ON THE ISSUE OF INTERACTION OF FORENSIC EXPERTS OF STATE SPECIALIZED FORENSIC EXPERT INSTITUTIONS OF UKRAINE WITH THE INTERNET

Abstract

The article highlights the issues of interaction of forensic experts of state specialized forensic institutions with the Internet as a complex information system. The Internet has firmly entered our lives and everyday life. With its help, people communicate, study, work, receive necessary information and provide information. The Internet is an environment with which almost every person interacts. Once it was available exclusively on computers, now it is also available on smartphones, tablets, laptops, watches, etc. Currently, almost every person owns a mobile device, according to statistics, as of 2021, there are 6.4 billion users of smartphones and smart devices in the world, while in 2016 there were 3.6 billion. At the same time, the work of a forensic expert is specific, recently many works have been published devoted to methods and technologies based on the use of the Internet. But a systematic study of the interaction of forensic experts with the Internet is not sufficiently covered in the scientific literature. At the same time, recent studies and publications do not cover all aspects of the interaction of forensic experts with the Internet as an environment. The purpose of the publication is to systematize the interaction of forensic experts, in particular, state specialized forensic institutions of Ukraine, with the Internet environment, to identify patterns and predict further steps based on the generalization of empirical material. 6 vectors of such interaction are given: the Internet as – a means of communication; – a source of information; – a representative platform; – a source of threat and danger; – a trace-receiving substance; – an object of research. Each of the vectors has a past, present and future, which are outlined in the article with certain practical examples. Forecasts for the future are put forward based on the generalization of empirical material. It started with commonly used vectors, which are not so obvious in terms of the specificity of forensic experts, but which had a significant impact on the work of forensic experts of state NSUE. For example, the Internet as a means of communication. At the beginning of the computerization of NSUE of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, access to the Internet was quite limited due to the technical aspects of the connection. Nevertheless, e-mail began to be used for communication, but it was not such an obligatory attribute of communication as it is now. Later, special forensic forums based on free servers with free software for users gained some popularity. On them, forensic experts communicated with each other and answered the most common questions of forum visitors, for example, what tasks a certain type of forensic examination solves. Today, Internet conferences are held, as well as conferences in a mixed format (offline and online), where communication is carried out using an Internet connection, and Internet connection is provided to the conference organizer on a free or paid basis, depending on the technical support of the conference and the online platform. Currently, the Internet has made it possible to communicate not only with the NDUES and their employees among themselves and with colleagues, as well as with other participants in forensic activities, but also with free versions of artificial intelligence, namely, Gemini from Google and ChatGPT from OpenAI. Regarding the Internet as an object of research, Yu. I. Brailko and N. V. Kysla cite judicial practice on the definition of glorification in open Internet sources. The publication by O. V. Golikova, O. V. Zaks and S. G. Demyanchuk “Research of websites when resolving issues of copyright infringement” is interesting. In their opinion, the issues related to the analysis of the normative definition of the concept of a website and the sequence of actions of a forensic expert are insufficiently researched in the context of forensic expert support for the legal protection of a website as an object of intellectual property rights and require greater attention from specialists. The purpose of the publication is to determine a rational algorithm for forensic expert research of a website as an object of intellectual property rights. Websites are a “complex” work that contains both the results of web programming and certain content that can be the object of intellectual property rights. This publication paves the way for the study of the Internet as an object that contains the subject of a separate forensic expert field. Thus, in our opinion, the subject of research in this field of knowledge will be the Internet itself, as a set of various types of websites, which, in turn, are objects of copyright and related rights. These websites in their system do not form an information system, but an information system that interacts with the visitor of the system and has a certain psychological impact on him, for example, encourages him to purchase a certain product, or to form a certain political opinion, or provides a certain answer to a certain question, etc. Thus, the Internet is a complex information system, the interaction of forensic experts of state specialized forensic institutions with which develops along 6 vectors, and perhaps in the future the number of these vectors will only increase. The authors conclude that the issue of interaction of forensic experts with the Internet requires in-depth study and use of the results in further work. Perhaps a new branch of forensic expertise is emerging: forensic examination of the Internet.