Cybercrime, a crime with an impunity of "almost 100%" in Spain

Society has migrated from analog to digital. We have deposited our lives in cyberspace - bank accounts, social networks, mobile ... - and in this exodus the crime has also been cast. This mutation was born cybercrime and inherited the most dangerous ingredient of crime: impunity. An impunity that is "almost 100%", says the head of the Telematic Crimes Group of the Civil Guard, Lieutenant Colonel Juan Rodríguez de Sotomayor , in a conversation with EL MUNDO.

According to the latest report of the National Institute of Statistics ( INE ), it was the fourth crime with the most complaints in Spain in 2017. This reflects that there were 81,307 cyber crimes that year and that only 27.2% of these were clarified. But Lieutenant Colonel Rodríguez differs with that figure and assures that the resolution was lower given that "the State Attorney General's Office brought only 1,715 cases to trial" and adds not all were from 2017 because "there were causes from previous years."

One of the core problems to combat impunity is the black figure. These are the crimes that are not reported and, therefore, do not reach the authorities. "The victims remain silent because they are ashamed and afraid, blame themselves or humiliate them," explains Diego Quintana , the criminal lawyer of the Stop Haters anti-cybercrime association. In cybercrime, the black figure is particularly high and means that impunity is even greater than what is reflected in the statistics. Lieutenant Colonel Rodriguez says that at least 30% and at most 50%, that is, half of cyber crimes do not reach the authorities and are not investigated.

the execution of cyber crimes

Another feature is the services that facilitate the execution of cybercrime, such as the sale of information databases or pre-designed platforms to carry out scams, known as crime as a service. On this issue, the investigative police and criminology doctor Abel González affirms that although not all criminal industries have moved to the virtual level, most use their services: "The new trend is money laundering, known as cyber-money laundering. They are organizations that offer money laundering to criminal groups, especially drug trafficking, are carried out through video games such as Fornite, they buy the virtual currency used in the video game, the V-Bucks, with black money and sell it to players for a cheaper price on the deep internet. They do the same with resources, such as weapons or costumes. Criminals usually make several transactions but in small amounts, on an average of 500 euros. People who buy them resources or money pays it with a virtual currency, the Bitcoins, which are clean. Criminals don't even have to monetize it because they can now be bought up to houses with them. "

One of the challenges to combat this type of crime is the place where they are carried out: cyberspace. An intangible environment without borders where millions of users navigate. Which means that its scope is much greater than that of normal crime. The lawyer Diego Quintana reports that they receive "many cases of victims who know their aggressors in applications to go out and when the conversation is heated they exchange sex photos or videos. Later, they discover that the person to whom they were sent was a false profile and they are asked for 1,000 or 2,000 euros to prevent the dissemination of that content and it turns out that the aggressor lives in Nigeria , which complicates the judicial process. "

Experts say that in Spain most cybercrimes are executed by criminals in four countries: Russia , Ukraine , Romania and Nigeria. In this sense, an inspector of the Technological Research Unit details that the origin of the cyber criminal depends on the criminal modality. "In Nigeria the cybercriminal field is less technical and grosser, based on deception and identity theft," he says. Today the most common is the fraud of the CEO , which is to supplant the identity of the president of a company by email and ask the accountant to make a transfer urgently and confidentially. However, the cases that come from Russia are more technical: "It is a more elaborate type of crime that requires in-depth computer knowledge. Cybercrime is common there and they are internationally known for it." It is a challenge because judicial and police relations with Russia are restricted, especially at European level. Ukraine replicates the trend of its neighboring Russia, while in Romania it proliferates because it is seen as an industry and also unpunished.

Hard chase

The global nature of cybercrime, in which the aggressor and the victim are usually in different countries, hinders their persecution because it involves the application of different laws for the same crime. On this issue, Lieutenant Colonel Rodríguez states: "We find that on a physical level each country is sovereign, each jurisdiction and court is sovereign. We are trying to tackle a global problem with laws and instruments linked to the land. It is impossible to fight cybercrime like this." .

The lack of universal complaints and laws, the transition from traditional to cyber crime and the offer of criminal services on the Internet make impunity for these crimes a complex and difficult phenomenon to address. Although the chief inspector of the Technological Research Unit, Antonio López Melgarejo , states that 90% can be prevented because they need the victim to fall for a hoax; They need to open an attached message with a virus or download a malicious application. Which implies that only 10% are technicians. For him, the solution lies in education and that the authorities focus on "the most vulnerable and hackable link in the computer system: the user." So he recommends "keep an alert attitude, learn about new deceptions and be more awake in the use of networks."

Remoteness encourages crimes

"When we face aggressors and victims, it is precisely to see the reaction of the other that demotivates them; it is a historical trend. In the Korean war many soldiers did not fire their rifles because of the immediacy of seeing the person they were going to kill. On the other hand, those who were dropping bombs from an airplane were killing thousands of people and they knew it, but they did not see it, and that is an essential difference.The same thing happens in cybercrime, not seeing the reaction of the victim minimize it and it creates a sense of impunity for them, "says investigative police officer Abel González . In turn, he reiterates the urgency of combating this type of crime: "We potentially have 4,000 million victims because all Internet users are exposed to this phenomenon."

This article is part of the TFM of the official Master of EL MUNDO

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Russia
• Spain
• Nigeria
• Ukraine

EmpresasSpaña focuses its pavilion at ExpoDubai 2020 as a business "showcase"

EconomyThe Russian veto, the other front for persimmon and Valencian citrus

BasketballUnited States is no longer the favorite for the World Cup