KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The FBI's Heart of America Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory, where a cadre of examiners imparts their crime-fighting expertise, is littered with the remnants of hard drives, cellphones, circuit boards and everything else in the bulging array of electronic devices that record data.

Here, the seemingly infinite chains of 1s and 0s that coalesce to form data are mined for secrets that prosecutors will use to influence jurors.

Their services are needed now more than ever, as the technology that enriches the lives of everyday Americans provides information about where...