Richard Frank

Richard Frank

Associate Professor, School of Criminology, Director of the International CyberCrime Research Centre, Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, BC)

September 12, 2021

Richard Frank is an Associate Professor of Criminology at Simon Fraser University as well as the Director of the International CyberCrime Research Centre. Dr. Frank’s research interests revolve around cybercrime, with a specific focus on security issues, the dark web, and online child exploitation.

Dr. Frank is the founder of The Dark Crawler, a tool to locate violent extremist content in various spaces on the internet including the open internet, dark web, and online discussion forums. Since the development of this software, The Dark Crawler has identified over 150 million posts related to online violent extremist activities.

Dr. Frank has published over 100 academic articles related to cybercrime and cybersecurity. His work has been published and presented in highly respected institutions including the Intelligence and Security Informatics conference hosted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and the Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice.


Role: Panel Member
Report: Vulnerable Connections (March 2023)