Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Madison Mogen, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20—were all stabbed to death in the early hours at a shared student house on November 13. The crime rocked the country and made headlines in the U.S. and around the world as the hunt to find the killer got underway. The investigation rolled on for weeks, sparking frustration from the victims' families . On December 30, a suspect was finally taken into custody.

Criminology PhD student Bryan Kohberger , 28, who studied at nearby Washington State University was arrested at his parents' home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania. A former lawyer who represented Kohberger said at the time that his client was "eager to be exonerated." Last week, a grand jury indicted him on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary. He is due to enter a plea on Monday .

Moscow Mayor Art Bettge told ABC News: "It was a tragic and horrible event that no one saw coming. [It has been] a difficult six months." Aside from the human cost of the tragedy, there have been other unexpected consequences too.

"Moscow is not awash in a funding excess," the mayor told the news channel. "We run a very, very lean budget and the impact of the investigation has been felt on the budget [...] We're just trying to tread fiscal water to avoid going under." The situation "stops future investment in certain aspects of the city that clearly need to be done," Bettge said, adding: "For us, this is unknown territory. We've never gone through this before. We're feeling our way along as best we can to try to accommodate all of the needs—the competing needs: maintaining the city for our citizens—and seeing that justice is done."

Just three weeks into the investigation, Mayor Bettge sent a letter to Idaho Governor Brad Little requesting financial help. The city's police department expected to incur "nearly $200,000 over the coming weeks as we face additional overtime, private security, data storage, and communications assistance costs," he wrote. Little agreed to reimburse around $93,000. But that still leaves a significant shortfall.

Mayor Bettge told Newsweek it was true the investigation costs had eaten into the city's budget, but added: "The city has dealt with the opportunity costs associated with the police department internally. Mostly this involves reallocation of other appropriated funds from salary lapses into overtime costs associated with the case. As there are vacancies in the department, there were funds from those positions available for reallocation internally.

"I would add that at no time were police services to the community in any way interrupted due to the required focus on the investigation. And we appreciate the governor's provision of support to the city during this difficult time."

But the financial strain may worsen yet; Moscow Police Department's Captain Anthony Dahlinger told ABC News: "The true financial impact of the homicide investigation will not be known for quite some time as the case is still in process."

Newsweek has emailed the Moscow Police Department for further information and comment.

Police overtime bills were particularly high because the force is currently short-staffed, and is currently working with 27 officers instead of the 36 it should have. Moscow's police receive the largest share of funding from the city budget, with more than a third of the pot allocated to the department. But the cost of the massive investigation has pushed up spending exponentially and depleted the city's coffers.

Taxes were already due to be hiked in the city by 3 percent, even before the murders, and the financial situation has become more dire since then. During an interview with the broadcaster, Moscow City Council member Sandra Kelly noted: "We weren't prepared for this. This is such a horrific thing—how could you plan for this?

"You budget for fires. You budget for floods. You prepare for natural disasters. This was not natural. The cost is astronomical. And of course, you can't skimp on keeping people safe. Yet, this is just not something you budget for—because it's something you'd never dream could happen."

And it was not just the city's administration that suffered financially; local businesses say they have been hit hard too.

Mitchell Lopez, co-owner of La Casa Lopez, a Mexican restaurant on Main Street, said he had been left heartbroken by the murders, and said the local students made up many of his customers and staff. But he added: "This town emptied out so quickly, nobody would go out—they were scared. We've always been a very safe haven and this really caused a major financial burden on every business in the area."

Update 5/23/23, 8:47 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to include comment by Mayor Bettge.

Related Articles

• Idaho Murder Victim's Father Has a Warning for Bryan Kohberger
• Can You Watch Bryan Kohberger's Arraignment? What to Know
• Idaho Murder Update: Documents Give New Insight Into Bryan Kohberger Case

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Moscow police chief, who oversaw University of Idaho killings case, to retire and run for sheriff

The man who guided the Moscow Police Department through the University of Idaho killings and the national spotlight that accompanied them is retiring this spring to run for Latah County sheriff.

Police Chief James Fry, 54, will retire May 1 after three decades with the department, including the last eight years as chief, to focus on his bid for sheriff. The primary election is May, and the general election is November.

Fry said he still wants to be involved in law enforcement, still has energy and wants a new challenge.

“Although it’s similar, it’s still new and I think it will be a good challenge,” Fry said. “And if I don’t get elected for some reason, then I will go look for something else.”

Sheriff Richie Skiles said he learned Wednesday of Fry’s intention to run against him. Skiles will seek a third term in November.

He said Fry did a good job as police chief and wished him the best in his retirement.

Fry started as a reserve officer in 1993 and was hired as a patrol officer in 1995. He rose through the ranks before becoming chief in 2016.

Fry graduated from the University of Idaho with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminal justice, according to a city of Moscow news release.

He graduated in 2019 from a 10-week training course at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Fry told the Moscow-Pullman Daily News at the time the opportunity is presented to 1% of law enforcement personnel in the U.S.

In November 2022, Fry was thrust into the national limelight after four UI students – Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin – were stabbed to death at the women’s rental home just off the university’s campus.

Fry provided updates on the case at news conferences packed with national and local media and was watched across the country. He and his department, which has over 30 officers, faced criticism by some who said Fry did not provide enough information, and that his department was not equipped to handle a quadruple homicide investigation.

Seven weeks after the killings, police arrested Washington State University graduate student Bryan Kohberger in Pennsylvania.

Fry said the stress that accompanied the Kohberger case played “somewhat of a role” in his decision to retire.

“We moved through that whole process even though it was stressful; we got the job done and we did it right,” Fry said of the homicides investigation. “So, no matter how people think of me, the ultimate thing is we held the integrity of the case at the highest level just like we still are today until it’s completed.”

Moscow Mayor Art Bettge said the harsh criticism Fry and his department received nationally weighed on Fry.

“The chief had to take a lot of that stress on himself because he had to keep the rest of the force focused and working on the case and solving the case,” Bettge said.

The narrative changed drastically when Kohberger was arrested, he said.

“Suddenly, Moscow police and Chief Fry are looking like geniuses,” Bettge said. “That had to be gratifying, but the stress leading up to it had to be blood-pressure raising and just horrific to endure.”

Bettge said Fry handled the chaos as professionally as anyone could have.

“I would say he handled that very professional in the face of some very negative headwinds that went on, and that’s the acme of a professional, is your ability to do your job regardless of what’s been thrown at you by outside entities and people who don’t know the full story,” Bettge said.

Bettge described Fry as a “nice, quiet leader.”

“He preferred to be a little more on the quiet side and just lead by example and make the hard decisions as necessary, but it wasn’t about him,” Bettge said of Fry’s tenure as chief.

Fry lives in Troy, Idaho, with his wife of 32 years, Julie. They have four grown children. Julie Fry was elected as the Latah County Clerk in 2022.

Fry and Bettge said they’re proud of the community policing philosophy Fry has helped maintain where protecting and serving residents trumps enforcement.

“We really do work hard with the community and try to build relationships with the community, and I think that has been fostered over the years,” Fry said.

Bettge said, “Community policing was an ideal to which the chief held himself to a high standard, and that percolated throughout the department and has left us with a police department that the citizens of Moscow respect and appreciate what they do.”

Fry said law enforcement changed in several ways in his 30 years.

Moscow police has seen changes of its own during Fry’s tenure as chief. The department got a new police station, brought in its first drug dog and implemented body cameras on officers in the last few years.

The city will start the process for the selection and appointment of the next police chief over the next few weeks, the city said. Bettge said the goal is to hire a new chief by the time Fry retires. Fry said he expects he’ll be involved in the hiring process.

Fry said he wants to be remembered as a chief who did his job to the best of his ability, worked hard to build relationships in the community and made the city safer and better for everyone.

“It’s been a great honor to actually be able to serve this community and work with the officers that we have,” Fry said. “We have a phenomenal group of men and women who do a great job, and I’m very proud of the fact I got to be a part of that.”

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