Forensics / Criminal Defense

A sweeping law enforcement effort is currently underway whereby peer-to-peer filesharing networks such as Limewire and Kazaa are being scoured for individuals sharing images or videos that appear to depict the sexual exploitation of minors. As with all human endeavors, there is a downside to this otherwise laudable practice. Many have become unwittingly caught up in this operation. They face not only possession and distribution (of child pornography) charges but are also confronted with potential loss of job, family, reputation and freedom. Modern computer operating systems and the applications that run on top of them are highly complex. Not even an expert-level user can know fully what lies within the volumes of data present on their computer(s). Access Forensics’ examiners have worked in state and federal venues, both with private practice attorneys and public defenders, to aid in the assessment of electronic evidence and the merits of the government’s forensic analysis. The earlier we’re involved, the better. Access Forensics has achieved success for some of its clients in the pre-indictment phase of criminal proceedings.

Information Overload

After working with another e-discovery firm who had produced, without question, 6 DVD’s worth of email-derived data and dutifully charged $18k for the effort, Access Forensics was contacted to assist in making sense of what exactly had been produced, why, and for guidance in further processing the resultant volumes of information. The 6 DVD’s were provided to Access Forensics and were found to contain the desired data. However, the DVD’s were ultimately the result of untrained use of a popular commercially available e-discovery application. Good-faith attempts were made to work with the original vendor in their use of the e-discovery application but results proved undesirable. Access Forensics was able to refine the 6 DVD’s worth of data and extract the 56 documents which were actually responsive to the stipulated search criteria.

Advanced Email Filtering

With less than four weeks to sift through 160GB of data from over 30 email accounts, each with its own unique search criteria, Access Forensics was tasked with with complex filtering of several hundred thousand email messages. A filtering matrix was devised which paired email custodians with their respective authorized and unauthorized communications channels. Access Forensics engineers were able to drastically reduce the total number of responsive emails and begin feeding finished data to its client upon completion of each processed email custodian. The final product was converted to the clients desired format, ready for import to their case management software.