Don’t be a victim to a cyber stalker. Takes the proper steps to identify them and bring their negative actions to a stop.

Copyright (c) 2008 Ed Opperman

With more people using the internet, and the availability of the internet on every street corner, there has been a drastic increase in cyber crime. These can be committed against large companies, and individuals. It is easy for large companies and large wallets to stop cyber crime, but what about those on limited budgets? What is the solution for those who have fallen victim to cyber crimes?

Backup tapes are important. Aside from the fact that backup tapes can save a company’s data in the event of a software failure, hard drive failure, or a database corruption… backing up a company’s data on a regular basis should be a part of every IT department’s disaster recovery plan.

As part of that plan, IT departments should test and validate that the backups are in fact backing up data and is able to be restored. Most companies assume that once the backup is running everything will be safe. However, not many IT departments routinely check the error logs to discover problems. And only when a disaster occurs do they realized that the scheduled backups have not been collecting all of the data.

After my annual pilgrimage last summer to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, I was ready to attempt something new. I enrolled in a seminar that teaches how to become a public relations and marketing specialist. Not knowing for sure what opportunities would open up next for me, I figured that knowing how to do my own PR and marketing would definitely help regardless.

The information I received at the seminar was worthwhile, but one contact there changed the direction of my career. I met a young lady, Valerie Mills. Val is heavily involved with computer forensics. Something I had never even heard about. I found it fascinating! Likewise, Val found my trial consulting business fascinating. She mentioned that no one in the computer forensic industry has ever thought about joining the two together.

The FBI has a convenient online Cyber Crime form for victims and/or the 3rd party to the complaint that is an easy-to-use reporting mechanism. A partnership has been formed with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3 formerly known as the Internet Fraud Complaint Center IFCC) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) for the combined objective of identifying and bringing to justice those responsible for online internet fraud.

So it happened. You took all the precautions: updated your software, installed a firewall, monitored your child’s internet habits, and didn’t open any unfamiliar emails. However, despite your best efforts, someone in your household fell for a phishing scam. Or clicked on a bad link. Or chatted with the wrong person. And now there’s a problem that needs solving, and it goes beyond an infected computer.

An Expert Witness is a specialized and quickly growing field of investigation within Computer Forensics and E-Discovery. And as such, these individuals are a leading defense, or offense - depending on which side of the litigation you are on, up corporate America’s sleeve against cyber crimes and prosecuting ‘hackers’. An Expert Witness service typically works closely with a Computer Forensics investigator, or perhaps has the credentials and experience of both.