Digital Forensics Can Be Used in a Court of Law

Digital Forensic is the process of uncovering and interpreting electronic data that can be used in a court of law. It requires a set of standards to show how the information that is gathered, preserve, and analyzed is strictly followed. The analysts need to understand the evolution of the current technology and how it will impact how they gather their information. The investigator is able to uncover evidence and analyze it to gain the understanding of the motives, crime, and the criminal’s identity to help solve the crime. As computers and technology continue to become a part of our everyday lives, the cyber realm contains a growing realm for evince in all types of criminal investigations (Cummings, 2008) Digital forensics is a way to connect information security and law enforcement. It ensures that the digital evidence is collected in a way that it can make it into the courts in an unhampered or uncontaminated way (Dlamini, M., Eloff, J. & Eloff, M., 2009).

Digital forensics can be broken down into three phases; acquisition, analysis, and presentation. The acquisition phase is where the data is saved in a way that it can be analyzed latter. Because it is not known at the time what data is or is not valuable to the case, all data is saved. In the analysis phase, the data is examined and placed into three major categories; inculpatory, exculpatory, or signs of evidence tampering (Carrier, 2002). Tools are used in this phase that are able to analyze for the list directory contents, deleted files, and recover the deleted files. In the presentation phase, the data has been documented in a way that it can undergo a peer review. When deleted files are recovered, the analyst must show how they were found because they were ...

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... include smart phones, cellphones, IPod, and MP3 devices. They get this distinction because they are small enough to be handheld (Bennett, 2011). The IPad does not fall into this category because it is considered more of a computer and less of a hand held device. These devices are very popular and many contain storage devices that are similar to a laptop. They are easily portable and can run many applications that a regular computer can run (Bennett, 2011). The reason these are so vital to digital forensics is that they typically contain large amounts of personal and organizational information. They are also used because they are essentially portable data carriers (Bennett, 2011). Because of their ease of use and types of data they contain, they have great potential for incriminating data and can be utilized as evidence in criminal cases (Bennett, 2011).