Five Alarming Areas of Technology-Based Crime and How to Combat Them

Modern crime investigators also use Caller Identification and location traces. The goal is to track a suspect’s IP address or telephone number. If the suspect uses a disguised IP or secure line, the law enforcers ‘hack’ it and attempt to determine the location of the criminals. This requires expertise and proper timing.

Live system data gathering can also be used as an investigative method. By the use of this method, law enforcers and investigators can collect different kinds of information such as follows: name of users who are logged in a certain router, computer version information, all the possible users linked to the device, which IP addresses are subnet masked, the date of when the device was last loaded and reloaded. Furthermore, live system data gathering can determine whether a certain host or IP address is being used by the registered user, or if it has been hijacked. These pieces of information are vital to investigating computer crime scenes.

Furthermore, it is now possible to use malicious code analysis. This can be very useful to analyze virus attacks. By means of proper decoding, the investigators can actually obtain information about the source of the code and develop leads and clues for the case.

Lastly, modern law enforcers have developed an enhanced version of the polygraph test, called SCAN or Scientific Content Analysis. This advanced lie detector test allows the suspect to write down the answers to specific questions. Then, his answers, behaviour during the test, and even his handwriting are studied and used for the investigation.

Continued technological advancements will surely provide more opportunities for law enforcement agencies to suppress technology based crimes. Moreover, proper training of personnel must also be a top priority. Recognizing talent and spending a fair budget for modern equipment and research should be one of the government’s main concerns.