Crimes at Cyber Headlines

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Computer Forensics In Criminal Defence

There is a lot of coverage within the media about how digital forensics have been used within a court case to prosecute. However, within the British judicial system, someone is innocent until proven otherwise.
With this in mind, there are many ways in which criminal defence law firms can use digital forensics to defending a client. Digital forensics covers the use of mobile phones, computers
and even satellite navigation units – in short, any digital device. . All of these can help the accused prove their innocence if looked in to correctly.
Computer forensics has helped many cases, primarily for prosecution, but it can be used to help people prove they have not committed the crime they have been accused of.
With the help of digital and computer forensics specialists, there are many ways a case can be helped if digital evidence has been presented against the accused. There are many strict rules and regulations that must be followed to extract evidence properly. If these rules have not been followed the evidence can be deemed invalid.
Any extracted evidence should have been done so by an approved analyst to be deemed an admissible source. If this is proven not to be the case, then the evidence is worthless and other sources will need to be found to support the case.
Alongside these points there are other factors that decide whether evidence extracted is usable. By choosing a reputable computer forensics company, they will be able to provide answers to such questions and know whether the evidence provided has been found legitimately or not.
The digital finger-prints we leave in today’s society means anything and everything can potentially be traced back. With this in mind it is important to remember that although we can extract data vital to proving conviction – or innocence, there are still procedures that need to be followed.
If the guidelines are not followed, extracted data is invalid, so ensure where any case is presented the facts are checked, and the only people to do this are the digital forensic professionals.
Written by Jenny Pilley

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