Activities on the investigation of criminal offenses today require the implementation of a wide range of tasks of law enforcement agencies. Among these tasks, the main task is considered to be the fight against modern crime. Cyberspace is the setting for most of the various crimes today. These are situations of committing crimes in conditions when the telecommunications network, computer information and other elements of such an environment are the subject or means of criminal encroachments from various types, both in the field of national security and in the field of protection of private property. For decades, forensic science has paid attention to the problems of investigating only those actions that are called crimes in the Council of Europe Convention on Cyber Crime. This does not meet the conditions of the time.

The purpose of the article is to study a new area of forensic science – activities to counter criminal offenses that are committed in cyberspace.

It has been established that the structurally scientific research of scientists in this direction can be activated to solve several groups of tasks: 1) the formation of conceptual foundations of counteraction to such offenses; 2) determination of the structural units of the specified direction, in particular, the directions for the formation of methods for the investigation of criminal offenses that are committed in cyberspace; accordingly, the development of these techniques. As a result of the analysis of forensic activities in combating crime and on the basis of the available developments in the field of philosophy, cybernetics and telecommunication technologies, the initial general theoretical provisions in the investigated scientific direction of forensic science were concretized. First, there are two levels of criminal activity in cyberspace, in particular: 1) a set of isolated crimes, which have a relationship with development; 2) criminal technologies. Thirdly, it is substantiated that the totality of motives for criminal activity in cyberspace is a principled approach when solving the issues of optimizing the counteraction of offenses in cyberspace. Fourth, situational conditioning and a joint analytical approach of all participants in the counteraction are recognized as key aspects of the design and implementation of tactical operations in the investigation of criminal offenses committed in cyberspace.

Empirically identified and described the difficulties that arise on the path to the success of theoretical developments. The prospects for the study of individual structural units of this scientific direction are also concretized.