Authors Larry and Lars Daniel have assembled a nearly perfect book: Digital Forensics for Legal Professionals: Understanding Digital Evidence From the Warrant to the Courtroom is a reference manual, instruction guide, and a best practices and lessons-learned archive that's essential reading for legal professionals working with digital evidence.
The topics covered in the book are designed efficiently and easily absorbed, with technical and legal concepts articulated by real-world examples. Technical concepts, such as HASH values, metadata, file carving, and thumbnail caches are simplified. Laws and acts, including civil and criminal proceedings, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, rules of discovery, and orders are explained clearly enough for non-lawyers to understand. Both authors have many years of practical hands-on experience, relevant certifications, and have spoken at dozens of events on the topic of forensics. By all accounts, the authors are experts and have been able to share their knowledge simply and articulately, while presenting forensic evidence, technical, and legal concepts eloquently.
The Daniels start chapters with an introduction to each topic, explain the topics with short but informational content supplemented with examples and graphics, and close with a recap of what was covered. The book is arranged into four sections: "What is Digital Forensics"; "Experts"; "Motions and Discovery"; and "Common Types of Digital Evidence." The four sections and the chapters contained within focus on areas that everyone working with digital evidence should be familiar.
They also act as an easy reference for looking up specific topics, such as working with and qualifying digital forensics experts within various disciplines; discovery motions and how to request discovery from third parties that store data, including the Stored Communications Act, Electronic Communication Privacy Act, HIPAA, and the Fourth Amendment; and the countless types of digital evidence and the preservation and acquisition of evidence from desktop computers to GPS devices to gaming devices to financial systems -- and everything else in-between.
Digital Forensics is the ideal companion for lawyers, paralegals, and technology and business professionals working with potential digital evidence on a day-to-day basis or within civil or criminal proceedings. More than just a good starting point or an introduction, the book is deliberate when explaining the concepts, including typical practices like usage of Faraday Bags for evidence that might be altered via wireless communications when powered on, video recording any manual examination process without any stops during video capture, collecting data from systems that should not or cannot be powered off or on without risk of spoliation during acquisition, assembling detailed documentation of acquisition activities, or how to approach the collection of digital evidence in the manner of a police crime scene investigation.
Digital evidence exists all around us on countless devices being every generated manually and automatically every day, so having a book like Digital Forensics as a reference is invaluable.
Lawyers can benefit by having a resource that explains the acquisition of evidence and the ways to request this information from various sources, provides an understanding of the technical concepts and practices of forensics, and offers some of the cautions of working with digital evidence. Paralegals, technology professionals, and e-discovery experts can benefit by being able to better assist attorneys, corporations, law firms, and clients to manage what can be a very intimidating process. Accidental or purposeful mishandling of evidence can lead to varying degrees of sanctions, including a default judgment, so knowledge of how to handle digital evidence is crucial.
There is so much valuable information contained within this book that I found it was difficult to put down once I started it. Its readability is excellent and I could directly and immediately apply the book's lessons to my day-to-day work within technology, project management, and electronic discovery. As I was finishing the final two chapters, an attorney came to me with a case project that included a digital evidence acquisition with multiple cell phones and, lo-and-behold, I was equipped to speak to the process of the data acquisition and intelligently begin the project due to this book.
Digital evidence is here to stay and the management of that evidence has been made easier to understand with Digital Forensics for Legal Professionals.
Title: Digital Forensics for Legal Professionals
Authors: Larry Daniel, Lars Daniel
Publisher:Syngence/Elsevier 2011
David J. Kearney is director of technology services at Cohen & Grigsby in Pittsburgh. Email: dkearney@cohenlaw.com.
Copyright 2012. ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission from Law Technology News. Further Duplication prohibited.
