Agile Project: Fintech entrepreneurship and innovation in online black markets
Project Summary
In online black markets (OBMs) many sell and buy cyber vulnerabilities and cybercrime services. Other actors can resell, repackage, or use such vulnerabilities for hacking or to develop information security solutions. How OBMs work and maintain the fragile balance of ethics, entrepreneurship and innovation, raises a wicked problem for law enforcement, regulators, businesses and researchers. While the primary consideration is for the potential harm, the value created for fintech services and society deserves more attention.
The purpose of this project is to paint a broader picture around OBMs creating an entrepreneurial and innovative environment from which fintech regulators and businesses can learn from. The project challenges the taken-for-granted ethical relationship between entrepreneurship and innovation. In an environment where members create and follow their own rules, doing harm or good is equally possible under conditions of limited accountability and control. We explore the underlying principles of entrepreneurship and innovation value creation in OBMs by looking at the activity of sellers and buyers there, and how traded cyber vulnerabilities and cybercrime services can impact fintech services.
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