From Harm to Healing: Understanding Individual Resilience after Cybercrimes
Xiaowei Chen, Mindy Tran, Yue Deng, Bhupendra Acharya, Yixin Zou
TL;DR
Cybercrime harms extend beyond financial loss to emotional and psychological distress. The study uses trauma-informed, in-depth interviews with 18 victims across Western Europe to examine recovery and to extend the concept of individual cyber resilience. It conceptualizes resilience as three interdependent dimensions—context sensitivity, internal factors, and external support—and identifies four victim-response stages: recognition, coping, processing, and recovery, illustrating how coping strategies and institutional actions shape outcomes. The findings highlight the pivotal roles of social and emotional support, bank responses, and platform accountability, while revealing gaps in law enforcement efficacy and victim services. The work provides practical implications for trauma-informed cross-sector collaboration among banks, digital platforms, law enforcement, and victim-support organizations to mitigate harms and strengthen resilience in individuals.
Abstract
How do individuals recover from cybercrimes? Victims experience various types of harm after cybercrimes, including monetary loss, data breaches, negative emotions, and even psychological trauma. The aspects that support their recovery process and contribute to individual cyber resilience remain underinvestigated. To address this gap, we interviewed 18 cybercrime victims from Western Europe using a trauma-informed approach. We identified four common stages following victimization: recognition, coping, processing, and recovery. Participants adopted various strategies to mitigate the impact of cybercrime and used different indicators to describe recovery. While they mostly relied on social support and self-regulation for emotional coping, service providers largely determined whether victims were able to recover their money. Internal factors, external support, and context sensitivity collectively contribute to individuals' cyber resilience. We recommend trauma-informed support for cybercrime victims. Extending our conceptualization of individual cyber resilience, we propose collaborative and context-sensitive strategies to address the harmful impacts of cybercrime.