Tell us a bit about your role and how you came to be interested in digital forensics.
Hi, I’ve been the marketing manager of HddSurgery since 2014. Our company is developing and selling specialized mechanical tools for the most difficult hard drive malfunctions in data recovery and computer forensics.
We have cooperated with various police and private forensics units and experts regarding data recovery cases and the usage of our products.I am always trying to find some appropriate and useful topics for the Forensic Focus portal (like MediaCache) or to present the benefits of our products in digital forensics.
What does a typical working day in your life look like?
As the marketing manager, I am in charge of all digital activities we are using to maintain brand awareness and attract more customers.
We are using several platforms for advertising – Facebook, YouTube, AdWords, MailChimp and portals like Forensic Focus.
This involves appropriate content creation and understanding the statistical connection between the digital campaigns and customer conversions. I can say that these activities take the most of my working hours.
Talk us through some of HddSurgery's products – what are your flagship options?
We have several product categories:
– Head replacement tools
– Head Unstick tools
– Motor Unstick tools
– Spindle replacement tools
– Data recovery accessories
The most popular products are in the Head Replacement category. These products are used for the head swap procedure, i.e. when you need to replace the broken heads from the hard drive. I would like to mention HDDS Sea 7200.11/.12/LP/ES.2 p3-4, HDDS Sea 3.5″ Ramp Set, HDDS WDC 2.5″-3.5″ Ramp Set.
Our most sophisticated product is HDDS Horizontal Laminar Flow Cabinet M (Clean Bench) which is used in Clean Room laboratories for forensics and data recovery examination.
Could you give us an example of a use case of one of your products?
Yes, for example Sea 2.5’’ Slim set which is used for head replacement procedure on ultra slim Seagate drives from families like Rosewood.
These drives have limited space and the head swap procedure is very difficult for even skilled engineers and technicians.
We found the unique solution and tool design which can completely solve a ‘’broken heads’’ case.
Because of that, Sea 2.5’’ Slim set became our fastest record breaker in the number of sold products. Our stock was completely empty soon after the release.
In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge facing digital forensics practitioners today, and how do your products help to address this?
Digital forensics experts do not have cases with broken hard drives so often. Because of this, their experience of this kind of problem is not on such a level that they can recognize a potential danger when starting the drive.
I think that this gap in experience can be solved if they work closely with data recovery experts. That way they can receive the necessary knowledge for at least what are the threats with HDDs.
Our products ensure safe and easy usage in the most critical part of recovery. With these tools even the beginners will have more confidence.
You've recently updated the Firmware Database – tell us a bit about this and what the new changes mean.
Since we have a lot of drives for data recovery, we decided it would a great opportunity to share the resources, i.e. firmware files, with the community.
We share these files with our colleagues from data recovery and computer forensics, and so far we have more than 940 users who use our Firmware Database service. This database is updated regularly every week.
About the big update you are referring to, it included 3511 files and some new families were added:
– For Seagate drives – YarraX, Rosewood_A5, Rosewood_8C, Bacall, Pharaoh_Oasis, MantaRay, Megalodon and Casey families.
– For Western Digital drives – Trails, SpyGlass, TresXLB2, Tresselb, FBH15SL, KOJN_RE, PebbleB, Aztec PL, DF4PL RE.
This means that the users will find the files for the newest famillies of drives which are popular on data recovery market currently.
Finally, when you're not working, what do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
For the last 10 years I have been into photography and this is what takes up most of my spare time.
I am always researching new photo techniques and editing styles in order to keep my knowledge up with the trends and stay in the industry.
Luckily, there are so many things to find on Instagram and photography portals.
Find out more about HddSurgery's products and solutions on their website.
