Forensic Computing (Dagstuhl Seminar 11401)

Forensic computing (sometimes also called digital forensics, computer forensics or IT forensics) is a branch of forensic science pertaining to digital evidence, i.e., any legal evidence that is processed by digital computer systems or stored on digital storage media. Forensic computing is a new discipline evolving within the intersection of several established research areas such as computer science, computer engineering and law. Forensic computing is rapidly gaining importance since the amount of crime involving digital systems is steadily increasing. Furthermore, the area is still underdeveloped and poses many technical and legal challenges. This Dagstuhl seminar brought together researchers and practitioners from computer science and law covering the diverse areas of forensic computing. The goal of the seminar was to further establish forensic computing as a scientific research discipline, to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the research field, and to discuss the foundations of its methodology. The seminar was jointly organized by Prof. Dr. Felix Freiling (Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany), Prof. Dr. Dirk Heckmann (University of Passau, Germany), Prof. Dr. Radim Polcàk (Masaryk University, Czech Republic), Prof. Dr. Joachim Posegga (University of Passau, Germany), and Dr. Roland Vogl (Stanford University, USA). It was attended by 27 participants.