Computer forensics is about to everything from exploring child pornography allegations, and online harassment charges to national security breaches, and more. The idea behind digital investigation is based on the fact that digital data is be stored, so you need to have the specialized training to recognize how data can be accidentally changed while investigating, and how to avoid changing it. A computer or a camera can be much like a dead body at a crime scene - you need to collect evidence from it in a very specific way.

There are many reasons to use computer forensics such as:

• In legal cases, computer forensic techniques are used to analyze computer systems belonging to defendants (in criminal cases) or litigants (in civil cases).
• To recover data when there is a hardware or software failure.
• To analyze the data on a computer system after a break-in
• To collect evidence against an employee that an organization wishes to terminate.
• To collect information about how computer systems work for the purpose of performance optimization, debugging, or reverse-engineering.

Special measures need to be taken when conducting forensic investigations if it is desired for the results to be used in a court of law. One of the most important procedures is to make sure that the evidence has been accurately collected and that there is a clear chain of custody from the scene of the crime to the investigator—and into the courtroom.