Systems and methods for digital forensic triage

• US 9,071,924 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2012
• Issued: 06/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aces & Eights Corporation
• Original Assignee: Aces & Eights Corporation
• Inventors: Frecks, Austin P. Jr., Curry, Anthony W., Lynn, Donald G. Jr., Bland, Christopher J.
• Primary Examiner(s): PHUONG, DAI
• Application Number:
  US13/528,088
• Publication Number:
  US 20120322422A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,105 Days
• Field of Search: 455/418, 455/419, 455/420, 455/554.2, 455/556.1, 455/556.2, 455/557, 455/558, 455/559, 707/706, 707/708, 707/767, 707/768, 707/769, 707/770, 707/771, 707/795, 707/796
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/113 Details of archiving lifecycle management in storage systems G06F3/0649; backup systems G06F11/1446
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/577 Assessing vulnerabilities and evaluating computer system security
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2153 Using hardware token as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4416 Network booting; Remote initial program loading [RIPL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/02 for separating internal from external traffic, e.g. firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/302 gathering intelligence information for situation awareness or reconnaissance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3236 using cryptographic hash functions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/12 Detection or prevention of fraud
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method for forensic triage may include coupling, communicatively, a computer and a mobile device. The computer can be booted with machine readable instructions stored on the one or more mobile memory modules of the mobile device. A search data set can be received with one or more mobile processors of the mobile device. One or more processors of the computer, the one or more mobile processors, or both, can execute, automatically, the machine readable instructions stored on the one or more mobile memory modules of the mobile device to search one or memory modules of the computer in a read only mode for triage data that corresponds to the search data set. The triage data can be transmitted via one or more communication modules of the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method for forensic triage comprising:

coupling, communicatively, a computer and a mobile device, wherein the computer comprises one or more processors conductively coupled to one or more memory modules and the mobile device comprises one or more mobile processors conductively coupled to one or more mobile memory modules and one or more communication modules, and machine readable instructions stored on the one or more mobile memory modules of the mobile device;

booting the computer with the machine readable instructions stored on the one or more mobile memory modules of the mobile device;

receiving a search data set with the one or more mobile processors of the mobile device, wherein the search data set comprises a keyword list that comprises a plurality of keywords of interest, a hash list that comprises a plurality of hashes that correspond to output from a cryptographic hash function, and a search list that comprises a plurality of identifiers that each correspond to an instance of a system resource;

executing, automatically with the one or more processors, the one or more mobile processors, or both, the machine readable instructions stored on the one or more mobile memory modules of the mobile device to search the one or memory modules of the computer in a read only mode for triage data that corresponds to the search data set;

coupling, communicatively, the mobile device and a cloud computing device with a cellular network; and

transmitting the triage data via the one or more communication modules of the mobile device over the cellular network.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the triage data in the one or more mobile memory modules of the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

coupling, communicatively, the mobile device and a cloud computing device with the cellular network, wherein the cloud computing device comprises one or more cloud processors communicatively coupled to one or more cloud memory modules, and wherein the triage data is transmitted over the cellular network and stored in the one or more cloud memory modules.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

pushing the search data set from the cloud computing device to the mobile device over the cellular network.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

pushing the search data set from the mobile device to the cloud computing device over the cellular network.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

copying, automatically with the one or more processors, the one or more mobile processors, or both, one or more system resources from the one or more memory modules of the computer to the one or more mobile memory modules of the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

shutting the computer down;

rebooting the computer with the machine readable instructions stored on the one or more mobile memory modules of the mobile device; and

restoring the one or more system resources from the one or more mobile memory modules of the mobile device to the one or more memory modules of the computer, wherein the one or more system resources comprises at least one operating system detail.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

capturing image data; and

associating, automatically with the one or more mobile processors, the image data with the triage data in the one or more mobile memory modules of the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer and the mobile device are communicatively coupled with a wire.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer and the mobile device are communicatively coupled with a wirelessly.