Cyber victim: solving the problem of terminological uncertainty

Introduction: some controversial issues of the scientific understanding of the cyber victim, i.e. a person who is affected by a digital crime, are discussed in the article. The issue of classifying a particular category of victims as cyber victims seems to be very difficult due to the lack of unity in understanding of the problem, as well as the lack of unified methodological approaches to the assessment and substantive content of this term. It all gets complicated by the lack of laws and regulatory guidelines, or the legislator's selective attention to certain aspects of victimization in the virtual environment. Materials and Methods: the conceptual basis of the study was formed by scientific publications devoted to the problems of cyber-victimology, understanding of the place and role of a virtual victim in the information structures of modern society. During the study a set of methods was used: dialectical materialism, general scientific and private methods of cognition (observation, comparison, description, analogy, formal classification), as well as traditional logical methods and techniques. Results of the Study: the author's definition of a cyber-victim is proposed, its essential characteristics distinguishing them from traditional victims of crimes are described; a distinction with related concepts was made, for example, people who suffered against the background of personal Internet activity, victims of crimes in the field of computer information. A classification of cyber victims has been developed, including digital, combined and non-virtual victims. Findings and Conclusions: A cyber victim can be understood as an organization, group or person who are affected by criminal acts primarily implemented in the digital environment. This specific type of victim is distinguished by the fact that personal harm is caused through the compromise of his digital identity or in the course of negative interaction with it; the act of victimization takes place in the conditionally digital space of virtual computer reality, and victims often demonstrate behavioral patterns that are not comparable to their offline behavior.