Joe stood in his bathroom, faced the mirror, and adjusted his tie. Either his tie was straight, or he was really tired. He was running late for work, and normally he would have been anxious, but he didn't get out of the office until 11:34 last night. As his thoughts about his pile of casework meandered through his mind, his Motorola two-way pager sprang to life. Instinctively, he reached for it. Pages like this dictated days, weeks, and sometimes months of his life.

8:34 a.m.: Pack for sleepover. Team work-up pending.

This typical message from his boss indicated that a case had come in, and a team was being put together to respond. Joe was the leader of a team of federal computer forensics investigators. His team was charged with collecting and preserving digital evidence from crime scenes. Whenever any type of computer gear was found at a traditional crime scene, the odds were good that the computer gear would be processed for digital evidence. This task required someone with very specialized skills someone whose expertise was very different from that of the characters portrayed on shows like CSI. When a computer was used in a crime, traditional forensic investigators might lift prints from computer gear, but beyond that, they were required to "rope off" the equipment to wait for the real computer experts to process the computers for evidence. Joe straightened his tie and leaned in to check his dark hair and mustache. He turned from the mirror,...