ZENA FORENSICS

When I first started working in Digital Forensics, one of the fundamental principles was to always create a bit‑by‑bit copy of the storage device . Back then, we typically dealt with hard drives (internal and external), memory cards, and optical media. The choices to be made—then as now—revolved around how to access the device, giving rise to the concept of order of volatility . Simply put, this means collecting the data that is most likely to disappear first. Traditionally, the main decision was whether to perform live forensics or to “pull the plug” and create a disk image. In practice, the challenge was always finding the most effective method—hardware, software, or a combination—to access stored data without modifying it . In the pre-smartphone era, mobile devices followed a similar logic, but the need for live acquisition —acquiring data while the device was powered on—was already evident. Today, both the world and digital forensics have changed significantly. Several factors...