Looking to boost your digital evidence recovery game? Redditors recommend a mix of essential tools, certifications, and practical tips to help you retrieve deleted data, analyze devices, and preserve evidence effectively.

Essential Tools for Digital Evidence Recovery

General Digital Forensics Tools

• Autopsy: A free and open-source digital forensics platform that helps you analyze hard drives and smartphones. "Free real tools you can play with... Autopsy"

• FTK Imager: A free tool that allows you to create forensic images of digital media. "Free real tools you can play with... FTK imager"

• Sumuri Paladin: A Linux-based toolkit for digital forensics and incident response. "Free real tools you can play with... Sumuri Paladin"

• Eraser: A secure data deletion tool that can help ensure data is irrecoverable. "Free real tools you can play with... Eraser"

• HxD, ImHex: Hex editors that allow you to examine the raw data on a drive. "Free real tools you can play with... HxD, ImHex"

• Recuva: A data recovery tool that can help retrieve deleted files. "Recuva is really fast to learn. Not an evidence tool, but it shows the concept of recovering deleted files."

Specialized Tools

• Cellebrite: A widely used tool for mobile device forensics. "If you're using Cellebrite, should probably take the cco/ccpa class even though it's a little pricey compared to others."

• Magnet Forensics Axiom: A comprehensive digital forensics platform. "I start back working on tuesday, I will give it a try with Axiom."

• Velociraptor: A tool for endpoint visibility and incident response at scale. "Collections at scale - Velociraptor or the like"

Techniques for Digital Evidence Recovery

Preserving Digital Evidence

• Imaging: Creating a bit-by-bit copy of the original drive to preserve the evidence. "For computers, the first step is always making an image (clone) of the hard drive."

• Hashing: Using a hash algorithm to ensure the integrity of the forensic image. "To make sure the integrity of the evidence we keep the DNA of the images/video called a hash."

• Write Blockers: Using hardware to prevent any modifications to the original evidence. "We connect it to a write blocker that block any attempt to write data in the drive."

• Airplane Mode and Charging: For mobile devices, placing them in airplane mode and on a charger can help preserve evidence. "We place the phone in airplane mode so that it can’t be accessed remotely and wiped."

Recovering Deleted Data

• Slack Space Recovery: Recovering data from the unused portions of disk space. "Deleted files can also be found same for web history, website cookies"

• Backup Recovery: Retrieving data from cloud or local backups. "In my experience, the only way to recover deleted messages is works on phone backup stored in cloud or on personal computer where backup is stored."

• Physical Recovery: For severely damaged devices, specialized data recovery firms might be able to help. "It can be recovered for millions of dollars."

Challenges and Limitations

• Encryption: Strong encryption can make data irrecoverable without the correct keys. "If you see encryption broken in TV it's likely a lie. You can't break AES."

• TRIM Enabled SSDs: TRIM commands on SSDs can permanently delete data. "Hi, i work as digital forensic Investigator here in India and the answer to your question is ZERO"

• Factory Resets: Performing a factory reset on a device can render data unrecoverable. "Once an iphone is factory reset/all data deleted the only reliable piece of information you can get is the time and date that it occurred."

Communities and Resources

• DFIR Discord Server: A community for digital forensics and incident response professionals. "Join the DFIR discord server and have your account verified via your LE email."

• NW3C: Offers free training for law enforcement professionals. "NW3C has a lot of LE trainings you can take advantage of for free."

• IACIS: Provides certifications and training in digital forensics. "IACIS has the annual training event for two weeks every spring in Orlando."

• 13Cubed YouTube Channel: Offers valuable insights and tutorials on digital forensics. "13Cubed YouTube channel"

Recommended Communities

For further questions and community support, consider asking in these communities:

• r/digitalforensics

• r/computerforensics

• r/dfir

• r/cybersecurity