This was a fun one! Yesterday, Avansic hosted the webinar Digital Forensics Saves the Day – Top Cases in Review with Dr. Gavin Manes and Lance Watson of Avansic, and Craig Ball of the Ball in Your Court blog with a lot of great info about digital forensics, how it differs from eDiscovery and some excellent case study examples of how it can be useful!
The need for digital forensics is often identified during review where one or more reviewers notice something odd in the documents being reviewed, which leads to an investigation to explain the discrepancies. Or the need for digital forensics can be identified during efforts to authenticate evidence – often during deposition examination. Regardless, eDiscovery and digital forensics have a shared goal, but the focus of eDiscovery is content based to determine the “what” of a scenario, while the focus of digital forensics is context based to determine the “how” and “when” of a scenario (via a deeper dive into the evidence and the metadata).
Gavin, Lance and Craig also spent time discussing several case studies for how digital forensics saves the day, including: 1) a “man in the middle” cyberattack between parties, where a hacker works their way in between two parties to ultimately intercept a wire transfer, 2) dispute over driving routes involving the use of Mobility Usage Reports and geolocation data (where you get to see where throughout the country Gavin has been traveling lately 😉 ), and 3) fabrication of documents (where Gavin modified a PDF of the Beatles contract with the Ed Sullivan show in less than a minute to change terms, illustrating how quickly and easily evidence can be modified).
Related to that third case study, Craig discussed the case Rossbach v. Montefiore Med. Ctr. (which I covered here) and how Dan Regard was able to identify that the image purported to be from the plaintiff’s cell phone was fabricated without the benefit of being able to examine the phone forensically.
It was an enlightening and entertaining discussion with some real-world examples of how digital forensics saves the day when it’s applied to discovery and investigations. Did you miss it? If so, you can catch it on-demand here!
So, what do you think? Do you know where and how digital forensics saves the day to support your discovery effort? If not, check out the webinar! And, please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.
Disclosure: Avansic is an Educational Partner and sponsor of eDiscovery Today
Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.