Managing digital evidence: the governance of digital forensics

Abstract

Governance in general is becoming increasingly important in contemporary management, but specifically the governance of Digital Forensics. In order to manage governance disciplines effectively, closer attention needs to be paid to the technical aspects of specialised fields covered within an organisation. This paper presents a novel, scientific definition of Digital Forensic (DF) governance and a preliminary best practice framework. DF involves the preservation, identification, extraction and documentation of digital evidence stored as data or magnetically encoded information (Vacca 2002:731). This extends to include the recovery, analysis and presentation of digital evidence in a way that is admissible and appropriate in a court of law. This necessitates a crucial accuracy in following forensic procedures, the rules of evidence and the legal processes. In short, DF pertains to any digital artifacts found in computers or other digital resources that may have legal value in the business environment. The purpose of this article is to present a scientific definition for the DF governance discipline, as well as a preliminary best practice framework. At the time of writing, no formal definition or framework could be found, supporting the notion to develop this discipline. To enable this purpose, the article will conduct a brief literature overview on existing governance literature, explore current research on DF governance and present a definition and framework for DF governance