The rapid technological advancements over recent years has seen the threat of cyber criminals and the complexity of cybercrime increase exponentially. At the same time, there has been a surge in technology use among the general public and businesses placing them at greater risk of becoming a victim of cybercrime. NSWPF is committed to preventing, detecting, and responding to cyber threats, and as such, is calling for research into the most effective tools for preventing and detecting cybercrime, and identifying, locating, and apprehending cyber criminals.

NSWPF is particularly interested in research into

4.1 Cybersecurity – Research into lessons that can be learnt from recent cyberattack events against Optus, Medibank, and Latitude. Questions of particular interest include:

  • What were the fault lines that contributed to the cyberattack against Optus, Medibank, Latitude etc?
  • What can NSWPF learn from these attacks?
  • How can NSWPF strengthen its own cybersecurity and increase its resilience against cyberattacks?
  • What are the risks associated with a potential cyberattack to NSWPF and what would the consequences be?
  • Is current NSWPF’s data governance practices enough/how could it be improved?
  • What are other police jurisdictions doing in this space?

4.2 What behaviours are occurring in the expanding metaverse that test the limits of current legislation? What legislation might be required to support the metaverse into the future? What investigative gaps and opportunities are likely to exist, and how can government agencies tackle rapid technological advances?

4.3 Virtual kidnapping - NSWPF has seen an emergence of virtual kidnapping offences committed upon international Chinese students. Research surrounding victimology and other risk factors is required, along with novel methodologies for identifying perpetrators.

4.4 Investigation of the drivers and enablers of emerging crimes (Virtual Kidnapping, Ransomware, smishing campaigns, data breaches etc.) and the identification of effective strategies to circumvent their impact.

4.5 Criminal use of artificial intelligence for victim targeting. What effective intervention strategies can law enforcement utilise to combat this?

4.6 Reviewing global and national mega trends in technology use for facilitating crime (crypto currency, money laundering, social media, drug distribution, drug distribution, etc.) along with the evaluation of the short- and long-term impact these trends have on policing practice and theorise what policing might look like in in 10 to 20 years