Inbook
Investigating Cybercrimes That Occur on Documented P2P Networks
Contribution Summary
This paper outlines a methodology for investigating cybercrimes on documented P2P networks, focusing on BitTorrent. The authors conducted a week-long investigation on the top 100 most popular BitTorrent swarms, analyzing the geographical distribution of peers involved in the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material. The study used IP geolocation databases to identify the countries, cities, and states where the peers were located. The results show that the United States, United Kingdom, and India were the top three countries with the highest number of unique IP addresses. The study also highlights the importance of considering the limitations of IP geolocation and the potential for inaccuracies in identifying peers. The authors conclude that the actual number of P2P users involved in unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material is likely much higher than the results of this investigation.
Keywords: Peer-to-Peer Networks; Cybercrime Investigation; BitTorrent; Copyright Infringement; Digital Forensics; Internet Traffic Analysis; Geolocation; IP Address Analysis
Abstract
The popularity of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Internet communication technologies being exploited to aid cybercrime is ever increasing. P2P systems can be used or exploited to aid in the execution of a large number of online criminal activity, e.g., copyright infringement, fraud, malware and virus distribution, botnet creation and control, etc. P2P technology is perhaps most famous for the unauthorised distribution of copyrighted materials since the late 1990’s, with the popularity of file-sharing programs, such as Napster, etc. In 2004, P2P traffic was accounted for 80% of all Internet traffic and in 2005, specifically BitTorrent traffic accounted for over 60% of the world’s P2P bandwidth usage. This paper outlines a methodology for investigating a documented P2P network, BitTorrent, using a sample investigation for reference throughout. The sample investigation outlined was conducted on the top 100 most popular BitTorrent swarms over the course of a one week period.
BibTeX
@inbook{scanlon2013p2pcybercrime,
author={Scanlon, Mark and Hannaway, Alan and Kechadi, Tahar},
title="{Investigating Cybercrimes That Occur on Documented P2P Networks}",
booktitle="{Pervasive and Ubiquitous Technology Innovations for Ambient Intelligence Environments}",
editor={Curran, Kevin},
chapter=10,
year=2013,
month=09,
publisher = {IGI Global},
address = {Hershey, PA, USA},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-2041-4.ch010},
doi = {10.4018/978-1-4666-2041-4.ch010},
pages={109–115},
abstract="The popularity of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Internet communication technologies being exploited to aid cybercrime is ever increasing. P2P systems can be used or exploited to aid in the execution of a large number of online criminal activity, e.g., copyright infringement, fraud, malware and virus distribution, botnet creation and control, etc. P2P technology is perhaps most famous for the unauthorised distribution of copyrighted materials since the late 1990’s, with the popularity of file-sharing programs, such as Napster, etc. In 2004, P2P traffic was accounted for 80% of all Internet traffic and in 2005, specifically BitTorrent traffic accounted for over 60% of the world’s P2P bandwidth usage. This paper outlines a methodology for investigating a documented P2P network, BitTorrent, using a sample investigation for reference throughout. The sample investigation outlined was conducted on the top 100 most popular BitTorrent swarms over the course of a one week period."
}