A wife is murdered in her own home. The husband claims he tried to stop the intruder but the large man overcame him and tied him to a chair. But the wife’s Fitbit tells a different version of the story than the tale that the husband presents. As the police investigate the case and harness the digital information created by the wife’s Fitbit, it becomes instantly clear to the police that the husband’s story does not match up and he is arrested and charged with murder.
Welcome to our brave new electronic world where cameras, cell phones, Fitbits – and even video games – are used as crucial evidence in civil and criminal trials. In Part one of this two part introductory series Lars Daniel mainly covers the various types of digital evidence to consider in your cases, the evolution of digital evidence, what digital forensics encompasses and the acquisition & preservation of digital evidence. Lars also discusses our new online lives, digital footprints, digital media in legal cases, the four primary areas of digital forensics, sub-disciplines of digital forensics, extracting forensically sound evidence, how data is organized and the fragile nature of digital evidence. Lars specially addresses harnessing digital information from Google searches, Facebook Chats, “Private” Browsing, Connected Devices, Chrome, Firefox and jump lists.
A digital forensics expert, Lars Daniel has attended over 250 hours of forensic training and has worked on over 500 cases involving murder, child pornography, terrorism, rape, kidnapping, intellectual property, fraud, wrongful death, among other case types. A licensed attorney in California, Jason Castillo actively participated in this course.