Digital Forensics Global Trends

The role of personal devices & digital forensics continues to grow

The current number of global mobile device connections in use around the world exceeded 7 billion in April 2014 — this number is expected to continue to increase exponentially as the Internet of things continues to grow.  As use of these devices, and accompanying applications, continue to expand rapidly around the globe so too will the use of digital forensics as an invaluable tool for a variety of law enforcement agencies and stakeholders. The global digital forensics market had revenues of around $1.4bn in 2013 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.5% between now and 2018.

There are two critical global trends that are shaping the evolution of these marketplaces and the uses of digital forensics– and they are interconnected.  The first is that law enforcement agencies and a growing array of stakeholders are using digital forensics for a rapidly expanding set of uses to keep up with the pace of innovation and commercialization.  The second is that of privacy concerns whereby policy makers are taking a more active role in attempting to shape the use of digital forensics and that law enforcement will have to make adjustments to these new realities.

Recently there have been a number of high profile cases where cutting-edge digital forensics tools have played a key role.  In the Oscar Pistorius trial, Reeva Steenkamp admitted to being scared of the South African track star in a text message three weeks before he shot her dead, according to police experts during his murder trial.  In a Whatsapp conversation in January of 2103, Ms. Steenkamp wrote: “I’m scared of you sometimes and how you snap at me.”  Thanks to digital forensics tools for mobile devices used by the South African Police that can recover messages, including deleted messages and data from encrypted versions, over 35,000 pages worth messages between the couple were recovered and will likely prove pivotal in the disposition of the case.

For more on this story please read the full article in GRC-Daily here >>