ADF News

Everyone wants to belong somewhere. They want to be part of the team and to be able to contribute to life in meaningful ways. This is true for life and for business. 

This blog post will feature our Settings page, and tips and tricks to understanding it. The first thing users will notice on the settings page is the Backed-Up Licenses. This displays all licenses that have been backed up on this computer. When selecting a license it will display all the information pertaining to that license and also enable users to delete the license from the backed up licenses folder. Additionally, the information here can be used when making a support call or using the support portal.

The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office (AGO) has announced the dates for the 2020 National Cyber Crime Conference (MASS.gov).

This year's conference will be held from April 27-29, 2020 in Norwood, Massachusetts, thanks to the efforts of Attorney General Maura Healey, the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), SEARCH, and the National Attorneys General Training and Research Institute. 

This conference brings together police, prosecutors and forensic examiners from all 50 states, Washington DC, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, for three days of training designed to help attendees face the challenges posed by digital evidence and technology in criminal investigations.  International law enforcement attendees have come from Canada, Ireland, England as well as Trinidad and Tobago. 

ADF plans on attending. Will you join us there? 

We could have just written a mission statement. Maybe we’d throw in some core values, and hit you with some motivational quotes from great thought leaders. We could have done that, but that’s not the ADF way. ADF is an innovator, so we took those ideas and went further. Meet our Culture Code: a living, breathing set of standards, principles, values, and goals that we put our hearts and souls into as a team, because we are #AllinForensics. 

Our newest How-To video will cover how to image from either the Desktop tool or the USB device (Collection Key) on a Boot and Live Scan. 

When using ADF tools to collect files, either by File Properties, Hashes, or Keywords, ADF tools provide  three methods for file identification:

Conferences are an excellent opportunity for like-minded individuals in a shared career to network, expand your knowledge, find solutions to problems, or to present your ideas and knowledge. Furthermore, they're a fabulous opportunity for others to get to know you and your work. You also have the chance to learn outside of your field and area of work. We've compiled a list of the best Law Enforcement and Forensic Conferences in the UK for 2020. 

With ADF tools, it's possible to scan multiple devices simultaneously and have them as part of one scan. However, there are some items we need to keep in mind when preparing to scan multiple devices.

Triage- the word is normally associated with hospitals, where doctors and nurses prioritize patients’ treatments based on the severity of their condition. The concept has been around since the Napoleonic wars and is responsible for saving innumerable lives ever since.

When your case is complete and it comes time to archive your case,  the best method is to archive with the Stand Alone Viewer, located within reporting.

Annual conferences are great events for networking with thought leaders and your peers.  In addition, conferences can provide you with the opportunity to get timely, objective, relevant education from a variety of subject matter experts.  You can benefit from training, knowledge sharing, and from the camaraderie and time spent with professionals like you that have dedicated their careers to protect and serve. 

Software updates are something we look forward to, and when we receive that new download from our go-to tool, it makes the day even more special.  When it comes time to upgrade or re-install ADF software, as a user, you do not want your data to be lost after either the software upgrade or when selecting a new Search Profile folder.

When you first start the ADF application you will notice the tool will look to see if any new data needs to be merged or migrated.

With the ever-increasing amount of digital photo evidence, it's nearly impossible for investigators to quickly review photo evidence in a timely manner. Enter ADF Photo Probability for on-scene triage and digital investigations; one of the ways that ADF helps reduce the "noise" in a case and helps you get to the evidence faster.

Mobile Device Investigator (MDI) is the leading digital forensic triage tool for iOS and Android devices. In this short "How To" video, ADF's digital forensic specialist and trainer, Rich Frawley, will show you how to create a Search Profile with MDI. 

ADF Authorized Partner, CBIT Digital Forensic Services (CDFS) hosted the company's 4th annual Vendor Day at the Realm Hotel in Barton, Canberra on November 6, 2019. The event featured presentations by leading digital forensic vendors including ADF's Co-Founder and Chief Evangelist, J.J. Wallia. 

ADF's digital forensic team will be participating in the First Forensic Forum (F3) annual conference and training workshop. The 19th annual event will take place November 12-14, 2019 in Birmingham, United Kingdom. 

The U.S. Department of Justice launched the ICAC Task Force program in 1998 to help law enforcement learn how to prevent, combat and investigate Internet Crimes Against Children.  ICAC Task Force training is often held annually within regions across the United States. 

The 2020 ICAC conferences are announced each year and include training and events held in:

The 2020 Northwest Regional ICAC Conference, has been announced for October 5-9, 2020. The conference is a multi-state, multi-disciplinary Internet Crimes Against Children event which provides training to prosecutors, digital forensic examiners, sheriffs, police investigators and ICAC Task Force members.  

The 2020 Crimes Against Children Conference in Dallas, Texas, will be the 32nd annual conference organized by the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center and the Dallas Police Department. The event will be held at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel on August 10-13, 2020.   

ADF digital forensic software comes with approximately a dozen out-of-the-box default search profiles designed to make it quick and easy for non-technical field investigators to quickly search for digital evidence. 

In this short How To video, you'll learn how to import and export an ADF digital forensic Search Profile. This allows investigators to create a Custom Search Profile on one computer and export it so that it is available to be imported into another installation on another computer so forensic examiners or senior investigators can create and share profiles with:

October 2019 kicks off with the 5th Annual Northwest Regional ICAC Conference, a multi-state, multi-disciplinary event designed to provide lecture and lab training to prosecutors, digital forensic lab examiners, and law enforcement investigators focused on the investigation and prosecution of technology and Internet facilitated crimes against children. 

In this short How To video, digital forensic specialist Rich Frawley, will show you how to collect and share digital evidence files with prosecutors and third parties using ADF Software. This video is ideal for learning how to share evidence with prosecutors for review. 

In this short 4-minute digital forensic "How To" video, ADF forensic specialist, Rich Frawley, shows you how to conduct a boot scan of a MacBook Air with APFS & FileVault2 enabled.

Digital Evidence Investigator is built for front-line field investigators and lab examiners who need to do digital forensic investigations on Mac, Linux, or Windows. Combined with Mobile Device Investigator, Digital Evidence Investigator PRO gives you all the best computer forensic capabilities along with iOS and Android mobile forensics in a single affordable forensic tool. 

In this short video ADF's Digital Forensic Specialist, Rich Frawley, demonstrates the installation process for DEI and DEI PRO, on an offline computer that does not have Internet access. You can refer to our Technical Specifications for minimum requirements and supported Operating Systems.

Digital Evidence Investigator is built for front-line field investigators and lab examiners who need to do digital forensic investigations on Mac, Linux, or Windows. Combined with Mobile Device Investigator, Digital Evidence Investigator PRO gives you all the best computer forensic capabilities along with iOS and Android mobile forensics in a single affordable forensic tool. 

In this short video ADF's Digital Forensic Specialist, Rich Frawley, demonstrates the installation process for DEI and DEI PRO, on a computer that has Internet access. You can refer to our Technical Specifications for minimum requirements and supported Operating Systems.

Fast investigations require rapid access to evidence. ADF software enables investigators to quickly view the links of artifacts captured from a target device so you can easily understand a user's activities. 

In this short 5 minute video, you'll learn how to filter digital forensic scan results in ADF software. Filtering is available in any table while analyzing any of your scan results. In this how-to video, we'll look at:

Investigate on-scene with a single license for smartphones, tablets, and computers 

In this short How To video we are going to explore the Text Analytics capabilities built into ADF’s digital forensic software with the integration of Rosoka. ADF is bringing the power of Rosoka for automated entity extraction and language identification with gisting, through a tightly integrated user experience in the Rosoka Add-on. 

Digital Evidence Investigator PRO enables front line field investigators to quickly create a forensic backup of an iOS device on-scene or back in the lab. In this short video, ADF Digital Forensic Specialist, Rich Frawley, will show you how to easily backup an iOS device with DEI PRO.

Investigators can leverage ADF digital forensic software on the front-line to investigate and prosecute child exploitation cases

Bethesda, Maryland: ADF Solutions, the leading provider of intelligent forensic software for investigators and lab examiners, today announced Bret Peters has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of ADF Solutions. The ADF Board of Directors unanimously voted to appoint Bret Peters to the position of CEO based on his demonstrated leadership and vision for the company. Bret has also been elected to the ADF Board of Directors. 

ADF & Rosoka Bring the Power of Entity Extraction and Multi-Lingual Translation to the Front-Line in Triage-G2^Ⓡ

Bethesda, Maryland: ADF Solutions, the leading provider of automated forensic software for investigators and lab examiners, today announced the ability for on-scene and lab investigators to leverage the power of Rosoka to speed their investigations of structured and unstructured data in over 200 languages. 

Rosoka text analytics brings the power of automated multilingual entity extraction directly into ADF digital forensics software through a tightly integrated user experience. Rosoka text analytics runs locally on the investigator’s computer, processing documents in over 200 languages to identify entities, and locations in unstructured documents. Learn more about the partnership at www.adfsolutions.com/partner/rosoka

Digital Evidence Investigator PRO enables front line field investigators to quickly create a forensic backup of an Android device on-scene or back in the lab. In this short video, ADF Digital Forensic Specialist, Rich Frawley, will show you how to easily backup an Android device with DEI PRO.

Learn how to create a forensic backup of an Android smartphone or tablet with Mobile Device Investigator™ in this short How To video from ADF's Digital Forensic Specialist, Rich Frawley.

Learn how to create a forensic backup of an iOS smartphone or tablet with Mobile Device Investigator™ in this short How To video from ADF's Digital Forensic Specialist, Rich Frawley.

Front line investigators and digital forensic examiners are encountering an ever increasing number of images in almost every investigation they perform. This exponential growth in the volume of images can challenge investigators searching for illicit online activity, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), extremist propaganda, or other types of image content. 

In this short video, ADF digital forensic specialist, Rich Frawley, demonstrates ADF's image classification capabilities. 

ADF digital forensic tools come with out-of-the-box Search Profiles. In this short video, you'll learn how to use Digital Evidence Investigator PRO to demonstrate how to create a search profile.

Technology has become more powerful and portable, allowing a more significant amount of information to be created, stored, and accessed. This shift in the information technology landscape (mobile, cloud, IoT, etc.) has made the collection and analysis of digital evidence a critical factor in investigating and solving virtually all types of crimes. 

There are serious Internet related crimes, that need to be investigated quickly, child exploitation related offenses for instance. For example, in the United Kingdom, the National Crime Agency recently estimated that about 140,000 out of nearly 3 million registered dark web accounts registered on child abuse sites are UK-based.

Today is the final day of the 2019 NSA Annual Educational and Technology Expo which ran June 15-18, 2019 in Louisville, Kentucky.  The annual event featured more than 60 session topics and over 500 vendors who come together to educate and showcase new ways to empower our nation's sheriffs to serve and protect their communities. 

Seminar topics ranged in topic from leadership and community policing, to court security, jail operations and law enforcement operations, to resource programs, technology solutions, homeland security and more.  Some of our favorite session topics were: 

Every year, we look forward to the Techno Security & Digital Forensics Conference in Myrtle Beach, not only because it features some of the best digital forensic training content, but also because we get so see so many of our law enforcement and investigator friends along with ADF Authorized Partners. 

When making decisions on scene it is critically important for an investigator to scan and analyze the Operating System Drive or Partition, or what is commonly referred to as the C:\ drive. ADF digital forensic software tools give investigators out-of-the-box Search Profiles designed to quickly scan and analyze OS partitions with targeted paths that would not be present on a non OS partition.

If you come across a non OS drive or partition, a storage partition, or external storage drive, instead of using the built-in Comprehensive Search Profiles, you can create a Custom Search Profile for non operating system drives using Digital Evidence Investigator^®. 

Learn how to quickly scan an iOS smartphone or tablet device in this 2 minute short "How To" video created by Rich Frawley, our Digital Forensic Specialist and Trainer.  Rich will walk you through how to attach and scan an iOS device with Mobile Device Investigator® (MDI) using an iPhone 7.

This week, nearly 1,000 law enforcement professionals from across the United States and around the world are meeting in Jacksonville, Florida for to discuss and discover new technologies designed to promote public safety, police safety and policing techniques. 

Most children in the United States now have access to internet services. The internet enables children to have access to vast amounts of valuable and educative information that facilitates their growth. However, the internet further exposes children to numerous dangers. Some of the risks children are exposed to on the internet include pornography, racist, sexist, violent, and demeaning information.

These risks prompted the formation of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force program. The organization is a national network of 61 coordinated task forces that represent over 4,500 local, state, and federal law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies. The state and regional ICAC task forces are maintained and expanded by the ICAC program to address technology-facilitated child exploitation crimes.

Police Week Provides Much Needed Camaraderie For Our Police  

It's indisputable that all of us throughout the United States benefit from the work of our police officers. Indeed, they do all they can to keep our communities safe and orderly. Police Week is a great opportunity to celebrate all they do every day of the year.  

As you get started performing a logical forensic acquisition of an Android device with Mobile Device Investigator®, you will want to learn how to attach an Android device to your forensic computer. This short video will show you how you can quickly and easily collect digital forensic evidence from Android phones and tablets. 

The 2019 Techno Security & Digital Forensics Conference in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina will take place June 2-5 at the Marriott Resort & Spa at Grande Dunes.  Attendees will have the ability to receive Continuing Professional Education Credits (CPE) depending on their organization. 

Nearly 1,000 attendees are expected to attend with more than 100 sessions by about as many speakers.  We recommend you select the full conference pass which gives you access to the keynote address, all sessions, the exhibit hall (50+ exhibitors) and networking receptions, breakfast and refreshment breaks on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as well as lunch on Monday and Tuesday.  

With a record number of attendees, speakers and exhibitors, the 2019 National Cyber Crime Conference organized by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's office this past week was a huge success with law enforcement professionals from 38 states, Canada, the UK and Africa. 

The NCCC event was especially important to ADF since it's our first major conference of the year and it's where we officially launched our new Mobile Device Investigator™ for iOS and Android investigations.  Our launch featured a demo by our digital forensic specialist, Rich Frawley who joined ADF after 22 years in law enforcement. 

Digital Evidence Investigator^® gives investigators the ability to customize Search Profiles and determine exactly what and where you want to look for digital evidence. This is especially convenient when looking to tailor a search for a forensic triage type scan or a targeted collection. This is accomplished by using the Targeted Folders Option when creating a custom file capture.

If you're headed to the 2019 National Cyber Crime Conference in Noorwood, MA next week please make time to stop by the ADF Solutions booth to say hello and to enter our drawing for a US combat veteran, handmade keepsake from a Flag of Valor for your home or forensic lab.

Rich Frawley, our Digital Forensic Specialist, who spent 22 years in law enforcement will be leading 3 digital forensic training sessions:

• Solving Crimes Against Children with Digital Evidence Investigator (In the NW3C Lab)
• Introducing ADF Mobile Device Investigator (iOS & Android)
• On-Scene Digital Investigation Best Practices: from CyberTip to Court-Ready Paperwork

ADF Solutions’ New Software Delivers Forensic Capabilities to Police and Investigators

Bethesda, Maryland: ADF Solutions, the leading provider of automated forensic software for investigators and lab examiners, today announced the release of Mobile Device Investigator® the newest forensic software to investigate iOS and Android devices.  Qualified professionals can request a free trial of Mobile Device Investigator™ at www.tryadf.com.

Mobile Device Investigator® is a stand-alone digital forensic software tool for advanced logical iOS and Android mobile device investigations. With Mobile Device Investigator® also called MDI, front-line investigators can: 

When conducting an investigation, it is important to be flexible and follow the direction of your investigation with as few obstacles as possible. If your examination brings you a new file type, such as a video generated by a hand held camera, or a proprietary file created by a unique software, you want to be able to search for, or collect these files types right away either on-scene or back in the lab.

ADF offers the best digital forensic solution for getting relevant data from an Apple Mac laptop or desktop running APFS since it is easy to use and offers investigators a quick and easy way to collect and analyze evidence.  In this short 3-minute video, ADF's digital forensic specialist, Rich Frawley shows how to boot a MacBook Air (APFS, non-encrypted) with Digital Evidence Investigator.

When conducting digital forensic investigations that involve live (up and running) computers, it is imperative to collect volatile memory so that all your bases covered and so that no vital evidence is lost.  A live analysis conducted in the correct manner will yield the results you are looking for in your investigation.  It has become commonplace and an accepted practice to collect data from a live computer, especially in cases of child exploitation. ADF software makes it easy for you to perform a RAM capture it in the proper manner with as little intrusion as possible.

When investigating crimes against children cases, Project Vic data sets and Digital Evidence Investigator^® (DEI) goes hand in hand. DEI gives investigators and examiners the ability to categorize image and video media fast -- which is paramount in the fight against child exploitation. Whether you are and ICAC, CAC, or affiliate task force DEI is the best tool to help you solve internet crimes against children. In this short 6-minute video, ADF's digital forensic trainer is going to show you how easy it is to add Project Vic datasets or hashes to a Search Profile.

Due to an increase in crimes involving the use of computers and cell phones, there is a growing need for Digital Media Investigators, sometimes referred to as DMIs. They have an important role to play in police investigations and that role is becoming more critical with the proliferation of digital data. 

Digital media investigators do more than just sit in a lab looking at hard drives. They are often digital first responders and go out into the field with other law enforcement agents to investigate crimes first hand and offer advice on how to gather digital evidence at a crime scene. Collecting, analyzing and reporting on digital evidence to be used to prosecute and convict criminals is a vital role for DMIs in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

As a forensic investigator, there will come a time when you will come across the occasional computer that is difficult to get to the HDD and it may be encrypted by default, such as the Microsoft Surface Pro. In this short video, you'll learn how to easily conduct a boot scan of a Microsoft Surface Pro with Bitlocker activated.

ADF Bret: Hi Brett, thanks for taking time to talk! My first question is, what’s with the extra “t”? I’m just kidding of course.  Growing up, one of my best friends spelled his name with two “t”s so we just refer to one another as Brettt so as not to offend one another.   

Brett:     A rose by any other name…

ADF Bret: You’re a digital forensic examiner providing private consulting and training to government agencies and you’ve also found time to write quite a few books, including Placing the Suspect Behind the Keyboard, Hiding Behind the Keyboard, and X-Ways Forensics Practitioner’s Guide, all of which have received nominations for Best Forensic Book of the Year.  How did you get started writing books for the forensic community and what (besides the money and fame) keeps you writing?

Brett:  Much like any author writing forensic books, I wanted to write the books that I wish were already written by someone else. I would have bought them if they already were written! My first two books were published within the same year, so they competed against each other for Best Forensic Book of the Year and the X-Ways book won. That was neat, and certainly having Eric Zimmerman as my co-author helped. I will keep writing books whenever I need a book that hasn’t already been written, so hopefully we get more authors writing books.

Of all the investigations that a law enforcement agency may undertake, there may be none as difficult to deal with as crimes perpetrated against minors. The proliferation of online child exploitation material continues to be an issue worldwide, from child pornography to the facilitation of human trafficking. Luckily, investigators are not having to combat this problem alone thanks to industry solutions like those provided by ADF Solutions and the organizations below.  

Whether you are preparing to go on-scene or you are in your digital forensic lab getting ready to perform triage or one or more digital forensic scans, this video tutorial will show you how you can easily create a keyword capture and add keywords to a Search Profile.  We begin from when you have started to create a Custom Search Profile and want to add your own unique keywords.

ADF software lets investigators and examiners search for files by keyword(s) using substrings or regular expressions.  ADF software allows you to search for keywords in all file and folder names, file content and metadata, and artifact records from other captures.

Digital Evidence Investigator^® (DEI) and Triage-Investigator^® come with out-of-the-box default Search Profiles. In this short video tutorial, we use Digital Evidence Investigator to demonstrate "What is a Search Profile?".

In DEI the Search Profiles are maintained in the Setup Scans Menu option. The Search Profile, when run, will collect the information selected within the Search Profile. Search Profiles will run from the desktop application or from the collection key on a Live or Boot scan.

Learn how to conduct a Windows live scan with ADF Solutions Digital Evidence Investigator.  Two USB ports are required to complete a scan, one for the Collection Key and one for the Authentication Key, once the scan has started the Authentication Key can be removed. A USB hub may be used in cases where the target computer only has one USB port. 

When running a live scan from a Collection Key it is possible to create a RAM dump of the computer. RAM dumps can then be analyzed with appropriate software (e.g. Volatility). 

When you're faced with a mountain of digital evidence, how do you start sifting through it? For law enforcement, litigation support, and incident response agencies organizing and prioritizing digital media and electronically stored information (ESI) is crucial. Adopting an Early Case Assessment (ECA) methodology helps expedite and improve overall case efficiency and productivity; reducing backlogs and increasing turnaround times.

If you haven’t yet met Phillip Moore and you’re in the digital forensics or incident response fields, you’re likely to at least know him from one of his top forensic blogs:

Following the recent ICAC Task Force Commanders Meeting, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program announced the date and location of the 2019 National Law Enforcement Training on Child Exploitation. 

In the early 18th century, triage was used to refer to the action of sorting items according to quality and was taken from the French word trier which means to sort, separate out or cull. 

>> Continue reading or watch the Benefits of Triage webinar recording. 

Sensitive Site Exploitation refers to techniques used by military and intelligence officers to collect and exploit captured equipment, media and documents in theaters of operation around the world.  The process of exploiting sensitive or tactical sites to gather intelligence from targets for counter terrorism, force protection, or other national security needs is performed by forward operators using exploitation kits that can: 

In 2009, the number of backlogged digital evidence requests in publicly funded forensic crime labs was 1,600. By the end of 2014, that number had risen to 7,800. While that's tiny in comparison to the total number of backlogged evidence requests (over 570,000 in 2014!), every one of those requests is associated with a case that affects real people. This is why we love forensic triage, and why you should too.

The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office (AGO) has announced the dates for the 2019 National Cyber Crime Conference (MASS.gov).  This year's conference will be held April 29 - May 1, 2019 in Norwood, Massachusetts thanks to Attorney General Maura Healey, the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), SEARCH, and the National Attorneys General Training and Research Institute 

First 100 registrants get a discount: 

Join ADF Solutions for a webinar hosted by the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), a nonprofit, membership-affiliated organization comprised of state, local, federal and tribal law enforcement and prosecutorial and regulatory agencies.  

NW3C provided a nationwide support system for law enforcement and regulatory agencies involved in prevention, investigation and prosecution of economic and high-tech crime.  Support is delivered via training in computer forensics, cyber and financial crime investigations and intelligence analysis as well as original research on and analytical technical support for investigating and prosecuting white collar and related crimes. 

With the ever increasing demand for law enforcement to learn how to treat digital evidence and the growing demand for qualified digital forensic analysts, forensic examiners, and corporate investigators, it's important to find the best digital forensic training. 

In addition to Digital First Responder^® training for ADF Solutions customers, there are plenty of options from individual digital forensic vendors and solutions providers.  One of the best sources for Digital Forensic Training is often at digital forensic conferences. 

See our list of the Best 2019 Digital Forensic Conferences - 23 Industry Events to Network, Learn and Grow.

January 2019 is National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month

Human trafficking has been a federal crime in the United States since The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 was passed into law as a federal statute.  Each year since 2010 has been designated National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month with January 11th each year being observed as National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. 

Military and intelligence officers process an ever-increasing amount of data from which they need to gather actionable intelligence. This data comes from a variety of devices seized in combat operations or during an investigation.  

Document and Media Exploitation (DOMEX) is the "collection and exploitation of captured equipment, documents, and media to generate actionable intelligence." DOMEX analysis helps officers, special forces, and field operatives on the front lines complete a holistic picture of the intelligence available to them at the time. 

During a criminal investigation, prioritizing the evidence is paramount to your success as an investigator. Filtering what is critical to the case and what isn't is the difference between success and failure of an investigation. 

Forensic triage - sometimes referred to as "digital forensic triage" - is the process by which you collect, assemble, analyze, and prioritize digital evidence from a crime or investigation.

It's difficult to do this in a timely manner when you don't have the proper tools. Depending on the type of investigation, it's a process that can involve sorting through mountains of digital data. 

One of the reasons that investigators choose ADF software as their primary triage tool is because it can be used standalone or in conjunction with traditional forensic software.  Triage is ideal for front-line investigators because it's fast, easy-to-use, and can net results in situations where time matters. Deployed in a forensic lab, triage software can reduce forensic backlogs and allow forensic examiners to prioritize deep dive forensic investigations.

The term triage naturally brings to mind a medical emergency where you need to get in quickly, assess the damage and deal with the most serious problems first. Digital forensic triage has the same application but it's applied to a crime scene or investigation which involves computers or other digital media. Standard forensic methods normally take place in a forensic lab where a trained forensic examiner would perform a complete examination. Digital triage is a front line step in saving time and reaching satisfactory results faster.

ADF triage performance is fast -- built to be under two minutes for certain scans. Digital forensic triage speed and performance can vary based on a number of factors including the triage software you are using, the search criteria you choose, the suspect hardware configuration, and how much you know about what you are looking to understand in your investigation.

The U.S. Department of Justice launched the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program (ICAC Program) in 1998 as part of a national strategy to combat and prevent child exploitation.  ICAC Task Force training is often held annually within regions across the United States.  While 2019 dates have not yet been published, here's a list of 2018 ICAC conferences:

The Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, along with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Child Abduction Response Team (CART) and Offender Registration and Enforcement once again hosted the Florida ICAC Training Symposium. 

Photo Forensics as a term will typically refer either to the profession dedicated to authenticating digital images to determine authenticity, or, it may refer to the capability of digital forensics software to find and identify photos. 

23 Industry Events: Network, Learn, Grow

The knowledge and training you can gain at digital forensic conferences around the world can make the difference in crime solving.  In addition to networking, annual conferences are one of the best ways to learn from peers, stay on top of the latest strategies and tactics, get an advance look at industry trends, and they can be a great place to talk face-to-face with digital forensic vendors. In addition to keynotes and lectures, many annual conferences also offer hands-on lab sessions or pre-conference training classes. Below is a list of some of our favorite annual conferences.  

ADF Solutions Newest Software Release Makes It Easier to Fight Against Child Exploitation

As the leading provider of automated forensic software for investigators and lab examiners, we are delighted to announce the ability for on-scene and lab investigators to rapidly collect media files using Digital Evidence Investigator^Ⓡ, Triage-Investigator^Ⓡ, and Triage-G2^Ⓡ software and export media files to the Griffeye Analyze platform. 

Annual conferences are great events for networking with thought leaders and your peers.  In addition, conferences can provide you with the opportunity to get timely, objective, relevant education from a variety of subject matter experts.  You can benefit from training, knowledge sharing, and from the camaraderie and time spent with professionals like you that have dedicated their careers to protect and serve. 

Project VIC is a nonprofit organization founded by former U.S. law enforcement officials who saw the need to normalize data between digital forensic tools, software vendors, and service providers in order to focus the community on building enhanced workflows to more rapidly identify victims of child exploitation and human trafficking.

The best tools for rapid digital forensic investigations just got better with ADF's release of new software versions to support the collection of artifacts from macOS Mojave, in addition to macOS High Sierra and Windows. 

ADF's New Forensic Software Empowers Investigators and Prosecutors

ADF Solutions, the leading provider of automated forensic software for investigators and lab examiners, announced today the release of new software versions 1.4 for Digital Evidence Investigator^Ⓡ, and versions 4.4 for Triage-Investigator^Ⓡ, and Triage-G2^Ⓡ software.  

"We are very excited to be the first digital forensic software to parse macOS Mojave log files natively under Windows strengthening our macOS support", stated Raphael Bousquet, CTO, and co-founder of ADF Solutions. "In our world of fast and efficient forensic analysis, we strive to reduce data noise for the investigator. The addition of picture and video classification is a great step in the right direction!"

A precise timeline view links user activities with pictures, videos, and files of interest so investigators can quickly build a digital forensic report to share with prosecutors or other investigators.  The new version leverages enhanced automation and enables investigators to run in-depth digital forensics scans quickly.  The highlights of this new release for the investigative and forensic community include:

October 26, 2018 is the inaugural National Financial Crime Fighter Day created by Banker's Toolbox as a way to honor and celebrate the critically important work done by financial crime fighters and professionals who work every day to protect our financial system. 

While there are many tools and techniques available to examiners for recovering data from volatile memory, ADF Digital Evidence Investigator^®, Triage-Investigator^®, and Triage-G2^® are fast and easy. 

A simple 2-step process lets non-technical investigators and examiners quickly perform a RAM capture when running a live scan on the computer from a collection key: 

1. Click "Create RAM Dump" from the main menu
2. The RAM Dump will be saved to the collection key as a .bin file and then zipped

This October kicks off with the fourth annual Northwest Regional ICAC Conference, a multi-state, multi-disciplinary event designed to provide lecture and lab training to prosecutors, digital forensic examiners, and law enforcement investigators focused on the investigation and prosecution of technology facilitated crimes against children. 

A criminal forensic lab located in one of the largest U.S. Federal agencies was working on an extensive child exploitation case and had seized 37 total hard drives that contained over 38 terabytes of data. The case was high profile and the forensic team had a short window of time to examine the contents of the confiscated drives. Technical resources were limited and imaging drives and conducting traditional forensic examinations would be very time consuming. With the amount of data that needed to be searched, the investigators realized that it could potentially be weeks before the examinations were complete and the case could move forward. In addition the case would require significant disk storage space to hold all of the images.

During the week of September 16 - 22, 2018, we invite you to join us in recognizing the critical role that forensic science plays in criminal investigations and we give thanks for the dedication of the thousands of forensic professionals who serve our communities nationwide.  

ADF Authorized Partner, CBIT Digital Forensics Services, based in Australia will be hosting J.J. Wallia, C.E.O and co-founder of ADF Solutions, for a presentation on the latest version of Digital Evidence Investigator^® – plus a free half-day training session with Certified ADF Instructor Zoran Iliev using ADF Solutions to accelerate Digital Forensic investigations.

Join ADF Digital Forensic Specialist, Rich Frawley as he presents "On-Scene Digital Investigation Best Practices: From Search Warrant to Court Ready Paperwork" at the Techno Security & Digital Forensics conference in San Antonio, Texas.  The Techno event is a follow up to the top rated Techno Security & Digital Forensics Myrtle Beach event earlier this year where ADF was a Gold Sponsor.  

Rich Frawley, ADF Digital Forensic Specialist will be presenting "On-Scene Digital Investigation Best Practices: From Search Warrant to Court Ready Paperwork" at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia this week.  

Coming off the 30th annual Crimes Against Children Conference in Dallas, Texas, conference organizers announced that the 31st annual conference is scheduled for August 12-15, 2019 at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel.  

With eleven (11) out-of-the-box Search Profiles inside Digital Evidence Investigator^® (DEI), the ADF Digital Forensic team has created software that enables investigators and forensic examiners to obtain the digital evidence needed in a wide variety of evidence collection situations. 

This week, hundreds of leading law enforcement officials from the US, Canada and Europe descended on the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC to participate in the High Technology Crime Investigation Association's annual conference.   The event featured 72 speakers over the three days of sessions and training and was kicked off with an opening keynote from Chief Superintendent Jeff Adam, C/Supt. DG Technical Investigation Services for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The investigation began after images consistent with child pornography were uploaded to a social media platform.  A search warrant was executed at the residence and an on-scene forensic exam of all electronic media was completed by members of the State Police Computer Crime Unit.  Using ADF Digital Evidence Investigator^®, investigators discovered images and videos of sexual abuse of an under age child and were able to identify a resident of the household as the suspect. Specifically, investigators located thumbcache images that resulted in identifying a female child that was being sexually abused and identified the suspect.

ADF is helping stop crimes against children by providing law enforcement with the right tools and training to combat internet crimes against children.  As part of our mission to help fight child exploitation, ADF is a returning sponsor of the Crimes Against Children Conference.  If you are attending, join ADF Digital Forensic Specialists (Rich Frawley), as he leads a lecture and lab training for participating law enforcement officers:

• On-Scene Digital Investigation Best Practices: From CyberTip to Court Ready Paperwork (Lecture)
• Solving Crimes Against Children with ADF Digital Evidence Investigator^® (Hands-on Labs)

Each participant will learn digital forensic best practices for child exploitation cases and receive an extended trial of our DEI software. 

Attend HTCIA Pre-conference Training in Washington, DC on August 19th where we will be hosting two hands-on lab sessions for digital investigators.  Conference attendees arriving early can register to attend one of two sessions:

• Directly Scanning a Suspect's Computer or Devices
• Child Exploitation Investigations Done in Record Time

The High Technology Crime Investigation Association's International Conference (HTCIA) & Training Expo is one of the oldest and most respected technology investigation conferences in the world.  This year, the event will be held in Washington, DC at the historic Omni Shoreham Hotel and will feature an opening keynote from Chief Superintendent Jeff Adam, C/Supt. DG Technical Investigation Services for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RMCP). 

Conference sessions include a variety of topics including:

Earlier this year, ADF partnered with Flags of Valor, a company dedicated to serving U.S. military and law enforcement with high quality, handmade wooden wall art. Flags of Valor was founded to provide job opportunities to combat veterans and today the majority of Flags of Valor craftsmen are service-disabled with combat related injuries.

ADF Solutions, provided hands-on lab training for digital forensic investigators and examiners from throughout the United States at the National Law Enforcement Training on Child Exploitation (NLETC) Conference held in in Atlanta, Georgia this week.  The conference seeks to grow and expand the education of law enforcement officers, police investigators and prosecutors in an effort to promote best practices for investigating Internet Crimes Against Children.  

This week, hundreds of cyber security and digital forensic experts gathered in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to participate in the Techno Security and Digital Forensics Conference. The event hosted at the Marriott Resort & Spa at Grande Dunes offered attendees the ability to receive Continuing Professional Education Credits (CPE) depending on their organization. 

Last week, leaders from the military, special operations and industry gathered together in Tampa, Florida for the 2018 Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) and Exhibition.  The event, sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) emphasized the USSOCOM Commander's vision to "Win - Transform - People" and was joined by international military members from US partner nations.

ADF was delighted to sponsor certified forensic examiner training focused on Basic Computer Forensic Examiner (BCFE) training held by the International Association of Computer Investigative Specialists (IACIS) in Orlando, Florida.  The event attracted hundreds of corporate security, university and law enforcement officers from around the United States, as well as various officials from the Department of Defense and federal agencies.

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far far away
(2006 to be exact and the galaxy was Maryland USA)
It was a period of innovation.
Computers, USBs, all kinds of devices ... 
Some people were committing digital crimes
from their seemingly hidden bases in the digital world. 

This week, ADF is sponsoring training for companies and law enforcement agencies that seek to train individuals and teams on computer forensic training. 

Here are a few of the highlights of the best parts of the 2018 National Cyber Crime Conference hosted by the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office (AGO) this past week. 

Digital forensic experts understand the importance of remembering to perform a RAM Capture on-scene so as to not leave valuable evidence behind.  Capturing volatile data in a computer's memory dump enables investigators and examiners to do a full memory analysis and access data including:

There are many cases where time is critical in a police investigation. This is increasingly true in a world where digital evidence can be an essential element in capturing a suspect or solving a crime. Digital data can implicate or clear suspects and utilizing digital evidence to your investigative advantage can allow you to act quickly while on-scene.

Starting digital investigations while at the scene has become increasingly important in fluid crime situations such as terrorism threats, active shooter situations, gang activity or sex trafficking. Field digital forensic investigations (a.k.a. field triage) can also be useful in CyberTip investigations or any crime where a digital device may have photos, video, audio, or other data that could be useful in identifying suspects, victims or protecting evidence.

Today, ADF is announcing the release of new digital forensic software versions for our products: 

• Digital Evidence InvestigatorⓇ (DEI) version 1.3.0 
• Triage-InvestigatorⓇ version 4.3.0
• Triage-G2Ⓡ version 4.3.0

Looking for a great work environment with talented, motivated team members? If you have a passion for results, then ADF may be the right career for you. 

This April, ADF will sponsor The National Cyber Crime Conference in Massachusetts, hosted by the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office.  The conference brings together police, prosecutors and forensic examiners from all 50 states, Washington DC, the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, for three days of training designed to help attendees face the challenges posed by digital evidence and technology in criminal investigations.  International law enforcement attendees have come from Canada, Ireland, England as well as Trinidad and Tobago. 

"In summary, I would say DEI is one of the more intuitive tools I've used, because it guides you through your investigation step by step and could easily be used without much training" ...Read the full 2018 Forensic Focus Review of ADF's Digital Evidence Investigator tool.

ADF sponsored the 2017 Florida ICAC Training Symposium which was sponsored by the FL ICAC Task Force, along with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Child Abduction Response Team (CART) and Offender Registration and Enforcement. 

The three day event, held in Tampa, Florida is an annual event designed to expand the efforts and knowledge base of law enforcement investigators and prosecutors by providing highly specialized training focused on investigating and prosecuting technology-facilitated crimes against children.

Join ADF for the First Forensic Forum (F3) Annual Training Workshop being held in the United Kingdom.  F3 provides an open forum for any organizations focused on digital forensics.  

The emphasis of F3 training days and seminars is focused on the technical aspects of digital forensics. Computer technology in all its forms is a fast-moving area, and in order to function effectively, forensic computing analysts are constantly faced with the necessity of updating and expanding their knowledge. The First Forensic Forum aims to provide them with the opportunity to do so by drawing upon the expertise of member organisations. The majority of F3 members are involved in the analysis of computer-based evidence of various types, and some are also authors and manufacturers of forensic computing tools and solutions.

Join ADF at the High Technology Crime Investigation Association Conference for Forensic Investigators and Law Enforcement.  The HTCIA  event will be held in California and features 84 labs and 90 lectures for Investigators, Law Enforcement and Legal professionals. 

Investigators, Police and Legal professionals who stop by the ADF booth will receive a FREE evaluation kit of ADF Digital Evidence Investigator® forensic software. Our latest release of Digital Evidence Investigator software will also be featured in the Vendor Showcase. 

ADF will sponsor the Northwest Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Conference. Microsoft has partnered with ICAC to host the event which is designed to expand the efforts and knowledge base of law enforcement investigators, digital forensic examiners, and prosecutors. The event will provide highly specialized lab and lecture based training focused on investigating and prosecuting technology-facilitated crimes against children.  Anticipated curriculum will include both child sexual exploitation as well as human trafficking topics and will consist of lectures, case studies, computer labs and exhibitor workshops.

ADF will exhibit at the Military Police & Law Enforcement Expo to showcase Digital Evidence Investigator to Military Police Soldiers from regiments stationed in Missouri (Military Police, Chemical, and Engineer), Emergency Services, and Force Protection as well as personnel from the Capability Development and Integration Directorate (CDID).

ADF will sponsor the Crimes Against Children Conference which provides practical and interactive instruction to those fighting crimes against children and helping children heal. Attendees include government and nonprofit agencies in law enforcement, child protective services, and victims of crime.

ADF has just released a new software update for our entire product line of digital forensic software  (Digital Evidence Investigator 1.2, Triage-Investigator 4.2 and Triage-G2 4.2). This latest update includes many product enhancements and features including:

ADF Solutions, a leading provider of digital forensic and media exploitation software, has released Triage-G2, the latest evolution of ADF's award-winning media exploitation tool. Triage-G2 is deployed by special forces, military and intelligence agencies worldwide and has a proven track record of supporting site exploitation missions, including Tactical Media Exploitation, DOMEX, MEDEX, and biometric identity operations.

Designed for nontechnical operators, Triage-G2 employs a simple two-step process to rapidly scan, extract, and analyze critical intelligence from computers and digital devices. The tool can be deployed on existing computing devices and on a small portable USB key. The collected data can then be easily distributed via portable reports or ingested into data repositories, which include Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination Systems (PED).

ADF Solutions, a leading provider of digital forensic and media exploitation tools, has released Triage-Investigator, the latest evolution of ADF's award-winning digital forensic triage tool designed for field deployment. Triage-Investigator has a proven track record of providing investigators with easy, quick access to court-defendable evidence to process criminal cases.

ADF Solutions, a leading provider of digital forensic and media exploitation tools, has released Digital Evidence Investigator (DEI), an end-to-end solution designed to streamline digital investigations. DEI has been built from the ground up and leverages ADF's proven track record of reducing forensic backlogs.

ADF will be exhibiting at the upcoming 2016 SOFIC Conference, demonstrating its newest version of our Media Exploitation tool. We will also be participating in an Exploitation Pavilion, partnering with other Sensitive Site Exploitation Tools. See more information about the conference here.

This 3 day course uses HTCI’s proven hands-on training methods to train the investigator on the forefront of cyber investigations. It provides the investigator a simple USB/DVD deployment method to scan computers.

In this hands-on workshop, attendees will learn how to use the newest ADF forensic tools. These tools extend the initial examination process from triage to automated forensic exams by including a wider array of critical artifacts, while maintaining automation, enhancing ease of use, and increasing performance. This workshop will cover the set-up of an examination, scanning a suspect computer, and reviewing and reporting on collected evidence. All attendees will receive a FREE Evaluation Software Kit. Register today!

The May 2014 issue of SC Magazine includes the most recent product reviews of Digital Forensic tools and ADF’s Triage- G2, Triage-Examiner and Triage-Responder scores 5 out of 5 stars.

New South Wales Police are training front line officers in the use of specialized digital forensic tools including ADF Triage-Examiner. “The NSW Police Force is on a mission to boost the digital capability of the state’s law enforcement, enlisting the support of 50 frontline officers specially trained in identifying and preserving electronic evidence.”