The essence and classification of digital traces of a criminal offense

Abstract

The development of modern information technologies, the active use of social networks, digital devices, computer tools, cloud technologies, the Internet, etc. have led to the emergence of new types of traces of crime - digital traces. Digital traces of crimes - a systemic concept that defines the methods and methods of their search, detection, fixation, extraction and research, the tactics of conducting investigative (detective) actions to collect them and the features of developing individual forensic methods for investigating crimes committed using information and digital technologies. Based on the immanent nature of information circulating in technical devices and network space, it should be called "digital", since a binary code with a combination of digits zero and one is used to create it. The specifics of the mechanism for the formation of digital traces are determined by the trace-forming object, which is a digital tool using information technologies, and the direct trace-perceiving object is digital information.

It has been proven that digital traces of a crime are changes under the influence of criminally punishable actions of forensically significant digital information about the circumstances of a criminal offense, which is located on a certain material medium, which are manifested in the creation, change, modification, deletion, copying, blocking of binary code, for the detection, fixation and study of which software and hardware tools are required. A classification of digital traces has been developed on various grounds: the method of creation and type of digital information; the location of digital traces; the medium of their storage; the degree of control by the user; depending on the final and intermediate tasks of criminal proceedings being solved; on the significance for the process of detecting, solving and investigating a crime; depending on the availability for detection and study by a person.