Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Interview with Keith Cottenden, Forensic Services Director, CY4OR

Can you tell us something about your background and how you became involved in digital forensics?

I spent 22 years in the Royal Air Force Police specialising as a Counter Intelligence and Information Technology Security investigator; supporting criminal and security investigations by the examination of recovered computer media, using recognised forensic techniques. I have over twenty years experience of carrying out computer audits and investigating incidents of computer misuse, virus attacks, hacking and loss & theft of data. I have been in the private sector, specialising in digital forensics, for the last 8 years and have worked on behalf of law enforcement agencies, solicitors and corporate clients on a variety of UK based and international cases.

What services does CY4OR offer?

CY4OR is recognised as an industry leader in the investigation of serious and complex crime, and civil litigation cases. We have extensive experience in conducting investigation on a broad range of digital media including computers, mobile devices and audio and visual analysis. We compliment our forensic offering with full eDisclosure, cell site analysis, data recovery, data destruction, vulnerability assessment and penetration testing services.


What is your own role?

I am responsible for directing all investigation and consultancy services; accountable to the board for all operational and technical aspects of the business.


Tell us more about CY4OR's growing focus on eDisclosure and eDiscovery. How important have those services become compared to "traditional" computer forensics?

eDisclosure was a natural progression from digital forensics for CY4OR. Both disciplines involve handling data in a manner that ensures preservation and interpretation. We have moved with the industry and as litigation and regulatory pressures are now a fact of life for many organisations, as well as dealing with an ever increasing amount of electronic data, edisclosure is now becoming the norm in many cases...

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Friday, April 13, 2012

Exploded Car for Digital Forensics Students Tutorial

University forensics students sift through exploded car to find digital data for use in mock trial (YouTube Video)

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Overcoming Potential Legal Challenges to the Authentication of Social Media Evidence

Social media evidence is highly relevant to most legal disputes and broadly discoverable, but challenges lie in evidentiary authentication without best practices technology and processes. This whitepaper examines these challenges faced by eDiscovery practitioners and investigators and illustrates best practices for collection, preservation, search and production of social media data. Also highlighted in this paper are examples of numerous unique metadata fields for individual social media items that provide important information to establish authenticity, if properly collected and preserved...

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