The New Forensics: Investigating Corporate Fraud and the Theft of Intellectual Property

Rating:
Summary: An Eye-opener
Review: A must read for everybody in the corrupt world we live in today. It influences everyone of us.

The book gave me, the man on the street, an insight into the investigation of forensic auditors into corporate criminal activities. It was a real eye-opener to see to what extremes mankind will go to satisfies his greed. The way in which it is done is not only clever, it really is brilliant in its simplicity. But for the forensic investigators to reveal these frauds are even more brilliant.

Joe Anastasi explains how the forensic investigators use modern technology to uncover corporate fraud in a way even I, an illiterate in this field of work, can understand. For the first time I comprehend some of the work, pressure and ultimate excitement of tracking down the criminals.

The book reads like a suspense thriller, the most scary part is, it is real life and not fiction!

Rating:
Summary: An Eye-opener
Review: A real page turner! I loved this book! I thought it would be dry and technical, but it was surprisingly accessible. It was very breezy. A fun and very informative read.

Thanks to Joe Anastasi for writing this book. I hope that he has another book in the works detailing more investigations because this book ended too soon!

Rating:
Summary: I could not put this book down
Review: A real page turner! I loved this book! I thought it would be dry and technical, but it was surprisingly accessible. It was very breezy. A fun and very informative read.

Thanks to Joe Anastasi for writing this book. I hope that he has another book in the works detailing more investigations because this book ended too soon!

Rating:
Summary: Ironic, Don't You Think?
Review: First of all, I expected this to be more about investigating fraud than about pulling apart computers for use as evidence. I don't think it is, but I'm not sure. I didn't finish the book.

I lost patience after about three chapters. In the Forward, the author explains that much of the book is "fictionalized." He explains that he started with a few names, and that led to dates, places, events ... I found myself wondering whether this shouldn't just be treated as fiction.

Unfortunately, it's not very compelling as fiction either. After devoting the first several chapters to the travel, lifestyle, and hardware concerns of a fictional computer forensics team descending on the offices of some fictional executives, the author delivered what I assume is a somewhat fictionalized account of the California dog mauling case that was in the headlines several years ago, but only at the periphery of my attention. I'm not sure why the author goes there. I think it's because one of the documents used in the case -- the author implies it was an important one but it seems fairly tangential -- was first found on a computer.

Maybe it comes together later. I didn't hang around to find out.

Rating:
Summary: An Absolute Page Turner
Review: From start to finish, Joe Anastasi rivets the reader through the intimate discovery of modern day computer forensics. This timely narrative captures the real life world of high stakes forensic investigators as they try to unravel webs of corporate deceit. This is a must read for any one curious about today's financial headlines, what they really mean and the excesses of the Board Room.

Rating:
Summary: A darn fine read!
Review: I found this a very good book, strong in fact and obviously fictionalised for legal reasons in others. The way computers are ingrained in everyday life today everybody should be aware of the dangers of computer memory, Anastasi shows and explains for the layperson and expert alike the do's and dont's of computer use or misuse! and gives a preview of how in the future it will only get to be a more invasive machine.

Rating:
Summary: neither fish nor fowl
Review: I, for one, don't want to read about fictional investigations. But that is not the only issue here. First, the subject is supposed to be investigating corporate fraud. As another reviewer noted, however, the only subject covered is computer techniques. The actual tracking of the fraud never really appears in any detail. I was expecting a tale of actual processes and insights into actual crimes; however, the book stops short at the recovery of information from computers. The interesting part would be how one piece of info leads to another and suggests other places to look. But nothing is looked at that closely, so the excitement is lost. I also agree with the other reviewer that the relevance of the dog-mauling case is tangential at best. Even in chapters with strong subject matter, such as the investigation of the swiss handling of jewish acounts, the prose is lifeless and conclusory; it does not follow the trail of the adventure.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting reading
Review: Security literature is filled with titles on procedures, processes, and details of performing forensic investigations. Despite its title, this book is not another one. Equal parts autobiography, mystery, biography, and action thriller, the book is an overview of the cases and characters with which the author, a forensic investigator at Deloitte and Touche, has been involved.

In chapter after chapter, the reader receives a high-level view of the tools and technologies used in forensic investigations, then learns the inner workings of specific corporate frauds. These cases range from garden-variety frauds to cybercrime.

One fascinating chapter explores the disposition of a bank account dormant since the Holocaust and how forensic investigators cracked the case 60 years after the fact. It describes how a large group of investigators went to Switzerland to determine the beneficiaries of dormant World War II-era Swiss bank accounts. The chapter details methodology used to retrieve documents and to discover what was hidden and who was entitled to it.

Geared for management-level readers without much technical background, the book spares the reader byte-by-byte details on forensic evidence gathering and handling. Story after story gives readers a very accessible account of how investigators detected fraud, misuse, and a wide range of other corporate criminality. With its real-life drama, the book is both an enjoyable and instructive read.


Rating:
Summary: How things would have been if Hercule Poirot had a computer
Review: The New Forensics is a fascinating account of the ways in which some unlikely and unsung heroes of the digital age � forensic accounting specialists � ferret out evidence of crimes ranging from corporate fraud to homicide, from intellectual property piracy to secretion of assets from Holocaust victims in Swiss banks. This is no dry textbook: the author obviously has a deep passion for his subject matter and a natural gift for storytelling, both of which come across in an easily readable, almost breezy prose style. In an interwoven series of stories of greed, arrogance and shady dealings � some well known, like Enron and WorldCom, others not so well known - the author gives even the novice a comprehensible education in computer forensics and accounting concepts without "dumbing down" or oversimplifying these topics. Though the techniques used by the investigators and described in this book reflect the state of the art at the time the investigations were conducted, the human weaknesses and strengths that underlie the use of technology both to perpetrate and uncover misconduct are timeless, and they are ultimately the real subject matter of this fine book. For what it has to say, and for way in which the author tells these stories, this book ought to be required introductory reading on college campuses and in business and law schools. In fact, anyone who is interested in real-life crime drama, in computer and software technology and high-tech sleuthing, or in the rise and fall of the "dot-com/dot-gone" economy, will enjoy this book. Highly recommended.