The Need for Digital Forensics Tools for Financial Crimes

As the world’s financial systems advance in digital technology and cryptocurrency, the need for digital forensics grows greater. The use of blockchain technology has allowed crimes to go undetected through the eyes of a regular investigator. These crimes no longer take months of in-depth planning and deception before executing but can now be committed within minutes because of the processing power of computers and the speed of the internet. Crimes such as:

• embezzling
• money laundering
• insider trading

become more complex to detect, digital forensics has kept pace to make investigators’ lives easier. 

The uses of digital forensics in financial crime have grown significantly in the last few years because of how society has adapted and advanced cloud technology and internet services. For example, every day billions of business emails are sent around the world. Sorting through these emails by simple clicking and scrolling would take years to track. But by digital forensic processing methods, you can eliminate evidence that is irrelevant to your case and speed along the timeline by following the correct audit trail. This will allow analysts and investigators to go through select pieces of evidence with a fine-tooth comb and begin the process of seeing how the money stolen was hidden or moved, and who was involved in the crime based on artifacts and digital fingerprints found by the forensic tools. Digital forensics can also help identify recurring sets of data that may be an important clue in the case.

Digital forensics technology is reliable in speeding up an investigation, bringing your evidence to light while also letting you build custom search profiles with ease. In addition, the evidence is presented to the investigator in an easy-to-follow report that lists the sources of data, common modes of laundering used, and triaging the evidence by priority. As said earlier in the article, financial crimes have become more complex and harder to detect. What digital forensics has done, however, has made its tools easier to use in complex investigations. Processes or profiles that used to only be created by skilled digital forensic practitioners can now be done by an onsite investigator which can reduce the backlog of evidence in a forensic lab.