The Use of Digital Platforms as a Technological Basis for the Formation of Criminal Communities Ecosystems

The article discusses issues related to the formation of digital platforms created by organized groups and criminal communities. It notes that such digital platforms operate on the Darknet, a shadow segment of the Internet that provides increased user anonymization through the use of specialized software tools and technologies. The important role of digital platforms in the development of new forms of organized criminal activity, based on network principles of management and interaction within social groups, is highlighted. The significant criminal advantages provided by the use of digital platforms in the commission of high-tech crimes—specifically, the use of specially created computer tools for remote access to objects of criminal encroachment by criminal groups—are analyzed. Based on the proposed conceptual framework, a qualitatively new phenomenon has been identified and described: the creation of ecosystems of criminal communities based on digital platforms. These ecosystems are network associations of separate autonomous criminal groups with different specializations, interacting with each other through information and telecommunication networks, while digital platforms serve as the technological foundation for the functioning of these ecosystems. The article considers the most significant factors that ensure a higher criminal efficiency of these ecosystems in implementing high-tech criminal activities compared to organized criminal groups with a traditional vertical hierarchical structure, as well as similar criminal groups with a network management structure. Finally, it describes the connection between the emerging ecosystems of criminal communities and the phenomena of globalization, expressed in the transnational nature of high-tech criminal activity, as well as the processes of glocalization of crime that have manifested in recent years.