2026-04-26 –, Track 2
This presentation by a former FBI profiler and a Russian former cybercriminal felon challenge some of the beliefs and attitudes you might have about how cybercrime gangs find people willing to help their businesses, and how the motivations of everyday people are closer to cybercriminals than we might imagine. We examine cybercriminal gangs that offer support services to its gang affiliates and partners. While some observers have characterized this support as marketing ploys, the use of legitimate service industries is largely unknown. This presentation also contributes to crime convenience theory in cybercriminal and criminology contexts, suggesting that this framework for explaining why people not involved in crime become willing to support crime, might also reveal similar pathways in motivation between cybercriminals and people not involved in crime.
Tim Pappa is an Incident Response Engineer - Cyber Deception Strategy, Content Development, and Marketing, Cyber Deception Operations, Walmart Global Tech. Before Walmart Global Tech, Tim was a Supervisory Special Agent and profiler with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), where he specialized in cyber deception and online influence. Tim has presented and published at various academic and industry conferences, including Black Hat Asia, NDSS, IEEE S&P, CYBERWARCON, and the Honeynet Project. Tim has also held various strategy and policy Fellow roles at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Aspen Institute. Tim's current research interests include attitudes toward cybercriminal felons, HoneyContent, and cyber deception design thinking. Singapore-based publisher World Scientific published his first book, “Influencing the Influencers: Applying Whaley’s Communication and Deception Frameworks to Terrorism and Insurgent Narratives” in summer 2025. He is currently writing No Starch Press's first book on cyber deception.
