Research On Data-related Crime

As society gradually enters the digital economy,telecoms fraud is becoming increasingly prevalent.Initially,telecoms fraud only caused huge losses to people’s economic property,but it was not until the "8-19 Xu Yu Yu case" in 2016 that the danger to society from telecoms fraud went from threatening people’s property to threatening people’s lives.A closer look at the Xu Yu Yu case reveals that the fraud was not just an accidental crime,but a precise fraud.It was a precision fraud that was made possible by the leakage of Xu Yu Yu’s personal data,behind which was a complete data crime industry chain.Data crime is not just the beginning in this case,it has been quietly present in the functioning of society for years.The damage and secondary damage caused to people by data crime in the digital economy is enormous,and it is necessary to study its current situation,its causes,and to formulate appropriate criminal justice policies to curb it.The three crimes related to data crime in the criminal law are the crime of damaging computer information system,the crime of illegal access to computer information system,and the crime of infringing citizens’ personal information.By retrieving the judgment documents of the related crimes from the Judgment Document Website,we study the geographical distribution and development trend of data crime in the country from a macro perspective on the one hand and adopt a sampling method to study the characteristics of data crime on the micro level on the other hand.This thesis first research on data crime from a criminological perspective.In previous studies,scholars have tended to adopt a hermeneutic approach to address the application of law in data crime.This paper takes routine activity theory to analysis data crime in advance.Routine activity theory has been widely applied in the field of criminology in China,proving its application value in practice.Given that data crime is highly compatible with it,the research under this theory has the right orientation.In addition,by studying the original work on routine activity theory,this paper identifies misconceptions in its previous application and corrects them.Chapter 1,Overview of data crime.Data is an electronic form of information,data can be reused many times,and data has productivity value in the digital economy.Data crime is a crime against data of a socially productive nature.From a macroscopic study of the data-on-data crime cases in the past ten years on the Judgment Instrument website,it is found that data crime is concentrated in economically developed areas or areas with developed internet economy in terms of geographic distribution nationwide;from a temporal development trend,the outbreak occurred around 2011,due to the rapid development of mobile internet economy and the rapid formation of digital society after 2011.around 2018,the number of data crime started to around 2018,the number of data crimes started to decline,due to increasingly better regulation as well as personal protection.As data crime peaked around 2018,meaning that it has formed a mature crime pattern,a sample of adjudication documents for the three years from 2018 to 2021 was selected to conduct a study related to the characteristics of the current stage of data crime at the micro level,and it was found that data crime has the following characteristics: First,gang crime.Data crime generally involves stealing data,transferring data,and selling stolen data in three joints,in addition to that,data acquisition itself also requires teamwork;secondly,the age of data criminals is low.From the statistics,the post-nineties occupy the main data crime force,and the post-00 s have already started to be involved.The reason for this is that young people generally have a deeper understanding of computer principles;thirdly,there are many acts of data dumping.As data is reusable,a piece of data can be sold for profit many times;fourth,data crime is not restricted in time and space.Data crimes are mainly transacted through electronic channels,so there is no restriction in terms of time and space;fifth,the perpetrators are mainly male;sixth,the types of victims are not specific,and any type of victim can become a victim of data crimes.Based on the above research,it is found that data crime has a high fit with the everyday activity theory.Cohen discovered the Everyday Activity Theory et al.in their study of the paradox of the post-World War II surge in direct contact predatory violent crime in the United States and favorable social conditions,which argues that there are three categories of crime: "likely perpetrators","suitable targets" and "unprotected"."The intertwining of the three factors of ’potential perpetrators’,’suitable targets’ and ’lack of protectors’ can contribute to the commission of criminal acts.In the last decade,the country has experienced good economic and social development,and while traditional crimes such as theft and robbery have been declining,data crime rates have been rising.This is related to the rapid shaping of our digital economy society in 2011.The digital economy has changed the way of life of the human social public,and data has excellent value potential in the digital economy,while the lack of social public awareness of data security and the lagging legislation and negligent management by enterprises have given criminals good opportunities to commit data crimes.Chapter 2,those who are likely to commit crimes: data crime in the context of social transformation.The theory of everyday activity is based on the premise that there are always people who are likely to commit crimes in this society and that changes in the environment give rise to criminal intent.Humanity has entered a digital society and digitization has reshaped the way people live.Big data technology goes into the corners of people’s daily lives and plays a significant role.The application of big data in people’s daily lives is mainly reflected in the transfer of many clothing,food,housing,and transportation activities to be completed online,while the rise of e-government has moved administrative licensing matters online,and big data technology is controlling social operation matters more and more extensively.Digitalization has also broken the previous phenomenon of cities absorbing rural areas,integrating the resources of urban and rural residents,and the distribution of mobile populations is not centered on cities.In the digital economy,along with the spread of AI and automation technologies,the structure of the workforce has begun to change,with far-reaching consequences.The distribution system established in China,which is based on the distribution of labor and the co-existence of various distribution methods,is now under serious challenge.The digital economy has given rise to several new occupations and jobs,while at the same time eliminating several simple and repetitive labor positions and generating the problem of unemployment.Among the new occupations and jobs created,the huge "volume" of the digital economy has made it possible for some occupations to earn massive amounts of money in a brief period,thus leading to social injustice.These structural factors have also given rise to a negative trend on the Internet.At some point,altruism quietly became popular online and formed a trend of thought.The rise of self-media,which has invaded the former territory of the official media and thus taken over propaganda positions,has played a significant role in spreading these undesirable cultures,with its varying quality.These bad cultures have weakened social control and the sense of morality in society,and "a gentleman loves his money and takes it as he sees fit" has ceased to be a common code of conduct.Chapter 3,"Data" on suitable targets for crime.It is in this environment that "would-be criminals" have the intention to commit crimes,and in their search for suitable targets,"data" enters the picture.Data is of excellent value in the digital economy,in two ways: firstly,it is an important means of production in the digital economy,and secondly,it is the basis for decision-making in the digital economy.Data as an important means of production in the digital economy is,on the one hand,a mapping of real-world means of production in the system;on the other hand,in the era of big data,data itself is the raw material to produce various big data technologies and AI,which has its own value.Data as a basis for decision-making in the digital economy,on the other hand,is the increasing focus on scientific decision-making in business,economics and other fields,which has led to a heavy reliance on extensive data for analysis.From the sample decisions,the main types of data infringed are personal residential data of citizens,personal vehicle data of citizens,human resources data,and personal credit reports.In terms of making profits from data trafficking,the proceeds from dumping data are low,the price of intranet data trafficking is high,and the price of data-derived physical objects is highest.At the same time,the lagging level of data management also provides an opportunity for data crime to take advantage of.This is reflected in the lagging data legislation and the poor level of enterprise data management.Chapter 4,Victims’ Daily Behavior and Data Crime.There is an important correlation between victims’ daily behavior and data crime opportunities.After a statistical analysis of the offenders’ occupations and education in the sample adjudication documents,it was found that the offenders were not much more sophisticated than traditional offenders.Victims’ everyday behavior has changed a lot in the digital age: firstly,past time is spent online.The popularity of smartphones and the abundance of content in the mobile internet ecosystem have led to a online pastime;secondly,poor internet behavior.Users are not able to use smart handheld products correctly,installing software of unknown origin,not being able to set software permissions correctly,leading to software background access to data,and not updating patches to the operating system in time,leading to system vulnerabilities being maliciously exploited;third,lack of data protection awareness.The digital age is changing rapidly,and the public has not been able to update their knowledge or concepts in a timely manner.The habits of the public in real life are just not adapted to the rules of the virtual world.In addition to this,the public is not properly aware of the value of personal data and the potential disaster that could be brought about by the disclosure of personal data.Finally,the data platform subjects themselves do not have a certain awareness of data security due to their pursuit of profit.Chapter 5,the lack of a ’protector’: the lack of regulation of data crime.The lack of a protector makes data crime more rampant,and the lack of data crime regulation is due to several reasons.The first is that data platform subjects rely on the main self to manage.In the digital economy,data platform subjects include smartphone manufacturers,Internet content providers and the government.Smartphone manufacturers are both hardware producers and providers of built-in services before the phone leaves the factory,and they can still collect user data continuously after consumers buy the phone.Internet content providers are more complex,including both the services provided by the APP subject itself and the third-party service providers built into the App using smartphone operating system mechanisms and inducing users to grant permissions to collect data.Government data is a public database formed after the implementation of e-government,which essentially belongs to the state property.These data subjects do not have corresponding laws and regulations to restrain their behavior and maintain data security all by their own volition.However,once these data platform subjects have data security problems,the judicial authorities cannot intervene in a timely manner.The jurisdiction over these data subjects is decentralized and multi-departmental,and mostly relies on the public reporting and complaint mechanism.In addition,the data platform subjects do not cooperate with the judicial authorities to investigate and rectify the situation.The mechanism that causes this situation is that the data management laws and regulations are not yet perfect.The legal regulation of data management is a worldwide problem,and it is even more difficult in China due to the diversity of data platform subjects.after 2018,many laws and regulations concerning data began to be introduced,but no system has been formed yet.Chapter 6,research on data crime governance countermeasures.After analyzing the causes of data crime from daily activity theory,data crime governance is carried out from the perspective of contextual prevention.Since the global digital society has relatively little experience in governance and inappropriate legal regulation can lead to heavy damage to the digital economy,the principle of caution should be adhered to when designating data crime governance policies.Firstly,there is a need to improve the self-regulation of data platform subjects.First,the services built into smartphone manufacturers before they leave the factory should be scrutinized.In terms of consumer protection,manufacturers have an obligation to ensure that consumers use their products safely;in terms of the identity of data platform subjects,they have an obligation to review themselves for compliance.Secondly,third-party apps should implement permission management issues.Third-party apps should adhere to the principle of the minimum necessary to obtain permissions from users and ensure their own compliance and safe operation in users’ mobile phones.Third,government public databases should strengthen internal management to prevent internal staff from dumping data.Secondly,publicity and education efforts should be strengthened.The public should be educated about the significant value of data in the future economy and build awareness of data security.The public should be guided to develop good internet habits and be reinforced at the software level to prevent theft of personal data.In short,build awareness of data security precautions throughout society.Finally,improve the system of regulatory responsibilities and laws and regulations.The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology,as the main existing department regulating the technology industry,should continue to play its role as the competent authority and improve its regulatory responsibilities.At the same time,legislative work should follow the in-depth experience of data governance in a timely manner to improve the construction of data governance laws and regulations and systems,to build a rule of law umbrella for data security.