Educating judges, prosecutors and lawyers in the use of digital forensic experts

Recent years have seen an exponential growth of evidence in digital forensic investigations. Digital Forensics (DF) experts are predicting, amongst others, a 'digital explosion' of ransomware in the coming years. The legal community must be prepared to deal with an increase of digital evidence in both volume and complexity. In cooperation with experts in the field, the Netherlands Register of Court Experts (NRGD) has recently developed standards and registration requirements for DF experts in the Netherlands. This article describes how these standards were established and provides insight into the requirements that a DF expert should meet to qualify as an NRGD registered expert. Registration is now open to all DF experts, both Dutch and non-Dutch. Furthermore, this article can be used by DF experts worldwide to educate judges, prosecutors and lawyers that make use of their reports. It illustrates what the legal community can expect from DF court experts, it provides a demarcation of the DF field based on DF literature and it presents examples of relevant questions that can or should be asked to a DF expert. (c) 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of DFRWS.