Better Content - Better SEO

Regulators are very interested in voice and messaging data because people generally tend to ask for favours or break rules on chat and voice messaging systems, rather than in emails. Investigators are also aided by the fact that most FCA-regulated firms must record their voice data. In large financial cases such as the LIBOR investigation, evidence obtained from voice data has been crucial.

The e-disclosure market has chosen two distinct paths to investigate and search voice data sound files. To do this we must ‘translate’ the data into something that computers can understand. Firstly, the reliable way is to transcribe the data. Secondly, the more risky route is to index the actual sound files. The transcribed data or the indexed sound file is then searched.

Voice data has long been a useful avenue of investigation or source of disclosable information for civil litigation, particularly within the financial sector, where the recording of traders’ conversations (either over the phone or face-to-face) is insisted upon by regulators. With every year that passes users are becoming more aware of the most common avenues of investigation that investigators will use to locate relevant (and potentially incriminating) information. For example, it is now not uncommon for individuals who are ‘up to no good’ to avoid putting any details of their actions into emails or electronically stored documents. However, the requirement to ‘discuss it’ still exists, and we are seeing a movement towards methods of communication that are perceived to be more private, specifically phone calls, text messages and instant messaging chat.

Specifically within the financial services sector, instant messaging ‘chat’ has been used on a number of occasions as a source of intelligence for investigations or data for disclosure. In November 2013 instant messaging was identified by a number of banks as a potential ‘weak point’ through which traders have been seen to be discussing ‘market topics’. In response to the LIBOR scandal of 2013 a number of banks have now banned their traders from accessing these communal chat facilities in favour of their traders having ‘one-to-one’ conversations over the phone.

In summary, there are many influences which are likely to increase the requirement to search voice data. The capability to do this is of course reliant on these conversations being recorded. As technology evolves we may see an increase in the number of companies recording their telephone conversations for exactly this purpose. It is worth being mindful of these evolving methods and considering voice recordings when scoping your next exercise. Many companies have an on-site voicemail system which may also hold recorded voice data.

For more information on voice data or CCL’s other products and services, call us on 01789 261200, email edisclosure@cclgroupltd.com or visit www.cclgroupltd.com

For more information on digital forensics, please call CCL on 01789 261200 or email contact@cclgroupltd.com, or check out http://www.cclgroupltd.com/digital-forensics

Author:

Nathan is an Edisclosure specialist at CCL Group - the UK’s leading supplier of electronic disclosure and digital forensics consultancy, including: computer forensics, track inspector , mobile phone forensics and cell site analysis services, for more inforamation visit www.cclgroupltd.com