Improving Digital Forensics With Data Recovery System

What Is a Data Recovery System?

A data recovery system or software is used to restore or repair computer data or information that was deleted, lost, formatted, or damaged, which AKA Forensic Data Recovery. There is hardly any information that law enforcement agencies cannot retrieve with a data recovery system, no matter the device – mobile phones, hard drives, and all kinds of storage devices.

Since the emergence of the computer, it has played a significant role in how societies operate. Like all innovations before, the computer brought more innovative ways to commit crimes undetected. The outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic made many organizations and individuals, including criminals, to rely more on computers to carry out their activities.

Meanwhile, Digital Forensic Tools like data recovery systems happen to equip law enforcement agencies to handle such situations to sustain the peace we enjoy.For example, the computer has been one of the main tools of terrorism over the years, and on many occasions, it has involved threats to damage government databases. When they are not delivering threats, many hackers have learned to blackmail, steal or take control of the resources of their victims.

Data recovery system helps law enforcement retrieve or repair the files lost or damaged in situations like this and track the criminals.

How Does A Data Recovery System Work?

To understand how a data recovery system works, you may need to recall the elementary computer knowledge that every file in any storage device is encoded in bits or strings of the binary digits – zeros (0) and ones (1).

By simplifying files this way, every document, video, audio, and picture are broken down into their smallest components, each represented by the numbers. This simple encoding builds the raw architecture of files on the storage device that ensures that even when lost, damaged, or deleted, law enforcement agencies can use a data recovery system to restore them from the device.

Usually, when a file is deleted, the particular space the encoding occupies in the storage device is marked vacant and ready to be overwritten by another file. As long as the code for the deleted file has not been overwritten by another file’s code, law enforcement agencies can leverage the skills of data recovery specialists to recover the deleted file.

• Aside from deletion, law enforcement can still recover the files saved in the device even when a device has been formatted. This kind of data recovery is possible because formatting a storage device does not remove the basic structure of the file.
• It merely removes the pointers to where the file exists in the storage. For this reason, it is practically impossible for the operating system to identify or access the files. However, with a data recovery system, law enforcement agencies can restore the designating pointers to all the files that existed in a storage device before formatting.
• Criminals can use many other tricks to compromise data in a storage device – physical damage, virus attack, etc. Whatever form the compromise takes, law enforcement can still use a data recovery system to recover the files if they have not been overwritten.

In a sensitive case, law enforcement agencies may need the services of a data recovery expert to guarantee further the safe recovery or repair of lost or damaged files.

How Does A Data Recovery System Support Digital Forensics?

In simple terms, digital forensics is the application of expertise in digital evidence collection, preservation, recovery and analysis by law enforcement agencies.

During criminal investigations, having a specialist in digital forensics most likely makes all the difference in the reliability of evidence provided in court. An investigation team may have the best theories and speculations about who or how a crime was committed, but a digital forensics specialist brings verifiable hard facts that the courts could rely on to state the terms of justice.

While the job of a digital forensics specialist may not differ from a regular data recovery expert to some extent, the digital forensics specialist uses an advanced data recovery system to uncover the facts about a case.

In some instances, digital forensics may not solve a crime, but it fortifies law enforcement with leads and information on how to move on.

Data Recovery System in Computer Forensics

Computer forensics is a vital part of an investigation that most law enforcement agencies have learned to accord the seriousness it deserves. Law enforcement agencies have found that the computer records of suspected criminals are primary sources of information or intelligence to solve most cases. In this context, the computer includes all forms of digital devices that can communicate or store data.

Interestingly, we live in a digital age. With the help of a data recovery system, digital forensics specialists can now investigate even criminal activities that are not primary cyber crimes. Today, law enforcement agencies can build evidence by deploying a data recovery system to analyze a suspect’s phone records, browser history, file transfers, etc.

Digital forensics is all about gathering evidence that could lead to solving a particular crime. Sometimes, the data recovery system is the only hope law enforcement agencies have at making any headway. Hardly is any serious crime conceived and executed the same day. In addition to uncovering the evidence of a crime, a data recovery system can help the digital forensics specialist to recover deleted correspondences from other parties to the crime.

With some data recovery software, law enforcement agencies can recover deleted emails, text messages, and other files that tie all parties to the crime together.

Establishing existing collaboration in crime is particularly important, especially in a case where catching a criminal does not necessarily mean that a crime has been solved. Sometimes, some criminals want law enforcement agencies to chase them to buy time for their plan to progress to maturity.

Deploying an advanced data recovery system can help the law enforcement digital forensics team uncover such collaboration early enough and save a situation bordering on national security.

Application of a Data Recovery System

Often, intelligent criminals spend more time planning how to cover their tracks than committing the crime itself. The good news is every digital forensics team knows that every cover track leaves a fresh trail, and with a digital forensic lab equipped with the right tools, like a data recovery system, even the covered tracks could be exposed.

Since we currently live in a digital world, with the right data recovery system, no trail goes cold. The great advantage of data recovery systems is that, with their help, a crime could be curbed even before they are committed.

A digital forensics team needs a data recovery system to gain access to the information of data that once existed in a particular digital device. As we said earlier, the court relies heavily on forensic evidence and reports to decide today’s litigation matters. Aside from discovering the information hidden in a device, the forensics team needs a data recovery system to track data sources down to their origin.

The scope of application of forensics data recovery systems keeps widening daily. However, the most common instances where it can be applied to gather evidence that would help law enforcement agencies include:

• Analyzing internet history: The internet is the foundation of every cybercrime. With a data recovery system, a forensics team can run a deep analysis of the internet history of suspected criminals to establish their connection to a crime or criminal plans.
• Social media tracking: Data recovery systems help the forensics team track and analyze suspects’ social media accounts.
• Repair and analysis of damaged storage devices: Criminals are fond of destroying evidence for obvious reasons. However, advanced data recovery systems can help a digital forensics team recover damaged files.
• Expert witness: Digital forensics is all about gathering reliable digital evidence that the court could use. In this capacity, a digital forensics specialist can serve as an expert witness to validate or refute digital evidence tendered in the court of law.

Though technology keeps evolving fast, the principle of committing a crime remains almost the same.The truth is that no matter how rigorous criminals plan, even seemingly without a trace , there is a flaw to be dug out by law enforcement!

A Data Recovery System is surely the assistant to this extent.

Conclusion

The place and role of a data recovery system in today’s digital world is no longer an option but a necessity that every forensics team and law enforcement agency cannot deny. Criminal activities are growing complex by the day, and a lot is at stake in each case.

Law enforcement agencies need to have accurate information to combat these crimes better and possibly stall them even before they happen. Sometimes, a data recovery system is the only hope for such a degree of information.

Most importantly, the freedom and peace we enjoy today were hard fought for. Globally, we are already stretched to the point where the trust that sustains international relationships is hanging on a thread. It may take only a perverted hacker to cut that thread and throw us into chaos from which we may never recover.

In such a situation, reliable data recovery systems may be the only chance the law enforcement agencies may have at uncovering such high-profile crimes.