IT Security: First forensic probe of remote computer using mobile phone
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Managing director Andrew Sheldon successfully took a forensic copy of the hard drive, performed keyword searches and forensically browsed the computer - 70 miles away - in front of delegates at the UK National Police Improvement Agency's annual e-crime conference.
This technological breakthrough has huge implications for the security services in their battle to protect the public from terrorism, organised crime and paedophiles. For example, computers seized by foreign police forces following the Glasgow car bomb attack could have been examined within minutes by British police stationed in London.
Mr Sheldon was demonstrating his company's patented Remote Forensics solution to an audience of intelligence experts, including senior security advisors and forensics analysts.
A unique combination of hardware and software architecture, Remote Forensics allows enforcement agencies, businesses and organisations with multiple geographically-separated sites to react instantly in the event of a 'digital incident'.
Any digital media - hard drives, DVDs, memory sticks and the like - can be 'imaged' (copied) and forensically examined in real-time from anywhere in the world where there is a network connection, including wireless or 3G mobile phone.
An expert with a laptop computer or mobile phone sat on a beach in Australia could carry out an investigation in New York without leaving his sunlounger.
Remote Forensics features FIMS (Forensic Incident Management Service), a sophisticated and secure web-based application which handles the investigation from start to finish. No data travels over the internet, so the process is totally secure at all times. And the system works at the speed of the machine being analysed.
Mr Sheldon commented: "Enforcement agency experts could immediately see the benefits of using joined-up intelligence gathering using Remote Forensics. It gives the ability to respond immediately to intelligence discovered on systems during a multi-point raid.
"By deploying Remote Forensics across the intelligence community, when there is a raid in multiple geographical locations all the intelligence gathered is available immediately to intelligence analysts, language analysts and cryptoanalysts in a central location without having to split that team."
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