Cyber Crime and Cyber Terrorism

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Investigative decision making
roles to the highest professional standards. Investigators must be afforded the time to 
complete their investigations and this requires them to not get caught up in the pace 
of the wider investigation but to slow things down where necessary. This approach 
will assist key decision making processes which is vital to the success of any inves-
tigation. According to 
Cook and Tattersall (2010)
:
Investigative decision making must always be directed at reaching goals or objec-
tives. In order to ensure that good decisions are made towards achieving particu-
lar aims, it should at the earliest point in the investigation be determined what the 
primary investigative objectives are. A generic example of how such objectives 
may look are as follows:
• Establish that an offence has been committed or has not been committed.
• Gather all available information, material, intelligence and evidence.
• Act in the interests of justice.
• Rigorously pursue all reasonable lines of enquiry.
• Conduct a thorough investigation.
• Identify, arrest and charge offenders.
• Present all evidence to prosecuting authorities (p. 34).
It is effective practice to record the primary investigative objectives of a cyber in-
vestigation into an investigative policy decision making log at the early stages of the 
investigation. This ensures that rationale for key investigative decisions are captured 
at the time they were made in light of all information that was readily available. The 
primary investigative objectives must be disseminated to all other officers and inves-
tigators who have an operational requirement to know the strategic direction of the 
cyber investigation. During the process of investigations, investigators and senior 
officers will be using their skills to analyze, review and assess all the information 
and material that is available. This is an extremely important process as the accu-
racy, reliability, and relevance of material being obtained will influence decision 
making. Any changes to the primary investigative objectives should be recorded 
and again disseminated to all officers progressing the investigation. According to 
Caless et al. (2012)
:
The golden rule is for investigators to apply what is known as the ‘ABC’ principle 
throughout the life of an investigation as follows: