The science of digital forensics has been around since the 1970s. It has greatly evolved with the advent of new technological advancements and digital tools. Today, digital forensics has emerged as one of the most highly specialized fields, with its own standard practices.

It is used in a variety of areas, from criminal investigation to data theft and other cyber security issues. However, not everyone knows the importance of digital forensics in criminal investigations.

This blog will serve as a guide to help you understand its role. Keep reading to learn more.

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Digital evidence in criminal cases has changed how investigators solve crimes. Almost every case has some digital evidence linked to it that helps forensics teams, investigators and authorities find criminals and take them into custody.

As a digital forensics service provider in FL, we have used some real examples to explain how digital evidence in criminal cases is used.

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Digital evidence is fragile and volatile; even the smallest mistake during its handling can alter the content and make it inadmissible during legal proceedings. Evidence handling involves four major steps, such as identification, collection, acquisition and preservation—and you have to follow certain protocols to ensure data isn’t modified during these steps.

As a leading digital forensic consultant agency, our experts have explained common digital evidence handling mistakes, so you don’t make any.

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Digital Evidence is increasingly assimilating into the world. The demand for digital forensics is predicted to proliferate over the next few years. Mobiles and the growth of the Internet of Things have made digital evidence more common than ever before. If you want to handle digital evidence in a way that’s not harmful, then read on as we tell you more.

Handling Digital Evidence

1. Identification

Before gathering digital evidence during the identification step, basic information regarding the cybercrime case is gathered. Similar to what is sought during a regular criminal investigation, this early information. The researcher aims to provide answers to the following queries:

• Who participated?
• What took place?
• When did the cyberattack take place?
• Where did the online crime take place?
• How did the online crime happen?

2. Collection

When it comes to cybercrime, the crime scene is not just the physical location of the digital devices employed in the crime’s commission and its intended victim. The digital devices that may contain digital evidence are also included in the cybercrime crime scene, which encompasses several digital servers, systems, and devices. The crime scene is guarded when cybercrime is noticed, reported, and/or suspected.

3. Acquisition

The following step is to get data from the gathered device. The equipment in question determines the particular acquisition technique. For instance, the procedure for removing data from a laptop differs significantly from that of a smartphone.

This procedure should, wherever feasible, be handled by experts. Taking a “forensic picture” could be preferable to manipulating the original copy, depending on the device’s state and contents. That calls for specific equipment and information.

4. Protection

The goal of evidence preservation is to stop digital evidence from being altered before it is again required. It can happen physically or digitally depending on what is better at handling the data. Management systems today are beneficial in this feat.

5. Analysis and Reporting

In addition to handling digital evidence, the data analysis process entails looking at and analyzing it (the analysis phase) and communicating the analysis results (reporting phase). In the analysis stage, data is analyzed, events are reconstructed, and digital evidence is taken from the device. Before beginning to analyze the forensic evidence, the lab’s digital forensics analyst must be told of the search’s goals, given some context for the case, and any additional information gleaned from the research that can help the forensics analyst at this stage.

Final Thoughts

Digital evidence handling requires a lot of effort as there are many steps in handling digital evidence effectively. The way to ensure that digital evidence is appropriately handled is by forming a team that will execute the process from start to finish. They must know how they must handle digital evidence for maximum efficiency.

For more information on digital evidence, read more on our website please visit us at www.eclipseforensics.com.

The prevalence of digital evidence is on the rise. However, there are still certain risks associated with digital evidence since authentication is necessary where the internet is involved. There are ways to prevent the risk and challenges we face.

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Also known as document sanitizing, redaction is important for organizations and individuals to ensure their sensitive information remains hidden from the outside world. This mostly applies to those in legal, healthcare, financial, and government fields, where data security is of utmost importance.

With the increase of digitization, it has become easier to extract and exploit data for the wrong means. Therefore, a lot has changed in terms of redaction in the modern era to protect sensitive information. Redaction isn’t limited to physical documents but digital data such as images, audio, and video. What was done using a sharpie back in the day is now using artificial intelligence-backed tools and software.

Here’s all you need to know about redaction in digital forensics.

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Digital forensics has changed how the authorities solve crimes. Its demand is increasing rapidly, and the industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.97% by 2027. While it may offer many opportunities to solve and prevent crimes, digital data is vulnerable to cyber threats. Besides threats, analysts and investigators may also unintentionally tamper with (or alter) the evidence, making it inadmissible in court.

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Every computer holds a plethora of information in it. From browser history to files on your PC, everything contains pieces of evidence that may help in an investigation. Computers have been used for evidence for years, and credit goes to the forensics team for retrieving and evaluating the necessary information.

For instance, a digital forensic expert’s help is necessary in a hacking case. The hackers use all protocols to hide their identity to steal from individuals and businesses. If you’re doing a criminal investigation of a similar case, then our cyber forensic experts can help you unravel the truth.

Here are the benefits of computer forensics.

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With a greater dependence on cloud computing and computer systems, digital forensics now has a strong footprint in the law enforcement avenue. Credit card fraud, cases of child pornography, and audit frauds need ace digital forensic experts to assess and analyze data for court proceedings. Only in 2021, cybercrime incidents were some of the most frequently reported criminal offenses. Crimes like phishing, personal data breach, extortion, and identity theft were reported by the thousands.

To understand the extent to which digital forensics can help you with data analysis and extraction, here’s a closer look at its branches:

Computer Forensics

Previously, the words ‘computer forensics’ and ‘digital forensics’ were used interchangeably. Computer forensics extract, analyze and preserve data for criminal and court proceedings. The branch uses strategies similar to those of data recovery. They also follow some legal guidelines for data extraction.

Network Forensics

This branch of digital forensics focuses on monitoring and assessing computer network traffic for legal evidence, information gathering, or third-party intrusion detection. David Schiffer, a correspondent for Forbes, is quite certain cybercrime issues are bound to exacerbate as organizations grow their networks.

Mobile Device Forensics

The branch covers the recovery of digital evidence from phones using forensic data analysis methods. The term ‘mobile devices’ goes for all devices with GPS, internal memory, and communicative facilities. Some things that mobile forensics are still trying to decode include:

• Locating the cell phone while the mobile is on hibernation mode or is switched off
• Shifts in mobile phone form like changes in the operating system, memory storage, and peripherals like pin connectors

Recovering data from phones can get quite complex. At Eclipse Forensics, our data forensic experts can collect call logs, text messages, deleted pictures, call lists, and more data sets.

Database Forensics

Database forensics is related to metadata. The information can exist in a server’s RAM. During such a case,  cyber forensic experts perform a live analysis of RAMs to extract data. A forensic examination of data includes who accessed the database and if data in the system has been tampered with. Organizations across the world have data stored in complex databases that can be analyzed to collect forensic data.

Database forensics can also identify transactions within an application database. Evidence of fraud and wrongdoing may be collected this way.

Contact Eclipse Forensics for Certified Digital Forensic Services

We are pros at uncovering electronic data for courtrooms! To avail our audio forensic and video forensic services,  contact us at 9047971866.