A round-up of this week’s digital forensics news and views:
Digital Forensics Expert Argues Field Demands Testimony Skills
Digital forensics and incident response demand more than technical expertise—they require the ability to clearly communicate complex findings, often under oath. Drawing from a 15-year law enforcement career, Patrick Siewert argues that courtroom testimony is a core, often overlooked, aspect of DF/IR work. Many underestimate the mental resilience, communication skills, and long-term commitment it takes to succeed in this field. For those undeterred by the pressure, the path offers immense opportunity—but it’s not for everyone.
Read more (dfirphilosophy.blogspot.com)
New Tool Extracts Browser Passwords for Digital Forensics
Breakpoint Forensics releases Browser Password Scraper, a free Windows tool that rapidly extracts saved passwords from Chromium-based browsers and Firefox during live forensic investigations. The tool bypasses Chrome’s v20 App-Bound Encryption and formats extracted credentials into readable CSV files for investigators.
Read more (breakpointforensics.com)
UK Employers Face Legal Obligations to Protect Digital Workers from Psychological Trauma
Forensic psychologist Paul Griffiths outlines comprehensive legal obligations requiring UK employers to safeguard mental health of workers in high-risk digital roles. The commentary details how digital forensic investigators, online content moderators, and law enforcement analysts face heightened psychological risks from constant exposure to traumatic material, creating potential liability under health and safety, equality, and employment law. Griffiths argues that failure to provide adequate psychological protections may constitute negligence or workplace discrimination.
Digital Forensics Guide Reveals DuckDuckGo Browser Download Tracking Methods
Digital forensics investigators can extract detailed download history from DuckDuckGo’s Android browser by analyzing the downloads.db SQLite database, which stores file information, timestamps, and download status. The database lacks source URLs but investigators can recover deleted downloads by examining WAL files and identifying gaps in auto-incrementing IDs to determine if downloads were cancelled or manually deleted.
Read more (digital4n6withdamien.blogspot.com)
Revenge Porn Helpline Manager Reveals Challenges Facing Intimate Image Abuse Victims
Sophie Mortimer of the UK’s Revenge Porn Helpline describes how police confusion about digital evidence and laws creates barriers for victims reporting intimate image abuse. She emphasizes that most victims prefer image removal over prosecution, while highlighting the severe psychological trauma including depression, anxiety, and social withdrawal caused by such abuse.
Forensic Analysis Reveals Apple Health Data Accuracy Issues
Extensive testing of Apple Health databases reveals that step counting proves reasonably accurate during walking, but distance measurements consistently underreport actual distances traveled. The research also demonstrates that iPhones can erroneously record steps and flight climbs when held during vehicle travel, while devices placed in docks remain unaffected by vehicular movement.
iOS Unified Logs: Forensic Analysis and Extraction Methods
Digital forensics expert Matthew explores iOS unified logs, which combine data from multiple sources including Biome artifacts, location services, and app activities to provide comprehensive device activity records. He demonstrates using Lionel Notari’s free Unified Log Extractor and Parser tool to acquire and convert these logs into SQL databases for analysis. The logs can grow extremely large, often reaching gigabytes in size with millions of entries, but filtering by date ranges and custom rules can significantly reduce the data volume for practical investigation purposes.
Read more (matthewplascencia.substack.com)
State Laws on AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material Show Mixed Legal Landscape
A comprehensive analysis reveals significant variation across U.S. states in criminalizing AI-generated or computer-edited child sexual abuse material, with 32 states and Washington D.C. having laws that explicitly or effectively criminalize such content while 18 states lack specific prohibitions. Many states have recently updated their statutes to address emerging AI technology, with bills passed in 2024 and 2025 expanding definitions to include digitally created, computer-generated, or artificially manipulated depictions of minors in sexual situations.
