New forensic tool captures vital digital evidence
Advancement in crime-fighting computer forensics extracts valuable data from leading database format
(WARWICKSHIRE, ENGLAND) A new software tool has been developed to extract potentially crucial digital evidence from one of the most widely used computer and mobile phone database formats.
The team of researchers at CCL-Forensics have developed and coded “EPILOG” which can prove invaluable in the retrieval of deleted data in SQLite databases, for use in criminal investigations.
SQLite is used extensively in mobile phone and smartphone operating systems (including the Apple iPhone) and in a significant number of web browsers and can contain deleted data which is not visible to the end user. EPILOG can recover and present this in a forensically sound manner to enhance a range of prosecution cases from indecent images to activity on a range of mobile phones.
The Warwickshire-based company is thought to be the first in the UK to deploy such a tool, and has already been tested it on a variety of mobile phones and computer applications.
Mark Larson, Forensics Manager at CCL-Forensics says: “Standard forensics tools can only extract SQLite databases from exhibits, and will do nothing to help you interpret their contents. EPILOG can work with both live and deleted databases, and recover both live and deleted data from them.
This means the amount of potential evidence extracted from a computer of mobile phone is significantly increased, and so is the chance of identifying relevant evidence.
To give an example, we used EPILOG on an Apple iPhone, where it recovered 32 unique deleted call events and five numbers found nowhere else on the phone. This evidence would not have been recovered without the tool, and could make a difference between success and failure in court”.
A web video explaining more about EPILOG is available here.
EPILOG was developed by the in-house Research and Development team at CCL-Forensics – the UK’s leading supplier of digital forensics services in the UK, working with a number of high-profile police forces and employing more than 80 people.
