No doubt that electronic data can be useful in litigation, but how does its collection, analysis and protection affect its legal use?
The key point is what is known as the “chain of custody.” If you’re dealing with some kind of digital device, you’ve got to be able to show where that device has been-who has handled it, what have they done with it, how long they had possession of it. If there’s any break in that or the device disappears for any period of time, your case may be lost because you can’t account for what’s happened during that time.
The second thing is you want to have clear evidence there hasn’t been any tampering. For instance, when we image a hard drive, we do it without turning the computer on, which means we don’t touch the data other than to take a picture. The computer also creates a hash total, which basically counts bits and bytes of information. If that hash total changes during our investigation then we’ve got a problem. That’s an indication that we’ve changed something.
If we can assist in protecting the legal integrity of your case’s electronic data, here’s our contact information:
