This section outlines the technical complexities of digital evidence and challenges to sound analysis. Like any form of indirect evidence, there are challenges to understanding more complex evidence artifacts recovered from a crime scene. Because of the technical complexity of digital evidence and its environment, some experience and specialized knowledge is required. Now that we have looked at examples of just how useful file and metadata information can be to the practitioner, understanding clearly and more fully the nature of digital information is vital. This section will introduce some challenges in using and analyzing digital evidence that show that digital forensics, which often provides such important material, is not a walk in the park.
Well before the emergence of electronic and digital data, it was difficult to forge and alter physical documents compared with digital data because of security measures protecting valuable documents and...