The global problem of the third millenium :organized transnational cybercrime

Abstract

During the last decade issues connected with rapid development of phenomenon known all over the world as “computer crime” have been thoroughly studied. At present this concept (rather conditionally) includes all illegal actions when electronic processing of information was an object or means of committing them. Thus the problem now embraces not only crimes directly connected with computers but also such as fraud with credit magnet cards, crimes in the telecommunications sphere (fraud with international phone conversations payment), illegal usage of electronic payments bank network, illegal software, fraud in using play slot machines and many others. Crimes connected with using evidence of computer origin when investigating traditional crimes are also referred to this group of issues. Computer crime is an international phenomenon; its level is closely connected with economic level of society development in different countries and regions. Less developed technically counties due to the activity of international law enforcement organizations have an opportunity to use experience of more developed countries for preventing and detecting computer crimes. General tendencies, criminal means and preventive measures are similar in different countries in various time periods, they are based on united technical program and methodological base of these crimes. Thus “computer crime” notion together with development of computer, telephone technologies was gradually transformed into crimes in informational technologies' sphere concept. Features characteristic for crime in a sphere of information technologies: international character of a crime (extends the boundaries of one country); difficulties in locating a “place of crime”; weak links between chains in an evidence system; impossibility to watch and fix the evidence visually; wide usage by criminals the ways of coding the information.