Criminal and Legal Risks in the Field of Digital Technologies: Problems and Suggestions

Countering cyber threats poses new challenges for information security specialists, and requires developing legal protection mechanisms that will allow them to respond to criminal threats in the digital environment ahead of time. The path chosen by the national legislator to counteract crimes in the information sphere suffers from a delay, a gap and an inability to cover all possible socially dangerous acts and their consequences. The paper analyzes the spheres of life that innovative technologies affect or will have the greatest impact on, thus pursuing a propaedeutic goal — creating the necessary theoretical foundation for further consideration of special criminal law issues. These areas include social networks, e-commerce, digital medicine, sharing economy, industry 4.0.The authors conclude that the digitalization of many spheres of life is accompanied by a positive effect, but also carries new threats and risks that are not reflected in criminal legislation. In such a situation, it is necessary to review the criminal law policy and develop a unified approach.