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Several important factors should be considered in the design and construction of a forensic science laboratory. Location, security, and design are the physical aspects that will be discussed in this portion of the paper. Location includes where to place your laboratory, and weather to build, or to use an existing building. Security includes how the building should be secured, through the use of key pads, biometrics, or lock and key. Another consideration for security is physical security with a guard or cameras. Finally design of the laboratory will be discussed. Design includes workstations, floor plans and storage. It should also be noted that when constructing a forensic laboratory there is not a one size fits all design that has to be followed. Forensic laboratories will differ based on user needs. In order for the forensic laboratory to run smooth and efficient the design must support and optimize an analyst field of expertise. In addition to support and optimize, hands on experience in the field and understanding of the investigative process and knowledge of the law is also helpful (Jones,

1. Location

When considering requirements for constructing a computer forensics laboratory location is one of the main requirements. The decision to build or to use an established building is based on what the laboratory is going to be used for. Technology changes day by day and second by second therefore whatever is decided the forensic laboratory must be flexible and adaptable for those technology changes. Building or using an established office or office building are considerations that must be made based on need. Location of the building should also be part of the requirement for placement. Rural or urban setting should also be reviewed for building placement or existing structure. Another factor to be considered includes environment. Preventing unauthorized access should be a main priority, because questions of chain of custody as it pertains to evidence could be raised. The question of to build or not to build is extremely important for the location of a forensics laboratory.

2. Security

Securing the forensics lab is of utmost importance. Several factors must be reviewed in order to be sure that the digital forensics lab is secure. “Issues such as site access, proximity of secured and unsecured parking areas, and even landscaping have impactions regarding the efficiency and security of the overall site and building design (?????).” Security requirements of a digital forensic lab will vary as to need and staff. Room size, small or large is a factor. Locking storage containers are needed for evidence, shelves for software and hardware is also something to ponder. Logs and audits of evidence, hardware and software is a requirement. Chain of custody logs are another must in digital forensics. Another factor that must be observed is visitor logs. Knowing who is in and out of the facility can make a difference in a case, good or bad. If there is a disaster such as fire, flood, tornado can the lab recover from it? Is the evidence safe and secure along with hardware and software? One more piece to think about is physical security. Will there be a security guard present or will a surveillance system be established or both? Control over all security aspects is a hard task to obtain, but it should be made a priority in order to keep the case as solid as possible.

3. Design

Once a physical location has been found and established and the building/office has been secured is where the design phase can be started. Forensic laboratory design consists of 3 main categories: workstations, floor plans and storage area. Included in the design are desktops that have ample room for the forensic analysis to break down computers and work on evidence from it. There should be book cases to hold reference materials and software packages used for analysis. Storage containers or an evidence safe which is large enough to hold evidence such as hard drives, CD-ROMs, cellular phones, smartphones, laptops, storage media, and any other hardware used to pull data from as evidence. Other items to contemplate in the design of the digital forensic laboratory are floor plans. How many stations will the lab have? How many storage or evidence lockers will it have? Are there going to be bookcases to hold no evidence materials? Where will the shelves to store equipment that is not in use go? These will also very based on the type of lab and the size of the lab as well. LAN and server stations will also be needed in the laboratory in order for the analysts to work on multiple jobs and to establish a network. Space should also be considered for other computer hardware to go along with network servers. Additional data ports may be required as well as a dedicated phone line or phone lines. “Design workstations to minimize the exposure of highly sensitive materials (e.g., place computer monitors displaying sensitive information in such a way that only the case examiner can view it) (n.a., 2008).” The design of the lab will very based on the need of the operation and the size of the organization as well. There is no uniform set in stone way to design a digital forensics lab. What must be kept in mind is how it can be best designed to suit the needs of the staff responsible for completing the forensic work.

Lab proposal

In order to meet the objectives outlined above for location, security and design Team Delta makes the following proposals for constructing a computer forensic laboratory our company. First we recommend that it be understood that technology changes and it must be met with an open embrace. Doing so will limit the headaches involved and make a stressful situation at a minimum. In order to satisfy the requirement for the building and location we propose the use of an existing office building in an area that does not have much in the way of traffic around it. The existing office building will not require a new building be constructed thus our budget will be considerably lower as a result of this. Having an office building in a low traffic area will not draw attention to it and hopefully reduce damage that could result from crime and curiosity. The security requirement is the most important of the three. If you forensics laboratory is not secure you run the risk of having the case thrown out in a court of law. Kelly makes a great point when stating “If the standard is not met, allegations of tampering, sloppy practices, or unreliable use of equipment can taint your hard work. What you are protecting is the equipment and evidence that is to be used in a court of law (Kelly, 2001).” Having an existing office in an office building will allow us to have one entrance to the laboratory. This allows for easier control of who comes into our lab. The room must have floor-to-ceiling walls. For example there must not be any drop ceilings or false floors. Drop ceilings have tiles that can be popped out and false floors have the same in floor panels that can be popped out. The door to the lab must be a combination lock and key along with a keypad combination lock. Limiting access to visitors is a must. Security cameras need to be in place outside the lab and inside the main lab also. Evidence storage containers must have a camera on them as well as work stations and work benches. A sign in log of who enters the lab with date, time in and time out must be maintained at all times. We want to be as sterile and controlled just like a medical laboratory (Kelly, 2001). Next our lab requires evidence storage containers. This is where we will store hard drives and the like. The must be made of steel be secured with locks that have a limited key distribution. Making sure that policies and procedures are followed require auditing to be in place. The audits should include an inspection of the physical building itself, a check of the doors and locks, a review of log sheets, and chain of custody forms. Finally the design or set up of the lab should be as follows. Our lab is a mid-size lab that requires two storage/evidence cabinets. Only one workbench is required for our laboratory. No less than six forensic work stations should be available for use. Our forensic laboratory should also include two PC’s that have Internet/Intranet access. The final piece to the puzzle is the book cases for reference materials, software and hardware.

References:

Kelly, J. (2001). Building a computer forensics laboratory. Information systems security. Retrieved from Google November 3, 2013.

Jones, A. (n.d.). Building a digital forensics laboratory: establishing and managing a successful facility. Retrieved from Google October 27, 2013.

Mount, M., (2010). New thinking: digital forensics. Architecture and engineering facility design requirements. Retrieved from Google November 3, 2013.

Yao, W., Chu, C., Liu, B., and Li, Z. (2010). Designing a virtual lab for computer forensics. Procedings of the 14th colloquium for information systes security education. Retrieved from Google October 27, 2013.

n.a. (2008). A guide for planning and implementing a computer forensic unit. The national institute of justice. Retrieved from Google October 27, 2013.