The widespread use of computers has definitely made it easier to work with a large team of employees, but with it has also come many instances of white collar crime. A good number of companies, large and small, face this issue on a daily basis, and it is embarrassing to say the least.

Most companies go into ‘shock’ mode when they discover that their high paid executive has been committing crimes, sometimes for years before being caught. And the worst part about it is that they do not look like the criminal type, they are educated, highly skilled and specialists at their job, credentials that are missing in a regular criminal.

Acquiring the services of a professional digital forensics team is the only way to proceed with investigating a computer crime. And as the detectives use advanced means of detection, so do the perpetrators, who refine their ways and methods in an effort to remain undetected. A normal computer user will never ever get to uncover the web of deceit and cover ups that a digital forensics team can.

Common crimes committed by employees are;

• Fraud
• Embezzlement
• Bribery
• Insider trading
• Intellectual property theft
• Identity Theft
• Money laundering

The ways in which white collar criminals try to remain undetected are;

• Data encryption
• Remote data storage devices
• Wiping tools
• Secure deleting tools
• Writing hidden messages or Steganography
• Digital compression of data

The court of law which decides on the ruling if someone is caught asks the following questions among others;

• The credentials as well as the training of the person who collected the data
• Who gathered the information?
• Was the party gathering information impartial?
• Who accessed the data collected
• The security measures in place to ensure that the crime did not happen

A lot of companies use in-house digital forensic teams for investigations, but that is not totally a good idea because the question of partiality arises. Netrika Singapore is a highly successful organization involved in secret theft investigations in Singapore and they have an impressive tally till date.