Services
Electronic evidence gathering can be critical to both the prosecution and defense of virtually any civil case. Outside of the courtroom, it can also be of great assistance to corporations and insurance companies in investigating fraud, harassment and discrimination, misappropriation of proprietary information, and workers compensation issues before the claim or complaint is filed.
Center for Computer Forensics experts offer assistance at every stage of the case - pre-suit analysis, discovery, mediation, and trial. In addition to directly managing your data recovery project, we also provide expert consultation and testimony on a wide range of computer hardware, software, and operating systems.
No matter what the situation is, you need to make sure that all available electronic evidence is secured by isolating the hard drive or tape. Not only does that protect against accidental or intentional tampering, it also ensures that the original data was not modified for purposes of any rules of evidence. CCF experts will guide you through the process and give you the technical information you need to understand the electronic aspects of your case.
Computer Forensics
Our computer forensics team includes certified computer forensics examiners with many years of computer forensics experience.
Whether you are faced with electronic media where files have been deleted or otherwise manipulated or you are faced with masses of electronic media and you are not totally aware of what information is available to support your need for evidence – we can work with you.
Initial Case Consultation – At the outset we will discuss your case and based on the facts we will ensure that the right service will be provided to your situation and financial constraints. Our examiners are available to consult with you on preservation plans, discovery requests as well as observing opposing experts. During this initial phase we will also develop an examination plan for the media. Our examiners have experience in intellectual property theft, improper computer use in the workplace (shopping, surfing the web, pornography, etc) theft, arson, fraud, extramarital affairs, etc.
Evidence Collection – You can arrange to have the media sent to our labs and we will create and maintain the chain of possession. If the media can not be shipped from your facility or you want to ensure the preservation of the media, our examiners will come to your site. Our electronic extraction and preservation methods protect the original data and metadata that may be critical to your case. We can collect media from personal computers, laptop computers, servers, external hard drives, micro drives, thumb drives, tapes, Apple / Macintosh, PDA’s, Blackberry devices, cell phones and many others.
Computer Examination - Once the media is collected our examiners move onto the examination phase. Our examiners are skilled at looking at computer media to help answer the questions in the case. We can do key word searching and review the result for context. We can carve unallocated space looking for deleted office suite documents (MS Word, Excel, Outlook, etc) or pictures. We can review internet history to determine surfing habits or detect online e-mail accounts. We can review the system log to determine if there were any external devices attached to the computer.
Reporting the Results - We will review the results with you as the examination progresses. At the end of the examination we will prepare a report (as required). Our report is presented in digital form (CD or DVD). The results are indexed and can further searched using the included copy of dtSearch (a text retrieval / full text search engine).
Court Presentation – To bring the process full circle, the examiner that performed the examination will provide an affidavit or court testimony as required. Each of our examiners has extensive courtroom experience.
E-Discovery
The Amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure addressing Discovery of Electronically Stored Information (effective December 1, 2006) have changed the way you handle electronic data litigation or in anticipation of litigation. To complicate matters ever further, the attorney ultimately responsible for the proper handling of electronic evidence.
The biggest hurdle for many attorneys is to understand the IT issues in order to start the discovery of electronic documents. The next issue is to ascertain where the data is stored to ensure all potential evidence is inclusive. A successful retention program can yield a database of documents full of non-responsive and duplicative documents resulting in a difficult review process and an added expense for the client.
The Center for Computer Forensics’ e-discovery services uses proven forensic technology to remove duplicate documents and perform keyword searches to further reduce the size of the database. The result is a manageable product for the attorneys and client’s review.