The specificity of a computer forensic analysis depends on the domain or field of the criminal investigation. Thus, between homicide and corporate date theft, the procedure will vary a lot. There are however some general common grounds that are encountered with both procedures. First of all, finding evidence that can be accepted in a court of law is not enough. Sometimes the nature of the evidence is versatile or perishable and the computer forensics investigator has to do everything to preserve it or at least to make good viable copies. Once a crime scene is thoroughly searched by forensic experts, a forensic analysis moves in the lab.

Computer forensic analysis can reveal a whole range of traces and evidences that cannot be identifiable on the spot and with regular means. Thus, germs, bacteria, fingerprints, facial portraits, mineral and textile analysis, DNA analysis as well as other elements collected on the the site of a crime get under micro-scrutiny to be proved or improved as relevant or irrelevant for criminal justice. Medical exams are also commonly necessary when there are victims involved in a certain crime; medical experts will perform such forensic analysis, giving the answer to the legal questions.

People often get a false impression that any forensic analysis inevitably refers to manslaughter or some very serious crime involving victims, but forensic investigations are conducted for a whole range of other reasons. Where there is a work accident, a fire, a case of identity or data theft, situations of financial fraud and so on, professional forensic analysis helps close files and clarifies lots of situations. The criminal justice picture we tend to attribute to a regular forensic analysis results from the impact that police TV series such as CSI have on popular culture.

Moreover, information on how a computer forensic investigation is conducted is plentiful in Discovery documentaries in the forensic crime investigations. This sensationalism of violence is an international trend, it affects people from all over the world and it has to be kept under control in order not to harm young minds. If you feel animated by justice spirits, try not to act on those, because it is forbidden by law to interfere in criminal or forensic investigations. Let’s leave the drama aside and allow the professionals to do their jobs. A forensic analysis is not amateur detective work but something a lot more complex from the scientific point of view.

The world of justice seems to be shaped by forensics investigation procedures, and the imagination of many people has been fired by TV crime series such as CSI: New York for instance. A computer forensics investigator can cover an impressive number of tasks: from from toxicology and DNA fingerprinting to autopsy, anthropology and computer facial reconstructions. Science has thus become the best method to fight crimes and prove a suspect’s guilt or innocence in the court of law. And the responsibility of the forensics investigation is the responsibility of the people who conduct it.

There are methods, features, science experiments and interviews that increase the variety of a computer forensic investigation types even further. On crime scene procedures are very complex and they in fact make the grounds on which the investigation is then developed or conducted. Although people get the impression that a forensics investigation revolves around the laboratory all the time, this is not necessarily true particularly since experts cannot neglect what the crime scene has to provide in terms of information. When the crime scene is not analyzed properly, the court evidence can be compromised, therefore all forensic skills work in the direction of identifying evidence no matter how small.

The nature of the crime and the authorities who conduct the forensics investigations are the ones to decide for the course of action. The steps of a data analysis for instance will be different than those of a robbery. Thus, special equipment is required for data retrieval as it is the case in computer forensics. Once all the details have been identified, there follows the collection of data, the examination, the analysis and the reporting. The procedures and measures vary for each of the steps involved although they eventually converge into one single viable point: finding the criminal.

Depending on what kind of forensics investigation is necessary, different experts will be involved. In fact, all the results of such criminal analysis are a sum of several people’s contribution, because several forensic departments go through the evidence or investigate different aspects of the criminal act. There are cases when the lack of evidence doesn’t allow the legal system to follow its normal course. There are hundreds maybe thousands of such cases piling up worldwide because the police did not have enough evidence to support prosecution.