Economic aspects of national security

Abstract

Ensuring the security of the country's economy is an element of national security strategies of the state. With the development of digital technologies, threats that can harm the economy of the company and the state as a whole are transformed accordingly in economic relations. The aim of the work is to find reliable arguments confirming the reality of threats to national security, the source of which was the shadow activity of individuals in the digital economy. The object of the study were digital technologies in the financial sector, the subject of financial flows of individuals. Statistical information on transactions made in the banking sector with the use of electronic means of payment was used as an empirical base. The dynamics and structure of payments in the banking sector are studied. Applying the methods of comparison, it was found that the number of questionable transactions was decreased, and the structure of cashing money for the purposes of the shadow economy was changed due to an increase in the share of cashing through online stores in the banking sector. The number and volume of operations carried out with the use of plastic cards has increased. The most significant increase (9.7 times) in the volume of other transactions made by individuals using plastic cards was found. It is concluded that there are weighty arguments confirming the reality of the threat of expansion of the shadow sector of the economy due to the complexity of identifying and countering financial flows sent by individuals to the shadow sector of the economy or legalizing shadow income. At the same time, reliable data have not been found to reliably assess the threat of crimes committed by individuals in the digital environment to the economic and national security of the Russian Federation. Indirect data indicates that there was no noticeable transition of financial flows into cryptocurrency payments in Russia.