Ways to Challenge a Digital Forensic Examiners Expertise While digital forensic experts should be involved as early as possible, their involvement should go beyond examining digital evidence or evaluating evidence collected by law enforcement. Using digital experts at trial can provide technical guidance in cross examination of prosecution experts. Experts should also be used to [...]
Digital Evidence Collection: Best Practices and Legal Challenges In digital forensics, any interaction with a device can alter its contents, so any part of the process that is not carefully and properly documented can be a point where reasonable doubt is emphasized. Adhering to the best practices process guides the defense in evaluating how the [...]
Digital Evidence Discovery: Making Sure What You Request and What You Receive Are Identical Currently, there are no comprehensive electronic discovery rules separate and apart from general discovery requirements in criminal defense cases. Some legal scholars suggest the existing civil rules in many jurisdictions as they relate to e‐discovery as appropriate models to follow [...]
Legal Challenges to Digital Evidence Collection: Is the Forensics Examiner Able to Produce All of the Process Documentation for Trial? Whichever forensic method is used to extract digital evidence, the forensic examiner must document every step of the process in preparation for possible legal challenges in criminal defense cases. If documentation is missing, cross-examination [...]
Using Hash Value to Verify Digital Evidence: Hash Values Are Fingerprints For Digital Files. Hash values are a useful tool for assisting Public Defenders in the authentication of digital evidence for criminal defense cases. Hash values are also useful for verifying the integrity of data sent through insecure channels. A hash value is an alpha-numeric [...]
Search Warrants for Digital Forensics: What to Request and What is Covered? The search warrant for a device in a digital forensics case must be specific as to the digital data which is being sought. For example, if a search warrant for digital evidence covers e-mail messages, but the forensics examiner also uncovers items [...]