The Main Activities of Operational Units of Internal Affairs Bodies to Detect and Prevent Cybercrime Related to Extremist Activity

The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that cause the spread of extremism (the stratification of society according to political, economic, religious, nationalist and other views, resulting in conflicts) and the transfer of its propaganda in cyberspace. The main directions of law enforcement bodies' activities in counteracting cybercrime with extremist content were studied. The objectives of the study are to explore the possibilities of cyber technologies, through the use of which the extremists gained another tool for attracting neophytes into their activities. We found that the emissaries of extremism prefer non-contact methods of interaction, as the network capabilities allow them to remain anonymous; the emergence of Internet ideology, which is fought by extremist organizations, in order to promote their ideology to as many users as possible. The latent nature of these crimes is an incentive to their increase. All the above mentioned clearly indicates that providing security of cyberspace requires combining efforts of state authorities in sphere of combating extremism. Conclusions: The solution to the mentioned problem lies in blocking websites with extremist content. However, law enforcement officers point out inconsistency in identifying materials with extremist content before banning them. In this case, this list tends to constantly expand. As a result, the banned content "walks" freely on the Internet and may be easily found by any user and posted on social networks, messengers, etc. This measure, in our opinion, is not entirely feasible, and is also economically costly, because too many people and funds are involved in fighting something that cannot be completely eradicated. Cyber security requires new approaches. In particular, it is necessary to create new structures in law enforcement agencies, i.e. to have two police, one of which will fight, as before, against real crime, and the other, specially trained for that - against virtual crime.

cyberspace, cybercrime, cyber extremism, cyber security, counteraction, blocking