NCJ Number
174883
Journal
Journal of Financial Crime Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: October 1997 Pages: 138-151
Date Published
1997
Length
14 pages
Annotation
The need for acquisition of reliable evidence of the existence, content, and source of computer data prompts the development of a highly disciplined approach by investigators, auditors, lawyers, and computer managers.
Abstract
Formal electronic commerce will undoubtedly seek to resolve some of the problems by devising protocols that bind together computer-based counterparty authentication, audit trails, and precisely defined contractual frameworks. Still, a great deal of computer usage will remain informal, and in these circumstances all that can be offered is based on the series of tests examined in this article. These tests are the remote computer's correct working test, the provenance of computer source test, the content/party authentication test, the acquisition process test, the continuity of evidence/chain of custody test, and the quality of forensic presentation test. It is also possible to present a more pragmatic and informal set of questions regarding whence came the exhibit originally, the intermediate stages required to produce the exhibit as it is now being shown, the computers involved at each stage, who was involved in the intermediate stages and what they did, the detail and plausibility of the investigator's supporting statements, and additional items of evidence that provide corroboration. On the horizon are yet more technical tools for investigators. It is possible to eavesdrop on activities across the Internet; a technician at one terminal can monitor all the keystrokes between two other computers and, it is claimed, reassemble them. 72 references