The great advances in the branch of digital forensics, its consolidation as a legal technical discipline and the increasing increase in its applicability have generated a questioning about the high professionalism and the need for standardization required for it. The implementation of quality systems in Forensic Laboratory is increasingly in demand and constitutes a strategy for the continuous search for the quality of the results. The objective of the present work is to present the methodology used for the development and implementation of a Quality Management System in Digital Forensic Laboratory. This communication is part of the activities carried out in the Technological and Social Development Project whose objective is to generate a technical Guide for the implementation of a Quality Management System for a Digital Forensic Laboratory. For its development, it was required to design, implement and review the QMS in a specific case, for which we worked with the Digital Forensic Laboratory of the Public Prosecutor's Office of the province of Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata Judicial Department. The project was carried out by an interdisciplinary team of researchers from public and private institutions. The methodology used involves the following activities: background check and application in Argentina, determination of the necessary formal instruments and instances, training, case study, development of applied documented information, evaluation and analysis of the implementation and the QMS and preparation of the Technical guide. Among the most important results, it is highlighted that the project has established a solid basis for the development of the technical guide according to the model of quality management systems of the ISO 9001: 2015 standard. In turn, a proven, validated and improved way of working has been established that will allow the implementation model to be extrapolated to other Digital Forensic Laboratory. In addition to this, the study of processes stands out as the fundamental tool to achieve the standardization of processes, allowing the incorporation of the philosophy of quality, the conceptualization of the continuous improvement cycle and the internalization of daily practices. Finally, the interdisciplinary and inter-institutional work has generated a synergy of knowledge and skills that allowed the enrichment of the team and the motivation to face new challenges.
The rise of digital crime as an inevitable consequence of the transversality of technology in all aspects of life has generated until today-and will keep doing so in the future-the need for the Justice to have adequate tools to give answers to society. Digital Forensics is the branch of forensics sciences that provides the means to find solutions in crimes where technology takes a key role, be it as a method, mean or end. One of the biggest challenges in this discipline is when potentially unknown malware is involved in the case. As malware can be varied in characteristics and the threats it poses, its analysis is difficult, and drawing conclusions challenging. For this reason, it is imperative to have a guideline that provides a valid framework to act upon and analyze digital evidence originating from a malware infected device and obtain conclusive indicators that enrich the experts witness work.
Digital evidence has been growing exponentially over the years, not just in size but also in quantity: we now store more files than ever, both on computers and smart devices. The use of multimedia formats has also increased, with audio and video recordings being more prevalent than they previously were. This poses a problem for digital forensic examiners, who now must sift through these files listening to what is said in them. Artificial Intelligence models and applications that can be run locally provide us with a novel way to work with these challenging forms of evidence, drastically reducing the time required to find important information in these ever more present formats, while meeting the stringent requirements of data privacy that laws impose upon investigations.
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