Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/50188
to civil litigation. The changing definitions and the addition of terminology reflect the ever-dynamic nature of digital forensics. A REVIEW OF EVIDENCE TYPES, SOURCES AND EXTRACTION METHODS Digital forensics has long been able to track and use Web history, email messages, file access records, hard copies, passwords, USB devices, user activity and so much more from computers. Cell phones (especially smartphones) and the new tablet devices ( duplicates made by applications and devices make it harder to delete information, but they also make detection of the desired data more difficult among all the other data. It's clear that social media have gone beyond , iPad) can yield text messages, voice messages, contact information, calendar appointments and financial information. Digital evidence includes hard drives, file fragments in memory, digital video or audio and packets transmitted over a network. Indeed, e-discovery can also be conducted on gaming stations, cameras, cars and even hotel key cards. Duplication of data and/or its replication into an entirely different format is but one risk of these advanced technologies. On some smartphones, for example, whenever the home key is pressed, the device captures a screenshot of what is currently on the phone's screen — which could very well be a user name and login to an account. Using VoIP technology as a phone source enables a voicemail file to be downloaded by the phone carrier and stored as a digital file on the phone, even when the "original" voicemail is deleted. In another duplication example, stockbrokers who left a firm were suspected of downloading and taking client records; despite their denial, their guilt was proven by evidence of a one- touch USB tool with a known specific serial number attached to one computer at a specific time, then attached to two other computers two and four hours later. This creates a paradox: All of the backups and a trend to becoming an integral cog in our personal and business lives. On Facebook, for example, one can go to a user's profile and download their available data. Keeping in mind that many, if not most, users cannot figure out how to block or mark their personal information as "private," who is to say what material is useable as discovery? Everyone should know by now that anything sent electronically might not only be seen by the recipient. Twitter users need to be aware that the Library of Congress recently decided to begin cataloging all publicly available tweets in their archives — certainly a reason to rethink sending some of those heat-of the-moment 140-character thoughts. BEING DUMB IS SMART AGAIN (A DOWNSIDE TO DIGITAL) Sometimes technology creates as many problems as it solves. For instance, digital copiers have proven to be an interesting e-discovery source. The purchase of used digital copiers yielded an unexpected bonus — the buyers were able to "scrape" documents off the copier hard drives, exposing sensitive documents thought deleted by the previous owner. This points to why some on either side of the law might revert back to "dumb" technology in order to prevent the discovery of data. Many attorneys still communicate by phone because electronic correspondence is sometimes www.iltanet.org Tech Potpourri 35 e.g.