On the Issue of Taking into Account the Psychological Characteristics of a Cybercriminal’s Personality for the Purposes of Preventive Activities

Research into the psychological characteristics of cybercriminals is of scientific interest in terms of building effective prevention efforts against crimes in the digital environment. Conventionally, there is a division of cybercriminals into several types, each of which has its own unique psychological features. The first type mainly includes scammers who have the intelligence of an average person, have excellent communication skills, and strive to earn “easy” money, characterized by cynicism. As a rule, these persons have a superficial knowledge in the field of computer technology, use a repetitive studied algorithm to commit a crime. The second type of cybercriminals are hackers with high intelligence, gifted individuals who develop innovations in cyberspace, inherently closed, unable to build strong social ties, acting alone, with inflated self-esteem, who have not found a legal way to earn money in real life. Taking into account the psychological traits of each of the considered types of cybercriminals will allow the authorities carrying out preventive activities to build it more efficiently and efficiently, narrow down the circle of people it is aimed at and select appropriate tools to influence them. In the author’s opinion, given the portrait of a typical cybercriminal, preventive measures should be aimed primarily at males under 49 years of age.