Evidence: High Tech Crime Brief

While the computer is sometimes likened to a smoking gun, it is much more a silent witness. Careful investigation is required to uncover and preserve what it might say, and sophisticated forensic analysis must be applied to relay that to the court. In fact, despite the impression sometimes conveyed in the media, it is not always easy to investigate or prosecute high tech crime. The main evidential difficulties are the ephemeral nature of records such as ISP data logs and the capacity for the internet to be used anonymously (AGEC 2000).