| Guidelines for Best Practice in the Forensic Examination of Digital Technology |
Contents
This Document, which can be regarded as a Quality Assurance "core" document,
is divided into the following sections:
- Foreward
- 1. AIMS/GOALS
- 2. SCOPE
- 3. QUALITY ASSURANCE
- 3.1 Introduction
- 3.2 Personnel
- 3.3 Competence Requirements
- 3.4 Proficiency Testing
- 3.5 Documentation
- 3.6 Equipment
- 3.7 Validation
- 3.8 Physical Work Space
- 3.9 Audit
- 4. ASSESSING THE CASE EXAMINATION REQUIREMENTS
- 5. GENERAL PRINCIPLES APPLYING TO THE RECOVERY OF DIGITAL EVIDENCE
- 5.1 G8 Recommendations
- 5.2 Documentation
- 5.3 Responsibility
- 6. PRACTICES APPLICABLE TO DIGITAL EVIDENCE EXAMINATIONS
- 7. LOCATION AND RECOVERY OF DIGITAL EVIDENCE AT THE SCENE
- 7.1 Anti-Contamination Precautions
- 7.2 Searching the Scene
- 7.3 Collecting the Evidence
- 7.4 Packaging, Labelling and Documentation
- 8. PRIORITISATION
- 9. EXAMINATIONS
- 9-1 Analysis Protocols
- 9-2 Case Records
- 10. EVALUATION AND INTERPRETATION
- 11. PRESENTATION OF WRITTEN EVIDENCE
- 12. CASE FILE REVIEW
- 12.1 Technical Review
- 12.2 Management/Administrative Review
- 13. PRESENTATION OF ORAL EVIDENCE
- 14. HEALTH AND SAFETY
- 15. COMPLAIANTS PROCEDURE
- 16. REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
- 17. APPENDIX
FOREWORD
It is recognised that the diversity in personnel, experience and equipment available
in the Forensic IT sections of various forensic science laboratories and other law
enforcement agencies throughout the world makes the task of reaching a consensus of
opinion about how examinations involving various types of technology should be carried
out, an enormous one. The underlying tenor of the document, however, is to try to
raise standards, by offering a source of sound advice, put together by the most
experienced practitioners in this field. Time and the rapidly changing technology
encountered in casework will require periodic revisions to be necessary.
Each member State is encouraged to consider the following document when establishing
procedures for the collection, preservation, examination and use of digital evidence,
according to its national law and standards bodies, and to be aware of potential
differences when collecting evidence at the request of other States.
IOCE 2002 DIGITAL EVIDENCE STANDARDS WORKING GROUP
To provide a framework of standards, quality principles and approaches for the
detection, preservation, recovery, examination and use of digital evidence for
forensic purposes in compliance with the requirements of an accrediting body and
or an organization widely recognized in the digital forensic community.
To encourage more consistent methodology and hence the production of more comparable
results, so as to facilitate interchange of data.
The scope of this document covers systems, procedures, personnel, equipment and
accommodation requirements involved in the entire forensic process of digital evidence,
from examinations at the scene of a crime to the presentation of evidence in court.
- Introduction
(Each agency should provide an introductory paragraph relating specific quality
assurance issues specific to their organization.)
- Personnel
- An individual may be responsible for more than one of the defined roles.
- The person who has overall authority and responsibility for the management
and quality of the work carried out in their area of the laboratory and or Unit.
- One who is trained to assess and identify digital evidence at the scene for
collection, the first responder.
- One who is responsible in a particular case for directing the examination of the
items submitted, interpreting the findings, writing the report and providing evidence
of fact and, if necessary, opinion for the court.
- One who has achieved levels of technical competency for specific equipment and
services. They are able to write reports/statements of factual information in
their specific specialist areas and can provide factual testimony in court. This
person can have the authority and responsibility for the technical quality of
digital evidence casework when the agency designate is not competent in technical
aspects of digital evidence.
- An individual carrying out general casework examinations and/or technical work
under the supervision of a reporting officer or a technical specialist and who
is able to provide information to assist with the interpretation of the tests.
- Competence Requirements
Competence requirements for all roles listed above should address the following:
- Qualifications, Competence and Experience
- Such as a degree or equivalent years of experience in the field.
- Training and Assessment
- to ensure an individuals competence on processes and or equipment they use
during the forensic process.
- Maintenance of Competence
- Proficiency Testing
Proficiency Testing is an integral part of an effective quality assurance program. It
is one of many measures used to monitor performance and to identify areas where
improvements may be needed. Proficiency testing measures the capability of its
examiners and the reliability of its analytical results.
All personnel involved in the field of forensic digital evidence/technology
examinations should be required to demonstrate their competence at regular intervals.
- Documentation
There should be a documented Quality Management System (QMS) for controlling all
systems, processes and methods used in the examination and reporting of forensic
digital technology/evidence casework.
The QMS should include requirements for the following minimum documentation
relating to forensic digital technology/evidence casework to be maintained:
- Standard Operating Procedures
- Training
- Validation of tools
- Physical Work Space
- Equipment Maintenance/Calibration
- Health and Safety
- Evidence Handling Tracking System
- Assessment
- Proficiency Testing
- Report of Findings
- Evidence Seized
- Audits
- Corrective Action Policy/Procedures
- Complaints and conflict resolution
- Equipment
All equipment used during forensic casework should be suitable for its purpose and
maintained in a fully operational condition.
- Validation
Only properly evaluated tools, techniques and procedures should be used for the
forensic examination of digital technology and the interpretation of their evidential
significance in the context of the case.
Validation requires as a minimum that:
- there is a minimum acceptable criteria for the technique or procedure;
- the critical aspects of the examination procedure and tools have been
identified and the limitations defined wherever possible;
- the methods, materials and equipment used have been demonstrated to be
fit for its purpose;
- there are appropriate quality control and quality assurance procedures
in place for monitoring performance;
- the technique or procedure is documented;
- the results obtained are reliable and reproducible.
- Physical Work Space
Laboratories and or forensic workspace for the examination of digital technology items
should be designed and equiped for efficient, secure, safe and effective use. Particular
attention needs to be given to the management of the variety of trailing electrical cables
and environmental conditions.
- Audit
Audits of the quality system should be conducted in a timely manner.
- It is essential to understand the case examination requirements and the asociated legal
authority. This should be expressed in terms of what the requestor is seeking to
establish rather than a menu of tasks to be carried out.
- It is also helpful in planning the work in any case to establish the requestors
priorities, time scales by which results/responses are required and whether there
are any constraints (e.g. preservation of material for other purposes such as
fingerprint examination, custody time limits, cost, etc.) to be taken into account.
- The general principles, that have been adopted as G8
recommendations relating to digital evidence, that should be followed by forensic
laboratories are as follows:
- The general rules of evidence should be applied to all digital evidence.
- Upon seizing digital evidence, actions taken should not change that evidence.
- When it is necessary for a person to access original digital evidence that
person should be suitably trained for the purpose.
- All activity relating to the seizure, access, storage or transfer of digital
evidence must be fully documented, preserved and available for review.
- An individual is responsible for all actions taken with respect to digital
evidence whilst the digital evidence is in their possession.
- All activity relating to the seizure, examination process,
and presentation of evidence access, storage or transfer of digital evidence must be
documented, preserved and available for review.
- Responsibility for maintaining evidential value and provenance
is a personal, not corporate issue. If an individual has acknowledged responsibility
for an item by signing an access log they are responsible for all actions taken in respect
of that item until such time as it is returned to store or formally transferred to another
individual.
- Whatever the specific practices employed in digital evidence recovery any
forensic laboratory they should fall within a defined and accepted framework
and must comply with the principles stated above.
- Policy regarding jurisdictional practices should be documented whenever
possible as Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and included in a training
programme. It should be regularly reviewed and updated if necessary and
should be in an easily accessible and comprehensive format which can be
used to support a statement of action taken.
- Each agency should establish an SOP that includes seizure, storage, and
examination procedures.
Forensic personnel may need to attend the scene or may need to give advice to
others attending the scene and recovering the evidence. They should be aware of
any relevant jurisdictional guidelines.
- Anti-Contamination Precautions
- Appropriate anti-contamination precautions should be taken to minimise
any chance of accidental contamination of items, which may subsequently
be required for other laboratory examinations, e.g. fingerprints, DNA.
- Consideration of what anti-contamination precaution to take should be based
not only on the digital evidence media and devices, but also on the other
evidence types which may be potentially available. If these include
materials, which may be required for DNA analysis, extreme caution should
be taken because of the sensitivity of current DNA techniques, including
the wearing of barrier clothing such as disposable scene of crime suits,
gloves and face masks.
- All equipment, sampling materials and storage and transportation
containers should be new, preferably disposable, or cleaned thoroughly
before and after use.
- Additionally, care should be taken, when handling evidence to document
any suspicion of the presence of potentially dangerous or sensible substance
on the material (narcotics, poison, explosives etc.)
- Searching the Scene
- All scenes, indoor, outdoor or those involving vehicles, should be protected
at the earliest opportunity to reduce the risk of loss, movement or damage
to digital evidence.
- Legal, technical and appropriate jurisdictional guidelines need to be
followed.
- Scenes should be searched systematically and thoroughly for digital evidence
and related material, targeting and prioritising areas, which in the context
of what has been alleged are most likely to contain material of evidential
significance.
- Collecting the Evidence
- It is vital that items for forensic examination are preserved securely as
soon as possible following appropriate jurisdictional practices.
- Where practicable, the items should be examined in the laboratory or
forensic work space rather than at the scene.
- Where it is impracticable to recover the items for examination, the digital
evidence may have to be copied at the scene according to SOPs.
- Packaging, Labelling and Documentation
- A record should be made, at the time of seizure of items from the scene,
or from the suspect(s) or victim(s), describing the exact locations from
where the items were recovered. It is also helpful to mark this location
on a sketch/plan of the scene or person.
- Evidence should be properly packaged and sealed when seized.
- Agency policy on evidence handling and security must be followed.
- Each package should be labeled at the time of seizure. Whilst the legal
status and use of labels can vary, the minimum details that should be
recorded and be directly and unequivocally attributed to each package are:
- a unique identifying mark;
- the name of the person and organisation (e.g. police force,
technical department, etc.) responsible for collecting and packaging
the material;
- a brief description of the material (e.g. laptop computer,
serial numbers);
- the location from where and from whom the material has been seized;
- the date and time the material was seized.
- Consideration should be given to the following before commencing any
examinations for digital evidence:
- the urgency and priority of the customers need for information and time constraints
- the other types of forensic examination which may have to be carried out on the same items
- which items have the potential to provide the most information in response to the various propositions
- which items offer the best choice of target data, in terms of evidential value.
- After the assessment of case requirements, the examination will be
assigned to the appropriate qualified individual.
- Any anti-contamination precautions or requirements of the particular case (e.g.
presence of narcotics, poisons, explosives, etc.) must be considered before any
examination proceeds, and the minimum precautions are identified and implemented.
- All items submitted for forensic examination should first be reviewed for the
integrity of their packaging. Any deficiency in the packaging should be documented.
- All personnel involved in examinations should take adequate precautions to preserve
any evidentiary material from external factors such as electrical hazards or static.
- Analysis Protocols
- The agency should establish an SOP for analysis of digital evidence.
- Case Records
- The exact requirements for recording casework information will depend on the
policy and any requirements of the member agency/country. As a minimum, however,
the records should be in sufficient detail to allow another examiner, competent in
the same area of expertise, to be able to identify what has been done and to assess
the findings independently. Case records should include both administrative and
examination documentation. Whenever appropriate standardised forms should be used
to document examinations.
- For example, casework involving digital evidence should include details of case
records such as notes, work sheets, photographs, printouts, charts, spectra and
other data or records which support findings should be generated during the course
of the examination, and kept.
- Evaluation and interpretation of the case findings will require consideration of the
background information available about the case and the original expectations formulated
during case assessment.
- The purpose of the report is to provide the reader with all the relevant information
in a clear, concise, structured and unambiguous manner, to make the task of
assimilating the information as easy as possible.
- Reports should include factual findings and may include interpretation and expert
opinion. Expert opinion and interpretation should be clearly identified in the report.
Oral evidence may also subsequently be required.
- The style and content of written reports must meet the requirements of the
criminal justice system for the country of jurisdiction.
All work undertaken should be subjected to both technical and administrative
review.
- Technical Review
Technical review should be conducted by a qualified agency designee. It should
include consideration of the validity of all the critical examination findings and all the
raw data used in preparation of the statement/report. It should also consider whether
the conclusions drawn are justified by the work done and the information available.
The review may include an element of independent testing, if circumstances warrant it.
A written record of the technical review should be made and retained with the case records.
- Administrative Review
Administrative review should be carried out by a qualified agency designee. It should
ensure that the requesters needs have been properly addressed, editorial correctness
and adherence to policies.
- Witnesses should provide testimony regarding the content of their statement/report,
and their area of expertise. Witnesses should advise the court when responding to
questions that will take them outside their field of expertise.
- All elements of an agencys health and safety program should be clearly documented.
The health and safety program should be continually monitored and documented by
designated agency representatives.
- Health and safety considerations are extremely important in all of the work
carried out at all stages of the forensic process. Personnel engaged in the examination
of various forms of digital technology should operate in accordance with the
regulations of the agency.
- Each agency should have a procedure dealing with complaints or anomalies. This
procedure should minimaly include investigating the complaints or anomalies, taking
corrective actions, assuring personnel are aware of their responsibilities and reporting
on the findings.
Interpol Computer Crime Manual - 1992-2001
ACPO Good Practice Guide for Computer based evidence, Issue 2, 1999
Bibliography - Quality Assurance
Qualitative analysis: A Guide to Best Practice, ISBN 0 85404 462 0, Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 1998.
The Scenes of Crime Handbook, 2nd edition, The Forensic Science Service, 1994 (currently under review)
Standard Practice for Receiving, Documenting, Storing and Retrieving Evidence in a Forensic Science Laboratory, ASTM E 1459-92
ILAC Guidelines for Forensic Science Laboratories, (Draft 1.3), International Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation, July 1999
General Requirements for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories, ISO/IEC 17025, International Organisation for Standardisation, 1999
Standard Guide for the Recovery of Trace Evidence, Technical Working Group for Materials, Quantico, VA, 1998
Quality Management and Quality Assurance Standards - Part 1 : Guidelines for selection and use, ISO 9000-1, International Organisation for Standardisation
Accreditation Criteria for Forensic Science Laboratories, Issue 3, National Association of Testing Authorities, 1998
PT-001-A1 June 1998 Guidance on the Conduct of Proficiency Tests and Collaborative Exercises within ENFSI, European Network of Forensic Science Institutes Yearbook, 1998-1999
-ISO 8402:1994 Quality management and quality assurance-Vocabulary.
-ISO/IEC: 1997 guide 4 3-1. Proficiency test by interlaboratory comparison Part 1: development and operation of proficiency testing schemes
-ISO/IEC: 1995 guide 30 Terms and definitions used in connection with reference materials.
DEFINITIONS (TO BE ADDED)