Investigating Cybercrimes that Occur on Documented P2P Networks

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 activities, e.g., copyright infringement, fraud, malware and virus distribution, botnet creation, and control. 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. In 2004, P2P traffic 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. result of online piracy. The IFPI’s Digital Music Report (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, 2011) states that legitimate digital music distribution is up 1000% from 2004 to 2010, although total global recorded music revenues are down 31% over the same period. The report cites Internet piracy as having a significant impact on their sales. The report cites a study from 2010 entitled “Piracy, Music and Movies: A Natural Experiment” which found that physical sales would be up 72% with the abolishment of piracy in Sweden. In 2008, P2P traffic accounted for over half of the world’s Internet traffic. P2P networks DOI: 10.4018/jaci.2011040104 International Journal of Ambient Computing and Intelligence, 3(2), 56-63, April-June 2011 57 Copyright © 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. especially lend themselves well to the unauthorised distribution of copyrighted material due to the abundance of material available to the downloaders. This paper presents the results of an investigation conducted on the top 100 most popular BitTorrent swarms over the course of one week. The purpose of this investigation is to quantify the scale of the unauthorised distribution of copyrighted material through the use of the BitTorrent protocol.