As investment in national cybersecurity has grown, so has the focus on improving the quality of life for the Moldovan population. With a public consisting of many computer whiz kids, financial desperation following the Soviet Union collapse has led some to work for the “wrong” side of cyberspace.
“In the early 2000s, the combination of strong STEM talent, fluency in foreign languages and socio-economic pressure, created opportunities for skilled individuals to engage in cybercrime,” said Natalia Bell, American-Romanian-Moldovan cybersecurity expert. Those individuals largely originated from post-Soviet countries and were motivated by financial gain. “While Moldovans were not the heads of cybercrime operations, they did find easy ways to make money by engaging in these types of activities,” she said, explaining that economic instability incentivized a faster path to financial gain rather than pursuing education and full-time employment. Due to political instability, Russian influence and economic hardship, students would join groups of malicious cyber operators for financial gain. “You give a computer to a very talented kid who lacks awareness, that was great in math and that has the need for money, guess what’s going to happen?” Bell said.
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