ISO 17025 - digital forensics struggle

What does it say in the standard about having to work on Bank Holiday? -(

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism
It's called Bank Holiday, not Laboratory Holiday.

jaclaz

What does it say in the standard about having to work on Bank Holiday? -(

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism
It's called Bank Holiday, not Laboratory Holiday.

jaclaz

I propose the addition of a clause for Lab Holidays in the next 17025 revision D

Trewmte, some very good points,
also, if evidence was challenged, the lab could be running to17025 (or other) standards without being accredited, once the report had been presented inc access to quality procedures etc, then surely the defense would have to show that the evidence was some how unreliable. So one of the key questions is, does not being accredited, as a standalone factor, make the evidence unreliable and , therefore , not admissible? If the answer is yes, then what does that say about the quality of evidence that is being presented in courts around the UK as we speak?

Trewmte, some very good points,
also, if evidence was challenged, the lab could be running to17025 (or other) standards without being accredited, once the report had been presented inc access to quality procedures etc, then surely the defense would have to show that the evidence was some how unreliable. So one of the key questions is, does not being accredited, as a standalone factor, make the evidence unreliable and , therefore , not admissible? If the answer is yes, then what does that say about the quality of evidence that is being presented in courts around the UK as we speak?

I agree pbeardmore there seems to be a double-edged sword when using 17025 and 17020 whether accredited or not.

Accreditation used to imply production of unchallengeable evidence is not a good representation of these standards. Moreover, not being accredited does not of itself suggest the evidence wont be accurate or will be accurate. Generic standards designed and chosen to cover all industries and sectors do not get at the root of forensic work. Perhaps some examples are in order

1) The generic ISO/IEC 17020 is aligned for an investigation aspect of a case so how will that balance if another investigation claims accreditation to international standard for digital forensic investigations ISO/IEC 27043 adopting Harmonized Digital Forensic Investigation Process (HDFIP)?

2) How is the UKAS scheme for cell site going to hold up when even those who would present the prosecution case have doubts as to reliability

Justice Committee Joint enterprise inquiry Written evidence submitted
Commander Foy, head of the Metropolitan Police Serious Crime Squad presented the following submission "2.4.2 Cell site analysis cell site analysis is similarly unreliable. It enables the place where a mobile phone is used to be identified. No doubt a useful tool for investigators, as evidence it suffers from technical problems such as re-routing of signals when blind spots are encountered, or one-sided instructions to expert analysts to establish, for instance, whether a suspect’s phone use is consistent with presence at a crime scene, but not whether it is also consistent with presence elsewhere."

In essence the RF coverage at the material time may not be the same when conducting the post mortem investigation (after the fact). See also CSA - Site Survey Method4/Cell Types - http//trewmte.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/csa-site-survey-method4cell-types.html

3) How will the root checks of combined generic standards 17025/17020 overrule tool specific root checks e.g. SQuaRE and RUSP etc.? Moreover what about where admissibility of the use of a specific tool has been approved in Court due to the manner of challenge against its use that was overuled - http//www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ie/cases/IECA/2015/CA228.html? Combined with HDFIP (which is due for final approval and release in April 2016) would these be more purposeful for industry tried and tested approaches than a generic approach?

http//www.csofs.org/Events/Engagement-Workshop/33420

Anyone going to this event?