Computers are also a ‘witness’ in court

In 1993, the phrase “On the Internet, no one knows you are a dog” became a “truth”. However, this notion is completely erroneous as many specialized software can identify who authored the information and what they are doing.

A few years ago, Scott Cooper, an expert examiner from the consulting firm Insync (USA), received a significant reward after noticing that a 20-page contract from a client company had the number “1” deleted. If he had not detected this in time, the company would have only been considered to hold 5% of the shares (instead of 15%) in a software conglomerate, and they would have received a payment of $32 million instead of $96 million.

Cooper utilized various examination tools and then restructured the information based on a timeline to determine when, how, and by whom the data had been intentionally altered. “In theory, you cannot completely erase all traces stored in any digital storage device, including mobile phones or TiVo (digital video recorders)“, asserted John Colbert, CEO of Guidance Software, a company specializing in digital data recovery software.

Dennis L. Rader, the serial killer known as BTK, who brutally murdered 10 people in Kansas (USA) from 1974 to 1991, was apprehended after he sent a floppy disk to the police. Using Guidance Software’s EnCase examination program, local police found many deleted files on the floppy disk, including Rader’s name.

Thanks to the EnCase software, investigators also gathered sufficient evidence to confirm that Scott Peterson was indeed the murderer of his wife, Laci. During the period of the murder, Peterson used his computer to access several websites that tracked the tidal conditions in San Francisco Bay, where his wife’s body was discovered. “All information remains on the machine even if Peterson deleted the History folder“, Colbert noted. “We can recover all data from passwords, photos to account information. Unlike paper documents, digital files are scattered across various locations on the hard drive. Furthermore, Microsoft Word often creates temporary files during the editing process“.