Criminals are increasingly exploiting networks where the tools and services to commit crimes can be outsourced and bought online, a parliamentary inquiry into combating crime as a service is expected to hear.
The model - used by organised crime networks - decentralises criminal capabilities, making attribution and disruption more difficult.
Dark web marketplaces and encrypted communication channels allow the sale and transaction of criminal services to flourish, with police unable to keep pace.
A parliamentary committee on Friday will probe the challenges Australian law enforcement face in combating the sophisticated model.
In submissions made ahead of the inquiry, the Australian Federal Police has called for an amended legislative framework they say is no longer fit for purpose.
Crime as a service networks were highly resilient and difficult for law enforcement to disrupt, the force said.
In Australia, this manifests through a supply chain for sophisticated online scams and ransomware attacks, drug trafficking, or the provision of services to carry out physical attacks.
Different individuals or groups handle specific tasks, dividing the risk and responsibility, creating a chain of contractors and protecting higher level actors while exploiting those at the bottom.
"Traditional organised crime groups, like drug cartels, are increasingly moving into the digital realm, adopting sophisticated, corporate-like structures with specialised roles for coders, project managers and negotiators," the force said in its submission.
"Organised crime now relies on the digital economy, including bulletproof hosting services and VPNs that provide the anonymity and security needed to evade law enforcement."
The proliferation of the crime as a service models is decentralising criminal capabilities, thereby making attribution and disruption more difficult.
The AFP says it will require more agile, technology-enabled partnerships to disrupt those involved.
"Core police powers have not kept pace with new or emerging technology, processes and standards of information transmission," the force said.
With cryptocurrency increasingly exploited by criminal syndicates to facilitate the movement of proceeds of crime, adaptations to policing are needed.
The AFP has suggested reforms to the electronic surveillance framework and enhancements to modernise core police powers.
It also points towards criminal groups increasingly exploiting pre-teens and youths as "low-risk, disposable assets".
Entire criminal networks can be composed predominantly of these young offenders who are "inexperienced, anti-social, and sufficiently detached from the real world that they do not care or understand the reality of their criminal activities".
The AFP's Deputy Commissioner of National Security Investigations Hilda Sirec will be the first witness called at the hearing alongside Acting Assistant Commissioner Raegan Stewart.
