Digital Forensics in the Criminal Justice System Essay

Digital Forensics in the Criminal Justice System - Essay Example The methods of treating digital information while upholding evidential steadiness and integrity can be observed as a complex procedure, but if dealt with it in appropriate manner, it can generate cost effective outcomes for forensics. Based on this understanding, the essay intends to create a case portfolio regarding the collection of digital evidence along with handling or transferring of digital evidence, methods of preservation of digital evidence, analysis of digital evidence as well as preparation of testimonial for the outcome of such analysis. Digital Evidence Digital evidence is regarded as different kinds of digital information, which can be used as proof in any legal proceeding. This type of information exists in electronic form and can be classified as text file, images, audio, video and any other documents. The collection of digital information can be undertaken by appropriation of storage drives, tapping or observing information movement or making digital duplicates of i nformation held. Even though hard copy of digital information is not considered as digital information, it is regarded as the initial point for smearing the use of digital evidence in the future (7Safe, n.d.). Therefore, the digital evidence noticed at the scene was a hard drive, 2 CD disks, a thumb drive, a telephone, and 3 system units. There is also a card reader, monitors, and a modem; however, those objects are not that useful. Collection of Digital Evidence Any case of trail process regarding criminal activity starts with the collection of evidences. In several jurisdictions, digital information is collected throughout explorations, raids or examinations of computer system. Besides, digital information is also collected by forced discovery in any organization or house. In this case, the collection of digital evidence starts with obtaining search warrants (Cartel Working Group, 2010). CD: CDs are regarded as the copy of original information and certain data might be copied from hard drive to CD. Furthermore since, CD is regarded as an in-volatile storage medium, it is also regarded as a vital evidence for the case, and hence has been collected for digital evidence. Card Reader: The card reader is an important forensic evidence examination tool. The key twist with respect to card reader is that there are certain specific SD cards which are only supported and can be accessed with specific card reader. Due to this reason, the card reader also acted as a key digital evidence for the case. Thumb drive: Thumb drive or flash drive has gained much popularity due to its storage abilities and quick data access capability. Furthermore, because of non-volatile information medium, flash drive can possess valuable evidence for the criminal case. Telephone: The telephone was also seized as a part of digital evidence collection. Telephone can provide important evidence regarding any call made by offender. Thus, evaluation of call records might provide hidden contacts, wh ich might be useful for the case. CPU: Finally, three CPUs were also seized for collecting digital information. CPU contains Random Access Memory (RAM) and internal hard disks which store important files and programs. Hence, digital information from these components of CPU can provide great evidence for the criminal activity. Whether forensic agencies attempt to collect available digital information or just a portion of digital ev