The Case of Ben Bergman
Citation and Title
Anne Arundel Community College. “Ben a Terrorist? Investigation/Case Report” n.d.
Facts of the Case
The case of Ben Bergman indicates potential terrorism collusion, which needs to be investigated into, and the necessary insights touching on it established. The wife has discovered a USB thumb drive that her husband left behind and believes that it contains essential information that could show that he is linked to some terrorist activities. A search warrant has been issued to search the USB thumb drive for evidence of a potential terrorist threat. Anne Arundel Metro Police is committed to getting to the depth of the issue. It aims to protect the interests of citizens while at the same time, ensuring that they do not hold someone culpable for a crime he has not committed. The department is committed to adopting the concept of fairness and justice in its operations. It is interested mainly in the welfare of all people. Therefore, it aims to adopt actions that are desirable for a significant part of the population.
Issue
It is necessary to provide a case report.
Decisions
I got the media from Bonnie Bergman, the wife of Ben Bergman, the suspect. She called the police department on the morning of 22nd June 2020 and informed the police about the drive and her suspicion that her husband could be involved in some terrorism activities. We obtained a search warrant the same day and got possession of the drive. The warrant obtained from the court gave us the authority to investigate the media. In the planning for the investigation, we first asked Mrs. Bergman to write down a statement on the information that she holds regarding the entire incident. The aim was to establish whether the case was worth being looked into. After that, we collected the drive after obtaining a warrant to search it. We recorded information regarding the drive, including the type, its capacity, its actual owner, when it was obtained, and the kind of information contained in it. The record was vital as it would help to make the drive usable in the court process. The USB thumb drive was acquired when Mrs. Bergman gave it to the police willingly. The next step entailed having a forensic investigator go through it to determine the quality of information contained inside it. The approach was imperative in having a proper understanding of the content (Lillis et al., 2016). The findings obtained were written in a report.
Reasoning
The media in question is physical since it is a USB thumb drive. I wrote a receipt for the media, showing that we had taken possession of the USB thumb drive. At the start of the documentation sheet, it was still within the possession of Mrs. Bergman. After the paperwork was completed, she handed the drive to me as the lead forensic investigator. I put the USB thumb drive in a sealable polythene bag and inserted it inside a properly labeled evidence envelope. I, later on, I sealed the envelope. I put the envelope in the vehicle and drove off to the police department. I put the envelope containing the thumb drive inside a lockable cabinet. The approach was appropriate in enabling me to preserve the drive effectively, as digital evidence must be adequately protected (Kebande & Ray, 2016; Du et al., 2017).).
Separate Opinion
There was no separate opinion identified.
Analysis
I created a working copy to avoid tampering with the original information in the drive. I verified a working copy by comparing it with the original information. I included the verification log in the report. I analyzed the media by encrypting the information contained in it. I looked for terms that relate to terrorism. I found that there was crucial information that showed that Mr. Bergman is involved in matters of terrorism. I found some word files after de-encrypting the information contained in the drive. I included some screenshots and images in the report. I used a legally licensed EnCase software to decrypt the information. I confirmed the reliability of the software, based on the information I gathered about it from forensic articles. I documented all the steps so that if I had to recreate this case five years from now, I would understand what I did.
Conclusion
Based on the assessment which I made on the USB thumb drive, I determined that there was pertinent information that connects Mr. Bergman to terrorism activities. I was keen to obtain a warrant for searching the thumb drive. I applied the necessary precautions to ensure that I gathered the necessary data, which would enable me to have a proper understanding of the thumb drive. It would be possible for me to apply the information contained in it properly.
References
Du, X., Le-Khac, N. A., & Scanlon, M. (2017). Evaluation of digital forensic process models with respect to digital forensics as a service. arXiv preprint arXiv:1708.01730.
Kebande, V. R., & Ray, I. (2016, August). A generic digital forensic investigation framework for internet of things (iot). In 2016 IEEE 4th International Conference on Future Internet of Things and Cloud (FiCloud) (pp. 356-362). IEEE.
Lillis, D., Becker, B., O’Sullivan, T., & Scanlon, M. (2016). Current challenges and future research areas for digital forensic investigation. arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.03850.