Digital Forensics and Its Practice in Türkiye

2017Murat Volkan DülgerArticle

Abstract

This work was written in Turkish. The summary on this page is a translation; the citation gives the original title in parentheses.

In the 21st century, in which we are living through the information age, we have become dependent on technology. We are digitising every area of life. From banking to commerce, from news reporting to communication, from working life to social life, we have come to put the letter “e” in front of everything. However much easier our lives may seem to become with the help of technology, on the other side of the coin we have also begun to be exposed to unwanted and harmful incidents that we refer to as cybercrimes, such as intrusion into our bank accounts, the takeover of our e-mails and the theft of our personal information. While the digital world pushes our limits, we also have to obtain the information that can shed light on the offence from digital environments.

As a result, identifying evidence in digital environments has become a matter requiring expertise, like identifying DNA from a hair. This field of expertise, which we call digital forensics (Computer / Cyber Forensic), has now begun to establish itself as a separate discipline and field of expertise under the umbrella of the forensic sciences. In this article I will try to explain all aspects of digital forensics in a language that lawyers can understand, without going too far into technical detail. After first explaining the concept of digital evidence, the integrity of digital evidence and the concept of the hash value by which we ensure it, I will address the basic principles and processes of digital forensics in detail.