Data Forensics a Subdivision of Forensic

 The number of crimes involving electronic data is sky-rocketing these days, particularly with the immense preponderance of computers and other digital media in our lives. Thus, data forensics has become a distinct sub-division of forensic science consisting of technical expertise, the finding of electronic evidence, digital investigations and even data recovery. To count only a few of the judicial cases for which data forensics is useful, we ought to mention breach of contract, intellectual property theft, discrimination, sexual harassment and so on. Therefore, it was not difficult for data forensics to become a legal necessity in the context of the computers' ubiquity.

A normal type of computer investigation cannot detect or extract bits of information remained after deletion. File left-overs, deleted files, hidden and discarded files are searched and analyzed as part of the data forensics analysis. Although it often seems impossible to recover data or to identify the criminal process, this search for the needle in the haystack is pretty successful. What relevance does such evidence have for legal cases? Well, it has been proved by practice that the recovery of a deleted e-mail message can change the course of a trial.

Data Forensics Experts Face Many Challenges

The challenges that data forensics expert have to face are enormous. The applications do have far-reaching applications, but the work to extract digital evidence is strict and exhausting. Sometimes the extractor has difficulties in getting to the information that is buried too deep in the electronic system, or too exposed to destruction.  Moreover, for a successful data collection, data forensics has to protect the extracted elements by duplication so that the information is preserved and not altered and spoiled during the process. Great caution, strict standards and lots of skills are required for each of these steps and only the best in the field can succeed.

A data forensics expert should be contacted immediately, once a breach in the security system or a criminal act against electronic media is detected. This will enable the appropriate and cost-limited data collection in the best conditions possible. Moreover, it is false to assume that data forensics only applies to computer hard drives as the main systems that can store information; there are cases of criminal action involving, USB devices, CDs, DVDs and even voice mail systems. Memory hard drives are now incorporated even in fax and photocopy machines so that many of the documents can be recovered afterwards.