Intangible space as a new form of crime scene: doctrinal aspect

Lihachev Nikita Aleksandrovich Lihachev Nikita Aleksandrovich 350040, Russia, Krasnodar Territory, Krasnodar, Stavropol str., 149 mr.lihachev.nikita@mail.ru

In recent years, there has been a progressive criminalization of public relations in the field of information technology related to the transfer, storage, and processing of information. If earlier the classical doctrine of criminal law assumed a specific geographical object with latitude and longitude coordinates as the place of commission of a crime, then the development of computer technologies, means of communication and the information and telecommunication network "Internet" contributed to the emergence of a new information space, which by its nature is immaterial and does not actually exist in three–dimensional dimension.

The traditional doctrine of the crime scene as an optional feature of the objective side describes it from the perspective of an object of material reality – a specific area of the earth's surface with its own geographical landmarks and coordinates ^{[4, p. 199]}. For example, an environmental disaster zone (Part 2 of Article 254 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) or the exclusive economic zone of the Russian Federation (Article 253 of the Russian Federation). In other words, any crime committed by a specific person or persons has one or more coordinates on earth. For the philosophical criminal-legal perception of the universe, such a concept was logical and convenient, given the three-dimensionality of familiar reality.

However, the development of computer technology, the emergence of ITS "Internet" has led to the formation of a new physically intangible world, functioning according to its own unique rules and features. Firstly, this is due to the almost uncontrollable possibility of communication between all subjects of the global network, the ability to influence the audience, including through neuro-linguistic programming, soft propaganda of extremist and terrorist ideas and ideologies. Commodity-money relations and virtual currencies have appeared on the network. Virtual, formless digital goods and services in the real world, information, including those related to various types of secrets, can now be embodied exclusively in an intangible form. In addition, the development of artificial intelligence technologies has led to the possibility of autonomous funding of objects of material reality and their self-reproduction, the creation of new virtual goods and services by computer programs.

As a result, an immaterial space, albeit technically dependent on it, but functioning autonomously, arose in parallel with the material world. Intangible space should be understood as social relations related to the exchange, storage, processing, and creation of information in ITS "Internet". Of course, this definition is quite conditional, since it does not cover all aspects, but acts as a starting point for the subject of knowledge. The absence of both an international legal and criminal definition of cyberspace hinders the regulation and effective counteraction to information crime.

Cyberspace and virtual reality should be considered synonymous, similar, but not identical phenomena, products of modern computer technologies that create a new intangible world, which are a special case of intangible space. At the same time, some scientists are beginning to perceive cyberspace as a military environment ^{[5, p. 87]}, and the security of intangible space as one of the priorities of the state level.

In recent years, the doctrine has increasingly analyzed a new legal category – cyberspace. It is defined as a virtual environment that becomes a place where crimes in the field of information security are committed. At the same time, this term has not found consensus in science, and as an alternative, there are such definitions as "virtual environment", "information space", "virtual reality" ^{[2, p. 162]}, etc.

Virtual reality is a complete computer simulation of a fictional intangible world that exists in the form of an electronic code and is stored on an electronic medium. For the user, this technology should evoke a sense of reality, full presence and trust in the surrounding space. It should be distinguished from augmented reality, when computer technology takes real material reality as a basis and transforms it into an imaginary one, changing certain objects that are cognizable in the process of interaction in the perception of the subject. Such technologies include VR glasses that allow you to simulate objects around you, or prototypes of computer devices that allow you to distort the perception of the world around you.

Cyberspace is a somewhat broader phenomenon than virtual reality, it additionally includes all public relations and products that originated or were created in ITS "Internet", as well as intangible objects created by computer technologies. The emergence of cyberspace has led to the formation of a new online culture and counterculture, a change in the legal consciousness of citizens, the emergence of new offenses and crimes. Within the framework of cyberspace, communication takes place on social networks and messengers, document exchange, transactions, and storage of various information in cloud storage (servers).

Of course, every object that exists in cyberspace at the moment is linked to a specific object in the material world – a server, computer or other electronic device, however, the development of artificial intelligence technologies and neural networks has made it possible to create autonomous programs that function without direct human control or direct influence. Moreover, VPN (virtual private network) technologies allow you to create connections on top of someone's network, in other words, replace your real-life coordinates with any others, committing crimes from a place where the person is not actually located. As a result, a situation arises when, during the theft of funds, the victim may be in one place; the server on which his non–cash funds are stored is in the second; the location of the subject of the crime is in the third thanks to VPN technology (including abroad), and the real location of the criminal is in the fourth.

Similar processes occur with the financing of extremist and terrorist activities, public calls for extremist and terrorist activities, with unauthorized access to computer information and the commission of other crimes using ITS "Internet". Cryptocurrency is becoming a new form of financing terrorism, extremism, sabotage and other anti-state activities due to the insufficient level of legal regulation and control by the state.

Terrorist cyberspace is a set of information and communication technologies used to interfere with the work of key state facilities and disable them, obtain or destroy important information that is inaccessible to public use. Terrorist attacks are just one of the categories of cybercrime. There are a large number of crimes that can be committed in cyberspace, and cyberterrorism among them occupies only a certain percentage of percent. Its main purpose is to put pressure on political and social strata, intimidation, and persuasion of the people and authorities to certain actions. Such attacks are aimed at maximizing financial or other damage ^{[6, p. 143]}.

Thus, ITS "Internet" is gradually moving from the category of a method/means of committing a crime to becoming a place of committing a criminal tort. His appearance leveled the distance for a number of socially dangerous acts.

At the same time, the intangible space allows the attacker to remain anonymous in most cases, which is one of the reasons for the low detection rate of crimes committed using information and telecommunications technologies. So, in 2021, 517722 crimes committed using information and telecommunication technologies were registered, 118920 were solved; in 2022, these figures amounted to 522065 and 142384, respectively; in 2023 – 676951 and 172290 ^[7].

The key reasons for such low rates are the initiation of criminal cases with an unidentified person, as well as their suspension on the grounds provided for in paragraph 2 of Part 1 of Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. Intangible space as a criminogenic factor allows a person to commit illegal actions against information security, as well as crimes of extremist, terrorist, narcotic and fraudulent orientation from abroad, without appearing on the territory of the Russian Federation. The use of VPN and Darknet technologies allows you to change identification information about a subject by entering fake personal data and information about his location; conducting transactions through cryptocurrency significantly complicates the qualification of theft, acts forming illicit drug trafficking, financing illegal activities of persons, and the qualification of complicity in various forms.

As a result, the intangible space has become a universal platform for crimes of a wide range due to the insufficient level of regulatory regulation, criminal law counteraction to crimes committed using information and telecommunication technologies. Cyberspace as a criminal environment, a new form of reality makes it difficult not only to detect traces of crimes, but also the very fact of their commission, which leads to an increase in their latency.

The problems of legal regulation of cyberspace primarily lie in the plane of defining the conceptual and categorical apparatus. In Russian criminal law, the concept of cyberspace is not officially fixed, and there is no consensus in the scientific community. Some scientists adhere to the position that cyberspace is formed through a combination of mobile and computer devices with which users communicate with each other at a distance ^{[1, p. 262]}. Others consider it as a multidimensional philosophical, political, criminal law, and criminalistic phenomenon that cannot be considered in a truncated format ^{[3, p. 249]}.

It can be stated that cyberspace, from a criminal legal point of view, has the following properties:

- "cyberspace", just like the noosphere or biosphere, has its own levels of immersion. So, there are public access zones – ITS "Internet", which can be used by every subject of public relations in the presence of basic technical devices. At the same time, limited cyberspace networks are actively functioning – military, law enforcement, special purpose, as well as the deep "Internet" or Darknet, which accumulates most crimes in the field of information security (drug trafficking, pornography, other prohibited media, information obtained illegally, illegal financial transactions, etc.);

- as a crime scene or a criminal environment, "cyberspace" is indirectly similar to material reality. Just like in the real world, it is possible to move from one site to another through hyperlinks, gain remote access to personal computer and mobile devices, etc. At the same time, for the user, the limits of cyberspace remain unlimited and are known similarly to the material world around him;

- "cyberspace", as well as objects of material reality, represents a certain territorial system with attachment to a certain place, address, access point. So, information is stored on a specific server, media, computer device, cloud storage, which also has a destination server.

Thus, as a result of scientific and technological progress, the objects of the immaterial world, which are encroached upon by a criminal or with the help of which a crime is committed, have a finite tangible real nature and place of action;

- "cyberspace" has an extraterritorial or supra-territorial character, since access to certain information, distribution of it and/or malicious software, or other items prohibited for free civil circulation, through ITS "Internet" can actually be made from the territory of one state in relation to a subject located within the jurisdiction of another state And these circumstances are extremely difficult to establish;

- "cyberspace" is part of an even broader socio-legal category – the information space. It is understood as the totality of all public relations related to the storage, processing, transmission, dissemination, exchange, creation of information, information, data in electronic, computer, television, radio, paper and other forms.

The information space should be understood as a new, previously unknown environment of psychological impact on society. Substitution and deliberate distortion of facts, information stuffing and flows represent a set of elements aimed at forming public opinion, which in turn can be a threat to information security of a national nature.

Summing up, it is necessary to conclude the following: cyberspace and the information space should be considered as a specific criminal environment with its counterculture, peculiarities of ways and means of committing crimes, which affects the degree of public danger, which in some cases the legislator has already actually noted (norms of the Special part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, where the act committed in ITS "Internet", highlighted as qualified).

Having analyzed their place in the structure of the corpus delicti, in particular among the signs that determine the objective side, it can be stated that it is premature to consider the intangible space as a crime scene, since it boils down to a specific server, computer device or computer networks. However, it is necessary to clarify the territorial principle of the criminal law in space by determining the ratio of cyberspace and information space, otherwise there will be a contradiction, namely by consolidating the jurisdiction of the state over its national segment of its "Internet", extending sovereignty beyond the material world, which will allow a new look at the operation of criminal law in space.

At the same time, the commission of a crime using information and telecommunication technologies, including the Internet, should be assessed as an aggravating circumstance, due to the simplification of the preparation, search for methods and instruments of commission, and subsequent concealment of traces of the crime.