Blog
What is Bitcoin, How is it Different than “Real” Money,” and How Can I Get Some?
Bitcoin is a virtual currency. It doesn’t exist in the kind of physical form that the currency & coin we’re used to exist in. It doesn't even exist in a form as physical as Monopoly money. It’s electrons – not molecules. But consider how much cash you personally...
Can You Browse the Internet in Secrecy? Part 2: The Experiment
By Jessica Riccio In part one, we defined private browsing and discussed its history. We covered places where various browsers store browsing history and the technical means through which each browser does so. In this part, we give the steps and results of my own...
Will the US CyberAttack Syria?
“Is the U.S. ready for cyber war?” leads an article in FCW Online. FCW, “the Business of Federal Technology” is an online magazine designed to provide Federal tech execs with the guidance and information it needs to do business with the Feds. As such, it is...
CSI Computer Forensics – Real Cases From Burgess Forensics #12 – The Case of the Computer That Got Lost
The stories are true; the names and places have been changed to protect the potentially guilty. A few years ago, Debby Johnson, an attorney from a large firm based in Kansas City, contacted me about a relatively simple matter. I was to travel to offices in Sacramento...
I’ve Been Hacked! What Do I Do Now?
We get this question several times a week, so it’s not just you. And no, it doesn't mean you're crazy – even if your friends think so, and even if law enforcement won't take your case. People’s computers and phones get hacked, every day. Why won't the police do...
How Do Hard Drives Die?
There are normal things that happen to hard drives and individual, occasionally unusual things that clients have managed to do over the three decades we've been recovering data for them. The usual suspects: Dust, fur, heat, electrical spikes, bumps, loose cables....
CSI Files #14 – The Case of the Unappreciated Underling – Real Cases From Burgess Forensics
The stories are true; the names and places have been changed to protect the potentially guilty. It was a cold and rainy San Francisco afternoon. I sat sweating in the conference room of a gritty skyscraper downtown. The deposing lawyer across from me was standing up,...
Challenges in Recovering Deleted Email
Both computer forensics experts and data recovery technicians seek to recover deleted data. Data recovery is primarily interested in bringing back files, while computer forensics tends to dig deeper, looking not just for deleted documents, but also for metadata (data...
CSI Computer Forensics – Real Cases From Burgess Forensics #9 – The Case of the Teacher and the Trickster
The stories are true; the names and places have been changed to protect the potentially guilty. It was a grey October day, the kind of day when a guy likes to cozy up next to a bank of servers to keep warm, when the Teacher first called me. "They think I'm nuts" were...
Audio File Challenges for Computer Forensics & eDiscovery
By Steve Burgess Unified communications is the term used for integrating all communications - data and voice - over the Internet. This can include data in its myriad forms such as email, instant messaging data, data generated by business computer applications, faxes,...