retrieving data from a smartphone

Understanding the Mobile Forensics Procedure

Mobile device forensics has become a major part of digital forensics. The use of mobile devices increasingly continues to gravitate between personal and professional use.

The main objective of mobile forensics is recovering digital evidence or data from a mobile device.

Following the appropriate methodology and guidelines is important for the examination of mobile devices to yield good results. This blog post will discuss the mobile forensics procedure.

Continue reading

commuter security

Can Digital Forensics Help Combat Cybercrime?

The technological advancements of this century have become useful to us in all walks of life. The criminals of the 21st century have also unfortunately modified their criminal channels accordingly.

Data leaks, hacks, and breaches of sensitive information were not common more than a decade ago. However, cybercrime has become the most dangerous and discreet method of committing crimes today. To catch these technologically evolved criminals, digital forensics has also morphed accordingly. Cybersecurity has become an essential concern of most private and government sectors, and computer forensics engineers can prove helpful in this regard.

Continue reading

Investigators reviewing collected data

How They Cracked the Justin Barber Case

A calm evening, a romantic walk at the beach, and the shining moonlight; everything made it the perfect evening for a romantic third wedding anniversary. However, things turned deadly for husband Justin Barber and wife April when an unidentified assailant tried to rob them and then brutally gunned them down.

However, law enforcement experts quickly gathered compelling evidence and got their hands on the right man – Justin Barber.

Continue reading

video forensic expert at work

Here’s How to Become a Video Forensics Expert

Video evidence might seem to solve a crime. However, it can also lead to false accusations against someone who isn’t guilty.

The camera cannot lie; however, it can always be manipulated to alter the truth. This is where video forensic experts come in to authenticate and analyze video evidence in a legal case.

But, what makes a professional video forensics expert? This post explains how anyone can become a professional video forensics expert.

Continue reading

magnifying glass representing investigation

3 Types of Evidence & How They’re Used For Investigations

Every time there’s an investigation conducted for a criminal case, evidence is required to uncover the truth. Investigators are responsible for seeking and collecting data that can be used to get more details about the case and determine who the culprit is.

Evidence exists in various forms. Even if a particular form of evidence isn’t allowed to be used in courts, investigators can still use it to get more insight into the case. Let’s take a look at three of the most popular types of evidence used in investigations.

Continue reading

a cyber forensic expert

How is Digital Evidence Gathered?

In 2021, digital devices are quite common, with the most common ones being mobile phones, tablets, and computers. However, the emergence of IoT has made a plethora of electronic devices a source of digital evidence. For example, a digital camera can be used to view or store illegal images. The first responders in this case are digital forensic experts, who should identify and seize every electronic device to acquire evidence.

But how is this digital evidence gathered? Hear what our digital forensic engineer has to say!

Collection of digital evidence

Numerous sources can be used to collect digital evidence. Some of these sources are servers, cloud computers, USB memory sticks, CD-ROM, hard drives, digital cameras, mobile phones, computers, and the like. Some of the more non-obvious sources include web pages that should be preserved because they can change, as well as RFID tags. It’s important to ensure that extra care of data sources is taken so that nothing can modify or contaminate them as they’ll be used for digital forensic investigations.

Since the majority of digital information is volatile, it’s subject to change. Once it’s modified, identifying the changes or rolling back the data to its original state becomes a lot more difficult. Therefore, a cryptographic hash of digital evidence can be carried out and calculated. This hash must be recorded in a safe place to ensure there’s no contamination of digital evidence. This is crucial because it would allow computer forensic experts to establish whether someone fiddled with the original data evidence or not.

Imaging evidence within the electronic media

During the initial phases of the investigation, it’s a good practice to duplicate the original evidentiary media. Now, a combination of software imaging tools and standalone hard-drive duplicators can be used to fully close the entire hard drive. This can be done at the sector level, where a bit-stream copy of all parts of the hard drive’s user-accessible areas will be made. This means there won’t be any need to duplicate the file system. In order to prevent tampering, the original drive can be transferred to secure storage. While this imaging process is underway, a write-blocking or write-protection application or device can be used to make sure no information is made part of the evidentiary media during the computer forensic investigation.

a forensic computer analyst

Why preserving the sources of investigation is important?

It’s important to preserve the sources from which evidence is gathered so that the chain of custody remains intact. Otherwise, it won’t be possible to validate the results of the digital forensic investigation.

Turn to Eclipse Forensics – your certified digital forensic consultant

Since 2005, we’ve worked on hundreds of cases for a variety of individuals, private attorneys, and law enforcement jurisdictions. We’re ready and poised to help in the analysis and development of mobile device forensics, authenticate audio and video forensics, court-certified forensics in FL. Contact us now for more information!