Jude Thomas LaCour

This is the age of information technology. Whether you are in law enforcement, prosecution, the defense team, or an individual suspected or charged with a crime, computer forensics might affect you. Computer forensics is a science dedicated to collecting potential evidence from computers and other digital media, including portable hard drives, USB drives, emails, and even MP3 players.

Anything with digital data can be used for or against you in a court case. Computer forensics is key to different types of evidence, and computer forensic specialists are key to recovering and examining computer forensic evidence connecting the computer or digital media to a crime. The list of evidence includes:

• Stolen computers and other digital media are themselves physical evidence that may need to be confiscated. In addition, the software on the computer might be stolen as well.

• If the computer or other electronic equipment was used in committing a crime, it can also be used as evidence. Criminal activities utilizing computers and computer equipment include the production of counterfeit identification, documents, and other illegal materials.

• Files, emails, and other items stored in the computer or digital media might also be taken as evidence. In fact, even Instant Messages, commonplace in today’s communications, could have been used in plotting a crime.

• Was the computer used in the crime? For example, the computer may be used to hack into the mainframe of another computer or even worse to a credit card company. If the computer was used in this manner and is still holding information it is the biggest give away possible to a computer forensic team.

• The computer itself might have been used to commit a crime. This includes computers used to hack through the security of other computers or networks, credit card theft, or even as the source of a computer virus.

In today’s high-tech world, computers and other digital media are commonplace in both our personal and work lives. They are used to store data and as a convenient means of communications. Therefore, when a crime is committed, anticipate the role of a computer forensic team to investigate, recover, and examine the digital evidence.

Computer Forensics at Your Service

While there are a number of services that a qualified computer forensic specialist can provide, below are some of the more important ones in investigating, recovering, and examining computer evidence.

1. The computer forensics team can ensure the safety and integrity of the computer or computer equipment as it is collected and brought to a laboratory or facility. This includes both the physical evidence and the digital data during transport.

2. Upon arrival of the computer or computer peripherals at the laboratory or facility, the computer forensics team can make sure that no damage will come to the item(s), nothing is compromised to reduce its value as evidence, and that it won’t be struck by data corruption or computer viruses that could make it unusable.

3. As part of the evidence gathering, the computer forensics team can uncover usually secure items like passwords, hidden files, deleted files that remain in the memory, and protected or encrypted files.

4. As part of data retrieval and recovery, the computer forensics team can find vital data that may have been temporary, hidden, or even deleted. This complex process requires accessing usually inaccessible sections of the computer to locate data that might be crucial to a case.

5. In addition, the computer forensics team can provide air-tight, step-by-step documentation of how they found the crucial digital evidence. With more and more technical evidence being contested in court, accurate documentation that can be replicated can win or lose a case whether it is used or thrown out.

Computer forensics and computer forensic specialists can play a vital role not only for law enforcement and the prosecution but also for the defense team and anyone suspected or charged with a crime.

Jude LaCour Computer Forensics (http://www.jl-forensics.com) can help you or your defense attorney if you need a qualified computer forensics expert.