I used to work in pressure equipment control software. Quite literally, the software malfunctioning (ignoring physical safety mechanisms which should prevent i

I used to work in pressure equipment control software. Quite literally, the software malfunctioning (ignoring physical safety mechanisms which should prevent it) could literally cause an explosion that would destroy the lab, send the equipment rocketing in to the air if not properly bolted in to concrete, and would kill anyone that happened to be in the area when it happened. The pressure differential of the shockwave was enough to seriously injure you with sudden compression and was strong enough to tare limbs off. Even with physical failsafes, that only reduced the damage to a sudden jet of highly pressurized, unbreathable air, which was dangerous in its own ways. I would have quit that job (even if it meant going back to painting houses or tutoring high school kids or serving coffee) if it had for a moment required that I not take every opportunity to make sure the software was as safe and predictable as it needed to be. This included consulting with staff from Boeing on good engineering practices for mission critical safety gear, using languages outside of the most popular ones (ie, not using popular ones and instead using languages with good tooling for safety and reliability), etc. I don't think it's acceptable we hold people who make forensic software to a different standard than those who make airplanes or industrial safety systems - they're ruining lives just the same. > I wonder if anyone has ever been wrongfully convicted because of poor forensic software. Not only this, they've been convicted by digital expert witnesses just being lazy in their analysis and only looking at the surface level. One of my favorite digital forensic instructors from my time in college had almost helped send a guy to prison for child pornography by half-assing his analysis before he decided that he was going to do the very best job he could even if he hated the guys guts, took a second look at the evidence before submitting his report, and discovered that it was likely a coworker who had looked up the child porn on the accused guy's work computer.