Did you know that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, private investigation services will increase by as much as 21% by 2020? What explains this rising demand? Thanks to the digital revolution, e-mails, data, texts, and phone records are playing a vital role in legal, criminal, and HR investigations. What is computer and digital forensics, and what role does it play an increasingly digital world?
What Does a Computer Forensic Analyst Do?
Mobile devices account for 44% of all global computing, according to research firm McKinsey and Co, and 68% of U.S. men and women stow smartphones near their bed while they sleep. Smartphones, and even tablet computers, e-readers, and iPods, have a very real and widespread presence in the United States. It is only logical, then, that data stored, or even deleted from, these devices may be relevant in a criminal, legal, or HR investigations.
Digital forensics services, including litigation consulting and mobile phone forensics, is a fairly broad term. Computer and digital forensics experts can retrieve deleted e-mails, texts, phone records, computer document, and relevant mobile and computer data. Some experts even focus on retrieving deleted or encrypted data for sensitive military operations.
How Does This Apply to the Real World?
Digital forensics investigations are becoming increasingly relevant. An employee, for example, may claim that a supervisor sends inappropriate e-mails or texts before, or during, work. Without computer and digital forensics, there is not any means of substantiating that claim. HR departments can team up with digital forensic experts to sort out the truth, and act accordingly. Text messages and phone conversations are, moreover, commonly used in a court of law.
Getting to the bottom of human resource complaints, or even criminal, legal, and military cases, requires some digital forensics. Professionals can retrieve lost or deleted files from smartphones and tablet PCs, and help set businesses and law firms on the right track. More research here.