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Roberto Musotto

Research Fellow in Cyber Security and Law, Edith Cowan University
I am an Italian-qualified lawyer (Avvocato) with expertise in serious crimes commercial and cyber aspects. I use theory and methods from network science and law & economics in my research.

I hold a PhD in Economics from Università degli Studi di Messina 2017 and a Laurea Magistrale in Giurisprudenza (LLB+LLM) from Università degli Studi di Palermo 2007-2012.

Some areas of law & economics I investigate include:

- Contractual mechanisms and corporate structures exploited by criminal organisations in legal and illegal markets
- Transnational forms of organised crime and terrorist networks in a changing socio-legal context
- Social and spatial network analysis techniques applied on criminal groups
- Linking organised crime to cybercrime, specifically on Booter Services (Stressers), Ransomwares and Crypto-currencies

Until August 2019, I conducted my research under the 3.5 million Euro Horizon 2020 TAKEDOWN project at the University of Leeds, UK. More information about the project itself and results are on the website: https://www.takedownproject.eu

I published my works in acclaimed peer-reviewed academic journals, details of which can be found on my Google Scholar page: https://goo.gl/8UAnzP

How does the Pegasus spyware work, and is my phone at risk?

Jul 24, 2021 06:56 am UTC| Technology

A major journalistic investigation has found evidence of malicious software being used by governments around the world, including allegations of spying on prominent individuals. From a list of more 50,000 phone numbers,...

Is your super money safe? Here's how you can dodge cyber fraud

Jun 03, 2020 14:55 pm UTC| Investing

Alongside growing concerns over a possible resurgence of the coronavirus during winter, the pandemic is now creating even more victims as cybercriminals aim to capitalise on the economic upheaval. According to news...

Ransomware attack on sheep farmers shows there's no room for woolly thinking in cyber security

Mar 06, 2020 03:46 am UTC| Technology

While many Australians were preoccupied with panic-buying toilet paper, sales of another commodity encountered a very different sort of crisis. Wool sales were severely disrupted last week by a ransomware attack on IT...

Hackers are now targeting councils and governments, threatening to leak citizen data

Nov 11, 2019 09:19 am UTC| Insights & Views Technology

In recent weeks, Johannesburgs computer network was held for ransom by a hacker group called Shadow Kill Hackers. This was the second time in three months a ransomware attack has hit South Africas largest city. This time,...

Economy

The US is one of the least trade-oriented countries in the world – despite laying the groundwork for today’s globalized system

Given the spate of news about international trade lately, Americans might be surprised to learn that the U.S. isnt very dependent on it. Indeed, looking at trade as a percentage of gross domestic product a metric...

Beyond the spin, beyond the handouts, here’s how to get a handle on what’s really happening on budget night

Three weeks from now, some of us will be presented with a mountain of budget papers, and just about all of us will get to hear about them on radio, TV or news websites on budget night. The quickest way to find out what...

Johannesburg in a time of darkness: Ivan Vladislavić’s new memoir reminds us of the city’s fragility

Ivan Vladislavić is Johannesburgs literary linkman. He tells us, in the first pages of his new book, The Near North, that before cities were lit, first by gaslight and later electricity, people of means paid torchbearers...

Economist Chris Richardson on an ‘ugly’ inflation result and the coming budget

With Jim Chalmerss third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief beyond the tax cuts although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As this weeks consumer price...

Inflation is slowly falling, while student debt is climbing: 6 graphs that explain today’s CPI

Australias inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and its now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. The annual rate peaked at 7.8% in the December quarter of 2022 and is now just 3.6%, in...

Politics

US Urges China, Russia to Reject AI Control in Nuclear Arms, Align with Global Norms

Paul Dean, a senior U.S. arms control official, emphasized the critical need for China and Russia to join the U.S. in declaring that humans will always decide on the deployment of nuclear weapons, not artificial...

South Africa’s youth are a generation lost under democracy – study

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa recently painted a rosy picture in which the countrys youth democracys children had enormous opportunities for advancement, all thanks to successive post-apartheid governments led...

Sadiq Khan on track for third term as London mayor – but nearly half of Londoners dissatisfied with performance

Polls have consistently shown that the incumbent mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, appears to be on track to win a third term in office at the upcoming mayoral elections on May 2. One poll we commissioned as part of our...

Biden administration tells employers to stop shackling workers with ‘noncompete agreements’

Most American workers are hired at will: Employers owe their employees nothing in the relationship except earned wages, and employees are at liberty to quit at their option. As the rule is generally stated, either party...

Labour can afford to be far more ambitious with its economic policies – voters are on board

To say that the Labour party is flying high in the polls is something of an understatement. But despite its consistent lead against the Tories, the opposition finds itself in a rather odd position: on the cusp of power but...

Science

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...

A Nasa rover has reached a promising place to search for fossilised life on Mars

While we go about our daily lives on Earth, a nuclear-powered robot the size of a small car is trundling around Mars looking for fossils. Unlike its predecessor Curiosity, Nasas Perseverance rover is explicitly intended to...

The rising flood of space junk is a risk to us on Earth – and governments are on the hook

A piece of space junk recently crashed through the roof and floor of a mans home in Florida. Nasa later confirmed that the object had come from unwanted hardware released from the international space station. The 700g,...

Peter Higgs was one of the greats of particle physics. He transformed what we know about the building blocks of the universe

Peter Higgs, who gave his name to the subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson, has died aged 94. He was always a modest man, especially when considering that he was one of the greats of particle physics the area of...

Technology

Nintendo's Next-Gen: Switch 2 Could Hit 240FPS, Leaks Suggest

Leaked by data miner OatmealDome, Nintendos updated NintendoWare Bezel Engine reportedly supports frame rates potentially as high as 240FPS, a massive leap from the current 60FPS limit on the Nintendo Switch. The...

Shiba Inu Dead Cat Bounce: Price Rebound or Bearish Omen?

Investors in the cryptocurrency world are eyeing Shiba Inu (SHIB) with cautious optimism as the meme coin shows signs of a potential dead cat bounce, a dubious reversal often seen in volatile markets. With SHIB struggling...

PEPE Price Surges 7% Amid 4 Trillion Pepe Coin Accumulation by Whale

A monumental 4 trillion Pepe coin accumulation by a crypto whale on May 3 has sparked a significant 7% surge in PEPEs price. This surge, observed amid bullish market sentiments, follows a week of price consolidation,...

Hyundai Motor Scales Up Hydrogen EV Truck Business in the US

Hyundai Motor Company is expanding its hydrogen EV truck operations in the United States to take the lead in this line of business in the region. As part of the initiative, South Korean vehicle manufacturers are offering...

Kakao Enhances AI Focus, Merges Kakao Brain Into Core Operations

South Koreas Kakao Corporation finally decided to absorb Kakao Brains AI unit. The tech and internet giant is taking over its AI research and development (RD) business, which will include all of the departments staff and...