Soon Jane and Tom became ICQ friends and they chatted quite regularly over the Internet. One day Tom asked Jane out and they met. Unfortunately Jane was raped.

Rape, however horrible it may be, is not an unusual crime but the story about Jane illustrates how criminals use the internet, and in this case ICQ, to perpetrate age-old 'traditional' crimes as well as the newer high-tech ones.

To deal with this kind of situation, the Commercial Crime Bureau set up the Technology Crime Division (TCD) in June last year. Then, early this month, the Director of Crime and Security, Mr Chau Foo-cheong, and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr I Grenville Cross, officiated at the Opening Ceremony for the Hong Kong Police Computer Forensics Laboratory.

In his opening speech, Mr Chau said: "Whether we like it or not, we have to accept that computers and other digital equipment have become an important part of our life. In business, for example, e-commerce and m-commerce are becoming common and in our daily life, e-shopping, e-finance and e-learning are becoming ever more popular. Consequently, computer forensics now plays an important role in police investigative work. Such investigations may entail digital evidence search, internet traces and log analysis. The investigations may also include identification of suspects involving digital images, and reconstruction of a crime scene requiring software analysis, reverse engineering, decryption and presentation of digital data."

The TCD is headed by a Senior Superintendent with a team of 60 officers. The Division is divided into three sections, namely Operations, Forensic Investigations and Intelligence & Support.

In the year 2000, TCD conducted computer forensic examinations for 91 crime cases. In 2001, the number of examinations increased 75 percent to 159 cases. The amount of computer data examined grew from 1,100 gigabytes in 2000 to 4,800 gigabytes last year. In the first eight months of this year, 128 cases and 3,400 gigabytes of data have been examined already.

To meet the challenges ahead, TCD has expanded its computer forensics capability in stand-alone computers and networks. With the help of the newly established Computer Forensics Laboratory, which is located in the Commercial Crime Bureau, Arsenal House West Wing, Police Headquarters, each of our computer forensics examiners is now capable of handling, at any one time, three to four cases involving 'stand-alone' computers, or 600 gigabytes of data on any networked computer.

The Computer Forensics Laboratory was taken from concept to reality in just 12 months. Covering a floor area of only 1,200 square feet, some people may wonder whether it is large enough for the task facing it.

"Our laboratory, though small, is considered to fully meet international standards," said Mr Chau. "Over the past year, we have carried out examinations for foreign police forces, including those of the UK and Canada, and our results were used as evidence in court in successful prosecutions."

With the assistance of this new Computer Forensics Laboratory, the Force is confident that it will win many a battle in the war against hi-tech crime.

What happened in the story about Jane and Tom?

Officers of TCD examined Jane's computer, traced the Tom's address and arrested him. Tom denied even knowing the victim Jane. However, forensic examination of his computer revealed the contents of his conversations with the Jane. With solid evidence against him, a strong prosecution case was presented in court. Tom finally had little choice but to admit his guilt.

In July 2001, in a similar case, a middle-aged man was charged with "Unlawful Sexual Intercourse with Girl under 16" and was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment. The victim was a girl aged 13 that he met over the Internet through ICQ. The digital evidence seized by computer forensics examination played an important role during investigations and prosecution in court.

Media representatives were briefed on the functions of the laboratory