Crime and criminality are at the same time centuries-old phenomena and ever
changing realities powered by innovations in technology, communications, transportation,
and other scientific advances.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2013), at least 2.3
billion people, the equivalent of more than one third of the world’s total population,
have access to the Internet. Over 60 % of all Internet users are in developing countries,
with 45 % of all Internet users below the age of 25 years. By the year 2017, it
is estimated that mobile broadband subscriptions will approach 70 % of the world’s
total population. By the year 2020, the number of networked devices 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 some element of electronic
evidence linked with Internet protocol (IP) connectivity.