The Digital Forensics Unit (DFU) provides a comprehensive, professional service to recover digital evidence for use in criminal, civil and disciplinary proceedings. The DFU can also provide a data recovery service for lost documents and an auditing service to assist in compliance with corporate policies.
Professional service
NHS Counter Fraud Authority's Digital Forensics Unit (DFU) provides a comprehensive and professional digital forensics service to recover digital evidence for use in criminal, civil and disciplinary proceedings. It also provides a data recovery service for lost documents, password - cracking capability and an auditing service to help ensure compliance with corporate policies.
The DFU can carry out audits of computer use and undertake covert computer acquisitions and analysis. With the ability to recover data on-site or even across a network while a computer is in use, staff can perform a full investigation while allowing an organisation to maintain business continuity.
Forensic standards
The unit operates to the highest forensic standards and adheres to the guidelines set out in the Good Practice Guide for Computer based Electronic Evidence issued by the National High-tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) and agreed by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC). Importantly, by adhering to NPCC guidelines, the DFU safeguards the integrity of the digital evidence for court proceedings.
Digital Forensics Specialists provide witness statements and exhibits suitable for Crown Court. For those cases which do not involve criminal proceedings, the DFU will provide a comprehensive report detailing the analysis undertaken.
ISO/IEC 17025:2017
As a digital forensics unit working within the Criminal Justice System (CJS), the DFU is required to have accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025:2017. This is an international standard for ‘General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories’. It sets the requirements that testing and calibration laboratories have to meet to prove that they are technically competent and can generate valid results. The DFU is a UKAS accredited testing laboratory No.9707, and full details of accreditation can be found here – 9707Testing Single (ukas.com)
About the DFU
The Digital Forensics Unit (DFU) was established in October 2003 when it was realised that digital data was becoming increasingly important in the investigation of fraud within the NHS. As well as providing digital forensics services for investigations undertaken by NHSCFA, the DFU can provide digital forensics and other services for any NHS investigation carried out by any authorised person.
The DFU provides a comprehensive, professional service to recover digital evidence for use in criminal, civil and disciplinary proceedings. The DFU can also provide a data recovery service for lost documents and an auditing service to assist in compliance with corporate policies.
Pivotal to the service provided by the DFU is its ability to make data available for review by investigators from their desktop or lap top computer. This service means that investigators can undertake keyword searches, review the results of searches and make annotations and comments about the relevance of results to their investigation.