Having digital forensic capabilities – why is it essential?
The amendment of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure introduced in 2006 has focused on many ways through which information or a document can be discovered. In a situation where a civil case is under trial in the court of law, any document can be requested for submission if it is relevant to the case. Also, the organizations on the date are required to disclose all of their IT development project data to the government. These factors, apart from the other changes of the FRCP laws, have made it compulsory for the organizations to consider the option of having digital forensic experts within the team.
Impacts of FRCP amendment – demand of digital forensic experts
The main emphasis on gaining digital forensic capabilities within organizations is posed due to many reasons. In today’s digitized age, it is not possible to maintain all data in manual records. The 2006 FRCP amendment makes it compulsory for organizations to store all information in electronic form. It is because Electronically Stored Data (ESI) can be easily accessed and presented in case of necessity. This action requires the organization to have the necessary skills and expertise in the task. Further, in case the organization is fighting a civil case in the court of law, a request can be made for the submission of the required documents. Under such circumstances, the organizations require expert digital forensic capabilities to respond to such requests (Pangalos & Katos, 2009). They can also choose not to answer the request of document submission provided it has a solid reason not to do so.
A digital forensic expert can devise great solutions to this issue in case the organization wants to protect some information. However, they must provide valid reasons behind the failure to meet the request, and it must be aligned with the goodwill of the company. Also, the organization cannot deny all submission requests made from the court of law (Heikkila, 2008). Choosing the requests to not respond to is another task that requires trained expertise in the field, as making an unnecessary response may expose various sensitive information of the organization. In case the organization is forced to respond to a specific request, the digital forensic expert still needs to capable of making the ideal responses so that the confidential data of the business is not compromised or the information provided in response to the submission request does not trigger adverse impacts for the business. In this context, it is necessary to mention that the responses made to the submission requests of the court of law must be presented in the form of electronically stored information only unless it is specifically asked by the court in any other format. The investigation, collection, storage, and analysis of such information make it compulsory for the organizations to consider developing its capabilities in digital forensics (Whitman, Mattord & Green, 2013).
In today’s generation of big data, adequate digital forensic skills are even more essential for organizations if they want to thrive in their business and increase their market share. Digital forensic capabilities will not only help the organizations in cases of civil procedures as per the FRCP amendments but also help them in achieving their business goals as well.