Fragmentation of the digital forensics community

"I started in the digital forensics community about five years ago, and I already feel old, and I am a Johnny-come-lately. This post may come off as a “Hey, you kids, get offa my lawn!” rant. Rather than a rant,

Evaluating Mobile Telephone Connection Behaviour – Part 2

by Sam Raincock "Within the UK, details of past telephone connections are stored by the network providers. The minimum storage is advised by the Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations. However, each network provider is able to disclose different types of

Biles’ Hierarchy of Disaster Recovery Needs

"It doesn’t take long if you watch the IT News before you come across a good example of bad BCP/DRP – my favourite this month was Vodafone but this is just a retelling of an old story. The fact that

Solid-state drives and forensic data recovery

Computer crime investigations are facing a major upheaval as the shift towards a new type of hard drive technology allows criminals to cover their tracks and outsmart digital forensic specialists, Australian researchers have found. The new drives found in many

Geotags: Friend or Foe?

by David Benford, Blackstage Forensics "I recently wrote a research paper, “Geotag Data: The Modification of Evidence on the Apple iPhone”, based around the possibility of modifying geotag evidence on the Apple iPhone. A test was performed as part of

Is the NTSB a model for incident response?

by Sean McLinden "Recently, the events surrounding the defacement of the HBGary Web site and publication of sensitive data were being bantered about on a number of forensic, security and incident response sites. As is typical for these kind of

Cyber Crime 101 – Life After Law Enforcement with Eric Huber

by Joe Garcia "In this episode, I talk with Eric Huber about what awaits Digital Forensics & InfoSec practitioners getting ready to retire from Law Enforcement. Also, Lee Whitfield has announced that nominations are open for the 2011 Forensic4Cast awards.

Facebook confession snares rapist

An illegal immigrant who confessed on his Facebook page that he had raped a woman has been jailed for four years. John Ssewagudde attacked the 28-year-old at her flat in the Shettleston area of Glasgow last June. The Ugandan-born 21-year-old

UK cyber crime costs £27bn a year

Cyber crime costs the UK economy £27bn a year, the government has said. The figures, published for the first time, are a mid-range estimate and the real cost could be much higher. They are made up of £21bn of costs

Nigeria: Expert Canvasses Forensic Protection of Votes

In order to make sure that the results from the forth-coming elections are secured, valid and credible, especially with the use of the Direct Data Capture Machines, an IT expert has advocated the roles of computer forensics in protecting electronic

How to perform a forensic PC investigation (with OSForensics)

When you have a technical interest in Windows or PCs in general, there are few things as fascinating as a good computer forensics package. This is partly because they’re an excellent way to check exactly how someone is using a

Interview with Ben Findlay, North Yorkshire Police Hi Tech Crime Unit

"Many people are familiar with the concept and importance of validating and verifying (V&V) results (and the difference between the two), but it would be fantastic if this could be engineered into the software (perhaps through some form of fundamentals

“I’m here! Now what?”

by Ken Pryor"Working for a small police department in a rural area, my opportunities to do digital forensic work on real cases are much fewer and farther between than those who work in large departments or in the private sector.

Challenges of Smart Phone Forensics

by Rob Adams "Mobile devices have become an essential component of our daily lives. These devices keep us connected and act as so much more than the cell phones and portable music players of the 1990's. It is common today