Dr. Thomas Dearden (Associate Professor of Sociology, Virginia Tech) will present research examining the human side of cybercrime using large-scale honeypot data. Analyzing more than three million attempts against the Windows Remote Desktop Protocol, Dr. Dearden explores behavioral patterns in hacking, including when hackers operate, how they persist, how passwords are selected, and what occurs after a system is breached. This talk highlights how understanding human behavior in cyber offending can improve protection of critical systems.

Dr. Dearden is an internationally recognized scholar in cybercrime and white-collar crime whose work sits at the intersection of criminology, technology, and human behavior. He collaborates on interdisciplinary research through the Cybercriminology Lab at Virginia Tech and has published in leading journals such as American Journal of Criminal Justice, Journal of Economic Criminology, International Journal of Cybersecurity Intelligence & Cybercrime, Deviant Behavior, and Journal of Financial Crime.

Open to students, faculty, and staff. Particularly relevant for those in criminology, legal studies, computer science, cybersecurity, and data science.