E-crime and Computer Forensics

Hollywood has turned hackers into heroes. However, the Internet hides those with malicious intentions. Most business owners are aware of this threat but are not sure how to respond if they have an IT security breach. This breach is now called e-crime. This is just another buzzword of our rising technological level. If a business’s IT security has been breached, they may need to hire a professional file recovery service.

An e-crime is any crime that is committed electronically, in other words, over the Internet. It is such a wide category in the legal community it can also includes crimes such as race and hate crimes, theft, blackmail and even extortion. Business owners should be more concerned with the activities that lead to the destruction or infection of their IT systems as well as those that involve theft of company data.

Because business owners are liable for the actions of their employees they should also be concerned about what their employees download such as unlawful material, abusive mail or using the company systems to commit a crime. Making sure that all IT employees are aware that access to a wireless network without consent, use of company e-mail or downloading illegal material is committing an offense is a first step to keeping their system running safely.

The Internet is essential for many businesses in today’s business world. For many, it is where there customers communicate, make sales, make complaints and order services. Because of this, there has been an increase in the amount of data held electronically that can be accessed remotely. Most of this data is personal customer information and loss of that data can damage the reputation of the business and cause a loss of sales.

The Data Protection Act of 1998 imposes an obligation on data collectors to keep personal data secure. This means that the business owner has to have the appropriate measures in place to ensure that this data is kept safe. This means both logical and physical security measures need to be in place.

A business’s IT staff needs to understand that such things as using an unauthorized wireless network, using company e-mail for personal reasons and downloading files should not be done. This gives access to hackers and their wonderful viruses. These viruses not only damage the system but can also glean information from the files. Then the business has to face the cost of getting data recovery services for lost data.

Because there are so many variables and technology is moving so fast, no IT system can be 100% secure. If the system is attacked, the IT department needs to restore any data information as well as plugging any holes that have been created in the security. Once these holes have been plugged, the IT department then needs to worry about data recovery as well as how to prevent it from happening again.

This is where computer forensics comes into play. The police need to catch and prosecute the perpetrators. The IT department needs to preserve the electronic evidence. A computer forensics officer can easily track down the perpetrator by examining the system as long as it has been preserved.

Access to any affected data needs to be limited to as few as possible. Those that do have access may be called as witnesses and should understand the impact of their actions upon that evidence. They may inadvertently alter the electronic footprints left by the hacker making it more difficult to catch that hacker.

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