Speaker: Annamart Nieman, Director: Forensic and Dispute Services, Deloite and Touche

Presentation topic: Cyberforensics: A Means to an End

Presentation abstract: Cyberforensics provides the contemporary and internationally accepted converter of choice that translates binary data into electronic evidence. It entails the unearthing of evidence from computing media to support legal proceedings. A cyberforensic intervention may serve many different purposes (including risk management, civil litigation, criminal prosecution and disciplinary action). Its ultimate goal remains, however, for the electronic evidence collected to withstand legal scrutiny. Cyberforensics is one of the most adversarial occupations in information technology. Adherence to a deterministic, repeatable methodology that is clear and concise is the cyberforensic professional’s greatest asset and may become his or her lifeline in court. A foolproof cyberforensic methodology is based on the full integration of the various disciplines involved in the cyberforensic process (including cyberlaw; system, software and communications engineering; electronic engineering; computer engineering; forensic investigations; information security; forensic auditing and data analytics). This presentation is aimed at creating a multi-disciplinary awareness of the intricacies associated with the admissibility and evidential weight of electronic evidence.

About Annamart Nieman: Annamart is the National Service Line Leader of the Deloitte Analytic and Forensic Technology business. She was headhunted by Deloitte in 2005 to specifically take its cyberforensic service line to the next level. She was admitted as an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa in 1996 and started formal employment at the Department of Justice as a Prosecutor. She appeared in all the different South African fora (including the Constitutional Court). During 2000, Annamart was appointed as the Legal Advisor to the Head of the Directorate of Special Operations (DSO) within the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). In 2002, she assumed duty as one of the first three National Chief Investigating Officers within the DSO. In this capacity she, inter alia, conceptualised and established an electronic evidence collection and cyber- and computer-related crime fighting capacity for the NPA. Annamart became the first Head of the Digital Detective Unit of the NPA and in this capacity, also managed the South African 24 hours, 7 days a week point of contact established by the G8 countries for the collection of electronic evidence.
In 2006, she obtained her doctorate degree on the “Search and Seizure, Production and Preservation of Electronic Evidence”. Her keen interest in technology, forensics, investigations and the law (especially cyberlaw, constitutional law and litigation) strategically aligns her to construct critical links between the different disciplines. She frequently presents at South African universities and national and international conferences. She, inter alia, lectured at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Washington in 2001; developed a course in “The Investigation of Cyber- and Computer-related Crimes” for the University of Pretoria’s Continuing Education Department in 2004; and is currently codeveloping a MPHIL in Fraud Risk Management and a LLM in Cyberlaw for the Universities of Pretoria and Johannesburg respectively.