A Guide to Forensic Testimony: The Art and Practice of Presenting Testimony as an Expert Technical Witness

Today technologists need expert witness skills. In addition to understanding the technologies that may be at issue in a given case, an effective expert witness must have an understanding of the legal system, specific courtroom communication skills, skills for enduring cross-examination and preparing for legal testimony. When new technologies are introduced, litigation about the technology and its uses is quick to follow. There are new forms of legal claims for everything from damages for the failures of enterprise networks to new uses of surveillance and the authenticity of digital evidence. Over 90 percent of all information is now created and stored in computers. Technical experts routinely come into play in investigations where evidence is suspected or where computer system behavior is relevant to the case. IT professionals, system administrators, and security consultants are increasingly being brought into the legal world, and they need to prepared.

Fred Chris Smith is an experienced trial attorney who directed economic crime prosecutions for four consecutive New Mexico state attorneys general. For nearly twenty years he has also provided education and training programs throughout the country and abroad, in digital evidence and computer forensics. He has been involved as an attorney, business advisor, and teacher with information technology and legal professionals who are encountering the rapidly changing problems presented by electronic evidence in criminal cases, in the investigation of corporate network fraud and abuse, and in civil litigation. He currently serves as an Assistant United States Attorney.

Rebecca Gurley Bace is a recognized network security authority and consultant. Her career includes work with the National Security Agency, where her contribution to building the national intrusion detection research community earned her an NSA Distinguished Leadership Award. After the NSA, she became the Deputy Security Officer for the Computing Information and Communications Division of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she was responsible for one of the world's most complex security-critical computing environments. She is currently President/CEO of Infidel, Inc., and a Venture Partner for Trident Capital. Bace is the author of Intrusion Detection (Macmillan Technical Publishing, 2000).