SPF Pro Beginner Tutorial – Mobile Forensics (Step-by-Step)

Before we could dive deep into mobile forensics practice, there is an initial preparation we should do, which is to understand the application of a professional mobile forensic tool.

Today, within minutes, we’re going to walk you through the essential practice of SalvationDATA’s most industry-grade mobile forensic tool, SPF Pro(SmartPhone Forensic System Professional).

After following today’s instructions, you’re definitely good to take actions and cope with your actual mobile forensics cases more effective.

Log Forensics: 5 Tips for Investigators

Nowadays, almost any kind of device generates some type of logs. At any point a scheduled or user-triggered action occurs, some type of logs are usually generated.

Although the main purpose of logs is debugging and troubleshooting, analyzing logs can also be important for digital forensic experts as they attempt to untangle what’s behind an incident or a digital crime.

There are many types of logs:

  • OS logs
  • Application logs
  • Database logs
  • Network logs
  • etc.

Analyzing them reveals what action has occurred, at what time, and who was using the device at the time of the incident.

You can think of log forensics as a combination of log analytics and computer forensics.

Various purposes of log forensics can include:

  • Tracing a hacker
  • Detecting a vulnerability
  • Disaster recovery

As a digital forensics investigator, knowing the theoretical aspects of the subject matter is a good starting point.

Whereas, it’s not enough to just be equipped with the awareness, since it’s also important to put this knowledge to practice, and that’s why we’ve devised a practical guide to aid you during the investigation.

DVR Data Recovery: Key Points to Remember

The purpose of having a DVR system in place is to ensure a higher level of security. In case of an incident or criminal activity, the video footage can be retrieved and examined to come to the bottom of what truly happened and bring the ones responsible to justice.

However, it’s more than common to encounter problematic DVR video footages when conduct video forensics.

Worse still, the DVR data recovery process is far from simple, especially if you’re dealing with mis-formatted, overwritten, or deleted files. Sometimes, there is nothing malicious about deleting old footage. In fact, DVR systems “incidentally” delete them automatically to make room for new footage to be saved.

Nevertheless, you’re going to need to be equipped with the right knowledge if you want to bring it back.

Today, we will discuss the reasons why data loss in DVR units can occur, give you guidelines on the most recommended route to take, and answers questions like what to do if you don’t have a backup at hand and what DVR data recovery procedure works best.

Cookie File Forensics: Types and Directives Explained

During the digital investigation process, a law enforcement or digital forensics professional may be tasked with having to investigate whether a suspect is involved in illegal activities that have to do with cyber crime such as hacking, dealings on the dark web, harassment, etc.

One of the ways to accomplish this is to seize and investigate the suspect’s computer or smart device to check up on their browsing history. To achieve it,  here’s where knowledge about the different cookies types and their uses comes in – by knowing what to look for, you’ll be able to successfully investigate their browsing activity and gather the necessary evidence that can hold its own in a court of law.

Today, we’ll cover:

  • What cookies files are
  • What information they store
  • The different types you should know
  • Where to look for them
  • What tools to use to recover them
  • Any regulatory cookie directives you should know
  • and more!

With this out of the way, let’s start with the basics.

What Can We Deduce From Audio & Video Forensics?

Audio and video forensics is a complex and constantly evolving subject, which is being tied with multiple different disciplines. During the work, you always have to put your comprehensive analytical thinking to the test in order to  become a qualified forensic video analyst.

Usually,  a qualified forensic video analyst ought to extract a wealth of information from the recorded video footage to crack the case effectively.

To make it possible, today we will take an in-depth look at some of the methods for forensic audio and video analysis and conquer the challenges you might bump into along the way.

With this out of the way, here’s what we can deduce from audio video analysis in digital forensics:

Top 10 Free eDiscovery Software for 2025

In the past, manually examining all the materials required for legal proceedings required an entire team of legal and IT professionals and many hours of work. There was no better way back then. The good news is that with the help of modern technology and automation, the entire eDiscovery forensic process can be reduced to a fraction of the time it takes to complete the work, saving you time and money.

By utilizing the free eDiscovery software we’ve reviewed below, you’ll be able to waltz through piles of documents and data like nothing, effectively tagging the areas of interest without having to lift a finger. Most of them let you export the findings in a manner the court will find admissible all while packing useful features such as giving you the option to convert the files to various formats and letting you share them through a secure online interface.

If you haven’t already, we invite you to familiarize yourself with the concept of eDiscovery by reading our intro guide. After you feel you have the basics down, go right ahead and read our short reviews and summaries on the best digital forensics tools the market has to offer in 2025, all of which also come with a free version.

Top 10 Free DFIR Tools for Investigators

DFIR tools allow a qualified DFIR investigator to gather essential clues while preserving the business continuity with minimal disruption. The objective is to discover whether a breach has taken place, what are the circumstances surrounding it, who is behind it, and similar. Above all, the aim should be to salvage what can be saved and prevent a cyber security incident from becoming a full-blown cyber security disaster.

To avoid having to spend countless hours manually traversing the system and network architecture when searching for answers, these digital forensics tools will drastically speed up the process. Best of all, they come with an open source license, meaning they are free to use forever, even for commercial purposes.

In case you’d like to know more about the topic at hand, we suggest you read some of the previous articles we’ve published, including our introduction to DFIR and a more in-depth guide where we focus on the 6 phases of a cyber security incident response plan.

With that out of the way, here are the top 10 free DFIR tools you can use to increase the quality, speed, and accuracy of any cyber security incident investigation:

8 Steps To Present Video Evidence in Court

Getting the pieces together and studying how to present video evidence in court can be a daunting task, especially if you’ve never done it before. But that’s something you’re going to have to get used to if it in any way aligns with your job responsibilities. The good news is, the process gets much easier once you have a tried and proven system in place. Don’t worry – we’ll teach you everything you need to know!

What you’ll find below is an 8-step guide on using video evidence in court the proper way. It contains the most important pieces of information you need to keep in mind to ensure that the video evidence presented gets admitted in court without stumbling into too many roadblocks or objections on the way. Keep in mind that any specifics may vary from country to country, but for the most part, the process will be similar if not the same.

Without any further ado, the step-by-step process is as follows:

SQL Server Transaction Logs: What Law Enforcement Investigators Need to Know

To successfully conduct a database investigation, every forensic database examiner needs to know what to look for. As it so happens, SQL server transaction logs are one of the essential concepts to grasp. But what exactly are they?

In essence, every SQL database supports SQL server transaction logs by default. Inside, you’ll find traces of user activity based on which you can ascertain whether a crime has taken place. Apart from that, SQL server transaction logs play an instrumental role in disaster database recovery (provided they are in usable form and not corrupted).

Computer Forensics Lab: 7 Golden Design Rules for Optimal Working Conditions

The outcome of a digital forensic investigation has the potential to change someone’s life forever. The analysis, the thinking process, the logical deduction… it all happens in a place called computer forensics lab. But although it may sometimes seem like it, it’s not magic that happens. It’s a structured process that’s based on science and technological breakthroughs.

As a matter of fact, the computer forensics technology that can be found inside a digital forensic laboratory is the result of years and years of research and refinement. For obvious reasons, as time goes on, better technology may emerge, so it’s important to keep your computer forensics lab up to date if ensuring optimal working conditions is the goal.

Contrary to what some might assume, the technological state of your forensic lab is far from being the only consideration to make. Anything that aligns with the purpose of optimizing the costs and providing an optimal workflow experience for the investigative team is very much relevant in this regard.

To break down what goes into the mix, the following are what we consider to be the 7 golden computer forensics lab design rules for optimal working conditions: