Working as a Forensic Neutral to Help Counsel Understand How Parties Interacted with Devices

CHALLENGE

Plaintiff and Defendant agreed to retain iDS as a forensic neutral. Anonymous harassing text messages had been received by Party A and Party B was suspected as being the sender.

Counsel for both Plaintiff and Defendant needed specific answers to the following:

Did any evidence exist to show the use of anonymizing text message platforms
If so, did the use of the anonymous text messages show visual similarities to the received text messages (i.e., fonts, format, field names, etc.)
Was there any evidence to establish who specifically sent the anonymous text messages

Solution

Our Forensic Team imaged multiple mobile devices and several laptop computers, allowing for analysis and reporting on the parties’ digital interaction.

The iDS Forensics Team performed analysis and reporting on the following:

A “test” anonymous text was located on the suspect device that contained personal identifiable information of the accused sender (i.e., information known only to the sender)
Multiple fields within the “test” text on the suspect device matched the actual text from the victim device
Text messages were located on a Part C device that pre-dated the phone being setup, indicating that the messages had been restored after phone setup to overwrite pre-existing text messages
Unallocated spaces on the suspect laptop had been “overwritten” by the copying of hundreds of GBs of movie files onto the laptop hard drive on the day of deposition

Result

iDS’ Forensics Team was able to show counsel for Party A and Party B how each of their clients interacted with their devices. Additionally, we were able to show the traces of evidence that resulted as a result of those interactions.

Based upon our showings surrounding device interaction and the traces of resulting evidence, as well as the forensics findings presented directly to the court, the parties entered into a confidential settlement.