Precision Digital Forensics: Thinking Outside-The-Box; KEY to Digital Evidence Management

Imagine a crime scene, where officers make a diligent effort to discover all possible physical evidence. Now imagine it is a cybercrime and the usual physical traces are not there. Instead, criminals leave behind ‘digital footprints’ such as activity logs, system artifacts, and metadata, which is extremely valuable to the ensuing investigation. Evidence in this form can present significant challenges from device access and examination to evidence preservation and storage. Identifying and mitigating these challenges is what Precision Digital Forensics (PDFI) is all about; adopting an “outside-the-box” thinking approach, they optimize digital forensic activities and streamline digital evidence management. “We provide innovative solutions and services to mitigate the myriad of challenges associated with handling, storage, and examination of digital evidence,” says Clayton Schilling, President, and CEO.

As a Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Veterans Enterprise (CVE) certified Service-Disabled Veteran- Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), PDFI is committed to excellence and to creating reliable, innovative, and flexible solutions for their clients. Combining this capability with proven industry best practices, highly skilled examiners, and ISO accreditation standards, the firm holds the KEY for producing defensible high-quality digital evidence deliverables. According to Schilling, the way we think about electronic data and digital evidence must change. The continuing proliferation of digital devices and the ever-increasing size of digital storage media coupled with the continued use of obsolete methodologies and “old school” thought processes, further exacerbate the already uncontrollable backlog of unprocessed data, leaving investigations incomplete and criminals to roam free.

In an effort to help resolve this ever-growing burden, PDFI was established to help government and commercial organizations navigate these challenges. To this extent, PDFI applies its founder’s longstanding law enforcement and digital forensics experience and open-minded approach to problem solving, to develop innovative and efficient solutions. The firm leverages high-speed imagers, hybrid cloud solutions, and big data analysis platforms, automation, and ISO accreditation standards, to help their clients reduce turnaround times, digital evidence backlogs, and save labor costs.

PDFI’s professional services include computer forensics, mobile device forensics, and audio/video forensics conducted in the field, laboratory environment, or client site location. PDFI wields the potential to manage, collect, preserve, process, analyze, and produce digital evidence for criminal, civil, post intrusion, and insider threat investigations and litigations, eDiscovery, and cyberspace and intelligence collection projects. The firm provides innovative solutions for integrated IT infrastructures, data indexing and storage, case, evidence, and information management, and improved data collection and processing capabilities. The firm also provides ISO accreditation/ certification consulting, auditing, and quality program development through their sister company, Accredit-IT.

PDFI’s managed services focus on program and technical operations management, digital forensics and quality control staffing, and data storage and evidence management solutions. These solutions and services help clients reduce operating costs, gain access to the best resources and capabilities, free up internal resources, increase efficiency for time-consuming functions, and develop in-house capabilities.

With such a comprehensive and powerful suite of services, PDFI remains at the forefront of the digital forensics and ISO accreditation consulting industries. PDFI will continue to expand the firm’s services within the law enforcement solution space to provide cost-effective management and examination solutions to help organizations regain control of their digital evidence management. The company will accomplish this by establishing trusted long-term partnerships with supported organizations assisting them in every capacity—from onsite staffing to offsite laboratory support. As for the future, PDFI plans to build out an ISO accredited full-service digital forensics laboratory in Northern Virginia.