The term, “Forensics”, includes many individual disciplines and fields of investigation. What they all share is the seeking of what is true concerning the object of each of those investigations. The results forensic examiners get come after meticulous examination of data and equally often, lead to further investigation involving other forensic disciplines. For example: recovering data from a cell phone would originate in a Digital or Mobile Device forensic platform. But, if a video is the target from that phone, it may need Forensic Video enhancement/analysis, it may need to isolate individual video frames for Forensic Image enhancement/analysis or it may need to have Forensic Audio enhancement so that voices can be clarified and understood.
There are many forensic firms that offer all four of the disciplines mentioned in the example above: Digital Forensics; Mobile Device Forensic; Video/Image Forensics and Audio Forensics. In most cases though, different individuals are conducting the different aspects. That also requires multiple Expert Witnesses when it comes to court presentations and trials.
Eclipse Forensics is unique when compared to most other forensic firms and labs. Jim Stafford, Forensic Examiner at Eclipse, is certified in all four of the disciplines mentioned and has experience with court proceedings as an Expert Witness in them all. Being able to investigate simultaneously in each discipline leads to a far more efficient workflow, gets results quicker and saves our clients money.
As we continue to author these blogs look for other suggestions on how to collect, preserve and transfer evidence. We also will provide examples of multi discipline investigations, some drawn from real cases we have worked on. Thank you for reading this and we hope to see you again…