United States v American Online, Inc Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

United States v American Online, Inc - Assignment Example Firstly, the two companies involved, AOL and PPRO, deal with computer-related business. For instance, AOL is an online business partner of PPRO, a software services provider. Additionally, the matter involves accounts entry, in which AOL is accused of illegal entry. Ordinarily, company's accountings are executed using computer software as paperwork accounts are already outdated (Chung, Park, Lee & Kang, 2012). For the revenues to be inflated there has to be unreal transactions such as contracts and ghosts sales. Therefore a computer has to be used to prepare the contract agreements and invoices for such fake transactions. Q2: In the probe of the AOL’s alleged frauds, the involvement of some professional experts would be crucial in establishing the prosecution evidence. The first relevant professional is a certified public accountant. As the Department of Justice (2007) explains, the case involves an alleged piloted error in accounting. Therefore, a professional accountant would elaborate to the court whether indeed there were illegal entries in the AOL books of accounting. Additionally, a forensic Information Technology (IT) expert’s, particularly a computer forensic professional, would be relevant in this case. A computer forensic expert’s testimony would have been used to add weight to the prosecution claim. The expert would retrieve deleted communications from the two alleged parties, the AOL and PPRO. Apparently, the two are believed to have engaged in a conspiracy. Thus, the computer forensic specialist would have been used to unmask the conspiracy through retrieving past com munications. Q3: There are various techniques and tools that could have been employed in the US v AOL case investigation. For instance, the cross-drive analysis method could have been used to establish any correlation or lack of it between the information found on AOL.