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 forensics science consisting of technical expertise, the finding of electronic evidence, digital investigations and even data recovery. Data forensics is right to use in judicial cases that involve 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 consisting of technical expertise, the finding of electronic evidence, digital investigations and even data recovery.

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 there are lots of challenges when trying to recover data or to identify the criminal process, experts in this fields have more than once been successful at finding the needle in the haystack. 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.

The challenges that data forensics expert have to face are enormous. The applications do have far-reaching applications, but it takes hours to extract digital evidence and make it stable. 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. Lots of skills, strict standards and great caution are required for each of these steps and only real pros can succeed.

When a criminal act involving digital systems is detected, the best way of action is not to address the other party and ask for a preservation of computer records, but rather a surgical approach by an expert who has had computer forensics training. This will reduce the costs of data collection and will make info recovery more likely. 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.

With the ever increasing importance of computers and digital media for both personal and corporate users, the number of crimes involving electronic data is now higher than ever. 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 sexual harassment, intellectual property theft, discrimination, breach of contract and so on. Therefore, it was not difficult for data forensics to become a legal necessity in the context of the computers’ ubiquity.

The exact specificity of computer forensics data recovery is the extraction of pieces of information that would remain undetected at a normal investigation. Data forensics will normally examine files that are hidden, deleted or even discarded, as well as fragments or file left-overs. Although it often seems impossible to recover data or to identify the criminal process, experts in this fields have more than once been successful at finding the needle in the haystack. What is the relevance of such evidence for legal cases? Well, practice has already proved it that the recovery of a deleted e-mail message can change the course of a trial.

The challenges that data forensics expert have to face are enormous. The applications are indeed far-reaching, 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. This is also the reason why a duplication procedure is used to protect the information during the extraction process. Lots of skills, strict standards and great caution are required for each of these steps and only the best in the field can succeed.

When a criminal act involving digital systems is detected, the best way of action is not to address the other party and ask for a preservation of computer records, but rather a surgical approach by an expert in data forensics. 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. Even photocopy machines include hard drives and the scanned or copied documents can be afterwards retrieved from them.