I think ethics plays a role in digital forensics because as investigators it’s our job to tell what we can prove to be the true story as it happened with a piece of computer technology. In some cases we might be the only ones who truly understand the evidence and the artifacts which puts us in a position of incredible influence. We can not allow ourselves to let a story venture into guesses and assumptions because it could really cause significant damage. On the other side of that we might be in a situation where we are investigating an incident involving a friend or a powerful individual. It’s still our duty to do an ethical investigation, even if the facts lead us to difficult conclusions about those individuals.
I agree with your perspective. As forensic investigators we would have access to classified and confidential information. The influence that we have can sway the opinion of the company that should or should not act on specific findings. Through ethics we have to present the findings that effect our clients and the best way to handle each case.
I like you response this week. I definitely agree with you that if your influence in a case could sway someone one way or another so you need to show you findings in a way that shows no bias one way or another.
In digital forensics, contact with sensitive data is the norm, so proper ethical standards are important. Examiners are given privileged access to information systems and data, and may be exposed to trade secrets, threats to national security, or information that is highly valuable to private parties. Since examiners require a high skill-set and often work with those who are not tech savvy, it is important for examiners to have good-moral character so they do not take advantage of their victims and clients. Although laws and contracts are drawn to create boundaries and obligations to protect intellectual property rights, privacy rights and public welfare, it is still up to the examiner to uphold these laws, and use their best judgment when confronted with an unethical situation that is not addressed by law or policy. Since technology is constantly evolving, examiners should follow a code of ethics which represents a standard of acceptable conduct for all possible procedures within the profession.
Hello Bilaal- Yes, i completely agree with you that boundaries are created with contracts and agreements for a smooth or legal executions, I think digital forensics and law are in two different skims, but is up to us to do a good job and put them together.
As I mentioned before ethics begin at home and we practice them as needed, once combined with digital forensics, we could be a better asset to a client or customer to present the best evidence to the court for the good or for the bad.
Great post and I completely agree with your explanation. I like to think it as, ethics picks up where the laws does not. Ethics provides a minimum standard of acceptable conduct. The person that lacks moral character can easily be tempted to use the information gathered for personal gain. A person with good moral character will do what’s right, even when nobody is watching.
Bilaal, great post. I loved your point about ethical hackers needing strong moral character. I never really considered the fact, that yes, it would be easy for someone with the technical prowess to take advantage of those who are ignorant of the inner workings of technology. I think the difference in abilities is definitely important and pen testers/ethical hackers should have a strong appreciation for privacy and honesty.
Digital Forensics is very growing field and plays critical role in investigations, but still there is no code of ethics that would protect confidentiality of data and evidence, investigation integrity, human behavior and honest investigation principles.
Given enormous number of technologies, there are certain technical trends affecting ethics of forensics, which complicates investigation given the possibility for a potential evidence to be exposed to various media, thus causing disclosure, and also causing issues with company policies that have weaknesses, for example:
– Social Media (Forums, Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
What information can/can’t be shared to prevent company’s data leak in public media? Even if there is policy, how to make employees be honest and comply with policy
– Mobile Devices (BYOD). The use of personal devices policies.
– Cloud Computing. Issues with transferring data from company device to a personal cloud storage
Ethics of Forensics affect attitude of people at workplace. Division between home and work raise certain issues such as keeping Confidential documents undisclosed. Massive information from different sources complicates investigation, especially when people might have company data not only on company device but also stored on personal computer. So, having so many technologies create problems such as sourcing all secured/non-secured locations of documents/evidence.
Healthcare has strong ethical standards that are being enforced by the government, whereas there are no comparable professional norms and moral ethics in Forensics. Without standard ethics, Forensics has many weaknesses that can be exploited and used in positive or negative ways. Forensics is growing at a fast pace and professional ethics must exist to ensure integrity of investigation and compliance with law and professional moralities.
Ruslan, as always, great stuff. I liked your mention of social media. It’s something that I didn’t even think of. I would take it a step further and say that as investigators we need our own set of rules involving social media. Someone investigating a case can’t go home and post “I can’t believe what ______ did on their work computer!” and then post details.
Professionals in forensics recover, analyze, process, and testify about digital evidence in court. Additionally, examiners are given access to information systems and data to be able to investigate. Throughout their investigations, it is possible they are exposed to trade secrets, threats to national security, personal information, etc. Due to the strong influence examiners have in court and the exposure of data and information, they need to abide by ethical standards, which plays a major role in their daily activities. The examiners need to be familiar with the law and professional norms of cyber forensics, which will allow them to point out any unethical issues/events that arise. Also, the digital forensics field requires its examiners to act with honesty and truthfulness. Good moral character is required because forensic professionals cannot allow outside elements impacting their investigations. This could be that they see an opportunity to take advantage of a situation resulting in some type benefit for them or if the investigation involves a family member, friend, or an influential/powerful individual. Overall, it is important for them to complete their job with no outside influence or assumptions and just follow what the evidence shows them. The issue with ethics in digital forensics is the lack of professional and ethical standards governing professionals in the field. Universally accepted standards do not exist. For example, some states require digital forensic examiners to be licensed as private investigators. Another example is the Texas Private Security Bureau requires annual fees, fingerprint cards, criminal background check, evidence of training and experience, and proof of liability of insurance.
Elizabeth,
The fact that examiners are exposed to so much confidential data is important to remember. If an immoral person were to gain this kind of access, they could take advantage of it for personal gain. Companies go to great lengths to protect this kind of data, including conducting investigations when they believe they’ve been attacked. The people that conduct the investigation must be highly trusted. In order to gain this trust they must have high personal ethics and perform ethically in all they do.
Hello Elizabeth- yes, I agree that forensic analysts have a fiduciary obligation to their client or customer, and they are bind by a legal contract or agreements that should have the proper words that say that the evidence presented to court must not be manipulated, tempered or altered in favor of a client.
I also like the fact that some organizations as you pointed out, requires background checks, and educational courses like this to be differentiated from the rest.
I think we need to define three things when answering this question. These come courtesy of Google or Wikipedia.
1. Ethics: moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity
2. Justice: understandings of justice differ in every culture, as cultures are usually dependent upon a shared history, mythology and/or religion. Each culture’s ethics create values which influence the notion of justice. Although there can be found some justice principles that are one and the same in all or most of the cultures, these are insufficient to create a unitary justice apprehension.
3. Forensic science is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal procedure.
Ethics plays a fundamental role in the way we define acceptable behavior. When society deems certain behaviors unacceptable (this is going to vary hugely from society to society at times) and demands “justice” to rectify a violation of ethics, our society looks to the judiciary. Forensics is a method of providing evidence to that judicial process. Without ethics we wouldn’t have the field of digital forensics.
There’s a lot more too this, though and people have been philosophizing around definitions for justice for millenia.
Interesting take on answering the question. I was able to follow your thought process and it made sense. Definitely gave me a new perspective on relating ethics to digital forensics. I agree, without ethics, we would not have digital forensics. However, after the readings and research it is clear that there is a lack of ethical standards in this field. Even though ethics defines what is and what is not “acceptable behavior,” which demands justice for the violation of ethics, there needs to be strong ethics within digital forensics in order to properly provide evidence in court that is suppose to support the justice.
Andres, very interesting approach to define key points for Ethics. It is obviously very important for criminal justice system to have ethical forensics to influence appropriate behavior and actions. An Examiner should keep very close attention to details when gathering evidence and finding an evidence. Any manipulations or misleadings would destroy case or even affect lives of people involved in the entire case.
So, in order to be ethical, forensics personnel not only have to be appropriately trained and educated, but they also must be naturally ethical, be of good moral and character.
I really liked your last point in your response. After reading everyone’s’ responses and taking in their perspectives, I believe that is what ethics comes down to in digital forensics. It is not only that the professionals need to be trained/educated/certified, but they need to have a naturally good character. A professional can be appropriately trained, but if their personal morals are “corrupt” then the training is almost pointless in a sense.
I like how you broke down the definition of ethics into 3 key points and expanded on it. It is how the society perceives the action with will define if it is ethical or not. Someone from the Middle East or Asia might do something that we do not find ethical in our culture or business model however in their eyes it is total normal and fine to be able to do. I really think it is all about the environment around you and what the community perceives as ethical.
As the other have stated, your approach is refreshing. I would like to extend your breakdown with the addition of moral, concerned with principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness and badness of human character. We can probably agree that good ethics is good moral character. Believing that the actions that you’re taking is in good faith and is the right thing to do. The problem with that, like you already stated, is not everybody can agree on what is “good” and what is “bad.” It varies, from smallest element of society, the home, to a nation society. That is why every good organization will have a Code of Ethics or Ethical Business Practices, as a guideline to acceptable behavior. But isn’t it a little hypocritical to think that if a person follow the Code of Ethics, the are good morally even if they betray their own belief?
Andres, I like how you broke this question down into 3 definitions first. That’s a good approach to the question and it seems sort of in line with the approach of someone responding to an incident. Breaking down all the pieces of information before coming up with a full solution. I like it!
The Code of Ethics plays undeniably a very important role in the profession of digital forensic because of the result of the outcome, the kind of information that can be access and the influence of how pieces of evidence are investigated and presented. From what it is already said and posted here:
– the importance of good moral character, appropriate training and just judgment of examiners,
– the lack of professional and ethical standards in the field,
– the obvious need and imperative from professional for codes of acceptable conducts
I think the idea of a two-days workshop on professional ethics is good, where people can share their experiences, the cases that they have to deal with, the associations that they need to contact or just the most updated information in the field that needs to know.
It should make it mandatory to participate in these workshop/ seminar to keep their current certifications.
The need of ethics in digital forensics become more important as investigation relates to collection of evidences to be produced in court and it can lead to the matter of life and death ,where a person can be charged free of all allegations or can be charged with prison or heavy fines
Joseph, training is really important to keep up with proper forensics ethics. Certification is great way of validating skills and knowledge it the field of forensics. Also, I think it is critical for an examiner to have an amazing personality to apply rule of ethics; otherwise, if person is no kind and honest of him/herself then I believe there is no point of having any rules of ethics and standards. I think part of personnel assessment and training should include a certain level of psychological and behavioral testing to ensure that person who wants to become a truly ethical examiner is indeed capable of being ethical.
I think that the workshop is an excellent idea for digital forensics professionals. It gives guidelines as to what is expected and the most recent ethical standards in the field. It would also be a good idea if there was multiple workshop opportunities and if they were mandatory each year or every other quarter as a refresher on ethical procedures.
Professional workshops help in more ways than one. It is important to know that the field at large feels the same way towards ethical behavior. There are weird corner cases where the right decision isn’t obvious and knowing you can consult your peers for guidance would be helpful. The refresher course is a great idea as a field that is always innovating may have new technologies available to use and some may violate privacy or cross ethical boundaries.
I think ethics play a huge role in a lot of things that we do in digital forensics. However, before we can talk about how ethics I thought it would be good to define what ethics actually are. I looked on to the internet and tried to find a good definition for ethics however after some googling I was not able to find a definition that I liked, and deiced that piecing together a definition of my own with the information that I found would make a lot more sense. I found out that ethics have a lot to do with context and when you look at it in the realm of digital forensics it is a lot like morals. I think we look at ethics every day when preforming our job duties as a digital forensic analyst. You have to decide if pulling certain information is ethical. If withholding certain information from people like coworkers, family member, or the law is ethical. When you are preforming a wiretap you need to see how the ethics of the situation come into play and if it is OK and morale to be in that person’s life tracking them. I think if you understand the ethics that surround digital forensics you will have a lot better of a time preforming your job duties because it will keep you how of the sketchy gray areas.
I liked the way you approached this week’s question and pieced together your own definition of ethics. I agree with your connection of ethics to morals because morals definitely can play a main role in how people operate in their daily jobs. Also, good way to conclude your response. If one has a good grasp on ethics in the digital forensics field, they will have an easier time eliminating the gray area from their everyday activities.
The gray areas are definitely going to become a bigger issue as digital forensics improve. I think it’s helpful to set a baseline of morals to define an ethics code and then build on it as you approach these gray cases. This could be done on an individual basis or with peers.
Explain where you think ethics plays a role in how we deal with digital forensics.
I think ethics plays important role in how we deal with digital forensics because forensics team has the privilege access to information systems and data in a company. Examiners will be exposed to trade secrets, data, confidential information. Some private parties may be willing to pay an attractive price to buy them. In addition, when examiners are investing a company, the company is willing to pay a lot to cover the evidence if they committed a crime. Examiners should be prepared to solve these dilemmas. Laws and regulations need to be placed in companies for examiners, however, they will not be enough to help examiners to make ethical decisions all the time. So, ethics trainings for the professions is necessary to perform in place. Examiners need to remind themselves at any time that they need to recognize, classify and manage ethical dilemmas and also respect boundaries and honor obligations.
Mengxue, you bring up a good point in that while regulations need to be put in place for how examiners should conduct themselves, those alone will not be enough. Just like we’ve learned in other classes that putting controls in place will not always protect against the risk they are meant to. If someone is truly determined to do something, no amount of regulations or controls will stop them. This is why the examiners themselves must have a strong ethical code and be committed to acting in an ethical manner in all they do.
I really like what you said about having a strong ethical code and the commitment to act in the most ethical manner. Being an examiner comes with a lot of responsibilities and dilemmas that revolves around doing what is right. For example, an examiner uncovered additional data, that was not requested or subpoenad. What should they do? Whether it is to prove a persons innocence or guilt, how should they proceed? Should they tell the request official? If they did, then what happens if the additional evidence is requested for the guilty, but not the innocent? You have no obligation to reveal this new data, so what would a person with good moral character do? Personally, I would provide the data as part of my finding, but then I would be seen as overstepping my boundaries and obligations.
Like Amanda mentioned you brought up a good point about companies implementing laws/regulations for examiners even though this does not mean examiners will always follow protocol. The same concern can follow even when examiners are required to participate in ethics training. This type of concern can relate to many other professions. Obviously though, the consequences of unethical actions in digital forensic can have a more severe impact than in other professions.
I think that ethics and digital forensics work hand in hand. As an individual on a forensics team you are allowed privileged access to the company’s data and systems. The goal of digital forensics is to collect, analyze, preserve, and present the findings to the company. If something is done unethically trust and possible laws could have been broken. Most companies have policies and guidelines in place when it comes to digital forensics that teams can use to better understand the environment. Finally, training could be used as a preventative measure for examiners when faced with ethical dilemmas in the field.
I like you response and I think that training could help with preventing ethical dilemmas that might arise. I also agree that as a digital forensics anayst you have access to information that the majority of the company does not have access to so it is you ethical responsibility to make sure that you keep everything by the book as possible
For most of the fields whether we talk about cyber security there is a examination and training to identify and certify the capacity of security professional.But when we talk about digital forensics then there is no global body which provides training and certification which can be set as an standard to identify the forensic expert so ethics play an important role in this field
Ethics are at the core of digital forensics because if those conducting digital forensic investigations do not act in an ethical manner than none of the results they find can be trusted. The results of investigations can affect people’s lives and if the investigation is not done in an ethical way, and the wrong person is found guilty, it could ruin their lives. Digital forensics is not always used in such extreme circumstances but digital forensics professionals must still act in an ethical manner in everything they do. We won’t always like what we find while conducting an investigation, but we must present the facts as they are, even if we’d like them to be different, no matter what, or there was no point in the investigation in the first place.
Hello Amanda- I agree on your opinion on keeping things professional, no matter if we like the results of an investigation.
I think we have a responsibility to present the client or customer the true results of our investigation, and have the court of law make the final decision based on our findings. I think we have to take this job very seriously since we can make or brake a case for the good, or the bad of a person/people at large.
I like your mentality of being objective instead of subjective. Like you said, forensics professional may not always like what we find, but the bottom line is that we have to present the facts. Another thing that I like from your post is the “trust.” If the profession gets a bad reputation for falsifying records or evidence tampering than who would trust the forensics analysis in court. Based on these two points alone, I cannot agree more with ethical behavior being the core of digital forensics.
Hello Larry/class- as we discussed in week 1, we have a fiduciary obligation to the costumer or client we are working for, and a binding contract that will keep us in line and out of trouble.
Ethics start from home habits, and most of them are reflected in many things we do daily. In my humble opinion, when a person or a company show symptoms of ethical slack, then bad things could happen. A good example to think about is that if you get in trouble and you would need a law firm to defend you, would you allow your attorney to be unethical? I know I wouldn’t.
Digital forensic professionals, like Roberto state, has a judiciary duty to uphold the law in the way the collect, preserve, and analyze the evidence. Evidence collected may contain highly personal information, sensitive data, trade secrets, proprietary information, or things of national security, among others. All can have devastating affects if given to the wrong or even malicious actors. Along with their highly specialized skill set, digital forensics professional most also be ethical. Meaning that they should not tamper with the evidence, sell the evidence, or provide information about the evidence to an unauthorized party. Their actions must be within their boundaries and obligations, and should be carried out in good faith.
Ethics are required to adhere to in order to work in digital forensics. There is an inherent trust that investigators are collecting accurate evidence. A company is also entrusting you with access to multiple areas that usually require a separation of duties to be able to see more than one. If you violate ethics, your credibility in digital forensics is null. Part of your duty requires being able to submit truthful statements to law enforcement or courts. If you don’t have credibility you cannot do these aspects of the job.
Very correctly mentioned that ethics can play a very important role in field of forensics.I can take an example to justify this when forensic expert is doing investigation and he comes across some confidential information about the organization.There are chances that if he sells the information to their competitor then he can make some cash out of it.But this stand against the ethics and break the trust of company which gives access to your personal information.The forensic investigator should maintain his credibility
Ethics in simple words defines as honesty, truthfulness but when we cover the field of business ethics according to which it is the honesty and truthfulness to comply with the law and professional norms .The ethics play a vital role in field of digital forensics as it maintains the credibility of organization and the profession both.
The forensic expert has to deal with lot of confidential information on day to day basis in investigations as a result the expert should only reveal such information as defined by the boundaries of information sharing
in the charter and legal document signed by him.The document may have a clause to identify all important information,document it and present it to the legal counsel or higher management.Then comes the role of ethics where forensic expert should not reveal any information apart from the identified persons .
I think the most significant ethical dilemma involved with digital forensics is balancing the pursuit of justice with respect for people’s privacy. Many times, an investigation might accidentally involve innocent people. If this were the case, then investigating their data–some of which could be sensitive–could negatively impact data’s owner. In other cases, such as the situation from last year with Apple, exposing one person’s data might jeopardize the privacy of millions of others. In these cases, security professionals have to balance the pursuit of justice with the individual right to privacy.
Anthony makes a good point as this is delicate balance which is becoming much more prevalent. The privacy lines are being blurred further and further as we get further connected and those new technologies becoming a form of forensic evidence. You look at the most current cases of the Amazon Echo and tool like that are capturing sound in the home that they are looking to make a case with. Their is a real risk that those things occurring in the privacy of our home are no longer private if your plugged in.
Darin Bartholomew says
I think ethics plays a role in digital forensics because as investigators it’s our job to tell what we can prove to be the true story as it happened with a piece of computer technology. In some cases we might be the only ones who truly understand the evidence and the artifacts which puts us in a position of incredible influence. We can not allow ourselves to let a story venture into guesses and assumptions because it could really cause significant damage. On the other side of that we might be in a situation where we are investigating an incident involving a friend or a powerful individual. It’s still our duty to do an ethical investigation, even if the facts lead us to difficult conclusions about those individuals.
Samantha M Sederstrand says
Darin,
I agree with your perspective. As forensic investigators we would have access to classified and confidential information. The influence that we have can sway the opinion of the company that should or should not act on specific findings. Through ethics we have to present the findings that effect our clients and the best way to handle each case.
Jonathan Duani says
Darin,
I like you response this week. I definitely agree with you that if your influence in a case could sway someone one way or another so you need to show you findings in a way that shows no bias one way or another.
BIlaal Williams says
In digital forensics, contact with sensitive data is the norm, so proper ethical standards are important. Examiners are given privileged access to information systems and data, and may be exposed to trade secrets, threats to national security, or information that is highly valuable to private parties. Since examiners require a high skill-set and often work with those who are not tech savvy, it is important for examiners to have good-moral character so they do not take advantage of their victims and clients. Although laws and contracts are drawn to create boundaries and obligations to protect intellectual property rights, privacy rights and public welfare, it is still up to the examiner to uphold these laws, and use their best judgment when confronted with an unethical situation that is not addressed by law or policy. Since technology is constantly evolving, examiners should follow a code of ethics which represents a standard of acceptable conduct for all possible procedures within the profession.
Roberto Nogueda says
Hello Bilaal- Yes, i completely agree with you that boundaries are created with contracts and agreements for a smooth or legal executions, I think digital forensics and law are in two different skims, but is up to us to do a good job and put them together.
As I mentioned before ethics begin at home and we practice them as needed, once combined with digital forensics, we could be a better asset to a client or customer to present the best evidence to the court for the good or for the bad.
Loi Van Tran says
Bilaal,
Great post and I completely agree with your explanation. I like to think it as, ethics picks up where the laws does not. Ethics provides a minimum standard of acceptable conduct. The person that lacks moral character can easily be tempted to use the information gathered for personal gain. A person with good moral character will do what’s right, even when nobody is watching.
Anthony Clayton Fecondo says
Bilaal, great post. I loved your point about ethical hackers needing strong moral character. I never really considered the fact, that yes, it would be easy for someone with the technical prowess to take advantage of those who are ignorant of the inner workings of technology. I think the difference in abilities is definitely important and pen testers/ethical hackers should have a strong appreciation for privacy and honesty.
Ruslan Yakush says
Digital Forensics is very growing field and plays critical role in investigations, but still there is no code of ethics that would protect confidentiality of data and evidence, investigation integrity, human behavior and honest investigation principles.
Given enormous number of technologies, there are certain technical trends affecting ethics of forensics, which complicates investigation given the possibility for a potential evidence to be exposed to various media, thus causing disclosure, and also causing issues with company policies that have weaknesses, for example:
– Social Media (Forums, Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
What information can/can’t be shared to prevent company’s data leak in public media? Even if there is policy, how to make employees be honest and comply with policy
– Mobile Devices (BYOD). The use of personal devices policies.
– Cloud Computing. Issues with transferring data from company device to a personal cloud storage
Ethics of Forensics affect attitude of people at workplace. Division between home and work raise certain issues such as keeping Confidential documents undisclosed. Massive information from different sources complicates investigation, especially when people might have company data not only on company device but also stored on personal computer. So, having so many technologies create problems such as sourcing all secured/non-secured locations of documents/evidence.
Healthcare has strong ethical standards that are being enforced by the government, whereas there are no comparable professional norms and moral ethics in Forensics. Without standard ethics, Forensics has many weaknesses that can be exploited and used in positive or negative ways. Forensics is growing at a fast pace and professional ethics must exist to ensure integrity of investigation and compliance with law and professional moralities.
Darin Bartholomew says
Ruslan, as always, great stuff. I liked your mention of social media. It’s something that I didn’t even think of. I would take it a step further and say that as investigators we need our own set of rules involving social media. Someone investigating a case can’t go home and post “I can’t believe what ______ did on their work computer!” and then post details.
Elizabeth V Calise says
Professionals in forensics recover, analyze, process, and testify about digital evidence in court. Additionally, examiners are given access to information systems and data to be able to investigate. Throughout their investigations, it is possible they are exposed to trade secrets, threats to national security, personal information, etc. Due to the strong influence examiners have in court and the exposure of data and information, they need to abide by ethical standards, which plays a major role in their daily activities. The examiners need to be familiar with the law and professional norms of cyber forensics, which will allow them to point out any unethical issues/events that arise. Also, the digital forensics field requires its examiners to act with honesty and truthfulness. Good moral character is required because forensic professionals cannot allow outside elements impacting their investigations. This could be that they see an opportunity to take advantage of a situation resulting in some type benefit for them or if the investigation involves a family member, friend, or an influential/powerful individual. Overall, it is important for them to complete their job with no outside influence or assumptions and just follow what the evidence shows them. The issue with ethics in digital forensics is the lack of professional and ethical standards governing professionals in the field. Universally accepted standards do not exist. For example, some states require digital forensic examiners to be licensed as private investigators. Another example is the Texas Private Security Bureau requires annual fees, fingerprint cards, criminal background check, evidence of training and experience, and proof of liability of insurance.
Amanda M Rossetti says
Elizabeth,
The fact that examiners are exposed to so much confidential data is important to remember. If an immoral person were to gain this kind of access, they could take advantage of it for personal gain. Companies go to great lengths to protect this kind of data, including conducting investigations when they believe they’ve been attacked. The people that conduct the investigation must be highly trusted. In order to gain this trust they must have high personal ethics and perform ethically in all they do.
Roberto Nogueda says
Hello Elizabeth- yes, I agree that forensic analysts have a fiduciary obligation to their client or customer, and they are bind by a legal contract or agreements that should have the proper words that say that the evidence presented to court must not be manipulated, tempered or altered in favor of a client.
I also like the fact that some organizations as you pointed out, requires background checks, and educational courses like this to be differentiated from the rest.
Andres Galarza says
I think we need to define three things when answering this question. These come courtesy of Google or Wikipedia.
1. Ethics: moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity
2. Justice: understandings of justice differ in every culture, as cultures are usually dependent upon a shared history, mythology and/or religion. Each culture’s ethics create values which influence the notion of justice. Although there can be found some justice principles that are one and the same in all or most of the cultures, these are insufficient to create a unitary justice apprehension.
3. Forensic science is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal procedure.
Ethics plays a fundamental role in the way we define acceptable behavior. When society deems certain behaviors unacceptable (this is going to vary hugely from society to society at times) and demands “justice” to rectify a violation of ethics, our society looks to the judiciary. Forensics is a method of providing evidence to that judicial process. Without ethics we wouldn’t have the field of digital forensics.
There’s a lot more too this, though and people have been philosophizing around definitions for justice for millenia.
Elizabeth V Calise says
Andres,
Interesting take on answering the question. I was able to follow your thought process and it made sense. Definitely gave me a new perspective on relating ethics to digital forensics. I agree, without ethics, we would not have digital forensics. However, after the readings and research it is clear that there is a lack of ethical standards in this field. Even though ethics defines what is and what is not “acceptable behavior,” which demands justice for the violation of ethics, there needs to be strong ethics within digital forensics in order to properly provide evidence in court that is suppose to support the justice.
Ruslan Yakush says
Andres, very interesting approach to define key points for Ethics. It is obviously very important for criminal justice system to have ethical forensics to influence appropriate behavior and actions. An Examiner should keep very close attention to details when gathering evidence and finding an evidence. Any manipulations or misleadings would destroy case or even affect lives of people involved in the entire case.
So, in order to be ethical, forensics personnel not only have to be appropriately trained and educated, but they also must be naturally ethical, be of good moral and character.
Elizabeth V Calise says
Ruslan,
I really liked your last point in your response. After reading everyone’s’ responses and taking in their perspectives, I believe that is what ethics comes down to in digital forensics. It is not only that the professionals need to be trained/educated/certified, but they need to have a naturally good character. A professional can be appropriately trained, but if their personal morals are “corrupt” then the training is almost pointless in a sense.
Jonathan Duani says
Andres
I like how you broke down the definition of ethics into 3 key points and expanded on it. It is how the society perceives the action with will define if it is ethical or not. Someone from the Middle East or Asia might do something that we do not find ethical in our culture or business model however in their eyes it is total normal and fine to be able to do. I really think it is all about the environment around you and what the community perceives as ethical.
Loi Van Tran says
Great Post Andres,
As the other have stated, your approach is refreshing. I would like to extend your breakdown with the addition of moral, concerned with principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness and badness of human character. We can probably agree that good ethics is good moral character. Believing that the actions that you’re taking is in good faith and is the right thing to do. The problem with that, like you already stated, is not everybody can agree on what is “good” and what is “bad.” It varies, from smallest element of society, the home, to a nation society. That is why every good organization will have a Code of Ethics or Ethical Business Practices, as a guideline to acceptable behavior. But isn’t it a little hypocritical to think that if a person follow the Code of Ethics, the are good morally even if they betray their own belief?
Darin Bartholomew says
Andres, I like how you broke this question down into 3 definitions first. That’s a good approach to the question and it seems sort of in line with the approach of someone responding to an incident. Breaking down all the pieces of information before coming up with a full solution. I like it!
Joseph Nguyen says
The Code of Ethics plays undeniably a very important role in the profession of digital forensic because of the result of the outcome, the kind of information that can be access and the influence of how pieces of evidence are investigated and presented. From what it is already said and posted here:
– the importance of good moral character, appropriate training and just judgment of examiners,
– the lack of professional and ethical standards in the field,
– the obvious need and imperative from professional for codes of acceptable conducts
I think the idea of a two-days workshop on professional ethics is good, where people can share their experiences, the cases that they have to deal with, the associations that they need to contact or just the most updated information in the field that needs to know.
It should make it mandatory to participate in these workshop/ seminar to keep their current certifications.
Vaibhav Shukla says
The need of ethics in digital forensics become more important as investigation relates to collection of evidences to be produced in court and it can lead to the matter of life and death ,where a person can be charged free of all allegations or can be charged with prison or heavy fines
Ruslan Yakush says
Joseph, training is really important to keep up with proper forensics ethics. Certification is great way of validating skills and knowledge it the field of forensics. Also, I think it is critical for an examiner to have an amazing personality to apply rule of ethics; otherwise, if person is no kind and honest of him/herself then I believe there is no point of having any rules of ethics and standards. I think part of personnel assessment and training should include a certain level of psychological and behavioral testing to ensure that person who wants to become a truly ethical examiner is indeed capable of being ethical.
Samantha M Sederstrand says
Joseph,
I think that the workshop is an excellent idea for digital forensics professionals. It gives guidelines as to what is expected and the most recent ethical standards in the field. It would also be a good idea if there was multiple workshop opportunities and if they were mandatory each year or every other quarter as a refresher on ethical procedures.
Noah J Berson says
Professional workshops help in more ways than one. It is important to know that the field at large feels the same way towards ethical behavior. There are weird corner cases where the right decision isn’t obvious and knowing you can consult your peers for guidance would be helpful. The refresher course is a great idea as a field that is always innovating may have new technologies available to use and some may violate privacy or cross ethical boundaries.
Jonathan Duani says
I think ethics play a huge role in a lot of things that we do in digital forensics. However, before we can talk about how ethics I thought it would be good to define what ethics actually are. I looked on to the internet and tried to find a good definition for ethics however after some googling I was not able to find a definition that I liked, and deiced that piecing together a definition of my own with the information that I found would make a lot more sense. I found out that ethics have a lot to do with context and when you look at it in the realm of digital forensics it is a lot like morals. I think we look at ethics every day when preforming our job duties as a digital forensic analyst. You have to decide if pulling certain information is ethical. If withholding certain information from people like coworkers, family member, or the law is ethical. When you are preforming a wiretap you need to see how the ethics of the situation come into play and if it is OK and morale to be in that person’s life tracking them. I think if you understand the ethics that surround digital forensics you will have a lot better of a time preforming your job duties because it will keep you how of the sketchy gray areas.
Elizabeth V Calise says
Jonathan,
I liked the way you approached this week’s question and pieced together your own definition of ethics. I agree with your connection of ethics to morals because morals definitely can play a main role in how people operate in their daily jobs. Also, good way to conclude your response. If one has a good grasp on ethics in the digital forensics field, they will have an easier time eliminating the gray area from their everyday activities.
Noah J Berson says
The gray areas are definitely going to become a bigger issue as digital forensics improve. I think it’s helpful to set a baseline of morals to define an ethics code and then build on it as you approach these gray cases. This could be done on an individual basis or with peers.
Mengxue Ni says
Explain where you think ethics plays a role in how we deal with digital forensics.
I think ethics plays important role in how we deal with digital forensics because forensics team has the privilege access to information systems and data in a company. Examiners will be exposed to trade secrets, data, confidential information. Some private parties may be willing to pay an attractive price to buy them. In addition, when examiners are investing a company, the company is willing to pay a lot to cover the evidence if they committed a crime. Examiners should be prepared to solve these dilemmas. Laws and regulations need to be placed in companies for examiners, however, they will not be enough to help examiners to make ethical decisions all the time. So, ethics trainings for the professions is necessary to perform in place. Examiners need to remind themselves at any time that they need to recognize, classify and manage ethical dilemmas and also respect boundaries and honor obligations.
Amanda M Rossetti says
Mengxue, you bring up a good point in that while regulations need to be put in place for how examiners should conduct themselves, those alone will not be enough. Just like we’ve learned in other classes that putting controls in place will not always protect against the risk they are meant to. If someone is truly determined to do something, no amount of regulations or controls will stop them. This is why the examiners themselves must have a strong ethical code and be committed to acting in an ethical manner in all they do.
Loi Van Tran says
I really like what you said about having a strong ethical code and the commitment to act in the most ethical manner. Being an examiner comes with a lot of responsibilities and dilemmas that revolves around doing what is right. For example, an examiner uncovered additional data, that was not requested or subpoenad. What should they do? Whether it is to prove a persons innocence or guilt, how should they proceed? Should they tell the request official? If they did, then what happens if the additional evidence is requested for the guilty, but not the innocent? You have no obligation to reveal this new data, so what would a person with good moral character do? Personally, I would provide the data as part of my finding, but then I would be seen as overstepping my boundaries and obligations.
Elizabeth V Calise says
Mengxue,
Like Amanda mentioned you brought up a good point about companies implementing laws/regulations for examiners even though this does not mean examiners will always follow protocol. The same concern can follow even when examiners are required to participate in ethics training. This type of concern can relate to many other professions. Obviously though, the consequences of unethical actions in digital forensic can have a more severe impact than in other professions.
Samantha M Sederstrand says
I think that ethics and digital forensics work hand in hand. As an individual on a forensics team you are allowed privileged access to the company’s data and systems. The goal of digital forensics is to collect, analyze, preserve, and present the findings to the company. If something is done unethically trust and possible laws could have been broken. Most companies have policies and guidelines in place when it comes to digital forensics that teams can use to better understand the environment. Finally, training could be used as a preventative measure for examiners when faced with ethical dilemmas in the field.
Jonathan Duani says
Samantha,
I like you response and I think that training could help with preventing ethical dilemmas that might arise. I also agree that as a digital forensics anayst you have access to information that the majority of the company does not have access to so it is you ethical responsibility to make sure that you keep everything by the book as possible
Vaibhav Shukla says
For most of the fields whether we talk about cyber security there is a examination and training to identify and certify the capacity of security professional.But when we talk about digital forensics then there is no global body which provides training and certification which can be set as an standard to identify the forensic expert so ethics play an important role in this field
Amanda M Rossetti says
Ethics are at the core of digital forensics because if those conducting digital forensic investigations do not act in an ethical manner than none of the results they find can be trusted. The results of investigations can affect people’s lives and if the investigation is not done in an ethical way, and the wrong person is found guilty, it could ruin their lives. Digital forensics is not always used in such extreme circumstances but digital forensics professionals must still act in an ethical manner in everything they do. We won’t always like what we find while conducting an investigation, but we must present the facts as they are, even if we’d like them to be different, no matter what, or there was no point in the investigation in the first place.
Roberto Nogueda says
Hello Amanda- I agree on your opinion on keeping things professional, no matter if we like the results of an investigation.
I think we have a responsibility to present the client or customer the true results of our investigation, and have the court of law make the final decision based on our findings. I think we have to take this job very seriously since we can make or brake a case for the good, or the bad of a person/people at large.
Loi Van Tran says
Amanda,
I like your mentality of being objective instead of subjective. Like you said, forensics professional may not always like what we find, but the bottom line is that we have to present the facts. Another thing that I like from your post is the “trust.” If the profession gets a bad reputation for falsifying records or evidence tampering than who would trust the forensics analysis in court. Based on these two points alone, I cannot agree more with ethical behavior being the core of digital forensics.
Roberto Nogueda says
Hello Larry/class- as we discussed in week 1, we have a fiduciary obligation to the costumer or client we are working for, and a binding contract that will keep us in line and out of trouble.
Ethics start from home habits, and most of them are reflected in many things we do daily. In my humble opinion, when a person or a company show symptoms of ethical slack, then bad things could happen. A good example to think about is that if you get in trouble and you would need a law firm to defend you, would you allow your attorney to be unethical? I know I wouldn’t.
Loi Van Tran says
Digital forensic professionals, like Roberto state, has a judiciary duty to uphold the law in the way the collect, preserve, and analyze the evidence. Evidence collected may contain highly personal information, sensitive data, trade secrets, proprietary information, or things of national security, among others. All can have devastating affects if given to the wrong or even malicious actors. Along with their highly specialized skill set, digital forensics professional most also be ethical. Meaning that they should not tamper with the evidence, sell the evidence, or provide information about the evidence to an unauthorized party. Their actions must be within their boundaries and obligations, and should be carried out in good faith.
Noah J Berson says
Ethics are required to adhere to in order to work in digital forensics. There is an inherent trust that investigators are collecting accurate evidence. A company is also entrusting you with access to multiple areas that usually require a separation of duties to be able to see more than one. If you violate ethics, your credibility in digital forensics is null. Part of your duty requires being able to submit truthful statements to law enforcement or courts. If you don’t have credibility you cannot do these aspects of the job.
Vaibhav Shukla says
Very correctly mentioned that ethics can play a very important role in field of forensics.I can take an example to justify this when forensic expert is doing investigation and he comes across some confidential information about the organization.There are chances that if he sells the information to their competitor then he can make some cash out of it.But this stand against the ethics and break the trust of company which gives access to your personal information.The forensic investigator should maintain his credibility
Vaibhav Shukla says
Ethics in simple words defines as honesty, truthfulness but when we cover the field of business ethics according to which it is the honesty and truthfulness to comply with the law and professional norms .The ethics play a vital role in field of digital forensics as it maintains the credibility of organization and the profession both.
The forensic expert has to deal with lot of confidential information on day to day basis in investigations as a result the expert should only reveal such information as defined by the boundaries of information sharing
in the charter and legal document signed by him.The document may have a clause to identify all important information,document it and present it to the legal counsel or higher management.Then comes the role of ethics where forensic expert should not reveal any information apart from the identified persons .
Anthony Clayton Fecondo says
I think the most significant ethical dilemma involved with digital forensics is balancing the pursuit of justice with respect for people’s privacy. Many times, an investigation might accidentally involve innocent people. If this were the case, then investigating their data–some of which could be sensitive–could negatively impact data’s owner. In other cases, such as the situation from last year with Apple, exposing one person’s data might jeopardize the privacy of millions of others. In these cases, security professionals have to balance the pursuit of justice with the individual right to privacy.
Jose Gomez says
Anthony makes a good point as this is delicate balance which is becoming much more prevalent. The privacy lines are being blurred further and further as we get further connected and those new technologies becoming a form of forensic evidence. You look at the most current cases of the Amazon Echo and tool like that are capturing sound in the home that they are looking to make a case with. Their is a real risk that those things occurring in the privacy of our home are no longer private if your plugged in.