The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has sought bids to appoint an agency for carrying out digital forensics that will aid the competition watchdog in its investigations. As per the bid document, the service provider will have to acquire, extract and analyse digital evidences from various electronic devices such as mobile, computers, tablets, storage devices, media, etc.
The agency, which needs to have a pan-India presence, should have the capability to locate, identify and analyse encrypted files. “It should also have the capability to break encryption, crack password, and access hidden data. The service provider should then be able to provide such recovered decrypted, password cracked, un-hidden data in a usable or readable format,” said the document.
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Experts said that CCI is taking a structured approach with this step. “Almost all search operations by CCI has electronic media involvement. So far, CCI has been engaging with digital experts on an ad-hoc basis but they will now have better capabilities to analyse data and act upon it. Other agencies like CBI, ED and Income Tax department already have expertise in digital forensics,” said K.K. Sharma, former DG, CCI.
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The forensics experts will have to accompany the search and seizure teams at CCI for on-site searches as well as assist them during the off-site examination. “It should have the capability to do data remediation of mobile data which includes extraction of text messages, voice notes, call records, documents and mobile notes, WhatsApp messages, telegram messages,” the document said.
In addition, the forensic experts employed by the agency should be qualified to stand as expert witnesses in judicial proceedings or courts, and be able to define the methodologies adopted during any of the stages involved in data acquisition, processing, analysis, and presenting.
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CCI has also outlined the standards under which the agency will operate,
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