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The Pinpoint Blog

Practical perspectives on eDiscovery, legal tech, and smarter data collection.

Preserving Suspect Media (Write Blockers)

When examining or processing the files on a hard drive, it is extremely important to retain the original file contents and time stamps. Many people don’t realize that just connecting a hard drive to a PC will alter the contents of the hard drive.  In order to preserve the original contents of the hard drive, it is important to implement a write blocking mechanism. Law

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October 7, 2008

Searching for Buried Treasure

Searching and identifying relevant content is a common process for both electronic discovery and computer forensic investigations. But some people don’t realize the challenges associated with indexing hundreds, or even thousands, of different file types and data structures. Mapping the data landscape may not immediately indicate where the textual “treasure” is located.  Twenty years ago, full text searching was pretty simple. We usually had transcripts,

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September 25, 2008

Metadata Analysis – “Fabricated” Documents

One of the common requests we receive is to help a client determine when a document was created, or if it existed at a specific date and time, and when it was last modified. For example, an employment dispute may involve one of the following circumstances: A memo was handed to an employee during a meeting but the employee denies s/he received the document. The

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September 16, 2008

ESI (Electronically Stored Information) Winds of Change

Changes are underway in how electronically stored information (ESI) is processed and reviewed. These changes are due to the huge size of repositories – hundreds of gigabytes or multiple terabyte sizes – identified for collection and processing. Corporations and their legal counsel realize that it may not be feasible or affordable to collect and produce all the information identified in larger cases. Several new software

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September 12, 2008

What does ‘CCE’ Mean?

The CCE (Certified Computer Examiner) is a certification obtained through ‘The International Society of Forensic Computer Examiners’ (ISFCE). I’ve noticed that many CCE training facilities are geared towards criminal investigations so they don’t necessarily address civil litigation processes and ESI (Electronically Stored Information) requirements. This is because the CCE was originally designed for law enforcement and criminal cases involve child pornography, narcotics, stolen property, counterfeiting,

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August 28, 2008

When is a Computer Forensic Investigation Needed? (2 of 2)

In my previous post, I identified several primary differences between computer forensic investigations and electronic discovery processing. Next, I’d like to identify some general case categories and tasks that involve a computer forensic investigator.   Case Categories: ·    Employment disputes ·    Misuse of company computer involving pornography, gambling, blackmail and fraud ·    Embezzlement ·    Breach of contract ·    Software licensing ·    Intellectual property theft ·   

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August 27, 2008

When is a Computer Forensic Investigation Needed? (1 of 2)

Electronic discovery and computer forensic investigations often go hand in hand. The challenge for many in the legal community is how to identify what ESI (Electronically Stored Information) requires more than typical electronic discovery processing. First, computer investigations are technically electronic discovery, and the line between the two disciplines will continue to blur. Several key differences are: The qualifications and skills required by the individual

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August 26, 2008

Recovering Deleted Images

There are three common scenarios in which you may want to recover deleted images: Images accessed from web sites Images downloaded by a user or obtained through file sharing applications Photos stored on a computer hard drive, camera or memory card During a computer forensic investigation, it is common to recover tens of thousands of images from a user’s hard drive. The majority of the

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August 25, 2008

Encrypted Hard Drive Dangers

You have requested a hard drive clone or image and discover that the contents cannot be culled or reviewed. One reason may be hard drive encryption. Encryption involves ”scrambling” the contents of a file or hard drive so that they cannot be viewed without the appropriate key or password. To secure data, companies and individuals are increasingly encrypting the contents of their hard drives or

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August 21, 2008

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