Investigating Modern Communication Technologies: The effect of Internet-based Communication Technologies on the Investigation Process

Communication technologies are commonplace in modern society. For many years there were only a handful of communication technologies provided by large companies, namely the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and mobile telephony; these can be referred to as traditional communication technologies. Over the lifetime of traditional communication technologies has been little technological evolution and as such, law enforcement developed sound methods for investigating targets using them. With the advent of communication technologies that use the Internet – Internet-based or contemporary communication technologies – law enforcement are faced with many challenges. This paper discusses these challenges and their potential impact. It first looks at what defines the two technologies then explores the laws and methods used for their investigation. It then looks at the issues of applying the current methodologies to the newer and fundamentally different technology. The paper concludes that law enforcement will be required to update their methods in order to remain effective against the current technology trends.