EU SOCTA: organised criminals increasingly adapt technology for their aims
The European Union Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA) 2017 was released in March 2017. The report highlights the increasing rate of technological innovation and the ability of organised criminals to rapidly adopt these technologies. Examples are the use of drones by drug traffickers to avoid border checks, the use of social media by burglars to target residences or of encryption by criminals to protect their communications and data.
The Darknet has become a key environment for illicit online trade, facilitating almost all aspects of organised crime, including trade in drugs or firearms, document fraud, and cybercrime.
The profit driven nature of organised crime is highly different to terrorism. However, a notable trend is the involvement of terrorist suspects with an extensive criminal background and access to the resources and tools of organised crime networks for use in terrorism.
