Anne Harper was a system administrator in a large organisation calledIT-Tech, and she was the primary suspect in a homicide investigation. Harper claimed she was at work during the time of the alleged murder.The police officers assigned to investigate the case were not very familiar with digital forensics and they asked the other system administrators withinIT-Techto preserve any digital evidence they thought might assist with the investigation of the case.

The system administrators ofIT-Techwere not trained in digital forensics and had no investigative experience. The investigators accessed and operated Harper's workplace computer extensively in an effort to determine whether it had been used during the time in question. However,they only preserved portions of network-level logs, not the full logs. It was later determined that Harper wasusing a different IP address than originally thought; and, by the time that was discovered, the correct logs had been overwritten by newer ones.

After the completion of the investigation the Crown decided to press charge against Harper. And the Crown wants to tender the digital evidence the police obtained from the system administrators.

Problem Scenario 2a: Question

Apply the following question to the scenario above.

1.As an esteemed criminal defence lawyer who also specialises on cyber forensics, you are required to make a written recommendation outlining what arguments can Harper's defence team raiseto challenge the admissibilityof the digital evidence obtained from the system administrators.

2.While you are only required to address this question from the defence lawyers' perspective, it may also be helpful to raise the possible rebuttal arguments i.e. arguments that may be raised by the Prosecution team to get the evidence admitted in support of their case.