Computer Forensics Hardware

Computer Forensics Hardware
There is a myriad of forensic hardware equipment available to computer forensic examiners. This includes hardware specifically designed with forensics in mind, as well as widely available technical devices put to use in a forensic laboratory. Several companies have designed towers, servers, write blocking devices, and peripherals with forensics in mind. Some individual forensic workstations come bundled with forensic software and cost several thousand dollars. Because of these potential costs, many forensic examiners use standard laptops or towers and install their own software, which is typically a less expensive solution.

Like many other lab decisions, choices related hardware purchases for the lab are often made in consideration of financial resources and future need. Larger forensic laboratories have started to turn toward forensic server designs. Under this design, all evidence to be analyzed exists on the server and each examiner’s workstation connects to the server. Examiners conduct their analysis on the evidence saved to the server where it is retained and available for review by peers or supervisors to insure the quality of the examination product.