Saturday, January 25, 2014

The Important Role Of A Digital Forensic Investigator

By Eliza Mendoza


When a person commits a crime, he or she may leave evidence on electronic devices like computers. A computer forensics detective can use various techniques and skills to find such evidence and preserve it. A forensics investigator can help people solve numerous problems in the computer science field such as enhancing cyber security, natural language processing and data visualization. People who want to have the data saved in diffident kinds of storage devices analyzed can use the services of a digital forensic investigator.

Digital forensics is also referred to as electronic evidence discovery, computer forensic analysis, computer examinations, computer analysis and digital discovery. It involves preserving, identifying, interpreting and documenting evidence so that it can be presented in a criminal or civil court. Computer analysis helps recover deleted files and search the unallocated space on hard drives, where valuable evidence that is hard to find usually resides.

By using computer forensic analysis, investigators are able to get clues about how a person used a computer. They image the hidden files that contain this information. Detectives are able to recover information from storage devices like SD cards, flash disks, zip disks, backup tapes and compact disks among others. They can recover files even from computers that have been defragmented or formatted.

Electronic evidence discovery plays a vital role in investigations. A good example is investigating unfaithfulness among married couples. Detectives can use GPS technology to trail a person suspected of cheating on his or her partner. They can also recover erased short text or electronic messages.

You can also hire the services of a computer forensics investigator if you are a victim of harassment through emails or phone calls. This professional can trail the suspect by preserving logs of calls you have received in your phone or emails sent from a particular source. The detective can present these emails and calls as evidence of harassment. A forensics detective can also analyze email headers and trace the original IP address from which the email was sent.

A computer forensics detective can also perform surveillance. You can hire this professional if you want to gather evidence about the criminal activities a person is suspected of engaging in. The detective may utilize tools like spyware programs and keystroke loggers to get real time information about where and when a suspect left evidence of various illegal actions on a computer.

Investigators also use forensics analysis to discredit or support the hypotheses used by a prosecutor in court. They also use computer forensics to carry out internal investigations in organizations. These professionals usually follow a systematic process to investigate any case. They first acquire devices used to store data such as hard disks and memory cards and image them forensically. They also interview anyone who may have information that is related the case they are investigating.

When seeking the services of a digital forensic investigator, you should choose a professional who is highly trained and experienced in this field. This professional should also be ready to act as an expert witness in a courtroom. Providing expert testimony can be challenging and if evidence is presented poorly, a case can be disappointing. You should therefore choose a professional who can easily translate the forensic language into situational concepts that anyone in a courtroom can understand.




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