Providing leading digital forensics’ services since 2002
Back in 2002, the digital world was a very different place. Windows XP had just been released and Nokia’s mobile phones, with their seemingly endless battery life, found their way into the pockets of 45 million consumers across the globe; we wouldn’t see an iPhone for another five years.
In a year full of notable events, some of the highlights included:
- The announcement that 50% of the UK population had access to the Internet; mostly through dial-up connections,
- The Queen celebrating her Golden Jubilee,
- A mobile phone network by the name of Cellnet changing their name to o2,
- The 20th Bond film, Die Another Day, was released.
In amongst all these major events, you’ll be forgiven for missing the launch of our Digital Forensics’ Unit, which opened in 2002 as the “Digital Evidence Recovery and Internet Crime” unit, or DERIC for short. We’ve been providing up-to-date, skilled, and reliable digital forensics’ services across the whole of the UK since, becoming NYtech on our fifteenth anniversary in 2017.
Digital devices have changed a lot since 2002
Back in 2002, forensic examination of the typical mobile phone would generally produce the same three types of data:
- Call logs
- Contact names and numbers
- Text (SMS) messages
Compare that compact list to the types of data available on even the cheapest smart-phone today and you’re likely to see:
- Audio files
- Calendar entries and appointments
- Call logs
- Chat messages from Facebook, WhatsApp, etc.
- Contact names, numbers, e-mail addresses, and social media details
- Internet history
- Journeys
- Locations
- Multi-media messages
- Passwords
- Photographs
- Text (SMS) messages
- Text notes
- Videos
- Voicemails
As the capabilities and capacities of digital devices have evolved and grown, so have ours. Our Digital Forensics’ Unit uses some of the leading industry standard forensic tools to reliably and effectively examine an increasingly large and diverse range of digital devices, including:
- Mobile phones and tablets
- Computers and laptops
- Servers
- Sat-nav devices
- CCTV/DVR units
- Drones
- Point of sale devices, including cash-tills
- Industrial machinery, including commercial sewing, embroidery, print and labelling equipment
- Networked storage
- Hard drives and Solid State Drives (SSDs)
- USB memory
- Digital cameras
- Memory cards
Helping you to make sense of your digital evidence
Of course, just as the digital world has continued to grow and evolve, so have the skills of our Forensic Analysts. Our team come from a mix of public and private sector backgrounds, combining years of experience, academic qualifications, and post-graduate training and certification from the College of Policing and some of the most respected and leading-edge names in computer, phone, and CCTV forensics, ethical hacking, and information management standards.
Of course, it isn’t all just about training and equipment. All of our NYtech Forensic Analysts are signed up to the Forensic Science Regulator’s Code of Conduct, adhere to the ACPO Good Practice Guidelines for Digital Evidence, and are trained in cyber hygiene techniques and the implementation of controls required by the UK Government’s Cyber-Essentials scheme.
We also like to think that we’re approachable, easy to get hold of, and happy to explain, in plain English, what’s often a complex subject.