Author Archives: EclipseForensics

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5 Questions to Ask When Hiring a Private Digital Crime Lab

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Digital forensic services and private crime labs can help organizations process digital evidence effectively. While several digital crime labs are working in the USA, not all offer the same level of services. The forensics experts you choose must have the right expertise and knowledge to conduct an investigation thoroughly to bring the criminals to justice.

Reliable cyber forensics experts will evaluate and analyze digital evidence based on pre-determined criteria. Thus, ask your digital crime lab services the following questions to ensure their credibility and professionalism:

1. What are your qualifications?

Digital evidence can be rendered irrelevant in the court due to the lack of qualifications, knowledge, and experience of the candidate presenting them. Therefore, you should ask your forensics team about their qualifications, certifications, and work experience to make the most out of their services.

2. Does your lab maintain any accreditation?     

Third-party organizations offering accreditation to federal and state crime labs also provide their services to private digital crime labs. Maintaining accreditation ensures that the private forensics services follow standard procedures and policies, use the right tools, and train their team to handle projects professionally. Thus, ensure your crime lab maintains accreditation to validate your findings in court.

3. Can I review a sample of your findings report?

graphical illustration on paper.

A reputable private lab provides a detailed explanation and in-depth investigation of their findings in a report. Therefore, always ask your chosen digital forensics crime lab for a sample report to understand their reporting skills. The report should be easy to understand, concise, and clear for the judges and attorneys to understand. Don’t hesitate to ask them questions regarding the report findings!

4. How much will it cost?

Don’t be afraid to ask about the overall costs before hiring a crime lab services. Firms that give vague answers to this question must be considered a red flag. On the other hand, reliable services will give you a fixed estimate depending on the nature of the investigation and the time required for surveillance.

5. Do you have any specialty?

Many crime labs specialize in audio and video forensic services. Therefore, consult a private crime lab specializing in a specific forensic investigation for optimum results.

If you’re interested in getting help from a reliable video analysis expert, we can help! At Eclipse Forensics, our team takes pride in offering high-quality audio and video forensic services at affordable rates. Learn more about us here.

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How Digital Forensics Helps in IP Theft Cases

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Intellectual property theft is the expression used to describe a situation where someone steals an idea or invention from a company or individual. It also refers to cyber criminals stealing a firm’s trade secrets, trademarks, copyrights, and patents. Unfortunately, identifying IP theft can be challenging in a world where a few clicks can compromise a company’s trade secrets.

Digital forensic experts play a critical role in handling potential IP theft cases effectively. Here’s how cyber forensics are used in IP theft investigations:

Using Forensics to Identify IP Theft  

Most IP theft perpetrators are the company’s employees. Thus, asking your IT team to track evidence may raise conflicts of interest or bias. Furthermore, your IT team might not have the right skills and knowledge required to track down the intangible assets. Thus, companies must rely on professional digital forensic engineers to trace and preserve the collected evidence. Here are some effective methods of digital forensics used for handling IP theft cases:

  1. Use of Devices – a reliable digital forensic team will preserve any crime-related electronic devicesfor the authorities to inspect. They will shut down the access to all related devices upon suspecting an IP theft. The investigation will proceed to identify and harvest data that might help experts determine the crime.
  2. An In-depth Analysis of Data – a successful digital forensic investigation goes beyond analyzing communication contents and user movement. A detailed examination will show exactly what happened during the cybercrime. Digital forensics addresses the following concerns during an IP theft investigation:
  • Did the criminals copy data onto CDs or USBs?
  • Was any mass data deleted?
  • Where was the USB flash drive used?
  • Did they use a wiping program to cover their crime?
  • Are there any email communications that indicate a potential IP theft?
  • Which devices were used to perform file transfers?

A screen showing malicious programs.

Proving IP Theft

To prove an IP theft, you need digital forensics data from social media platforms, mobile apps, and other digital platforms. While the data drawn from these devices may be diverse, it can allow cyber forensics experts to detect the breach’s time, date, and location. By hiring forensic experts to present your case in a court of law, you’ll better understand the significance of digital forensics in identifying IP theft.

If you’re looking for professional digital forensics consultants in Florida, we can help! At Eclipse Forensics, we handle audio, video, and court-certified forensics at affordable rates. Contact us today to avail our services.

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Options for Dealing with the Digital Forensics Backlog

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Prosecutors and law enforcement agencies often face a daunting 10-20 month backlog due to a lack of personnel, resources, and storage. This pushes the digital evidence process back significantly. Sadly, the exponential growth of digital evidence and public budgets further delay the process, causing the backlog to last for a long time.

Is outsourcing digital forensic services the best option? Learn more about it through this blog:

1. Don’t Accept the Backlog.

You may accept that digital evidence processes will take several months to give you some actionable intelligence from a device seized at a crime scene. Unfortunately, doing nothing and waiting for the state labs to end the backlog will cost you more money in the long run. Furthermore, you’ll need more investigative resources and surveillance over time while waiting for the state crime labs to process the cell phone evidence. In this context, accepting the time taken to process digital evidence will only cost your firm several dollars and business opportunities.

2. In-house Digital Forensic Lab

While building your own in-house forensic lab may seem tempting, you must have enough time, money, and knowledge to process digital evidence accurately. Building a new lab isn’t the only thing needed to complete all the pending processes. You must also consult professional forensics engineers and data forensic experts to process the large amounts of digital evidence available in the form of voice recorders, cameras, flash drives, mobile phones, GPS devices, hard drives, and more. Thus, consider this option only if you’re certain you’ve gained a good understanding of the digital evidence processes.

A person pointing at a laptop screen

3. Outsource Digital Forensic Services  

Outsourcing cyber forensic services is an effective and quick way to address your backlog, especially for time-sensitive and complex cases. Fortunately, various cyber forensic experts willing to outsource their services to companies that need them. Professional digital forensic services have the right expertise and knowledge to deal with law enforcement and cross-examination in a court of law.

While many digital forensic engineers available, not all offer the same level of expertise and services as Eclipse Forensics. We are reliable court-certified forensics based in Florida that can help you address your backlog effectively. Contact us now for more details.

A flat-screen computer in a dark room.

Top 3 Mistakes Made On Scene with Digital Evidence

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Digital devices have become so omnipresent that almost all crime scenes include at least one or more forms of digital evidence. While a proper digital forensics examination using these devices can solve a crime, it’s often the actions and decisions taken during evidence collection that determine whether the investigation would succeed or not.

Here are some of the biggest mistakes made with digital evidence on a crime scene:

1. Not Isolating the Digital Device from Networks

Securing a device at a crime scene helps cyber forensics experts analyze and investigate its data. However, if they fail to isolate the device from a wireless or a cellular network, the evidence it contains could be at risk.

A mobile that connects to a wireless or cellular network will continue to sync documents, emails, photos, and contacts with cloud-based services, destroying or corrupting digital evidence as a result. This enables the device’s owner to lock or wipe the digital evidence from the device remotely. Therefore, digital forensic experts must isolate mobile phones and laptops from Bluetooth, cellular, or wireless connectivity to examine them forensically.

A person using a laptop.

2. Powering on the PC

This is another grave mistake that most investigators make at the crime scene. Upon seizing a computer, you must not give in to the temptation of switching it on in search of evidence. That’s because once you log into a computer, it will check for software updates, run a virus check, connect to a network, and resume its background processes. Once the computer is connected to the Internet, the information it contains might be modified or deleted remotely.

Professional forensic engineers have the right equipment to analyze digital evidence without turning on the computer. Therefore, businesses must always hire experts to acquire and restore data.

3. Not Labeling Digital Evidence

Amateur investigators often fail to identify and label the various forms of digital evidence.  While a desktop computer might seem like a single device, expert digital forensics services will identify and label every single component of the device that stores data as digital evidence.

Contact Eclipse Forensics in Florida if you’re looking for professional and reliable digital forensics experts. Our team is highly-skilled and knowledgeable in processing, examining, and presenting digital evidence in a court of law. Call us today for more details.

A detective working on a case.

Reasons Why You Need a Digital Forensic Examiner

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In the digital age, it’s important to know how to properly handle electronic evidence. Many crimes and legal cases are solved with the help of a forensic examiner, who is an expert in computer forensics and data recovery. If you’re not familiar with this term, here are some of the reasons why you need a digital forensic examiner.

Lost or Stolen Devices

If your phone or computer was lost or stolen, this could be used as evidence against you if you’re suspected of committing a crime. Your device may contain information about your whereabouts at certain times, as well as other personal information that can be used against you in court. A digital forensic examiner can access the contents of your device and determine what information can be recovered from it. This may include emails, text messages, photos, and videos that show where you were at certain times or with certain people.

Hacking Incidents

Hackers often target large companies and government agencies because they have valuable information stored on their servers and databases that they want to access for financial gain or bragging rights within their hacktivist community. These hackers can also attack individuals by breaking into their online accounts like social media sites and email accounts so they can steal personal data like credit card numbers or bank account passwords which can cause you a lot of loss. By working with a good digital forensic examiner, you will be able to bring such people to justice.

Help Needed to Maintain PR

You want to find out if someone has been posting slanderous comments about you online and want them removed from the internet as soon as possible before they damage your reputation even more than they already have done so far. When a business is in trouble, it’s not uncommon for the owner to call in the professionals to help. Those who are facing legal troubles from their actions need to know that they can rely on a digital forensic examiner to help them out.

A person holding a sign that says, 'you've been hacked!'

Get the Best Digital Forensic Expert

If you’ve been accused of a crime or if you’re planning on taking legal action against someone else, then you need to know what your options are and how to proceed. By working with experienced digital forensics experts, you can bring your case to a fruitful and positive conclusion.

At Eclipse Forensics, our team of cyber forensic experts, audio forensic experts, and video forensic experts guides you throughout the testing period and helps you get the results you deserve.

Get in touch with us for more information.

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Using Cellular Records Analysis in Insurance Claims

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Identifying the merit in insurance claims to analyze if the insurer’s coverage request is right or not can be significantly difficult. The experts involved in the case look over all evidence to check if the claim is eligible for a payout. For the trial, all evidence is collected and presented in the court, including cellular records, to analyze the authenticity of the insurer’s claim.

Cellular records remain one of the best types of evidence to get to the bottom of the case. There are no two ways when it comes to the authenticity of the evidence, as it directly comes from the insurer. A forensic expert performs the analysis to help the judge decide if the insurer is speaking the truth or not.

The Importance of Cellular Records Analysis in Insurance Claims   

Nowadays, forensic analyses are incomplete without the inspection of the phone data. The cellular records analysis reveals critical information that can turn the case upside down and help give merit to the insurer.

Mobile phones contain personal information in the form of images, texts, location, phone records, and more. In most insurance claims cases, the cellular records analysis helps in clearing the air to make a breakthrough in the case.

A person talking on the call

This analysis is only focused on the calls received or made through the phone. The experts collect the different cellular data, including the date of the call, time of the call, call duration, IMEI, cell site identity number, and more from the insurer’s phone.

Moreover, the GPS location is collected through cellular records, which helps identify the insurer’s location at the time of the event. The data helps uncover whether the insurer was aware of the damage or if they were true in making a claim.

In short, it won’t be wrong to say that cellular records analysis has sped up the process of identifying the future of insurance claims. With data analysis tools used in forensics, there’s less chance of error, and the authenticity of the results cannot be questioned under normal circumstances.

Need Digital Forensic Services? Call Eclipse Forensics Now

Eclipse Forensics is a team of digital forensic experts in FL. We can help you with cellular records analysis at competitive prices. Whether it’s cell phone searching or video forensic analysis – we can do it all for you.

We have years of experience in helping clients find out the truth with 100% client satisfaction. We are here to assist you in your insurance claim cases to decide the authenticity of the insurer’s claim. Get in touch with us today for more details!

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3 Myths About Digital Forensics

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If you’re a fan of the crime genre, you must have seen a lot of TV shows and movies where the whole case gets resolved in a single episode. After watching a lot of similar content, people often believe that it’s true. However, they are fictional crime shows that barely show what happens behind closed doors.

When people are faced with a similar situation, they presume that it will be a matter of hours when the final verdict comes out, but there’s more to it. There are hundreds of myths existing in peoples’ minds that are necessary to be blown away. This post will find three myths that people commonly believe about digital forensics and how they are certainly not true.

Myth #1: It’s All About Computers

It was true in the beginning, but now digital forensics is no longer limited to computers. Digital forensics now include different areas of expertise, including hacking attempts and security breaches, devices, and other sub-fields such as database forensics, and so on.

Today, computing is not limited to screens–it has led to hyper-connected devices, IoT devices, GPS devices, smartphones, vehicles, and more. The evolution in technology has completely transformed the area of digital forensics.

Myth #2: Digital Forensics is for High-Profile Cases

A scientist working on a sample to collect data

Many people believe that digital forensics is only used in high-profile cases. In reality, the case does not have to be a huge theft, arson, or hack to involve forensics in it. The digital forensic experts work on all tech-savvy investigations regardless of their type. Digital forensics also helps companies and organizations with data recovery, IT security audits, privacy breaches, and forgeries.

Myth #3: Digital Forensics Solve the Case in Hours

The worst myth that you have heard about is that digital forensics resolves the case in a few hours or days. It takes a lot of time to gather the data, investigating it, decoding data, etc., so it’s barely possible to give results in hours or days. Every case is different with different levels of complexities, so you cannot expect them to be resolved in an allotted time.

Hire Digital Forensic Expert in FL Now

If you’re in search of digital forensic services in FL, then we’re here to assist you with it. We are the cyber forensic expert in FL with years of experience in the field. Get in touch with us today to discuss your case more.

A mobile phone tower used for sending and receiving data

Tips on Handling Cellular Records Analysis in Criminal Defense Cases

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Cell records are now commonly presented in the court of law to find out the alleged person’s location based on the phone’s tower used. Although this evidence often helps courts conclude, they have the potential to cause misunderstanding. Therefore, it’s necessary that cellular records analysis should be handled appropriately to avoid any issues in the future.

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Collecting samples at a crime scene

Understanding the Essential Phases of a Crime Scene Investigation Process

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The crime scene investigation process can be extremely complex based on the nature of the crime. The way officers handle a crime scene of burglary is different from that of homicide. Outdoor, indoor, and conveyance crime scenes have unique factors to consider.

However, the essential steps of an investigation process remain the same regardless of the crime. Here’s how these steps apply to an investigation.

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A Complete Guide to Different Types of Expert Witnesses

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An expert witness can be employed in litigation, tribunals, and arbitrations. These individuals have comprehensive experience or knowledge of a particular discipline or field.

Due to the wide variety of cases being handled in the court, different kinds of experts come in to testify. They may testify in child custody battles, products liability, criminal law, personal injury claims, adoptions proceedings, and more. Here’s a guide to different types of expert witnesses.

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