At ShmooCon ‘08 Simple Nomad heavily advertised the cause of forensiclicensing.com. Unknown to me and many others, many states are requiring that all practitioners of computer forensics become licensed, in this case by becoming a licensed Private Investigator. Simple Nomad described this as one of the greatest threats currently facing our community, however, I contend that this is not necessarily such a bad thing.
Unknown to many amateurs, computer forensics is extremely difficult and goes beyond simple technical problems. Have you ever heard of the Best Evidence Rule? Do you understand the rules surrounding Expert Witnesses in court? No? Then you shouldn’t be collecting evidence for use in a trial. Computer forensics is not as simple as picking up your favorite tools, whether it is standard like TCT or your own set of shell scripts, and applying them to your clients hard drive. Doing that is a perfect way to completely sabotage a trial and get yourself into serious legal problems (tampering with evidence).
Licensing computer forensics practitioners legitimizes and standards it into a profession. It allows others to recognize and respect us and to trust our ability to gather evidence. The problem lies in the execution. I’m not intimately familiar with PI licensing, however I’ve heard it requires things like years of training and a mandatory apprenticeship. I also don’t know specifically what activities these proposed laws restrict.
Ideally, we’d want a license that isn’t overly difficult or time-consuming (as learning computer forensics isn’t overly difficult or time-consuming) and one that doesn’t apply to situations that won’t end up in front of a jury at a later date. Congress should not be able to legislate what I do with my own or my friends machines. As long as those above topics are respected, I see licensing of professional computer forensic investigators as a positive move.
Someone prove me wrong.
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