ABSTRACT
The drive toward a society dependent upon the usage of social media is well upon us. The myriad of social media sites has made it appealing not only as a communication mechanism but also as a method of electronic commerce, information sharing and even advertising. This interlacing of resources being utilized by social media has made them just as useful as the traditional Internet resources (such as chat clients and information searching) Therefore, social media sites are no less vulnerable to unlawful or wrongful activity than more traditional Internet resources; unauthorized access, modification, data leaks, corruption, destruction and all manner of criminal activity are conducted in these unstructured places (Lillard, Garrison, Schiller, & Steele 2010). With the overall community of users using social media increasing exponentially, the reality that criminals will utilize and form part of the social media community will be a difficult obstacle to overcome by investigators of these types of crimes. As is the case in traditional digital forensics and investigations, social media can be the de facto evidence for a particular crime or can be corroborating evidence that suggests a particular crime has occurred. As is the case with any types of evidence, there are legal standards and baselines that must be considered and followed when dealing with such data. This section will look at the challenges posed for the collection, preservation and presentation of social media evidence. It is important to note, however, that although there is ample case law and legal baselines that can be applied and interpreted to social media evidence, the relative newness of social media evidence being presented in court leaves very little case law directly pertaining to social media evidence and forensic analysis. This section draws from experienced investigators and practitioners in the field and the case law that is currently guiding social media analysis. This section also looks at the legal constraints that may be faced in the future of social media investigations.
