An Introduction to How Criminal Profiling Could Be Used as a Support for Computer Hacking Investigations

ABSTRACT This article presents a review and a critical analysis of the literature and can be considered the initial stage of a study that attempts to improve computer forensics and cybercrime investigation when using criminal profiling. This research is based on the premise that the motivations behind any sort of crimes—and it is no different with cybercrimes, and more specifically in this article with computer hacking crimes—are a product of human society and, even when they present new methods and tools, its human nature that leads criminals to, sooner or later, commit mistakes. Therefore, the objective of this article is to link criminal profiling to computer hacking, identifying expressions of human psychological traits and adding new elements to digital investigation.