The mechanism for digital footprints formation

Over the past decade, there has been registered a significant increase in crimes committed using high technologies, which requires framing a new theoretical approach to the mechanism of the formation of digital footprints. For the abovementioned reasons, digital data acquires special relevance in the detection, solving, and investigation of economic crimes, since technical skills may give the user an opportunity to destroy, damage, or modify their digital traces. In the period from 2010 to 2020, the number of crimes committed using high technologies increased by more than 35 times, while the number of economic crimes committed decreased (by 162%). In the course of a detailed analysis of statistical data and the contributing factors, it became possible to establish a relationship between quantitative changes in economic crimes and crimes committed with the use of high technologies. The article analyzes the domestic criminalistic approach to the mechanism of trace formation, considering the classification of digital footprints depending on the mechanism of trace formation. The author offers a schematic design of the digital footprint formation mechanism, showing its distinction from the mechanism of trace formation in a traditional sense, and its practical importance.