Digital Crime

The rapid, global growth of computing and communications technologies (collectively known as “information technologies”) has caused an increase in technologically sophisticated criminal activity and international economic espionage. Changes in the world's political, economic, and technological environments are fundamentally altering sophisticated crime. The collapse of communism, the end of the Cold War, the globalization of the economy, and the rapid development of new information technologies have combined to create new vulnerabilities and provide criminals with new capabilities. The reach of criminal sanctions has expanded as lawmakers change criminal codes to establish economic and social policies regarding the use and dissemination of technology and information.

Criminal innovation always accompanies technological advance. The computer and the Internet are radically transforming corporate management and the conduct of commerce. But they also have created new vulnerabilities. With cyberspace comes cybercrime. Malevolent hackers, fraudsters, industrial spies, mafias, terrorists, and other criminals are exploiting the Internet to market scams, steal secrets, sabotage commerce, or conceal illegal activities.

All of these new threats are difficult to assess and nearly impossible to quantify. Many of them, such as terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking, economic espionage, and cybercrime, have been elevated to the level of national security concerns. Most of these threats transcend national frontiers and combating them effectively will require a level of international cooperation that remains to be achieved.