Free DME & DFIR Resources

I've posted a new tutorial on Submitting & Managing Articles and Newsflashes, which registered members will find on the Tutorials page under the Help menu after they sign-in.  Additional tutorials are always being developed, so be sure to check back soon for more.  As always, if you have any suggestions or comments please feel free to post them to the member forums, shoot me a PM, or send them to me via our Contact Form.  Have a great weekend everybody!

The site features images and other information about robbers in New Jersey and New York culled from security cameras over the past few years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/nyregion/25robbery.html 

According to the FBI, digital evidence is present in nearly every crime scene.   Increasingly, this evidence is found on handheld devices such as cell phones, GPS’, iPods—and is leading investigators directly to a suspect’s door—sometimes within hours of a crime taking place.

Register now for the FBI’s Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory (RCFL) Program's free webinar for law enforcement and government officials.  Participants will learn the proper handling of handheld devices at crime scenes, basic data recovery, legal issues and more.

Questions? Send an email to npo@rcfl.gov or visit www.rcfl.gov.

Apple is once again offering the previous version of its professional video-editing software after getting mixed reactions on a newer version.

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The Facial Identification Scientific Working Group (FISWG) has released two documents as drafts for comment - "Facial Image Analysis Training" and "One to One Facial Comparison Overview".

Individuals interested in reviewing these documents and providing feedback are encouraged to visit the FISWG website (www.fiswg.org). Once there, they can download the documents and also find instructions for submitting comments. A template for submitting comments is also available on the website for download. The period for submitting comments will close on April 1, 2010.

Lots of fuss in the news lately about Smartphone encryption and 2 Factor Authentication (2FA). Maybe it's just me, but where have these people been the last decade or so? Smartphone encryption isn't new, it's just become more popular and convenient. Heck, chances are if your Android smartphone is less than 3 years old you already have the capability; it's just not turned on by default. But hey, Apple is going to provide it now too. Everybody panic!

Another new feature has been added for Media-Geek.com members that I hope will further facilitate information sharing and member communication - the ability to add comments to all articles & newsflashes.  But wait, there's more..not only can you add comments, you can subscribe to comment threads via email or RSS feeds!  Wouldn't it be helpful though if you could also leave comments on files and programs added to our new document library?  Well today's your lucky day, 'cause I had way too much coffee and managed to get that working too.  😲

I've added two links to manage your comments and comment subscriptions, one to the main member menu and one to the quick menu (right-hand side of the page).  This is also where members will manage their favorites.  For each article, file, or program added to the site member's will notice the "Set as Favorite" link located at the bottom of the post; simply click the link to add that item to your favorites list.  A few other notable updates include...

There have been a lot of updates and upgrades to the Media-Geek.com community over the last two months, but I just haven't had time to pat myself on the back after each one. :)  During some of these upgrades/updates I inevitably created a few conflicts and issues that I'll continue troubleshooting this week.  More importantly I wanted to make members aware that I'll be replacing our entire downloads area over the next week or so, which will be a lengthy process as I intend to verify each file, check versions on documents, and update links in our Wiki.  During this time, I've disabled user uploads to the Download area.  Users can still upload files to other areas of this site, to include the forums, Wiki, etc...  I'll restore the upload capability to our downloads library as soon as time permits.

Commencing the process of forming its Standards Committee, the Consortium of Digital Forensic Specialists (CDFS) is pleased to announce its appointment of Dr. Pavel Gladyshev to the position of Chairman of the Standards Committee. In this role, Dr. Gladyshev will facilitate the committee's mission of uniting practitioners from all sectors to discuss and develop digital forensic standards.

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A technology built into many new solid-state drives (SSDs) to improve their storage efficiency could inadvertently be making forensic analysis at a later date by police forces and intelligence agencies almost impossible to carry out to legally safe standards, researchers have discovered.

The detailed findings contained in Solid State Drives: The Beginning of the End for Current Practice in Digital Forensic Discovery? by Graeme B. Bell and Richard Boddington of Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, will make unsettling reading for professionals in the digital forensics field and beyond.

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What's the best way to deter a thief? Ruin the spoils, of course. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint have agreed to a broad outline that will culminate in the creation of a central database for stolen cellphones. The goal? To block lifted units from functioning on US shores. Over the next six months, each firm will build out its own stolen device database for integration into a larger, central database, said a Wall Street Journal source, with regional carriers joining the effort over the following two years.

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Someday very soon, if you stroll through Piedmont Park, travel the Downtown Connector, hit one of the bars or restaurants in Midtown or visit the Georgia Dome or Philips Arena, you'll have an invisible companion: the Atlanta Police Department.

This spring, the department will open a video integration center designed to compile and analyze footage from thousands of public and private security cameras throughout the city. Images from as many as 500 cameras in downtown and Midtown are expected to be flowing into the center by mid-summer.

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In the last few weeks, we've added several new features and content areas to Media-Geek, and more are on the way. Some of these updates are specific to our members only area, while others are available to both the public and private sections of the site; such as our new customizable home page.

By default, the new home page displays recent articles from a few of our content areas, such as Member Articles, Media-Geek News, Larry C.'s Blog, and Newsflashes. Both members and visitors can change the number of articles that are displayed on the home page for each of these areas, and they can also re-order the way in which they are displayed using the drag-n-drop icon in the upper-right corder of the display for each area.

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