You suspect one of your employees to be accessing sensitive information and using his e-mail account to transmit the information to a third party. However, using your internal IT managers you are not able to gather substantiated evidence to confirm your suspicion or confront him. The statutory rights of your employee might make it difficult for you to level charges against him without sufficient proof. So what do you do? Just ignore it and run the risk of your competitors accessing your confidential information or take the assistance of professionals who can find the facts and help you with the situation? Definitely any responsible person would make the latter choice.
Computer Crimes
With over 90% of data being stored electronically, computer crimes have become a lucrative profession for a majority of hackers. Your network might get infected with the latest virus or a spyware could steal the information from your database. While it is possible to secure your system to some extent, it is not possible to completely eliminate the threat of computer crimes. The only way to ensure 100% elimination of these crimes would be to avoid computers. But what would the world be without computers? You will have no Internet or no central database that helps you check any information that you require in seconds. Since it is impossible to even imagine living without these advantages, it is time we took the computer crimes seriously and also took serious steps to curtail the hackers.
Importance of Expert Witness in Computer Crimes
An expert is a person who helps in detecting computer attacks and analyses and obtains substantial evidence for the crime to be presented and proved in the court.
The expert witnesses are crucial in detecting computer crimes and in bringing criminals to justice. Here are some of the benefits of having an expert witness check computer crimes at work:
- Present an impartial and clear picture of the crime and thus assist the judge in reaching a verdict when the case is presented in the court.
- They help the victimised party to prove their plight with evidence and be compensated accordingly.
- They might assist to prepare documentation or graphs that can be submitted in the court as a proof for better understanding of how the crime was committed.
In this Internet era, there are a number of websites that offer services of an expert witness. The advantage of choosing these services is that these experts would be able to carry out the functions of a computer forensic expert in investigating the crime. In addition to the functions mentioned above, an expert witness would also be able to perform the following functions in these cases:
- Investigate computer crimes with proof. This can help the company anticipate and avoid such attacks in the future.
- Identify the person who has committed the crime so that he could be brought under the law.
Attributes of an Expert
A person with sufficient knowledge and skills and who has specialised in detecting computer-related crimes could be selected as an expert witness. He needs to explain the details of the crime and the technical evidence in a manner understandable to people who are not tech-savvy. He needs to be legally unbiased. His only duty is to present the facts as they are without exaggerating or understating them. Also, the investigation should have been carried out in compliance with the guidelines issued by National Hi-tech crime unit in the "Good Practice Guide for Computer-based Electronic Evidence”.
In the case of a computer crime, the data stored in electronic forms such as an e-mail, digital camera, etc. is extremely crucial. With a little negligence, the data might be lost and it would become difficult to prove your case. Hence, an expert must be a person who is extremely careful in handling the information. The expert should be confident while presenting the true side of the story. Otherwise the attorney representing the hacker would be able to confuse him and twist the facts during cross-examination. This could affect the justice being delivered.
Since there is no specific qualification for a person to become an expert, care should be exercised in choosing a person who is knowledgeable and has a record of good experience in the field. An expert could, in a great way, influence the outcome of the verdict in the court. Hence even if it costs you a little extra money, it would be worth having a real expert to handle your case.