Free DME & DFIR Resources

At the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show today, Intel announced the release of its new series of processors, codenamed "Sandy Bridge." Loaded with features catering to games- and video-hungry users, the changes reflect that fact that consumers are responsible for 66 percent of Intel's revenue, a reversal from 2000, when enterprise consumers provided 71 percent of revenues.

Full story:
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/26226/

LEVA will be providing the Advanced Forensic Video Analysis & the Law course September 14th - 18th, 2009 at the LEVA DME Lab. Only graduates of LEVA's Basic and Intermediate “Forensic Video Analysis and the Law” courses may apply, and seating is limited.

Visit the LEVA training schedule for the latest on all of LEVA's course offerings or click here for the complete advanced course details (PDF).

As each day passes law enforcement and government agencies struggle with managing more sources of digital evidence and multimedia, like body worn cameras. The massive amounts of data storage required have led many to finally consider secure cloud-based storage solutions, but as some have found out, despite the minimal capital investment cloud storage costs can quickly exceed the LE & IT budgets of even the largest agencies. Let's break this down and talk specifically about digital evidence and archiving.

How are you archiving all of your digital evidence today? A tiered storage solution? Hybrid cloud solution? LTO tape? Hard drives? Optical discs (i.e. CD-R, DVD+/-R, BD-R)? Lots of questions and options, so lets talk specifically to the last group; those using optical discs.

Let me start by saying that I am by no means trying to imply that DVR, NVR or any other digital or IP based video system cannot produce good quality video evidence. There are even 2 or 3 high-end, mega-pixel quality digital surveillance cameras and systems on the market today whose capabilities far exceed those of a traditional analog based system. However, to my point, it seems more often than not digital based systems are producing very poor quality video evidence regardless of the system's actual capabilities.

So why do DVRs typically provide poor quality video evidence? Here are a few of the common reasons:

Who doesn't love free stuff? Even better, who doesn't love free stuff that actually works? Here's my Fab 5 list of Freeware programs, in no particular order. The quotes are from the respective Web site for each program. While I've found all of these programs helpful in one way or another, make sure you've read and understand my Web site Terms of Use before visiting any of these links.

Brett Shavers, author and one of the main developers of the WinFE forensic boot environment, has released a free online training course on WinFE.

Online training is a great way to supplement classroom training, providing it's from a well organized and reputable source. It's great to see more options for online and flipped classroom training related to digital forensics, and I can assure you you'll be seeing even more soon! ;)

Adobe has published a security advisory in response to a critical flaw found in Flash Player. The vulnerability affects Flash Player for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, and Android, and also impacts the authplay.dll component included in Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader X.

Full Story

Google is aiming to put the “net” in netbook with Chrome OS, a lightweight operating system that focuses on web apps and online storage.

Full Story

Digital Forensics Certification Board - Certification Phase II Begins June 14th

ORLANDO, Florida, June 4, 2010 – The Digital Forensics Certification Board (DFCB), an independent certifications organization for digital evidence examiners, today announced plans to launch a fully automated application process to keep up with the demand for this significant certification.

On March 2nd, 2009, the DFCB officially launched its highly anticipated certification program that offers two levels of professional designations and its limited “Founders Process” for initial certifications. The DFCB offers Digital Forensics Certified Practitioner (DFCP) and Digital Forensics Certified Associate (DFCA) designations from its independent, community-driven organization. With one hundred thirty five (135) certified individuals thus far, the manual application process was not optimal, given the burgeoning demand!

Join me on Thursday, March 18th at 1:00 PM EST for Ocean Systems' free 1hr webinar on Processing Video Evidence with Omnivore™ & QuickView LT™:

Register Today!

If you can't make the live webinar, register anyway and we'll email you the video recording after the session. For a quick overview of the integration between Omnivore™ and QuickView LT™, check out the video below:

It's been a long time coming, but with the recent upgrades and layout changes I was finally able to bring back our popular DME Resources Map.

The DME Resources Map allows members to add markers for their agency or organizational resources related to forensic multimedia analysis. Visitors and members are then able to easily locate nearby DME resources that may be able to assist them.

Add your agency or organization's resource today!

The Ontario Provincial Police recently announced a Forensic Identification Video Analyst opening in Orillia, Ontario. 

For further information visit http://www.gojobs.gov.on.ca:80/Preview.aspx?JobID=8163

The Media-Geek.com Wiki is officially launched! Oh, Wiki you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind hey Wiki! Hey Wiki! Yep, I've officially lost my mind, but at least you didn't have to hear me actually sing that.

The Media-Geek Wiki is now available for our registered members, adding yet another way for members to share information, documentation, files, etc... One might think that a forensic community content management solution/system (CMS) with a multitude of additional content submission, categorization, and search abilities would be enough...but then, one would be wrong, wouldn't they?

Using a Wiki was one of the original concepts for this site discussed over three years ago while I was attending LEVA's Advanced Forensic Video Analysis & The Law course. Since then, there have been various tests and even a BETA launch in the summer of last year that was based on Microsoft's CMS product SharePoint. What it boiled down to was CMS or Wiki, knowing that both have advantages and disadvantages regardless of what product(s) or platforms you use. Then it hit me - why not both?