Courtroom Considerations in Digital Image Forensics

The manner in which results of digital image forensic investigations are presented in the courtroom can be positively or adversely affected by case law, federal rules and legislative acts, availability of discovery materials, tools, and the use of exhibits. Issues pertinent to effective and successful testimony are addressed, along with suggestions for improvement of methods. 1 Computer Forensics Computer forensic investigations, including those applied to all types of digital imagery, primarily deal with the analysis and reporting of evidence that is typically collected after (or possibly also during) an incident, with the intended goal of producing legally acceptable evidence for courtroom purposes. The forensic process thus necessarily differs from and involves considerably more effort than that which is required to perform simple data recovery and image restoration tasks. This is because one cannot merely present digital evidence materials to the court without also providing extensive accompanying documentation, detailing numerous salient aspects, especially those pertinent to establishing chain of custody, knowledgeable possession and control. The methods used by the forensic examiner must be well documented, as they may likely be subjected to scrutiny by attorneys, judges and other investigators. Forensic preparations, therefore, place a high emphasis on data authentication and report writing, and involve the use of tools that enhance the examiner’s ability to perform these tasks. The field of computer forensics, having evolved predominantly over the last decade, is relatively young, especially as compared to other forensic endeavors (such as those used by coroners or in ballistics) that have been performed for a