The term Computer Forensics is loosely used to describe the art of collecting, preserving and analyzing digital evidence. Such electronic evidence may reside on a computer’s hard drive or be found on removable media such as a floppy disk, CD-ROM, backup tape or memory stick.

During an investigation or civil litigation, electronic media cannot be overlooked. A sentence from a file deleted years ago, a reference to a recently visited web page, or an entry in an access log file may prove to be pivotal in your investigation. Yet digital evidence is extremely volatile. Merely booting up a computer can cause irrevocable changes to information resident on a hard drive and may threaten its use in court due to spoliation. If the proper handling of evidence could be crucial to your case, then the appropriate tools and procedures must be utilized when collecting and analyzing data resident on computers and their associated media.