CHAPTER ONE: CONNECTIVITY AND CYBERCRIME activities as being the only way that they can survive in the absence of employment.57 The contemporary growth of cybercrime is important due to its impact and threat on multiple levels. Asked about the threat of cybercrime, law enforcement officials referred to a range of impacts. These included the fact that some cybercrime acts, such as online fraud and identitytheft, represent a threat because they are very common, producing an aggregate impact from the volume of offending and cumulative effects. Chapter Two (The global picture) of this Study examines the extent of the financial impact of cybercrime on individuals and companies. Such acts may also generate resources for organized criminal groups that may be used to support further crimes. Other cybercrime acts, such as the creation of illegal computer-misuse tools, may be quite rare, but pose a significant threat because individual incidents may cause great harm. A third category includes offences which cause harm to individuals, such as the creation and online dissemination of child pornography.58 1.4 Describing cybercrime Key results:  ‘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  Computer-related acts for personal or financial gain or harm, including forms of identityrelated crime, and computer content-related acts 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 A comprehensive Study on cybercrime must be clear on the range of acts that are included in the term. The word ‘cybercrime’ itself is not amenable to a single definition, and is likely best considered as a collection of acts or conduct, rather than one single act. Nonetheless, the basic content of the term can be described – at least for the purposes of this Study – by a non-exhaustive list of acts that constitute cybercrime. These acts can, in turn, be organized into categories based on the material offence object and modus operandi. The term ‘cybercrime’ Numerous academic works have attempted to define ‘cybercrime.’59 National legislation, however, does not appear concerned with a strict definition of the word. Out of almost 200 items of national legislation cited by countries in response to the Study questionnaire, fewer than five per 57 58 59 Warner, J., 2011. Understanding Cybercrime: A View from Below. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 5(1):736-749. Study cybercrime questionnaire. Q81. Among various others, International Telecommunication Union, 2011. Understanding Cybercrime: A Guide for Developing Countries; Explanatory Report to the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention, ETS No. 185; Pocar, F., 2004. New challenges for international rules against cyber-crime. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 10(1):27-37; Wall, D.S., 2007. Cybercrime: The Transformation of Crime in the Information Age. Cambridge: Polity Press. 11