<title>Advancing the science of forensic data management</title>

Current communication networks consist of subnetworks of different types. Therefore a common network protocol has to be used for the transmission of data in such a heterogeneous network. Since some time the requirement of mobility in communication networks is showing up. For that reason wireless networks are playing an increasing role as subnetworks. On the other hand there is the need for multiplexed transmission of time-critical and non time-critical (normal) data within a heterogeneous network. In this paper we discuss the problem of multiplexed transmission of time-critical and of non time-critical data over a wireless type subnetwork using a common standardized network protocol. Many of the available wireless subnetworks are of low or medium transmission speed and guarantee a fixed transmission bandwidth at the access point. We describe a mechanism to transmit time-critical data in such a type of subnetwork using a connectionless transport and a connectionless network protocol. The concurrent transmission of non time-critical data using a connection oriented transport and the same connectionless network protocol is assumed to be of lower priority; it is scheduled in a way to fill the remaining capacity, which has not been reserved for the transmission of time-critical data. In our discussion we concentrate on the standardized ISO/OSI protocools CLNP as connectionless network protocol, CLTP as connectionless transport protocol and TP4 as connection oriented transport protocol. We propose a header compression protocol and a fragmentation protocol for use on low bandwidth subnetworks.

Clinical forensic medicine is best defined as the application of forensic medical knowledge and techniques to the solution of law in the investigation of trauma involving living victims [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. In the setting of emergency departments, these techniques include the correct forensic evaluation, documentation, and photography of traumatic injuries, as well as the recognition and proper handling of evidentiary material for future use in legal proceedings [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8].

Transnational discovery—the process of obtaining evidence in one country for use in legal proceedings in another—is increasingly important in contemporary international civil and commercial litigation. It is particularly challenging because different national rules exist both as to what information can be obtained and how, and by whom, it can be acquired. This chapter reviews a range of practical and legal challenges that practitioners may face when taking evidence in one national jurisdiction for use in another. It surveys existing multilateral instruments on the subject, in particular the Hague Convention on the Taking of Evidence Abroad in Civil or Commercial Matters, the Inter-American Convention on Taking Evidence Abroad and its Additional Protocol, and EU Regulation No. 1206/2001. It also describes in some detail relevant U.S. rules and concludes by summarizing some of the growing challenges presented by the taking of electronic or digital evidence located within one country for use in another.

The present report is an examination and evaluation of the importance and applicability of Goffman's Asylums three decades after its first publication. The book has achieved classic status due to its extensive academic citation, anthology reprinting, use in legal proceedings, and public influence. However, over the years the accuracy and generalizability of Goffman's total institution model of mental hospitals have been seriously questioned. An analysis of the criticisms of Goffman's theories, methods, and conclusions suggested that his work was biased and deficient in a number of ways but at times was misinterpreted or misrepresented. As a research study Asylums may be outdated and of little value to mental health practitioners due to the revolutionary changes in psychiatry that have occurred since the mid-1950s. As an academic work, however, Asylums continues to enjoy a high reputation perhaps because of its theoretical utility and teaching value as well as the popularity of Goffman's many other published works. The total institution model may have been limited from the start and doubts remain as to its validity today, but the longevity of Asylums is assured as Goffman's picture of mental hospitalization is firmly planted in the minds of sociologists, psychiatrists, patients' rights advocates, and students of formal organizations.

Digital forensics involves the identification, preservation, analysis and presentation of electronic evidence for use in legal proceedings. In the presence of contradictory evidence, forensic investigators need a means to determine which evidence can be trusted. This is particularly true in a trust model environment where computerised agents may make trust-based decisions that influence interactions within the system. This paper focuses on the analysis of evidence in trust-based environments and the determination of the degree to which evidence can be trusted. The trust model proposed in this work may be implemented in a tool for conducting trust-based forensic investigations. The model takes into account the trust environment and parameters that influence interactions in a computer network being investigated. Also, it allows for crimes to be reenacted to create more substantial evidentiary proof.KeywordsTrust modelsforensic investigationsdigital evidence

Chapter 10 - Digital Imaging Technologies

PurposeIris colour encompasses a continuum from pale blue to very dark brown and is usually classified via a descriptive three colour scale: blue, green‐hazel or brown. Digital imaging technologies provide an opportunity to quantify iris colour, and are increasingly used for studies of genetic variations in iris colour. We explored the use of digital imaging and colour space information for grading of iris colour in post‐mortem eyes, including eyes with choroidal naevi.MethodsPost‐mortem adult human irises (n = 25) were examined and photographed using a Jenoptik digital camera and ProgResCaptureProv2.8.9 software. Standard lighting (colour temperature) and parameters for imaging were established and used for all specimens. Iris colour was graded (n = 5) (using a nine‐category system; Mackey et al. Clin Exp Ophthalmol, 2011). We also developed a method in Photoshop to express iris colour as Hue in the Hue, Saturation, Brightness (HSB) colour space, for comparison with the category grading.ResultsUsing the nine‐category grading end‐point grades (light blue and dark brown) were consistently graded. Intermediate grades were categorised differently for some observers, usually with adjacent categories. Green irises were not observed in this small series. Digital imaging using standard iris images and an averaging filter, provided colour information (Hue) for each iris. This allowed discrimination of iris colour compared to category grading.ConclusionsAs expected category‐grading was not always consistent between observers. We developed a digital imaging approach using HSB color space to give a H value for each iris. We are exploring the utility of processing functions such as gaussian blur. This approach provides a standard iris colour for post‐mortem tissue and will be used for comparison with fundus colour.

Digital forensics is a vital part of almost every criminal investigation given the amount of information available and the opportunities offered by electronic data to investigate and evidence a crime. However, in criminal justice proceedings, these electronic pieces of evidence are often considered with the utmost suspicion and uncertainty, although, on occasions are justifiable. Presently, the use of scientifically unproven forensic techniques are highly criticized in legal proceedings. Nevertheless, the exceedingly distinct and dynamic characteristics of electronic data, in addition to the current legislation and privacy laws remain as challenging aspects for systematically attesting evidence in a court of law. This article presents a comprehensive study to examine the issues that are considered essential to discuss and resolve, for the proper acceptance of evidence based on scientific grounds. Moreover, the article explains the state of forensics in emerging sub-fields of digital technology such as, cloud computing, social media, and the Internet of Things (IoT), and reviewing the challenges which may complicate the process of systematic validation of electronic evidence. The study further explores various solutions previously proposed, by researchers and academics, regarding their appropriateness based on their experimental evaluation. Additionally, this article suggests open research areas, highlighting many of the issues and problems associated with the empirical evaluation of these solutions for immediate attention by researchers and practitioners. Notably, academics must react to these challenges with appropriate emphasis on methodical verification. Therefore, for this purpose, the issues in the experiential validation of practices currently available are reviewed in this study. The review also discusses the struggle involved in demonstrating the reliability and validity of these approaches with contemporary evaluation methods. Furthermore, the development of best practices, reliable tools and the formulation of formal testing methods for digital forensic techniques are highlighted which could be extremely useful and of immense value to improve the trustworthiness of electronic evidence in legal proceedings.

This article was inspired and is based on a seminar held in Athens in November 2017, under the title ‘The Life cycle of e-evidence: Handling e-evidence in online fraud cases’. This article points out some interesting issues that arose from the above seminar, and focuses especially on the topic of online financial crimes and fraud committed with electronic means of payment. The presented case law comes from Greek courts, which have dealt with online financial crimes related to money laundering, dissemination of false information and credit card fraud, covering the most important areas of concern. In particular, it covers the investigation, both physical and electronic, and the gathering of electronic evidence in both civil and criminal proceedings, the search and seizure process and methods, the handling of evidence from the authorities, the privacy issues that are raised and how e-evidence was used in courts of law.

Chapter 4 - Legal and ethical aspects of health care

Digital Forensic Investigations is explained as are sponse to an event that has already occurred in relation to information which is highly classified or is of prime importance to a criminal incident. Forensics Challenges in IoT Environments IoT would soon pervade all aspects of our life from managing our home temperature to thinking cars and smart management of the cities. The application of professional engineering principles and methodologies to investigating failures and incidents, usually to determine causation. Normally, it involves preparing a report of findings, which may form the basis for testimony in legal proceedings as an expert witness. A forensic engineer may serve as an engineering consultant to members of the legal profession and as an expert witness in courts of law, arbitration proceedings and administrative adjudication proceedings. Forensic engineering is a part of professional engineering practice that may cover all disciplines of engineering. It is a specialized set of skills that can include multidisciplinary training in failure analysis, simulation, safety, accelerated life testing and statistical analysis, as well as knowledge of the specific engineering field.

Structuring a Judicial Discretion in Punishment

The use of digital images in journalism and as evidence in the court of law for crime investigation and law enforcement are some application areas where it is extremely important to ensure authenticity of the images being used. Wide availability of sophisticated image processing software has simplified image manipulation. Image forensics deals with the study of the images to reconstruct their history and detect if it has undergone some intentional or unintentional modifications. This paper presents an introductory overview of the digital image forensics and its counterpart aiming to help the beginners understand their alliance so as to develop robust forensic tools against intentional and unintentional attacks on the multimedia. A brief look into counter anti-forensics is also presented in this paper.

Scope of Managing Knowledge in Digital Forensics

Large experiments and high-performance computer models generate many petabytes of data. While Cloud Computing systems may meet the needs for analyzing these petabytes by harnessing the computing power of many distributed computers, the key challenge in effectively utilizing such a distributed system is the data management process, including storage, indexing, searching, accessing, and transferring data. Most analysis tasks perform computations on a subset of a large data records satisfying some user specified constraints on attribute (variable) values. This subsetting procedure is extremely important in that it reduces the network traffic to and from the cloud facilities. However, selected data records often span many different data files, and extracting the values out these files can be time-consuming especially if the number of files is large. This work addresses this challenge of working with a large number of files. We use a set of astronomical data set as an example and use an efficient database indexing technique, called FastBit, to significantly speed up the subsetting and thus optimize network usage. Overall, we aim to provide transparent and highly efficient attribute-based data access to scientists through a web-based Astronomy Data Analysis Portal. We will discuss the system design, and options for managing an extremely large number of files while minimizing network usage and latency.