Speaker 1: Imagine this for a second. You've just cleared out of
Speaker 1: your browser history, maybe emptied the recyclement on your computer,
Speaker 1: and you think, okay, clean slate, everything's gone right. Hm,
Speaker 1: But what if I told you that, in uh, the
Speaker 1: really intricate world of computer forensics, deleted almost never means
Speaker 1: truly erased.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. It's a fascinating field.
Speaker 1: Today we're taking a deep dive into that hidden universe.
Speaker 1: We're exploring computer forensics, and our guide is William's book
Speaker 1: Learn Computer Forensics.
Speaker 2: It really is a world where almost every digital interaction,
Speaker 2: every click, leaves some kind of trace, these little breadcrumbs.
Speaker 2: Understanding how to follow that trail, well, that's the key
Speaker 2: to uncovering what actually happened.
Speaker 1: And our mission for you listing in is to cut
Speaker 1: through all the technical jargon, all the complexity.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to simplify it.
Speaker 1: We want to pull out the most important nuggets of
Speaker 1: knowledge for you. How is digital evidence actually found, how
Speaker 1: is it analyzed? How is it used? You know, whether
Speaker 1: that's in a huge criminal case or maybe a corporate policy.
Speaker 2: Dispute, or even just understanding your own digital footprint exactly.
Speaker 1: We're going to help you grasp what's really going on
Speaker 1: beneath the surface of the devices you use every single day.
Speaker 1: So let's kick things off. Let's establish what we're actually
Speaker 1: talking about here. When we say computer forensics, we're essentially
Speaker 1: looking at a highly specialized type of investigation, aren't we.
Speaker 2: We are. It's all about finding, preserving, and then analyzing
Speaker 2: digital evidence. And that evidence, as you hinted, can be
Speaker 2: incredibly volatile, very fragile sphrisingly so precisely, and what's really
Speaker 2: insightful from the book is just how pervasive this digital
Speaker 2: evidence has become. It flat out states almost everything in
Speaker 2: life is connected to an electronic device.
Speaker 1: That's a huge statement, it is.
Speaker 2: But think about it. Your smart doorbill catches visitors, your
Speaker 2: phone tracks your steps, maybe even your location. Almost every
Speaker 2: action leaves these digital traces.
Speaker 1: So for an investigator, potential evidence is just.
Speaker 2: Everywhere, literally everywhere, And for.
Speaker 1: You listening, it's really important to understand just how broad
Speaker 1: this is. The sheer range of situations where computer forensics
Speaker 1: comes into play. Yeah, it covers both the public sector
Speaker 1: like law enforcement, and the private sector.
Speaker 2: Right from criminal courts all the way to corporate boardrooms.
Speaker 1: Which naturally leads to the question, right Okay, how are
Speaker 1: these investigations different or maybe similar? How are they actually
Speaker 1: conducted in these different worlds?
Speaker 2: That's a key distinction. Let's break it down.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's start with criminal investigations. When police, maybe the
Speaker 1: first responders, show up at a scene, they need more
Speaker 1: than just standard training right now.
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely, they need specific knowledge. They need to spot
Speaker 2: items that could hold digital evidence. The obvious things like
Speaker 2: phones and laptops, sure, but also maybe gaming consoles, smart.
Speaker 1: Speakers, things you might not immediately think of.
Speaker 2: Exactly, and crucially, how to secure those items without contaminating them,
Speaker 2: without altering that fragile evidence.
Speaker 1: And there's a legal framework around this too, isn't there?
Speaker 2: Definitely? In the US, for example, the Fourth Amendment is foundational.
Speaker 2: It generally requires law enforcement to get a search warrant
Speaker 2: or have the owner's explicit consent before they can just
Speaker 2: seize digital devices.
Speaker 1: That's a cornerstone it is.
Speaker 2: It's a constitutional protection, and it deeply shapes how these
Speaker 2: investigations proceed. You can't just grab everything.
Speaker 1: Now here's where the book gets quite real. It delves
Speaker 1: into some very serious crimes, like those involving illicit images
Speaker 1: of children.
Speaker 3: Difficult but necessary area It highlights how the Internet provides
Speaker 3: this of this relatively anonymous access to potentially terabytes of
Speaker 3: data with simple clicks.
Speaker 1: The challenge the book points out isn't just finding the
Speaker 1: illegal content.
Speaker 2: No, that's often just the start.
Speaker 1: The real hurdle is definitively tying the user to this
Speaker 1: specific subject, pinpointing the actual person behind the keyboard, proving
Speaker 1: they access to it, possessed it. It's much harder than.
Speaker 2: People think it really is, and connecting that to sort
Speaker 2: of wider impact things like cyber stocking, cyberbullying. Maybe they
Speaker 2: seem less severe on the surface, but the consequences can
Speaker 2: be absolutely devastating.
Speaker 1: The book gives a really harrowing example, doesn't it.
Speaker 2: It does a terminated employee who for months sent manipulated,
Speaker 2: really compromising images of a former supervisor, just relentlessly awful,
Speaker 2: and the impact on the victim They ended up having
Speaker 2: to leave their job, change their name, and move just
Speaker 2: to escape. It shows how digital harassment isn't just online.
Speaker 2: It destroys real lives offline.
Speaker 1: And it's not always the obvious devices either. We're talking
Speaker 1: smart watches, fitness trackers, yeah, home assistants even right.
Speaker 2: The book mentions a fascinating case a criminal conspiracy. A suspect,
Speaker 2: while sitting in an interrogation room was actually using their
Speaker 2: smartwatch to communicate with co conspirators outside no way, yes,
Speaker 2: and finding that out led to additional charges. Another case,
Speaker 2: a very distinctive bracelet scene in a Facebook photo that
Speaker 2: became the crucial tying a suspect to a physical crime scene.
Speaker 1: Wow. So every connected device is potentially.
Speaker 2: A witness essentially, Yes, anything that records or transmits data.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's shift gears a bit. Let's talk about the
Speaker 1: corporate world here. It's a different kind of digital battlefield.
Speaker 2: Right it is. Investigations often center on things like employee misconduct,
Speaker 2: maybe corporate espionage, intellectual property theft, or the ever present
Speaker 2: insider threat.
Speaker 1: And now the rules are different too.
Speaker 2: They can be. Yeah, the rules of engagement might vary significantly.
Speaker 2: The book mentions Germany, for instance, where examining an employee's
Speaker 2: computer requires very specific, quite strict conditions to be met,
Speaker 2: mainly around privacy.
Speaker 1: So policies are key here.
Speaker 2: Absolutely crucial. In corporate settings, it often comes down to
Speaker 2: what's in the employee handbook or the company's digital usage policies.
Speaker 2: The forensic investigator's role here is often less about building
Speaker 2: a criminal case and more about being an impartial third party.
Speaker 1: The objective FactFinder exactly.
Speaker 2: To recover the artifacts to allow the FactFinder, like HR management,
Speaker 2: to make a well informed decision, maybe substantiating claims of
Speaker 2: a hostile work environment or proving data exfiltration. You provide
Speaker 2: the digital facts, not the judgment.
Speaker 1: The book also talks about different types of hackers, doesn't
Speaker 1: it beyond the sort of movie stereotype.
Speaker 2: It does. It distinguishes between white hat hackers, the ethical
Speaker 2: ones testing systems, black hat hackers doing malicious stuff, and
Speaker 2: even activist hackers or activists with social or political goals.
Speaker 1: Of social engineering like fishing.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's a huge one, tricking people into giving up credentials.
Speaker 2: The book even mentions automated tools like GoFish that can
Speaker 2: be used to launch these kinds of attacks quite easily.
Speaker 1: Scary stuff. Yeah, and the insider threat you mentioned.
Speaker 2: That's particularly worrying for businesses. The book quotes a stat
Speaker 2: that in the IT sector, nearly seventy five percent three
Speaker 2: quarters of insider attacks came from former.
Speaker 1: Employees former employees. Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And what's maybe even more alarming, almost twenty percent
Speaker 2: of those attackers still had active account access after they'd
Speaker 2: left the company.
Speaker 1: That's not just a technical issue. That's a huge policy failure.
Speaker 2: It screams of a fundamental gap and procedures. Yeah, offboarding
Speaker 2: processes need to be water tight.
Speaker 1: So wrapping this section up, what does this all mean
Speaker 1: for you the listener, whether you're running a business or
Speaker 1: just trying to stay safe online?
Speaker 2: Well, I think understanding these different threats, these attack vectors,
Speaker 2: and just how many digital breadcrumbs we all leave that
Speaker 2: awareness is really step one. Protecting yourself. Protecting your data
Speaker 2: starts there.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we get the scope. Now, criminal, corporate, the
Speaker 1: sheer amount of data. But how does an investigator actually
Speaker 1: gear up for one of these digital hunts. It's got
Speaker 1: to be more than just having a powerful computer.
Speaker 2: Re oh much more. The pre investigation considerations the book
Speaker 2: talks about, they're absolutely vital. They're the foundation for any
Speaker 2: credible investigation like WEX Specifically well selecting the right equipment,
Speaker 2: obviously committing to continuous training because this tech changes constantly,
Speaker 2: exactly deep understanding the current laws and regulations in your jurisdiction,
Speaker 2: and critically having a well stocked, pre packed response kit and.
Speaker 1: The computer self the forensic workstation. The book mentions some
Speaker 1: serious specs.
Speaker 2: It does. We're talking high end server processors, massive amounts
Speaker 2: of RAM, like the six hundred and forty gigabytes mentioned
Speaker 2: one and forty gigs of RAM?
Speaker 1: Why so much?
Speaker 2: It's not overkill. Think about loading an entire image of
Speaker 2: a suspect's hard drive, potentially terabytes of data directly into
Speaker 2: memory for analysis. You need that RAM to run complex searches,
Speaker 2: index files, use multiple tools simultaneously without grinding to a halt.
Speaker 2: It's about processing power and avoiding bottlenecks, especially when time
Speaker 2: is critical.
Speaker 1: Got it makes sense. And that response kit you mentioned
Speaker 1: sounds like a detective's go back.
Speaker 2: Pretty much, Yeah, a digital detectives go back. It includes
Speaker 2: things like a digital camera, interestingly often with the microphone
Speaker 2: disabled for legal admissibility reasons. Latex gloves in case of
Speaker 2: biohazards on devices, frequency shielding material like Faraday bags, which
Speaker 2: are crucial. They stop mobile devices from connecting to networks,
Speaker 2: preventing remote white or receiving new data that could contaminate
Speaker 2: the evidence. Essential, and of course, precision toolkits for carefully
Speaker 2: taking apart devices if necessary. Every item has a specific purpose,
Speaker 2: all aimed at preserving evidence, integrity.
Speaker 1: And procedures procedures seeing paramount. The book shares a story it.
Speaker 2: Does, a cautionary tale about a colleague a who basically
Speaker 2: made a huge mistake when creating a forensic image a
Speaker 2: bit or bit copy. They accidentally imaged their own forensic
Speaker 2: laptop system drive instead of the suspects device. Oh no, exactly.
Speaker 2: It's a stark reminder that even experienced people can make
Speaker 2: critical errors if they don't follow meticulous and documented steps.
Speaker 2: One slip up can potentially torpedo the entire investigation.
Speaker 1: So the takeaway for you, the listener, if digital evidence
Speaker 1: ever becomes relevant in your life.
Speaker 2: Or work, it means the reliability the admissibility of that evidence.
Speaker 2: It hinges completely on the investigator sticking rigidly to best
Speaker 2: practices and procedures. Any deviation just opens the door for challenges.
Speaker 1: Okay, now, what about the software the tools investigators use?
Speaker 1: Is it always about expensive commercial software or do open
Speaker 1: source options play role?
Speaker 2: That's a great question. Many assume you need the pricey stuff,
Speaker 2: but the book clarifies that both absolutely have their place.
Speaker 2: Like in case right in case is a well known
Speaker 2: commercial standard, but there are incredibly powerful open source alternatives too,
Speaker 2: things like Autopsy, the Sift work station, Paladin.
Speaker 1: Seeing so advantages either way.
Speaker 2: Commercial tools often come with dedicated support regular updates, which
Speaker 2: is a big plus, but open source tools are frequently
Speaker 2: developed by global communities of experts. They can often achieve
Speaker 2: the exact same results, sometimes even better in specific niches,
Speaker 2: especially if the investigator has the technical skills to really
Speaker 2: leverage them.
Speaker 1: And how do we know these tools actually work correctly?
Speaker 1: They don't alter data themselves.
Speaker 2: Ah well, that's where NIST comes in. The National Institute
Speaker 2: of Standards and Technology. They run something called the Computer
Speaker 2: Forensic Tool Testing Project or CFTT. They independently test and
Speaker 2: validate forensic software. The book stresses it's a best practice
Speaker 2: to validate the results of your forensic tools at least
Speaker 2: annually or whenever the tool gets updated. It provides confidence,
Speaker 2: it ensures the findings you present are demonstrably reliable.
Speaker 1: Crucial for court and before any tool touches evidence, two
Speaker 1: terms keep popping up sterile media and right blocking. Why
Speaker 1: are these so critical? Like non negotiable?
Speaker 2: They are absolutely non negotiable. Right blocking is maybe the
Speaker 2: most fundamental principle, it's hardware or software that physically prevents
Speaker 2: any data from being written to the original evidence device.
Speaker 1: Though I guarantees you don't change anything.
Speaker 2: Precisely, it ensures the integrity of that original source. You
Speaker 2: connect the suspect drive through a right blocker and you
Speaker 2: can read everything, but you literally cannot alter a single bit.
Speaker 2: It prevents any later claims that the investigator tampered with
Speaker 2: the evidence.
Speaker 1: Makes sense. And sterile media.
Speaker 2: Steril media is your target drive where you save the
Speaker 2: forensic image. It needs to be forensically wiped, usually filled
Speaker 2: with hexadecimal zeros before use. This prevents cross contamination, meaning
Speaker 2: you don't want any leftover data from a previous case
Speaker 2: accidentally mixing with your current evidence image. It ensures the
Speaker 2: copy is pure, untainted. The mantra is simply never want
Speaker 2: to change the source de vice digital evidence ever.
Speaker 1: Okay, so the investigators prepped, they have the right tools,
Speaker 1: they're using right blockers and steril media. How do they
Speaker 1: actually get into a system to grab the data without
Speaker 1: again altering anything. The book talks about the boot process.
Speaker 2: Yeah, understanding how a computer starts up is fundamental, whether
Speaker 2: it's the older biosystem which uses a master boot record
Speaker 2: MBR to find the operating system, or the newer UFI
Speaker 2: standard with its gied Partition Table GPTWO. Knowing this helps
Speaker 2: you bypass the normal boot sequence that could write data.
Speaker 2: Oh soo, Well, you need to implement controls to protect
Speaker 2: the integrity of the evidence. For example, if you have
Speaker 2: to boot the suspects machine, which is often avoided, you
Speaker 2: might first try to physically disengage the storage devices if
Speaker 2: they are accessible, or more commonly, you'd boot from a
Speaker 2: specialized forensic live CD or USB drive which loads its
Speaker 2: own operating system and tools into RAM, leaving the suspects
Speaker 2: drives untouched until you mount them in a read only
Speaker 2: state using.
Speaker 1: A write blocker, always read only.
Speaker 2: Always read only for the original evidence.
Speaker 1: Got it? Now? Here's the bit that I think is
Speaker 1: often an AHA moment for people. What actually happens when
Speaker 1: you press delete on a file? Is it really gone? Poof?
Speaker 2: Almost never poof? Not immediately anyway. The book explains that
Speaker 2: in many common file systems, like the older FAT system
Speaker 2: or even NTFS, to an extent, deleting a file doesn't
Speaker 2: actually erase the ones and zeros that make up the
Speaker 2: file's data. On the disc.
Speaker 1: So what does it do?
Speaker 2: It basically just marks the space the file occupied as available.
Speaker 2: It might change the first character of the file name
Speaker 2: in the directory entry, like to ie five and a
Speaker 2: fat yeah, and it clears the pointers in the file
Speaker 2: allocation table that say this block belongs to this file.
Speaker 1: So just removes the signposts exactly.
Speaker 2: It removes the signpost telling the operating system where the
Speaker 2: file is, but the data itself often remains there, untouched,
Speaker 2: until the operating system needs that specific physical space on
Speaker 2: the disc to write new.
Speaker 1: Data, which might not happen for a while.
Speaker 2: Could be minutes, could be months, could be years, depending
Speaker 2: on how full the drive is and how it's used.
Speaker 2: And that's why recovering deleted files is so often possible
Speaker 2: for forensic investigators. They use tools that scan these unallocated
Speaker 2: spaces looking for file fragments or intact files that haven't
Speaker 2: been overwritten yet.
Speaker 1: That's huge. So delete is more like make available for overwriting.
Speaker 2: Eventually pretty much yeah, a much less final action than
Speaker 2: most people assume.
Speaker 1: So beyond recovering these deleted files, what other kinds of
Speaker 1: specif digital breadcrumbs these artifacts can investigators find just within
Speaker 1: the windows operating system itself.
Speaker 2: Oh, Windows is packed with them. The Windows Registry is
Speaker 2: often called the very heart of the Windows operating system.
Speaker 2: Why is that because it's a massive database holding configuration
Speaker 2: settings for hardware, software, user accounts, system policies, pretty much everything.
Speaker 2: For an investigator, it's a gold mine understanding its structure.
Speaker 2: These things called hives lets you reconstruct a timeline of activity.
Speaker 2: See what software was installed, what devices were connected, like
Speaker 2: USB drives, exactly when they were first connected, last connected,
Speaker 2: sometimes even the specific serial number.
Speaker 1: Of the drive. Wow. What about user activity?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? User profiles themselves tell a story local roaming, mandatory
Speaker 2: temporary profiles, and within the registry, specifically the SAM hive,
Speaker 2: you can often find critical timestamps like the last log
Speaker 2: in time for a user or the last password change.
Speaker 2: It's like a digital logbook of who was potentially using
Speaker 2: the system and when an.
Speaker 1: Event log I hear.
Speaker 2: Those are important, hugely important. Windows records thousands of different events.
Speaker 2: For instance, event ID four six four signals a successful
Speaker 2: user login. But crucially, it often records the type of
Speaker 2: log on too.
Speaker 1: What does that tell you?
Speaker 2: It distinguishes between someone physically sitting at the keyboard versus say,
Speaker 2: someone logging in remotely over the network using remote desktop,
Speaker 2: or maybe a network service logging on. In an investigation,
Speaker 2: knowing how someone accessed the system can be just as
Speaker 2: important as knowing when changes the whole picture completely. Was
Speaker 2: it an insider at the desk or an external attacker
Speaker 2: coming through the network, very different scenarios.
Speaker 1: The book also mentions artifacts showing file knowledge, things like
Speaker 1: thumbnail right the thumb caash.
Speaker 2: Windows automatically create small thumbnail images of pictures or videos
Speaker 2: when you browse folders and explore. Finding a thumbnail of
Speaker 2: a specific illicit image, for example, proves that image file
Speaker 2: was present on the system in a location explorer could see.
Speaker 1: But does it prove the users saw it.
Speaker 2: Ah. That's the important caveat the book makes. A thumbnail
Speaker 2: alone is not substantial proof that the user knew the
Speaker 2: image was on the system. It shows the file existed,
Speaker 2: but not necessarily that the user intentionally viewed it. It's
Speaker 2: supporting evidence part of the puzzle, but usually not conclusive on.
Speaker 1: Its own good distinction. Mru List's recycle bin YEP.
Speaker 2: Most recently used or recently used mr u lists track
Speaker 2: files and applications. The user opened the recycle bin even
Speaker 2: if a user empties it, the underlying data might still
Speaker 2: be an unallocated space, and the metadata about what was
Speaker 2: in the bin might still.
Speaker 1: Exist even if it looks empty.
Speaker 2: Even if it looks empty, then you have shortcut LLENK files.
Speaker 2: Windows creates these automatically sometimes or users create them. What's
Speaker 2: fascinating is that llenk file retains information about the original
Speaker 2: target file, its path, size, timestamps, even if the original
Speaker 2: file is later deleted or moved.
Speaker 1: So the shortcut remembers the file in a way.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's another trace and jump lists those lists of
Speaker 2: recent documents or tasks that pair when you write click
Speaker 2: and application on the taskbar. They also store valuable activity data.
Speaker 1: Okay, so tons of traces within Windows itself. Can you
Speaker 1: use these traces to figure out where kmmodra was, like
Speaker 1: its physical location?
Speaker 2: Sometimes yes. Exploring the network history is key here, specifically
Speaker 2: looking at which Wi Fi networks a device has connected
Speaker 2: to and ideally when how does that help well? Wi
Speaker 2: Fi networks have names, SSIDs and often associated location data.
Speaker 2: The book gives a great example an investigation where tracking
Speaker 2: the Wi Fi hotspots a suspect's phone connected to allow
Speaker 2: investigators to map out his movements over time. This completely
Speaker 2: contradicted his alibi about where he claimed to be, So
Speaker 2: the phone's Wi.
Speaker 1: Fi history became a location tracker.
Speaker 2: Essentially, yes, it provided a digital breadcrimb trail of his
Speaker 2: physical locations.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's shift from storage like hard drives and SSDs.
Speaker 1: What about RAM memory analysis? Sounds like a whole different challenge.
Speaker 1: It's voluadle right gone when the power goes.
Speaker 2: Off, extremely validile that's the main challenge. RAM holds a
Speaker 2: snapshot of the system's current running state, like what active processes,
Speaker 2: including hidden malware, network connections currently open. Maybe fragments of
Speaker 2: documents or emails being typed chat messages incredibly valuable time.
Speaker 1: Sensitive data but lost on shutdown.
Speaker 2: Lost on shutdown unless it's specifically captured before the system
Speaker 2: powers down using specialized tools to perform a live acquisition
Speaker 2: or memory dump. Or sometimes fragments might get written to
Speaker 2: system files like page file, dot hasses, Windows Virtual Memory
Speaker 2: or hyberfill dot hasses, which is created during hibernation. But
Speaker 2: capturing live RAM is tricky and needs to happen fast in.
Speaker 1: The tools for analyzing this captured RAM, like bulk extractor volatility.
Speaker 2: Very powerful tools Volatility is an amazing framework for pulling
Speaker 2: structured information out of a raw memory dump running processes,
Speaker 2: network sockets, registry keys loaded in memory. Bulk Extractor, as
Speaker 2: the book notes, takes a different approach. It largely ignores
Speaker 2: the file system structure and just rapidly scans the the
Speaker 2: entire data dump, whether it's RAM or a disc image,
Speaker 2: for specific patterns like what patterns email addresses, URL's, credit
Speaker 2: card numbers, GPS coordinates, specific keywords. It's incredibly fast for
Speaker 2: finding certain types of data without needing to parse the
Speaker 2: whole file system.
Speaker 1: A very different approach. Yeah, shifting again. Communications, email forensics,
Speaker 1: Internet artifacts. These must be huge areas for.
Speaker 2: Investigators, absolutely massive. For email, you have the basic protocol
Speaker 2: SMTP for sending, IMAP or POP three for receiving. That's
Speaker 2: the plumbing.
Speaker 1: But the investigation gold is elsewhere.
Speaker 2: Often yes, it's in decoding email headers. Every email has
Speaker 2: hidden header information. The message aid is unique to each email,
Speaker 2: like a digital fingerprint, and the chain of received headers
Speaker 2: that traces the email's journey from server.
Speaker 1: To server, and that can reveal.
Speaker 2: Crucially, it often reveals the IP addresses of the servers involved,
Speaker 2: including potentially the sender's original IP address along with timestamps.
Speaker 2: This can help trace an email back to its source,
Speaker 2: even if the sender tried to hide their tracks.
Speaker 1: Powerful stuff? What about just general web browsing? Internet history?
Speaker 2: Equally rich? The book details artifacts from all the major browsers, Chrome, Edge, Firefox.
Speaker 2: We're talking bookmarks, detailed browsing history, logs, what sites were
Speaker 2: visited when the browser, cash copies of web pages and
Speaker 2: images stored locally, cookies which track sessions and use of preferences,
Speaker 2: lots to dig through, tons, and it gets granular. The
Speaker 2: book mentions how Google Chrome, for instance, stores its timestams
Speaker 2: in a specific format that needs tools like decode to
Speaker 2: translate accurately into human readable dates and times.
Speaker 1: Details matter and beyond. Browsers, social media, file sharing, cloud
Speaker 1: storage all leave.
Speaker 2: Digital footprints Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, cook p twop apps like
Speaker 2: eras or eMule, cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive. They
Speaker 2: all generate logs and store data.
Speaker 1: But where is that data stored? Mostly not on the
Speaker 1: user's computer right.
Speaker 2: Often No, that's the key thing for you to know here.
Speaker 2: Much of this data, social media posts, cloud files, PDP
Speaker 2: logs resides on the service provider's servers.
Speaker 1: So investigators can't just grab it from the device, usually not.
Speaker 2: The full picture. Accessing that server side data typically requires
Speaker 2: legal process, judicially approved subpoenas or search warrants served on
Speaker 2: the company running the service. It adds a whole layer
Speaker 2: of legal procedure and time to the investigation.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we've talked about finding this mountain of digital
Speaker 1: evidence decoding it, but it's useless if you can't explain
Speaker 1: it clearly right. The book calls report writing possibly one
Speaker 1: of the hardest things for an investigator.
Speaker 2: Why because it demands a really unique skill set. You
Speaker 2: have to take an incredibly technical subject and explain it
Speaker 2: in a manner that a non technical person like a judge,
Speaker 2: a jury, or company management will.
Speaker 1: Understand without dumbing it down too.
Speaker 2: Much, exactly, and crucially, without making assumptions or injecting your
Speaker 2: own opinions. It's a balancing act for you, the listener.
Speaker 2: The absolute key takeaways here are clarity, impartiality, and sticking
Speaker 2: strictly to the objective facts. The investigator educates. They don't
Speaker 2: advocate for.
Speaker 1: One side, and good notes are essential, I.
Speaker 2: Imagine non negotiable. The book quotes the maxim if you
Speaker 2: do not write it down it did not happen. Meticulous
Speaker 2: contemporaneous notes during the examination are critical. They form the
Speaker 2: basis of the final.
Speaker 1: Report, which has a specific structure.
Speaker 2: Generally, yes, a good report includes administrative details, case numbers,
Speaker 2: investigator info, a clear executive summary hitting the key findings,
Speaker 2: the methodology used, what tools, what procedures, details of the
Speaker 2: evidence analyzed, specifics of the acquisition and analysis process, and
Speaker 2: finally all the supporting exhibits screenshots, log excerpts, et cetera.
Speaker 1: And the language used. Yeah, the book warns.
Speaker 2: About that strongly. It emphasizes using objective language, avoiding absolute
Speaker 2: statements unless completely certain, and steering clear of unnecessary adjectives
Speaker 2: that carry emotional weight.
Speaker 1: Can you give that example again, the one about.
Speaker 2: The image, right, Instead of writing a disturbing image of
Speaker 2: a child which injects opinion and emotion, the report should
Speaker 2: state factually something like an image depicting a young looking
Speaker 2: male nude standing in a wooded area. Describe what you
Speaker 2: see objectively.
Speaker 1: Let the image speak for itself to the fact finder.
Speaker 2: Precisely you present the digital facts. You don't offer opinions
Speaker 2: on their meaning or impact. That's for the judge, jury
Speaker 2: or management to decide based on all the evidence presented.
Speaker 1: This focus on integrity of the process, the tools, the
Speaker 1: reporting seems vital. The book gives some pretty sobering examples
Speaker 1: of what happens when things go wrong, doesn't.
Speaker 2: It It does? These are really important lessons. Look at
Speaker 2: the Casey Anthony case. Potentially crucial digital evidence was, as
Speaker 2: the book says, mitigated. Its impact lessened partly because the
Speaker 2: defense raised questions about an error reported and the forensic.
Speaker 1: Tool used, creating doubt about the finding exactly.
Speaker 2: It casts doubt on the reliability of those specific findings.
Speaker 1: And there was another case with deleted messages.
Speaker 2: Yes We're an investigator apparently deleted text messages and edit
Speaker 2: the video file of the recording of the confession. When
Speaker 2: this came to light, the judge informed the jury that
Speaker 2: these alterations had hindered the government's prosecution and the verdict
Speaker 2: not guilty. In both situations, fundamental errors or misconduct related
Speaker 2: to handling or presenting digital evidence seriously damaged or even
Speaker 2: destroyed the prosecution's case.
Speaker 1: It really hammers home the need for procedure.
Speaker 2: It underscores why proper evidence handling procedures, maintaining that meticulous
Speaker 2: unbroken chain of custody and security from seizure to courtroom
Speaker 2: are absolutely paramount. They're not just bureaucratic steps.
Speaker 1: They're essential for admissibility. Essential.
Speaker 2: Any misstep, any gap in the chain, any deviation from procedure,
Speaker 2: it can create reasonable doubt in the mind of a juror,
Speaker 2: and reasonable doubt is all it takes to generate an acquittal,
Speaker 2: even if the underlying digital evidence seems strong.
Speaker 1: So finally, let's talk about the role of the investigator
Speaker 1: as an expert witness in court and the ethics involved.
Speaker 1: Aren't there to help one side win, are they?
Speaker 2: Absolutely not. That's a fundamental misunderstanding some people have. As
Speaker 2: an expert witness, your duty is to the court, to
Speaker 2: the truth. You have a responsibility to conduct due diligence,
Speaker 2: be truthful, and.
Speaker 1: Be objective, regardless of who hired.
Speaker 2: You, regardless The book references the International Association of Computer
Speaker 2: Investigative Specialists IACIS Code of Ethics. It strictly prohibits things
Speaker 2: like misrepresenting your credentials or any form of professional dishonesty.
Speaker 2: Your goal, simply put, is to be unbiased and present
Speaker 2: the facts of the matter to the FactFinder period.
Speaker 1: Allow them to make the informed decision.
Speaker 2: Based on the digital truth as you found it explained
Speaker 2: clearly and objectively. It's a role built entirely on trust
Speaker 2: and integrity.
Speaker 1: And given how fast technology changes, it really is a
Speaker 1: field where the learning never.
Speaker 2: Stops, constantly evolving new devices, new software, and new encryption methods.
Speaker 2: You have to stay current.
Speaker 1: Okay, So wrapping this all up, what does this deep
Speaker 1: dive mean for you are listener.
Speaker 2: Well, hopefully it's revealed this kind of hidden world that
Speaker 2: exists within all our digital devices, a world where almost
Speaker 2: every action, every click, every connection leaves some kind of trace.
Speaker 1: And where skilled ethical investigators can meticulously uncover the truth
Speaker 1: bite by bite.
Speaker 2: You've hopefully gained a much clearer understanding of the whole journey,
Speaker 2: from the types of cases, whether they're criminal or corporate
Speaker 2: or even cyber stocking, right to the specialized tools and
Speaker 2: the absolutely critical procedures needed to collect and analyze that
Speaker 2: evidence properly. And you've seen why impartiality and ethics aren't optional,
Speaker 2: they're foundational.
Speaker 1: We've explored some fascinating artifacts hidden deep in operating systems.
Speaker 1: We've decoded secrets and email headers and browser trails, and
Speaker 1: maybe the big takeaway For many, we've learned that deleted
Speaker 1: rarely means gone, that data often sticks around waiting to
Speaker 1: be recovered.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's often a surprise. So your enhanced awareness now
Speaker 2: of these digital foot prince we all leave and the
Speaker 2: forensic process used to find them, hopefully it gives you
Speaker 2: a new appreciation for these hidden layers of information all
Speaker 2: around us.
Speaker 1: Maybe a deeper understanding of your own digital life too. Definitely.
Speaker 1: So here's a final thought something for you to maybe
Speaker 1: mull over after this. If our digital world retained so
Speaker 1: much information, if skilled investigators can recover so many detailed
Speaker 1: traces of our online and offline activities through our devices,
Speaker 1: what does that really imply for the future of personal privacy?
Speaker 2: A big question?
Speaker 1: And thinking about that, how might this newfound knowledge actually
Speaker 1: shape your own digital habits, your own approach to how
Speaker 1: you live your life online moving forward? Something to think
Speaker 1: about