Experimental Study of the Validity and Reliability of Digital Forensics Tools

This award will provide funding to the University of Central Florida to scientifically validate digital forensic techniques and tools. Scientifically valid techniques are capable of being proven correct through empirical testing. In practice, this means that the tools and techniques used in digital forensics must be validated, and that crime laboratories, including digital forensic labs, should be accredited or otherwise proven to meet such scientific standards. For this proposal, researchers from the University of Central Florida, Purdue University, and law enforcement digital forensic experts will conduct studies to identify issues with the reliability and accuracy of the most accepted software and hardware in use by law enforcement forensic examiners. The proposed research design is based on the NIST Computer Forensics Tool Testing Guidelines. The researchers have selected popular commercial forensic suites as well as some free and open source software for inclusion in the test bed.
ca/ncf