All About Cyber Forensics

At Legal Vision Group, we provide support for corporations and law firms across the globe for all of your paper discovery, e-discovery, and web hosting and review needs. One field we’ve been increasingly collaborating with is cyber forensics investigations and examiners. We’re often asked by clients about this burgeoning field and how our services can assist.

What is cyber forensics?

Cyber forensics is a relatively young field, but one that is increasingly growing in complexity and scope. It is generally defined as the application of research, analysis and investigation to gather and preserve evidence from digital devices in a way to find potential evidence for a trial that is suitable for presentation in a court of law. The goal of a cyber forensics investigation is to maintain a clear and documented chain of evidence to find out exactly what happened on a digital device and who was responsible for it.

Cyber forensics examiners generally follow specific tools and procedures during an investigation to ensure all digital assets are properly handled to avoid any contamination of evidence, similar to physical crime scene investigations. These processes include securing the equipment, making a digital copy of a device and then storing the original under lock and key to preserve its condition, and analyzing and examining the digital copy to find all potential data, even that which is damaged, encrypted, or deleted. The documentation of this process and the evidence that is found is then detailed in a comprehensive finding report that can be used in a variety of legal proceedings. Investigations can take weeks or months depending on a variety of factors including the amount of digital data and devices that need to be searched and the number of files that needed to be restored and retrieved.

What types of cases use cyber forensics?

As computers and other digital devices have become an integral part of modern day corporations, cyber forensics investigations have come into play in a wide variety of legal cases, including but not limited to fraud and bankruptcy investigations, employment disputes, regulatory compliance, industrial espionage, and intellectual property theft.

What are some of the issues cyber forensics examiners face?

As technology is ever-changing and developing, it is key for cyber forensics examiners to keep up with new technologies and be able to adapt to and work with consistently new hardware, software and operating systems. The use of anti-forensics – specific methods to combat cyber forensic analysis – is also on the rise, making digital investigations increasingly more difficult. These countermeasures designed to thwart cyber forensics examiners can include renaming or deleting files, wiping data, or deleting key programs, records or histories. Additionally, as cyber forensics is a reasonably new field, the standards, practices, and legislation surrounding this field are also growing and changing as this field evolves.

How can Legal Vision support your cyber forensics efforts?

Legal Vision can support your corporation in key cyber forensic investigations through our e-discovery capabilities and brings experience you can count on. In dealing with the comprehensive collection, preparation, and review of digital information, what matters most to your success is the expertise and process behind it, and with our 24/7 support, the finish line is near. Contact us to see how we can collaborate with your firm on your cyber forensics efforts.