Electronic crime investigation in the New Zealand Police

The New Zealand Police is one of many Government agencies that deal with computer-related offending.  

The Department of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and other government departments also investigate electronic crime (e-crime) depending on the type of offending. 

Today, almost every major investigation has an electronic component because people use the internet, mobile phones, laptops, digital cameras, iPods, personal navigation devices and other electronic equipment as a matter of course in their daily lives.

These electronic devices have facilitated new ways to commit crimes like fraud, drug dealing, extortion, harassment and paedophilia. They also make it easy for offending to cross a large distance and police jurisdictions.

The internet has brought criminal offending right into our homes and even into children's bedrooms if computers are kept there. Some victims, and especially children, are easy targets because they lack online security awareness or skills.

Examples of electronic crime

Examples of common e-crimes are activities like trading stolen property through auction sites, stealing credit card information through newsgroups and chat rooms, distributing pirated intellectual property, and dealing drugs through email and websites. 

Police also receive a number of complaints about cyber criminals obtaining hotmail and yahoo mail usernames and passwords through botnet infested personal computers.

Cyber criminals use the email usernames and passwords they harvest to log into the email accounts and changed the passwords, preventing the real owners from accessing them.

They then email the people in the email account address book with a 'sob story', for example a story about getting in trouble while traveling through Africa on holiday and asking them to transfer a small amount of money (often between $100 and $500) to help them out, promising they will be paid back on their safe return to New Zealand.

Many people who have been emailed a message like this believe it is from their friend and have sent money, only to find out later from the real owner that they have been fooled.

Meanwhile, the real email account owner can't reset their password because they cannot prove their identity to the email service provider because no proven identity is required to create these free email accounts. In some cases, victims have lost their entire business because they cannot contact any of their customers.

This highlights the risks of relying on free email services, especially if you're using the email address for your business. Using a New Zealand internet and email service provider - one that has an established reputation and requires users to prove their identity in more than one way to reset a password - is a much safer option.

Investigative challenges

There are unique challenges to investigating e-crime.

For example, electronic evidence can be volatile and transient. Log files, emails and other key data can be modified, overwritten or deleted.

A significant amount of offending is also simply not reported, and some may not even be detected.

E-Crime prevention is critical

In all aspects of our lives, crime prevention is far better than acting after the event.

People prevent crime every day by locking their houses and cars, not leaving wallets lying around, and supervising children. We must also take crime prevention measures in the electronic environment.

Police will investigate and prosecute people who have committed electronic crime when we can, but enforcement can be difficult because of the high volume of electronic crime that is being committed, difficulties in obtaining evidence to prove a case, and the fact that e-crime often crosses country borders and police jurisdictions.

NetSafe does a great job educating New Zealanders about how to keep themselves safe while using the internet and Police Youth Education Service staff work with NetSafe to help students, parents and school staff with internet safety advice through education programmes like Keeping Ourselves Safe and Kia Kaha.

More information

For more information about electronic-crime investigation in the New Zealand Police see the New Zealand Police Electronic Crime Strategy to 2010