Online finance as the new frontier of organized crime

The increase in the means of communication due to technological innovations, the freedom of capital, services and individuals at international level and the unification of global markets have radically changed the socio-economic context in which we live. Conversely, the parallel governance process has failed to keep pace with the developments of this economic globalization. In these circumstances, organized crime has also changed its nature, becoming transnational. States now find themselves having to control criminal activities that extend from one jurisdiction to another. The aim of this work is to understand the evolution, especially in recent years, of the mafia criminal organizations. Their illegal activities do not have any more only a 'physical' face, but have assumed a 'virtual' one, through the use of keyboards and internet networks. The online finance of the mafias demonstrates the existence of alliances between organized crime and very high-profile professional sectors, able to exploit sophisticated corporate schemes. Ransomware, Phishing and crypto-currencies are only some of the informatics applications that produce very high profitability, useful, also, to recycle enormous sums of illicit money deriving from the sectors in which the mafias are traditionally present.