Biometric Controls and Privacy

In the past, documentary evidence was primarily limited to paper documents. Copies were made with carbon paper or through the use of a photocopy machine. Most documents today are stored on computer hard disk drives, floppy diskettes, zip disks, and other types of removable computer storage media. This is where potential computer evidence may reside, and it is up to the computer forensics specialist to find it using sophisticated computer forensics tools and computer-evidence-processing methodologies. Paper documents are no longer considered the best evidence.

Computer forensics has become a buzz word in today’s world of increased concern for security. It seems that any product that can remotely be tied to network or computer security is quickly labeled as a “forensics” system. This phenomenon makes designing clear incident response plans and corporate security plans that support computer forensics difficult. Today’s corporate climate of increased competition, cutbacks and layoffs, and outsourcing makes it essential that corporate security policy and practices support the inevitability of future litigation. This chapter is intended to raise awareness of the different types of computer forensics systems and to identify crucial questions for corporate planning in support of computer forensics. Answering the questions raised in this chapter will assist managers in creating sound corporate security policies and practices that support the following computer forensics systems.