Monday, October 08, 2007 8:03 AM
I suppose this can be filed in the "you had to figure it would happen" category.
According to the post Antiforensics Practices Can Complicate E-Discovery Investigations at the E-discovery and computer forensic blog:
With the rise of e-discovery, attorneys have necessarily become acquainted with the inner workings of computer systems. File system metadata is often crucial to proving critical points at trial, and computer forensics has shown itself to be an essential tool for discovering lost files and revealing hidden metadata.
But as the lawyers and investigators grow more sophisticated in their search for information, so do the people wishing to hide their misdeeds and confuse those on their trail.
“Antiforensics” - an approach to computer hacking meant to make detection difficult and proof of detection next to impossible - stands to make life miserable for attorneys and computer forensics experts in the coming years. In practice, antiforensics can involve sophisticated software and methods, but can also include the use of simple hacks and workarounds that can hide files and even change file system metadata.
The post continues with a more detailed review of the rise of antiforensics, which I found well worth reading.
For additional information, you may also want to stop by Electronic Discovery Navigator, which is cited as a/the source for the post above.