Digital Forensics

Digital forensics is a branch of the forensic sciences which is focused on the recovery and investigation of material found on digital media. Increasingly, digital forensics technologies is used in cultural heritage settings to work with the various types of electronic media within collections. Digital forensic tools and methodologies are concerned with many of the same issues that challenge digital archivists: safe recovery of electronic files, and the authenticity and reliability of the electronic file as a historical document.

Archivists at Purdue Archives and Special Collections (ASC) utilize a variety of tools to preserve and work with historical material found on digital media. Archivists are constantly innovating and adapting new tools and methods to ensure the accessibility and preservation of historical digital media.

Below is a list of some of the digital forensics tools and applications that are currently utilized by ASC.

• Autopsy Digital Forensics
• Bitcurator
• DROID
• e-PADD
• Emulators/Virtual Machines
• FC5025 USB 5.25″ floppy controller
• FFMPEG
• FTK Imager
• MailBagIt