Forensics tools are often confused with other classifications of tools, such as incident management, e-discovery and data recovery. But while they can be used for those purposes, the difference is that they abide by formal evidence processing protocols such as maintaining a chain of custody and avoiding the alteration or compromise of evidence, enabling any findings to be successfully used in a court of law. In short, while you can apply forensics tools to nonforensics work, it can be risky to use nonforensics tools. “If the evidence you’ve collected is not defensible in court, you’ve severely limited its later applicability,” says Jay Heiser, research VP and analyst at Gartner…
