FINAL PROJECT - Investigative Conclusion and Testimony No directly quoted material may be used in this project paper. Resources should be summarized or paraphrased with appropriate in-text and Resour

Project #2- Investigative Collection of Evidence

CCJS 321 Digital Forensics in the Criminal Justice System

Project #2 - Investigative Collection of Evidence

UMUC

By: Shreeji Patel

September 17, 2019

1. Summary of the incident

Mr. Newman, the Human Resources Director, made notifications that the company's executive team had earlier on dismissed Mr. John Belcamp from employment as the company's engineer in New Product's Division due to constant lateness and absenteeism. Mr. Newman reported that the former engineer had made questionable statements about a highly profitable long term project that the company is currently working on. He feared that Mr. John Belcamp might have carried the company’s intellectual property with him for use in his new employment in the company rival’s premises. Mr. Newman feared that Mr. John Belcamp might have carried the product’s source code. He gave me a copy of the source code to aid my investigations as the company’s Information Security Analyst.

As the Information Security Analyst, the US legal authority as stated in the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution to search and seize any document that would prove to have been used for digital crime since there is a probable cause of occurrence of crime and the place of search is well defined and described. Chang (2018). By the power of the above legal authority, I can search Mr. Belcamp’s office space and desk for any allegedly suspicious electronic and paperwork material which contains the product's source code content or such relatable content.

Part II: Physical Evidence Acquisition

2. According to Mr. Belcamp’s office workspace as indicated on the photo, the items that would most likely hold digital evidence include a digital hard drive, a USB drive, a small silver voice recorder, and a Dell model laptop.

The digital hard drive has an irregular rectangular shape, is silver and black and has a green label. The hard drive, from the manufacturer's information, can hold up to 1 TB of information, is easily portable and has extra storage for large files, videos, and photos. The drive might have stored information about the company's new product and search code which makes it very useful in the investigation and as digital evidence during prosecution.

The USB flash has both metallic and plastic components, has black and grey colors on both ends and has a minute hole on one side. The accused might have used it to store data transferred from computers and laptops in the form of document files, videos, and photos which might be necessary during the investigation. It would also provide digital and physical evidence during prosecution. The voice recorder is small and silver, it might contain audio recordings of the suspect's conversations with other parties or recordings of his voice as well. It would provide digital and physical evidence during prosecution.

Finally, the laptop is a Dell model, black and about thirty centimeters in length. It might have store audio, video, word documents, and powerpoint presentations of the new product's processing. It would provide digital and physical evidence and additional information which might not be present in the hard drive and the USB flash drive.

Steps to the careful handling of items to avoid contamination of evidence

For the Western Digital Hard drive, digital photos should be taken before it is picked from its original place. The evidence custodian should then pick it in latex or chloroprene gloved hand using a pair of tongs and place it in an airtight antistatic bag that has a zip. Goodison, Davis, & Jackson (2015). The bag should then be correctly labeled and put in the evidence container. The handling measures would prevent contamination of the already present fingerprints.

The laptop should be handled similarly. The evidence custodian in chloroprene gloved hands should disconnect it from any external power source, close it, and put it in a sizeable antistatic container, label it correctly and carefully place it in the evidence container. It should also be recorded in the evidence book.

3.Items of non-digital evidence

The square, yellow sticky notes stuck on the desktop computer and the shelf might contain handwritten reminders of meetings or events related to the company's new product and search code that the suspect might have recorded. They would provide real evidence during prosecution. The papers placed on the shelf might be typed, or handwritten documents containing information, sketches, and frameworks of the company's new product and search code written by the suspect. They would be used as real evidence during prosecution as well.

There is also a notebook on the office work table. It is white and has a blue logo on the left-hand side of the page. As is the case with the other paper works, this too might contain written notes about the new product and the search code which can be used as real evidence during prosecution. Finally, there is a white stapler with a stainless steel ream on the desk. It might contain forensic evidence such as fingerprints which can be used as supplementary evidence to back up the allegations against the suspect.

Steps of collecting the items to mitigate the loss of evidence

First, the evidence custodian should take photographs of the sticky notes and the paper documents on the shelves before handling them physically. Second, they should pick the documents in latex-gloved hands and put them in security bags that have a zipper, each item in its bag, for forensic search and descriptions. Third, the items should be put in evidence containers ready for transport to the forensic science laboratories. Lillis, Becker, O'Sullivan & Scanlon (2016).

4. Security procedures and environmental considerations for the storage of evidence

(i) The evidence both digital and non-digital should be stored in paper, envelope and antistatic containers, in case of the laptop, and not plastic containers. Plastic produces static electricity and allows humidity and condensation thus interfering with the evidence. The digital evidence should be stored in an area that has no extreme temperature, pressure, and humidity. Li, Bajramovic, Gao, & Parekh (2016).

(ii) The digital evidence should be stored away from magnetic fields caused by speakers, for example, vibrations and moisture to mitigate alteration of evidence.

(iii)The digital evidence should be packaged in a way that will prevent deformation. The packaging and storage container can be a thick-walled antistatic container for safety.

(iv) For security purposes, all the evidence should be labeled; the time of collection, the location, and its name. Each item should then be recorded in a book for future reference and to the checklist if all items are available.

(v) All the evidence should be recorded in the inventory according to the agency’s policies and a chain of custody maintained for any item removed from the storage area. Prayudi, & Sn (2015).

5. Brian Duggers, made a commendable trial in describing the digital materials collected for evidence in the evidence document. His description incorporates most of the items’ specific features. The voice recorder, however, is scantly described. He should have included its measurement approximations to expound on how “small” it is. It also has black coloring on the front part. Brian did not include the black colour in his statement, which might cause ambiguity in case a similar voice recorder is found elsewhere in the room. He should also have included the initial location of the item identified to avoid confusion in case a similar item is found.

References

Chang, C. H. (2018). New Development Regarding Search Warrants under the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution--Jones, Jardines & Grady. EurAmerica, 48(2), 267-333.

Goodison, S. E., Davis, R. C., & Jackson, B. A. (2015). Digital evidence and the US Criminal Justice System. Identifying technology and other needs to more effectively acquire and utilize digital evidence.

Lillis, D., Becker, B., O'Sullivan, T., & Scanlon, M. (2016). Current challenges and future research areas for digital forensic investigation. arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.03850.

Li, J., Bajramovic, E., Gao, Y., & Parekh, M. (2016). Graded security forensics readiness of SCADA systems. Informatik 2016.

Prayudi, Y., & Sn, A. (2015). Digital chain of custody: State of the art. International Journal of Computer Applications, 114(5).