EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Connectivity and cybercrime In 2011, at least 2.3 billion people, the equivalent of more than one third of the world’s total population, had access to the internet. Over 60 per cent of all internet users are in developing countries, with 45 per cent of all internet users below the age of 25 years. By the year 2017, it is estimated that mobile broadband subscriptions will approach 70 per cent of the world’s total population. By the year 2020, the number of networked devices (the ‘internet of things’) will outnumber people by six to one, transforming current conceptions of the internet. In the hyperconnected world of tomorrow, it will become hard to imagine a ‘computer crime’, and perhaps any crime, that does not involve electronic evidence linked with internet protocol (IP) connectivity. ‘Definitions’ of cybercrime mostly depend upon the purpose of using the term. A limited number of acts against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data or systems represent the core of cybercrime. Beyond this, however, computer-related acts for personal or financial gain or harm, including forms of identity-related crime, and computer content-related acts (all of which fall within a wider meaning of the term ‘cybercrime’) do not lend themselves easily to efforts to arrive at legal definitions of the aggregate term. Certain definitions are required for the core of cybercrime acts. However, a ‘definition’ of cybercrime is not as relevant for other purposes, such as defining the scope of specialized investigative and international cooperation powers, which are better focused on electronic evidence for any crime, rather than a broad, artificial ‘cybercrime’ construct. The global picture % respondents reporting victimization in last year, 2011 or latest available year In many countries, the explosion in global connectivity has come at a time of economic and demographic transformations, with rising income disparities, tightened private sector spending, and reduced financial liquidity. At the global level, law enforcement respondents to the study perceive increasing levels of cybercrime, as both individuals and organized criminal groups exploit new criminal opportunities, driven by profit and personal gain. Upwards of 80 per cent of cybercrime acts are estimated to originate in Cybercrime and conventional crime victimization some form of organized 16% activity, with cybercrime black HDI < 0.8 (8 countries) markets established on a cycle 14% HDI > 0.8 (13 countries) of malware creation, computer 12% infection, botnet management, 10% harvesting of personal and financial data, data sale, and 8% ‘cashing out’ of financial 6% information. Cybercrime perpetrators no longer require 4% complex skills or techniques. 2% In the developing country 0% context in particular, subEmail account Responded to Identity theft Online credit Burglary Robbery Car theft hacked phishing card fraud cultures of young men attempt engaged in computer-related Source: UNODC elaboration of Norton Cybercrime Report and crime victimization surveys. financial fraud have emerged, xvii