Destruction of Digital Traces when Concealing a Crime as a Challenge to Forensic Science

Detection, examination and use of digital traces of crime are important tasks of forensic science. However, the effective use of these objects is impossible in many cases due to their destruction by an offender himself or other persons. For the first time ever this article deals with a detailed scientific systematization of methods for destroying digital traces for the first time basing on domestic and foreign experience and describes a general algorithm for forensic computer-technical expert examination of the fact of destruction of digital traces of a crime as well as lost information recovery. It seems appropriate to study the patterns of criminal destruction of digital traces in close connection with provisions and results of the development of the forensic doctrine of concealment of traces of a crime by domestic scientists in the “pre-digital era”. One of the relevant tasks is also the development of domestic technical and software tools for destroyed computer information recovery.