NCJ Number
158372
Date Published
1995
Length
627 pages
Annotation
This book provides law enforcement investigators, corporate investigators, prosecutors, and corporate counsel with step-by- step procedures for investigating cases that involve computers.
Abstract
This book uses the term "high-technology crime" to identify two types of crime associated with high technology. First, the term includes new crimes created by society's widespread use of computers. Second, it includes traditional crimes so transformed by computer technology that investigators in such cases must be familiar with computers and the high-technology industry. One chapter discusses basic principles common to investigating high- technology crime, and three chapters examine the most common high-technology crimes: theft of components, computer intrusion, and theft of information. These three chapters provide readers, including those with no technical background or competence, with the necessary technical information to investigate those crimes, along with a procedure for doing so. An appendix includes checklists for these investigations. The second part of the book examines how to obtain safely and legally evidence stored in computers. Three chapters discuss the legal obstacles to searching and seizing computer evidence and suggest how to draft search warrants to surmount those obstacles. One appendix discusses how to protect trade secrets during criminal prosecution, and another provides an introduction to computers and the high-technology industry. A computer diskette accompanies the book and contains investigative checklists and sample search warrant language. A 25-item bibliography and a subject index