I am a full professor of Cyber Security and Business Continuity at the University of Twente. I started my career at the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) of the Ministry of Justice in 1981. I worked as a Senior Researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Criminality and Law Enforcement (NSCR – in Leiden) (1992-2000) and as an Associate professor at the Department Developmental Psychology - Utrecht University (2002-2008). I am a member of the Scientific Advisory Council (WAR) of the Dutch Defense Academy.  I founded the Crime Science journal together with Pieter Hartel and was an associate-editor for 6 years (https://crimesciencejournal.springeropen.com/).

Expertise

  • Psychology

    • Behavior
    • Children
    • Adolescents
  • Computer Science

    • Attack
    • User
    • Malware
    • Attackers
  • Social Sciences

    • Crime

Organisations

My research interests are in the field of (online) crime, fraud and aggression and various forms of (online) fraud risk behavior. My aim is to improve prevention and provide tools for law enforcement. Together with colleagues I work to develop interventions that will help to protect users against social engineering, crime victimization and to increase compliance. 

My present research investigates the human factors of fraud and of cybercrime, more specifically in victimization, fraud, online disclosure and privacy issues. Why do users trust phishing emails or fraudsters?  Why do they comply or not comply to safety rules, why do they disclose so easily personal information and how can they be helped to become more vigilant users in order to protect themselves?

Please visit my 'projects' page for recent projects.

Publications

Jump to: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020

2025

Double-Extortion Ransomware: A Study of Cybercriminal Profit, Effort, and Risk (2025)[Thesis › PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT]. University of Twente. Meurs, T.https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036564182What To Do Against Ransomware? Evaluating Law Enforcement Interventions (2025)In Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime Researchers Summit, eCrime) (Accepted/In press). Meurs, T., Hoheisel, R., Junger, M., Abhishta, A. & McCoy, D.

2024

Risk factors for fraud victimization: The role of socio-demographics, personality, mental, general, and cognitive health, activities, and fraud knowledge (2024)International review of victimology, 30(3), 443–479. Koning, L., Junger, M. & Veldkamp, B.https://doi.org/10.1177/02697580231215839Dark Web Dialogues: Analyzing Communication Platform Choices of Underground Forum Users (2024)[Working paper › Preprint] (Submitted). Hoheisel, R., Meurs, T., Junger, M., Tews, E. & Abhishta, A.Ransomware Economics: A Two-Step Approach To Model Ransom Paid (2024)In 2023 APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime) (eCrime Researchers Summit, eCrime). IEEE. Meurs, T., Cartwright, E., Cartwright, A., Junger, M., Hoheisel, R., Tews, E. & Abhishta, A.https://doi.org/10.1109/eCrime61234.2023.10485506Deception in double extortion ransomware attacks: An analysis of profitability and credibility (2024)Computers & Security, 138. Article 103670. Meurs, T., Cartwright, E., Cartwright, A., Junger, M. & Abhishta, A.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2023.103670Fraud: Studies into Victimization and Prevention (2024)[Thesis › PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT]. University of Twente. Koning, L.https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036563093

2022

NAS-ransomware: Hoe ransomware-aanvallen tegen NAS-apparaten verschillen van reguliere ransomware-aanvallen (2022)Tijdschrift voor veiligheid, 21(3-4), 69-88. Article 21. Meurs, T., Junger, M., Tews, E. & Abhishta, A.https://doi.org/10.5553/TvV/.000044Ransomware: How attacker's effort, victim characteristics and context influence ransom requested, payment and financial loss (2022)In Symposium on Electronic Crime Research, eCrime 2022. Meurs, T., Junger, M., Tews, E. & Abhishta, A.COORDINATE: A model to analyse the benefits and costs of coordinating cybercrime (2022)Journal of internet services and information security, 12(4). Meurs, T., Junger, M., Abhishta, A., Tews, E. & Ratia, E.https://doi.org/10.58346/JISIS.2022.I4.001How Attackers Determine the Ransom in Ransomware Attacks (2022)[Dataset Types › Dataset]. Zenodo. Meurs, T., Junger, M., Abhishta, A. & Tews, E.https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7068711How Attackers Determine the Ransom in Ransomware Attacks (2022)In 7th IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (Euro S&P 2022). ResearchGate. Meurs, T., Junger, M., Abhishta, A. & Tews, E.https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.34435.58400Lost in privacy? Online privacy from a cybersecurity expert perspective (2022)Telematics and informatics, 68. Article 101782. Barth, S., de Jong, M. D. T. & Junger, M.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2022.101782

2021

Privacy Rating: A User-Centered Approach for Visualizing Data Handling Practices of Online Services (2021)IEEE transactions on professional communication, 64(4), 354-373. Barth, S., Ionita, D., de Jong, M., Hartel, P. & Junger, M.https://doi.org/10.1109/TPC.2021.3110617The Shift and Surge of Phishing During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Over 1100 Targeted Top-Level Domains Used by Dutch Firms (2021)[Working paper › Preprint]. Hoheisel, R., Van capelleveen, G., Sarmah, D. & Junger, M.https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4215129Dark user interface, dark behavior? The effect of ‘dark mode’ on honesty (2021)Computers in human behavior reports, 4. Article 100107. Koning, L. & Junger, M.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100107Crime chain: het verband tussen DDoS-aanvallen en Phishing (2021)[Book/Report › Report]. Politie & Wetenschap. Junger, M., Abhishta, A. & Nieuwenhuis, B.https://www.politieenwetenschap.nl/publicatie/pw_verkenningen/2021/crime-chain-364/Data, data, and even more data: Empowering users to make well-informed decisions about online privacy (2021)[Thesis › PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT]. University of Twente. Barth, S.https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036551410Eyes in the skies: Exploring the effects of social presence cues on undesired and pro-social behaviour (2021)[Thesis › PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT]. University of Twente. Jansen, A. M.https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789464191141Feeling good, bad or nothing: A Qualitative study of emotions towards mobile app permissions (2021)[Contribution to conference › Poster] ICT Open 2021. Allah Bukhsh, J. & Junger, M.

Research profiles

1. Mastertrack Risico & Veiligheid in ICT & Cybercrime (in the Master Risico Management)

2. Cyber-crime Science in the Security 4TU master of Information Security.

3. I supervise a lot of theses.

Courses academic year 2024/2025

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2023/2024

Current projects

Looking at DDoS and Phishing

Aim: We study phishing campaigns and DDoS attacks in a first attempt to investigate whether there are relationships between these two phenomena. Collaboration: Team Hight-Tech Crime and the FraudHelpDesk Funding provided by Politie en Wetenschap Principal Investigator: M. Junger Together with Abhishta Start: January 2018

Nudging and Improved Form Design (NIFOD)

The aim of this study is to improve information quality on manure that farmers provide to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, via a so called ‘Aanvullende gegevens’ digital form. In the present study we propose a client-centred approach that focuses on prevention. It has two broad objectives: 1. Simplification and improvement of the form. The ‘Aanvullende gegevens’ digital form is somewhat complicated. A set of studies on how the form is filled out by farmers will lead to suggestions for form improvement. 2. Improvement of information quality. In a second part of the study we aim to improve the quality and veracity of the information. To increase honest behavior by farmers (or their representatives) when filling in the form, we will develop persuasive nudges (primes) that will increase honest reporting and decrease intentional fraud. Funding provided by Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, RVO Principal Investigator: M. Junger Together with dr Joris van Hoof and Dr Erik Tews Start: January 2018

Pilot study to improve law enforcement of manure fraud.

Project: Assessing and Reducing fraud in manure declarations: Insights from behavioural and Earth Sciences data (ARIES) Principal Investigator: prof M. Junger Together with prof Zurita Funding by the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA).

SEcurity RequIrements for seriOUS apps - (SERIOUS)

With prof Hartel Funded by: NWO Duration: January 2015 until January 2021

Finished projects

Victims of cybercrime; pilotstudy

Together with Prof. dr ir T. de Vries, Prof. dr ir B.P. Veldkamp (University of Twente). Funded by Stichting Achmea Slachtoffer en Samenleving (SASS).

Prevention of child abuse: Randomized study on the effects of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy with families at home (PCIT-HOME)

With: Dr. M. Abrahamse Funded by Kinderpostzegels.

Modus operandi: the influence of modern media (ICT, mobile phones) on ‘traditional crime’

With prof P. Hartel Funded by KLPD (former National Police)

TREsPASS

Technology-supported Risk Estimation by Predictive Assessment of Socio-technical Security

Consortium, principal investigator: prof Hartel. Funded by the EU http://www.trespass-project.eu/

I wrote a blog on victims of crime on the SpringerOpen and BMC:

http://blogs.springeropen.com/springeropen/2018/08/22/on-the-prevalence-of-cybercrime-across-europe/

Please let me know your reaction.

Marianne

Address

University of Twente

Ravelijn (building no. 10), room 3333
Hallenweg 17
7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands

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Organisations

Additional contact information

Office: RA3333

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