Digital triage forensics - Stephen Pearson

Digital Triage Forensics: Processing the Digital Crime Scene provides the tools, training, and techniques in Digital Triage Forensics (DTF), a procedural model for the investigation of digital crime scenes including both traditional crime scenes and the more complex battlefield crime scenes. The DTF is used by the U.S. Army and other traditional police agencies for current digital forensic applications. The tools, training, and techniques from this practice are being brought to the public in this book for the first time. Now corporations, law enforcement, and consultants can benefit from the unique perspectives of the experts who coined Digital Triage Forensics. The text covers the collection of digital media and data from cellular devices and SIM cards. It also presents outlines of pre- and post- blast investigations.

This book is divided into six chapters that present an overview of the age of warfare, key concepts of digital triage and battlefield forensics, and methods of conducting pre/post-blast investigations. The first chapter considers how improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have changed from basic booby traps to the primary attack method of the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also covers the emergence of a sustainable vehicle for prosecuting enemy combatants under the Rule of Law in Iraq as U.S. airmen, marines, sailors, and soldiers perform roles outside their normal military duties and responsibilities. The remaining chapters detail the benefits of DTF model, the roles and responsibilities of the weapons intelligence team (WIT), and the challenges and issues of collecting digital media in battlefield situations. Moreover, data collection and processing as well as debates on the changing role of digital forensics investigators are explored.

This book will be helpful to forensic scientists, investigators, and military personnel, as well as to students and beginners in forensics.

Stephen Frank Pearson was born in Aylesbury, England in 1963 and has been involved with Digital Media Exploitation since the early 1990's.
Stephen served in the United States Army as a Military Policeman for over 21 years.
During this time, Stephen wrote and compiled numerous texts that are still used today to train the Army's Military Police and Investigators.
Stephen's last military assignment was Non Commissioned Officer in Charge of the Advanced Technology Criminal Investigations Division at the Military Police School, Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri.
After retiring, Stephen accepted a position as chief of detectives at the Pulaski County Sheriffs Office in Missouri.
Stephen opened the first Digital Forensic Lab at the Sheriff's Department which was responsible for numerous convictions.
Stephen, during this time, also started and ran the High Tech Crime Institute.
In 2006 Stephen was contracted by the National Ground Intelligence Center to teach and design a course in Digital Triage Forensics for the new WIT teams deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan.
To date, Stephen continues to teach and design new procedures that enable small team units to gather and exploit Digital Media from the Battle Space.
Stephen currently lives in Palm Harbor, Florida and is the CEO of the High Tech Crime Institute.

"Syngress [is] by far the best publisher of digital forensics and general security books…I'd certainly recommend this book and after reading through it…it looks great. It's written by the guys who coined the use of the word Triage in this context, so they know what they are talking about, and unlike many real technical books this one really does dig into the investigative techniques that should be used at the crime scene, including quite an interesting analysis of 'Battlefield Crime Scenes', where a triage approach is by far the only way to successfully approach the forensics problem." -Tony Campbell, Publisher, Digital Forensics Magazine