Why I Investigate Computer Crimes
Computers rarely tell me what happened. They simply refuse to forget what everyone else did.
People often ask why I investigate computer crimes.
The answer disappoints them.
It isn't because I enjoy computers. It isn't because I believe technology is changing the world more than anything else. It isn't even because I think machines are especially interesting.
I investigate computer crimes because computers remember things people forget.
A receipt. A timestamp. A deleted file. A voice recording. A photograph no one realised was taken. A decision that seemed ordinary when it was made but becomes important years later.
Most investigations begin long after the event itself has passed. By then, memories have changed. People disagree honestly about what happened. Some have forgotten. Some have convinced themselves they remember more than they ever knew.
Machines do something different. They preserve fragments.
Not truth. Just fragments.
My work has taught me that the difficult part is not collecting evidence. It is understanding what the evidence can and cannot prove. Records survive. Meaning does not.
That is why I keep looking. Not because computers tell us the truth. Because sometimes they leave behind enough of it to begin asking better questions.