Cyber-sleuths and cyber evidence

You're on the road, having just done-in your ex-whatever in brutal fashion. You're not concerned though, because you've got a solid alibi and you've had this little vacation planned for months in advance ("Just ask any of my co-workers...I've been telling them all about it"). You've watched every episode of Dexter, so you made sure to keep the crime scene neat and tidy. Oh, and those pesky little internet searches you did on your desktop PC about chloroform? You've got that covered because you deleted all the data off of your hard drive. Looks like you're in the clear, right? Guess again!
hoto credit: Julian Breme / Foter / CC BY-ND

A large number of criminal investigations include digital evidence, as well as physical evidence. There are Computer Forensic Technicians that are capable of pulling information off of all the computer devices that a suspect might have used, and this includes badly damaged hard drives. Even hard drives that have been shot with a handgun or submerged under water have the potential to yield useful information to these cyber-sleuths. Damaged hard drives will be re-conditioned in order to get them working properly and a copy of its contents
will be made for a thorough investigation, as is the case with all seized hard drives. Technicians might not be able to retrieve all the data off of a damaged hard drive, but they might get just enough to point them to a different source, like another device such as a smart phone, or even a the IP address of a chat room where the suspect may have confessed to, or discussed details of, a recently committed crime.

Digital evidence isn't just used in the private sector, but it is also extremely helpful when it comes to our national security. Government and military agencies are frequent targets of hackers found both in this country and abroad. Malicious activity can be extracted and traced in an effort to find the origin of the invasive programming. Global GPS systems are used in order to pinpoint this activity where ground crews may then take the necessary action to stop the crime.

So watch out, evil-doers...even the "privacy" of your personal computer offers no safe haven for your criminal activities!

Photo credit: Truthout.org / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA