Insights on Internet Investigations

The National Institute of Justice has issued another in its series of reports on investigating high-tech crimes. It provides guidance on such issues as tracing an Internet address to its source. It also looks at specifics with regard to various issues such as Web site capture tools and Web archiving sites that may help an investigator determine the content of a site at the time the crime was committed. It likewise discusses the unique concerns involved in investigations of instant messenging (IM), chat rooms, and Internet Relay Chat. It notes, for example, "Service providers are not required to retain IP address information. Therefore, when an IM program is involved, time is of the essence."

Read the complete report.       nij_internet_technofile0407.pdf