Financial Forensics

Dear Readers,

Money drives the world, doesn’t it? In cybersecurity and cyber forensics fields there is a lot of discussion on fintech. Because of that, we decided to dedicate this month’s publication to Financial Forensics.

In this publication you can read about anti-money laundering tools and techniques, forensic investigations and financial audits, forensic technologies to mitigate risks of financial crime and cryptocurrency in digital forensic investigations.

In addition to that we recommend you check out the articles “Using Digital Evidence to Prove the Existence of a Canadian Common Law Marriage” by Tyler Hatch, “Digital Forensic Integrity: Mental Health” by Rachael Medhurst & Emma Derbi, “Digital Forensics and Threat Hunting” by Gerard Johansen, and “Beacon - Dark Web Discovery for Data Breaches” from Echosec. Also, for beginners in the area of cyber forensics we have a wonderful introductory guide, written by Sudharshan Kumar.

Thanks to all authors, reviewers and proofreaders for participating in this project.

Have a nice read!

Regards,

Dominika Zdrodowska

and the eForensics Magazine Editorial Team

 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Anti-Money Laundering tools and techniques

by Johan Scholtz

Money laundering is a common term understood in layman’s term as something that has to do with money washing or methods to conceal where the money came from by ensuring it changes hands so often and fast it is difficult to keep track of where it is going or coming from. The rise of online banking institutions, anonymous online payment services and peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers with mobile phones have made detecting the illegal transfer of money even more difficult. Moreover, the use of proxy servers and anonymizing software makes the third component of money laundering, integration, almost impossible to detect—money can be transferred or withdrawn leaving little or no trace of an IP address.

Why Cryptocurrency Matters in Digital Forensic Investigations

by Chris Chiang

Investigators need to know something about cryptocurrency, because it has become the payment of choice for many criminal activities. It has been identified as a payment method in transactions involving fraud, illegal drugs, money laundering and child pornography.

Digital Forensic Integrity: Mental Health

by Rachael Medhurst & Emma Derbi

Digital Forensics is the process of examining data that has been located upon digital devices. This will often leave Digital Forensic Investigators exposed to a range of illegal material that can affect the investigator's psychological state. This is often because the investigator will view nefarious content, write an expert witness statement, present this information in a Crown court and ultimately relive the evidence. This can be a highly emotional and stressful career for many. This article will be looking into what support is available, if any, the accessibility of support available, and if there is currently enough support while cybercrimes are continuously rising in this modern age. Using secondary and primary research from investigators, this will provide a highlighted understanding of whether the potential psychological damage caused has a detrimental impact on the integrity of Digital Forensic Investigations.

Using Digital Evidence to Prove the Existence of a Canadian Common Law Marriage

by Tyler Hatch

Private digital forensics firms, as opposed to Government or Law Enforcement, investigate and produce evidence for people, businesses and those involved in civil legal disputes, primarily through their lawyers. The more that society uses technology, the more that lawyers and parties to legal proceedings turn to digital evidence to prove important and contentious aspects of their case. Legal proceedings involving couples who have ended their marriage, or a marriage-like relationship, engage private digital forensics firms often. In fact, in many cases, one of the parties will engage a private digital forensics firm before the relationship ends because they suspect their partner of cheating or otherwise betraying their trust.

Digital Forensics and Threat Hunting

by Gerard Johansen

“When you don’t hunt the threat, the threat hunts you” - Eric O’Neil, National Security Strategist, Carbon Black

Forensic technologies to mitigate risks of financial crime

by Florence Love Nkosi

The current technological advancements within the finance sector, together with the emergence of innovative technologies like mobile and internet banking, that have allowed for fast and effective transaction processing, at the same time have opened up increasing opportunities for criminal activity perpetrated through technology. Consequently, there has been a notable increase in the approach and sophistication of financial crimes committed through the use of technology, such as money laundering, terrorism financing, cybercrime, fraud, tax evasion, bribery and internal threats from employees.

Beacon – Dark Web Discovery For Data Breaches

from Echosec

There are new data breaches happening every day. An organisation is never truly safe from a data breach as they can occur in a variety of ways. Popular examples include external threats that exploit poor technical implementations, or threats from internal employees leaking private information driven by an agenda. Many breaches happen because the data has been left exposed to the public by mistake and can be found on popular search engines.

Forensic Investigations and Financial Audits

by Ranjitha R

Forensic accounting is a challenging discipline that substantially interacts with auditing, economics, finance, information systems, and law.

Cyber Forensics for a beginner

by Sudharshan Kumar

Cyber forensics requires a proper triaging done to prioritize the investigation to be followed. Based on such effective triaging, cyber forensics could be divided into three steps, viz., Identifying, Preserving and Investigating.

Trace Labs - Finding missing persons through the use of crowd sourced OSINT

Interview with Josh Richards