As the world becomes more entwined with technology, modern legal cases rely more heavily on digital evidence. Data forensic teams play a key role in collating and presenting evidence that can be used in a case and are often a key contributing factor to a verdict.
So, what is data forensics? And what processes do data forensic teams undergo to gather potentially case-winning evidence? In this blog post, we’ll discuss:
- What is data forensics?
- What do data forensic teams do?
- What is data forensic collection?
- The forensic data process
What is data forensics?
Data forensics is the investigation of digital data and its creation and use. Data forensics — also referred to as computer forensics — can involve the recovery or tracking of phone call logs, texts or emails.
The term ‘data forensics’ is relatively broad. It can refer to any action that identifies, preserves, recovers or analyses data. Think of it as part of the wider scope of forensics, with evidence collected and studied to investigate an alleged crime.
What do data forensic teams do?
It’s vital for members of data forensic teams to be highly trained in forensic evidence preservation, analysis and reporting. Just like physical evidence, digital evidence must be handled with care and expertise.
Data forensic teams usually begin their work when an investigation starts. There’s an urgency to alleviate the possibility of digital evidence being accidentally lost or purposefully deleted. The role of data forensic teams is to acquire digital evidence, examine it, analyse it and then create a report to present.
A data forensic expert will also preserve the integrity of the evidence. Much like physical evidence, preservation of data is vitally important. There are strict guidelines to adhere to and the handling of data can affect the original evidence state.
