Tom Holt
Professor of Criminal Justice
Thomas J. Holt is an expert in Cybercrime, Cyberterror, and Information Warfare Researcher
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Thomas J. Holt is a professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University whose research focuses on computer hacking, malware, and the role of the Internet in facilitating all manner of crime and deviance. His work has been published in various journals including Crime and Delinquency, Deviant Behavior, the Journal of Criminal Justice, and Youth and Society.
Read MoreEducation
University of Missouri-Saint Louis: Ph.D., Criminology and Criminal Justice
University of Missouri-Saint Louis: M.A., Criminology and Criminal Justice
University of Missouri-Saint Louis: B.S., Criminology and Criminal Justice
Selected Press
What's the most significant hack in history?
Gizmodo | 2021-06-21
Which hack can claim to being the most destructive? What was, in other words, the most significant hack of all time? For this week’s Giz Asks, we reached out to a number of experts to find out. Thomas J. Holt, director and professor of criminal Justice at Michigan State University, whose research focuses on computer hacking and malware, among other things: “The first that comes to mind is the Morris worm, from 1988. A college student named Robert Tappan Morris wrote a piece of code that he claimed he thought would simply ping servers and assess the size of the internet at that time. But there was either a deliberate or unfortunate error in the code, and instead of simply pinging and reporting back, it started to replicate and spread, and effectively caused a denial-of-service attack against almost the entire internet.”
MSU hosts annual cybersecurity conference
MSU Today | 2017-02-14
Criminal justice professor Thomas Holt, the conference organizer and presenter, said it is important to bring every field together to discuss ways to understand the practices of cybercriminals and the best responses to minimize their attacks against computers and networks.
Female forensic scientists stressed more than males
MSU Today | 2016-08-18
“It’s not clear why female scientists reported more stress than males,” said Thomas J. Holt, MSU professor of criminal justice, “though it may stem from differences in the experiences of female scientists who are not sworn law-enforcement officers working in a quasi-military structure where more males are sworn officers, particularly in supervisory roles.”...
Cyber thieves making millions off of stolen credit and debit card numbers
WLNS | 2016-02-16
This is one of the first scientific studies done on the subject of cybercrime profits. Thomas J. Holt, a criminologist from Michigan State, lead the study. Holt said it should be a wake up call to both consumers and law enforcement officials.
“It’s happening so often that average consumers are just getting the mindset of, ‘Well, my bank will just reissue the card, it’s not a problem,” said Holt, “but this is more than a hassle or inconvenience. It’s a real economic phenomenon that has real economic impact and consequences.”...
