Agape Blog

With every company trying to outsmart their competitors, this competition is not staying healthy. Some companies are using wrong means to either defame or cause huge losses to their competitor(s). The wrong means indlude bribing competitor’s employee to reveal secrets or manipulating/deleting important information of the competitor by gaining unethical access to their systems. All such activities fall under the umbrella of electronic data tampering. This concept when extended to someone who has been served with a lawsuit, is known as electronic evidence tampering, which has been rising exponentially.

A recent report by KPMG said that technology-related fraud has also emerged as ‘the fastest-growing and most pervasive category of fraud’ in the business world. In 2004, just 19 per cent of the firms polled reported such offences; by last year, the figure was 59 per cent. There is no way to determine exactly how widespread tampering of electronic evidence is, but law firms, enforcement agencies, private sector computer forensics firms such as KPMG and are all seeing the uptrend.

Where previously the person would just delete e-mail correspondence or documents, many now format their hard disks or use specialised electronic erasing programs to cover their electronic trails. They tamper with or destroy electronic evidence by downloaded hacking tools or installing an unsecured wireless network before sending out defamatory e-mail messages or even changing their hard disk or computer.

Although tampering with the evidences can attract punishment that could also bring jail. Despite the hefty penalties, experts believe cases of tampering with or destroying evidence will continue to rise, as the perpetrators are getting better at it.