Computer Forensics for the Fraud Examiner: Thwarting Intellectual Property Thieves

Welcome to the first edition of Fraud Bytes, a column on computer forensics. The fraud examiner of the 21st century has to understand emerging schemes and investigation techniques and rise to the next level - computer data analysis and examination. 

Computer forensic analysis, once reserved for law enforcement's criminal investigations, has dispersed into other areas including fraud examination. The new breed of fraud examiner needs to not only analyze the gigabytes of digital data but also dissect the fraudster's computer systems. This column will focus on tools, techniques, and emerging computer fraud trends that affect and aid the digital fraud examiner. In each issue we'll endeavor to supply practical information as we struggle to keep pace with the digital age and the technology that increases our effectiveness and exploited to commit cyber-frauds. Let's begin!

In October of 2005, the Superior Court of the State of California upheld and affirmed a jury verdict and issued final judgment against the Toshiba Corporation for theft of trade secrets from the Lexar Media Corporation.