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To help in the process of making digital forensics widespread, to contribute to the process of making digital forensics readily available, then you will have this knowledge, you can help the whole community move forward.

INSTRUCTIONS: Respond to the following prompt in at least 250 words. In at least 50 words, thoughtfully write a critique to one of your classmates’ posts and mention your alternative solution/discussion by the due date.

Digital Forensics is still an emerging field.

Explain whether or not you think digital evidence will ever be seen as the “Gold Standard” of forensic science.

In addition to forming standards, protocols and procedures, what do you think are possible ways the digital forensic community could use to help establish itself?

What are some challenges it may run into along the way while establishing itself?

Digital forensics is still an emerging field, but I do believe digital evidence can eventually be seen as one of the “Gold Standards” of forensic science. Right now, it is not as powerful as DNA forensics, but devices save thousands of data points that could show timestamps, messages, login records, deleted files, location history, metadata, browser history, videos, and financial activity. With these data points, most crimes nowadays leave a digital trail and create timelines to help investigations.

Digital evidence can be collected by copying the storage of a device so the original is not altered or damaged. Investigators can then parse through information by reviewing metadata and other data points to confirm suspects’ locations, messages, timestamps, and other evidence to use in investigations. I do not think digital evidence should automatically be trusted without question. It can be deleted, encrypted, altered, spoofed, or taken out of context. This is why trained examiners, validated tools, and careful documentation are so important.

While forming standards, protocols, and procedures helps define digital forensics’ reputation, I believe the community needs to empower each other with public resources and open-source software for basic digital forensics tools to teach beginners in the field like myself. More training programs should be introduced, and the benefits of digital forensics should be connected to other IT knowledge areas to improve the field across different industries. With more awareness of digital forensics, courts, juries, attorneys, law enforcement, and even the public can better understand what digital evidence can prove and what its limits are.

Challenges can include laws and regulations in different areas that affect what digital forensic investigators can do while performing investigations. Other challenges could include inefficiencies in forensic programs that may not have enough tools compared to programs with more funding. This could be an issue while trying to spread awareness and grow a community base, especially when there are different requirements and criteria for each state or country. To prove that digital forensics is strong enough to be solid evidence for the courts, the field must rely on a clear understanding of digital forensics, consistency, and accuracy.

Classmate Critique:

I agree with your point that digital evidence is already extremely powerful, especially when hashing, chain of custody, cell phone location data, and video evidence are used correctly. I also liked how you brought up privacy and the need for warrants because digital evidence can reveal a lot about someone’s personal life. My alternative solution would be to focus more on independent tool validation and public education. Even if digital evidence is strong, people need to understand how it was collected and verified before trusting it fully in court.