Computer forensics looks like it is getting a little harder to perform in the US.
From Baseline Magazine:
The Internet is boundless and cybercrime scenes stretch from personal desktops across the fiber networks that circle the globe. Digital forensic investigators like Harold Phipps, vice president of industry relations at Norcross Group in Norcross, Ga., routinely slip across conventional geographic jurisdictions in pursuit of digital evidence and wrongdoers.
Lawmakers across the Savannah River in Columbia, S.C., have different ideas, however. Under pending legislation in South Carolina, digital forensic evidence gathered for use in a court in that state must be collected by a person with a PI license or through a PI licensed agency.
My initial reaction was “wtf” but, that subsided when I realized the real underlying problem here has little to do with computer forensics. This is a case of cash grab from a fast growing market segment. Other states that are flirting with the idea of cashing in are New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Texas, Virgina and Washington. The idea being that only a registered private investigator has the ability to collect evidence or testify is nonsense.
With much of today’s evidence lingering on computers and handhelds, PIs see this is as a lucrative field to pursue, even if they lack the requisite experience, contend digital forensic experts like John Mellon, founder of the International Society of Forensic Computer Examiners (ISFCE) based in Brentwood, Tenn.
I’m wondering which lawmaker the PIs have black & white photos of?
[tags]Computer Forensics, Data Forensics, EnCase, Private Eye, PI[/tags]