4.2 A brief history of digital forensics

Until the late 1990s, what became known as digital forensics was commonly termed ‘computer forensics’. The first computer forensic technicians were law enforcement officers who were also computer hobbyists. In the USA in 1984 work began in the FBI Computer Analysis and Response Team (CART). One year later, in the UK, the Metropolitan Police set up a computer crime unit under John Austen within what was then called the Fraud Squad.

A major change took place at the beginning of the 1990s. Investigators and technical support operatives within the UK law enforcement agencies, along with outside specialists, realised that digital forensics (as with other fields) required standard techniques, protocols and procedures. Apart from informal guidelines, these formalisms did not exist but urgently needed to be developed. A series of conferences, initially convened by the Serious Fraud Office and the Inland Revenue, took place at the Police Staff College at Bramshill in 1994 and 1995, during which the modern British digital forensic methodology was established.

In the UK in 1998 the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) produced the first version of its Good Practice Guide for Digital Evidence (Association of Chief Police Officers, 2012). The ACPO guidelines detail the main principles applicable to all digital forensics for law enforcement in the UK.

As the science of digital forensics has matured these guidelines and best practice have slowly evolved into standards and the field has come under the auspices of the Forensic Science Regulator [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] in the UK.