BSU Disclosure Of Forensic Evidence In Police Interviews With Suspects Conclusion and Testimony

FINAL PROJECT – Investigative Conclusion and Testimony

• No directly quoted material may be used in this project paper.
• Resources should be summarized or paraphrased with appropriate in-text and Resource page citations.

***Read the parts of each section of this project carefully
as you are being asked to answer questions assuming different roles for
different questions.

SECTION I

In the course of this investigation you, as the Information Security
Analyst for Provincial Worldwide, have or will need to interview (or
perhaps “interrogate”) several people to provide context for the
evidence you have collected as well as the rational for your searches.
Ms. McPherson and Provincial Worldwide management are asking for
everything to be documented and would like you to provide them responses
to the following pieces of information:

1. Provide a list of people you believe should be interviewed for this
   investigation and how they relate to the investigation. What
   information could they possibly supply?
2. Provide a narrative description of the interview setting and the
   intended process, before, during, and following the interview (remember
   that depending on the type of interview, the setting may be different).
3. Explain to the management why these stages are important to a successful interview and investigation.

SECTION II

For the purpose of the first part of this Section, you are still the
Information Security Analyst for the company. Consider this project a
continuation of the work you performed in Projects #1 and #2.

After seeing you search Mr. Belcamp’s work area and take
several pieces of evidence, Ms. Victoria Evans who works in the office
across the hall, comes forward with an odd story. Ms. Evans states that
she is Mr. Belcamp’s girlfriend, but lately things in their relationship
had begun to sour. She produces a thumb drive she says Mr. Belcamp gave
her earlier that day. She tells you Mr. Belcamp told her to “keep it
safe” and asked her to take it home with her at the end of the day. Ms.
Evans tells you she really likes her job at Provincial Worldwide and has
no interest in being wrapped up in whatever Mr. Belcamp has done to
invite negative attention.

1. The laboratory has asked you to write a short summary of what
information you want them to look for on the submitted thumb drive.
Identify, for the lab, what digital or non-digital evidence you would
like them to look for and explain why that evidence would be important
to the case.

2. Because you are the most familiar with the investigation, Ms.
McPherson is asking you to brain storm all the locations outside of Mr.
Belcamp’s immediate work space where pertinent digital evidence might be
found to help with your case. Identify all of these locations,
including places where police would have to be involved to search.
Identify what places are legal for the company to search, and which ones
would require police involvement. Support your inclusion of each
location with a short description of what type of evidence might be
found there.

Now, please assume a different character for the purpose
of this next segment of the assessment… You are a forensic examiner at
the above mentioned Provincial Worldwide lab. Mr. Stephen Bishop, a
newly promoted Regional Security Operations Manager, sent an email to
Ms. McPherson who has forwarded it to respond.

3. Write a response to the following email that you have received:

To: You, Provincial Worldwide, Digital Forensics Examiner

From: Ms. Carol McPherson

This case has made Provincial Worldwide upper management recognize
the importance of forensic readiness. They have asked that you nominate
three (3) forensic examination/analysis (software) tools for them to
keep in their budget for the following year. They also state that they
want to make sure that the tools nominated are ones that would meet
criminal justice-level standards and evidentiary requirements under the
Daubert Standard. Please construct a table (chart) that identifies the
tool name and their manufacturer, and the capabilities of the tools.
Since these tools must meet the Daubert standard, please provide an
explanation of how the three tools meet the standards of Daubert.
(Management specifically wants tools that can examine/analyze the
digital data inside the devices and is not interested in your input on
additional tools that write protect or image devices at this time.)

After receiving the package from the Data Security Analyst
in the field, you sign the chain of custody form and get set to begin
your examination.

4. After taking the thumb drive out of storage, you, as the digital
forensics analyst, sit down to examine the data. (Presume all personal
protective equipment discussed in the course readings is already in
place.) Prior to looking through the data contained on the device, you
have to make a forensic image. Document what step you take prior to
making the image and why this step is important to your overall case.
Explain your actions and reasoning thoroughly.

Fortunately, the Information Security Analyst was on
his/her game, and ALSO sent you copies of several files, reported to be
the source code of “Product X”.

5. You, as the digital forensics examiner, used hash values to help
locate the source code on the thumb drive. Using verbiage that would be
appropriate to communicate to a judge and jury that may not understand
computer technology at all, detail and explain the following:

What is a hash value, and how did you use it to identify the source code was present?

Explain an additional use of hash values in the context of digital forensics.

You complete your laboratory examination and return the
evidence, with your report, back to the Information Security Analyst at
the field office.

Now, reverting back to your role as the Information
Security Analyst back at the field office (a.k.a., you), you receive the
report from the Lab which shows that the complete “Product X” source
code was found on Mr. Belcamp’s thumb drive. In addition, while the
evidence was at the lab for examination, you determined it is also
likely that Mr. Belcamp emailed copies of the source code to his
personal email address.

6. Do you recommend reporting the crime to law enforcement? Why or
why not? Are private companies required to report crimes to law
enforcement?

7. Explain what additional steps you could take to prove that the source code had been sent to his personal email address.

The decision is ultimately made to report the theft to law
enforcement and, using primarily the evidence that you developed during
your investigation, Mr. Belcamp is brought to trial for the crime. You
(now as the forensic examiner from the Lab) are qualified as an expert
witness at the trial and called to testify.

8. What is the significance of you being qualified as an expert
witness? How is it different from being a simple fact witness? Explain
thoroughly.

9. Mr. Belcamp’s attorney in this case calls you to the stand and
brings up the fact that you write a personal blog about digital
forensics in your off-time, from which it appears you are a staunch
supporter of law enforcement. She believes you are biased in support of
law enforcement and that you only had your company’s bottom line in
mind. The company’s attorney however, prepared you for these types of
questions and had you prepare for trial by practicing answering the
following questions – respond to Mr. Belcamp’s attorney by typing up a
transcript for your response (You may use first-person grammar, I, me,
my, etc., in your response for this question).

“How do we know you are not biased in this case, choosing to report
only what would help law enforcement and your company’s bottom-line? How
can we know from your work that your analysis should be accepted by the
court?”

Project Requirements:

Each question should be answered thoroughly looking at all the issues presented, so do your research, be specific, be detailed, and demonstrate your knowledge; submitting your project through the appropriate assignment folder.

This project should be submitted in a single Microsoft Word document (.DOC/.DOCX), with answers separated and/or numbered in respect to the question, so as to make it clear which question is being answered. It may be in a question and answer format, or as described with answers to the associated question numbers;

The paper should be written in third-person grammar, not first person (which means – I, me, myself, etc.); except for question nine (9).

The submission is to have a cover page that includes course number, course title, title of paper, student’s name, and the date of submission per APA writing format;

Format: 12-point font, double-space, one-inch margins;

It is mandatory that you do some research, and utilize outside resources! You must have a reference page at the end of your project that is consistent with APA citation style and format (see https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ for help).