Computer forensics truly is “the land of you can’t make this stuff up,” as John Simek of Sensei Enterprises, Inc. said in the session at the 2010 ABA TECHSHOW titled “Tales From the Trenches of Computer Forensics and E-Discovery – and Lessons Learned.”
Simek was joined by Sharon Nelson, president of Sensei, and Laurie Weiss a partner in Fulbright & Jaworski LLP’s San Antonio, Tex. office.
Nelson and Simek ran through several interesting examples of how their investigations in the “trenches” have gone, and the type of evidence they are able to get out of computers and phones.
“There is a great value to this kind of evidence in court, it really is quite effective,” Nelson said.
I was most intrigued by Nelson and Simek’s thoughts on the increasing number of cases where they’re called in to examine cell phones as sources of evidence, as Nelson explained to me in this interview after the session:
Nelson added that the increase in the use of mobile phones in our daily lives means that when something happens, it’s now very likely that a mobile phone is nearby.
“When people are where something cool, or neat, or unusual is happening they snap photos,” said Nelson. “Everybody’s on the ground and they’re taking pictures or texting immediately what they’re seeing.”
It’s about getting at the data in the phone, when an investigator has to. Even though many phones by themselves don’t always carry the data investigators are after, they are tied to other electronic sources like email accounts and text message logs, for example, said Simek.
Weiss brought up several other trends in forensics, including the increasing use for civil litigation and the importance of preparedness in the discovery process and having a focused plan to extract data.
The session wrapped up with a few more examples from the work by Nelson and Simek including divorce cases, prompting Nelson to remark, “In our world everybody lies, cheats or steals.”
Life in the trenches, indeed.
Posted by Kevin Hunt in:
In Practice | Practice trends |
