Forensic Focus

This episode follows up our 2021 article about #DFIRfit and its #DFIRforGood fundraising efforts. We start by talking about the #Bricks4Codebreakers effort, a little of what it was like to work at Bletchley Park during World War II, and how the women and men who staffed the facility blazed a trail not only for digital forensics as a profession, but also for the industry's current-day diversity, inclusion and equity efforts.

Coauthors of a new paper discuss:

• "Expertise" as a function of trial strategy
• The necessity for practitioners to determine -- and communicate -- their own knowledge and limitations thereof
• Where "expertise" actually comes from: the work that makes it evidenceable in terms of quality more than quantity

This week we explore research showing how bias can affect decision making in digital forensics. PhD fellow Nina Sunde joins us from Norway to discuss how practitioners think about interpretation of data, mental blind spots, and error. We talk about practical implementation measures for error mitigation, including peer review. And we discuss the need for additional practice-oriented research to determine the most effective bias mitigation measures for digital forensics, how to help non-practitioners -- especially legal experts and jurors -- to understand digital forensics processes, and how viewing error as a friend could help mitigate both technical and human error.

In this episode, we answer the question: "Does every phone need to come to the digital forensics lab?" and discuss the ongoing challenges associated with frontline forensics. Simon tells us how he consults with clients to work through their needs and offer custom network and design workflows according to multiple parameters, including regulatory ones. Finally, we discuss the balance between national security and human rights, and how frontline mobile forensics supports that balance.

In this episode, we highlight some of the hidden barriers to digital forensics professionals' ability to use their skills to help victims of stalking and domestic violence: how abuse dynamics keep victims from reporting to police, how police and courts can actually fuel the problem, and how emotionally difficult offering assistance can be. At the same time, though, the work can be deeply rewarding, and Eva offers a few resources for educating yourself on how these dynamics work.

The Forensic Focus podcast sits down with Ali Hadi, founder of Cyber5W, and Jessica Hyde, founder of Hexordia, to talk about the need for well prepared, professional digital forensics and incident response practitioners, and how the partnership between their two companies aims to bring digital forensics training to everyone who wants it at an affordable price.

Mason Toups, a DFIR analyst with Sola Security, and Emre Tinaztepe, founder and CEO of Binalyze, join host Christa Miller to talk about the essential elements of incident response, the human factors that are often at the root of a cyber incident, threat actors' own psychology, and how easier communication between responders can facilitate security operations for all.

Trufflepig Forensics Co-founders Aaron Hartel and Christian Müller join us to talk about how they got started, the challenges encountered by law enforcement and other incident responders dealing with memory forensics, and how their team's Nexus software aims to solve those challenges.

University lecturer Jade James talks about her career path from digital forensics lab work into academia, including why pursuing a Master's degree has been crucial to her professional growth, some of the personal obstacles she overcame to earn it, and her current role as a lecturer teaching university students.

Dr. Steven Boyce, Director of the Magnet Forensics Digital Investigation Suite (MDIS), describes collaborative evidence review for non-technical investigators, automation, and centralized case data management -- along with the new skills needed to support them.